CityBeat | Oct. 16, 2019

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NEWS

County Strikes Deal with Bengals, Concrete Company for Music Venue Under the deal, Hilltop Basic Resources will operate temporarily on half of its current property while the county uses the rest for parking.

Eventually, the company will move, freeing up the entire 17-acre site.

Hilltop Basic Resources

BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L

PH OTO: NIC K SWARTSELL

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fter months of wrangling, the Hamilton County Commission unanimously approved a deal on Oct. 8 that they say will clear the way for a music venue at The Banks.

That venue, developed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s concert promotion arm MEMI, had been tied up in a complicated land swap deal. The Cincinnati Bengals have veto power over development of Lot 27, the location east of Paul Brown Stadium where the venue would be located.

The team wanted tailgating space currently located there to be replaced if Lot 27 was to be developed. That brought Hilltop Basic Resources into the fray.

The concrete company owns land just west of Paul Brown Stadium but was willing to relocate. The most attractive location for Hilltop, company leadership says, involves city-owned land in Queensgate.

But that city-owned land came with some complications: opposition from residents of Price Hill and other nearby communities due to environmental concerns, plus opposition from businesses surrounding the proposed site, Mayor John Cranley and some Cincinnati City Council members.

Cincinnati City Council recently swatted down a motion expressing interest in selling the city-owned property to Hilltop.

And residents, employees of another Queensgate company called Noramco that faced relocation if the swap happened

and others piled into City Hall earlier this month to voice their opposition — and in some cases, their support — for the swap.

Greg Otis, senior vice president of strategic planning at Elevar, told council that the company wants to see environmental impact and traffic studies as well as the as-yet-announced location for a Hilltop asphalt plant before a land swap would be approved.

Residents of East Price Hill warned about pollution that could happen in the neighborhoods due to proposed Hilltop asphalt and concrete plants.

Mayor John Cranley long opposed the deal, preferring an alternate location for the music venue called Lot 24 that doesn’t require Hilltop’s relocation.

“I believe it is awful that we would take a heavy, dirty industry and dump it on the West Side,” Cranley said earlier this month.

“For what? Just so there could be tailgating

10 days a year at the riverfront?”

The deal announced by the county Oct. 8 sidesteps those complications by dividing the roughly 17-acre Hilltop site in half.

Tailgating will occur on one half of that space while Hilltop operates on the other half as it searches for a new permanent home.

It is unclear where that location will be.

County officials say they’d like to keep the company, which has 104 employees, in Cincinnati. But Hilltop leadership indicated that the company has looked into other locations in the county and across the river in Northern Kentucky.

The parking site the county will create will be able to accommodate roughly 2,000 cars. The lot will be grass and park-like, according to county officials, and could be used for festivals and other events.

Tom Gabelman, Hamilton County’s attorney for The Banks project, says the

county will buy the properties for $29.75 million, with 40 percent of the money due

by January 2020 and the rest by 2021. The money will come from funds the county will save under a renegotiated lease contract with the Bengals, who will let the county keep money due for stadium upgrades in order to purchase the Hilltop site.

“The bottom line is, what this board has said consistently is, we will pay no more than market value, and it will be fair market value,” Gabelman said. “Point of fact, what we’ve been able to do is bring this in under market value.”

According to an appraisal of the property commissioned by the county, the Hilltop site is worth roughly $33 million.

“Hilltop has been a part of building our region for over 78 years and we care deeply CONTINUES ON PAGE 10

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NEWS Election 2019 Everything you need to know to vote in Cincinnati on Nov. 5

BY N I C K SWA R T S E L L

Cincinnati Public Schools Board PH OTO: NIC K SWARTSELL

I

t would be easy to sleep on this year’s elections, sandwiched as they are between last year’s dramatic congressional races — i.e.

U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s reelections — and next year’s guaranteed-to-be-insane presidential contest. Don’t.

As low-key as it seems, decision time 2019 is chock-full of pivotal choices. Should voters renew a big levy for Cincinnati Public Schools? Who will sit on the district’s board?

Should the City of Cincinnati jettison part of its earnings tax to pave the way for a countywide bus levy? Who should serve as municipal judges?

Here’s a quick guide to all those decisions and more.

Cincinnati Public Schools Levy

the financial stability for the district to continue to expand opportunities for students and families, without raising taxes,” CPS Board President Carolyn Jones said in a statement after the board voted to present the levy.

But some skeptics say the 10-year period will give voters less say in how the district manages its budget. They also point out that CPS received an overall “D” rating on the Ohio Board of Education’s annual report card. That is similar to or better than the state’s other large urban districts, which face unique challenges due to the number of low-income students they serve.

But the grade still signifies that the district isn’t living up to state standards, critics say. CPS, however, points out a number of strides reflected in the state’s report card.

The district received a “B” grade in gap-closing, or helping under-performing students do better. That’s a three-grade

jump. Fourteen of the district’s 63 schools improved their overall grades from the year prior, and 32 improved the number of points they scored in the state’s rating system.

A yes vote for the levy wouldn’t raise property taxes in the district, since it is a renewal. The levy represents about one dollar per $100 in valuation on a property.

In addition to the school board levy, there are two county-wide levies that would renew funding for family services and treatment programs and developmental disabilities services. The first funds prison reentry programs, provides sentencing alternatives via treatment programs for addiction and mental health issues and funds work by nonprofits like Talbert House toward those ends. The five-year levy raises about $6 million a year. The latter five-year levy raises roughly $75 million a year to fund the county’s

Developmental Disabilities Services, which serves about 8,000 individuals through various programs around housing, case management, educational services and other needs.

Cincinnati Public Schools Board

Voters in the district will also need to choose how to fill four seats on the public schools board. The board serves as the public’s representatives who weigh in on big calls about how CPS budgets taxpayer money and many other overarching policy decisions about how the district is administered.

There are plenty of important issues the board will need to wrestle with, including CONTINUES ON PAGE 08

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It’s no secret: Cincinnati Public Schools District is growing.

In the last six years, enrollment has increased by more than 4,400 students to 36,000.

That’s a great sign for the district and the city — but it comes with its own costs.

In the coming year, the district is poised to open new schools, including the Clifton Area Neighborhood School and Gamble Montessori Elementary School, as well as expanding Gamble Montessori High School to adapt to its growth.

In June, the CPS board voted to ask voters to renew a levy that provides the district more than $65 million a year.

Voters have approved that levy every five years for the last 15 years by more than 60 percent each time. This time, however, it’s a bit different — CPS is asking that the levy extend a full decade, saying that will make it easier for the district to budget for longterm investments.

“We are grateful for the sustained support of the Cincinnati community, and we believe a 10-year renewal levy will provide

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the implementation of its three-year strategic plan, which looks to prepare students for life via academic achievement, personal well-being and career readiness and to guide all CPS students into either higher education, employment or military service upon graduation.

The board will also need to continue overseeing the implementation of Cincinnati Preschool Promise, an effort to extend preschool to lower-income residents in the district.

Beyond that, the board will need to navigate the district’s continued growth, improve its bus system and safety concerns for students walking to school and continue progress in addressing school security and bullying issues.

There are two races to watch here: one among six candidates for three seats up for reelection and another among three candidates fighting to fill an unexpired term.

Among the six vying for the three open seats are three school board incumbents — Eve Bolton, Ozie Davis III and Carolyn Jones — and three newcomers — Marlena Brookfield, Heather Couch and Ben Lindy.

• The current board members running for reelection: Bolton has served three terms on the school board. She is endorsed by the Hamilton County Democratic Party, the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Cincinnati Women’s Political Caucus and other groups and has served as president, vice president and other roles on the board.

Bolton has said that the district’s big challenges involve its growing enrollment and socioeconomic barriers many of its students face that she says have a big impact on the district’s state report card scores. She has acknowledged the district can do better in other areas, including improving its bus system.

Davis, who was appointed to a seat last year vacated by resigning board member Lannis Timmons, didn’t collect enough signatures to get listed on the ballot this time around and is running as a write-in candidate. He is endorsed by the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, the Hamilton County Democratic Party and the Cincinnati AFL-CIO and has worked as executive director of the Avondale Comprehensive Development Corporation and in the office of U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus.

