Cincinnati Magazine - June 2019 Edition

RISE OF P&G AND CINCINNATI ARE BETTER TOGETHER

BY DAVID HOLTHAUS

CAN FERNALD TRULY BURY ITS PAST?

BY JENNY WOHLFARTH

KATE SCHMIDT IN HER METALWORKING STUDIO IN PENDLETON

THE MAKERS Why we’re a hotbed for hands-on entrepreneurs

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Y O UR C EN TE R F OR I NS P I RAT I ON

Get Inspired!

You could say that Carol Butler’s career has come full circle.

Having grown up in her family’s orchard business and being the youngest of five children, Carol jokingly says that she couldn’t get promoted over seniority. Truth be told, she decided to take a different path. Leaving the family business, Carol pursued a career in the corporate world, successfully becoming a Fortune 500 executive. When Carol had the opportunity to take early retirement, she went back to her roots and started volunteering at The Goering Center for Family and Private Business as a facilitator for the Next Generation Institute.

Today, Carol is President of The Goering Center, an organization founded by John Goering in 1989 that has a mission to nurture and educate family and private businesses to drive a vibrant economy in the greater Cincinnati region.

“I feel that I have landed right where I’m supposed to be. The first half of my career was all about success and now the second half is all about significance,” says Butler.

Less than 30 percent of small businesses survive to a second generation. The Goering Center works to improve that success rate in our community by educating its 450 members about succession planning, communication, culture building, strategic planning, leadership development, advisory boards, and conflict resolution. Throughout the year, members have the opportunity to come together at events hosted at Sharonville Convention Center. The space is ideal for having a variety of programs, ranging from large symposiums with national speakers to smaller sessions that offer families time to connect over a great meal and learn something impactful.

In 2019, The Goering Center celebrates its 30th anniversary, having helped more than 750 family and private companies thrive in our community. To learn more about The Goering Center for Family and Private Business, visit goering.uc.edu.

Photo credit: Bruce Crippen

Contact Lisa Hodge to reserve your date 513.326.6465 • lhodge@cityofsharonville.com 11355 Chester Road • Cincinnati, OH 45246 www.sharonvilleconventioncenter.com Now Open!

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MADE IN CINCINNATI A renewed maker culture is churning out furniture, packaged food, skis, beard oil, jewelry, metal signage, pottery, home goods, and mascot costumes—plus hundreds of other handmade products—while a strong support network helps them sell, grow, and interact.

WHAT LIES BENEATH

P. 60

Fernald’s 30-year journey from a toxic uranium processing facility to an active suburban nature preserve is the result of a remarkable cleanup job that will never truly be finished.

BY JENNY WOHLFARTH PHOTOGRAPH BY JEREMY KRAMER

BETTER TOGETHER

P. 64

Wall Street sharks wanted to force higher profits at Procter & Gamble by breaking it into smaller companies. Instead, P&G leadership is reorganizing the company and keeping it grounded in Cincinnati.

BY DAV I D H O LT H AU S J U N E 2 0 1 9 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 5

D E PA R T M E N T S J U N E 2 0 19 12 / CONTRIBUTORS

22 / HIGH PROFILE

12 / LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Hip-hop group Triiibe talks activism and music

FRONTLINES 17 / DISPATCH

Cincy Fringe Festival transforms OTR

18 / SPEAKEASY Anne Delano Steinert on the new Over-theRhine Museum

18 / BOOKS Acre Books concentrates on content

18 / ANTICIPATION METER

24 / DR. KNOW Your QC questions answered FOOD NEWS

An extra serving of our outstanding dining coverage.

RADAR

28 / NECESSITIES Rainbow goods

30 / STYLE COUNSEL Having fun with fashion

32 / REAL ESTATE A whimsical Indian Hill home

34 / ESCAPE Inside Indianapolis

How we feel about what’s next

20 / BASEBALL

COLUMNS

36 / LIVING IN CIN My lyrical odes to Cincinnati

BY J AY G I L B E R T

40 / CITY WISE Hispanic residents are reviving Carthage

Our favorites from The 50 Greatest Games in Cincinnati Reds History

BY DAV I D H O LT H AU S

20 / CORNER SHOT

BY KATIE COBURN

112 / CINCY OBSCURA Cincy’s hottest new sport

95 / TABLESIDE WITH… Liti Zabad, Imani’s Vegan Soul Kitchen

96 / HIGH SPIRITS Hard seltzers galore Bauer Farm Kitchen’s pig’s head

100 / DINING GUIDE Greater Cincinnati restaurants: A selective list

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Cincinnati Magazine

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HOME + LIFE

Tracking what’s new in local real estate, artisans, and storefronts.

SPORTS

95 / TAKEOUT HERO

Insight and analysis on the Reds and FC Cincinnati.

13th Street Alley, Over-the-Rhine

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I

CONTRIBUTORS

STUART LINDLE

I C AN’ T MAKE ANY THING . OK , I OCC ASIONALLY MAKE THE BED AND MAKE UP MY mind, but I have no aptitude for creating a product or piece of art with my hands.

Luckily, Cincinnati is seeing an explosion of talent right now that turns out an incredible array of handmade and homegrown products, so I’m off the hook.

This month’s cover package, “Rise of the Makers” (page 46), profiles nine people or groups who are among the cream of this new crop. They’re producing packaged food, jewelry, home goods, and a lot of specialty items—we highlight small-batch manufacturers of skis, decorative metalwork, beard care supplies, and mascot costumes. Yes, they make skis (and snowboards soon) in Over-the-Rhine.

Two separate trends are driving this talent explosion. One is a robust support network encouraging Cincinnati makers to sell, grow, and interact with each other; in some cases, funding is available to help entrepreneurs bring new concepts to market. The result is a positive feedback loop that includes successful startups, wider availability and acceptance of locally made products, the promotion of Cincinnati as a city of makers, and talented individuals who believe they too can turn an idea into a business and seek opportunities to be mentored by the successful startups.

Cincinnati has always been a manufacturing town, but this support for entrepreneurship— from consumers, banks, government, real estate developers, and even corporations—is a new phenomenon here over the past 10 years or so.

The second trend driving the rise of the makers is a general turn to valuing handmade and locally sourced products again. Marie Kondo has tapped into this feeling in her“tidying up”books and Netflix series, where she equates what you own with how you view yourself and says our possessions should spark joy.

More of us these days want to learn the stories behind the products we consume and the people or companies making them. It’s a new kind of relationship that I’m sure will result in more, and happier, Cincinnati makers.

J O H N F OX

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

1 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

ILLUSTR ATIO N BY L A R S LEE TA RU

Cincinnati native Stuart Lindle has been reporting on arts and events since he interned for Cincinnati Magazine in 2017. In “Playing on the Fringes” (page 17), he tapped into the weird theater of Cincy Fringe. “This article was a great opportunity to meet with artists first-hand and talk about performing, [and] getting their work in front of people,” Lindle says.

DARREN HOPES Hailing from the United Kingdom, Darren Hopes’s love for nature and his native Cornwall inspired his illustration for “What Lies Beneath” (page 60), about the Fernald Nature Preserve. Hopes has been illustrating science and nature stories for magazines such as New Scientist, The Economist’s 1843 magazine, and Nature for more than 20 years.

DAVID HOLTHAUS David Holthaus has worked as an editor and reporter at The Cincinnati Post, The Cincinnati Enquirer and WCPO-TV during his 20 years in journalism. In “Better Together” (page 64), the veteran business reporter writes about the city’s relationship with Procter & Gamble.

But Holthaus isn’t all business— when he’s not chasing a story, he’s relaxing with yoga or watching a classic movie.

This summer, save a life and celebrate your love of all things Cincy during the

We’re teaming up to save lives with Cincinnati’s favorite restaurants, including • Graeter’s Ice Cream • Skyline Chili • Montgomery Inn • Coffee Emporium • Busken Bakery • Frisch’s • LaRosa’s Pizza All donors get a limited edition “Cincinnati Favorites” t-shirt plus a special gift from our partners.

Check out the full blood drive schedule at www.hoxworth.org/cincyfavorites

FEEDBACK

HOCKEY COMES FIRST “Interesting article (‘Playing It Cool,’ April). Rich Szturm [is] still running the rink, and Dave Godar had two boys playing in the youth leagues when my family (three boys and a girl) moved to Cincinnati from Minnesota/Wisconsin in ’82. [My] first priority was searching for a hockey rink and found Northland Ice Center, and then went house hunting, looking for something relatively close to Northland. The boys, Nate, Ryan, and Andre, still skate in men’s leagues, although they are spread out in Columbus, Cincinnati, and South Bend.” –KEITH MYLES RIVARD, VIA OUR WEBSITE

A REAL GO-GETTER Within April’s cover feature, “10 Events that Shaped Our City,” we named the start of Marian Spencer’s civil rights career, in 1952, when she took destiny into her own hands and enlisted the NAACP to help her fight for the desegregation of Coney Island so her children and others could visit. She went on to become the first black woman elected to city council, was the city’s first black female vice mayor, and spent her career as a vocal advocate for Cincinnati’s African-American community, demanding equal housing, employment, and education opportunities.

“What a remarkable person,” said Vicky Mary on Facebook. Lori Lee said, “I had the honor of getting to meet Marian Spencer.

A truly amazing woman whose heart could not let her allow discrimination of any kind . . . and she set out to beat it! She did so beautifully and changed the world around her for the better! So inspiring!”

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GOOD VIBES ONLY It turns out The Crystal Guy (“Get Stoned,” April), a.k.a. Gene Jackson, has—pardon the expression—a cult following. A handful of readers went to Facebook to tell us they’ve crossed paths with the mystic man and have experienced his “healing” crystals firsthand. “He’s awesome! I can spend hours at [his] place. [heart-eye emoji],” said Marianne Bell. “He’s a good friend of mine, and I have been buying crystals from him for many, many years!” said Patti Kessler. “Lots of variety to choose from and an awesome energy in that place.” Our columnist Judi Ketteler even offered her two cents to the naysayers: “I’ve been! It’s a very cool place. And P.S., you can fully support science and believe in medicine (and vaccines) and still think there is something to crystals.”

A NEW PERSPECTIVE Our Q&A (“White Patriarchy, Interrupted,” April) with UC’s first African-American woman student body president, Sinna Habteselassie, who passed a resolution last year to remove university benefactor and slave owner Charles McMicken’s name from the university’s College of Arts and Sciences (she’s since graduated; his surname remains), was met with mixed reaction on social media. “This is amazing!” said Lauren Wilson on Facebook. Others weren’t so open to change. “History is history,” said Jeanne Houston. “Use it to learn from it.” Chuck Neal said, “Let’s change the Bearcat to a unicorn while we’re at it...”

IMMERSE YOURSELF In May’s “Burning Man In the Queen City?”

Victoria Moorwood wrote about Cincinnati Art Museum’s first participatory (translation: Instagrammable) exhibition, No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man (April 26– September 2), based on experiential works featured at the annual weeklong Black Rock Desert, Nevada, music and art festival. In its opening weekend, readers naturally took to the photo-sharing platform to share their excitement about the vibrant new exhibit. “Can we talk about the photo opportunities????

[3x heart-eye emoji],” said @emsturg_. Others admired the installation prior to its stop in Cincinnati. “We saw this in L.A. last year,” said @alexandranoctua. “Definitely go see it,” said @mikesimonsen. “It’s been at the Smithsonian for a year or so.”

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The Friends of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County Supporting the Library one used book at a time

THE FRIENDS OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY BRING YOU THEIR 47TH ANNUAL JUNE BOOK SALE. All the books. All the savings.

All the good we can accomplish.

JUNE 1–8, 2019 THE USED BOOK STORE AT THE WAREHOUSE HARTWELL• 8456 VINE STREET • CINCINNATI, 45216 Visit our website for information regarding times, parking, BAG DAY, and more.

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THE OVER-THE-RHINE MUSEUM P.18

UC’S ACRE BOOKS P. 18

PLAYING ON THE FRINGES

Cincy Fringe Festival transforms Over-the-Rhine into a magical theatrical playground.

STUART LINDLE

ILLUSTR ATIO N BY A LEC D O H E R T Y

S

THE BEST REDS MOMENTS P. 20

CINCY ACTIVIST-ARTISTS TRIIIBE P. 22

OME PEOPLE RUN MARATHONS. ERIKA MACDONALD AND PAUL STRICKLAND PER-

form self-produced shows. Like athletes who journey city to city and state to state for long-distance races, the couple travels throughout North America—from Orlando to Winnipeg—to tell stories through comedy, music, acting, and even puppets. They do so at Fringe Festivals, experimental performance arts festivals you can think of as live theater’s edgy, punk rock, younger sibling. They’re informal, innovative, and admittedly a little weird (in a good way).

In a single weekend gathering, you can witness a full spectrum of performance art—a complete novice premieres her one-woman show, a man reads tarot cards under a spotlight in his underwear, a puppet show is held in the pitch dark.

The experiential aspect of Fringe Fests, though, doesn’t equate to a lack of talent. Shadow puppetry, perhaps more commonly known for its prevalence amongst slumber-party goers, can actually require a high level of technical skill. MacDonald and Strickland? They’ve perfected the knack. They had plenty of practice, too, creating alluring shadow-based stories during one of their cross-continental trips, which included a performance of 13 Dead Dreams of “Eugene” that won Best Show at the 2018 Orlando Fringe.

“People come in with a lot more of an open mind about the possibility of what they’re going to see,” says Strickland of the Fringe format. “As a performer, your menu of what’s acceptable then increases.” Though they travel often, the couple’s homebase is Know Theatre of Cincinnati, where they debut new shows or hold late-night sing-a-long sessions in the facility’s unCONTINUED ON P.18 J U N E 2 0 1 9 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 1 7

BOOKS

GAINING GROUND

DISPATCH

Acre Books, based at UC, is doing big things with a small imprint.

—A LYSS A KO N E R M A N N

ANTICIPATION METER +5 +4 +3 +2 +1

Greek Fest The 45th annual Cincinnati Panegyri Festival will bring authentic eats, drinks, rides, and dancing to Finneytown June 28–30. +2

-1 So Long Skywheel -2 The 150-foot-tall temporary observation -3 wheel is expected to bid the Queen City -4 -5 adieu June 16 (though a larger one is in

the works for Newport’s riverfront). -1

1 8 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

IVE OUT OF the first six books of fiction Acre Books published were finalists for national prizes, including one longlisted for the PEN America Bingham prize. It wasn’t beginner’s luck: the six (and growing) poetry and prose titles Acre releases annually continue to rack up award nominations.

So how did a small press, housed partially on the second floor of UC’s McMicken Hall, pull this off ? It starts at the top, with editor Nicola Mason. She founded The Cincinnati Review—now regularly ranked as one of the top 10 literary journals in the country—in 2002. “[At CR], we read everything that comes in, and we try to find fresh voices and new talents. We

F

SPEAK EASY

NEIGHBORHOOD NARRATOR X When she was a tweenager, Anne Delano Steinert would ride the bus downtown with her best friend to score cheap sunglasses from The Chong, only to get off a stop early to explore Over-the-Rhine. She knew back then she wanted to help share the stories of the historic buildings that line our city’s streets.

Today, as board chair of the Over-theRhine Museum she’s ready to do just that.

What is the Over-theRhine Museum? It’s a nonprofit organization whose mission is to build respect for all people by collecting, preserving, and celebrating all the stories that Over-the-Rhine has to tell.

concentrate not on the credentials but the work itself,” Mason says. “I thought, We’re becoming talent scouts for everyone else, why can’t we become talent scouts for ourselves?”

So she created Acre, which has moved under the umbrella of the larger UC Press and picked up a national book distributor to get more books on more shelves.

A novel, a short story collection, and a book of poetry have been released this spring, with three more ready to go for the fall. As for the M.O.?

“We are interested in innovation, combining genres, hybrid forms,” Mason says, “and the idea that we can shape how literature looks in the future by concentrating on the work itself.”

BOOK COVERS COURTESY ACRE BOOKS

derground bar. Know Theatre also produces the annual Cincy Fringe Festival, which runs May 31 through June 15. Last year, the festival celebrated its 15th anniversary with more than 250 performances across 12 venues in OTR, including the Art Academy, Mini Microcinema, and Know Theatre.

Chris Wesselman, lead Cincy Fringe producer, works on both Know Theatre and Fringe Festival programming. “There’s a vision shared between [Cincy Fringe and Know] as far as wanting to provide an avenue for underrepresented voices and for artists to express themselves in ways they normally can’t,” he says.

Fringe, for Wesselman, is a way of life. As soon as one season ends, he’s already thinking ahead to the next.

“For almost 20 years I’ve been living in this world of fringe theater,” he says, “and I love it.”

Applications open in August, and by January a jury of more than 50 local arts professionals, educators, and journalists select which shows will make the cut for the next Cincy Fringe. “It’s a truly no-holds-barred experience from a creative standpoint,” Wesselman says.

“While we are a juried festival, we’re not trying to judge ideas as much as we’re trying to balance themes.”

Wesselman has worked at Cincy Fringe both behind the scenes and on stage as an actor. His first Fringe experience was more than 15 years ago, however, as an audience member.

Seeing Double You’ll spot familiar He doesn’t remember much about faces in the Cincy the actual show, just that there Fringe program, like was a man with a unicorn horn— Cincinnati Shakeworn below the belt, we should speare Company acadd—and a deceased frog that was tress Miranda McGee, brought back to life. It wasn’t his who made her directorial debut in April favorite, “probably not even in my with CSC’s production top 100,” he admits, but it stuck of Macbeth and is with him. “I remember having this also the face of Cincy experience of Oh, you’re allowed to Fringe’s marketing. just do whatever you want.”

Much like the eclectic mix of performances, no two Fringe Festivals are exactly the same. “You’re always in a new space,” says MacDonald. “You learn what’s essential, and then hopefully take ad- CONTINUED ON P.20

What has the museum done so far? We started meeting as a board in 2014 and really solidifying in 2015. We have three signature programs: an oral history project where we record stoCONTINUED ON P. 20

International Brews Jungle Jim’s will hold its annual International Craft Beer Festival Father’s Day weekend, featuring more than 400 beers from 100-plus breweries. +1

Climbing Costs UC’s Board of Trustees will decide the university’s budget on June 25, likely including the school’s first tuition increase in five years. -2

Juneteenth Cincinnati’s 32nd annual Juneteenth Festival, a celebration of the end of American slavery, fills Eden Park with music, dance, and food. +2

CURRENT OUTLOOK

+2

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BASEBALL

vantage of whatever’s unique to the space for that one show.” It’s a constant learning experience for Fringe performers, and a show can change dramatically from the beginning of the season to the end.

For this year’s Cincy Fringe, Strickland is debuting a brand new solo show, 90 Lies an Hour, directed by MacDonald. “Everything we do is sort of weirdly collaborative,” he says. “We’ll talk about structure, and I’ll sometimes add jokes, or the other way around. Erika will help me with more theatrical elements like staging.” MacDonald will also direct two other solo shows performed and written by local actresses Kate Mock Elliott and Alexx Rouse.

Audience members, be warned: You truly never know what you’re going to get at a Fringe show, but that’s also the magic. “Face value you might think that shows are one thing, and then you experience them and think Oh my gosh, it’s a lot deeper than that,” says Wesselman. “Those are the kinds of shows that Fringe really thrives on—shows that buck expectations and trends.”

CORNER SHOT A bewildered button buck wandered onto the Taft Museum lawn this spring and was spotted next to Patrick Dougherty’s twisted willow tree exhibit Far Flung. The young deer was apparently a fan of the area and decided to stay. That is, before the Ohio Department of Natural Resources was called to move him closer to his natural habitat.

2 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

You have a physical museum space in the works at McMicken and Findlay streets?

[It will be] an immersive experience in a physical structure.

We’ll be modeled somewhat after the Lower East Side Tenement Museum [in New York City]. They really pioneered this idea of bringing people into uninterpreted residential spaces. We will take a tenement building and interpret each unit to the life of a real family who lived in the building, and do that across time to see how the building’s use would have changed and grown across time—in this case, from the 1860s to the 2000s.

Why Over-the-Rhine?

I grew up in Clifton, and when I was a tweenager we were allowed to take the bus downtown. And so from 12 or 13 years old I fell in love with the historic architecture of Over-the-Rhine and the idea that these buildings had stories to tell, that if I could just learn the language and understand the vernacular of what the buildings were saying to me I would know so much about the past.

— K E V I N S C H U LT Z READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT CINCINNATI MAGAZINE.COM.

GOOD GAMES

Cincinnati’s hometown baseball team has been called countless names in its 150 years of existence: the ragamuffins, the Big Red Machine, the wire-to-wire Reds.

Through it all, one theme has remained: The men in red have always kept things interesting. In their book The 50 Greatest Games in Cincinnati Reds History (Kent State University Press), Jack and Joe Heffron highlight moments from the franchise’s historic ups and downs. Here are four of our favorites. — P A T R I C K M U R P H Y OCT. 6, 1882 It was a sad season for baseball and beers: Seven of eight National League teams had pledged dry ballparks—all except the Red Stockings. The team made the logical choice by leaving the organization, creating a beertolerant league, and challenging the sober Chicago White Stockings to an informal World Series. The Reds’ 4–0 win earned your right to overpriced stadium suds.

JUNE 15, 1938 Left-handed pitcher Johnny Vander Meer had thrown a no-hitter against the Boston Bees a game prior, and he was an inning away from a second against the Brooklyn Dodgers. After three walks, Manager Bill McKechnie walked to the mound to calm him down. Vander Meer took his time, found his pitch, and accomplished a feat still unmatched in modern baseball: two consecutive no-hitters.

OCT. 29, 1990 All the experts agreed: The Reds wouldn’t just lose this World Series against the Oakland A’s, they’d be crushed. However, Eric Davis’s Game One home run sent those expectations right out of the park. After a diving catch in this Game Four saw Davis in the hospital with a bruised kidney, his team dedicated their 1990 World Series sweep to his tenacity.

JUNE 6, 2017 Cincinnati-born Scooter Gennett was riding a slump with only three homers in 117 plate appearances. That is, until this series with the St. Louis Cardinals. Gennett broke out of his doldrums on June 5, then followed up with a game for the ages. He went five-for-five with a base hit and four home runs (including a grand slam), becoming the 17th player ever—and the first Red—to record four homers in a game. Not a bad way to represent your hometown.

ILLUSTR ATIO N BY Z AC H A RY G H A D E RI

PHOTOGRAPH BY LINDSEY NECAMP

DISPATCH

ries of the neighborhood; a traveling exhibition called Stories of Over-the-Rhine, which is 12 panels connecting Over-the-Rhine to larger regional and national trends; and a quarterly lecture series called Three Acts of Over-the-Rhine, where we have three 15-minute talks on disparate topics relating to Over-the-Rhine.

HIGH PROFILE

SPEAKING THEIR TRUTH Local (for now) hip-hop group Triiibe uses activism and music to unite and uplift voices from the shadows. Poets and musicians PXVCE, Aziza Love, and Siri Imani (from top) have found a way to harness the power of the spoken word to combat issues like homelessness and child poverty in our own backyard.

Catch them live this month at Bunbury Music Festival. — S T U A R T L I N D L E S.I.: We all specialize in different things. I work with children, doing expression and decompression classes, art therapy— anything to do with writing or literacy.

A.L.: I’m more focused on holistic healing. Siri and I came together during the Women’s March. We both wrote poems and performed pieces. With PXVCE, all three of us were heavily involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. Using our voices to bring people together transformed into music. We would freestyle over pieces, which turned into songs, which turned into our album.

music to create the visibility that we need to get these messages out and make the biggest impact that we can to try and make the world better, the community better, and ourselves better.

P: A lot of times people will do things to be seen, or as a gimmick, but [we] honestly feel like activism is a need.

Regardless of if we are making music or not, if Triiibe were here or not, people are still starving; people are still homeless; these things still need to be addressed.

P: We were all good in our music, and we wanted to use our music for good as well, to shed light on the community. That’s what drew us together.

A.L.: We only hope that our message is received, and our love is received, and then I feel more doors will open for other people to speak their truth.

Our goal is to create the space for other people to be seen and heard.

S.I.: We’re activists first. That is the core of Triiibe. We use the

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT CINCINNATI MAGAZINE.COM

2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

P H O T O G R A P H BY A A R O N M . CO N WAY

IN SCIENCE LIVES HOPE.

Discover Sarah and Laura’s journey at uchealth.com/discoverhope

Dr. Know is Jay Gilbert, weekday afternoon deejay on 92.5 FM The Fox. Submit your questions about the city’s peculiarities at drknow@cincinnati magazine.com

DR. KNOW

Memorial Hall has a proscenium arch traversing the stage (pulled out your dictionary yet?). It displays nine “virtues:” Unity, Wisdom, Martyrdom, Patriotism, Philanthropy, Integrity, Manliness, Equity, and Will. These invigorating nouns had originally been sprinkled throughout a motivational speech delivered in 1899 by Teddy Roosevelt—arguably, the first Ted Talk. They were thus chosen to be plastered, in actual plaster, atop the Memorial Hall stage as homage to America’s manlyman war veterans, for whom the Hall was built in 1908.

Today’s eyes, as you suggest, glance warily at the word Manliness. Attendees at current-day events—more than 200 per year since the Hall’s renovation—may see it as saying No Babes Allowed. Not all traditions age well. Perhaps someday the word will be re-plastered, saying something like Inclusion, Diversity, or Gluten-Free.

Q+ A

There’s a house near me in Pleasant Ridge that looks like it was it was left too long in the dryer! It’s so small! How did this brightly decorated dollhouse get plunked among the regular-sized homes on Harvest Avenue? It looks like a tornado from Munchkinland dropped it there. —AND YOUR LITTLE DOG, TOO

I recently attended a show at the newly renovated Memorial Hall for the first time. It’s a great venue, but what’s with the giant-sized words plastered above the stage? I saw stuff like Will and Patriot and Martyrdom, and I especially remember Manliness. Whatever is that all about?

—MEMORIAL SCRAWL

DEAR SCRAWL:

The fattest folder on the Doctor’s cluttered desk contains questions about the oddities of Cincinnati’s buildings and homes. He shall attempt, therefore, to reduce the bulge by answering three of them this month. Brace yourself: big words ahead.

2 4 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

DEAR DOG:

Your instincts aren’t too far off. Pleasant Ridge’s miniature house wasn’t dropped from the sky, but it did get transported there from its original location in Golf Manor, where it began as a sales office for the area’s developers. That was in the early 1930s; the building got re-planted in 1939. Hey, that was the year of The Wizard of Oz movie, so feel free to assume that the house began in black and white, rose up, twisted through the air, and landed at 3221 Harvest Ave.—in Technicolor. Let’s not ask whether it fell on anyone.

The Brady Bunch would certainly feel more at home inside their little squares rather than inside this minuscule domicile. But for one or two people at a time, ILLUSTR ATIO N S BY L A R S LEE TA RU

the home is a cozy conversation piece. Plus, it’s perfect for anyone who wants to escape the family rotation for hosting Thanksgiving.

COME TOGETHER FOR THE

19/20 SEASON

Near the intersection of Columbia Parkway and Taft Road, a mysterious house has sat vacant for something like 30 years. I drive past it every day, and it’s noticeably unoccupied. I’ve heard many rumors and theories, but I hope you can uncover the truth about what’s (not) happening there.

—UNFULL HOUSE

September 17 - 29, 2019

November 5 - 17, 2019

DEAR UNFULL:

This is the most repeated “what’s up with that weird house” question inside the Doctor’s fat folder.

Upon first glance, the weird house doesn’t seem that weird: it looks like a typical 1970s-style home. Only on closer inspection do you notice that one section is clearly much older (built in 1937), that the rest was added around the time of Mork & Mindy, and that the additions seem to have been neither completed nor occupied.

Here’s the soap opera as best as the Doctor’s research can confirm: David and Dora married in 1960, had a daughter in 1964, divorced in 1968, remarried in 1976, and bought the house at 1948 Taft Rd. in 1978.

The expansion began soon afterward, but things then sputtered. David and Dora ended again in 1986; so did construction. City permits expired in 2003 because nothing had happened. The property now appears to belong to the daughter, who may live in College Hill, or in Georgia.

The Doctor’s drive-by observes that the home’s two parked vehicles have flat tires all around, but somebody is at least cutting the grass.

Still, we are not sure if anyone’s home.

The investigation will continue. In the meantime, drivers along Columbia Parkway are reminded to avoid staring when passing this mysterious property. Do not become dangerously distracted from keeping your eyes on the landslides.

THE MUSICAL PHENOMENON

December 3 - 15, 2019

February 11 - 23, 2020

Journey to the past.

May 12 - 24, 2020

June 9 - 21, 2020

SEASON OPTION

SEASON OPTION JIMMY BUFFETT’S

THE STORY OF FRANKIE VALLI & THE FOUR SEASONS October 15 - 20, 2019

Set Your Mind on Island Time.

April 14 - 19, 2020

SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT S

January 8 - February 2, 2020

August 4 - 9, 2020

BroadwayInCincinnati.com • 800.294.1816 J U N E 2 0 1 9 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 2 5

$25 in advance $30 at the door

W E D N E S D AY, J U LY 1 0 T H | 7 – 9 P M T H E S U M M I T H O T E L 5345 Medpace Way • Cincinnati For more information, visit www.cincinnatimagazine.com/ourevents

R AINBOW GOODS P. 28

BIG EARRINGS & FUNK Y BOOTS P. 30

A WHIMSICAL INDIAN HILL HOME P. 32

INSIDE INDY P. 34

LET IT RAIN This artsy multicolored umbrella can make even the gloomiest days seem a little bit brighter. $28, contemporaryarts center.org P H O T O G R A P H BY A A R O N M . CO N WAY

J U N E 2 0 1 9 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 2 7

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FAIRY TAILS Spice up your 1 bookshelf with these dreamy bookends. Rainbow Book Tails, $15, Toko Baru

CLASS ACT This bow tie works for any occasion 2 and is sure to catch your partner’s eye.

Deep Space Kaleido Tie, $25, Contemporary Arts Center, contemporaryartscenter.org

STATEMENT PIECE These handmade 3 and hand-painted polymer clay earrings add a pop of color to any outfit. Rainbow Earrings, $26, Lemon Lee, lemon-lee.com

LOVE IS LOVE HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! CELEBRATE ALL YEAR LONG WITH THESE COLORFUL GOODS.

SCRUB IN STYLE Wrapped in recycled packaging, 5 this handmade soap is as ecofriendly as it is beautiful. It’s free of dyes and harsh chemicals, and the raw materials come from women-owned businesses. $6, Lemonwood Soap Company, bluebubblesoaps.com

CUTE & COMFY Your little one 4 will love sporting this colorful and comfortable jacket.

Nikki Bomber Jacket, $73, The Spotted Goose, thespottedgoose.com

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PPHHOOTTOOGGRRAAPPHHSS BBYY AJAORNOANT HMA. NC OWNI LWLAI YS

STYLE COUNSEL

Andrea Sabugo OCCUPATION: Fashion photographer STYLE: Ever-evolving but always fun

What accessories could you not live without? Huge earrings, for sure. I also always buy really fun, funky boots. I recently bought a pair of awesome red patent leather-y boots—they’re ridiculous.

You balance proportions really well.

Do you have an outfit creation formula? It depends. [When I bought those red boots], for a month I was like, What do I wear with these? Usually I have one thing that I’ve seen somewhere or have in my head what it’s supposed to look like, and then kind of build around that. My mom always taught me that if you have something that is really oversized on the top, try to figure it out on the bottom. Or vice versa. Unless you’re a Kardashian and can wear head-to-toe latex or whatever you want. Does photography influence your style? Definitely. When I’m shooting for Sloane Boutique or anyone who brings in a wardrobe, I’ll look at what they put together and be like, That’s really cool—I want that. It makes me more aware of what’s “in.” You regularly visit extended family in Mexico.

Does Hispanic culture influence your photography and style? Yes, I just went there this past summer! [Mexico has] a lot of really amazing photographers and designers I had never heard of. When it comes to fashion and fashion photography there, it’s very Vogue—very puttogether, over-the-top, and beautiful. I like to take some of that and try to push the envelope a little bit up here. What’s key for someone trying to refine their style? It’s fine if it constantly changes.

