I know about a lot of restaurants in a 8-county region, from Hebron to Hamilton. So it's pretty funny there's a restaurantI walk past at least 10 times a week that I'd never eaten in. Maybe because it's really a bar, and it's hard to know from the outside what you'll find once you go inside. Head First is a sports bar on Third St., between where I park and The Enquirer office. I'd been in there at night--my husband sat in a few nights with a band that plays there.
In the pre-smoking law days I would never have considered lunch there, but a friend is temporarily working downtown even farther west on 3rd St., so we met for a quick lunch. I had a big Cobb salad with a nicely grilled chicken breast, plenty of bacon, tomato, cheddar, etc. No avocado, so not an authentic Cobb, but good. My friend had a chicken salad sandwich. I don't know, not a big deal, but just a pleasant surprise that there was such a varied menu of moderately-priced lunch stuff. They have blue-plate specials, too, like meat loaf and other home-cooked meals.
And, later this month, if you work downtown and you just have to slip out of the office for an unspecified period of time and watch your alma mater play basketball, this would be exactly the out-of-way place to do it. They have tons of TVs. 218 W. Third St.