Davis was co-chair of Issue 44, the initiative that funded Cincinnati Preschool Promise. He has said he believes the program is living up to its promises, despite a slow start.

Jones currently serves as the school board’s president. She is endorsed by the Hamilton County Democratic Party, the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Cincinnati AFL-CIO and others. She has cited the current state of school funding in Ohio — long ruled unconstitutional — as one of the district’s biggest challenges. She has also said that the district’s approach to transportation needs to be improved.

• The challengers: Brookfield has been an active voice

in education issues as a member of the Cincinnati Educational Justice Coalition and other advocacy groups. She also last year completed the Cincinnati School Board School, a project funded by a People’s Liberty grant designed to prepare future school board candidates. Brookfield identifies school funding as one of the district’s biggest challenges and says she will be very active in engaging communities around public schools in the district. She identifies as a progressive and has been endorsed by Cincinnati Indivisible and other progressive groups.

Couch, a former school counselor at Covington Latin School and another School Board School graduate, has identified improving the district’s state report card grade as one of its biggest needs.

Couch has served on her Local School Decision Making Committee for two neighborhood schools. Couch is endorsed by the Hamilton County Republican Party.

Lindy, the executive director of Teach for America Southwest Ohio, has scored an endorsement from the Cincinnati Charter Committee. He sees making sure educational opportunities are consistent across CPS as among the district’s biggest challenges. Lindy’s affiliation with Teach for America — which places non-teachers in public schools at a lower cost for two-year apprenticeships — has raised some controversy from critics, in part because TFA is sometimes affiliated with charter schools that pull funding from public schools.

Lindy has said he doesn’t think charters have worked well in Ohio and he is dedicated to public schools in Cincinnati.

Still, his role in TFA has put him at odds with groups like the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, which last month voted to oppose CPS entering into contracts with TFA. Three other candidates are vying for an unexpired term on the board. That term ends Dec. 31, 2021.

Pamela Bowers is the incumbent and candidate endorsed by the Hamilton County Democratic Party in that race.

She’s a mental health and chemical dependency counselor with more than two decades experience and has scored additional endorsements from the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Cincinnati Women’s Political Caucus, the AFL-CIO and other groups.

Gary Favors, who grabbed the Hamilton County GOP’s endorsement, is an intervention specialist at CPS’ Gamble Montessori High School, spent 12 years in the U.S. Army and has more than two decades experience in special education. He wants to push for better financial transparency, more efforts to attract qualified teachers and staff and expanded vocational opportunities.

Steve Megerle, an attorney, served as top aide for Cincinnati City Council member Jeff Pastor. He previously was a member of Covington’s City Commission from 2007 to 2009 before stepping down after a campaign finance violation. Citing CPS’ state report card grades, Megerle says the district is in crisis and should expand its vocational and technical training.

Issue 22: Eliminating the City’s Earnings Tax for Bus Funding

After years of uncertainty about the financial state of Metro, Cincinnati City Council in August took a first step toward a new funding model for the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority’s bus service.

There are still plenty of dominoes left to fall, but voter approval of removal of the earnings tax could clear the way for a county-wide sales tax levy SORTA’s board has voted to put on next year’s ballot — something that most other urban counties do. It would be the first major change to Metro’s funding system since the 1970s.

Council member P.G. Sittenfeld introduced the proposal that, if approved by voters, would eliminate the .3 percent of the city’s earnings tax that goes toward Metro’s operations — but only in the event that Hamilton County voters approved a sales tax boost of .7 percent or above for funding Metro. Sittenfeld said the vote was the first step toward “multi-generational change” by vastly improving the region’s bus system.

Metro currently gets by on $100 million a year, with roughly half of that coming from the .3 percent tax assessed on people who work in the city. Overall, the city’s income tax is 2.1 percent, meaning that eliminating Metro’s portion would lower the city’s earnings tax to 1.8 percent. That’s easily the lowest of any major city in Ohio.

The bus system badly needs more funding. It faces a $5.8 million budget deficit this year and needs many millions of dollars in investment to become betterfunctioning and connect more Greater Cincinnati residents to jobs.

A plan called Reinventing Metro could substantively improve bus service if voters approve a .7 percent or higher Hamilton County sales tax increase. In the meantime, the bus system is in a tough spot.

Municipal Court Races

Municipal court judges aren’t well-known generally, but they have an important role: hearing criminal misdemeanor cases in the county as well as conducting initial hearings in felony cases. They also preside over civil cases involving claims of less than $15,000.

Elections for those positions — which have six-year terms and pay $138,000 a year — are broken up by districts, five of which encompass parts of Cincinnati.

In the first district, which covers the center of Cincinnati, incumbent Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Dwane Mallory is running for reelection. Mallory has the endorsement of the Hamilton County Democratic Party and has served a number of previous roles in the court system, including work as a trial attorney for the Hamilton County Public Defender’s Office and as a prosecutor for the City of Cincinnati.

Also in the hunt for another seat on the first district court vacated by Judge Fanon Rucker, who resigned earlier this year, is CONTINUES ON PAGE 10

Cincinnati Bike Projects Receive Federal Grants

BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L Two major efforts to build bike paths in Cincinnati will move forward with the help of federal grants administered by the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments. The city’s bike-share program will also get a boost from the federal money.

A plan to finish the Central Parkway Bike Lane by constructing an off-road, shareduse path from Marshall Avenue to Ludlow Avenue will receive $750,000 in federal transportation alternative grants from OKI to complement a $2.6 million local match.

That local money won’t be available until 2023, however, and the project won’t be finished until the year after that.

Cincy Red Bike will get another $750,000 from the Transportation Alternatives Program to expand its bike shares and e-bike program, and to replace equipment that is more than five years old.

Meanwhile, more than three miles of the Wasson Way trail extending to the west and east from the current finished portion behind Withrow High School will get $6 million in federal Surface Transportation Block Grants from OKI to accompany an almost $2 million local match.

The grants are part of $62 million provided by the TAP and STBG programs and distributed by OKI. Among other big Cincinnati programs funded: almost $5.9 million will go toward replacing 15 Metro buses with new ones that use “clean diesel” technology and $6 million will go to the looming, $283 million replacement of the Western Hills Viaduct.

“OKI supports a transportation network that integrates diverse modes, and these projects advance this mission,” OKI CEO Mark Policinski said in a statement. “For the communities we serve, these projects mean safer walks to school, less congested trips to work and increased connection to one another. For the region we represent, these projects signify a more vibrant economy that retains talent while attracting residents and visitors alike.”

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about our community,” the company’s CEO John Steele said in a statement. “We moved our plant operations over 50 years ago so that Riverfront Stadium could be built. We are willing to relocate again so that our riverfront can continue its incredible transformation. We look forward to collaborating with Hamilton County and others to ensure that we can identify and secure a suitable option for our concrete and our customers’ asphalt production facilities.”

Gabelman said the development of Lot 27 could catalyze another $400 million in development at the remaining lots at The Banks over time, including the development of Lot 24, another nearby plot where Cranley argued the music venue should be built. Commission President Denise Driehaus says that lot would be better served with denser development.

“This has been a long and arduous process,” Driehaus said during the commission meeting approving the deal. “I think we’re all very excited to have this part of the issue resolved so we can move forward with confidence on the music venue on The Banks. I think we all agreed many, many months ago that this was a good project. We’ve been begged by the retailers (at The Banks) to please give them some year-round activity at The Banks.”

Taste of Belgium owner Jean-Francois

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Flechet agreed.

“It’s really a game-changer for businesses at The Banks,” he said, noting the planned 115 events a year at the venue will draw more foot traffic to the area.

However, the battle may not be over yet.

Cincinnati City Council may still need to give two key approvals for the deal to move forward, and Mayor John Cranley hinted Oct. 10 that the city might withhold its share of the $29 million it will cost to build the parking garage on the venue site if “a number of issues that are disturbing” are not addressed, including future limitations on surface parking. Council agreed to the construction of that garage, which would sit underneath Lot 27 as well as surrounding areas, back in April.

The city and county have had an agreement since 2007 requiring the two bodies split the costs of parking garages constructed at The Banks.