If you decide next week that you want to change, then that’s cool—you can totally do that. It’s just about having fun.

—BAIHLEY GENTRY

3 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

P H O T O G R A P H BY A A R O N M . CO N WAY

DOES NOT TEST ON ANIMALS

ON THE MARKET

ADDRESS: 7975 INDIAN HILL RD., INDIAN HILL LISTING PRICE: $1.1 MILLION

WAY MORE THAN ORDINARY

ON THE WEBSITE FOR THE CORPORATE CLEANING COMPANY THAT ANA-

tole “Tony” Alper founded, he’s quoted as saying: “If you do not strive for the impossible…you will end up with nothing more than the ordinary.” Unfortunately, Alper, also a local arts patron, passed away in 2017. But judging from his former Indian Hill home, that quest for “more than ordinary” extended well beyond his workplace. Built in 1996, the custom blonde brick and green metalroofed home was designed by the Fearing/Bauer-Nilsen Studio (the latter likely being Otto Bauer-Nilsen, cofounder of local architecture firm GBBN), and erected beside an undated but very old home, whose foundation was unearthed when Alper’s driveway was built (the foundation is still in place, near the property’s entrance).

Alper’s home has so many unique features, it’s impossible to focus on just one. Where do you start? An arched glass entryway with a lighted floor leads to a long front hall-slashart gallery; red glass tic-tac-toe “windows” highlight the curved wall leading to the home’s 3 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

lower level; a second-story art studio overlooks both the front yard and the interior of an oversized kitchen pantry; the Snooker room features a mirrored ceiling (so players can see shots from overhead); a spacious crow’s nest–style loft overlooks a backyard creek with waterfall; a secret wine cellar hides in the lower level; and the indoor salt water pool comes complete with in-water hydraulic bar, thatched ceiling overhead, and an adjacent, heated sand beach (also indoor). There’s even an automated foot wash station between the beach and pool so guests don’t track sand in the water.

We could go on for days about Alper’s use of color in the home, too—a bold orange master bedroom, a master bath with twin lavender sinks (never mind the toilet whose lid automatically opens when you walk in the water closet), a tropical mural on the beach-side walls and a lime green ping-pong room. It may be unusual, but “this home always makes people smile,” says listing agent Kim Vincent. In a design world currently inundated with gray interiors, we say it’s a refreshing change of pace.

PHOTO G R A PHS CO URTE SY CO NNIE JUILLER AT

A ONE-OF-A-KIND INDIAN HILL HOME INCORPORATES WHIMSICAL FEATURES THAT GO FAR BEYOND THE NORM. — L I S A M U R T H A

There is no routine prostate cancer.

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To learn more, visit cancer.osu.edu/prostate.

WHERE TO DRINK

1

CIRCLE CITY

MAKE LIKE A HOOSIER AND CHECK OUT WHAT’S WAITING FOR YOU JUST UP I-74.

—A LYSS A KO N E R M A N N

Less than a two-hour drive from the Queen City, Indianapolis is perfect for a weekend getaway. We mapped out the activities, bites, and drinks to try; all you have to do is hop in the car.

WHERE TO EAT

We will travel for food, and Indy’s a great destination.

While they’ve got trending restaurants aplenty (we’ll get to those), the state’s signature sandwich is the fried tenderloin, which can tend to be...bland. At best. But The Mug—owned by a tech giant who now also owns a heritage pig farm—soaks its pork tenderloin in buttermilk, and well, eat it. We’ve got nothing but love for Love Handle

and anything they do with a biscuit or a waffle. But we’re particularly here for their Friday fish fry, which they pair with classic movies like Jaws. As for those (rightfully!) trending spots: See especially Milktooth—a hopping brunch spot cooking up plates like smoked Great Lakes whitefish salad on sourdough challah and a cranberry clafoutis Dutch baby pancake—and its younger sister, Beholder, where the wine list is only matched by the twice-cooked octopus. If you’re looking for something dessert-y to top it all off, The Cake Bake Shop serves exceptional seasonal cakes and pies, along with the sweetest damn interior in which to enjoy them.

First, coffee. Provider at the Tinker House has made a name for itself via scratchmade turmeric-ginger, butterscotch, and pistachio lattes. And whether you’re there in the evening or you’re leaning into the vacation morning thing, there’s a hell of a mezcal list. On the alcohol front, we will forever sip on Sun King Brewery’s seasonals.

We will also happily drink for a cause with canine companions at Metazoa Brewing Co., where a portion of proceeds are donated to animal and wildlife organizations. If you’re in it for the escape, the Inferno Room, a new-to-thescene tiki bar, transports you.

We’re talking flashing red lights and rumbling, along with bamboo-covered walls, palm fronds galore, and one of the largest non-museum collections of native art from Papua New Guinea anywhere.

WHERE TO STAY

In the age of Instagram, everything claims to be curated. But The Alexander, a boutique hotel and contemporary art space near the southeastern edge of downtown, is actually curated—by the Indianapolis Museum of Art—with sitespecific installations and, our favorite piece, a giant portrait of Madam C.J. Walker made entirely of hair combs.

(Note: Netflix is making a series about Walker, produced

by LeBron James. Yes, that LeBron James.) The rooms are of equal style, as are the cocktails at Plat 99, the hotel’s chic lounge, and the coastal Italian fare at Nesso, its upscale eatery.

STREET SMARTS

PEDAL TO THE METAL Take the Cultural Trail to explore downtown Indy by foot or bike. — A . K 3 4 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

ROAD TRIP 1: Thank god the tiki bar is open at Inferno Room.

2: Metazoa Brewing Co. serves up the dark stuff.

3: Eiteljorg Museum.

2

WHAT TO SEE

The name of the game here is quirk. Stop one: the Indiana Medical History Museum. It’s weird. It’s beautiful. It’s in the country’s oldest surviving pathology facility, where they started researching the physical causes of psychological ailments in 1896. Stop two: The Idle, a bizarre little park overlooking I-65 built by a Jimmy Buffett roadie. And not quirky, but intentionally occupying the edges: Eiteljorg Museum, which features the art and artifacts of Native and Western cultures.

WHERE TO SHOP

Go to Massachusetts Avenue, and...go. No person has ever had enough of Homespun, which features all manner of contemporary handmade goods—jewelry, food, clothing, stationery, ephemera—

you name it, they do it right.

Ditto Silver in the City, where we’ve found housewares and tchotchkes we will love for life.

We also love a good bookstore, and Indy Reads Books fits that bill to a T: It’s an independent new-and-used shop that funds an adult literacy organization and regularly hosts events like Drag Queen Story Hour and Paws to Read, the latter of which involves therapy dogs onsite for kids to practice reading. (It’s also right around the corner from Homespun.)

The Alexander thealexander.com Eiteljorg Museum eiteljorg.org Indianapolis Cultural Trail indyculturaltrail.org

3

THE CITY IS KNOWN FOR ITS SPEEDWAY, AND BY ALL MEANS

hit up the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum and Dallara IndyCar Factory. But if you’re looking for a more civil speed of travel loop, get’r done with the Cultural Trail. The wide eight-mile path, completed in 2013, is made for pedestrians or bikes (for which there is, conveniently, a bikeshare program) and weaves through all of Indy’s downtown neighborhoods. In short: There is no better way to explore nearly all of the above. indyculturaltrail.org

PH OTO G R A PHS CO UR T E S Y ( TO P RI G H T ) ME TA ZOA B RE WIN G CO. / ( TO P LEF T ) T HE INFERN O R O O M / (B OT TO M LEF T ) IND IA N A P O LIS C U LT U R A L T R A IL IN C . / (B OT TO M RI G H T ) BY Z AC H M A L M G REN

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I Wrote the Song(s) CINCINNATI HAS SEVERAL OFFICIAL SONGS. SOME ARE MINE.

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THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER ONCE ASKED ME TO WRITE AN OFFICIAL SONG ABOUT OUR city, and perhaps I didn’t take it seriously enough. I submitted a parody, to the tune of “Oklahoma.”

Ci-i-in—cinnati, where the east is hostile to the west!

And the movies seen, are squeaky clean ’Cause they say they can’t be rated X! Ci-i-i-in—cinnati, where your sinus closes if it’s hot!

And the natives speak, a tongue that’s freak ’Cause they all say “please” instead of “what!”

In my defense, a parody is exactly what the newspaper wanted. They’d asked five local 3 6 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

writers for an amusing, not-really-official lyric about the Queen City for a feature article. They paid me nothing. But a week later I wrote another song about Cincinnati for a contest, and I won $1,000.

My victory can be partially explained by the movie Taken, in which Liam Neeson famously whispers that he has “a very particular set of skills—skills I have acquired over a very long career.” I could never match Neeson in single-handedly killing kidnappers and rescuing hostages, but he could never match me in single-handedly writing a song and winning $1,000 with zero fatalities.

THE CITY OF CINCINNATI’S SONG CONtest in 1983 perfectly matched my set of skills: lyrics, melody, recording, and advertising. Jingles, they were called. They’re mostly gone now, but jingles were everywhere at the time, and I was good at them.

I’d been doing jingles ever since the day I lied to an executive at Hudepohl Beer when he asked if I did jingles.

When the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce launched its new campaign, “Cincinnati, the Blue Chip City,” I saw two weaknesses in that slogan. First, it said nothing specific or unique about the advertised product. Second, the term “blue chip” was good for addressing corporate decision-makers but didn’t really ring true for perceptions of Cincinnati. A good slogan should support your existing perceptions of the product. So when the Chamber later announced its song contest (“A thousand dollars! Just include our slogan in your song!”), I shrugged. With so many real jingle jobs on my plate and a simultaneous career working at WEBN radio, plus the simple fact that I didn’t much like the slogan, I passed.

Why did I change my mind? It was that Enquirer article, published several weeks into the contest. They invited me and others to submit parody lyrics for fun. The exercise nudged me into entering the actual contest, even though the deadline was just a week away. This decision, I knew, would not only mean busting my ass, but it required taking the chance of spending half of the prize money up front. Yes, that was essential: In the jingle business, things begin with the “demo,” a primitive recording that’s presented to clients. Just P H O T O G R A P H BY A A R O N M . CO N WAY

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before pressing Play, you remind clients to judge only the song itself. Don’t be distracted by the lone singer or the sparse instrumentation, you explain.

Listen only for the song’s qualities. Everybody got that?

Clients never got that. They couldn’t help hearing the distractions. The technology that elevates today’s musical recordings didn’t exist in 1983, so investing in the demo was a must. Any or all of my local jingle competitors—we slugged it out constantly—might have entered this contest, too, so I knew I had to book a studio, pianist, bassist, drummer, and two singers. These people were magicians, translating my handwritten chord charts, understanding my rants of untrained musical ideas, and quickly turning them into performances that exceeded my vision. Every jingle I’ve ever created owes a debt to gifted musicians.

Below are links to the sparse recording I submitted, plus the finished orchestrated version that was produced (under quite uncomfortable circumstances we’ll visit momentarily) after I’d won. And since we’re talking about song packages from the ’80s, there are bonus tracks!

My ears still hear that demo as rushed and rough. But I was confident that it rose miles above most other entries those poor judges were suffering through—people accompanied by an untuned guitar, piano, or nothing, serenading to their battery-failing cassette recorder on a coffee table.

The day of the deadline, I rushed to the Dalton Street Post Office to assure the proper postmark, weighed my parcel, and dropped it into the mail slot. At that instant I realized the stamps were still in my shirt pocket. The postal clerk was very patient. “Sorry, there’s no way I’m allowed to fish anything out of a mailbox,” he said. “But I just this minute put it in,” I replied, hoping that maybe the Post Office had something like a five-second rule. It didn’t. I broke a few traffic laws getting a fresh copy back to Dalton Street in time.

This was October. By my birthday in mid-December, no winner had been announced. Finally, just after the holi-

days, I was notified that I’d won! I was thrilled, but that lasted only until I got to the third paragraph of the congratulatory letter. To my shock, the Chamber of Commerce had failed to notice the similarities I share with Liam Neeson. I don’t mean I’m someone who would kill them all, but I am someone who has a very particular set of skills acquired over a very long career—i.e., I had the ability to deliver the fully-orchestrated final version of the song. But the Chamber, when creating the contest, had already contracted that job out to an independent producer. And who was that? A Cincinnati jingle company! One of my slug-it-out competitors! My song had become their property. Maybe I should kill them all.

Nobody died. We all tiptoed. I was invited to the recording sessions, and I expressed opinions that were mostly listened to. The finished product was not exactly my vision, but it was close.

And I did eventually taste some revenge.

Jay Gilbert Productions couldn’t afford a full-time orchestrator back then; with each new project, I had to find someone for that task. But my competitor had one on staff, a talented guy named Dave, who did an impressive job charting my song.

Later that year, when I was getting more work and felt ready to employ a salaried orchestrator, I hired Dave away! Sweet.

The contest winner was announced at the Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner, where the song had its first official performance. Here is part of The Cincinnati Post’s coverage: “When master of ceremonies Nick Clooney announced that a group was about to sing Cincinnati’s new song, a soft groan rippled through the crowd. Then came the surprise: the song was good. So good that Clooney asked the group to sing it again, and the audience approved.…

Composer Jay Gilbert, to his credit, avoided the sterile, business-like Blue Chip theme in his lyrics.”

The Post spotted my strategy! I buried that damn slogan—it appears only twice in two and a half minutes. I also avoided a singing laundry list of clichéd Cincinnati attributes like chili, the Reds, Bengals, Symphony, and our world-famous

bludgeoning of anything remotely sexual. After all, the song was for use in TV commercials and promotional videos, so those things would all be shown visually, minus that last one.

The Enquirer was not as kind, saying the song “sounds like a Chevrolet commercial” and disparaging its scarcity of Porkopolis attributes. That’s OK. A commercial was exactly what the Chamber ordered, and I made $1,000.

After pre-spending it on the people who helped make the demo and later paying the taxes, the rest bought a celebratory family dinner and partially covered Dave’s first salary check. So the contest had plenty of winners.

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED, HERE ARE links to the song’s demo (tinyurl.com/ y2cco9yl) and to the finished version (tinyurl.com/yxg5lzc9).

And now, the bonus tracks! In 1987, Toledo had a song contest for its sesquicentennial, and I carpetbagged it. This recording, dated and corny today, has its own bad slogan (“Toledo, Just Look at Us Now!”), but check out Dave’s hot horn charts: tinyurl.com/y3ys9dn4.

Cincinnati celebrated its bicentennial in 1988. Instead of a contest, city officials asked local media companies to collaborate on a celebratory song and video. I wrote these lyrics, Dave composed the melody and horns, others orchestrated the strings, and various companies assembled the video (which I don’t have, unfortunately): tinyurl. com/yxq3fcxp.

Finally, the song contest I sneaked into through a side door, the WEBN Album Project, from back when the station annually produced albums of local musicians. I wasn’t eligible as an employee, but I took that as a challenge. I hired musicians and submitted the tape under a fake band name: Hoodwink. Only after the judges chose it did I come forward.

There was no prize, but I got a chance to be a radio DJ already playing some of my commercial jingles (clients bought those) while also spinning my own song!

No one else will ever again enjoy so many simultaneous levels of payola: tinyurl. com/y3spb8x6.

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J U N E 2 0 1 9 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 3 9

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Sign of Life AN INFLUX OF HISPANIC RESIDENTS AND A NEW PLAN MAY BRING IDEAS AND HOPE TO CARTHAGE.

T

THE ANCIENT CITY OF CARTHAGE, IN MODERN-DAY TUNISIA, WAS THE CHIEF RIVAL OF THE Roman empire. Well, it was until Roman soldiers burned it to the ground, enslaved its people, and claimed all of its territory along the Mediterranean Sea. When the city of Cincinnati took over its neighboring town of Carthage in 1911, the transition was, undoubtedly, far less momentous and far more peaceful. The merger created one of the city’s northernmost communities, a place that has become popularly known as the home of the Hamilton County Fairgrounds and of a landmark 50-foot-high, politically incorrect sign whose long-ago owner, Cherokee Motors, advertised its place of business with the slogan, “Where Paddock meets Vine, at the big Indian sign.” But head south on Vine Street, and you’ll enter a largely forgotten neighborhood whose population has undergone one of the most dramatic transformations in the city over the past 20 years.

4 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

The Hispanic population in this little enclave has grown faster than in any other Cincinnati neighborhood, surging from a mere 41 families in 2000 to well over 300 today. Michael Maloney is an independent researcher who has tracked city demographics for decades, compiling a series of in-depth reports called The Social Areas of Cincinnati that are used by city planners and local advocacy groups. In the first decade of the 21st century alone, he says, the Hispanic population in Carthage grew by 685 percent. Nearly 20 percent of the neighborhood’s residents are Hispanic, by far the largest proportion in Cincinnati.

That growth has meant a near-complete transformation of the once primarily Appalachian neighborhood. Now, visitors to Carthage are greeted with welcome signs in both English and Spanish, and can shop at the El Valle Verde market or dine on tostadas de ceviches at the taqueria next door.

The community’s heart revolves around San Carlos Borromeo, a Catholic church at the corner of Fairpark and West Seymour where Father Rodolfo Coaquira presides over five Masses a week in Spanish as well as daily morning services in English.

ON A SUNDAY MORNING IN JANUARY, the small church parking lot and the streets surrounding it are filled. Outside, the temperature is 28 degrees. Inside, the temperature is, well, 28 degrees. The cavernous 125-year-old building has no heat, since the furnace no longer functions and there’s no money to fix it. Despite the chill, more than 300 people attend the 11:30 Spanishlanguage Mass, bundled up in their coats, hats, and gloves. Churchgoers will soon swelter in the summer heat, as San Carlos Borromeo has no air-conditioning, either, and the old stained-glass windows allow only occasional breezes.

Joseph Nava, president of the Carthage Civic League and a longtime leader of Cincinnati’s Hispanic community, is at the January Mass. His family moved from Mexico City when he was a child, and he came to Cincinnati via Chicago, where he worked for the federal government in various capacities. Now, in a late-life career change, Nava is a practicing attorney with an office in the heart of Carthage on Vine Street.

He recalls Cincinnati’s Latino community seeking a church home in the 1990s, P HI LOLTUOSGTRR AAPT HI OS NB BY YJ O C ENLAITAH KA RN AWMIPLILEI NS

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CITY WISE petitioning the archbishop to identify a place of worship for a populace that’s traditionally very religious and very Catholic. At the time, the archdiocese was in the process of closing the church in Carthage, then called St. Charles Borromeo, because of weak attendance. “We were given that church and the former school [across the street],” Nava says. “That was the spark that brought people together.”

The church became the center of the Catholic Hispanic faith community, especially its social life. The school housed the Su Casa Hispanic Center, a main provider of social services to the Hispanic community in Greater Cincinnati. Su Casa has since moved to Bond Hill, but the old school is still used for health fairs and other community events. And the church—even with no heat, no air-conditioning, a leaky roof, and little parking—remains a community hub.

“It’s a home away from home,” says Fr. Louis

friendly. But the “Main Street” feel ends around 75th Street; north of that are gas stations and car dealers like MotorTime Auto Sales, the big sign’s latest beneficiary.

At the end of last year, a committee of a couple dozen residents and business owners worked with city planners to draft a strategy for injecting life into the business district.

What they came up with was a plan that other forgotten neighborhoods also desire: a compact, walkable business district with a variety of shops that can serve the neighborhood and even become a destination for those who live farther away, backed with an increase in home ownership. Robert Hartlaub owned a tax preparation business in Carthage for about 40 years, and he and his wife have lived there for 18 years. “The business district is the window to the community,” he says. “We’re not looking to be a Hyde Park or Oakley or anything like that.

But we have a lot of potential.”

THE PLAN IS ONLY A START. IT DOESN’T COME WITH MONEY OR A TEAM OF EXPERTS TO PUT IT INTO PLAY. MORE HARD WORK LIES AHEAD, WITH SPECIFIC MILESTONES SET. Gasparini, director of Hispanic ministry for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.“The church is the center of their social activities.”

A block away, business district merchants along Vine Street could use a little of that energy. The street has suffered from disinvestment and neglect, but there is life—a pottery shop, a mom-and-pop chili parlor, a neighborhood saloon. Used car lots are frequent here, as are other carrelated shops that would probably love to benefit from the “big Indian sign” pointing customers to their places of business. But the sign is just outside Carthage’s central business district, as it’s famously located “where Paddock meets Vine.” Actually, in one of those maddening Cincinnati wayfinding quirks, it’s “where Paddock seamlessly transitions into Vine,” but that doesn’t make for a catchy slogan.

The business district’s core is less than a mile in length along Vine, from 69th to 77th streets; vehicle traffic isn’t heavy, which leaves the area naturally pedestrian 4 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

DRAFTED LAST NOVEMBER, THE NEIGHborhood Business District Strategy Plan sets a goal of improving housing, attracting young families and first-time homebuyers, and giving them more reasons to frequent the business district.“The focus is to invite younger Cincinnatians and people from outside who want to move into Cincinnati, who maybe don’t qualify for the suburban $200,000-plus homes but who would like to live in a decent, nice, relatively new home here in Carthage,” Nava says.

Many of the neighborhood’s homes date to the early 20th century and need work, but they’re opportunities for enterprising rehabbers. The Mills at Carthage developed approximately 60 single-family homes between 2002 and 2005. They sold for about $160,000 each when they were new but, perhaps because of their location and continued fallout from the 2008 housing crisis, have not appreciated in value, with one recently selling for $135,000.

Neighborhood leaders identify other

challenges in attracting new homeowners, including crime, a lack of cleanliness, no neighborhood elementary school, and no destination attractions. On the other hand, 35 percent of Carthage’s land is used for parks and recreation, including Seymour Nature Preserve, Caldwell Nature Preserve, Caldwell Park Playground, and the Hamilton County Fairgrounds.

That last parcel is a big wild card in any future plan for Carthage. An agricultural fair has been held at this site on a regular basis since 1853, when Carthage was indeed farmland far from Cincinnati’s noise and bustle. Today, of course, the land is surrounded by industry, freight rail lines, and I-75, and the activity there is largely limited to one event a year, the week-long Hamilton County Fair in August.

The neighborhood plan acknowledges that the fair “will probably remain here for the foreseeable future” but also notes that, should it move, 37 acres would become available for development—instantly making it one of the largest greenfield sites in the city of Cincinnati. Carthage leaders suggest it would be a good site for a mixedused development of office, retail, and residences to coordinate with, not compete with, the nearby Vine Street business district. According to the strategic plan, investment in the main business district should be focused on the three highestprofile Vine Street intersections—at Seymour Avenue, at North Bend Road, and where it merges with Paddock Road.

The plan is only a start. It doesn’t come with money or a team of experts to put it into play. More hard work lies ahead, with specific goals set for milestones between six months and 10 years: expanding the Carthage Civic League, one of Cincinnati’s oldest community councils; getting property owners on board to fix up their buildings; working with city planners on new zoning regulations; finding funds for streetscape and facade improvements; promoting the community to real estate agents; and tracking progress. Much of that work will fall to volunteers such as the Civic League leaders and to a growing population of families hailing from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Honduras, and Colombia who gather in a century-old church with no heat and no AC, but plenty of life.

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SAVOR CINCINNATI SERVED UP FIVE NIGHTS OF AMAZING FOOD & DRINK AT PINECROFT In April, 750 foodies joined Cincinnati Magazine for the third Savor Cincinnati dinner series at the historic Pinecroft Mansion, the former home of Powell Crosley Jr. Each evening’s dinner was a multi-course collaboration between two of the city’s most celebrated chefs, along with curated wine, beer, and bourbon pairings. Thanks to all of our sponsors, who made the week such a success!

PRESENTING SPONSORS: Funky’s Catering & Events and Kroger.

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November 4–8 at The View

FINISHING TOUCH Ron Gerdes works in the Mortal Ski Company studio in Over-the-Rhine.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEREMY KRAMER

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K A M

A renewed maker culture across Cincinnati is churning out furniture, packaged food, skis, beard oil, jewelry, metal signage, pottery, home goods, and mascot costumes—plus hundreds of other handmade products—while a strong support network helps them sell, grow, and interact.

Learn what it means to be “made in Cincinnati.”

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A TOOL BOX FOR GROWTH TH FUTURE OF CINCINNATI MANUFACTURING STARTS ARRIVING THIS THE summer in the old Walnut Hills Kroger store. Here, neighborhood su residents can borrow hammers and power drills, interact with re st startup businesses, and take job training classes. The CoMADE initiative is hoping to spur job growth on two fronts—supporting in entrepreneurs and teaching manufacturing skills—while opening en new opportunities in underserved neighborhoods. ne Over the next two years, CoMADE will refine and expand its programs while planning a $26 million, 100,000-square-foot facility in the city’s Innovapr tion Corridor near Reading Road and Martin Luther King Drive. The result could become tio a national model for offering manufacturing expertise and equipment, office space, job training, and community support under one roof.

The journey begins with that tool library in Walnut Hills. CoMADE gathers hand tools through donations and purchases, loans them out to people wanting to do small projects at home, and offers instruction and encouragement. The interactions bring neighborhood folks inside the ex-Kroger building, where they’ll see manufacturing startups sharing woodworking, metalworking, and high-tech workspaces, and job training underway in various classrooms.

“The tool library is a bridge space,” says cofounder Matt Anthony. “It’ll help us identify people who might want to be in our workforce development programs or who might get excited about using our equipment for a new product idea.”

Anthony and CoMADE partners Rich Kiley and John Spencer visited 17 cities to learn

Starting small in Walnut Hills, CoMADE is a new type of manufacturing incubator that could make Cincinnati a national model for collaboration. — J O H N F O X best practices from manufacturing incubator groups. They saw organizations helping entrepreneurs design prototype products or grow startup businesses, others training people to pursue new careers in modern manufacturing, and successful tool library concepts—but no examples of a holistic approach in one accessible location.

“We think there’s a lot of synergy around making products in Cincinnati,” says Kiley, a former Procter & Gamble executive who helped start the P&G Venture Fund, Ohio Capital Fund, and

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CincyTech. “Whenever startups grow, the owners need help to expand operations.

Lots of people, especially in neighborhoods new businesses don’t flow into, are looking for decent-paying jobs. We’ll put them together at CoMADE and see how we can make connections. We want the ‘new economy’ to work for everyone. Call it inclusive capitalism.”

CoMADE has an ambitious five-year plan to create 100 new manufacturing companies and 1,000 new manufacturing jobs and train 1,500 workers in modern manufacturing skills. The Walnut Hills space will be seeded with tools, equipment, and entrepreneurs from two organizations that Anthony helped launch and is rolling into CoMADE: the First Batch incubator program and the Losantiville design collective in Over-the-Rhine, where startups like Mortal Ski Company (see page 56) and Ohio Valley Beard Supply (see page 58) got off the ground.

The goal is to move those makers, classrooms, and connections—along with the tool library—to Reading and MLK in 2021 and add more equipment, technology, and capacity. Kiley is raising funds to acquire property and hire an architect for the new

building, which would likely be located within the Neyer Properties development footprint in the intersection’s northeast quadrant—a key spot near the University of Cincinnati’s planned Digital Futures building, the new NIOSH research center, the MLK interchange on I-71, and UC’s 1819 Innovation Hub, which opened last year to kickstart the Innovation Corridor. It’s also within walking distance for many Avondale and Walnut Hills residents and on a number of Metro bus lines.

“Once we determined that new construction would cost about the same as rehabbing an old building, that opened up a lot of options for us,” says Kiley. “We have to own the building in order to keep it an affordable space. If we rented, we could get priced out as the Innovation Corridor area develops around us. That’s happened in other cities where similar organizations got forced out of the communities they were serving.”

David Adams, UC’s chief innovation officer, runs the 1819 Innovation Hub and encouraged CoMADE to join the Innovation Corridor in order to open more doors for its startups and job trainees. “The 1819 Hub brings people together to see what happens when they collide,” says Adams, who recruited P&G, Kroger, Cincinnati Bell, Cincinnati Financial, and CincyTech to establish offices there. “I like to see innovation being done in innovative ways, and that’s the CoMADE concept—they’ll have space for entrepreneurs, but more importantly they’ll lift people up by teaching them how to be entrepreneurs.”

One of CoMADE’s consultants, Alex Bandar, has been supporting entrepreneurs for 11 years at the Idea Foundry in Columbus. Housed in a century-old shoe factory just across the river from downtown, it has 15 full-time and 30 part-time employees, with more than 750 members using its manufacturing and office spaces.

Bandar thinks the way CoMADE is combining the best elements of incubator programs across the U.S. and testing its ideas for two years before moving into the new building will result in a home run for Cincinnati. “This is a brand new concept,” he says. “There’s really no rulebook in this field, though I do think I’ve learned a few keys to success. You need to be adjacent to or in a successful neighborhood, have an anchor nonprofit organization, and have a single entity as the organizing agent. It’s great to see UC anchoring the Innovation Corridor. It’s really an ideal situation for CoMADE to grow into.”

For now, the organizing agent for Cincinnati’s new manufacturing movement is looking to make connections one hammer, power drill, and socket wrench at a time.

“WE WANT THE ‘NEW ECONOMY’ TO WORK FOR EVERYONE. CALL IT INCLUSIVE CAPITALISM,” SAYS RICH KILEY, ONE OF CoMADE’S FOUNDERS.

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City Flea

MAKER MECCAS These market events bring together the best in local handmade goods. — K E V I N S C H U L T Z

The city’s original outdoor urban market has evolved since debuting in 2011, much like Over-the-Rhine itself. The monthly event now hosts more than 100 vendors—kombucha brewers, wood carvers, jewelry makers, and more—May through October, with a special Holiday Market in December.

WAS HIN G TO N PA R K , 1 230 E L M ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, T HEC IT Y F LEA . C OM

Crafty OFF Market This east side maker market Supermarket

A tiny gathering of craft vendors at Northside Tavern grew into an event drawing hundreds of makers from across the Midwest each spring and winter.

Thousands of shoppers attend, looking for unique printed tote bags, original comic books, peanut brittle, stationery, and other handmade products.

M U S I C H A L L B A L L R OOM , 1 24 1 ELM ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, CRAFT YSUPERMARKET.COM

sets up the second Saturday of each month May through September. With an aim to support innovative local businesses, it’s a favorite for jewelry makers, food vendors, and artists such as The Jammery chocolates, Red Lotus Designs earrings, and more.

MADTREE BREWING, 3301 MADISON RD., OAKLEY, T H E OFFM A R K E T. OR G

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SHAPE-SHIFTER Dawn Grady bends metals to her will to craft one-of-a-kind jewelry. — K A I L E I G H P E Y T O N CUTTING, HEATING, BENDING, HAMMERING, SOLDERING, antiquing, polishing—it’s a lengthy process creating one of Dawn Grady’s metal jewelry pieces, but the journey is everything to her. “The freedom and flexibility to literally start with a piece of sheet metal or one long wire and cut it, shape it, and solder it into something magnificent is addictive,” she says.

In the past 11 years, Grady has grown Junebug Jewelry Designs (named after the childhood nickname her father gave her) from the ground up, starting with a UC Communiversity bead-stringing class that grew into a lucrative hobby. Curiosity led her to metalworking, where she found her true passion, and she gradually developed her skills watching YouTube tutorials and taking classes with master metalsmiths in Philadelphia. Now she sells her jewelry

online and in Mortar’s Brick pop-up in Over-the-Rhine.

Working primarily in copper and Argentium silver, she creates intricate, wearable works of art, and no two are exactly alike. The final designs manifest organically, taking detours from her original concepts. “I let [the metals] talk to me and tell me what they need to be,” she says. Grady harnesses the science behind metalworking to manipulate finishes and shift the entire look: oxidizing copper with mustard to give it a green-tinted patina, torching copper to create an iridescent rainbow effect, or adding liver of sulfur to silver to give a faux aged look. Grady still works a day job in PR but hopes to soon make her business a full-time gig. “I would do it even if I never sold anything,” she says.

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SHE’S A NATURAL A truly good-for-you granola didn’t exist, so Christy White made her own. — K A I L E I G H P E Y T O N

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HEAVY METAL Kate Schmidt’s fabrications are equal parts art and craft.

