A lively holiday date night in Pleasant Ridge ... with ample elbow room

Pleasant Ridge might seem pocket-sized for a night out on the town.

But look closer. There's a wine bar and craft beer brewery. There's old favorites, like the Gaslight Cafe, Pleasant Ridge Chili and Molly Malone's, which caught fire earlier this year along with Coffee Exchange, but is currently under reconstruction.

There's excellent food everywhere: tacos and Latin-American at Casa Figueroa and Tacos Locos food truck, top-notch pub food, a cheese bar and a delectable rotisserie chicken joint (Revolution Rotisserie).

All with unique atmosphere and offerings.

And of course, there's an iconic Cincinnati record store.

Even on a Saturday night, the crowds were not overwhelming (like they can be on a Saturday in awesome-but-super-popular OTR). Just enough people were hanging out in Pleasant Ridge on our date night to create a lively atmosphere, but with ample elbow room.

It's also one of those places where spending enough nights out there means you're bound to make friends. As one bartender told us this evening, in Pleasant Ridge, everyone knows everyone.

Everybody's Records

The bill: Browsing is free.

Leafing through the vast record collection at this 40-year-old establishment makes for good conversation-starting material. The shop boasts a big used vinyl selection, which is particularly fun to browse with someone. Especially if you're on a first date, a record store gives nervous hands something to do – and music can be quite a bonding subject. We had fun starting our evening here for a browse session before making our way to some chees e and wine.

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Share: Cheesebar

The bill: $31

Charcuterie is rarely cheap, but we got plenty of cheese for $15. There were three sizable hunks of cheese on our board, served with a small mountain of crusty bread slices. It wasn't the small appetizer we were seeking. It was half of our meal. We let the guy behind the counter expertly choose our cheese: Teehive cheddar, Humboldt goat cheese and Idiazabal sheep's milk cheese, served with little red Peruvian sweet peppers, Castelvetrano olives, a grainy mustard and a smear of preserves.

We polished it off with glasses of Rioja and strolled to my favorite part of the date.

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The Overlook Lodge

The bill: $26

Entering this bar (which was modeled after the bar in the Stephen King horror classic "The Shining") was like walking into an elaborately, festively, wrapped-by-Santa Christmas present. Colored string lights draped from the ceilings. Almost every inch of wall was covered in different wrapping papers. Wreaths marched along the walls, giant bows and stars dangled everywhere, candles lined the tables, garland was strung behind the bar and holiday movies played on the screen instead of the bar's normal horror-movie selections. The bar staff was dressed up, too, in holiday T-shirts. One was wearing a Grinch costume.

The holiday-themed cocktail menu was fit for the North Pole. I sipped a Yippie Ki Yay Mother F****r (best name for a cocktail ever?) – sweet potato, Barbados rum, cachaca, Trinidad Overproof rum, dry curacao, marshmallow orgeat and lime served in a Santa mug. He had a Jingle Bell Nog – cognac, Pedro Ximenez Sherry, brown butter, cinnamon, cherry, vanilla, almond milk, cream, sugar, egg and nutmeg. Both were unusual and tasty.

Live Like a Local: A day out in Northside, try out Over-the-Rhine, try out Oakley, try out Covington, try out College Hill.

We enjoyed our festive drinks and split our attention between the live bluegrass band, the UC basketball game and "Jingle All the Way," which was playing on another screen.

By the way, Overlook has some cool events coming up: The Holiday Show with Jack Burton Overdrive (featuring seasonal songs) and a "Die Hard" live script reading 7-10 p.m. Monday, Dec. 17. Trivia every Tuesday night is a blast (I've been) and there's a regular live music lineup.

Then, we decided we'd finally finish our meal.

Nine Giant

The bill: $27 (including tip)

Yes, the craft beer was delicious, and we liked the half-pour option. I had the Conjure Me Coffee Milk Stout. The atmosphere is typical for a brewery. But the star here for us was the food. We were still satiated from all the cheese, so we shared a couple things: the drunken grilled cheese and the smoked brisket chili. Our neighbors at the bar let us sample their poutine. The grilled cheese was perfectly crunchy and buttery on the outside, with plenty of flavor and melty on the inside. The chili was smoky and unique, perfect for dunking the sandwiches. It was a lip-smackingly delicious way to end the night.

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Pleasant Ridge: Try a new neighborhood for date night