MEMI’s venue will be roughly 4,500 seats indoors with capacity for another 8,500 people outdoors in a portion that will also serve as an extension of Smale Riverfront Park.

Driehaus said she hoped to have the venue finished by October 2020. The development will compete with a similar venue being developed by Promowest, a former candidate for The Banks venue, in Newport.

civil rights attorney Janaya Trotter Bratton and current municipal court judge Elisa Murphy, who was appointed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to fill Rucker’s seat in September. Murphy was previously a magistrate in Hamilton County juvenile court and has also served in the county’s public defender’s office. Bratton, who is endorsed by the Hamilton County Democratic Party, has been involved in a number of local civil rights cases through her work with law firm Gerhardstein & Branch, and her name was at one point floated as a possible successor to former Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Tim Burke. Bratton ran unsuccessfully against Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters in 2012.

The race for the second district in Cincinnati’s northern reaches is a contest between Hamilton County Juvenile Court Magistrate John Coleman and incumbent Judge Tyrone Yates. Coleman, also a former public defender, is endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police Queen City Lodge 69. Yates, a former Cincinnati City Council member and assistant attorney in the Ohio Attorney General’s office, has the endorsement of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO and other groups.

District three mostly encompasses Cincinnati’s northern suburbs. Incumbent Judge Ted Berry, endorsed by the Hamilton County Democratic Party, is

running unopposed in that race. Berry was previously a trial attorney in private practice. He has been a municipal court judge since 2005.

District four includes parts of some eastern Cincinnati neighborhoods and nearby suburbs. Here, incumbent Judge Josh Berkowitz has received endorsements from the FOP Queen City Lodge 69, the Hamilton County Republican Party, Cincinnati Right to Life PAC and other groups. He has been a municipal judge for more than four years.

His challenger, Democratic Partyendorsed John Kennedy, has spent eight years working in the Hamilton County Public Defender’s Office and is currently the director of its common pleas division.

Kennedy says he will bring the perspective he’s gleaned from that role to his stint as judge if elected — including efforts to reduce or eliminate cash bail for nonviolent, low-level offenses.

District seven covers parts of Cincinnati’s West Side as well as its western suburbs.

Here, incumbent Judge Gwen Bender is running for reelection. Prior to becoming a municipal court judge in 2017, Bender worked as an assistant prosecutor for more than two decades. She has been endorsed by the FOP Queen City Lodge 69, Hamilton County Republican Party and the Cincinnati Right to Life PAC.

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BY CITYBEAT STAFF

2019

140 OF THE BEST PLACES TO EAT IN GREATER CINCINNATI

H

ello. Are you hungry? You probably will be at some point today or in the near future (unless you’re a robot). And when you’re ready to eat, you may need a restaurant recommendation. That’s where we come in.

This year, CityBeat’s handy annual Dining Guide is a collection of some of the best places to eat in Cincinnati — as decided on by readers in our annual Best Of Cincinnati issue — plus assorted other listings from this past year’s dining reviews and features. In 2019, more than half a million votes were tallied to determine our reader picks in a slew of categories. But as this is the Dining Guide, we’re focusing on winners in the Eats section — aka places where you can eat.

Note: This is obviously not a list of every restaurant in Cincinnati*. But it is certainly an excellent starting point in any conversation that begins with “Where should we eat?” that would otherwise end in a) tears b) loud arguments c) starvation. So close your eyes, point your finger at a random dining destination and get ready to bon voyage to bon appétit (unless you’re a robot). * Listings for the Dining Guide are compiled from CityBeat features and reviews and edited for space.

Social OTR | PHOTO: Hailey Bollinger

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RECENT RESTAURANT ADDITIONS PLUS THE TOP 10 BEST NEW RESTAURANT READER PICKS FROM THE 2019 BEST OF CINCINNATI ISSUE

THE BAKER’S TABLE

This cozy brunch spot on Monmouth Street has been serving local, seasonal cuisine to the masses since December 2018.

Chef and co-owner David Willocks aims to make everything in-house, including the bread, and calls it the canvas upon which the food appears. As such, the menu reads like a love letter to biscuits and brioche and sourdough sandwiches. This hip destination often has a line out the door for patrons waiting to try main courses or ever-popular options like biscuits and gravy with Eckerlin pork sausage, eggs-in-a-hole and a fried chicken sandwich. Willocks runs The Baker’s Table with his wife, Wendy Braun, a designer who created the look of the open-floor-plan restaurant to blend craftsmanship and vintage tradition. Enjoy an Amaro Spritz or a cup of coffee with friends at the namesake 25-year-old baker’s table in the back of the space. Food and culture website Eater named The Baker’s Table one of 2019’s best new restaurants in America. The restaurant just launched dinner service. MUST TRY: The ricotta donuts are little balls of fluffy joy with a thinly fried exterior and a generous sugar dusting. They come with strawberry lemon curd and are a perfect appetizer before your eggs or pancakes. 1004 Monmouth St., Newport, bakerstablenewport.com.

BOOMTOWN BISCUITS & WHISKEY

This Pendleton restaurant is inspired by the trappings of the American frontier and California’s 19th-century gold rush. Order a cocktail when you sit down so you have time for another before dinner is over — and then another for “dessert.” At Boomtown, the true delight comes plated. The signature biscuit isn’t a run-of-the-mill thousand-layer flaked baked good; it’s a buttery, soft disc with a close crumb and a browned, lightly bubbled top that no breakfast chain can compete with. Choose from sandwiches, plates, bowls, sides and dessert. MUST TRY: The Yukon sandwich, with fried chicken, gravy, smoked cheddar and thick-cut bacon. The option to add an egg is, theoretically, optional (and an upcharge), but better thought of as an intrinsic part of the dish. 1201 Broadway St., Pendleton, boomtownbiscuitsandwhiskey.com.

BRANCH/NIGHT DROP

The Littlefield Restaurant Group rehabbed a historic Art Deco Bank in East Walnut Hills to create the aptly named restaurant, Branch, and adjacent downstairs bar Night Drop. Their original eatery, Northside’s Littlefield, offers bourbon cocktails and innovative, inexpensive comfort food with an inimitable Northside vibe. Branch is a much more ambitious venture both in food, service and ambiance, although we can thank chef Shoshannah Anderson for creating the delicious menus in both places. Dinner choices are presented in two columns, “Shares” and “Stocks,” a play on the building’s history. The kitchen has Asian and Mediterranean influences, serving up dishes like black garlic ribs with sesame and fennel-apple slaw, chili-smoked wings with chimichurri and a peanut lemongrass smoked tofu on sesame noodles with a baby bok choy salad. In addition to dinner, Branch serves a weekend brunch menu that is fantastic. MUST TRY: Pork belly and vegetable

BREWRIVER CREOLE KITCHEN

The Baker’s Table PHOTO: Hailey Bollinger

Hearing a Boogie-Woogie tune on the piano while sipping a craft cocktail on a brightly furnished patio with a magnolia tree in view — you wouldn’t even have to squint to think you were in New Orleans. The atmosphere and cuisine at BrewRiver Creole Kitchen brings the spirit of the Crescent City to Cincinnati in a stately 150-year-old building on Eastern Avenue.

From 2011 until 2018, owner Joby Bowman and chef Michael Shields ran BrewRiver GastroPub on nearby Riverside Drive before deciding to branch out to a 200-seat restaurant with a 35-seat patio. Shields, who earned his chops under Emeril Lagasse, has added new items to the menu — broiled oysters, fried green tomatoes with a pecan cornmeal crust and bread

wildly popular Crawfish Monica from New Orleans Jazz Fest. The plump shrimp are generously coated in a Creole cream sauce, which manages to pack a major flavor punch without burning one’s tongue off. 4632 Eastern Ave., East End, brewrivercreolekitchen.com.

CHX

CHX is owned and operated by Hickory Wald — the team behind 3 Points Urban Brewery, Nation Kitchen and Bar and Rhinehaus. Their signature menu item is Bantys — which are lump-sized chicken pieces named after a wild and soulful breed of Indonesian chickens called Bantam — in two different brined and golden-fried finishing options: original or hot.