—LINDA VACCARIELLO IF YOU THINK OF AN ELABORATE marquee as a sort of outsized tiara for a theater, then Kate Schmidt’s career path doesn’t seem quite so peculiar. She graduated from the College of Mount St. Joseph with a degree in fine arts and once worked as a jewelry maker, but today you’ll find her shielded by a welding helmet, creating the unique gates, railings, fences, shop signs, furniture, and even marquees that distinguish the city’s hippest neighborhoods.

Her metalworking company, Kate Schmidt Design & Fabrication, grew out of an in interest in applying her craft on a larger scale. S She worked with her brother Greg, a furniture maker, for a time, then joined Vulkane Indu Industrial Arts, the Cincinnati metalworking stu studio where she honed her welding skills (“Arc (“Arc, MIG, and TIG,” she says with some pride) before b establishing her own company. You kn know her work if you’ve passed by the classy ffence around Tender Mercies or under the sign for Northside Tavern or if you’ve admir admired the restored facade of the Woodward Theater Thea in Over-the-Rhine. She created its copper marquee based on vintage photographs.

For the massive Woodward project Schmidt hired additional craftspeople,

but much of the time she works alone. Her 5,000-square-foot shop in Pendleton is an oddity—an old commercial building in the middle of a narrow, densely-packed 19th century residential street. She bought it in cen 2009 aand, despite the recent arrival of craft

IF IT WEREN’T FOR CITY FLEA, THERE MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN Whirlybird Granola. In the market’s infancy in 2011, when its founders sought initial merchants, they tapped a friend, Christy White, who they knew made her own granola as a hobby.

“My original response was, No way, it’s way too much work,” White says.

At the time, the new mom of twins worked full-time for GE Aviation, but she reluctantly obliged, taking a chance with recipes she’d crafted in her own kitchen out of necessity. “I couldn’t find any granola in the store that didn’t have all the added sugars, additives, and fillers but still tasted good and was good for you,” she says. Her blend of simple, natural ingredients was a hit, and her products sold out weekend after weekend.

Today, White’s granolas (original, vanilla berry, and chocolate) sit alongside established brands on shelves at Kroger, Jungle Jim’s, Remke Markets, and area specialty stores. The secret to her success, she says, is wholesome ingredients her customers can feel good about, including certified glutenW H I R LY B I R D P H O T O G R A P H S B Y A A R O N M . C O N W A Y

beer, cool condos, and soaring neighborhood property values, she’s here for good.

“Moving a workshop is difficult,” Schmidt says. “I wanted to stay forever.”

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free oats, vegan chocolate, and nutrient-rich extra virgin olive oil in place of canola oil (typically genetically modified), along with nuts, seeds, and berries. Named after the sugar maple tree’s helicopter seeds, Whirlybird’s biggest differentiator is its light sweetness, created by a blend of Ohio maple syrup and organic agave nectar in place of refined sugars and honey. Though White intends to stick with her three staple flavors, she recently launched 2-oz. on-the-go packs, complete with a spoon; just add milk or yogurt.

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BOOSTING MAKERS Entrepreneurs don’t have to go it alone thanks to these nonprofit support systems. — J O H N F O X Findlay Kitchen Findlay Market’s incubator helps food makers start, grow, and scale packaged food concepts via commercial-grade kitchen equipment, storage space, mentoring, and connections. Members gain real-world experience and feedback—in tents at the Market, storefronts on Elm Street, and (in 2020) a food hall on Race Street—before launching a business.

1719 ELM ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, F I ND L AYKITCHEN.ORG

Mortar With a deliberate presence on Vine Street in OTR, Mortar enables womenand minority-owned startups to join the entrepreneurial party. Classes are held at Rhinegeist and Cincinnati Museum Center, with pop-up retail spaces in OTR and Walnut Hills. Program grads include Junebug Jewelry (see page 50) and Imani’s Vegan Soul Kitchen (see page 95).

1329 VINE ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, (513) 888 - 4 769, WEAREMORTAR .COM

Sew Valley Rosie Kovacs (Brush Factory clothing and furniture) and Shailah Maynard (Working Girls designs) team up to give makers the tools, training, and workspace to turn ideas into soft goods. Tessa Clark, currently featured on Project Runway, created her clothing line at Sew Valley.

Industrial sewing and pattern-making classes start this summer.

1010 HULBERT AVE., WEST END, (513 ) 87 3 -2481, SEWVAL L EY. O RG 52

HANDS ON Morgan Willenbrink (left) and Lauren Thomeczek (below left) bring clay to life at Rookwood Pottery in Over-the-Rhine.

REAL THROWBACK A new generation puts its own spin on the Rookwood Pottery legacy. — D A M I A N D O T T E R W E I C H MORGAN WILLENBRINK AND Lauren Thomeczek enjoy the best of both worlds in their roles at Rookwood Pottery. As sole members of the hand throwing team, they hone their craft daily by replicating classic Rookwood pieces in the same hands-on way previous generations of artists did. They also bring their own ideas to life by creating one-of-a-kind works as part of Rookwood’s exclusive Artist Series, as well as designing and prototyping exclusive products for area businesses.

Working out of Rookwood’s factory and design studio on Race Street in OTR, the duo adroitly forms vases, bowls, mugs, and other objects out of clay as it spins on a potter’s wheel in a process called “throwing.” Willenbrink, a Cincinnati native and DAAP grad, was well aware of the Rookwood heritage growing up and was the company’s first hire when it decided to fire up the hand throwing team after a long dormancy.

“It’s exciting to be doing what we love every day,” she says. “It’s also humbling to realize that my name will be associated with great Rookwood artists of the past like Kataro Shirayamadani and Sarah Sax.” Thomeczek, a Missouri native, came to Cincinnati after college for a ceramic residency and part-time job at Rookwood. After moving to Vermont for a three-year stint at a more established production facility, she returned to join Willenbrink on the team. Maria Longworth founded Rookwood Pottery in 1880 so local artists could form masterpieces out of clay, and the potter’s wheel clearly has come full circle.

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THE MASTER OF MAKE BELIEVE THE RISING GENERATION OF MAKERS KNOWS THAT SUCCESS WILL BE A long haul of finding affordable supplies and workspaces, selling at artisan markets and small stores, and building business through word-of-mouth and promotion. But there’s also this to look forward to: Maybe, when they reach old age, they can visit the Cincinnati Museum Center and see their work preserved as part of the city’s manufacturing heritage.

That recently happened to Don Poynter, a spry and good-humored 94-year-old who now lives at Seasons retirement community in Kenwood. From the 1940s into the 2000s, he dreamed up and created humorous, sometimes slightly naughty, occasionally downright bizarre novelty items. Poynter Products had several home bases, most notably a Gest Street warehouse in the West End, and employed as many as 30 people in packaging, assembly, shipping, and national sales. Parts were often imported from overseas, and some specialized manufacturing was contracted out. Poynter himself sold directly to national retailers, including catalog companies.

In 2017, the Museum Center accepted a donation of items from his family, so Poynter recently came to its Geier Collections and Research Center to see them. Registrar Matthew Manninen set out objects with names like Arnold Plumber’s Putter, Jayne Mansfield Hot Water Bottle, Talking Toilet, Mighty Tiny Records, Crooked Dice, and Golfer’s Dream: Hole in One Golf Ball. “That’s just a hole in a golf ball,” Poynter says of the last one, laugh-

Don Poynter built a career with novelty items and national sales. — S T E V E N R O S E N ing. “A stupid gift.”

Capitalizing on the 1960s TV series The Addams Family, he created The Thing mechanical coin box in which a hand emerged from inside to grab and pull back a coin. It sold 14 million units, he says.

As a child growing up in Westwood—where his father was a portrait painter and photographer—Poynter showed an early propensity for making things. He started creating novelty items in earnest in the 1950s, at a time when Kenner Products made Cincinnati a center for toy manufacturing and Hugh Hefner and others were jazzing up American popular culture. “World War II was over, and people had money and were feeling good,” Poynter says. “They wanted to laugh and have fun.”

At the Geier Center, Poynter inspects his breakthrough novelty item: whiskey-flavored toothpaste. The museum has two different tubes, bourbon and scotch. (He also made a rye version.)

While lovingly looking them over, Poynter recalls how he got a $10,000 loan to produce the product from a University of Cincinnati fraternity brother who worked at his father’s bank. “A couple days later, his father asked, ‘What does Poynter want with $10,000? Is he buying a house?’ He says, ‘No, he’s making whiskey-flavored toothpaste.’ ” “I’ve had a fascinating life,” he tells Manninen before departing.

The Museum Center will debut a Made in Cincinnati Gallery in 2021 to celebrate notable local manufacturers such as Crosley, Cincinnati Milling Machine (Milacron), and Procter & Gamble as well as smaller companies like Poynter Products. Some objects might also be featured in its new Transportation Gallery next spring.

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A HEAD FOR COSTUMES Stagecraft’s character-building business is a family affair. — L I N D A ONE OF ROSIE RED’S QUEEN-SIZED shoes has found its way under Randy Kent’s desk. It’s not out of place, because his company— Stagecraft Inc.—is where Rosie’s prodigious curves, flirty skirt, and Brobdingnagian head come for maintenance. Kent got his start constructing costume characters and team mascots as a UC student working at Kings Island in the 1970s. His highly-detailed figures caught on, and today his Northside workshop is filled with some 700 fiberglass molds for character heads.

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Crafting figures like the UK Wildcat and the UC Bearcat aren’t a production line affair. It can take 100 hands-on hours to sculpt and mold the head, stitch and shape the body, and fabricate an eye-catching costume that’s durable, safe for the performer, and washable. (Although, Kent sighs in frustration, “Almost nobody launders them.”)

Stagecraft’s mascot work peaked in the 1990s, when the company’s payroll numbered as many as 10 fabricators. As he approaches retirement, he’s limiting Stagecraft projects to existing clients. His company is a family operation: Wife Mary is business manager, and daughter Sarah has returned

from working in Central America to sculpt mascot features and build displays for children’s museums, another Stagecraft sideline.

The plan isn’t for Sarah to take over the family business. She’s an artist with a science degree focused on entomology—the study of insects—and that’s her career goal. But as the maker of outrageous creature costumes and a future entomologist, she’s happy to be back in Cincinnati. “I’m looking forward to the return of the cicadas in 2021,” Sarah says.

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LET IT SNOW Mortal Ski expands OTR production to meet Midwest skiing demands. — L I N D A V A C C A R I E L L O RON GERDES WAS DRIVING FROM Cincinnati to Minnesota’s Mt. Lutsen when he got the idea to create skis specifically designed for the Midwest—swooshing downhill in the bitter territory north of Duluth, on the hard backcountry snow in Michigan, or the manmade powder at Indiana’s Perfect North Slopes. He and his business partner, Mark Branham, incorporated Mortal Ski Company in 2015 and now build those skis here.

Gerdes, an emergency room nurse, has skied for 22 years, worked at Perfect North, and been a sales representative for a snow sports company. But manufacturing a product was new territory. The men commissioned a custom builder in California for their prototype, then, Gerdes says, “We went to the University of Google to learn how to make skis.” They financed their start-up with personal money, an $8,000 grant, workspace from the First Batch incubator, and pre-sales to friends and folks in the industry.

Currently they’re turning out about

60 custom pairs a year, “and every one has been closely scrutinized, documented, and tracked,” Gerdes says. He uses local vendors for components such as the laminated wood core, which is milled nearby in Over-the-Rhine, and students at Northern Kentucky University weigh in on branding.

Marketing, which has been largely word-of-mouth, will be important as Mortal Ski expands into snowboard production this year. The goal is to eventually fill 300 snowboard/ski orders annually without sacrificing quality. Not a huge number, but a significant one considering that most people assume the number of skis manufactured in Cincinnati is zero.

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REFRESH, REUSE, REPEAT Coda Co. upcycles bourbon barrels and coffee bags into rustic furniture and home decor. — K A T I E C O B U R N

CODA CO.’S STORY STARTS WITH A coffee table. About six years ago, during Tanner Ziese and Kelti MacDonald’s courting days, the couple decided to shake things up for date night.

Instead of watching a movie or taking a walk in the park, they built a coffee table in his parents’ basement, sourcing inspiration from Pinterest.

Proud of the finished product, they experimented with more projects, and soon their friends and their friends’ friends started requesting custom pieces. After their word-of-mouth and local craft market sales skyrocketed, the duo, who married in 2015, opened a Bellevue storefront in August 2017.

“Coda in music terms means to refresh or repeat,” Tanner says. “We refresh old products and make them new again.” He makes tables, coat

racks, serving trays, wine stands, bottle openers, and candleholders from reclaimed bourbon and wine barrel pieces that he and Kelti find at a Louisville cooperage. She scours local coffee shops for old burlap coffee bags to turn into pillows, ottomans, dog beds, and coffee cup sleeves. She also crafts plant hangers and macramé wall hangings out of organic cotton rope and uses the scraps to make key chains and miniature macramé.

“We really like the idea of not leaving a huge footprint and trying to reuse as many materials as we can,” Kelti says. “There are other uses for things instead of just throwing stuff out.” Like the old windowpane they transformed into a coffee table six years ago, which still decorates their home today.

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MAKERS FOR SALE Treat yourself to a locally made gift from one of these retail spots. — J O H N F O X MiCA 12/V

Vine Street’s retail anchor has been promoting local makers since 2003 (in OTR since 2007), and today more than one-third of the items MiCA offers are made and/or designed locally—especially ceramics, fine art, jewelry, stationery, and clothing. Owners Carolyn and Mike Deininger helped launch an entrepreneurship class at DAAP to develop the next generation of makers.

1201 VINE ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, (51 3) 533 - 1 9 74 , S H OP M I CA . COM

HAIRY TALES

a logo to having our product on store shelves in three months,” says Ponder.

“We talked to some P&G friends, and Ohio Valley Beard Supply grows out its they said that sort of product development process usually takes three years.” unique product line. — D A M I A N D O T T E R W E I C H Brown, a hobbyist designer, created the logo and handles branding duties SCOTT PONDER AND PATRICK for the product line, which has grown Brown had an itch. Two itches actuto include finishing balms, washes, conditionally. Brown was a client at Ponder’s ers, and mustache wax sold in 65 Fresh Thyme Northside hair salon, and when stores in the Midwest as well as upscale barber each was growing out his beard, they commisershops and beauty salons. He and Ponder still ated about how itchy and scratchy the process make most of the products themselves, pack could be. Frustration with a lack of useful and ship orders, and build their own in-store products led to inspiration, as Ponder tinkered displays in their space within OTR’s Losantiville with various combinations of oils and Design Collective. moisturizers. He handed out test-batch samples These bearded business partners are to Brown and other clients and used their focused on facial hair right now—it’s a growth feedback to formulate a beard elixir. industry both literally and financially—but they The product allowed Brown and Ponder to don’t rule out an expansion into hair and body scratch another itch: the desire to work together care down the line. Perhaps Ponder & Brown on launching a business. And “launch” is a fitting could become our city’s next Procter & Gamble. term for the rocket-like growth of Ohio Valley Beard Supply. “We went from test batches and OHIOVALLEYBEARD.COM

Wooden Hill

Westwood residents Amanda and Kevin Carlisle have filled their cozy store with art, photography, clothing, cards, and jewelry by local makers, including west-side artists Melissa Martin (Little Miss Haywire) and Mary Anne Cowgill.

3036 HARRISON AVE., WESTWOOD, (51 3) 4 0 5 - 4 0 1 3, FACE B OOK . COM /W OOD ENHILL ART

SouveNEAR Kiosk

Believing that travel souvenirs should be made in the same place your memories are, SouveNEAR vending machines sell local products at airports in Kansas City; Oakland, California; Newark, New Jersey; and CVG. Ours features gifts from Coda Co. (see page 57), Maverick Chocolate, Paper Acorn, and more local makers.

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NORTHERN STAR Lindsey Zinno encourages us to go green with hand-sewn cotton rope accessories and home goods. — K A T I E C O B U R N LINDSEY ZINNO LEARNED HOW to sew when she was 5 years old, thanks to her mom and aunt, whose professional careers involve sewing. At 17, she launched The Northern Market, an online retailer of hand-sewn cotton rope accessories and home goods. Her unique rope coiling technique, which she learned from her aunt and later personalized, gives her bags, bowls, coasters, trivets, trays, and pet beds a distinctively minimal look. Zinno published Rope Sewing Reinvented, an instructional book describing her techniques, and in July 2017 recorded two episodes of Sewing With Nancy, the country’s longest running TV sewing program, a few months before host Nancy Zieman died—making Zinno her last recorded guest. (Her mom and aunt had also appeared on Zieman’s show.)

Now, at 22, Zinno fulfills custom and wholesale orders for The Northern Market while working full time as the director of marketing and customer experience at Mosaic Climbing in Loveland. About 20 stores throughout the U.S. carry her products, including local boutiques The Native One and Deerhaus Decor. Her main goal: Encourage others to live sustainably. Zinno, who earned an environmental science degree from UC last August, uses recycled cotton, which she weaves into spools of rope and colors with natural plant dyes. “Buying anything new is not good for the environment,” she says.

“If people are going to buy something new, I want it to be something I’m comfortable with putting out in this world.”

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FERNALD’S 30-YEAR JOURNEY

from toxic uranium processing facility to nature preserve, a cleanup job that will never truly be finished.

Illustration by Darren Hopes

By Jenny Wohlfarth

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An array of beautiful photographs on the wall show the native wildlife we might see as we explore the preserve, or as we hike its seven miles of trails: rabbit, beaver, hawk, bobcat, white-tailed deer, and the kingfisher that also serves as the Fernald Preserve logo on a large stone at the entrance. A giant aerial-view photo map shows a somewhat square-shaped, wobbly-edged sea of greenspace—the preserve property as it exists today—haunted by an overlay of ghostly white rectangles representing the industrial buildings that once stood here when the plant was operating.

Fernald’s then red-and-white-checkered water towers, reminiscent of the Purina logo, along with its innocent-sounding “Feed Materials Production Center” moniker, might have lulled locals into mistakenly thinking it was a pet-food factory or something far less worrisome than a uranium refinery. When the Fernald plant was built in 1951, people knew, from local news coverage at the time, that it was somehow connected to atomic energy and the Cold War, but what did that really mean? For nearly four decades, no one probed very deeply into what was going on there, and no one pondered the possible environmental or public health implications.

From the visitors’ center you can see a 65-foot-high natural-looking mound that serves as the permanent storage site of nearly 3 million cubic yards of low-level radioactive waste—about 85 percent soil and 15 percent debris excavated during the cleanup. “The materials that were the most

Fernald Today The Fernald Preserve (above) is home to dozens of wildlife species, from butterflies (a Red Admiral) to birds (a Dickcissel), and attracts nature-lovers 12 months a year.

hazardous were containerized and moved out west, and they’ll be kept forever in nuclear storage sites in states where the geography and climate are better for permanent storage,” Borgman explains. “Some of the less hazardous waste is buried here.”

A large column-shaped display helps us understand, in compelling visual detail, how the highly engineered layers of material in the mound will permanently preserve the compacted debris from the site, trapped within a protective liner and topped off with a natural, vegetative cap. But when we later stand on top of the mound, among knee-high grassy stems and buzzing insects, gazing out to the west across the preserve’s picturesque prairie and ponds, it’s easy to forget, just for a minute, the ugly past of this place and what lies beneath.

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N A SUNNY SATURDAY MORNing, Penny Borgman tells a group of 14 people the story behind the Fernald Preserve, the 1,050-acre nature area north of Cincinnati that was once the site of a uranium ore processing facility, part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) nuclear weapons program during the Cold War. “Long ago,” she begins, “before European settlers converted this land to agricultural use, eastern deciduous forest covered all of this area.”

Today, though, if you fly over the preserve—the way a red-tailed hawk or a northern harrier might see it—it would look more like a vast prairie decked out in an assortment of greens or yellows depending on the season. The acreage sprawls out in meadow-like serenity, with pockets of trees peppered around its perimeter and an assortment of oddly shaped ponds and wetlands that look like punctuation marks—bulgy commas and distorted semicolons—dotting the interior landscape. It might have been a forest long ago, but today it feels all field.

Borgman gathers the tour group in the brightly lit community room in the preserve’s visitors’ center, a $6.6 million renovation of a former warehouse, one of only two buildings not demolished in the industrial site’s remediation in the early 2000s.

To this day, Fernald remains one of the largest and most comprehensive environmental cleanups in U.S. history, but you wouldn’t know it as you gaze out from the floor-toceiling glass-windowed visitors’ lobby.

The Bad Old Days The Feed Materials Production Center (top) processed uranium into fuel cores (above) from 1951 to 1989. Media coverage of Fernald’s health dangers (below) helped shut down the plant, and the land has been undergoing remediation ever since.

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HE FERNALD FEED MATERIALS secrecy around the site.” To demonstrate Production Center sat just north what the Fernald facility manufactured, of the small town of Fernald in she holds up a sample fuel core—a silver, cylinder-shaped object about the size of a a rural residential and farming area straddling Crosby and Ross townships, baton used in track events but thicker and about 18 miles northwest of downtown heavier, which constitutes the first step Cincinnati. Roughly 14,600 people reside in the creation of a nuclear weapon. She within five miles of the site, and many of quickly assures us that this one isn’t urathem can still remember the not-so-pretty nium, so it’s completely safe to hold and details of the Fernald story. examine. It’s a deceivingly innocent-look“In 1951, the ing object when you contemplate the A to m i c E n e rgy immense cost the Commission used community paid to eminent domain Fernald remains one of the make them between to push out local largest and most comprehensive 1951 and 1989. farmers in an urenvironmental cleanups in U.S. history.

“This site was gent takeover of the poster child of the land, giving environmental contamination, on a nathem 30 days to get out,” says Borgman, tional level,” Borgman says. She tells us, in whose role as the Fernald Preserve community relations lead for Navarro Research remarkably forthcoming detail, about the and Engineering, Inc.—a contractor worksite’s contaminated waste pits, the silos ing with the DOE Office of Legacy Manfilled with radioactive waste transported agement, which now manages the Fernald here from the Manhattan Project, and the site—has made her an encyclopedic expert massive, years-long cleanup process. She on Fernald’s history. She leads the preshows us a layered map identifying the serve’s public education programs, school radius of contaminated groundwater near tours, and community outreach efforts. the site, and flips through the transparent There were hundreds of similar weaplayers to demonstrate how that contaminaons complex sites like Fernald—each with tion has slowly been mitigated over time. a specific production role in the atomic Another map shows the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer that lies beneath our (now nuclear) weapons production proentire region, and Borgman—a naturalist cess—sprinkled around the U.S. during the feverish period of weapons stockpiling by training—explains the relationship during the Cold War, Borgman explains. between groundwater and surface water, “Employees here couldn’t talk about the referencing Paddy’s Run creek along the west side of the work they did. There was a high level of

P H OTO G R A P H S CO U R T E SY U . S . D E PA R T M E N T O F E N E R GY O F F I C E O F L EG AC Y M A N AG E M E N T

TO THIS DAY

63

Hungry for flashier sales growth, Wall Street sharks wanted Procter & Gamble broken up into smaller, more nimble companies. Instead, P&G leadership is embarking on an unprecedented reorganization and counting on Cincinnati for support.

By David Holthaus

Illustration by MUTI

64

P H OTO G R A P H S BY J O N AT H A N W I L L I S

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 6 5

P&G HISTORY of INFLUENCE

The company’s and the city’s fates have been intertwined since two immigrants started a Cincinnati soap and candle company in 1837.

ON’T LOOK NOW, BUT PROCTER & GAMBLE IS SELLING condoms. The squeaky clean purveyor of Tide, Ivory, and Crest is in the prophylactic trade by virtue of a recent acquisition. P&G doesn’t like to talk about it—in fact, its announcement of the deal didn’t even mention the line of latex contraceptives it acquired—but it’s a sign of new times inside downtown’s Twin Towers.

For years, Wall Street has been clamoring for change at Cincinnati’s No. 1 Corporate Citizen. Change has finally arrived, thanks to the biggest restructuring in decades at P&G, with a new round set to begin July 1. It’s a top-to-bottom reorganization that will deemphasize the corporate headquarters and shift decision-making responsibility to newly anointed leaders who oversee growing markets in Asia and Europe.

The big question in Cincinnati is what impact all of these moves will have on a town that owes so much of its wealth and leadership to the company that started making soap and candles here 182 years ago.

Procter & Gamble’s changes go much further than its acquisition of L., the natural condom and tampon maker it bought in February.

Top brass has made that clear whenever they speak publicly about the company’s future. “We’re transforming P&G’s organizational culture,” second-in-command Jon Moeller told Wall Streeters that same month.

The reason? Cincinnati’s global Fortune 50 corporation has been under stress, under attack even, in recent years. There was the highly publicized and expensive boardroom battle with hedge fund impresario Nelson Peltz, who, after investing millions in the company, demanded a seat on the board. After a high-stakes fight to persuade shareholders to vote their way, P&G acquiesced and nominated the New York financier to its board of directors, which he joined in March 2018. He’d been pushing for change, issuing a white paper filled with criticisms that struck home here in the Queen City. P&G needs radical transformation, he argued. It suffers from a “suffocating bureaucracy” and “weak corporate governance.”

Leadership, he said, must address “P&G’s insular culture.” The company should be reorganized in a way that promotes “faster decisions and responsiveness to local preferences.” And by “local” Peltz didn’t mean our city, but rather the 180-plus local economies in which P&G does business around the world.

The uproar stirred unease in Cincinnati. Would P&G be split up?

Would the smaller, broken-up companies relocate to places that

66

James Norris Gamble helped create the Community Chest, forerunner of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati.

Ex-CEO John Pepper helped found and sustain the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

P&G provided seed funding to help launch 3CDC and the redevelopment of Over-the-Rhine.

might put up good money to attract new corporate headquarters? Would parts be shipped overseas near emerging markets?

CEO David Taylor relates an anecdote of a conversation he had during the Peltz boardroom fight. Someone asked if he would consider moving out of Cincinnati if money could be saved or financial incentives were offered by a competing city. “I said, ‘No, why would I want to do that?’” he recalls. “This city’s been good to P&G. The company is very invested in this city, and we believe that together we make it better for both of us.”

named Taylor as CEO in 2015. A 35-year P&G veteran, he had worked his way up through the ranks—as company leaders tend to do—from a factory in his home state of North Carolina to brand manager to general manager, vice president, president, then group president, with lengthy postings in Asia and Europe and broad experience making and selling brands such as Pampers, Pantene, Tide, and Gillette.

With a permanent chief executive in place, the clamoring for better results intensified. One longtime Wall Street P&G observer, Ali Dibadj of investment PELTZ WAS THE MOST VISIBLE, HEADfirm Sanford Bernstein, published an open letline-grabbing sign of Wall Street’s impatience ter titled “Dear David Taylor, congratulations “This city’s with Procter & Gamble. The company’s sales on becoming CEO . . . now what?” He followed been good to growth lagged many of its competitors for that up with a 90-page deep dive on the company that concluded Procter & Gamble would years, and its revenue grew anemically, if at P&G. The comall. That’s not what investors like to see from be better off if it were broken up into three or pany is very a company known for being a steady growth four different companies. Surely a home care invested in machine and a solid stock market bet. company led by its Tide brand, a health care As far back as 2012, its feeble sales growth company led by Crest, and a beauty care busithis city, and drew the attention of another Wall Street corness led by Pantene would set free the profits we believe that porate raider, William Ackman. He invested waiting to be unleashed. They’d be leaner and together we $2 billion in the company, making him one of more nimble than one big monolith that was its largest shareholders, and pushed the comtoo enormous to walk and chew gum at the make it better pany to cuts costs and sell brands in order to same time. “We encourage the board/managefor both of us,” ment to look at the business more broadly, unjump-start profits and shareholder returns. says Procter & tethered from history, and consider a breakup His pressure on management ultimately led to the early retirement of Chairman and CEO to unlock value for shareholders,” Dibadj wrote.

Gamble CEO Bob McDonald in 2013.

One does not simply untether P&G from David Taylor.

It wasn’t like P&G was losing money or that history in this town, of course. Our stories its stock was plummeting. In the year of Mchave been intertwined since the day an EngDonald’s departure, the company earned $11 lish candlemaker named William Procter and billion in profits and sold $84 billion worth of an Irish soapmaker named James Gamble, who diapers, toothpaste, laundry detergent, and other products. But had made their ways separately to early 19th century Cincinnati, for a darling of the Dow Jones Industrial Index and a widely held united their operations and launched a candle and soap venture blue chip stock, it simply wasn’t generating enough growth, the called, naturally, Procter & Gamble. juice that Wall Street feeds on. As a result, its share price got The rest is, literally, history. The two-man venture grew into stuck in neutral for years. one of the world’s most respected companies, employing tens of thousands of Cincinnatians; creating wealthy shareholders; atWhen McDonald bowed out, he was replaced temporarily by A.G. Lafley, who had already come to the rescue for the comtracting smart, ambitious people to town; developing brands that pany back in 2000. But even Lafley couldn’t revive the lethargic became household names; supporting all kinds of causes; and giant; P&G shares continued a lackluster perproviding leadership for innumerable civic organizations. “We C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 8 5 formance, and the board

HOMETOWN HEROES P&G expects employees to get involved in their communities. “[Cincinnati] is the world headquarters,” says Brian Hodgett, “so we have a sense of pride in this community and an obligation to give back.”

P H OTO G R A P H S BY J O N AT H A N W I L L I S

DAVID TAYLOR Chairman and CEO

67

JON MOELLER

BRIAN HODGETT

Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer

Director of Government and Community Relations

When you hear the word cancer, everything

STOPS

Visit ohcare.com to meet our patients.

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Surrounding you with the region’s top cancer doctors, clinical trials and innovative cancer treatments. iąïïäóÿÂܺ ėäą đÂÿ¿ ĥÜ Ü¡Â Ó ¡äąÜ÷®ÓÂܺ ܧ ąÜ§®ó÷ÿ ܧÂܺ ܧ ®ÚäÿÂäÜ Ó ¡äąó º®Ƚ Strengthening you with everything you need to focus on what matters most: beating cancer.

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* L I V I N G H E A LT H Y I N C I N C I N N A T I

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ON THE ATTACK

RECENT INNOVATIONS AT ONCOLOGY HEMATOLOGY CARE, ST. ELIZABETH HEALTHCARE, AND TRIHEALTH CONTRIBUTE TO FINDING A CURE J U N E 2 0 1 9 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 6 9

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ON THE ATTACK

WE’VE MADE BIG STRIDES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CANCER, AND RECENT INNOVATIONS IN CANCER RESEARCH AT ONCOLOGY HEMATOLOGY CARE, ST. ELIZABETH HEALTHCARE, AND TRIHEALTH CONTINUE TO PUSH THE NEEDLE ON OUR WAY TO A CURE. BY BAIHLEY GENTRY

I

magine a patient diagnosed with a strain of blood cancer, who has been through not one round of chemotherapy, but two. When those failed, they underwent a stem cell transplant. Still, the cancer stubbornly remains largely undeterred. By this point, the patient has been given months, if not weeks, to live.

If this scenario happened in the last year, there would be one more option to try: a new cancer treatment called Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell (CAR-T) Therapy, which teaches a patient’s individual white blood cells to recognize and kill cancer cells.

In what’s being called perhaps the biggest cancer treatment breakthrough since the invention of chemo, CAR-T therapy has been able

7 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

to put many patients with a story like this into complete remission.

A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH The way CAR-T therapy works is to teach a patient’s fighter T cells—that is, their white blood cells—to attack cancer cells and produce chemicals that kill the disease. This supercharging happens in the lab: Using a viral vector, T cells are extracted from a patient’s body and have an artificial receptor added onto them that enables the cell to pinpoint and destroy the CD-19 molecules on cancerous tumor cells. And because these modified T cells are living, they continue to multiply in the body and further build the body’s immune response to the disease.

It’s for this reason that when patients go into remission after CAR-T therapy, they

very rarely relapse.

“These living cells are kind of like laser-guided cruise missiles that go directly to the cancer,” says James Essel, M.D., a medical oncologist, hematologist, and transplant specialist at Oncology Hematology Care (OHC) and national medical director of cellular therapies at The US Oncology Network.