In addition to Bantys, the chicken joint also offers salads, sandwiches and sharable sides like CHX nachos, fried cheese curds, wavy fries and more. Get it at CHX or from inside 3 Points Urban Brewery. MUST TRY: A chicken sandwich. CHX takes some fried bantys (fried chicken strips larger than nuggets, smaller than tenders) and puts them between Texas toast from Sixteen Bricks, topped with lettuce, pickles, American cheese and mayo. You can get it spicy or original; either way it’s going to be better than anything from drive-thru. 1211 Broadway St., Pendleton, chxcincy.com.

CONDADO TACOS

Condado commits to the build-your-own tacos concept down to the type of tortillas. For protein, customers have several options (even multiple ones for vegetarians!) — like housemade chorizo, Thai chili tofu, BBQ pulled jackfruit, ghost pepper marinated steak and more. They’ve got the toppings, too; cilantro and onions, jicama and cabbage slaws, queso fresco and more. MUST TRY: Rise and shine with a wake-n-bake, aka a soft tortilla, corn, chorizo gravy and biscuit crumble. Yes, Condado does brunch. 195 E. Freedom Way, Downtown, condadotacos.com.

CROWN REPUBLIC GASTROPUB

This casual from-scratch kitchen offers up a range of inventive entrées and shareables for lunch, dinner and dessert. The menu draws on a Mediterranean influence, with clean and light flavors in dishes like duck fat hummus, Yemeni mussels and farro salad. Try the chicken gobbets. The name is weird, but the meat isn’t. Gobbets are basically adult chicken nuggets that are soaked in the malt brine the crew makes their pickles in, then fried and served with honey hot sauce on the side. MUST TRY: Crown Republic incorporates squid ink into a housemade pasta for their take on tagliatelle, which includes mounds of crab atop black pasta with lemon, chili oil, breadcrumbs and tomato. It’s creamy with a spicier profile than you might initially infer — definitely one of the more unique pasta options in town. 720 Sycamore St., Downtown, crgcincy.com.

DELWOOD

Nestled at the intersection of Delta and Linwood avenues in Mount Lookout Square, Delwood is a family-friendly Peruvianinspired gastropub from owner Trevor Snowden. Snowden comes by his Latin American inspiration honestly; his mother is Peruvian and that country’s recipes and ingredients infuse the menu with an uncommon flair. Delwood’s kitchen is small, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in flavor. The petite food menu offers six different sharable items like tostones and shishito peppers and eight meal options like their popular Delwood Burger or the kale Caesar salad. The bar menu offers a variety of cocktails including a paloma, Caipirinha and the Rum & Rye Old Fashioned in addition to beer, wine and boilermakers. MUST TRY: The Delwood Burger comes topped with salsa criolla (a sort of vinegary red onion and pepper mixture), avocado and Peruvian huancaina sauce made from aji Amarillo chile peppers and cream. It’s slightly spicy and served on a standard bun. Instead of french fries, try the yuca fries or tostones (twice fried plantains). 3204 Linwood Ave., Mount Lookout, delwoodcincy.com.

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dumplings — a few tender but chewy crescent-shaped pasta pillows covered lightly in an umami-rich miso broth. 1535 Madison Road, East Walnut Hills, eatatbranch.com.

pudding for dessert — but kept his focus on Creole cuisine.

MUST TRY: Pasta Monica. Pasta Monica is inspired by the

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FIERY HEN

From the team behind Court Street Lobster Bar comes this Southern-style hot chicken eatery featuring Nashville hot chicken sandwiches, catfish, burgers, fried green tomatoes, brisket and more, including a moonshine menu and taps with local beer. Guests can choose a level of heat, with sauces ranging from mild to the cleverly coined “Bless Your Heart” sauce. MUST TRY: Fiery Hen challenges

Fairfield Market PHOTO: Hailey Bollinger

your spice tolerance with their Nashville hot chicken options. If you can take the heat, you deserve a medal.

The hot chicken sandwich is served with slaw, pickles and pimento cheese. There’s also the Basic Chick sandwich, with Yella Belly fried chicken, pickles and chipotle ranch.

Cool down with some banana pudding; it’ll probably help.

26 W. Court St., Downtown, fieryhencincy.com.

FORTY THIEVES

FAIRFIELD MARKET

Appealing to residents on either side of the Ohio River, Fairfield Market brings coffee, cocktails, locally sourced snacks on pretty plates and a sun-dappled workspace to Bellevue’s main drag. The décor blends Midcentury Modern with a Palm Desert vibe, mixing original terrazzo with contemporary furniture and plenty of outlets for charging electronics.

Fairfield operates around a fast-casual concept, offering bites, which are ordered at the bar, alongside drinks, starting with coffee service in the morning and lunch, followed by beer, wine, cocktails and snacks in the evening. There’s also Sunday brunch. MUST TRY: A cocktail. The streamlined menu is fiercely seasonal and offers fresh twists on classics. Grab an old fashioned if you’re feeling traditional or a bright and peppery creation while you snack on a build-your-own charcuterie board.

700 Fairfield Ave., Bellevue, thefairfieldbellevue.com.

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FAUSTO

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Fausto, a new restaurant in the lobby of the Contemporary Arts Center, is the latest offering from the Ferrari brothers — Tony and Austin — and their expanding local food service empire. The menu is contemporary and upbeat and feels like the culinary equivalent of the light that streams into Fausto’s seating area through the CAC’s massive panes of glass. A heightened brunch, lunch or dinner experience, for sure — not many places are serving trout roe on potatoes — but one that safely resists pretension. Tony describes the food as “California cuisine” with splashes of citrus and extra-virgin olive oil, not full of fat or butter. Breakfast features several egg and toast options, a chia seed pudding and that aforementioned trout roe. The lunch menu has plenty of light and crisp salads and sandwiches. But dinner offerings feel more involved. There is a three-course selection for $39, or several individual entrées (called “attractions” on their menu), appetizers (“beginnings”), pasta and dessert (“endings”).

MUST TRY: The chicken salad sandwich is perhaps the best of the salads and sandwiches because it marries the two in one great offering. The tarragon elevates the dish, which is served on Allez bread with butter lettuce. 44 E. Sixth St., Downtown, faustoatthecac.com.

Helmed by Dan Wright and his wife Lana (of Senate, Abigail Street and Pontiac), Holiday Spirits and its in-house eatery Forty Thieves evoke the vibe of a dive bar and serve a menu of Middle Eastern street food. You can order your falafel or shawarma either from a walk-up window facing Liberty Street or inside Holiday Spirits itself. MUST TRY: Go for the falafel over hummus, which is worthy of an entire article dedicated to its deliciousness. The falafel — crisp with a pillowy center — is served with charred tomato and shishito peppers, red onion and pickled radish. Pair it with the tomato soup. This fast-casual restaurant is really hitting all the right notes in its opening number. 1538 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook. com/fortythievesgang.

GASLIGHT BAR & GRILL

Located in the space formerly occupied by the Clifton Branch of the public library, the menu at the Gaslight Bar & Grill still makes for some good reading. There are plenty of domestic and local craft brews, a solid wine list and a literary-inspired cocktail menu featuring nods to Hemingway, Bradbury, Poe and more. The restaurant is also home to Ludlow’s first rooftop patio. MUST TRY: The Greek spaghetti with tomato, onion, spinach, tapenade (an umami-rich paste made from olives, capers and anchovies) and feta, with the choice to include bacon. 351 Ludlow Ave., Clifton, gaslightbarandgrillclifton.com.

GOOSE & ELDER

Located across from historic Findlay Market, Goose & Elder is local chef and restaurateur Jose Salazar’s comfort food eatery. He describes the restaurant as “midcentury grandma,” sourcing colors and patterns that evoke a sense of the 1970s and ’80s. The restaurant offers a menu of American comfort food ranging from traditional dishes to new takes on classics.

Both approachable and affordable, no menu item exceeds $20. Dishes include a grain bowl, chicken schnitzel, roasted bone marrow and baked mac and cheese. MUST TRY: The fried bologna sandwich, topped with spicy slaw and marinated cucumbers. Add an over-easy egg for an upcharge. 1800 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, gooseandelder.com.

HIGHGRAIN BREWING CO.