“This spares the rest of the body, and as the cancer dies, the T cells keep dividing and working.” The cure rates for CAR-T are remarkable. Currently, the treatment is used commercially for people with aggressive lymphoma who have relapsed through two different types of chemotherapy—and some given mere weeks or months to live—and after CAR-T therapy, about 40 percent appear to be cured.

CAR-T therapy’s appearance is indicative of the broader trend in cancer research over the last several decades: creating targeted treatments as opposed to blanket medications like chemo, which can potentially do the host as much harm as it does the invader. CAR-T therapy has really only been around for about five years (predominately in clinical trials), and it’s only been FDAapproved since 2017 for a form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children and young adults and in 2018 for adults with relapsed large B cell lymphomas. But the concept of CAR-T has been years in the making.

“Tamoxifen for breast cancer, which binds to estrogen receptors, is kind of the original targeted therapy,” Essel says. “Going forward to 20 years ago with Rituxan, which is a monoclonal antibody manufactured in a laboratory to function against a protein on lymphoma cells. Adding it to chemotherapy increased the cure rate by about 20 percent, which was really quite revolutionary.”

Today, CAR-T therapy is one of the most sophisticated treatments of this kind that there is. “It’s the most significant cancer breakthrough we’ve had since the creation of chemotherapy,” Essel adds.

AN EXPERT APPROACH OHC and The Jewish Hospital—Mercy Health Blood Cancer Center are current-

PHOTOGRAPHS BY COVER LENETSTAN/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / THIS PAGE COURTESY ONCOLOGY HEMATOLOGY CARE

HEALTH WATCH CANCER RESEARCH

When hearts attack, we fight back.

TriHealth Heart Institute is a top provider of acute heart attack care, with the most experienced cardiac team in the region.

Good Samaritan Hospital | Bethesda North Hospital To learn more, go to TriHealth.com/heart To find a doctor call 513 865 2222

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ly the only places in the region that offer CAR-T therapy for adults. (Locally, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center provides it solely for young leukemia patients.) It takes a well-trained team—and fully equipped facilities—to offer this sort of treatment, which can be fairly complicated to administer.

“It’s a learning curve and a lot of work to get it up and going,” Essel says.

Adding to the complexity is CAR-T therapy’s potentially serious side effects, which manifest very subtly if you don’t know what to look for. The patients that undergo CAR-T therapy interact not only with an oncologist but also with the nurses, pulmonologist, neurologist, ER doctors, and even receptionists—so all departments go through highly intensive training. “I’ve actually given lectures to local fire departments, so they know how to handle people who have had CAR-T. We give patients a special bracelet, so paramedics ensure patients only get taken to our hospital,” Essel says. “Other hospitals will not have the capability or understanding of how to treat this. For example, we have to have in pharmacy two doses of a medication that reverses the side effects [of CAR-T], and that’s not something carried everywhere.”

Essel hopes that will soon change, though. “OHC is part of the nationally recognized US Oncology Network, and we’re partnering with others to develop protocols so treatment could all potentially be done as an outpatient,” Essel says. “This is easier for the patient and and ultimately cheaper for the system, as treatment costs at least $373,000 right now. At Jewish Hospital, we’re actually starting to treat some patients as outpatient and only admitting them if they have complications. Overall, we’re trying to improve patient quality of life and ultimately make it cheaper for the system.”

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT While CAR-T is only FDA-approved for treating specific blood cancers, it shows

7 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

great potential in treating other types of cancers, too. There are clinical trials taking place all over the country to test CAR-T on different types of cancers, as well as research into making T cells that are able to react to two proteins on tumorous cells instead of just one. “Now, we’ve got kind of the basics,” Essel says. “It’s going to change a lot when we move forward. There’s no reason CAR-T is not going to work for a whole multitude of different cancers.”

NEW HORIZONS Targeted cancer treatments are popping up in other areas, too, particularly in the fields of pharmacogenomics, the process of utilizing genetic testing to tailor medical treatment. “We’re looking at essentially using a patient’s own gene signature to tailor ‘right drug, right dose, at the right time,’” says Doug Flora, M.D., the executive medical director at St. Elizabeth Healthcare’s Oncology Services. St. Elizabeth’s recently launched Precision Medicine unit is dedicated to solely that, offering genetic testing and counseling patients on treatment plans or medications. All this information—genetic makeup, medication and treatment history, and genetic predispositions to certain diseases or disorders—gets added to a patient’s medical record, which is accessible to any doctor a patient might see. For cancer patients, that goes a step further. “If you were found to have a gene that predisposes

you to cancer, you’d be put in our outpatient high-risk clinic [or “group”], which means we’d follow you closer than the general population, doing screening tests and X-rays and surgeries,” says Brooke Phillips, M.D., co-medical director of St. Elizabeth’s Comprehensive Cancer Risk and Prevention Clinic.

TriHealth’s Molecular Tumor Board expands upon this with a monthly meeting of experts in medical oncology, research, laboratory techniques/pathology, and genetics, who share a common goal of discussing treatment plans for a particular cancer patient, focusing on the genetic profile of either the cancer or the patient. The meetings, held via Webex, draw in experts from across the country.

“Genetic testing to guide cancer treatment is on the rise as it becomes relatively less expensive,” says Courtney Rice, a licensed and board certified genetic counselor and member of the Molecular Tumor Board. “But just doing the genomic test is not the secret sauce.

The value of the board is it gives an opportunity to take the very technical and abundant amount of information in the test and distill it down to what is going to be the most useful piece of this information for that particular patient.” Not all genetic test results will yield a change to a patient’s treatment plan, but it’s becoming more common for genetic testing results to become an essential piece of information that physicians use to guide treatment.

TriHealth’s Molecular Tumor Board, through Good Samaritan Hospital, also has a connection to Catholic Health Initiatives’ (CHI) national Molecular Tumor Board. Two genetic counselors and one oncologist from TriHealth’s Tumor Board also serve on CHI’s national board, giving cases at TriHealth the opportunity to be presented twice as often in front of a larger expert audience. “We’re tapping into a national resource and also using our local experts to help support this initiative nationwide,” Rice says. ʄ

PHOTOGRAPH BY XRENDER/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / BLOOD CELLS PAULISTA/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

HEALTH WATCH CANCER RESEARCH

THAT MOMENT YOU REALIZE SIX MONTHS TO LIVE WAS SIX YEARS AGO.

Learning you have cancer can be the worst moment of your life. Learning you used to have it can be one of the best. Our team of oncologists use your own DNA to develop a precision treatment plan to target your specific cancer, increasing the likelihood of a positive outcome. Because the moment you don’t have cancer is the one you’ll remember most.

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TOP DOCTORS The physicians listed here appeared on the 2019 Cincinnati Magazine Top Doctors list.

To see the whole list, go to cincinnatimagazine.com.

H E M AT O L O G Y A N D O N C O L O G Y

Floor 2, Cincinnati, OH 45219, (513) 475-8500

Cheviot Rd., Suite A, Cincinnati, OH 45247, (513) 853-1300

Faisal Adhami TriHealth Cancer Institute, 5520 Cheviot Rd., Suite A, Cincinnati, OH 45247, (513) 853-1300

Rekha Chaudhary UC Health, 7675 Wellness Way, Suite 201, West Chester, OH 45069, (513) 475-8500

Karyn M. Dyehouse OHC, 4350 Malsbary Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45242, (888) 649-4800

Mark T. Andolina TriHealth Cancer Institute, 5520 Cheviot Rd., Suite A, Cincinnati, OH 45247, (513) 853-1300

Robert L. Cody The Christ Hospital, 4460 Red Bank Expy., Suite 200, Cincinnati, OH 45227, (513) 321-4333

Manish S. Bhandari The Christ Hospital, 11140 Montgomery Rd., Suite 2300, Cincinnati, OH 45249, (513) 564-8580

Edward J. Crane, M.D. TriHealth Cancer Institute, 10506 Montgomery Rd., Suite G106, Cincinnati, OH 45242, (513) 853-1300

Mahmoud Charif UC Health, 234 Goodman St.,

David J. Draper TriHealth Cancer Institute, 5520

Douglas Flora St. Elizabeth Cancer Care Center, 20 Medical Village Dr., Suite 200, Edgewood, KY 41017, (859) 301-4000 Prasad R. Kudalkar OHC, 3050 Mack Rd., Suite 300, Fairfield, OH 45014, (888) 649-4800 Evan Z. Lang OHC, 3050 Mack Rd., Suite 300, Fairfield, OH 45014, (888) 649-4800

James H. Essell OHC, 4777 E. Galbraith Rd., Suite 320, Cincinnati, OH 45236, (888) 649-4800

Tahir Latif UC Health, 234 Goodman St., Floor 2, Cincinnati, OH 45219, (513) 475-8500

Irfan Firdaus, D.O. The Christ Hospital Outpatient Center, 4460 Red Bank Expy., Suite 200, Cincinnati, OH 45227, (513) 321-4333

Philip D. Leming The Christ Hospital, 2139 Auburn Ave., D-Level, Cincinnati, OH 45219, (513) 321-4333

Daniel Flora St. Elizabeth Cancer Care Center, 85 N. Grand Ave., Ft. Thomas, KY 41075, (859) 572-3298

Kurt P. Leuenberger OHC, 3301 Mercy Health Blvd., Suite 100, Cincinnati, OH 45211, (888) 649-4800

441 Vine Street | (513) 651-1442 SnapFitness.com/Cincinnati

7 4 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

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Elyse E. Lower UC Health, 234 Goodman St., Floor 3, Cincinnati, OH 45219, (513) 584-2122 Brian A. Mannion The Christ Hospital, 1955 Dixie Hwy., Suite G, Ft. Wright, KY 41011, (859) 331-3304 Gina Matacia TriHealth Cancer Institute, 5520 Cheviot Rd., Suite A, Cincinnati, OH 45247, (513) 853-1300

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Apurva Mehta TriHealth Cancer Institute, 7777 Beechmont Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45255, (513) 853-1300

Suzanne M. Partridge OHC, 3301 Mercy Health Blvd., Suite 100, Cincinnati, OH 45211, (888) 649-4800 Neetu Radhakrishnan UC Health, 7675 Wellness Way, Suite 201, West Chester, OH 45069, (513) 475-8500 Patrick J. Ward OHC, 4350 Malsbary Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45242, (888) 649-4800 David M. Waterhouse OHC, 4350 Malsbary Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45242, (888) 649-4800

Olugbenga Olowokure UC Health, 234 Goodman St., Floor 2, Cincinnati, OH 45219, (513) 475-8500

Paula F. Weisenberger OHC, 3050 Mack Rd., Suite 300, Fairfield, OH 45014, (888) 649-4800

Andrew J. Parchman TriHealth Cancer Institute, 5520 Cheviot Rd., Suite A, Cincinnati, OH 45247, (513) 853-1300

Trisha Wise-Draper UC Health, 234 Goodman St., Floor 2, Cincinnati, OH 45219, (513) 475-8500 ʄ

These three words have the power to calm, comfort, and support, because they mean someone who truly cares is looking out for you. And at St. Elizabeth, we take this idea to heart because your care is very personal to us. That’s why we’re committed to being right here for you, with everything from genetic testing to highly targeted treatments.

stelizabeth.com/cancercare

J U N E 2 0 1 9 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 7 5

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SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2019

AULT PARK, CINCINNATI, OH

OHIOCONCOURS.COM

SCULPTURE BY RYAN SLATTERY

AMERICAN STYLE, 1948–1965

PRESENTED BY

FEATURED THEME SPONSOR

MONTGOMERY LINCOLN

BENEFITING

JUVENILE ARTHRITIS

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All event tickets are available at ohioconcours.com or (513) 321-1951

Schedule of Events

PHOTO COURTESY BAMBINO INTERNATIONAL

Friday, June 7, 2019

PHOTO BY GARY KESSLER

Saturday, June 8, 2019 9–11 A M

7–10PM

Open House Metalkraft Coachwerkes

“FINS for FUNds” Fundraiser Party for Juvenile Arthritis The View 1071 Celestial St. Cincinnati, OH 45202

4003 Plainville Rd. Cincinnati, OH 45227

The 42nd annual Cincinnati Concours d’Elegance weekend kicks off at The View, a highly anticipated new event venue in the former Celestial Steakhouse, with a stunning view of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and the Ohio River. Enjoy a seated dinner by renowned caterer Funky’s Catering Events, cocktails at a cash bar, and a program celebrating this year’s featured theme, Mid-Century Modern—American Style, 1948–1965.

Stop by for coffee and great car conversation at Mark Schlacter’s custom coach-building and metal workshop located near Porsche of the Village.

See their latest projects specializing in Porsche and European autos and learn more about their outstanding craftsman skills developed over the past decades.

Open to all. No ticket required.

SPONSORED BY: Sandy & Larry Brueshaber Tickets must be purchased by Tuesday, May 28, 8 p.m. Cocktail attire.

Valet parking. Tickets: $145

ENTER TO WIN!

PHOTO BY GARY KESSLER

1 PM

Countryside Tour Mariemont Square 6900 Wooster Pike Cincinnati, OH 45227 Join us for a scenic driving tour traveling east from Mariemont Square to Doran Racing, a company specializing in race car design, construction, preparation, and support. All vehicles are welcome to participate in the tour. Cars gather at noon at Mariemont Square and will depart promptly at 1 p.m.

Refreshments provided.

SPONSORED BY: Mercedes-Benz of Cincinnati and Mercedes-Benz of West Chester Tickets must be purchased

by Sunday, June 2, 8 p.m.

Tickets: $25

5 –9 PM

Hangar Party Executive Jet Management Lunken Airport 4556 Airport Rd. Cincinnati, OH 45226 Enjoy dinner by the bite, along with a selection of beers, wines, and specialty drinks in a great party setting featuring cars, planes, and a silent auction. Casual attire.

SPONSORED BY: Porsche of the Village, Maserati of Cincinnati, Alfa Romeo of Cincinnati, Volvo Cars Cincinnati East, Volvo Cars Cincinnati North, Audi Cincinnati East, and Metalkraft Coachwerkes Tickets must be purchased

by Tuesday, May 28, 8 p.m. Tickets: $135

ULTIMATE PEBBLE BEACH MOTORSPORTS WEEK RAFFLE Win a trip to a car-lover’s paradise: five days of exclusive automotive events leading up to and including the fabulous Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, plus round-trip airfare, car rental, and accommodations.

Tickets: $100 each (only 400 available). Proceeds benefit Juvenile Arthritis.

Purchase online at cincyconcours.showclix.com or call (513) 321-1951.

PHOTO BY R.L. FRANTZ

7 8 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

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Schedule of Events

2019 HONORED COLLECTOR SPOTLIGHT Judge Joseph Cassini III & Margie Cassini, of Llewellyn Park, New Jersey The Cassini Collection has twice won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Four of the Cassini Collection’s award-winning automobiles will be displayed on the show field at the Cincinnati Concours d’Elegance.

PHOTO BY NED J. LAWLER

Program sponsored by Goettle Geotechnical Engineering and Construction

Sunday, June 9, 2019 10 A M– 4 P M

Cincinnati Concours d’Elegance Presented by EXAIR Ault Park 3600 Observatory Ave. Cincinnati, OH 45208

10 A M–4 PM

10 AM–3 PM

Will Sherman Automotive Art Show in the historic Ault Park Pavilion

A world-class exhibition in motoring excellence presenting 200 collector cars and motorcycles.

Don’t miss the outstanding work of this year’s 10 nationally renowned automotive fine artists.

2019 FEATURED THEME: Mid-Century Modern—American Style, 1948–1965

SPONSORED BY: Krombholz Jewelers

SPECIAL DISPLAYS: 95 Years of MG, Asian Tuners, and Survivors, along with 13 classes of classic, vintage, and exotic automobiles and motorcycles.

SPONSORED BY: Cincinnati Magazine, Porsche of the Village, Maserati of Cincinnati, Alfa Romeo of Cincinnati, Volvo Cars Cincinnati East, Volvo Cars Cincinnati North, Audi Cincinnati East, Metalkraft Coachwerkes, BMW Cincinnati North, Montgomery Lincoln, Jake Sweeney Mazda, Joseph Auto Group, Hagerty, and Samuel Adams.

Advance Tickets: Car show $25 per adult; advance discount purchase required by May 26.

11 AM–1 PM

Craft Beer Garden at the Pavilion

Enjoy some of Cincinnati’s finest craft brews from Fifty West Brewing Co., MadTree Brewing, and Taft’s Brewing Co. at a vantage point high above the field, with relaxing shade and a great view of the park.

SPONSORED BY: Cincinnati Event Rentals Tickets: $15 for six samples/one full pour; purchase at gate.

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WHAT LIES BENEATH CONTINUED FROM PAGE 63

Fernald site, a “losing” stream, she explains, that percolates into the groundwater table.

She describes how the uranium waste from the Fernald site—spewed into the air, soaked into the soil, and running in the water—absorbed into the groundwater that circulates through the entire ecosystem.

Although the cleanup—in environmental-speak, it’s called remediation— officially ended at Fernald in 2006, longterm groundwater testing will continue at this site “probably into the late 2030s,” Borgman says, adding “there might always be some level of water treatment at this site.” The “plume”—the area of affected groundwater, or the sphere of contamination—is down to about 100 acres now, she explains. It’s hard to know how large that plume might have been in the years when Fernald was actively processing the uranium, before environmental regulations were in place to protect people and habitats, long before community members brought a class-action lawsuit against the DOE. The last maps Borgman shows us tell a much happier story. They reveal the gradual restoration of native prairie grasses and other plant species as well as the preserve’s wetlands and ponds, many of which have filled the excavated pits where the longdemolished buildings from the industrial complex once stood and have become a big draw for wildlife. Thousands of ducks, geese, and wading birds migrate through the preserve every year; it’s also home to an array of year-long resident birds, even breeding pairs.

It’s a scene that never would have happened without Lisa Crawford’s years of advocacy. She still remembers the day in January 1985 when she and her husband, Ken, learned from their landlord that their backyard well was one of three near the Fernald plant found to be contaminated with uranium. After almost four decades of a

relatively quiet existence, with employees going in and out of the Fernald plant every day—folks now fondly remembered as our nation’s patriotic “Cold War warriors”— the Fernald plant was suddenly front-page news. Bad news.

That began a long, arduous journey for the Crawfords and hundreds of their neighbors, who, in the years to come, would find themselves shouting angry questions and accusations at officials running community meetings that seemed to resolve nothing.

They’d have to educate themselves about environmental contamination and desperately reach out to local politicians, the media, and representatives of the national government for help.

“I was just this nice, quiet housewife who minded her own business and went to work every day and raised her family and did what she was supposed to do. Until they turned me into a wild person,” Lisa Crawford said in a recorded 1999 interview, one of more than 130 such interviews preserved by the Fernald Living History Project (FLHP). Started in 1997, the FLHP aimed to chronicle the story of what happened at Fernald from the viewpoints of community residents, former plant employees, government officials and regulators, local researchers, and others. The interviews are preserved online through a site maintained by the Fernald Community Alliance, a nonprofit group that evolved from various other citizen-driven advocacy groups and task forces that existed over the years during the Fernald remediation.

Crawford served as president of one of the most prominent and long-lasting of those grass-roots advocacy groups, F.R.E.S.H. (Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety and Health), and says she still gets together with a handful of its members even though active numbers have dwindled over the years. “We’re all gray-haired now, but we’re still the seven F.R.E.S.H. ladies,” she says. They still work collaboratively with the DOE Legacy Management team in its long-term management of the site.

The day after I met with Crawford, in fact, she planned to drive to the Fernald Preserve to witness a prescribed burn of the waste mound, a routine environmental management practice that helps deter the growth of invasive plant species that crop

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up among the native grasses planted there.

“Even now, all these years later, we still keep an eye on what goes on over there at Fernald,” says Crawford. “And if they do something stupid, which I don’t think they will now, you can bet we’ll be back up their butts again in a minute, raising holy hell.”

GRAHAM MITCHELL IS A FORMER OHIO EPA official whose own career changed dramatically in 1984 when troubling data started appearing in routine tests of groundwater around the Fernald site. He was the one who’d sampled the Crawfords’s well water in early 1985 and found it to be contaminated. “Lisa [Crawford] was a fierce advocate for the community,” says Mitchell.

“It was because of people like her, pounding at the door, that things started to change.”

The Crawfords led a handful of Fernald area residents in a $300 million class-action lawsuit against the DOE in 1985. The suit was settled four years later for $78 million: $73 million for emotional distress, medical monitoring, residential property diminution, and legal and administrative costs, plus an additional $5 million for commercial and industrial property claims within a five-mile radius of the Fernald site.

All production at Fernald officially stopped.

By the end of the Cold War in 1991—four years after President Reagan famously declared in Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”—the mission at the Fernald site changed to remediation, a process that would last until 2006.

Those early years of the cleanup were “quite tumultuous,” says Gary Stegner, a now-retired public affairs officer who worked for the DOE at the Fernald site from 1992 to 2006 and continued there until 2012 in a naturalist/community relations role, like the one held now by Borgman. “It was really intense at first, and things were not going well with the community. Initially, it was all about establishing trust. The turnaround came when we started involving the community more in the decisionmaking process. What do they consider to be clean? What is their vision of Fernald post-cleanup?”

A Citizens Advisory Board of local residents, UC professors, and Ohio and U.S. EPA representatives was formed to provide guidance through the cleanup process.

The public demanded a health monitoring program, which is how the Fernald Medical Monitoring Program (FMMP) came into existence in 1990. (A separate monitoring program was set up for former Fernald employees, the result of their own lawsuit filed against the DOE.) The FMMP program enrolled and has continued to track a cohort of 9,782 people who lived within a five-mile radius of the plant while it was operational, explains Susan Pinney, a professor in the UC College of Medicine’s Department of Environmental Health and director of UC’s Center for Environmental Genetics.

The lawsuit settlement covered the costs of medical monitoring for the period between 1990 and 2008, but “we are still continuing to collect data about diagnoses,” Pinney says, thanks to subsequent grants and other funding sources—and a few lean periods when it was an all-volunteer operation. Pinney and the program’s researchers spend most of their efforts these days tracking down death certificates and getting access to area residents’ medical records to validate the diagnoses. “Now we’re looking at the transgenerational effects,” she says, explaining how sons and daughters of the original study participants are helping her investigate long-term health implications of the uranium exposure.

There is some evidence of disease related to exposure at the site, she says, identifying cases of lupus, renal disease, and kidney and urinary cancers among the study group.

Ironically, Pinney says that people in the Fernald cohort have benefitted from the monitoring program in unexpected ways. “One of the things we’ve seen is that various screening tests have found cancers earlier, so we have a better survival rate with people in the study when compared to the general population,” she says, adding that this is particularly true with breast cancer, for which early screening makes a big difference.

“What if none of this ever happened?” Lisa Crawford says, reflecting on the long journey she and other area residents endured. She’s 62 now, retired, and spends more time reading. She even joined a social club, the Quilting God-

desses, which provides a measure of calm after stormy decades spent demanding resolution for the Fernald mess. “I look around at all of the people in my life who I would never have met,” she says.

“I think of my wonderful friends I have across this country, people near other sites like Fernald, people as far as Russia. I have a friend in Russia!”

Crawford says some people still ask her why the community was willing to store some of the waste at the big mound at Fernald. “I tell them about NIMBY,” she says, referring to the “not in my backyard” realization she came to at one point during the cleanup years.

“We weren’t just going to dump it all in somebody else’s backyard if we didn’t have to. I mean, I have friends out there in Nevada now. We had to get rid of the really, really bad stuff. But the onsite storage facility is our legacy. It’s government property forever. There won’t be a baseball field built there, or a hot dog stand. A hundred years from now, I don’t want people to build a farm or a house there. And they won’t. That’s our legacy.

And it’s buried there.”

THE ENVIRONMENTAL MESS AT FERnald took 15 years and $4.4 billion to clean up. That’s a whole story in itself, says Mitchell, the former Ohio EPA official who now serves as president of the Fernald Community Alliance. “Fernald is a great example of the community and the regulators working together,” he says. “It was a success because everyone got educated. Everyone involved can see their fingerprints on the solution out there now—the citizens, the government, everyone.”

What the local citizens said they wanted was an undeveloped place for wildlife, says Sue Smiley, the DOE’s Office of Legacy Management site manager at the Fernald Preserve. “The stakeholders here didn’t just want a natural area, but also the educational part ensuring that future generations would know the story of what happened at Fernald, and that’s what the visitors center does.”

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programs, Smiley says. That doesn’t include folks who might just visit the preserve and hike its seven miles of trails without stopping in the building.

The educational programs are a big draw, covering all kinds of wildlife found at the preserve: bats, beavers, beetles, birds, bobcats, butterflies, deer, fireflies, flying squirrels, salamanders, and many more.

These programs attract locals like Don Nagel, 82, who lives in White Oak, and his granddaughter, Allison Anderson, 18. I met them last July at a Fernald program about fireflies, where we learned how to identify different species by their flash patterns. “The preserve has seven species of fireflies,” naturalist Karen Cody told us that evening.“Generally, the ones you see flying are the males, while the females are the ones you might find on the ground or a grass stem, sending codes to the males.” On our hike that night, Anderson caught one in her hands.

I saw Nagel and Anderson again at a Fernald program about coyotes in February. “I love learning about nature,” she told me that night, before we all bundled up for a hike to go listen for coyote howls. “And I like spending time with my grandpa. He loves animals, just like me.”

Nagel, a certified nature lover who volunteers with Hamilton County Parks, says the older he gets the more he appreciates nature. “I’m making up for lost time,” he says. “We need wild spaces like this for our children and grandchildren, for their future. We’ve got to preserve as much as we can while we still can.”

When I ask him if he’s ever been worried about exploring the Fernald Preserve because of its dark history as a uranium processing plant, he shrugs it off—just like everyone else I asked over months of reporting on this story.

“Some people are still afraid of it, but the government spent billions of dollars cleaning it up,” he says. “It’s such a shame people still worry. They should come out here and see for themselves and learn about the history of this place from the museum.”

Birds, wildlife, and even a few endangered species are thriving at the preserve. Fernald’s bird list includes 249 species, says ecological team leader John

Homer, who has worked at Fernald in one capacity or another for 28 years, starting as an intern when the cleanup began. “Grasslands are a big draw for birds, especially considering that prairies are a vanishing habitat a little farther out west,” he says. The preserve is also now home to the endangered American burying beetle, focus of a six-year recovery program with the Cincinnati Zoo. Although coyotes are far from an endangered species, that’s what a group of visitors are outdoors listening for at Fernald on that cold February night.

John Klein, a retired wildlife management officer with Hamilton County Parks, leads Nagel, Anderson, and the rest of us along the site’s three-mile Hickory Trail into a patch of woods just north of the visitors’ center. We stop frequently to listen for American woodcocks, and both Cody and Klein mimic the calls of the barred owl while we all listen for the owl’s tell-tale “who cooks for you” reply.

But we’re really hoping to hear coyotes. We give it an earnest try. We stop two or three times, and Klein orchestrates a group howl, all of us doing our best to sound like coyotes calling to one another in the night. We hear nothing in response, just the quiet rustling of our weather-proof winter coats. Knowing that sirens often cause coyotes to howl, Klein tries a handheld blow horn. Its sonic blast nearly splits the quiet night in two. But the coyotes are having none of it.

The night isn’t a total loss. As we walk along the trail, the pinkishorange hue of a winter sunset ebbs along the horizon, fanning out in subtle rays of softly radiated light through dark clouds reflected on the still surface of a small pond. To our east, a line of small lights marks the base of the mound of buried debris that hides Fernald’s complicated past. The lights are from eight small shed-like structures called valve houses, which collect water that continues to drain, trickle-style, from the industrial waste stored deep inside the mound. Pipes carry it to an onsite wastewater treatment facility, where it will be tested for uranium contamination for years to come.

BETTER TOGETHER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 67

Hungry for flashier sales growth, Wall Street sharks wanted Procter & Gamble broken up into smaller, more nimble companies. Instead, P&G leadership is embarking on an unprecedented reorganization and counting on Cincinnati for support.

By David Holthaus

Illustration by MUTI

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would not have Cincinnati as we know it without the Procter & Gamble of old and without the Procter & Gamble of today,” says Jill Meyer, president and CEO of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

Given what P&G and its people have meant to this region over the years, it’s no wonder that breakup talk caused quakes throughout town. What would Cincinnati be like without the company that had sustained so many families here and supported so many local endeavors?

“If you would remove P&G, you’re not just removing a business, you’re removing the lifeblood of many, many parts of our community,” says Meyer. The drumbeat to break up or overhaul the company caused corporate Cincinnati to do a reality check and then get busy. “We were very concerned about the impact on the business landscape and on our people—families, communities, businesses—in a world without Procter & Gamble,” she says.

The chamber coordinated a campaign to support the company’s position on the boardroom battle, which at the time was to keep corporate raider Peltz off its board. The effort’s centerpiece was a letter signed by 55 business and community leaders titled “We Stand With P&G.” “In the face of a threat to the company’s future, one that could profoundly affect our community,” the letter began, “we want to make one thing clear: We stand with P&G.” IT WAS PERHAPS THE MOST STRAIGHTforward, unabashed public display of corporate affection in memory. It’s no wonder: There are lots of reasons to fear losing the old soap company.

One could start with the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, which raises about $50 million every year to support more than 100 community service organiza-

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BETTER TOGETHER tions. James Norris Gamble (son of the cofounder) pushed to create the Community Chest, the forerunner of United Way. William Cooper Procter (grandson of the cofounder) chaired the first fund-raising drive here in 1927.

The annual campaign relies heavily on contributions from P&Gers and leadership from its managers. CEOs have led United Way campaigns, including Lafley, who, following the financial crash of 2008, chaired a challenging fund drive in 2009.

P&G’s long commitment to United Way and its causes is evident from an anecdote retired CEO John Pepper tells about getting an assignment from his brand manager shortly after Pepper, then 25, arrived in 1963. “He said, ‘I’ve got a project for you, John.’ I was thinking it would be a competitive analysis or new marketing program. He said, ‘I want you to go out and raise money for the United Way. We’re behind, so I want you to go now.’ ” And Pepper went door to door on Eastern Avenue, soliciting

contributions. He didn’t raise much, but he learned a lesson about the company’s commitment to the community.

Pepper himself has been a one-man dynamo in Greater Cincinnati during his years as CEO and since his retirement 15 years ago. Among many other contributions, he’s donated millions to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and provided time and leadership to make the project, built after the 2001 riots, successful. Ed Rigaud, then a P&G vice president, was the Freedom Center’s first president.

The Christ Hospital owes its founding in 1888 to a group led by James Norris Gamble, who was appalled at poverty levels across the city. The Greater Cincinnati Foundation administers the P&G Fund, which supports a large number of philanthropic causes. The Smale Commission on Infrastructure created a method for supporting local roads and bridges and was chaired by John Smale, P&G’s CEO from 1981 to 1990. Cincinnati’s popular river-

front park was named after Smale and his wife Phyllis, who invested in its creation.

The renaissance in Over-the-Rhine owes to the push of P&G leaders to make the urban core a hipper place to live and work. The company invested $25 million in seed money to launch 3CDC, the nonprofit developer that’s led OTR’s rebirth.

Only P&G executives have chaired 3CDC’s board since its inception—Lafley led from its founding in 2003 until 2010, and Jeffrey Schomburger, P&G’s global sales officer, is the current chair.

Cincinnati’s startup hub, Cintrifuse, was funded by P&G and advanced by McDonald, who served as its board chair after his retirement. He also led the Cultural Facilities Task Force in 2014, which came up with ways to repair and restore Union Terminal and Music Hall. “When you look at signature events, signature proposals, signature initiatives, P&G needs to be, and is, at the forefront of just about every one of them,” says Brian Hodgett, P&G’s

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director of government and community relations in Ohio.

The list goes on to include P&G employees who serve on innumerable boards, commissions, councils, and task forces; coach soccer and baseball teams; lead church councils and scout troops; and serve on school boards. “The biggest contribution to the community we’ve made by far is not financial support, which is significant, but volunteer support,” says Pepper. It’s part of the corporate culture, says Hodgett.