Located in the former Silverton Memorial Municipal Building, HighGrain Brewing features “old-world styles with a modern twist,” like their Switch oatmeal stout with chocolate, coffee and nuts, and the Monarch IPA, with Citra and Idaho Gem hops. The food menu from their in-house chef includes options for vegetarians, meat-eaters and kids. With a focus on sustainability, the brewery is also 100-percent powered by wind, and at least one beer is carbon neutral. MUST TRY: The food menu at HighGrain ranges from tofu tenders with maple mustard and watermelon panzanella to barramundi with plantain salsa, a bologna sandwich with fried egg and biscuits made with spent grain from the brewery. 6860 Plainfield Road, Silverton, highgrainbrewing.com.

KARRIKIN SPIRITS CO.

Karrikin combines a distillery, brewery, bar and restaurant in a gigantic former warehouse located in what feels slightly like a no-man’s land of industrial buildings between Mariemont and Mount Lookout. But this distillery/brewery/restaurant operates out of a renovated warehouse, which makes for a roomy and exciting destination. The executive chef, Jared Bennett, served for six years as sous chef and then chef de cuisine at Metropole. Even inside a warehouse, you can safely expect delicious food to come out of Bennett’s kitchen.

The three-page beverage menu starts with a description of the spirits made in-house, below that are house cocktails and a few mocktails featuring housemade non-alcoholic sodas and shrubs. The food options range from wood-fired steaks and pasta to seafood and more. MUST TRY: The roasted cauliflower: creamy, roasted cauliflower with crunchy wild rice in a savory quince vinaigrette sauce. 3717 Jonlen Drive, Fairfax, karrikinspirits.com.

KIKI

Kiki College Hill has opened its doors after two years of planning, fundraising, pop-ups and patience. Owners Hideki and Yuko Harada have created their dream restaurant in an old corner bank at 5932 Hamilton Ave. Kiki offers two ramen choices: shio ramen, a chicken broth with pork belly, negi, a tea-marinated egg and rayu; and kimchi ramen, featuring housemade kimchi and tofu. To warm up your pre-ramen palate, try the shishito peppers crowned with fluffy shreds of parmesan cheese, or the edamame, tossed in sea salt or tare. And you could never go wrong with the gyoza, either pork or mushroom, or the curry pan, a sort of fried bread or dumpling Hideki has described as a “curry donut,” stuffed with potato, onion and carrot. MUST TRY: If you’re looking for punchier flavors, go with the karaage — fried chicken with an option to add bright oroshi ponzu or mellow Jordy mayo (named after sous chef Jordan Ellerhorst). 5932 Hamilton Ave., College Hill, kikicincinnati.com.

LIBBY’S SOUTHERN COMFORT

There’s no denying that the folks behind Libby’s Southern Comfort have impressive bona fides in the poultry arts. The owners of this entry into Covington’s flourishing restaurant scene claim not just a family history of chicken expertise but a professional one to boot, with a lineage going back decades.

Butch Wainscott owns the Greyhound Tavern in Fort Mitchell, which has maintained a reputation for exceptional chicken dinners throughout the 30-plus years that he’s been at the helm. This year, his son, Brad, fired up the fat in Covington and opened Libby’s, which pays tribute Southern classics with a Charleston slant. Appetizers include fried green tomatoes and goetta hush puppies and mains range from an oyster po’ boy and a pork belly BLT to a plate of fried oysters, a decadent open-faced sandwich called Charlie Brown, meatloaf and shrimp and grits. Look for a full menu of bourbon drinks and desserts like oatmeal cream pies. MUST TRY: Chicken dinners keep tradition alive here. You must try the fried chicken.

35 W. Eighth St., Covington, libbyssoutherncomfort.com.

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265 Hosea Ave. Cincinnati 45220 513-221-0400 deweyspizza.com

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october 14-20

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3500 Eastern Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45226

·

513-871-0212

Everything is smoked out back. MUST TRY: The brisket, available in a sandwich, chili and by the pound. 1131 Broadway St., Pendleton, luciusq.com.

MAIZE

Mazunte Centro PHOTO: Hailey Bollinger

LONELY PINE STEAKHOUSE

The casual dining destination takes a simple concept — quality food at an affordable price — and elevates it with Southwestern flair and retro decor. From Gorilla Cinema Presents, Lonely Pine is the first foray into food service for the company and is less focused on blatantly paying homage to a film, though there are clues for those on the hunt for Easter eggs. There are nods to Back to the Future hidden throughout. Steaks are dry-aged with shareable sides like au gratin potatoes. For those with a sweet tooth, there’s chess pie with chocolate, blueberries and whipped cream; a citrus crème brûlée; and locally made ice cream with seasonal flavors.

MUST TRY: The New York strip, dry-aged in house for 30 days.

An aggressive sear yields a perfectly cooked medium-rare center. You can order a pad of garlic butter on the side, but the seasoning on the beef is so well applied that it’s unnecessary. 6085 Montgomery Road, Pleasant Ridge, lonelypinesteakhouse.com.

LOUVINO RESTAURANT & WINE BAR

You get eight fried balls that are crunchy on the outside and the consistency of cheesy mashed potatoes on the inside. 1142 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, louvino.com.

LUCIUS Q

While the name of this barbecue joint may look like “luscious” — which isn’t a bad association — the restaurant is actually called Lucius Q (loo-shus q), a moniker taken from a Roman general with special ties to Cincinnati. The restaurant logo is a Centurion riding a pig, but the Italian influence stops there.

The menu is all about meat. The restaurant draws influence from regional barbecue specialties and the business partners’ own backgrounds: there’s Texas brisket, Carolina pulled pork, St. Louis-style ribs and Avril-Bleh sausage from Cincinnati.

mahi, snapper and shrimp with diced mango, serrano pepper and lime. 1438 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, maizeotr.com.

MAZUNTE CENTRO

Inspired by the vibrancy of Mexico City, Centro still serves the classics — tacos and tostadas, tequila and Topo Chico. But a handful of dishes exclusive to this location were added to the menu, namely tortas and tlayudas (imagine a love child between a Mexican pizza and a giant loaded nacho). Outthe-door-tacos for those on their lunch break and lingering evenings sipping tequila are both served with the same warm hospitality. Although folks in Mexico indulge in a leisurely meal and siesta midday and grab street tacos at night, Americans are more accustomed to working through lunch and partying after dark. Mazunte serves Mexico City food on a Cincinnati schedule. MUST TRY: The impressive chicharrón de queso. Literally translated to “cheese cracklings,” it’s a disc of shredded cheese wrapped around a wine bottle and fried. Don’t be alarmed when a foot-tall cheese tube arrives at your table; be amazed. It’s an excellent two-for-one deal — snap some off and dip it in salsa roja or salsa verde (both if you’re bold) or crumble it over the tlayuda for an added crunch factor. 611 Main St., Downtown, centro.mazuntetacos.com.

MIKEY’S LATE NIGHT SLICE

Mikey’s is known for its giant, foldable pizza slices and drunkfriendly menu items like the Pizza Dog — a hot dog stuffed with pepperoni and cheese, which is then wrapped in a slice of pizza — and the Cheezus Crust and Baby Cheezus, which is American cheese melted on top of two slices of pizza and pressed together into a sandwich. This pizza joint also shares a space with Oddfellows Liquor Bar. MUST TRY: A Spicy-Ass piece of pepperoni pizza with Sriracha, banana peppers and red pepper flakes. 2014 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, latenightslice.com.

MOM ‘N ‘EM

Located in a former 1890s home, Mom ‘n ‘em acts as a third place, with a diverse offering of wines and coffee, tinned fish varieties, cheeses, cured meats, pastries from North South Baking, the “Dirty Nati” Egg Samich and more, including toasties. Mom ‘n ‘em also has a full liquor license with cocktails like a classic negroni and Manhattan, and a smart

of local Allez country loaf, generously swiped with homemade salsa verde, atop which rest silver strips of previously-tinned anchovies, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and doused with a sprinkling of aleppo (a zingy Italian chili.) 3128 Colerain Ave., Camp Washington, momnemcoffee.com.