“We have an internal expectation among our senior and mid-level managers and all the way down to our new hires that you’re going to be involved in something in the community,” he says. “It’s the world headquarters, so we have a sense of pride in this community and an obligation to give back.”

Taylor himself, leader of the $66 billion global enterprise, serves on the board of Cincinnati’s Freestore Foodbank and recently chaired an advisory committee examining a possible capital campaign for

the charity. Moeller, P&G’s chief financial officer, chairs the Cincinnati Art Museum board, and the Covington resident also served on that city’s board of ethics.

Then, of course, there’s the sheer wealth that P&G jobs have brought to this community. The pay is good, as are the benefits.

Chief among the perks is a retirement plan heavily weighted in company stock. The concept dates to 1886, when workers at its Ivorydale factory in St. Bernard walked off the job 14 times, according to a company biography. Young William Cooper Procter, who cut his teeth working in the factory, created a profit-sharing plan and persuaded the company’s elders to put it into practice.

It’s evolved over the years, allowing employees with years of service to retire with a substantial nest egg of P&G stock and receive, if they choose, a healthy dividend check in the mail every quarter.

In true Cincinnati fashion, the stock is often treated as a family heirloom, not to be sold but passed on to succeeding genera-

tions, multiplying its value and providing a sense of financial security.

P&G HAS LONG BEEN A GLOBAL COMPAny, but its fortunes are increasingly linked to growing markets in faraway countries where the prospects for selling diapers and detergent are promising. P&G’s struggles to grow have been partly related to challenging economic conditions around the globe, which have worsened since the 2008 recession—before then, the company didn’t operate in any countries it classified as being in crisis, but today it’s in 15 such countries, including Venezuela, where the economy essentially collapsed earlier this year. It must trade in hundreds of currencies, some of which are notoriously volatile.

Selling a few diapers and a packet of detergent at a wooden street stall on a dirt road in Nigeria is entirely different from selling a 100-ounce jug of Tide Plus Febreze Freshness at the Hyde Park Kroger. It demands an intimate knowledge of those buyers—their

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incomes, preferences, and habits. It calls for different packaging and product sizes.

Getting products from the factory to the marketplace can involve negotiating unpaved roads, military checkpoints, and mind-boggling traffic.

Managing those conditions on the ground across six continents, combined with years of investors’ angst, led to what Taylor calls “the most important organizational change we’ve made in the last 20 years,” a reboot that P&G execs promise will be “disruptive.” “We won’t win with our old ways of operating,” Moeller told a crowd of investment analysts gathered at the Twin Towers in November 2018 to hear the latest from the top.

At that meeting, Taylor and Moeller laid out a plan to “dematrix” the company. Six new leadership positions have been created, with each anointed as “Co-CEO,” a title that’s never been used before at P&G. They will report to Taylor, who retains his role as chairman and CEO. There will be a co-CEO for the fabric and home care category, which includes Tide, Downy, Cascade, and Swiffer; for baby and feminine care products, such as Pampers, Tampax, and Always; for the family care lineup, including Bounty, Charmin, and Puffs; for the beauty category, whose top sellers include Head & Shoulders, Olay, and Pantene; for its health care portfolio, led

by Vicks, Prilosec, and Crest; and for the grooming lineup, mainly Gillette.

Employee roles and the chain of command are changing signifi cantly.

Up to 5,000 people, some of them in Cincinnati-based sales and logistics positions, will get new bosses as the organization chart gets redrawn. “We are significantly reducing the level of corporate resources, moving 60 percent of our corporate roles to the business units and markets,” Taylor says.

“We will retain a core set of corporate resources [legal, government relations, accounting, payroll, and human resources] needed to sustain the ongoing health, viability, and sustainability of the corporation.”

The result will be six semi-autonomous channels within P&G, not that much different from what the “break

it up” Wall Street types wanted—but still under one corporate umbrella. And many of the co-CEOs will remain based outside of Cincinnati. Alexandra Keith will lead the beauty care business from Geneva, Switzerland. The multibilliondollar baby and feminine care business, led by Fama Francisco, will also be based in Geneva. The fabric and home care business will be divided between Geneva and Cincinnati, run by Shailesh Jejurikar. The health care business under Steven Bishop will remain based in Mason. The family care business will stay in Cincinnati, led by Mary Lynn Ferguson-McHugh. Gary Coombe leads the grooming business from Boston.

These new co-CEOs will have the authority to determine what they need to make their businesses grow, including staffing, investments, and strategy.

“Each has the latitude to decide how they staff to win in their categories,” Taylor says. For P&G, renowned for its bureaucratic decision-making, it’s a radical shift in granting that kind of authority to the people on the ground charged with growing sales.

The top-down redesign comes after years of slimming down. P&G’s total employment now hovers around 95,000, down from 138,000 in 2007. In Cincinnati, that’s meant about 4,000 fewer people at the headquarters, the research centers, and other local facilities. “We’ve significantly disrupted P&G over the last several years,” Moeller told investors in November.

With that much disruption already and more on the way, how does it all shake out for the headquarters city? If leadership is going to “dematrix” the company, what does that mean for us right here in River City? Aren’t we The Matrix?

Taylor says the reorganization is not about job cuts or relocating people from Cincinnati. “I don’t see a mass move out of Cincinnati or into any place,” he says.

“It’s the work they do and who they report to” that will change. Cost-cutting and downsizing are not the goals, but rather finding ways to generate more sales and profits around the world. “It isn’t about job cuts, it’s about growth. It’s about how you position P&G in a very competitive

market and how you enable a very talented workforce to perform at higher levels and unleash the human potential that exists in our company.”

In true P&G fashion, the reorganization was actually tested before its implementation, which takes effect on July 1, the start of its 2020 fiscal year.

The U.S. market was the pilot project for the other developed markets around the world such as Europe and Japan. Salespeople were aligned with product categories such as beauty care and health care, and general managers were authorized to work directly with P&G’s retail customers, including Kroger, a change from past practices.

It worked. In the last half of calendar 2018, the company’s U.S. sales grew by 3 percent, a substantial increase from the same period in the previous three years, when growth averaged only 1 percent, says Taylor. For a company P&G’s size, an additional 2 percent in sales amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars—lots more revenue than is likely to result from the purchase of a small tampon and condom maker. Wall Street responded in kind. Over the course of six months, P&G’s stock value jumped more than 25 percent, soaring to over $100 a share.

The major restructuring and Wall Street’s positive response calmed fears of a breakup. But that awful question still lingers: Would P&G ever leave Cincinnati? Certainly, big companies with long histories have moved out of their hometowns before. Boeing shocked Seattle by moving its headquarters to Chicago in 2001. Carl Lindner Jr. moved Chiquita to Cincinnati in 1987, and after his death the company left for Charlotte in 2012.

(It has since relocated again.)

Taylor is clear that the marriage of P&G and Cincinnati benefits both parties. “We want to make a difference and be a company that people value and feel we are creating a better community in which we operate,” he says. “As a result of that, it’s a better place to live. That’s a long-seated belief. I want our company to be a proactive supporter of community in Cincinnati, because we believe P&G people have something to contribute.

This is our home.”

J U N E 2 0 1 9 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 8 9

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Known for its gourmet pizza, craft beers, and open kitchen, Dewey’s has expanded to six cities and 25 locations. Not to mention, the menu continues to evolve with the introduction of speciality and seasonal pizzas like the Sgt Peppers and Don Corleone. But despite its growth, Dewey’s still executes the same hospitality that it did when it ƓTUV QRGPGF

When families and friends go to Dewey’s, they can expect more than just a meal. From the moment guests walk through the door, the staff provides a thorough dining experience, with the entire team focused on genuine hospitality.

Through its 21 years of service, creativity also continues to shine at Dewey’s. Thoughtfully curated playlists are the norm at each restaurant, and you’ll never hear any songs on repeat. The music appreciation comes from the staff, many of whom are musicians and actively playing gigs, including DeWitt himself.

After two decades of serving the community, they are here to stay. Whether you want to hear good music, enjoy a meal with friends, or celebrate Cincinnati pride—Dewey’s is here.

Dewey’s is involved in the community beyond the restaurant’s walls, too. Through its employees, they execute pizza workshops, “give back nights”, and events like their “Run to Raise Dough 5K” scheduled for August. The restaurant invests in nourishing its community and continues to make an impact in Cincinnati and beyond. a Andrew DeWitt, founder Dewey’s Pizza

_ Sgt Peppers pizza

D NE

MONROE’S NUMPRIK THAI LAO P. 94

SOULFUL VEGAN P. 95

STREETSIDE PHILLYS P. 95

NOSE TO TAIL AT BAUER P. 98

GRAND ENTRANCE The stately Art Deco entrance of Branch in Walnut Hills recalls its past life as a bank.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEREMY KRAMER

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DINING OUT

BRANCHING OUT Casual-upscale restaurant BRANCH continues the East Walnut Hills revival. — A K S H A Y A H U J A

B

RANCH WORKS HARD TO BE APPROACHABLE. ITS WEBSITE STRESSES THAT IT is an upscale restaurant “without pretension,” a philosophy applied to everything from menu to decor. Located in a huge Art Deco building from the 1920s that once housed a branch of the Central Trust Bank, the restaurant has taken this potentially cavernous and impersonal space and made it intimate. Rather than using the entire building, they have arranged one long row of tables and, in general, made the space feel friendly instead of institutional—a better spot to get a drink than a car loan. The single corridor of tables also means that servers are constantly passing by, and we had good, attentive service.

Diners might recognize the vibe at Branch from this restaurant group’s first venture, Northside’s The Littlefield, a bourbon bar that turned out to be an equally good place for a bite. The chef, Shoshannah Anderson, cooks in a mode that I would call “international home-style,” taking inspiration from the comfort food of many cultures. Branch’s challenge is adapting Anderson’s cooking style to a higher price point and creating an atmosphere of refinement without losing the informal neighborhood feel. Dishes are described with fancy foreign words like brodo, laksa, and cachoomar, but the menu also features fries and smoked wings.

Branch does a good job maintaining this balance. The menu is inventive without being intimidating, and it is the sort of restaurant that most of us wish was around the corner: reliable, friendly, but still nice enough for an occasion. The kitchen happily accommodated a handful of different dietary needs (we were the annoying table) without losing its stride. Like The Littlefield, the menu is eclectic and international, 9 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

FYI

Branch 1535 Madison Rd., East Walnut Hills, (513) 2212702, eatatbranch.com Hours Dinner Mon–Thurs 5–10 pm, Fri & Sat 5–11 pm, Sun 5–9 pm. Brunch Sat & Sun 10 am–2 pm.

Prices $6 (fries with sage brown butter aioli)–$24 (salmon with laksa) Credit Cards All major The Takeaway Reliably good, with occasional flashes of greatness.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEREMY KRAMER

BANK STATEMENT (From left) Branch’s long, narrow dining room; flank steak with charred onion salad, grilled baguette, and horseradish relish with french fries; shrimp and grits with tomato marmalade; and Chef Shoshannah Anderson.

but as a general rule, the closer Branch stays to its homey American roots, the better the food tends to be.

One of the most notable items, for example, is a dish that would normally not even get a mention in a review: the french fries. From cutting them to the right size to retain just enough inner starchiness to frying and blotting to a not-too-greasy point of perfection, a lot of care has gone into these crispy, faintly blistered wonders.

Served with a wonderful sage brown butter aioli (and a pretty good ketchup-like sauce), Branch’s fries demonstrate that food that is usually mindlessly inhaled can be worth savoring if it is made with enough love. (Something Anderson proved once before with her fries at her former Northside restaurant Honey.)

The shrimp and grits are another home-style dish taken to surprising heights. The old warhorse dish, on the brunch menu, is served soupy in a big bowl with an addictively sweet-and-sour green tomato marmalade swirled into the creamy grits, and marinated mushrooms contribute a separate umami bass note. It hits every flavor note on the register, succeeding in the difficult trick of making a classic new and complex without destroying its original pleasures.

Dishes from every corner of the globe are represented at Branch, from India to Italy to the Middle East to Southeast Asia, and it made me wonder: How possible is it for one kitchen and one chef to produce extraordinary dishes from this many culinary traditions? The answer in this case, unfortunately, is not very. Most of the international dishes top out at pretty good. The Israeli chick-

pea salad, for example, is a totally straight-ahead version of the old parsley-lemon-garlic classic—good enough, but very easy to make at home, and nothing about Branch’s version distinguishes it from a hundred others. Other dishes have changed so much from the originals that they are confusing when they arrive at the table.

Gnudi is generally a light ricotta dumpling, softer and less chewy than gnocchi. Branch’s version appears to be deep fried like arancini, making the dumplings much heavier and denser than they should be. Immersed in a sour, one-dimensional broth, it was one of the weakest entrée offerings.

The Asian-inspired dishes, meanwhile, often felt like the tame offspring of much livelier parent cuisines. The curry roasted cauliflower cried out for a penetrating roast on the florets, rather than being barely cooked through, and for something beyond a light dusting of curry powder. In the same way, lentil kofta is normally filled with ginger, spices, and herbs, but the flavor in Branch’s fritters is low-key to a fault. Even the laksa, served as a sauce with salmon, is tasty enough but feels cautious. If you want to make a Thai- or Indian-inspired dish, there is no need to pull your punches to this extent. A restaurant can be approachable without entirely losing the intensity that certain traditions demand.

Although I sometimes longed for this boldness of execution, mostly the food at Branch is solid, and there are bright touches throughout the menu, from the nice bite in the cheddar biscuits to little pickled biquinho peppers at brunch to the pop of fresh grated horseradish on the flank steak. There is a special energy in the room from voices echoing around the high ceilings of a building that sat empty for half a century and is now coming alive again. Order like you’re at a neighborhood joint, rather than some fancy downtown hotel, and you will go home satisfied.

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HOT PLATE

Hot Secret

Numprik Thai Lao spices up Monroe.

HE 169-YEAR-OLD WHITE BRICK BUILDING ON historic downtown Monroe’s Main Street might as well be a portal to a sultry kitchen in Southeast Asia. Don’t be fooled by the pub aesthetic Numprik Thai Lao inherited from previous tenants: This small restaurant serves authentic Thai and Laotian cuisine in all its salty, spicy, sour, and sweet glory.

A six-page menu ranges from familiar dishes like pad thai to lesser-known regional specialties like kaeng hang le, pork belly and peanut curry in a gravysmooth sauce flavored with tamarind juice and Indian-inspired spices. Appetizers include Son-in-Law eggs, named such because a Thai mother is rumored to have made the first batch of the deep-fried hardboiled eggs with sweet-and-sour sauce and fried shallots as a warning to her daughter’s disrespectful husband. A big bowl of tom yam soup with kaffir lime can easily feed four as a starter, and an order of papaya salad, purposely made with crunchy, unripe papaya for a cooling, cucumber-like effect, balances the aggressive heat of the noodles, stir-fries, and curries, spiced with a heavy hand on a scale of 0–5. It’s easy to forget where you are. The outlet malls might be a five-minute drive away, but inside Numprik Thai Lao, you might as well be eating dinner on the other side of the world. — C A I T H A M I L T O N

T

Numprik Thai Lao, 214 S. Main St., Monroe, (513) 360-7709, numprikthailao.com

FIELD NOTES

BORN TO BREW

A new book on Cincinnati’s brewing heritage.

—PATRICK MURPHY

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Cincinnati brewing has come a long way. No longer does the English ale depend on the Ohio River’s water. Today, brewers highly scrutinize their water’s mineral content and treat the process like the science it is. Local beer historian Michael D. Morgan chronicles the transformation in his latest book, Cincinnati Beer (The History Press). Morgan walks readers through the 1850s explosion of breweries vying to satisfy German immigrants’ thirst for light, cold lagers in Over-the-Rhine and draws parallels to the modern renaissance of craft breweries searching for a place alongside Rhinegeist and MadTree.

Beyond a few into-the-weeds theories surrounding who brewed what first, expect fascinating tales, including the story of French actress Blanche Bree’s failed assassination attempts against her husband and his brew manager. For better or worse, Bree’s aim needed some work, and both men lived to brew another day. Thankfully not with river water. Available at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, josephbeth.com

P H O T O G R A P H ( TO P) BY W E S B AT T O C L E T T E / P H O T O G R A P H (B O T T O M) BY A A R O N M . CO N WAY

TABLESIDE WITH...

LITI ZABAD

INSPIRED BY A FAMILY member impacted by diabetes, this self-proclaimed “glammed-up hippy” shares her signature vegan soul food as a healthy alternative.

What was your background before entering the culinary field? I was in nursing. I’m originally from Avondale, which is a big part of what made me want to start Imani’s Vegan Soul Kitchen. We didn’t have places to eat any food of value. We had corner stores with chips, pop, and candy, but diabetes and heart disease are also very prevalent. It became a big deal to do something for Avondale.

Why vegan soul food? Avondale is predominantly black, and soul food is popular in our neighborhood. I wanted to take food that’s familiar to the community and let them know that vegan food is not just wheatgrass; it’s cauliflower, yams, and other substitutes.

Why did you start Imani’s Vegan Soul Kitchen? My aunt passed away from diabetes and cancer, and I didn’t want anybody else to have that loss. I wanted to put an imprint on the world, and I could do that through opening a business to make healthy food good and accessible.

What are your signature dishes?

Buffalo cauliflower wings with a signature sauce that comes with yams, macaroni and cheese, purple cabbage, and marbled corn bread.

People also love my vegan lasagna and Philly cheesesteak.

— E M I LY

DAWSON

Imani’s Vegan Soul Kitchen, (513) 370-7810, instagram.com/imanis_ vegan_soul_kitchen

TAKEOUT HERO

The Big Cheese(steak) FOR FANS OF REGIONAL FOOD, THE QUINTESSENTIAL PHILADELPHIA CHEESESTEAK joints are Pat’s and Geno’s. Located across from one another in South Philly, they’re walkup windows with some picnic table seating outside. Though they’re most known to outsiders, Philadelphians will argue that at least 10 other places are better. (I’m partial to Vinnie’s Place in Media, my suburban Philly hometown.) It’s similar to how Cincinnatians debate chili: Sure, Skyline has the brand recognition, but it’s not necessarily the best. In the spirit of Skyline’s Philly counterparts, 13th Street Alley serves a damn good cheesesteak, operating out of a window off Main Street that’s fast and convenient for OTR workers, residents, and late-night revelers. The OTR Philly is a classic cheesesteak with chopped sirloin, provolone, and fried onions on a nice, chewy roll; you can add green peppers and mayo and substitute Cheez Whiz for provolone, but why ruin a perfectly good sandwich?

It hits all the right notes, mixing savory, crunchy, and gooey, and the bread does a good job holding the deliciousness together. If you’re the type who likes variety, the cheesesteak experience is also offered in a wrap, a salad, and a bowl with white rice. My lunch companions enjoyed the salad (topped with veggies and a dressing of your choice) more than the bowl and said the chicken Philly, buffalo chicken Philly, and Killer Veggie Philly all delivered. We strolled over to nearby 13th Street Alley, 126 E. 13th St., Over-theZiegler Park to eat, and I was in cheesesteak al fresco heaven. — J O H N F O X Rhine, (513) 813-8000

ILLUSTR ATIO N BY C H RI S DA N G ER / PH OTO G R A PH BY W E S B AT TO C LE T TE

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HIGH SPIRITS

VIVE BY BRAXTON BREWING CO. Sweetened with natural fruit flavors, juice concentrate, and natural cane sugar, Vive has a crisp, refreshing sip and a clean finish that’s comparable to the national brands. Sold in four fruit flavors: mango, dragonfruit, lime, and grapefruit.

FLAVOR OF CHOICE: Mango Braxton Brewing Co., 27 W. Seventh St., Covington, (859) 261-5600, viveseltzer.com

SELTZER PROJECT BY PLATFORM Platform’s take on seltzer is bold, with a heavier, soda-like candyfruit taste. If you’re after more than just a hint of flavor, this might be for you, but there is a slight aftertaste. Two new flavors are released each quarter. FLAVOR OF CHOICE: Black Cherry Locoba by Platform, 1201 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 481-2337, platform beer.co

HARD SELTZER

BY MARCH FIRST Currently served on draft and soon to be bottled. With more of a sparkle than a fizz, it goes down smoothly and has authentic fruit flavor. Available in Saturn Peach and Tropical Fruit; additional flavors released seasonally. FLAVOR OF CHOICE: Saturn Peach March First Brewing, 7885 E. Kemper Rd., Blue Ash, (513) 718-9173, marchfirst brewing.com

TINY BUBBLES

n case you’ve been living under a rock: Hard seltzers are the craze du jour in brewing. Thanks to the ubiquitous popularity of the big brands (ahem, White Claw), a few regional players have tossed their hats into the ring so you can keep your seltzers local. Catering to non-beer-drinkers (or just the beer bloat–averse) and those looking to imbibe on the lighter side during warmer months, these fruit-flavored, carbonated malt liquor beverages clock in at a substantial 5 percent ABV and contain around 100 calories and a scant amount of carbs per 12-ounce serving. We think you’ll be seeing more of these guys as the mercury rises. — K A I L E I G H P E Y T O N I

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PHO T OOGT ROAGPRHASP HB YB JYOANAA RT HO ANNMW. ICL OL INSW A Y PH

TRY THIS

HEADS UP!

o enjoy Bauer’s tête de cochon, you must plan ahead. The restaurant needs three-day notice to find a pig from a local farm. Also required is a willingness to attract some attention from your fellow diners. A whole pig’s head is carried tableside and carved in the open, the server noting more esoteric cuts like the tongue. Have no fear, though: Cooked sous vide with sage and thyme aromatics and then oven roasted and lightly torched, most of the pig’s head, once carved, has the familiar taste of good pulled pork, but with an extra helping of fatty, crispy skin. The richness of the meat demands something sour, sharp, and light as accompaniment. From sunchokes with mustard and fennel to sauerkraut dotted with coriander seed to pickled veggies, chef Jackson Rouse’s spread is an Bauer European encyclopedic display of pickling and preserving prowess. Eaten with the meat, the sides Farm Kitchen, 435 Elm St., downtown, turn what could have been a novelty dish into a truly satisfying meal. We left with ears and (513) 621-8555, bauer snout for our friend’s dog, but politely declined the offer of the skull. — A K S H A Y A H U J A cincinnati.com T

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1. Plum and beer mustards 2. Pretzel bites by Tuba Baking Company 3. House-fermented sauerkraut 4. House-pickled vegetables 5. Vollkornbrot (German whole grain seed bread) by Blue Oven Bakery 6. Housemade German potato salad 7. Pork jus.

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91.7

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88.5

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90.9 WGUC

WHERE TO EAT NOW

AMERICAN BARBECUE CAJUN/CARIBBEAN CHINESE ECLECTIC FRENCH INDIAN ITALIAN JAPANESE KOREAN MEDITERRANEAN MEXICAN SEAFOOD STEAKS THAI VIETNAMESE

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DINING GUIDE CINCINNATI MAGAZINE’S

dining guide is compiled by our editors as a service to our readers.

The magazine accepts no advertising or other consideration in exchange for a restaurant listing.

The editors may add or delete restaurants based on their judgment.

Because of space limitations, all

of Brussels sprout. The eye for detail and contrasts of colors and textures belongs to someone who cares for food. 1000 Summit Place, Blue

AMERICAN

Ash, (513) 794-1610, browndogcafe.com. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner Mon–Fri, brunch and dinner Sat, brunch Sun. MCC, DS. $$

THE BIRCH

On any given evening, guests nibble at spicy hummus served with French breakfast radishes and pita bread while sipping slightly spumante glasses of Spanish Txakolina. And while the dinner menu reads strictly casual at first glance— soups, salads, and sandwiches—the preparation and quality is anything but. An endive salad with candied walnuts, Swiss cheese, crispy bacon lardons, and an apple vinaigrette surpassed many versions of the French bistro classic. And both the Brussels sprouts and Sicilian cauliflower sides refused to play merely supporting roles.

Both were sensational studies in the balance of sweet, spicy, and acidic flavors. 702 Indian Hill Rd., Terrace Park, (513) 831-5678, thebirchtp.com.

Lunch and dinner Tues–Sun. MCC. DS. $

BRONTË BISTRO

You might think this is a lunch-only spot where you can nosh on a chicken salad sandwich after browsing next door at Joseph-Beth Booksellers.

But this Norwood eatery feels welcoming after work, too. The dinner menu features entrées beyond the rotating soup and quiche roster that’s popular at noon. Fried chicken? Check.

Quesadillas and other starters? Yep. An assortment of burgers? Present, including turkey and veggie versions. Casual food rules the day but the surprise is Brontë Bistro’s lineup of adult beverages, which elevates the place above a basic bookstore coffeeshop. The regular drinks menu includes such mainstays as Hemingway’s Daiquiri, a tribute to the author who drank them (often to excess). 2692 Madison Rd., Norwood,

of the guide’s restaurants may not be included. Many restaurants have changing seasonal menus; dishes listed here are examples of the type of cuisine available and may not be on the menu when you visit.

To update listings, e-mail: cmletters@cincinnati magazine.com

CABANA ON THE RIVER

KNOCK ’EM DOWN

Now suburbanites can get in on the duckpin bowling action, too. Former P&Ger Steve Schoembs, previous owner of Mason’s 16 Lots brewery, has opened Hoppin’ Vines in the old TGI Fridays on Montgomery Road in Madeira. The 9,000-square-foot, six-lane alley serves up to 40 craft beers on draft, along with a wide selection of wines and coal-fired pizza from Delicio.

They’ll spare you the cheesy flair.

hoppinvines.com

(513) 396-8970. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days. MCC. $

BROWN DOG CAFÉ

If you haven’t had a plate of Shawn McCoy’s design set in front of you, it’s about time. Many of the menu’s dishes show his knack for the plate as a palette. A trio of stout day boat diver scallops—exquisitely golden from pan searing—perch atop individual beds of uniformly diced butternut squash, fragments of boar bacon, and shavings

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Like a big outdoor picnic with a view of the serene hills of Kentucky and the Ohio River rolling by, this is one of those places west-siders would rather the rest of Cincinnati didn’t know about.

Its annual debut in late spring marks the official beginning of summer for many. People flock to the Cabana for good food prepared well: grilled mahi-mahi sandwiches, pork barbecue, steak on a stick, Angus beef burgers, Italian and steak hoagies, white chicken chili, and interesting salads. While some of the fare is familiar pub grub, nothing is sub-standard. Even potato chips are made in-house and seasoned with Cajun spices.

7445 Forbes Rd., Sayler Park, (513) 941-7442, cabanaontheriver.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $

COPPIN’S

With wine on tap and an extensive local beer list, Coppin’s is an ideal place to meet for drinks. In addition to plenty of Kentucky bourbon, much of the produce, meat, and cheese comes from local growers and producers. House-cured meat and cheese from Kenny’s Farmhouse populate the “Grand Mother Board,” which dresses up the main attractions with apple butter, pickles, fig jam, and mustard. The mussels—made with Storm golden cream ale from the Braxton Brewing Company and chorizo from Napoleon Ridge Farms in Gallatin County—were served with a peppery tomato sauce, perfect for sopping up with bread. The braised short rib with smoked Gouda grits was fall-apart good, with roasted vegetables and a nice bright bite of horseradish.

The strip steak with béarnaise, truffled potatoes, and green beans is a well-executed take on a classic. 638 Madison Ave., Covington, (859) 905-6600, hotelcovington.com/dining/coppins.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days. MCC. $$

COZY’S CAFÉ & PUB

On a visit to England, Jan Collins discovered the “cozy” atmosphere of London

KEY: No checks unless specified.

AE American Express, DC Diners Club DS Discover, MC MasterCard, V Visa MCC Major credit cards: AE, MC, V $ = Under $15 $$$ = Up to $49 $$ = Up to $30 $$$$ = $50 and up Top 10

= Named a Best Restaurant March 2019.

= Named a Best New Restaurant March 2018.

restaurants built in historic houses. She brought that warm, comfortable feeling back to the United States in opening Cozy’s. Though the atmosphere in the restaurant is reminiscent of Collins’s London travels, the food remains proudly American. The produce in virtually every dish is fresh, seasonal, and flavorful. The 12-hour pork shank stands out with its buttery grits and root vegetable hash, along with a portion of tender meat. And when it comes down to the classics, from the biscuits that open the meal to carrot cake at the end, Cozy’s does it right. 6440 Cincinnati Dayton Rd., Liberty Twp., (513) 644-9364, cozyscafeandpub.com. Dinner Tues–Sat, brunch Sat & Sun. $$$

CWC THE RESTAURANT

Founded by the sister duo behind the culinary multimedia platform Cooking with Caitlin, this eatery makes comfort food feel a notch more au courant, imbuing a true family-friendly philosophy. Its burgers are topped with a generous ladle of gooey house-made cheddar sauce and served with hand-cut French fries that many a mother will filch from her offspring’s plate. Portions—and flavors—are generous, eliciting that feeling of being royally indulged. Similarly, every item on the Sunday brunch menu virtually dares you to go big or go home. Make a reservation for parties of more than four and plan to be spoiled rotten. Then plan to take a lengthy nap. 1517 Springfield Pike, Wyoming, (513) 407-3947, cwctherestaurant.com.

Dinner Fri & Sat, brunch Sun. MCC. $

THE EAGLE OTR

The revamped post office at 13th and Vine feels cozy but not claustrophobic, and it has distinguished itself with its stellar fried chicken. Even the white meat was pull-apart steamy, with just enough peppery batter to pack a piquant punch.

Diners can order by the quarter, half, or whole bird—but whatever you do, don’t skimp on the sides. Bacon adds savory mystery to crisp corn, green beans, and great northerns (not limas) in the succotash, and the crock of mac and cheese has the perfect proportion of sauce, noodle, and crumb topping. The Eagle OTR seems deceptively simple on the surface, but behind that simplicity is a secret recipe built on deep thought, skill, and love. 1342 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 8025007. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $

EMBERS

The menu here is built for celebration: poshly priced steak and sushi selections are meant to suit every special occasion. Appetizers are both classic (shrimp cocktail) and Asian-inspired (beef satay); fashionable ingredients are name-checked (micro-greens and black truffles); a prominent sushi section (nigiri, sashimi, and rolls) precedes a list of archetypal salads; beer-sodden American Wagyu beef sidles up to steaks of corn-fed prime; non-steak entrées (Chilean sea bass or seared scallops with wild mushroom risotto and roasted beets) make for high-style alternative selections. Talk about a party. 8170 Montgomery Rd., Madeira, (513) 984-8090, embersrestaurant. com. Dinner seven days. MCC, DC, DS. $$$

GREYHOUND TAVERN

Back in the streetcar days, this roughly 100-year-old roadhouse was at the end of the Dixie Highway line, where the cars turned around to head north. The place was called the Dixie Tea Room then, and they served ice cream. The fried chicken came along in the 1930s, and they’re still dishing it up today. Families and regulars alike pile in on Mondays and Tuesdays for the fried chicken dinner. While the juicy (never greasy) chicken with its lightly seasoned, crisp coating is the star, the side dishes—homemade biscuits, cole slaw, green beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy—will make you ask for seconds. Call ahead no matter what night you choose: There’s bound to be a crowd. Not in the mood for chicken? Choose from steaks, seafood, sandwiches, and comfort food options that include meatloaf and a Kentucky Hot Brown. Or just try the onion rings. You’ll wonder where onions that big come from. 2500 Dixie Highway, Ft. Mitchell, (859) 331-3767, greyhoundtavern.com.

Lunch and dinner seven days, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC, DS. $$

MR. GENE’S DOGHOUSE

Cumminsville is home to arguably the best hot chili cheese mett and chocolate malt in Greater Cincinnati. A family owned business that began as a simple hot dog stand more than 50 years ago, Mr. Gene’s still attracts lines of loyal customers at its windows. Can’t stand the heat?

Order the mild chili mett—more flavor, fewer BTUs. And if you still haven’t embraced Cincinnati-style coneys, try the Chicago-style hot dog with pickles, onions, relish, mustard, tomato, and celery salt; a barbecue sandwich; or wings (a sign proclaims “So hot they make the devil sweat”). Although the chocolate malt is the biggest seller, we love the $3.25 pineapple shake, made with real pineapple. 3703 Beekman St., South Cumminsville, (513) 5417636, mrgenesdoghouse.com. Open Feb–Dec for lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. MC, V. $

THE NORTHSTAR CAFÉ

In Northstar’s first outpost beyond the Greater Columbus area, the space itself reflects the ethos of the food: warm and comfortable, but still modern and fresh. The dinner and cocktail menus are fab, as is the large bar. But breakfast is worth waking up early for. Take the mushroom frittata, made with meaty mushrooms, caramelized sweet onions, and Gruyère. The portions are no joke—that frittata comes with breakfast potatoes and a dense, perfectly crumbly-but-moist housemade biscuit—yet it doesn’t feel gluttonous or excessive. In large part that’s due to the freshness (e.g., the sausage made in-house daily) and the abundance of healthy options. One of our favorites: the shooting star juice, a balanced blend of carrot, ginger, orange, and lemon. 7610 Sloan Way, Liberty Township, (513) 759-0033, thenorthstarcafe.com. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days. MCC. $$

ORCHIDS AT PALM COURT

Orchids is in the middle of a transition. Chef Todd Kelly, who had been at the helm for 11 years and made the restaurant one of the city’s best, recently left. His replacement, George Zappas (following a brief stint by Maxime Kien), was on Kelly’s team in various capacities over the past decade. The new menu and format (implemented by Kien) feature an à la carte menu and a dynamic prix fixe tasting menu. You need to trust a chef to invest in this kind of an experience, but Orchids delivers on its promises. Yes, it is extremely expensive—but from the experience of sitting in the dining room and looking at the paintings on the walls to listening to the jazz band, you will get something special for your money. Meals are filled with wonder after wonder, on

par with the best Cincinnati has to offer. 35 W. Fifth St., downtown, (513) 421-9100, orchidsatpalmcourt.com. Dinner seven days. MCC. $$$

OTTO’S

Chef/owner Paul Weckman opened Otto’s, named after his father-in-law, with $300 worth of food and one employee—himself. Weckman’s food is soothing, satisfying, and occasionally, too much of a good thing. His tomato pie is beloved by lunch customers: Vine-ripe tomatoes, fresh basil, and chopped green onions packed into a homemade pie shell, topped with a cheddar cheese spread, and baked until bubbly. Weckman’s straightforward preparations are best. The sauteed tilapia in lemon caper butter sauce with fingerling potatoes and roasted asparagus is elegant in its subtlety; an apricot-glazed duck breast served with Brussels sprouts and a squash-prosciutto risotto summons the peasant comfort of the French countryside. This is, at its heart, a neighborhood restaurant, a place with its own large, quirky family. 521 Main St., Covington, (859) 491-6678, ottosonmain.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner seven days, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

POSTMARK

Chef Brad Bernstein learned his craft well at Oakley’s Red Feather, with his second restaurant focused on Old World classics marked by subtlety and restraint. The wine list is notable for its reliability, from offmenu pours, such as Château Ducasse Bordeaux Blanc, to the Brocard Chablis, an organic wine that is nicely balanced and subtle. Several dishes show Postmark’s ability to keep learning and growing. Al dente du Puy lentils complement soft, fatty duck, with a swirl of sauce on the plate poised between sweet and spicy. The Steak Diane is served with a crispy cloud of frizzled leeks (a Red Feather staple), and the chicken, with its capers and creamy grits, shows what “farmhouse refined” can be at its best. The bourbon pecan pie is the perfect way to end a good meal. 3410 Telford St., Clifton, (513) 281-3663, postmark.restaurant. Dinner Tues–Fri, Sun; brunch Sun. MCC. $$$

PUTZ’S CREAMY WHIP

When your tongue touches the frozen white Nirvana on top of a Putz’s cone, every moment of every joy of every summer of your life is condensed into one simple swipe.

It’s the sweetness, the creaminess, the cloud-like texture.

I dare you to close your eyes, taste it, and not think of your first summer love, or getting invited to the new neighbor’s pool on the second day of August. Putz’s coneys are also very popular. But it’s the simplicity of vanilla on a cone that has made this place. When I-74 was being built, the expressway would have landed three feet from Putz’s back door. As bizarre as this sounds, the U.S. Department of Transportation actually moved the freeway for Putz’s.

They do that kind of thing for holy shrines. 2673 Putz Place, Westwood, (513) 681-8668, putzscreamywhip.com.

Lunch and dinner seven days, seasonally. Cash. $

QUATMAN CAFÉ

The quintessential neighborhood dive, Quatman’s sits in the shadow of the Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, serving up a classic bar burger. Look elsewhere if you like your burger with exotic toppings: This halfpound of grilled beef is served with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. Sometimes cheese. The no-frills theme is straightforward and appealing. A menu of standard sandwich fare and smooth mock turtle soup; beer on tap or soda in cans (no wine or liquor); and checkered tablecloths, serving baskets, and plenty of kitsch is served daily. Peppered with regulars, families, political discussions, and the occasional fool, Quatman’s is far from fancy. But it is fun, fast, and delicious.

2434 Quatman Ave., Norwood, (513) 731-4370, quatman cafe.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. MC, V. $

RED FEATHER KITCHEN

Historically peasant-grade cuts of meat get the full Pygmalion treatment at Red Feather in Oakley, where there’s deep respect for the time and tending necessary to bring a short rib, pork chop, or hanger steak to its full potential.

After a quick sear to lock in juices, the steak takes a turn in the wood-fired oven. While primal cuts play a leading role, the supporting cast is just as captivating. The hot snap of fresh ginger in the carrot soup was especially warming on a winter evening and the crispy skin on the Verlasso

salmon acts as the foil to the plump, rich flesh. Service here only improves the experience. 3200 Madison Rd., Oakley, (513) 407-3631, redfeatherkitchen.com. Dinner Tues– Sun, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

RED ROOST TAVERN

At its best, Red Roost Tavern—located in the Hyatt Regency, downtown—meets its singular challenge with verve: offering a locally sourced sensibility to an increasingly demanding dining public while introducing out-of-town guests to unique Cincinnati foods. Take the goetta, rich pork capturing the earthiness of the steel-cut oats, served as a hash with sweet potatoes and poached eggs. The seasoning added a restrained, almost mysterious hint of black pepper. But the kitchen’s talent seems straightjacketed. Chefs thrive on instincts not covered by the five senses; restaurants thrive by taking careful risks. Red Roost seems to be struggling to find its third eye, and sometimes the entrées don’t live up to their ambitions 151 W. Fifth St., downtown, (513) 354-4025. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days. MCC,DS. $$

RON’S ROOST

They stake their reputation on their fried chicken, serving 10,000 pieces weekly. It takes a few minutes, since each batch is made to order. Ron’s also serves chicken 18 other ways, including pizza chicken quesadillas and chicken livers in gravy. It’s all about the chicken here, but that’s not all they have. The menu is five solid pages of stuff good enough to be called specialties: Oktoberfest sauerbraten, Black Angus cheeseburgers, fried whitefish on rye, hot bacon slaw, lemon meringue pie (homemade, of course), and the best Saratoga chips this side of Saratoga.

3853 Race Rd., Bridgetown, (513) 574-0222, ronsroost.net.

Breakfast Sun, lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$

THE SCHOOLHOUSE RESTAURANT

An old flag stands in one corner and pictures of Abe Lincoln and the first George W. hang on the wall of this Civil War–era schoolhouse. The daily menu of familiar Midwestern comfort fare is written in letter-perfect cursive on the original chalkboard. Once you order from a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to your high school lunch lady, the elevated lazy Susan in the center of the table begins to fill up with individual bowls and baskets of corn bread, slaw, salad, mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, and vegetables. The deal here is quantity. More mashed potatoes with your fried chicken? More corn bread with your baked ham? You don’t even have to raise your hand.

8031 Glendale-Milford Rd., Camp Dennison, (513) 831-5753, theschoolhousecincinnati.com. Lunch Thurs & Fri, dinner Thurs–Sun. MCC, DS. $

SYMPHONY HOTEL & RESTAURANT

Tucked into a West 14th Street Italianate directly around the corner from Music Hall, this place feels like a private dinner club. There’s a preferred by-reservation policy.

Check the web site for the weekend’s five-course menu, a slate of “new American” dishes that changes monthly.

You can see the reliance on local produce in the spring vegetable barley soup. Salads are interesting without being busy, and the sorbets are served as the third course palate cleanser. Main courses of almond crusted mahi mahi, flat-iron steak, and a vegetable lasagna hit all the right notes, and you can end with a sweet flourish if you choose the chocolate croissant bread pudding. 210 W. 14th St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 721-3353, symphonyhotel. com. Dinner Thurs–Sat, brunch Sun. $$$

TANO BISTRO

Gaetano Williams’s Loveland bistro is comfortable, with reasonably priced food and amenable service. The menu is tidy—25 or so dishes divided between appetizers, salads, and entrées, plus a chalkboard featuring two or three dishes—its flavor profile heavily influenced by a childhood growing up in a third generation Italian family. Most of Tano Bistro’s main courses lean toward the comfortable side of American. For instance, Williams serves a wellseasoned and flavorful seared duck and potato-crusted chicken. The simple roast chicken is also worth a trip to Loveland, sweetly moist beneath its crisp bronze skin.

204 W. Loveland Ave., Loveland, (513) 683-8266, foodby tano.com. Dinner seven days. MCC. $$

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TELA BAR + KITCHEN

Classically conceived but casually executed comfort food, including mini-Monte Cristo sandwiches with tangy house-made pimento cheese stuffed into sourdough bread and fried crisp, mac and cheese topped with a Mr. Pibb–braised short rib, and steak frites.

Servers are slightly scattered, yet enthusiastic and friendly, with a good grasp of the beverage program.

1212 Springfield Pk., Wyoming, (513) 821-8352, telabarand kitchen.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sat, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

TRIO

Trio is nothing if not a crowd pleaser. Whether you’re in the mood for a California-style pizza or filet mignon (with side salad, garlic mashed potatoes, and seasonal veggies), the menu is broad enough to offer something for everyone.

It may lack a cohesive point of view, but with the number of regulars who come in seven nights a week, variety is Trio’s ace in the hole. A simple Roma tomato pizza with basil, Parmesan, and provolone delivered a fine balance of crunchy crust, sharp cheese, and sweet, roasted tomatoes.

Paired with a glass of pinot noir, it made a perfect light meal. The service is friendly enough for a casual neighborhood joint but comes with white tablecloth attentiveness and knowledge. Combine that with the consistency in the kitchen, and Trio is a safe bet. 7565 Kenwood Rd., Kenwood, (513) 984-1905, triobistro.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DC. $$$

TUCKER’S RESTAURANT

Joe Tucker has done a marvelous job of running a de facto Swiss Embassy in the volatile heart of Over-the-Rhine. Joe is possibly Cincinnati’s premiere fry cook. He has the abil-

ity to make a turkey club magical, where you have to stop after each bite and let your mouth recover from the overwhelming conjugality of yum. Until you’ve tried it, you just wouldn’t think that a curried tuna salad sandwich could be a mystical experience. Tucker’s is surprisingly vegetarian friendly too, with Joe’s meatless twists on greasy-spoon standards. Nice to see that the magic the Tucker family has practiced at this place for more than 70 years is strong enough to weather the worst and that Tucker’s remains the friendliest little place on Vine. 1637 Vine St., Over-the-

bittersweet, rich and moist; butter rum pecan cake that would be equally at home on a picnic table or a finely dressed Michelin-starred table. 738 York St., Newport, (859) 261-9675, yorkstonline.com. Lunch and dinner Tues– Sat. MCC, DS. $$

BARBECUE

Rhine, (513) 954-8920. Breakfast and lunch Tues–Sun. V, MC. $

ELI’S BBQ

THE WILDFLOWER CAFÉ

Elias Leisring started building his pulled pork reputation under canopies at Findlay Market and Fountain Square in 2011. Leisring’s proper little ’cue shack along the river serves up ribs that are speaking-in-tongues good, some of the zazziest jalapeño cheese grits north of the MasonDixon line, and browned mashed potatoes that would make any short order cook diner-proud. The small no-frills restaurant—packed cheek-by-jowl most nights—feels like it’s been there a lifetime, with customers dropping vinyl on the turntable, dogs romping in the side yard, and picnic tables crowded with diners. The hooch is bring-your-own, and the barbecue is bona fide. 3313 Riverside Dr., East

Wildflower Café is not the sort of place that tries to wow anyone with feats of inventiveness. Its formula is simple but satisfying: lots of mostly local meat and produce, a menu that continuously changes with available ingredients, a nice selection of wine and beer, and well-made, homey food. The small, focused menu has a classic American quality (salads, steaks, burgers) with enough surprises to keep things interesting. Many of the dishes are designed with open spaces to be filled with whatever is available in the kitchen that day, an advantage of an unfussy style. You don’t go to Wildflower expecting a certain kind of perfection; you accept that your favorite dish from last time might be made differently tonight, or no longer available. Like the farmhouse that Wildflower occupies, the imperfections are part of the charm. 207 E. Main St.,

End, (513) 533-1957, elisbarbeque.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $

PONTIAC BBQ

Mason, (513) 492-7514, wildflowergourmetcafe.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$$

Dan Wright’s BBQ dream comes to life in a honky-tonkish setting, delivering inexpensive barbecue that draws from multiple traditions—Kansas City, Memphis, and Texas— a few basic sides (bacon-and-pickled-jalapeño-topped white grits and a silky mac-and-cheese), and plenty of bourbon. Snack on fried pickles or smoked wings, then move on to brisket (both fatty and lean), pulled pork, and smoked-on-the-bone short ribs. This is ridiculously highquality comfort food at a friendly price point. 1403 Vine

YORK STREET CAFÉ

Five blocks from the Newport riverfront, Terry and Betsy Cunningham have created the sort of comfortable, welcoming environment that encourages steady customers.

A dependable menu and quirky atmosphere appeal to a broad range of diners, from non-adventurous visiting relatives to non-attentive children. Desserts have always been one of the stars: flourless chocolate hazelnut torte,

St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 579-8500, pontiacbbq.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sun, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

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WALT’S HITCHING POST

A Northern Kentucky institution returns. Roughly 750 pounds of ribs per week are pit-fired in a small building in front of the restaurant, with a smaller dedicated smoker out back for brisket and chicken. Walt’s ribs begin with several hours in the smokehouse and then are quick-seared at the time of service. This hybrid method takes advantage of the leaner nature of the baby-back ribs they prefer to use. Each rib had a just-right tooth to it where soft flesh peeled away from the bone. One hidden treasure: Walt’s house-made tomato and garlic dressing. Slightly thicker than a vinaigrette yet unwilling to overwhelm a plate of greens, the two key elements play well together. 3300 Madison Pike, Ft. Wright, (859) 360-2222, waltshitchingpost. com. Dinner seven days. MCC. $$

CAJUN/ CARIBBEAN DEE FELICE CAFÉ

To call Dee Felice Café a jazz supper club would be too conventional. Though the waitstaff in white shirt and tie are more formally dressed than most of the diners, the atmosphere is decidedly casual. The music and menu are still true to the original spirit of Emidio DeFelice, a drummer and bandleader who opened the restaurant in 1984 to create a jazz venue that he and his fellow musicians could relax in and enjoy a meal. It made sense to feature cuisine from the birthplace of jazz, New Orleans, and the Cajun and Creole dishes of southern Louisiana still dominate the menu, though there are a few Italian dishes, as well as steaks (the most consistently well-executed dishes on the menu) and salads. The joint is most definitely still jumpin’ 529 Main St., Covington, (859) 261-2365, deefelicecafe.com.

Dinner Wed–Mon. MCC, DC, DS. $$

SWAMPWATER GRILL

At first blush, this place is a dive where homesick Cajuns can find a good pile of jambalaya. But thoughtful details like draft Abita Root Beer and char-grilled Gulf Coast oysters on the half shell signal its ambition. Bayou standards like jambalaya, gumbo, and fried seafood also make an appearance. But the extensive menu also features amped up pub-style items for those who may be squeamish about crawfish tails (which can be added to just about anything on the menu). You’ll also find a roundup of oyster, shrimp, and catfish Po’Boys, as well as a selection of hardwoodsmoked meats. 3742 Kellogg Ave., East End, (513) 834-7067, swampwatergrill.com. Lunch and dinner Wed–Sun, brunch Fri–Sun. MCC. $$

KNOTTY PINE ON THE BAYOU

The Pine serves some of the best Louisiana home-style food you’ll find this far north of New Orleans. Taste the fried catfish filets with their peppery crust, or the garlic sauteed shrimp with smoky greens on the side. Between March and June, it’s crawfish season. Get them boiled and heaped high on a platter or in a superb crawfish etouffee. But the rockin’ gumbo—a thick, murky brew of andouille sausage, chicken, and vegetables—serves the best roundhouse punch all year round. As soon as you inhale the bouquet and take that first bite, you realize why Cajun style food is considered a high art form and a serious pleasure. And you’ll start planning your return trip. 6302 Licking Pke., Cold Spring, (859) 7812200, letseat.at/KnottyPine. Dinner Tues–Sun. MCC, DS. $$

CHINESE AMERASIA

A sense of energetic fun defines this tiny Chinese spot with a robust beer list. The glossy paper menu depicts Master Chef Rich Chu as a “Kung Food” master fighting the evil

fast-food villain with dishes like “fly rice,” “Brocco-Lee,” and “Big Bird’s Nest.” Freshness rules. Pot stickers, dumplings, and wontons are hand-shaped. The Dragon’s Breath wontons will invade your dreams. Seasoned ground pork, onion, and cilantro meatballs are wrapped in egg dough, wok simmered, and topped with thick, spicy red pepper sauce and fresh cilantro. Noodles are clearly Chef Chu’s specialty, with zonxon (a tangle of thin noodles, finely chopped pork, tofu, and mushrooms cloaked in spicy dark sauce and crowned with peanuts and cilantro) and Matt Chu’s Special (shaved rice noodle, fried chicken, and seasonal vegetables in gingery white sauce) topping the menu’s flavor charts. 521 Madison Ave., Covington, (859) 261-6121. Lunch Sun–Fri, dinner seven days. MCC. $

CHINESE IMPERIAL INN

The chilies-on-steroids cooking here will have you mopping beads of garlic-laced sweat from your brow. The musky, firecracker-red Mongolian chicken stabilizes somewhere just before nirvana exhaustion, and aggressively pungent shredded pork with dried bean curd leaves your eyes gloriously glistening from its spicy hot scarlet oil. Even an ice cold beer practically evaporates on your tongue. Do not fear: not all the dishes are incendiary. Try the seafood—lobster, razor clams, Dungeness and blue crabs, whelk, and oysters—prepared with tamer garlicky black bean sauce, or ginger and green onions. The Cantonese wonton soup, nearly as mild as your morning bowl of oatmeal, is as memorable as the feverish stuff. Sliced pork and shrimp are pushed into the steaming bowl of noodles and greens just before serving. Think comforting, grandmotherly tenderness. 11042 Reading Rd., Sharonville, (513) 563-6888, chineseimperialinn.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MC, V, DS. $

HOUSE OF SUN

Ask the gracious Taiwanese gentleman who welcomes you for the Chinese menu. He’ll gleefully grab the real menu, which commences a ballet of smoky, spicy sliced

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St., downtown, (513) 241-7777, shanghaimamas.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$

SICHUAN BISTRO CHINESE GOURMET conch; thick handmade noodles soaking up rich, nostrilsearing beef stock; and crispy pork ears arranged like flower petals on the plate (think of fine Italian prosciutto).

The real stars of the menu are the chicken dishes: smoked with skin brittle as caramelized sugar; salty with ginger oil for dipping; and the popular Taiwanese “Three Cup” chicken made by cooking the bird with a cup each of soy sauce, water, and wine. Served with an audible crackle, it’s robustly flavored with ginger—at once subtle, bold, sweet, and superb. 11959 Lebanon Rd., Sharonville, (513) 769-0888, houseofsuncincy.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sun. DS, MC, V. $$

ORIENTAL WOK This is the restaurant of your childhood memories: the showy Las Vegas-meets-China decor, the ebulliently comedic host, the chop sueys, chow meins, and crab rangoons that have never met a crab. But behind the giant elephant tusk entryway and past the goldfish ponds and fountains is the genuine hospitality and warmth of the Wong family, service worthy of the finest dining establishments, and some very good food that’s easy on the palate. Best are the fresh fish: salmon, sea bass, and halibut steamed, grilled, or flash fried in a wok, needing little more than the ginger–green onion sauce that accompanies them. Even the chicken lo mein is good. It may not be provocative, but not everyone wants to eat blazing frogs in a hot pot. 317 Buttermilk Pke., Ft. Mitchell, (859) 331-3000; 2444 Madison Rd., Hyde Park, (513) 871-6888, orientalwok. com. Lunch Mon–Fri (Ft. Mitchell; buffet Sun 11–2:30), lunch Tues–Sat (Hyde Park), dinner Mon–Sat (Ft. Mitchell) dinner Tues–Sun (Hyde Park). MCC. $$

THE PACIFIC KITCHEN The monster of a menu can be dizzying. Ease in with some top-notch Korean Fried Chicken. These slightly bubbly, shatter-crisp wings are painted with a thin gochujang pepper sauce (a foil to the fat). It takes 24 hours to prep the Cantonese duck, between a honey-vinegar brine to dry the skin, a marinade of star anise, bean paste, and soy within the re-sealed cavity, and the crispy convection oven finish. Dolsot bibimbap had plenty of crispy rice at the bottom of the stone bowl, and the accompanying banchan were soothing yet flavorful, especially the strips of lightly pickled cucumber. Even dishes like a Malaysian goat stew resonated with rich, original flavors. 8300 Market Place Lane, Montgomery, (513) 898-1833, thepacific.kitchen. Lunch and dinner seven days; dim sum Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

RAYMOND’S HONG KONG CAFÉ It has all the elements of your typical neighborhood Chinese restaurant: Strip mall location. General Tso and kung pao chicken. Fortune cookies accompanying the bill.

The dragon decoration. But it is the nontraditional aspects of Raymond’s Hong Kong Café that allow it to stand apart. The menu goes beyond standard Chinese fare with dishes that range from Vietnamese (beef noodle soup) to American (crispy Cornish hen). The Portuguese-style baked chicken references Western European influences on Chinese cuisine with an assemblage of fried rice, peppers, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, and squash all simmering together in a creamy bath of yellow curry sauce. Deciding what to order is a challenge, but at least you won’t be disappointed. 11051 Clay Dr., Walton, (859) 485-2828.

Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $$

Like many Chinese restaurants that cater to both mainstream American and Chinese palates, this strip mall gem uses two menus. The real story here is found in dishes of pungent multi-layered flavors that set your mouth ablaze with fermented peppers and fresh chilies and then just as quickly cool it down with the devilish, numbing sensation of hua jiao, Sichuan pepper. Its numbing effect is subtle at first: appetizers of cold sliced beef and tripe, as well as slices of pork belly with a profusion of minced garlic, lean toward the hot and sweet; mapo tofu freckled with tiny fermented black beans and scallions, and pork with pickled red peppers and strips of ginger root, progress from sweet to pungent to hot to salty—in that order. Alternated with cooling dishes—nibbles of rice, a verdant mound of baby bok choy stir-fried with a shovelful of garlic, refreshing spinach wilted in ginger sauce, a simply sensational tea-smoked duck—the effect is momentarily tempered.

Over-the-Rhine, (513) 421-4040, abigailstreet.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC, DS. $$

7888 S. Mason Montgomery Rd., Mason, (513) 770-3123, sichuanbistro.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sun. MCC, DS. $$

621-8555, bauercincinnati.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$$

SUZIE WONG’S ON MADISON A few items on the menu resemble those that were once served at Pacific Moon, such as laub gai and Vietnamese rolls, both variations of lettuce wraps. For the laub gai, browned peppery chicken soong (in Cantonese and Mandarin, referring to meat that is minced) is folded into leaf lettuce with stems of fresh cilantro and mint, red Serrano peppers, a squeeze of lime juice, and a drizzle of fish sauce. In the Vietnamese roll version, small cigar-sized rolls stuffed with chicken and shrimp are crisp fried and lettuce wrapped in the same manner. The Pan-Asian menu also includes Korean kalbi (tenderific beef ribs marinated and glazed in a sweet, dark, sesame soy sauce) and dolsat bibimbap, the hot stone bowl that’s a favorite around town. 1544 Madison Rd., East Walnut Hills, (513) 7513333, suziewongs.com. Lunch Tues–Sat, dinner Tues–Sun. MCC, DS. $$

UNCLE YIP’S Long before sushi somehow un-disgusted itself to the Western World, China had houses of dim sum. Uncle Yip’s valiantly upholds that tradition in Evendale. This is a traditional dim sum house with all manner of exotic dumplings, including shark fin or beef tripe with ginger and onion. As for the seafood part of the restaurant’s full name, Uncle Yip has most everything the sea has to offer, from lobster to mussels. The menu has more than 260 items, so you’ll find a range of favorites, from moo goo gai pan to rock salt frog legs. 10736 Reading Rd., Evendale, (513) 7338484, uncleyips.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, discount for cash. $$

YAT KA MEIN This noodle house caters to our inner Chinese peasant.

Yat Ka Mein offers humble, everyday Cantonese dishes of egg noodles, tasty dumplings packed with shrimp or pork, fresh veggies, and chicken broth. Almost begrudgingly the menu includes popular American-style Chinese dishes, like the ubiquitous sweet and sour chicken, Moo Goo Gai Pan, roast duck, and so forth. But what makes the place unique are less familiar dishes like Dan Dan noodles, a spicy, sweat-inducing blend of garlic, chili peppers, and ground chicken marinated in chili sauce. 2974 Madison Rd., Oakley, (513) 321-2028, yatkamein.biz. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $

SHANGHAI MAMA’S This 1920s Asian noodle house—complete with dark woodwork and bird cages—offers big bowls of noodle soups, rice bowls, and crunchy, traditional salads. The noodle bowl selections are the most popular, with everything from spicy chicken to Shanghai ribs, shrimp to tofu, and orange duckling to wild mushrooms. Try the Shanghai flatbreads, a “pancake” with different toppings and tangy dipping sauce. You’ll find the downtown professional crowd during the day, but come weekend nights Shanghai Mama’s is bright lights big city with after-theater diners, restaurant staff, and bar patrons socializing and slurping noodle soups until the wee morning hours. 216 E. Sixth

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to believe it’s not on every table in town. With brisk and knowledgeable service, consistently excellent wine (try the Paul Dolan sauvignon blanc!), and reasonable prices, this is the place to take out-of-town friends who remain dubious about the city’s restaurant scene. 1214 Vine St.,

ECLECTIC Top 10

ABIGAIL STREET

From the saffron-infused bouillabaisse to the grilled octopus with merguez sausage, the dishes share strong Middle Eastern roots while remaining entirely individual. As the small dishes fill the table, a fascinating flavor conversation quickly develops. Try the housemade ricotta with thyme, honey, and bread— homey, simple, and yet so deeply satisfying that it’s hard

Top 10

BAUER EUROPEAN FARM KITCHEN

A little off the beaten path, this restaurant serves traditional-sized entrées, but its menu is dominated by smaller plates, meant to be shared. The primary ingredient here is time: The cook takes cheap, less desirable cuts of meat, plus fresh, plentiful, in-season vegetables, and then adds time and natural processes to make them delicious—think fermentation, curing, and braising. The restaurant aims to get most of its vegetables and meat from within 25 miles. Its spaetzle gratin—like a dreamy, half-dissolved mac-and-cheese—and currywurst paired with potato salad and housemade sauerkraut bring us back to our German roots. 435 Elm St., downtown, (513)

Top 10

BOCA

While the food and service remain in the spotlight year after year, Boca’s setting makes you feel like the star of the show. Nickel-thin double-fried pommes soufflés and a glass of Txakolina rosé or a frothy Estate Sale cocktail are a perfect overture while savoring Boca’s seasonal menu. Cacio e pepe risotto, a twist on Rome’s classic pasta dish, is full of savory pecorino and black pepper heat, but notes of mint and sweet pea ring through. Plank-cooked sea bass arrives tender and flaky beneath perfectly crisp skin. Bavette con bottarga, ribbons of pasta topped with salty dried fish roe, hits the umami button with robust flavor and subtle spice.

114 E. Sixth St., downtown, (513) 542-2022, bocacincinnati. com. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DS. $$$

BOUQUET RESTAURANT AND WINE BAR Cozy, off the beaten path, and with a menu touched with a lovable Southern drawl, right down to the bourbon-centric cocktails, it verily announces “Come on back, y’all.”

You definitely want to start with the “motherboard,” a selection of five cheeses, four cured meats, and plenty of accompaniments—stuffed peppadews, warm olives, mustards, jams, pistachio relish, and seven (!) types of pickles. Expect the highest quality cuts and wedges, all knowledgeably identified by the cheerful and attentive staff. Favorites include forest ham from Louisville’s Woodlands Pork, smoked picnic ham from Eckerlin Meats, and cheeses from Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese near Bowling Green, Kentucky. Wild-caught blue catfish from Western Kentucky’s Lake Barkley had a meatier texture and stronger flavor than your average bottom dweller, and the sorghum-glazed Marksbury Farm pork belly was juicy and surprisingly light. 519 Main St., Covington, (859) 491-7777, bouquetrestaurant.com. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DS. $$

BREWRIVER GASTROPUB Twenty-three taps line the antique mahogany bar back.

The ales appears frequently throughout the locally focused menu: in the battered fresh cod for the fish and chips, in the chicken liver pâté, in the vinaigrette dressing for the house salad. Try the barbecue shrimp—redolent with red pepper, garlic, and butter—or the curried beef short rib poutine, featuring Thai green curry beef short rib gravy over hand-cut fries with local cheese curds.

4632 Eastern Ave., East End, (513) 861-2484, brewrivergas tropub.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sun, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

CHÉ This Walnut Street spot draws on authentic Argentine recipes, including the empanadas. Choose from at least a dozen different crispy, perfectly cinched dough pockets, with fillings ranging from traditional (a mixture of cuminspiced beef, egg, and olives) to experimental (mushrooms and artichokes drenched in béchamel). There are also six different dipping sauces to choose from, but you need not stray from the house chimichurri. It complements practically every item on the menu, but particularly the

grilled meats, another Argentinian staple. Marinated beef skewers and sausages are cooked on an open-flame grill, imparting welcome bits of bitter char to the juicy meat.

1342 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 345-8838, checin cinnati.com. Lunch Tues–Friday, dinner seven days, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

COMMONWEALTH BISTRO

Everything from the old jukebox by the entrance to the sepia-toned rabbit-and-pheasant wallpaper exudes an appreciation for the antique. But rather than duplicating old recipes, Covington’s Commonwealth uses history as a springboard to create something elegant and original. Two dishes get at what makes this place special: biscuits and fried rabbit. Their biscuit, served with tart quince butter, is perfection—moist and flaky, without being coat-your-throat buttery or crumble-toash dry. The rabbit is crisp, light, and not at all greasy, with just the right touch of seasoning and a bright biz baz sauce, a cilantro and garlic sauce of Somali origin that tastes like a creamy salsa verde. Brunch offers the same sort of mashup, including salsa verde pork with pickled jalapeño grits made creamy with the yolk of a 75-degree egg and a smoky, spicy, not too salty Bloody Mary.

621 Main St., Covington, (859) 916-6719, commonwealth bistro.com. Dinner Tues–Sun, Brunch Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

DUTCH’S LARDER

The praise for Dutch’s sandwiches is well deserved. The bold beefiness of the short rib grilled cheese was paired perfectly with some sweet and stinky taleggio, and served pressed, almost panini-style. The individual ingredients of the BLT sing in peak-season harmony—a crisp slice of house-cured bacon, a purple-flecked heirloom tomato straight from the vine, snappy aioli, and just enough butter lettuce for crunch. Free-flowing evenings on the patio call for a charcuterie plate. Surgically thin slices of peppery, salmon-hued Smoking Goose capicola rubbed shoulders with varzi, a Lombardian salami with a slightly course texture and unexpected notes of clove and cinnamon. The Bent River camembert was sweet and sour, with a texture only slightly firmer than sweetened condensed milk, and the six-month aged manchego’s salty-nuttiness was only enhanced by a housemade pistachio-and-honey paste. 3378 Erie Ave., Hyde Park, (513) 871-1446, dutchs. squarespace.com. Lunch Tues–Sun, dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$

E+O KITCHEN

The former Beluga space comes alive with a menu that conjoins minimalist Asian with gutsy-cum-earthy Latin.