MONEY CHICKEN

Money Chicken has taken the classic fried chicken sandwich and refined the spice blend to make one of the city’s more unique spicy sandwiches. While the basic ingredients are not unusual — fried buttermilk-brined chicken breast with spicy honey, pickles and mayo on a potato bun — it’s their Money Chicken Spice Blend that elevates everything thanks to the inclusion of Sichuan peppercorn. Spicy and slightly numbing, it’s a unique sensation more Westerners should embrace at the table. They also offer a tasty tempeh version for vegetarians or the chicken-averse. MUST TRY: A chicken sandwich, obviously. 300 E. Seventh St., Downtown, moneychicken.co.

OAKLEY WINES

Oakley Wines started as a boutique bottle shop just off the main drag. And then it became more than a neighborhood hang when upward of 100 people started stopping in for Friday-night wine tastings. Recently taken over by the owners of The Rhined cheese shop, the bar has been featuring a new food menu overseen by chef Lydia Jackman. Jackman focuses on “creating a multi-cultural experience where you can eat French, Italian and German-inspired dishes” paired with Oakley’s glass or bottle list. MUST TRY: The tomato pie, with water buffalo cheese and caper aioli. Look for additional hearty dishes this winter. 4011 Allston St., Oakley, facebook. com/oakleywines.

REVOLUTION ROTISSERIE & BAR

Revolution specializes in hormone-free, preservative-free roasted Amish chicken on a number of pita sandwiches named after revolutionaries — Einstein, Mandela, Joan of Arc, etc. — as well as in chicken-centric house specialties, indulgent appetizers, fresh salads and traditional sides made with a twist. There is also a full drink menu with beer, wine and boozy punch. MUST TRY: A rotisserie chicken served one of three ways: Poulet Roti (French-style served over root veggies); Southern Comfort (served over bacon-braised collared greens and drizzled with hot honey); and Pollo A La Brasa (Peruvian-style served over coconut rice). Pick from a quarter white, double dark, a half bird or double white. 1106 Race St., Over-the-Rhine; 6063 Montgomery Road, Pleasant Ridge, revolutionrotisserie.com.

RIPPLE WINE BAR

Ripple Wine Bar is one of those sweet little spots that hits all the right notes: good wine, lots of it, paired with good food.

The bar offers 40 varietals by the glass or half glass, bottle or half bottle and also does a half-bottle happy hour for gun-shy consumers or folks dining solo. The menu’s overall vibe is laid-back — a true “California kitchen,” with wine-friendly food that is seasonally inspired. Look for items like choose-yourown charcuterie with Urban Stead cheese, a butternut squash salad and beef wellington popovers. MUST TRY: The beef wellington popovers. The juicy little pastry packets are stuffed with beef and surrounded by a mushroom duxelle, with a pert tarragon aioli to balance the meatiness. Chef Will Smith goes through about 25 pounds of short rib a week to create the popovers, braising “the crap out of it” in red wine, garlic and shallots until it’s fork tender. 4 W. Pike St., Covington, ripplewinebar.com.

SACRED BEAST

“Simple food. Taken seriously” is the motto of this modern diner, which feels like one of the largest restaurants in OTR. Clearly, this kitchen knows how to get the very best out of

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Take your taste buds on a journey from the marigold-lined pathways of Château Guiraud in France to the Alps-framed Castelfeder winery in northern Italy — all while dining at LouVino in Over-the-Rhine. The concept restaurant on Main Street offers 60 wines by the glass as well as small plates inspired by Southern cuisine. Ingredients are sourced as locally as possible and standout dishes include a Brussels sprouts salad, beef sliders and loaded potato tots. Brunchers: Louvino serves cheap mimosas on Saturdays and Sundays plus foodie items like pancake tacos, stuffed French toast and chicken biscuit sliders. A portion of the menu changes once per quarter, so guests can expect something new. MUST TRY: It would be a grave mistake to pass up the potato tots.

Maize specializes in a unique fusion menu that honors traditional recipes from across Latin America, with an emphasis on Venezuelan cuisine. The restaurant takes its name from maize, a corn flour dating back some 10,000 years and first utilized by indigenous Mexicans. The flour serves as the basis for the arepas, cachapas and empanadas served at Maize and acts as an access point for the rich world of Latin American cuisine. The bright blue accents of the restaurant lend to the tropical vibe, as do the multitude of rum options on the drink menu — there are more than 30 in house. MUST TRY: The ceviche is perfect: plump and plentiful

selection of beer in their cooler. Friday night wine flights are $5, and family-style Bistro Night dinners are on the horizon as well. MUST TRY: The anchovy toastie comes on thick slices

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the humble egg. The “Diner Breakfast” is a truly great plate of food: Soft scrambled eggs, a short stack of ricotta pancakes topped with two strips of maple-glazed pork belly and a small grilled tomato make up this scrumptious meal. There’s also the equally delicious omelet filled with a simple combo of goat cheese and sweet peppers. The deviled eggs with pork rinds and chilies are excellent, as well. In addition to excellent eggs, the menu features options like a double cheeseburger with Dijonnaise, American cheese and a pickle on a Blue Oven bun; chicken schnitzel; and steak tartare frites; plus strong cocktails, mocktails, shots with a back and a wine by the glass. MUST TRY: That omelet. 1437 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, sacredbeastdiner.com.

SOCIAL OTR

A nonprofit venture owned by the Corporation for Findlay Market, Social OTR not only nails its ambitious New American menu but also aims to fill a multitude of societal and business needs in our community. Social OTR “teaches people looking for employment the necessary skills to get restaurant jobs” in partnership with CityLink, a faith-based nonprofit organization that works on multiple fronts to combat poverty. The restaurant actually is a two-in-one, with a front eatery and back bar featuring different décor and service styles but the same menu: about eight “Snacks,” 10 to 11 “Small Plates” and just two “Large Plates.” And libations shine brightly. Whether you prefer tequila, rye, gin or any other spirit, the house cocktail list has you covered. MUST TRY: A piping-hot and generous portion of pappardelle pasta. Its mushroom herb sauce is extra delicious with butter-poached wild mushrooms and ramps, goat cheese, English peas and crispy kale. 1819 Elm St., Over-theRhine, socialotr.com.

STATION FAMILY & BBQ

This new barbecue joint opened its doors to a hungry line of customers who, after their first bite of Station’s Cincinnati sausage and smoked chicken wings, were sure to be loyal repeat customers. There’s a separate dining area with table service and an indoor walk-up window that’s a bit more casual, so the kids can run around while you eat. Get a few entrées per diner since their protein options like pork butt and brisket are a bit conservatively portioned, but damn tasty. MUST TRY: Proteins are smoked on-site and range from Cincinnati sausage to brisket, pulled pork and salmon available naked (by the quarter pound) or as a platter, served with two sides. Try the namesake Cincinnati sausage with your choice of sauce — classic barbecue, Alabama white or South or North Carolina. 400 Wyoming Ave, Wyoming, cincystation.com.

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TORTILLERIA GARCIA

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Omar Garcia grew up on a family farm in Michoacan, Mexico and learned how to make corn tortillas the old-fashioned way from his mother and grandmother. Garcia has committed to honoring his family’s culinary history and his restaurants uncompromisingly follow the family recipe for fresh tortillas — never using flour or preservatives. Garcia’s menu consists of straightforward Mexican classics like tamales, burritos, housemade salsas and rotisserie chicken, in addition to tacos, plus his classic tortilla shells are available in two-pound packs so you can make your own inspired creations at home. MUST TRY: Tamales. Made with the same masa as the tortillas and wrapped in corn husks, tamales are extremely portable and make an excellent take-out option. The spicy carnitas tamales with hot salsa are a perfect marriage of flavor and texture (just make sure your body is ready for some serious heat), while the pollo tamales with verde salsa are ideal for picky eaters — simple, straightforward. 5917 Hamilton Ave., College Hill; 11774 Springfield Pike, Springdale, tortilleriagarcia.us.

THE VIEW AT SHIRES’ GARDEN

Located on the 10th floor of downtown’s City Club Apartments, this 6,000 square-foot rooftop spot features an indoor dining room, an outdoor patio, two full bars, outdoor small

and group dining and cocktail tables with impeccable views.

The food menu features Saturday and Sunday brunch and dinner options like mussels, whipped bone marrow over beef tenderloin tartare and entrée greens. MUST TRY: The Nicoise with seared tuna loin with marinated tuna crudo, olive tapenade, fingerling potatoes, French green beans, deviled egg salad and green goddess pesto. 309 Vine St., 10th Floor, Downtown, theviewatshiresgarden.com.

WODKA BAR

Owner Sarah Dworak pays tribute to her Ukrainian heritage not only with the décor but also through her drink and food menus. Vodka — the “w” is simply an Eastern European spelling and is pronounced like an English “v” — represents the iconic spirit of that part of the world, and Dworak wants to enlighten people who don’t appreciate its complexities. Before opening Wodka Bar, Dworak had already developed a following for her pierogies — palm-sized steamed potato-based turnovers with various fillings — at Babushka Pierogies. You can try them — along with a several other items on the bar’s food menu — while sipping spirits and cocktails. The drink menu includes a rotating selection of infused vodkas as well as a couple of vodka flights with either an infusion theme or four different types of “plain” vodkas. Bar snacks are mandatory, of course, but forget about french fries and beer cheese.

Instead, you can chase your shots with caviar in puff pastry, a kielbasa bowl or smoked trout in cream sauce. MUST TRY: One of the current charcuterie-style platters featuring options like smoked ham, kielbasa, farmers cheese, house pickles, dill butter and rye bread from nearby Allez bakery. 1200 Main St., Over-theRhine, wodkabarotr.com.

YONDER

Inspired by owners Chris and Tess Burns’ love of Kentucky State Parks, this bar concept by the folks behind Covington’s Commonwealth Bistro features a chic treehouse-esque rooftop bar with a small rotating menu and craft cocktails. The bar menu features a variety of both alcoholic and spirit-free cocktails. Yonder’s culinary menu rotates on a weekly basis.

Like Commonwealth, Yonder’s chefs and bartenders use direct-from-the-farm ingredients, but the bar’s more flexible approach lets them use unique items that come in small quantities, which are perfect for an appetizer that only sticks around for a week but couldn’t be worked into the main restaurant’s menu. Past dishes have ranged from Oysters Rockabilly to wagyu beef jerky made in house. The breezy, plant-filled bar holds approximately 30 guests and features cozy, communal bench seating, hanging rattan chairs and five seats along the bar. MUST TRY: One of the mocktails, such as the High Lonesome — locally roasted Deeper Roots cold brew coffee, chicory syrup, sarsaparilla, almond milk and mint. 621 Main St., Second Floor, Covington, commonwealthbistro.com/yonder.

ZUNDO RAMEN & DONBURI

You’ve probably been eating ramen the wrong way as long as you’ve been eating it. But before you panic, it’s OK. Ramen is fast food in Japan and embodying the concept of swift satisfaction is something at which Zundo excels. Zundo, which means “big pot” in Japanese, has a small but fierce menu comprising four ramens with different broths, 10 donburis, a thoughtful smattering of appetizers and a few desserts.

Zundo’s traditional tonkatsu broth takes 14 hours; they also offer miso pork broth and a vegetarian version. Before slurping, you want the doily-like slices of lotus root to mingle with the strips of pork belly, the rim of red miso paste and the jammy-centered soft-boiled egg and the sprinkling of chopped green onions to take a bath in the bottom of the broth. Slurp.

Repeat until done. You have two to three minutes to complete your mission. MUST TRY: The pièce de résistance of the ramen menu is the insider’s version: order the vegetarian miso ramen, request it spicy and add an egg and pork belly. It’s a Frankenstein’s monster of all the other ramens, dragging in each of the best bits of the others and leaving your stomach in a state of nearbliss. 220 W. 12th St., Over-the-Rhine, zundootr.com.

COMING SOON FILLO BAKE SHOP

Evan Papanikolaou is slated to open his 2,300-squarefoot day-to-night bakery concept on the ground floor of the Rennen & Beecher Flats project. The family-owned café will be open seven days a week and transform from a bakery during the day to a small-plates café at night with Greek dishes, cheese plates, cocktails, wine and beer, according to Papanikolaou. The shop is slated to open in mid-November. 1505 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook.com/fillogreekbakeshop.

LOSANTI

This boutique steakhouse has taken over the former Anchor-OTR space and is slated to open this week.

A non-traditional take on the typical white-tablecloth concept, it features casual seating, a bar and a patio that overlooks Washington Park. Helmed by the owners of Crown Republic Gastropub, Losanti offers steakhouse favorites like prime filet mignon in addition to non-steak entrées like pan-roasted salmon and double pork chops, plus sharable sides like CRG’s popular charred broccoli.

1401 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, losantiotr.com.

MESA LOCA

The former Cock & Bull pub location on Hyde Park Square is getting reimagined as a modern Mexican destination called Mesa Loca. The restaurant is slated to open in "late fall" and will start with dinner service, adding brunch and lunch after the grand opening. Mesa will feature locally sourced ingredients transformed into shared plates, antojitos and tacos, with tequila pairings. The bar menu will also offer wine and mezcal, plus cocktails, sangria pitchers, Mexican beer on tap and "interactive seasonally changing beverages." 2645 Erie Ave., Hyde Park, mesalocahydepark.com.

NOMAD

This new evening gathering place will serve craft cocktails, coffee, wine, beer and donuts out of a renovated vintage 1976 Bristol double-decker bus and a dreamy outdoor courtyard. The space is across the street from Darkness Brewing and was the forme the home of Mama C's Buttercream & Sprinkles bakery. They will host soft openings throughout the fall ahead of their grand opening in spring 2020. 225 Fairfield Ave., Bellevue, facebook.com/codacompany.

PEPP & DOLORES

Thunderdome Restaurant Group — the team behind The Eagle, Bakersfield, Maplewood Kitchen and Bar, etc. — is opening an Italian/pasta-heavy concept this December. The pasta will be broken into two categories: traditional and non-traditional. In addition to homemade pasta, the menu will offer cicchetti (aka shareable appetizers) plus a main bar and a basement bar. 1501 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, searchable on Facebook.

SUGAR N’ SPICE OTR

Sugar n’ Spice, the classic Cincinnati breakfast restaurant known for its wispy-thin pancakes, is slated to open a second location in the former Joe’s Diner in Over-theRhine by winter. It will have the same menu as its Reading Road space in Paddock Hills. 1203 Sycamore St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook.com/eatsugarnspice.

Book Your Holiday Party at Lucius Q • Parties of 20 - 120 • Dinner Buffet • Private Bar • Audio/Visual Equipment Email aaron@luciusq.com or visit www.luciusq.com

Voted Top 5 Best BBQ Voted Top 5 Best New Restaurant TOP FIVE

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www.luciusq.com

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THE TOP 10 READER PICKS FOR BEST OVERALL AND BEST NORTHERN KENTUCKY RESTAURANT FROM CITYBEAT’S 2019 BEST OF CINCINNATI ISSUE

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OVERALL SOTTO

Located under Boca restaurant, the Tuscan-inspired Sotto offers a more approachable atmosphere and price point than its upstairs neighbor. With multiple dining rooms, the kitchen is open to view, including the custom-made woodfire grill in front and a fresh-pasta room in the back hallway. Menu items include handmade pasta, house-cured salami and big-ticket items like Bistecca Fiorentina, a grilled creekstone porterhouse steak with daily sides. MUST TRY: Sotto is the premier special occasion dining spot in Cincy. From its sexy, low-light ambiance to its menu of fresh pastas and other rustic Italian cuisine (with accompanying price tag), this underground eatery is perfect for holidays, anniversaries, birthdays and more; it was even recently named one of OpenTable’s top 100 best restaurants in America. So when Sotto has a special on the menu, you know it’s gonna be out of this world. And generally, when the restaurant gets its hands on some truffles, the chefs create an ultimate indulgence. Truffles frequently come with a hefty price tag, but if you hear about a truffle special at Sotto, jump on it. 118 E. Sixth St., Downtown, sottocincinnati.com.

JEFF RUBY’S THE PRECINCT

You can always rely on a Jeff Ruby restaurant for a big, rare steak and platters of seafood. The Precinct, housed in a historical Romanesque-style former police precinct, was the first in a long line of Ruby steakhouses. You can’t go wrong with a sirloin or porterhouse, named after current and past Cincinnati sports greats. But there are other options, like blackened diver scallops or something from the tableside service menu like seafood fettuccine alfredo for two. MUST TRY: Anything from the raw bar. Options like Alaskan king crab and a daily selection of oysters are served over glowing, neon ice — they drop a light into the bowl before adding the sea creatures. It’s cool. 311 Delta Ave., Columbia Tusculum, jeffruby.com.