The results are hit-or-miss: while guacamole was pointlessly studded with edamame, the pork belly buns are especially tender. Taco plates are a safe bet, with the “sol” pastor—pineapple coupled with Korean kimchi, bulgogi pork, and cilantro—hitting all the right notes. More adventurous palates may opt for the nuanced ramen—the pork and soy broth teeming with cuts of both pork belly and slow-cooked shoulder, while a superbly poached egg lingers at the edge, awaiting its curtain call. Service is friendly but tends to sputter when it comes to the basics of hospitality. 3520 Edwards Rd., Hyde Park, (513) 832-

are soft and rich with slices of roasted then pan-fried pork belly. The soul-warming bowls of ramen brim with chicken and pork stock, heaps of al dente ramen noodles, yet more pork belly, and bok choy. With inventive-yet-homey Asian cuisine and an über-stylish makeover, Kaze has turned up the volume in OTR without drowning anyone out.

1400 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 898-7991, kazeotr. com. Dinner seven days. MCC. $$

THE LITTLEFIELD

Inside a modest 1,500 square-foot space on Spring Grove, just south of Hamilton Avenue, at least 70-odd bourbons behind the bar drive this little restaurant’s philosophy. The menu is meant to be limited, the better to support and celebrate the bottled flavors up front. There are surprises: a faint hint of curry powder deepens the moody cauliflower fritters; skewered golf-balls of mild, peppery ground lamb get a faint crust from the final sear. You’ll also want to order the brisket.

Applewood-smoked then braised, the meat maintains just enough fat to stay soft, and the earthy, smoky-sweet flavor comes with a patent-leather char to remind you of the caramelized nuances in your glass. The signature pot pie is lighter than most, more like a hearty (read: lots of white and dark meat) soup than a fricassee held captive within a flaky crust.

3934 Spring Grove Ave., Northside, (513) 386-7570, little fieldns.com. Lunch Mon–Sat, dinner seven days, brunch Sun. V, MC. $

MAPLEWOOD KITCHEN

The latest effort from local restaurant juggernaut Thunderdome, owner of the Currito franchise. Order at the counter, then find your own table, and a server will deliver what you’ve selected. There’s no cohesive cuisine, rather, the menu takes its cue from all corners of the globe: chicken tinga, spaghetti pomodoro, a New York Strip steak, guajillo chicken are all represented, along with a satisfying pappardelle with house-made sausage.

Brunch is available all day; try the light lemon ricotta pancakes or the satisfying avocado benedict. 525 Race St., downtown, (513) 421-2100, maplewoodkitchenandbar. com. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days. MCC. $$

MELT

In this Northside sandwich joint, the restaurant’s name pretty much dictates what you should get. Diners have their choice of sandwiches, including the vegetarian cheesesteak—seitan (a meat substitute) topped with roasted onions, peppers, and provolone—and the J.L.R. Burger, a black bean or veggie patty served with cheese, tomato, lettuce and housemade vegan mayo.

For those who require meat in their meals, try the verde chicken melt: juicy pieces of chicken intermingle with pesto, zucchini, and provolone. Not sure you’ll want a whole sandwich? Try one of the halvesies, a half-salad, half-soup selection popular with the lunch crowd.

4100 Hamilton Ave., Northside, (513) 818-8951, meltrevival. com. MCC, DS. $

THE MERCER

After several years at Boca and the National Exemplar, chef Chase Blowers launched this restaurant in the space formerly occupied by Enoteca Emilia, roughly at the intersection of Seafood & Italian.

This restaurant may specialize in seafood, but its soul is in the pasta. Think black squid-ink pasta, spaghetti di nero, or crunchy accoutrement pistachio pesto. There are some global touches—a tabbouleh side dish, a curry coconut California halibut with basil and lime—but the bass note running through the menu is Italian. The brio and depth of flavor of its dishes makes you want to immediately come back and order again. 2038 Madison

This Vine Street spot is the brainchild of Jon Zipperstein, owner of the steak and sushi mainstay Embers in Kenwood. The Mercer proves admirably that comforting staples—when prepared with precision and served with warmth—can send even the most curmudgeonly diner off fat and happy. Take the short ribs. Many places do a great short rib, but these are lovely, dutifully seared, braised slow and low until tender, and not overwhelmed by fatty gravy. It’s the polenta that really launches this dish into high orbit, the quicksand texture that ever-soslowly absorbed the braising liquid, still suggestive of root vegetable sweetness. For dessert, try the savory cheesecake. It’s criminally rich, and worth saving room for the unique mix of four cheeses: blue, goat, cream, and ricotta. The slice relies on compressed grapes, crumbs of rosemary-infused walnut cookie crust and drops of a port and pear reduction to offer just a hint of sweet.

Rd., O’Bryonville, (513) 386-7383, 8thandenglish.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$$

1324 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 421-5111, themercer otr.com. Dinner Tues–Sun. MCC. $$

KAZE

METROPOLE

1023, eokitchen.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $$ Top 10

EIGHTH & ENGLISH

Japanese-trained chef/co-owner Hideki Harada throws down edamame hummus with bittersweet lotus root chips, sea urchin shooters, and plate after plate of impeccably fresh sashimi with laudable consistency. But it’s his basics that are the real knockout. The steamed pork buns

We’ve crushed on Metropole’s signatures before: the roasted half chicken with Aleppo pepper; the Wagyu steak tartare; and the charcuterie board. Also tops in our book: the Metropole burger, a multi-layered flavor fest thanks to sweet red onion marmalade and savory smoked blue

cheese. There’s also the satisfying burnt carrot salad, creamy cauliflower soup, and spaghetti squash pancake.

But Metropole also boasts a creative beverage program.

A quartino of Cote Mas Blanc? Yes, please. Or make that a Sunsets in Sicily cocktail with vodka and housemade blood orange shrub. Perhaps a pour of one of Metropole’s array of bourbon choices. 609 Walnut St., downtown, (513) 578-6660, metropoleonwalnut.com. Breakfast and dinner seven days, lunch Mon–Fri, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

MITA’S

By day, Mita’s feels smart, sophisticated, and oh-so big city. But by night, she’s something altogether different. Paper-thin slices of acorn-fed Iberico ham slowly melt on your tongue, as you struggle to decide between the boldly hued pozole verde or the paella for two. In the meantime, your dining companion is waxing effusive over a surprisingly simple salad of jicama, mango, and watercress with cilantro vinaigrette. Chef-owner Jose Salazar’s sophomore effort has been a runaway success (and garnered plenty of James Beard award attention), bringing us back with hyper-fresh flavors so pure that dinner feels simultaneously virtuous and decadent.

Top 10

501 Race St., downtown, (513) 421-6482, mitas.co. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$$

MUSE

Muse fills such a needed niche. Very few establishments offer a decent selection of vegan and gluten-free options; Muse not only has these dishes but they’re some of the strongest items on the menu. The restaurant’s philosophy is a version of Hippocrates’s famous remark that you should let food be your medicine and medicine be your food. In practice this means that Muse sources from local farms, serves mostly grass-fed beef, has several vegan options, and puts lots of fresh veggies on the side (and sometimes the center) of the plate. In vegan dishes, flavor and depth are developed in creative ways, like in the stuffed charred leeks, where the tube of the leek is hollowed out and filled with a sweet and savory mix of raisins and cashew cream, combining beautifully with the smoky char of the leeks and a vegan Worcestershire foam.

1000 Delta Ave., Mt. Lookout, (513) 620-8777, musemt lookout.com. Lunch and Dinner Wed–Sat brunch Sun. MCC. $$

NICHOLSON’S

To remind local diners that they were here before those young dog-toting punks with their exposed brick and crafty ales in Over-the-Rhine, Nicholson’s branded themselves Cincinnati’s “first and finest gastropub,” and revamped the menu to include plenty of snacks and small plates for grazing, and not-quite-brawny, straightforward sandwiches and main dishes. Try the pumpkin crusted trout, bowl of cock-a-leekie soup, or check out the cranberry-apple or Scottish BBQ style burgers—each made with your choice of beef, turkey, lamb, or chicken patties. And the bar’s clubby intimacy makes it easy to belly up and enjoy their impressive collection of single malts or a Scottish stout. 625 Walnut St., downtown, (513) 564-9111, nicholsonspub.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $$

PLEASANTRY

With only 40 seats inside, Daniel Souder and Joanna Kirkendall’s snug but spare OTR gem—they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner like a true neighborhood spot—features an engaging wine program aimed at broadening your palate alongside small plates that are equally ambitious. Classic technique and fresh produce anchor an approachable menu—“everything” biscuits with cured salmon, burgers, and chicken salad sandwiches are available at lunch, and the cauliflower with sambal is a comforting mash-up of a rich cauliflower-and-coconutcream schmear topped with a head of sambal-roasted cauliflower, grapefruit segments, toasted cashews, and cilantro. This is not to say that the proteins aren’t something special. Traditionally a much less expensive cut, the small hanger steak was decidedly tender, served with braised cippolini onions and sauteed mushrooms.

118 W. 15th St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 381-1969, plea santryotr.com. Dinner Tues–Sat, brunch Fri–Sun. MCC. $ Top 10

PLEASE

Please began as a series of pop-up dinners created by chef-owner Ryan Santos. The menu is

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divided into four courses: cold appetizers, hot appetizers, main courses, and dessert. Much of Please’s inventiveness rises from its focus on local ingredients. There is a painterly sense in the composition of their dishes that rivals any restaurant in the city. And like all dyed-in-the-wool creatives, Santos and crew are constantly innovating and updating. (Which means the menu is constantly changing, so the dishes mentioned here are merely examples.) Take the plate of de Puy lentils with beets and white asparagus. The beet was sliced into thin sheets and rolled into tubes with the lentils inside. Each roll could be eaten in a single elegant bite, the dark, earthy lentils surrounded by the sweetness of the beets.

1405 Clay St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 405-8859, pleasecincinnati.com. Dinner Wed–Sat. MCC. $$$

THE PRESIDENTS ROOM

FRESH GIG

Following the closure of Covington’s Inspirado, Unionbased Farmstand Market & Café owner Tricia Houston reached out to the restaurant’s former chef and owner, Baron Shirley. He now heads up her second location in Newport’s Wooden Cask taproom. The hot-and-cold menu features items from the original location, along with pork shank “hot wings” slathered in barbecue sauce and a pressed Cuban sandwich made with Wooden Cask blonde ale–braised pork shoulder. thefarm

steadmarket.com

This newest incarnation of the Phoenix event center’s main dining area, chef Jeremy Luers takes on homey European classics and adds a soupçon of modern sensibility. His menu demonstrates a surprising range of pasta dishes, and the tonarelli is one example that soars; toothy spaghetti-like noodles mingle with cockles—tiny saltwater clams—and salty ham hock. Entrées are formidable and priced to match. A boneless beef short rib is prepared sauerbraten style, braised in red wine thickened with gingersnaps and served atop pureed Yukon Gold potatoes and braised red cabbage. Luers’s piece de resistance is his choucroute garni royale, an Alsatian hot pot studded with pork, potatoes, and kraut.

Meant to be split between two to three diners, the dish may require independent arbitration for the pork belly and spare ribs. 812 Race St., downtown, (513) 721-2260, thepresidentsrm.com.

Dinner Thurs–Sat. MCC. $$

THE QUARTER BISTRO The Quarter Bistro has multiple personalities: one part clubby neighborhood joint, one part dinner and a movie with a dash of lusty romance.

The Bistro Burger, a half-pound of black Angus beef, is seasoned but not overly so, with a sturdy-but-not-too-chewy bun. The 18-hour short ribs are the star, and reason enough to skip the movie next door. Braised into a flavor bomb of meat candy, it’s served with papardelle pasta, roasted vegetables, and onion straws. With the no-lip service, The Quarter Bistro could be well on the way to making middle age look sexy.

6904 Wooster Pike, Mariemont, (513) 271-5400, qbcincy.com. Dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$

RUTH’S PARKSIDE CAFÉ The spiritual successor of Mullane’s Parkside Café, Ruth’s brings back the vegetable-forward menu with a few concessions to contemporary tastes. Dinner options now include steaks and heavier, braised entrées. But the stir-fries, beans and rice, pasta, and the traditional option to add a protein to an entrée (tofu, tempeh, chicken, or local chorizo) for a $2 upcharge are all old standards. While dishes are generally hearty, they are rarely too rich, leaving room to freely consider dessert. There are a small selection of baked goods, including a chocolate bundt cake, homemade fruit pies, and Madisono’s Gelato.

1550 Blue Rock St., Northside, (513) 542-7884, ruthscafe.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$

SACRED BEAST Sacred Beast advertises itself as a kind of upscale diner, but the real gems for me are the oddball dishes that don’t quite fit the diner mold.

The menu can be disorienting in its eclecticism: foie gras torchon is next to shrimp fries, and a haute cuisine watermelon salad with piped puffs of avocado mousse is next to a diner breakfast and deviled eggs. Winners are scattered throughout the menu in every category. On the cocktail list, the Covington Iced Tea, a lemon and coffee

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concoction made with cold brew, San Pellegrino, and vodka is oddly satisfying. The service is good, and there is some flair about the place—including vintage touches, from the facsimile reel-to-reel audio system to the mostly classic cocktails— even within its rather chilly industrial design.

In short, go for the late night grub; stay for the elegant, shareable twists on classic snacks.

vor of earth, wood, and char makes this a classic dish for enjoying, not for analyzing. That’s exactly what culinary students should be striving for. 3520 Central Parkway, Clifton, (513) 569-

1437 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 213-2864, sacredbeastdiner.com. Lunch, dinner, and late night seven days. MCC. $$

Jean-François Flechet’s waffle empire grew from a back counter of Madison’s grocery at Findlay Market to multiple full-service sit-down spots.

There’s more on the menu than the authentic Belgian treat, though it would be a crime to miss the chicken and waffles: a dense, yeasty waffle topped with a succulent buttermilk fried chicken breast, Frank’s hot sauce, and maple syrup. There are also frites, of course, and croquettes—molten Emmenthaler cheese sticks— plus a gem of a Bolognese. And let’s not forget the beer. Six rotating taps offer some of the best the Belgians brew, not to mention those made in town. 1133 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 381-

SALAZAR A freewheeling tour through Korean, Moroccan, Italian, and French flavors—and that’s just on one iteration of the ever-evolving menu. Salazar turns out fresh, well-balanced dishes dotted with seasonal surprises: the cauliflower steak special (a Moroccan spiced, seared wedge of the cruciferous vegetable complemented by a strong hit of lemon), the chicken liver mousse (so good it deserves its own trophy), and the succulent chicken Milanese (with its musky, sweet-and-sour notes of ground cherry). With its bustling bar and cheek-by-jowl tables, Salazar hums with energy at every meal. 1401 Republic St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 621-7000, salazarcincin nati.com. Lunch Thurs–Fri, dinner Mon–Sat, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

SARTRE Complete with patina girders and paintings of existentialist philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, this establishment possesses a French-inspired ethos without a hint of stuffiness. Elemental American favorites are utilized in dishes such as the tender short-rib entrée with creamed cabbage and celery root puree, or the soft, doughy sweet potato “beignets.” The cocktails, many of which are named after Sartre’s books, are elaborate and complex while often being anchored in classic combinations. Adjacent to Rhinegeist’s brewery and taproom, it serves exclusive craft beers—like the tart, refreshing grisette Being—that aren’t available in stores. Elegant, satisfying, and smart, Sartre succeeds at everything it sets out to accomplish. 1910 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 579-1910, sartreotr.com. Dinner Wed–Sun, brunch Sun. $$$

SENATE Ever since it began dishing out its lo-fi eats, Chef Dan Wright’s gastropub has been operating at a velocity few can match. From the howl and growl of supremely badass hot dogs to the palate-rattling poutine, Senate has led the charge in changing the local conventional wisdom about what makes a great restaurant. Consumption of mussels charmoula means either ordering additional grilled bread to soak up every drop of the herby, saffron-laced broth or drinking the remainder straight from the bowl and perfectly crisped and seasoned fries inspire countless return visits.

1212 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine (513) 421-2020, sen atepub.com; 1100 Summit Place Dr., Blue Ash, (513) 769-0099, senateblueash.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sat. (Blue Ash only: Brunch, lunch, and dinner Sun.) MC, V, DS. $

THE SUMMIT This “laboratory restaurant” staffed by Midwest Culinary Institute students features a limited but eclectic menu. Soft shell crab goes Latin with black beans, avocado, lime, and chiles. Spanish mackerel is given a Mediterranean twist with yogurt, cucumbers, pickled red onion, and chickpeas. A more traditional pasta dish of hand cut pappardelle with prosciutto, peas, and Parmesan makes an appearance alongside a Kurabota (the pork equivalent of Kobe beef) “hot dog.” Some dishes work better than others: There is redemption in a rustic combination of morels with cream, shallots, and tangy, smoky Idiazábal sheep’s milk cheese. The complex fla-

4980, midwestculinary.com. Dinner Thurs–Sat. MCC, DS. $$

TASTE OF BELGIUM

4607, and other locations, authenticwaffle.com.

Breakfast and lunch Mon–Sat, dinner Tues–Sat, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

20 BRIX Paul Barraco mixes Mediterranean influences with homespun choices, and he comes up with some marvelous food. Lamb meatballs with melted leeks and romesco sauce are sweet and peppery, and their simplicity partners well with a lush Zinfandel. And his chicken and waffles could inspire you to regularly take a solo seat at the bar. The excellent wine list, arranged by flavor profiles rather than varietals, features dozens of varieties by the glass in five-ounce or twoounce pours, which makes it easy to try several.

101 Main St., Milford, (513) 831-2749, 20brix.com.

Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DS, DC. $$

TERANGA West African cuisine consists of mostly simple, home-style dishes of stews and grilled lamb with just enough of the exotic to offer a glimpse of another culture. Be prepared for a few stimulating sights and flavors that warm from within. An entire grilled tilapia—head and all—in a peppery citrus marinade and served on plantains with a side of Dijon-coated cooked onions is interesting enough to pique foodie interest without overwhelming the moderate eater. Stews of lamb or chicken with vegetables and rice are a milder bet, and Morrocan-style couscous with vegetables and mustard sauce accompanies most items. The dining room atmosphere is extremely modest with most of the action coming from the constant stream of carryout orders. 8438 Vine St., Hartwell, (513) 821-1300, terangacinci.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, check. $

THE WINDS CAFÉ Located about an hour north of Cincinnati, the Winds opened in 1977 as a collectively owned cafe in the staunchly liberal town of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Chef Kim Korkan uses local farmers’ products to create natural, wholesome food on the menu, which changes every two months. Winter root vegetables, smoky sauces, and game give way to spring lamb, asparagus crepes with fresh chives and house-made ricotta, and wild river salmon with squid ink linguine and lemon cream. Walleye, halibut, swordfish, and shrimp appear on summer menus, while the bounty of vegetables and fruits moves to center stage. This is mindful cuisine, based on the best the Earth has to offer. 215 Xenia Ave., Yellow Springs, (937) 767-1144, windscafe.com. Lunch and dinner Tues– Sat, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

ZULA For a restaurant whose name loosely derives from an Israeli slang term for “hidden treasure,” it seems apt that a dish or two might sneak in and stun—like the mussels Marseilles, with its

bouillabaisse-style broth, rich with saffron, tomato, and fennel. But Zula is no one-trick pony. With a woodfired oven on the premises, it’s incumbent on you to try the flatbreads. One zula is the eggplant option, where caramelized onions and marinated red bell peppers pair well with subtly sweet fontina. Not every bite at Zula is a game-changer, but one is all you need. 1400 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 744-9852, zulabistro.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$

FRENCH CHEZ RENÉE FRENCH BISTROT

Based on American stereotypes of French food— that it’s elaborate, elitist, and expensive—one might expect Chez Renee to fall on the chichi side. Instead, it’s elegant in an everyday way, operating on the principle that it is better to excel at simplicity than to badly execute something complicated. The formula is not complex: Simple ingredients, generally fresh and from nearby, prepared without much fuss. Asparagus is beautifully roasted and perfectly salted, and the quiche Lorraine (yes, the old standby) has a nice, firm texture, and a fine balance of bacon, mushrooms, and oignons (to quote the menu, which is a charming hodgepodge of French and English). This is solid, tasty food, both approachable and well executed. It’s well on its way to becoming, as a good bistrot should be, a neighborhood institution. 233 Main St., Milford, (513) 428-0454, chezreneefrenchbistrot.com.

Lunch and dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$

JEAN-ROBERT’S TABLE

No other chef in town has as much presence as JeanRobert de Cavel, and no other restaurant is steeped in such a singular personality. Who else could conjure up a surf and turf tartare of steak and salmon, or try his hand at a luxurious “haute pocket” (a.k.a., a vol au vent), cramming obscene amounts of lobster and succotash into airy layers of buttery puff pastry? But these touches are more than mere outré Gallic insouciance. Always lurking in the background is a reverence for the classics: Filet mignon cooked so skillfully that the meat maintains that textbook tinge of sourness; frites so crisp that your burger blushes. De Cavel shows us how not to simply pay lip service to staid Old World traditions, but how to find vitalité in their modern antecedents. 713 Vine St., downtown, (513) 621-4777, jeanroberttable.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DS. $$

LE BAR A BOEUF

Jean-Robert de Cavel’s upscale alterna-burger-shack features bifteck haché, ground beef patties that are a mainstay of French family dinners, according to de Cavel.

His “Les Ground Meat” is available in beef, Wagyu beef, bison, lamb, and fish (a blend of albacore tuna and salmon).

Portions are eight ounces, taller than a typical burger, and seared on the kitchen’s iron griddle. It’s easy to turn many of the generously portioned appetizers into dinner. Pair the open-faced beef tongue “French Dip” sandwich with a spinach salad and you’ll have one of the best choices in the house. Or go for mac-and-cheese. The lobster mac always sounds lush, but do consider the humble beef cheek version, enlivened by a touch of truffle oil, instead.

INDIAN AMMA’S KITCHEN

Muthu “Kumar” Muthiah serves traditional southern Indian and Indo-Chinese vegetarian cuisine, but with a sizable Orthodox Jewish community nearby, Muthia saw an opportunity: If he was going to cook vegetarian, why not also make it kosher? Muthiah prepares every item— from the addictively crunchy gobhi Manchurian, a spicy Chinese cauliflower dish, to the lemon pickle, tamarind, and mint sauces—entirely from scratch under the careful eye of Rabbi Michoel Stern. Always 80 percent vegan, the daily lunch buffet is 100 percent animal-product-free on Wednesdays. Tuck into a warm and savory channa masala (spiced chickpeas) or malai kofta (vegetable dumplings in tomato sauce) from the curry menu. Or tear into a crispy, two-foot diameter dosa (chickpea flour crepe) stuffed with spiced onions and potatoes. 7633 Reading Rd., Roselawn, (513) 821-2021, ammaskitchen.com. Lunch buffet seven days (all-vegan on Wed), dinner seven days. MC, V, DS. $

BOMBAY BRAZIER

Indian food in America is hard to judge, because whether coming from the kitchen of a takeout joint or from a nicer establishment, the food will rarely taste all that different.

It will generally be some twist on Punjabi cuisine. Bombay Brazier does it just right. Chef Rip Sidhu could serve his tadka dal in India, along with several other extraordinary dishes, and still do a roaring business—and this is not something that can be said of most Indian establishments in America. Try the papdi chaat, a common Indian street food rarely found on American menus, and you will see what sets this place apart. They do everything the way it is supposed to be done, from the dusting of kala namak (a pungent black rock salt) on the fried crisps to the mixture of tamarind and mint chutneys on the chopped onion, tomatoes, and chickpeas—having this dish properly made is balm to the soul of a homesick immigrant, and fresh treasure for any American lover of this cuisine. 7791 Cooper Rd., #5, Montgomery, (513) 794-0000, bombaybra ziercincy.com. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$$

BRIJ MOHAN

Order at the counter the way you might at a fast food joint, except the shakes come in mango and there’s no super-sizing your mint lassi. The saag, full of cream in most northern Indian restaurants, is as intensely flavored as collard greens in the Deep South—real Punjabi soul food. Tarka dal is spectacular here, the black lentils smoky from charred tomatoes and onions, and the pani puri, hollow fried shells into which you spoon a peppery cold broth, burst with tart cool crunch. Follow the spice with soothing ras malai, freshly made cheese simmered in thick almond-flavored milk, cooled and sprinkled with crushed pistachios. 11259 Reading Rd., Sharonville, (513) 769-4549, brijmohancincinnati.com. Lunch and dinner Tues– Sun. MC, V, DC. $

I TA L I A N A TAVOLA

From the moment you enter Restaurant L’s luxurious, silvery cocoon, you want for nothing—even your handbag gets its own tufted perch—with the staff geared to anticipate your every desire. Unbidden, an amuse-bouche arrives, an inspired combination of sassafras, fennel, and grapes that signals to your palate what your eyes have already registered: Somebody—no, everybody—here loves me. Sweet, succulent Jonah crab, tender squab with beurre rouge sauce, flaky snapper and silky foie gras are given seasonal treatment by JeanRobert de Cavel, who is in full command in the kitchen while Richard Brown holds sway in the dining room.

In 2011, Jared Wayne opened A Tavola Pizza with two friends just as OTR was blowing up. A Ferrara pizza oven was ordered from Italy; Wayne, a skilled woodworker, built custom tables; and the menu was fleshed in with trendy crowd-pleasers like charcuterie and craft cocktails. Fastforward three years. Brother Nick is now a co-owner, and the Waynes have opened a second pizzeria: A Tavola Madeira capitalizes on the menu from the Vine Street location, including the fresh and zesty asparagus, artichoke, and feta pizza on a Neapolitan crust; gooey mozzarella-filled arancini, or risotto fritters; and the unequaled Blue Oven English muffin eggplant sliders. Wash down your small plates with a glass of crisp and grassy Sannio falanghina or an ice-cold Peroni lager. Not ones to rest on their laurels, they also fire up a third Italian import—an Italforni Bull Oven—for their take on Roman-style pies (with a thinner, crispier crust). They’re definitely going to need a bigger parking lot.

301 Fourth St., downtown, (513) 760-5525, lcincinnati. com. Lunch Fri, dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$$$

7022 Miami Ave., Madeira, (513) 272-0192, atavolapizza. com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $

2200 Victory Pkwy., East Walnut Hills, (513) 751-2333, barboeuf.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$ Top 10

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ADRIATICO’S

Everything about this place says it’s about the pizza: the herbed sauce, the assault of the cheese, the toppings.

It’s all evenly distributed, so you get a taste in every bite.

Adriatico’s still delivers the tastiest pizza in Clifton. On any given night the aroma wafts through every dorm on campus. It’s that popular because it’s that good. Being inexpensive doesn’t hurt either. 113 W. McMillan St., Clifton Heights, (513) 281-4344, adriaticosuc.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $

BETTA’S ITALIAN OVEN

Our new favorite Italian place hits the spot on all levels.

It’s casual—we felt at home in jeans and a T-shirt—but not so casual to rule it out as a date-night spot. It’s friendly, with a staff that stays on top of refilling that Morretti La Rossa beer. And best of all, the food is amazing (especially for the price). We ranked their pizza the best in the city.

Dubious? Their pizza Margherita will make a believer out of you. Their lasagna, spaghetti, and eggplant Parmesan will have you crying Mama Mia and other Italian-sounding phrases. Their dessert options (Cannoli! Tiramisu! Amaretto cream cake!) are all homemade, and delicious to the very last bite. 3764 Montgomery Rd., Norwood, (513) 631-6836. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner Mon–Sat. MC, V. $$

FORNO

Cristian Pietoso’s second restaurant has all the bones of an upscale eatery, but the menu is infused with enough Italian soul to make nonna proud. In most instances, raving about a side of creamed corn wouldn’t bode well for the rest of the menu. Here, that side dish—kernels swimming in a pool of truffle-laced heavy cream that demands sopping up—is evidence that each component prepared by chef de cuisine Stefano Carne is purpose-driven. The red wine–braised honeycomb tripe, which carries a warning label (“Don’t be scared!”), and the pappardelle with spiced cinghiale (wild boar) ragu are examples of the elevated, adventurous comfort food that Pietoso strives for.

3514 Erie Ave., East Hyde Park (513) 818-8720, fornoosteri abar.com. Dinner Tues–Sun, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

NICOLA’S

Nicola’s is so fluently on the mark that other Italian restaurants on American soil can sometimes feel contrived.

It begins with the charming Nicola “Nick” Pietoso, who has steadily built a service staff that operates with consistent proficiency and palpable warmth. The elegantly set tables don’t overwhelm the familial or neighborhood quality of the environment, and the menu blends the cornerstones of Italian cuisine with innovative touches. The handmade pastas are as memorable as your first kiss, and the seemingly haute meat and seafood entrées—chicken with spinach gnudi, celery root, and apple; and salmon with fennel and farro among them—are thoroughly rooted in the bold and simple. 1420 Sycamore St., Pendleton, (513) 7216200, nicolasotr.com. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DC, DS. $$$

PADRINO

This sister restaurant to 20 Brix is also owned and operated by the Thomas family and their superstar Executive Chef Paul Barraco, who brings his passion for the slow food movement to the Padrino menu. Billed as “Italian comfort food,” Padrino offers the classics (like lasagna and chicken carbonara) plus hoagies and meatball sliders, an impressive wine list, seasonal martinis, and a decadent signature appetizer—garlic rolls, doughy buns smothered in olive oil and garlic. Best of all, Barraco’s pizza sauce, which is comprised of roasted tomatoes and basil, is so garden-fresh that one can’t help but wonder: If this is real pizza, what have we been eating all these years?

111 Main St., Milford, (513) 965-0100, padrinoitalian.com.

Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$

PRIMAVISTA

Besides offering the old world flavors of Italy, Primavista also serves up a specialty no other restaurant can match: a bird’s eye view of Cincinnati from the west side. The kitchen is equally comfortable with northern and southern regional specialties: a Venetian carpaccio of paper thin raw beef sparked by fruity olive oil; house-made fresh mozzarella stuffed with pesto and mushrooms; or artichoke hearts with snails and mushrooms in a creamy Gorgonzola sauce from Lombardy. Among the classics, nothing is more restorative than the pasta e fagioli, a J U N E 2 0 1 9 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 1 0 7

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hearty soup of cannellini, ditali pasta, and bacon. Most of the pastas are cooked just a degree more mellow than al dente so that they soak up the fragrant tomato basil or satiny cream sauces. The fork-tender osso buco Milanese, with its marrow-filled center bone and salty-sweet brown sauce (marinara and lemon juice), is simply superb. Desserts present further problems; you’ll be hard-pressed to decide between the house-made tiramisu or bread pudding with caramel sauce, marsala soaked raisins, and cream. 810 Matson Pl., Price Hill, (513) 251-6467, pvista. com. Dinner Tues–Sun. MCC, DC, DS. $$

SOTTO

small touches add sophistication. Carnaroli rice results in a glossier, starchier dish. A puree of asparagus turns the risotto an eye-popping green, and the poached lobster garnish creates a nice back-and-forth between vegetal and briny flavors. Braised lamb shank over polenta is comforting workhorse, and the flavorful beef eye of rib atop an umami bomb of porcini-marsala gravy intrduces an unusual garnish—a rich corn flan. 520 Vine St., downtown,

tradition. Sushi is still the star, so put yourself in the hands of the chef and order the sashimi omakase (chef’s selection of sliced raw fish). White tuna was robust and meaty while the bluefin was more complex. Even the workhorse Atlantic salmon was a revelation. 3940 Olympic Blvd., Erlanger,

(513) 721-8483, viaviterestaurant.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner seven days, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC, DS. $$

KYOTO

J A PA N E S E ANDO

Rustic textures and approachable presentations are juxtaposed with sublime flavors in dishes like the tartare di fassone (beef tartar with lemon and bread crumbs) and house-made blood sausage with squash and mustard greens. For hearty appetites, there’s the one-kilo Bistecca Fiorentina, a massive porterhouse that arrives on a sizzling platter, but we recommend the small plates: the ethereally smooth chicken liver mousse, the grilled quail with seasonal vegetable, and the short rib cappellacci with thyme and browned butter. Only the most strict teetotalers will want to skip the wine. Grab a glass of Gavi or split a bottle of Vajra barolo with someone special. 118 E. Sixth

You don’t go just anywhere to dine on uni sashimi (sea urchin) or tanshio (thinly sliced charcoal-grilled beef tongue). Don’t miss the rich and meaty chyu toro (fatty big-eye tuna), or the pucker-inducing umeshiso maki (pickled plum paste and shiso leaf roll). Noodles are also well represented, with udon, soba, or ramen options available.

And don’t forget to ask about the specials; owners Ken and Keiko Ando always have something new, be it oysters, pork belly, or steamed monkfish liver, a Japanese delicacy that you’ll be hard-pressed to find in any of those Hyde Park pan-Asian wannabes. The only thing you won’t find here is sake, or any other alcohol. Bring your own, or stick to the nutty and outright addicting barley tea. 5889 Pfeiffer

St., downtown, (513) 977-6886, sottocincinnati.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$

Rd., Blue Ash, (513) 791-8687, andojapaneserestaurant.com.

Lunch Tues–Thurs, dinner Tues–Sun . MCC. $$$

VIA VITE

JO AN JAPANESE

Top 10

Cristian Pietoso serves up crowd-pleasing entrées, including the Pietoso family Bolognese, over penne, right on Fountain Square. (Add in a golf-ball-sized veal meatball heavy with lemon zest, and it’s an over-the-top comforting main dish.) The same applies to the risotto, where a few

Once you get past the Muzak, fluorescent lighting, and vaguely clinical color scheme of the building it’s buried in, Jo An is a veritable garden of serenity—relaxing daffodil- and olive-colored walls, humble wooden tables, and a 10-seat sushi bar. The cuisine here is deeply rooted in

(859) 746-2634, joanjapanese.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$

Owner Jason Shi seems to know everybody’s name as he chats up diners, guiding them through the extensive sushi and sashimi menu. Five young sushi chefs, all part of Shi’s family, work at light speed behind the bar, a choreography backlit by rows of gleaming liquor bottles. Dinner proceeds with glorious chaos as a feisty Carla Tortelli–like server delivers one dish after another—slivers of giant clam on ice in a super-sized martini glass, a volcanic tower of chopped fatty tuna hidden inside overlapping layers of thin avocado slices, smoky grilled New Zealand mussels drizzled with spicy mayo, and delicate slices of a samurai roll—all between shots of chilled sake. 12082 Montgomery Rd., Symmes Twp., (513) 583-8897, kyotosushibar.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $$

MATSUYA

At this relaxed little sushi boutique, try ordering kaiseki, a traditional six-course meal that features a succession of small plates but plenty of food. You might encounter an entire steamed baby octopus or yellowtail with daikon radish, pickled mackerel or deep-fried oysters. You can depend on cucumber or seaweed salad, tempura shrimp, a grilled meat or fish, and of course, sushi—and sometimes even the colorful Bento box sampler. There’s a Nabemono—tableside pot cooking—section on the menu featuring shabu shabu: slices of prime beef swished through bubbling seaweed broth just until the pink frosts with white.

Served with simmered vegetables, ponzu sauce, daikon, and scallions, the concentrated, slightly sour flavor of the beef is vivid. 7149 Manderlay Dr., Florence, (859) 746-

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(513) 421-6800

Historic Findlay Market 513-721-5743 • www.EckerlinMeats.com

1199, matsuya-ky.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner seven days.

MCC, DC, DS. $$

MIYOSHI

For too long, Japanese cuisine in America has meant miso soup, sushi and sashimi, and various grilled meats with teriyaki sauce. Yes, you can get excellent versions of all of these at Miyoshi, but what makes this restaurant truly special is the revelation of the true panorama of Japanese cuisine. From ochazuke (tea soup) with umeboshi (a salty-sour pickled plum) to shime saba, marinated mackerel in a delicately pickle-y broth of cucumber and vinegar, there are a dozen items not seen elsewhere. Anyone who enjoys sushi or miso broth has built the foundation to appreciate the rest of this cuisine. Cha soba, green tea noodles with shredded seaweed, chopped scallions, and a sweet and soupy broth, has a satisfying umami note, even served cold, and a pleasing bite with wasabi mixed in. The kinoko itame, sauteed shiitake and enoki mushrooms, is surprisingly buttery and sweet, showing a voluptuous quality rarely associated with this tradition, but a perfect counterpoint to the more austere offerings. 8660 Bankers St., Florence, (859) 525-6564, Top 10

miyoshirestaurant.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$$

KOREAN HARU

After the closing of Sung Korean Bistro, Haru is a welcome addition to the downtown scene. Dishes are served along with the usual Korean accompaniment of pickles, kimchi, fish cakes, and other mysteriously delicious dainties. A favorite is the japchae, a traditional dish sporting silky sweet potato noodles with sesame-and-garlic sauce, matchsticks of assorted crisp vegetables, and behind it all a wonderful smokiness that pervades the whole meal. The

accompanying pot of gochujang, a fermented Korean chili paste, adds its own sweet and spicy note. The result is a homey, soulful, and satisfying taste that appeals even to those who’ve never eaten a bite of Korean food before.

628 Vine St., downtown, (513) 381-0947, harucincy.com.

Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$

7876 Mason-Montgomery Rd., Mason, (513) 204-3456, sura korean.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$

RIVERSIDE KOREAN RESTAURANT

Come for the jo gi mae un tang—a bowl of sizzling, happy hellbroth pungent with red pepper, garlic, and ginger, crowded with nuggets of fish, tofu, and vegetables. Come for the restorative power of sam gae tang, a chicken soup for the Seoul—a whole Cornish hen submerged in its own juices and plumped with sticky rice and ginseng, dried red dates, and pine nuts. Revered for their medicinal properties, both dinner-sized soups will leave your eyes glistening and your brow beaded with sweat. They’re a detox for your overindulgence, rejuvenation for when you’re feeling under the weather. Expect crowds on weekends. Expect too, that dozens of them have come for dolsot bibimbap, the hot stone pots filled with layers of rice, vegetables, meat or tofu, egg, and chili paste. Characterized by its electric color and addictive flavors, Riverside Korean’s version is a captivating bowl of heaven. 512 Madison Ave., Covington, (859) 291-1484, riversidekoreanrestaurant.com.

Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$

SURA

pepper kimchi jjigae stew marries fermented Korean cabbage with hunks of tofu and shards of pork in a bubbling tomato-based broth. Make sure to order a bowl of the bone noodle soup for the table—a comforting combination of thick noodles and bits of flank steak floating in a umami-rich marrow broth that magically soothes the burn.

This traditional Korean oasis has been flying well beneath the radar since 2010. Don’t let the pepper count on the menu deter you. Each entrée arrives with purple rice and assorted small bites aimed at cutting the heat—steamed broccoli, pickled radishes, soy-sauce-marinated tofu, panfried fish cake, and housemade kimchi. Korean barbecue staple osam bulgogi—one of only two items meriting a three pepper rating—swiftly clears sinuses with a flavorful duo of pork belly and squid lashed with Korean red pepper paste and served on a sizzling skillet. The two-

MEDITERRANEAN ANDY’S MEDITERRANEAN GRILLE

In this lively joint with a burnished summer lodge interior of wood and stone, even the food is unrestrained: roughcut chunks of charbroiled beef tenderloin, big slices of onion and charred tomato turned sweet and wet in the heat, skewers of marinated and charbroiled chicken perched on rice too generous for its plate. Co-owner Andy Hajjar mans his station at the end of the bar, smoking a hookah pipe that fills the air with the sweet smell of flavored tobacco, while the friendly but hurried staff hustles through.

906 Nassau St., Walnut Hills, (513) 281-9791, andyskabob. com. Lunch Mon–Sat, dinner seven days. MCC. $$

CAFÉ MEDITERRANEAN

Chef-driven Middle Eastern cuisine leans heavily on Turkish tradition here. The baba ghanoush uses seared eggplant, which adds a pleasant smokiness to the final product. Börek is described as a “Turkish Egg Roll,” wrapping spinach, leeks, and goat cheese into phyllo dough, and baking it to brittle flakiness. The pastry arrives atop a vivid cherry tomato marmalade, which adds a welcome dimension of barely sweet fruitiness. While there is a smooth, simple hummus on the menu, you should go for the classic sucuklu hummus, which is spiked with sujuk, a common

Save the Date for AngelsFest 2019: June 7, 8, & 9

Carnival Games • Live Music • Rides • Food • Craft Beer Friday: 7:00pm-12:00am Live Entertainment: Vintage Gear Saturday: 6:00pm-12:00am Live Entertainment: Marshall Street Project Party Princess Productions will have characters on site Sunday: 4:00pm-9:00pm Live Entertainment: The Sly Band Golf ball drop from the football field

Stay up-to-date on all of the festival news on our website www.gaparish.org/festival

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beef sausage popular all over the Middle East.

3520 Erie Ave., East Hyde Park, (513) 871-8714, cafe-mediterranean.com. Lunch Mon–Sat, dinner seven days, Lunch Sun. MCC. $$

FLOYD’S Sure, you can go here for the great baked kibbeh, a blend of delicately spiced ground lamb, pine nuts, and onions, stuffed inside a shell of ground lamb, lamb fat, and bulgur wheat. Or you could visit for the vegetarian moussaka with eggplant, onions, tomatoes, and cilantro. But you’d be missing out on Floyd’s famous tender-crisp spit-roasted chicken and lima beans with chopped parsley, garlic, and olive oil. Not all of the specialties are the real Lebanese deal, but we’ll keep ordering them anyway. 127 Calhoun St., Clifton Heights, (513) 221-2434, floydsofcincy.com. Lunch Tues–Fri, dinner Tues–Sat. MC, V. $ Top 10

PHOENICIAN TAVERNA

To eat like a native, get lots of little plates and share. The baba ghanoush, smoky and creamy, is astoundingly good. Those who choose less familiar spreads like the muhammara, made from walnuts, red peppers, and pomegranate molasses, will also be richly rewarded. Whether you’re partial to standbys like falafel or tabbouleh, or willing to venture out a bit (try the tiny pine nut and lamb stuffed sausages called maanek), everything is reliably excellent. And with freshly made pita bread reappearing at the table like a magical maternal encouragement to eat just a little more, it will be hard to stop.

TACO ’BOUT IT

It’s not every day a customer becomes a silent partner to help a restaurant owner expand into additional markets, but that’s exactly what happened for Covington’s Agave & Rye. Yavonne Sarber, owner of the off beat taco, tequila, and bourbon restaurant, recently announced you’ll soon be able to nosh on those funky tacos at additional locations: first Lexington, then Liberty Township, followed

by Oakley.

agaveandrye.com

7944 S. Mason-Montgomery Rd., Mason, (513) 770-0027, phoeniciantaverna.com. Lunch Tues– Fri, dinner Tues–Sun. MCC. $$

SANTORINI Steak, eggs, and home fries. Jumbo haddock sandwich with Greek fries. Chocolate chip hot cakes with bacon. Notice something wrong with this menu? Chicken Philly cheese steak sandwich with Olympic onion rings. Yep, it’s obvious: What’s wrong with this menu is that there’s nothing wrong with this menu. Greek feta cheese omelette with a side of ham. It’s been owned by the same family for more than 30 years. Santorini has diner standards, like cheeseburgers, chili five ways, and breakfast anytime, but they also make some Greek pastries in house, like spanakopita and baklava. 3414 Harrison Ave., Cheviot, (513) 662-8080. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner Mon– Sat, breakfast and lunch Sun. Cash. $

SEBASTIAN’S When the wind is just right, you can smell the garlicky meat roasting from a mile away. Watch owner Alex Sebastian tend to the rotating wheels of beef and lamb, and you understand how Greek food has escaped the American tendency to appropriate foreign cuisines. Sebastian’s specializes in gyros, shaved off the stick, wrapped in thick griddle pita with onions and tomatoes, and served with cool tzatziki sauce. Alex’s wife and daughter run the counter with efficient speed, and whether you’re having a crisp Greek salad with house-made dressing, triangles of spanikopita, or simply the best walnut and honey baklava this side of the Atlantic (often made by the Mrs.), they never miss a beat, turning more covers in their tiny deli on one Saturday afternoon than some restaurants do in an entire weekend.

5209 Glenway Ave., Price Hill, (513) 471-2100, sebastiansgyros.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. Cash. $

SULTAN’S MEDITERRANEAN CUISINE The meze, a parade of small plates and appetizers—the refreshing yogurt dish with cucumber, mint, and garlic known as cacik, and its thicker cousin haydari, with chopped walnuts, dill, and garlic—is rounded out with flaky cheese or spin-

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ach boureks, falafels, soups, salads, and more, while baked casseroles or stuffed cabbage and eggplant dishes (dubbed “Ottoman specials”) augment the heavy focus on kebabs: chunks of lamb and beef on a vertical spit for the popular Döner kebab (a.k.a. Turkish gyro), peppery ground lamb for the Adana kebab, or cubed and marinated for the Shish kebab. 7305 Tyler’s Corner Dr., West Chester, (513) 847-1535, sultanscincin nati.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$

MEXICAN EL MESON The last place you’d expect to find a lively panLatin restaurant is among the stark concrete environment of gas stations and dollar stores in West Carrollton. Nearly two dozen tapas are featured throughout the menu, and ordering a handful is one of the best ways to experience El Meson. Gambas al Ajillo may be the best small plate: Sauteed shrimp swimming in oil brick-red from pepper, resonant with garlic, crisp-charred along the edges of the bowl. The house-made chorizo, smoky-dark and buzzy from good Spanish paprika, goes well with the “tapa mixta espana,” a sampler of roasted red peppers, olives, caperberries, crusty bread, and cubes of slightly tangy Manchego cheese.

Servers confidently make recommendations and patiently help you navigate the crazy-busy menu. You won’t necessarily feel ignited by the blazing sun of the southern hemisphere, but El Meson is authentic enough to have you imagining a few chickens scratching around the parking lot.

This is one family fiesta worth showing up for.

903 E. Dixie Dr., West Carrollton, (937) 859-8229, elmeson.net. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner Mon–Sat. $$

EL VALLE VERDE Guests with dietary issues, high anxiety, and no Spanish may take a pass, but for hardy souls, this taqueria delivers a memorable evening. Seafood dishes are the star here—ceviche tostadas, crisp corn tortillas piled high with pico de gallo, avocado, and lime-tastic bits of white fish, squid, and crab; the oversized goblet of cocktel campechano, with ample poached shrimp crammed into a Clamato-heavy gazpacho; and simmering sopa de marisco came with langoustines, mussels, crab legs, and an entire fish—enough to feed three. 6717 Vine St., Carthage, (513) 821-5400.

Lunch and dinner seven days. $

HABAÑERO It’s easy to find a cheap burrito place around a college campus, but you’d be hard-pressed to find one as consistently good as Habañero, with its flavors of Latin America and the Caribbean wrapped up in enormous packages. Fried tilapia, apricot-glazed chicken breast, hand-rubbed spiced flank steak, shredded pork tenderloin, or cinnamon-roasted squash are just some of the ingredients for Habañero’s signature burritos. All salsas are house-made, from the smoky tomato chipotle to the sweet-sounding mango jalapeño, which is hot enough to spark spontaneous combustion. 358 Ludlow Ave., Clifton, (513) 961-6800, habanerolatin.com. Lunch and dinner seven days.

MCC, DC, DS. $

MAZUNTE Mazunte runs a culinary full court press, switching up specials to keep both regulars and staff engaged. Tamales arrive swaddled in a banana leaf, the shredded pork filling steeped in a sauce fiery with guajillo and ancho chilies yet foiled by the calming sweetness of raisins. The fried mahi-mahi tacos are finished with a citrusy red and white cabbage slaw that complements the accompanying mango-habañero salsa. With

this level of authentic yet fast-paced execution, a slightly greasy pozole can be easily forgiven.

Don’t miss the Mexican Coke and self-serve sangria (try the blanco), or the cans of Rhinegeist and MadTree on ice. 5207 Madison Rd., Madisonville, (513) 785-0000, mazuntetacos.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat, brunch Sun. MCC. $

MONTOYA’S Mexican places seem to change hands in this town so often that you can’t get the same meal twice. Montoya’s is the exception. They’ve been hidden in a tiny strip mall off the main drag in Ft. Mitchell for years. It’s unpretentious and seemingly not interested in success, which means success has never gone to their head here. At a place where you can get Huracan Fajitas with steak, chicken, and chorizo or Tilapia Asada, the tacos are still a big item. 2507 Chelsea Dr., Ft. Mitchell, (859) 341-0707. Lunch and dinner Tues– Sun. MC, V, DS. $

NADA The brains behind Boca deliver authentic, contemporary, high-quality Mexican fare downtown.

You’ll find a concise menu, including tacos, salads and sides, large plates, and desserts.

Tacos inspired by global cuisine include the Señor Mu Shu (Modelo and ginger braised pork) and fried avocado (chipotle bean purée). The ancho-glazed pork shank with chili-roasted carrots comes with a papaya guajillo salad (order it for the table); dreamy mac-and-cheese looks harmless, but there’s just enough of a roasted poblano and jalapeño punch to have you reaching for another icy margarita. 600 Walnut St., downtown, (513) 721-6232, eatdrinknada.com.

Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner seven days, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC, DS. $$

TAQUERIA MERCADO On a Saturday night, Taqueria Mercado is a lively fiesta, with seemingly half of the local Hispanic community guzzling margaritas and cervezas, or carrying out sacks of burritos and carnitas tacos—pork tenderized by a long simmer, its edges frizzled and crispy. The Mercado’s strip mall interior, splashed with a large, colorful mural, is equally energetic: the bustling semi-open kitchen; a busy counter that handles a constant stream of take-out orders; a clamorous, convivial chatter in Spanish and English. Try camarones a la plancha, 12 chubby grilled shrimp tangled with grilled onions (be sure to specify if you like your onions well done). The starchiness of the rice absorbs the caramelized onion juice, offset by the crunch of lettuce, buttery slices of avocado, and the cool-hot pico de gallo. A shrimp quesadilla paired with one of their cheap and potent margaritas is worth the drive alone. 6507 Dixie Hwy., Fairfield, (513) 942-4943; 100 E. Eighth St., downtown, (513) 381-0678, tmercadocincy.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $

SEAFOOD McCORMICK & SCHMICK’S The daily rotation here reads like a fisherman’s wish list: fresh lobsters from the coast of Maine, ahi tuna from Hawaii, North Carolina catfish, Massachusetts cod. But high-quality ingredients are only half the equation; preparation is the other. Flaky Parmesan-crusted tilapia, with a squeeze of lemon, makes the taste buds dance.

The spacious digs and attentive waitstaff bring a touch of class to Fountain Square, and make it a sophisticated destination. It’s likely to remain a favorite. After all, it’s right in the middle of things. 21 E. Fifth St., downtown, (513) 721-9339, mccormickandschmicks.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DC, DS. $$

PELICAN’S REEF

Over the years Chef John Broshar has developed his niche, inspired by the seasonal availability of fish obtained daily from one or more of the purveyors he uses. Malabar snapper and swordfish from Hawaii, Australian triple tail, wild Alaskan salmon, wreckfish from South Carolina, Florida yellow tail, rainbow trout, and wild striped bass are just some of the varieties that rotate through the extensive features listed on a 10-foot by 2-foot chalkboard. The regular offerings are no slouch: Grilled grouper sandwich with chipotle tartar sauce, chubby fish tacos, perfectly fried piping hot oysters tucked into a buttered and toasted po’ boy bun with housemade slaw, and tart-sweet key lime pie.

And of course, the damn good New England style chowder.

7261 Beechmont Ave., Anderson Twp., (513) 232-2526, the pelicansreef.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DS. $$

STEAKS CARLO & JOHNNY

The stars of the menu are 11 delectable steaks that could sway the vegi-curious to recommit. Not sure which to choose? If you prefer brawny flavor over buttery texture, go for one of the three bone-in rib cuts. Or if it’s that meltin-your-mouth experience that raises your serotonin levels, C&J features several tenderloin cuts, including the hard to find bone-in filet. There are the usual suspects of chops, et al, but we found the Kentucky bison strip steak one of the more interesting beef alternatives. 9769 Montgomery Rd., Montgomery, (513) 936-8600, jeffruby.com. Dinner seven days. MCC. $$$$

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD

Chef Michelle Brown’s food is deeply flavored, if occasionally a bit busy, her steaks of the buttery-mild variety, with not too much salty char crust. All seven cuts are served with veal demi-glace and fried onion straws. According to my steak-centric dining partner, his cowboy rib eye is “too tender and uniform” (as if that’s a crime). “I like to wrestle with the bone,” he adds, though that’s a scenario that, thankfully, doesn’t get played out in this subdued dining room. 5980 West Chester Rd., West Chester, (513) 860-5353, jags.com. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DC. $$$

JEFF RUBY’S

Filled most nights with local scenesters and power brokers (and those who think they are), everything in this urban steakhouse is generous—from the portions to the expert service to the, er, cleavage. Black-jacketed waiters with white floor-length aprons deliver two-fisted martinis and stacks of king crab legs, or mounds of greens dressed in thin vinaigrettes or thick, creamy emulsions. An occasional salmon or sea bass appears, and there’s a small but decent assortment of chops—lamb, veal, and pork. But most customers, even the willowy model types, inhale slabs of beef (dry aged USDA prime) like they’re dining in a crack house for carnivores. The best of these is Jeff Ruby’s Jewel, nearly a pound-and-a-half of bone-in rib eye. This is steak tailormade for movers and shakers. 700 Walnut St., downtown, (513) 784-1200, jeffruby.com. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$$$

MORTON’S THE STEAKHOUSE

No one has replicated the concept of an expensive boys’ club better than Morton’s. Amid the dark polished woods and white linen, the Riedel stemware and stupendous flower arrangements, assorted suits grapple with double cut filet mignons, 24 ounces of porterhouse, pink shiny slabs of prime rib, overflowing plates of salty Lyonnaise potatoes, or mammoth iceberg wedges frosted with thick blue cheese dressing. Jumbo is Morton’s decree: Oversized martini and wine glasses, ethereal towering lemon soufflés, roomy chairs, and tables large enough for a plate and a laptop. Even steaks billed as “slightly smaller” weigh in at 8 to 10 ounces. 441 Vine St., downtown, (513) 6213111, mortons.com. Dinner seven days. MCC. $$$

THE PRECINCT

Part of the appeal of the Ruby restaurants is their ability to deliver deep, comfort-food satisfaction. And the steaks.

The meat is tender with a rich mineral flavor, and the

peppercorn crust provided a nice crunch, not to mention blazing heat. The supporting cast is strong—the basket of warm Sixteen Bricks bread with a mushroom truffle butter, the addictive steakhouse-standard onion straws, the creamy garlic mashed potatoes, the crisp-tender asparagus topped with a sprinkle of chopped nuts and hazelnut vinaigrette—and dinner ends on a sweet note with a piece of Ruby family recipe cheesecake. Neither cloyingly sweet nor overwhelmingly creamy, it’s a lovely slice of restraint.

311 Delta Ave., Columbia-Tusculum (513) 321-5454, jef fruby.com/precinct. Dinner seven days. MCC. $$$$

TONY’S

He is a captivating presence, Tony Ricci. Best known for his 30 years in fine dining—including the Jeff Ruby empire while managing the venerable Precinct—Ricci has built a life in the hospitality industry. Much of Tony’s menu is right out of a steakhouse playbook: jumbo shrimp and king crab legs from the raw bar; Caprese, Greek, and Caesar salads; sides of creamed spinach, mac-and-cheese, asparagus, and sautéed mushrooms; toppings of roasted garlic or Gorgonzola butters to accompany your center cut of filet mignon. There are boutique touches, though, that make it stand out—a garlic herb aioli with the calamari, steak tartare torch-kissed and topped with a poached egg, a superb rack of lamb rubbed with aromatic sumac and served with mint pesto. 12110 Montgomery Rd., Symmes Township, (513) 677-8669, tonysofcincinnati.com. Dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$$$

THAI GREEN PAPAYA

Inside this simple dining room, replete with soothing browns and greens and handsome, dark wood furniture, it takes time to sort through the many curries and chef’s specialties, not to mention the wide variety of sushi on the something-for-everyone menu. Have the staff—friendly, attentive, and knowledgeable—help you. When the food arrives, you’ll need only a deep inhale to know you made the right choice. The Green Papaya sushi rolls are as delicious as they look, with a manic swirl of spicy mayo and bits of crabstick and crispy tempura batter scattered atop the spicy tuna, mango, cream cheese, and shrimp tempura sushi—all rolled in a vivid green soybean wrap. 2942 Wasson Rd., Oakley, (513) 731-0107, greenpapayacincinnati.com.

Lunch Mon–Sat, dinner seven days. MCC. $$

SUKHOTHAI

Nestled in the nearly hidden Market Place Lane, this tiny restaurant isn’t exactly slick. A chalkboard lists the day’s specials, usually spicy dishes worthy of an adventurous diner.

But if it’s noodle dishes and curries you’re after, Sukhothai’s pad kee mao—wide rice noodles stir-fried with basil—is the best around. Served slightly charred, the fresh and dried chilies provide enough heat to momentarily suspend your breath. Pad Thai has the right amount of crunch from peanuts, slivers of green onion, and mung sprouts to contrast with the slippery glass noodles, and a few squeezes of fresh lime juice give it a splendid tartness. The crispy tamarind duck is one of the best house specials, the meat almost spreadably soft under the papery skin and perfectly complemented by the sweet-tart bite of tamarind. 8102 Market Place Lane, Montgomery, (513) 794-0057, sukhothaicincy.com.

Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner Mon–Sat. DS, MC, V. $

THAI NAMTIP

Classic Thai comfort food on the west side from chef/ owner Tussanee Leach, who grew up with galangal on her tongue and sriracha sauce in her veins. Her curries reign: pale yellow sweetened with coconut milk and poured over tender chicken breast and chunks of boiled pineapple; red curry the color of new brick, tasting of earth at first bite, then the sharply verdant Thai basil leaves, followed by a distant heat. Tom Kha Gai soup defines the complex interplay of flavors in Thai food: astringent lemongrass gives way to pepper, then Makrut lime, shot through with the gingery, herbaceous galangal, all yielding to the taunting sweetness of coconut. Even the simple skewers of chicken satay with Thai barbecue sauce are rough and honest, dulcified by honey and dirtied up by a smoky grill.

5461 North Bend Rd., Monfort Heights, (513) 481-3360, thainamtip.com. Lunch and dinner Mon-Sat, dinner Sun. MC, V. $

WILD GINGER

Wild Ginger Asian Bistro’s ability to satisfy a deep desire for Vietnamese and Thai fusion cuisine is evidenced by their signature Hee Ma roll—a fortress of seaweedwrapped rolls filled with shrimp tempura, asparagus, avocado, and topped with red tuna, pulled crab stick, tempura flakes, a bit of masago, scallions, and of course, spicy mayo. It’s tasty, even though the sweet fried floodwall of tempura and spicy mayo overpowered the tuna completely. The spicy pad char entrée was a solid seven out of 10: broccoli, carrots, cabbage, succulent red bell peppers, green beans, and beef, accented with basil and lime leaves in a peppercorn-and-chili brown sauce.

3655 Edwards Rd., Hyde Park, (513) 533-9500, wildginger cincy.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sun. MCC, DS. $$

VI ETNAM E S E PHO LANG THANG

Owners Duy and Bao Nguyen and David Le have created a greatest hits playlist of Vietnamese cuisine: elegant, brothy pho made from poultry, beef, or vegan stocks poured over rice noodles and adrift with slices of onions, meats, or vegetables (the vegan pho chay is by far the most flavorful); fresh julienned vegetables, crunchy sprouts, and herbs served over vermicelli rice noodles (again, the vegan version, bun chay, is the standout); and bánh mì. Be sure to end with a cup of Vietnamese coffee, a devilish jolt of dark roast and sweetened condensed milk that should make canned energy drinks obsolete.

114 W. Elder St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 376-9177, pholangth ang.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DS, DC. $

QUAN HAPA

The Nguyen brothers, Duy and Bao, along with partner David Le, have followed up on Pho Lang Thang’s success at Findlay Market by bursting onto the OTR scene with some of the boldest flavors in the city. A tuna ceviche makes use of the fiery sweetness of Malaysian sambal oelek and a banh mi steakburger gains crunch from pickled daikon and a side of Indonesian shrimp chips. Or try the okonomiyaki, a traditional Japanese pancake topped with a choice of bacon, prawns, or vegetables. The Vietnamese coffee, a complex, chicory-forward blend, is an ideal way to end the meal. 1331 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 421-7826, quanhapa.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $

SONG LONG

The menu does have a substantial Chinese section, but make no mistake, the reason there’s a line at the door on weekend nights is the fine Vietnamese specialties cooked and served by the Le family. Begin with the goi cuon, the cold rolls of moistened rice paper wrapped around vermicelli noodles, julienned cucumbers, lettuce, cilantro, and mung bean sprouts. Or try the banh xeo, a platter-sized pan-fried rice crepe folded over substantial nuggets of chicken and shrimp, mushrooms, and wilted mung sprouts.

The phos are good, but the pho dac biet is Song Long’s best.

Crisp-tender vegetables, slices of beef, herbs, and scallions glide through the noodle-streaked broth. When you’re ordering your entrée, be careful: Mr. Le has a much heavier chili hand than Mrs. Le. Ask who is cooking and order accordingly if you don’t want your eyes to roll to the back of your head. 1737 Section Rd., Roselawn, (513) 351-7631, songlong.net. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DC, DS. $ CINCINNATI MAGAZINE, (ISSN 0746-8 210), June 2019, Volume 52, Number 9.

Published monthly ($14.95 for 12 issues annually) at Carew Tower, 441 Vine St., Suite 200, Cincinnati, OH 45202-2039. (513) 421-4300. Copyright © 2019 by Cincinnati Magazine LLC, a subsidiary of Hour Media Group, 5750 New King Dr, Ste 100, Troy, MI 48098. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or reprinted without permission. Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and artwork should be accompanied by SASE for return. The magazine cannot be held responsible for loss. For subscription orders, address changes or renewals, write to CINCINNATI MAGAZINE, 1965 E. Avis Dr., Madison Heights, MI 48071, or call 1-866-660-6247. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send forms 3579 to CINCINNATI MAGAZINE, 1965 E. Avis Dr., Madison Heights, MI 48071. If the Postal Service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year.

J U N E 2 0 1 9 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 1 1 1

CINCY OBSCURA

Taking Aim WHAT’S FOWLING (F -LING) AND how did it make its way to Cincinnati? It’s part football,

part bowling (hence the name), with hints of cornhole, beer pong, and horseshoes. Chris Hutt accidentally invented the game with his buddies while tailgating the 2001 Indianapolis 500. The objective: Knock down—by throwing a football—10 bowling pins set up on a wooden platform 48 feet away before your opponents can do the same. Hutt eventually opened two Fowling Warehouse locations in Michigan, where the game gained a loyal following. Seven years ago, the concept came to Cincinnati, when Loveland-based Joe Frank learned about fowling from his neighbor, who went to high school with Hutt. Intrigued, Frank hosted a Friday night league and annual tournaments in his yard. In May, Frank and four friends opened the first franchised Fowling Warehouse in Oakley. “We just felt like this game fits in the culture here,” Frank says. The 47,000-square-foot space features 30 fowling “lanes,” two bars, and a mystery beer machine. It’s 21-and-over except from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. “Anyone can play,” Frank says. “I saw an 80-year-old’s birthday party [at the Hamtramck location]. It’s all ages—men, women, kids, everyone.” — K A T I E C O B U R N 1 1 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M J U N E 2 0 1 9

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEREMY KRAMER