THE EAGLE OTR

The Eagle is nested inside a retired post office and has a relatively small menu, comprised of fried chicken, sandwiches, snacks and several side dishes. Booze-wise, they serve 100 kinds of beer and have about 15 different brews on tap. The fried chicken is free-range, all natural and sourced from Ohio farms. Opt for a whole, half chicken (white and dark meat) or a quarter of a chicken (select white or dark). The spicy honey served with chicken is a must — try it on everything. MUST TRY: While it is hard to look past all the ways in which you can indulge in some deep-fried bird here, do so because you’ll land upon the grilled cheese. Forgoing poultry perfection in order to just have a sandwich featuring three cheeses, apricot preserves and granny smith apples may sound crazy, but it isn’t. 1342 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, eaglerestaurant.com.

TASTE OF BELGIUM

Sotto | PHOTO: Hailey Bollinger

Belgian bistro has brought back its fan favorite Pumpkin Spiced Waffle for a limited time (through Nov. 30). The waffle features pumpkin puree and “seasonal spices” in TOB’s hearty dough, which is then pressed with a Belgian waffle iron and topped with fresh whipped cream, toasted pecans and freshly ground mace.

Multiple locations including 16 W. Freedom Way, The Banks; 1135 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine; 2845 Vine St., Corryville; 3825 Edwards Road, Norwood, authenticwaffle.com.

Modeled after a 1940s New York Art Deco steakhouse. If you love steak you have about a zero-percent chance of being let down with one of Ruby’s — they dry-age their own. There are several non-steak options on the menu, including good seafood dishes, but the cow is king at Ruby’s. MUST TRY: A steak, duh. Opt to go all-out with a Japanese A5 (the highest grade) wagyu tenderloin, cut to order and market priced. 700 Walnut St., Downtown, jeffruby.com.

BOCA

A trip to chef David Falk’s Italian/French gemstone is an experience to be savored as much as the food itself. Take your time, invest a few hours and allow him and his attentive, knowledgeable staff to unfold an epic tale of two or three courses, plus dessert. Most entrées are available in full or tasting portions. MUST TRY: The Pommes Soufflees “1942” — puffy french fries — are a call back to the restaurant’s former iteration as the Maisonette. 114 E. Sixth St., Downtown, bocacincinnati.com.

INCLINE PUBLIC HOUSE

With a 1,400-square-foot deck for soaking in vistas and cocktails, IPH’s name is derived from the actual Cincinnati Incline that existed there from the late 1800s to the 1940s.

Their upscale twist on pub food features sandwiches, salads, epicurean appetizers and a slew of craft cocktails and draft beers. MUST TRY: Their pizzas are surprisingly delicious for a non-pizza-parlor. Build your own with toppings ranging from pepperoni and prosciutto to fried egg and oven-roasted tomato.

Or order a house option like the Garbage pie with basically everything ranging from bacon, pepperoni and sausage to arugula, fried egg and cheese. 2601 W. Eighth St., Price Hill, inclinepublichouse.com.

TAFT’S ALE HOUSE

Housed in a renovated multi-story 1850s-era church, Taft’s is named after William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States and native Cincinnatian. The working brewery and restaurant features meat platters, salads and sandwiches that focus on tri-tip beef — similar to prime rib — and a special kids’ menu. The creative beer selection boasts brews made with local goods, everything from locally roasted coffee to artisan chocolate. MUST TRY: The restaurant ages its tri-tip beef, rubs it, chars it, smokes it over hickory-wood chips and then finishes it in the oven — so anything with that. 1429 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, taftsalehouse.com.

MAZUNTE

Taco fillings range from shredded pork to crispy braised chicken, and specialties include memelitas (open-faced tortillas), corn husk tamales and corn empanadas with queso Oaxaca. It’s a refreshing and authentic culinary surprise, considering the restaurant’s location in a Madisonville strip mall. MUST TRY: Warm, vibrant and, honestly, just full of really good food, don’t sleep on their Sunday brunch menu. The huevos divorciados features crispy fried eggs atop corn tortillas and a collision of salsa verde and salsa guajillo. 5207 Madison Road, Madisonville, mazuntetacos.com.

DEWEY’S PIZZA

A hip neighborhood pizza chain with craft beers, seasonal salads, specialty toppings and a window where kids (and adults) can watch the pizzas being hand-tossed. MUST TRY: Whatever the pizza of the moment is. Seasonal salads and pies rotate based on, well, the seasons and feature fresh and fun toppings.

Right now, there’s a Cuban pizza with a mustard base, mozzarella cheese, Canadian bacon, pulled pork, Mojo sauce, dill pickles and Swiss cheese. Multiple locations including 3014 Madison Road, Oakley; 7767 Kenwood Road, Kenwood; Newport on the Levee, Newport, deweyspizza.com.

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Hot, fresh Belgian waffles are made from a thick dough and coarse Belgian beet sugar, which caramelizes on the cast iron press. Find the heavenly breakfast food topped with strawberries and cream or ricotta, or as the bread in a McWaffle sandwich (egg, gruyère and maple syrup). The crepe station prepares sweet and savory crepes, like the Nati Crepe with goetta, made fresh to order. At dinner, the sophistication goes up a notch with mussels, steak frites and Belgian specialties. Offers an exclusive selection of Belgian beers. At The Banks location, you can find all four of Chimay’s Trappist ales on drafts — only the second location in the world outside of the brewery in Belgium to offer them all. MUST TRY: The

JEFF RUBY’S STEAKHOUSE

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The Prime of Cincinnati Enjoying premium steaks and top-notch service doesn’t have to involve a trip to the major cities on either coast. Rather, a steakhouse located in the heart of downtown Cincinnati is bringing patrons the dry-aged, well-marbled steaks they crave.

Prime Cincinnati and its executive chef Shawn Heine have built a well-earned reputation for excellence—much like that of the Certified Angus Beef ® brand Prime steaks found on the menu.

With high standards that ensure each bite is as good as the last, the original brand of Angus beef’s steakhouse cuts go hand-in-hand with the restaurant’s hard-to-find seafood options, flown from the coasts daily. From service to menu, Heine shares Prime Cincinnati’s mission is to exceed each customer’s expectation.

“With prime seafood and Certified Angus Beef ® brand Prime, combined with our in-house dryaging program, we believe that we are really bringing everything that we can to the table,” Heine says. “Our restaurant is all about hospitality, all about bringing the guests in and really catering to every need that they have.”

One of those key offerings is in-house dry-aged steaks. Heine and managing partner Nelson Castillo enjoy getting people to try the properly aged, premium steaks for the first time. Nelson shares that the serving staff go through intense training to expertly describe each cut of beef on their tableside display. They point out the coloration, marbling, and explain the differences while making recommendations. This impressive presentation is as much an education to their guests as an enticement. Those are the key interactions Nelson sees that make up the overall experience.

“The Prime Cincinnati experience is all about creating memories,” Nelson Castillo says. “It’s all about how we can impact and be part of everybody’s day.”

In addition to the classic evening service, Prime Cincinnati also offers lunch, highlighted by its burger selection. Topping the list is Heine’s Prime Dry-Aged Burger, consisting of Certified Angus Beef ® brand ground chuck, topped with bacon, blue cheese and garlic aioli. The restaurant also provides delicious soups and salads for lighter options.

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With its focus on providing patrons with premium steaks and an exceptional dining experience, Prime Cincinnati received the Steakhouse of the Year honor from the Certified Angus Beef ® brand.

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For more information or to make a reservation, visit PrimeCincinnati.com.

NORTHERN KENTUCKY POMPILIO’S

This restaurant, where the toothpick scene in Rain Man was filmed, has been offering classic family Italian since 1933.

Play a game of bocce ball on the back court or grab a beerand-burger special in the attached Colonel Pomp’s Tavern.

You also can’t go wrong with any pasta dish. MUST TRY: Order a pasta sampler with spaghetti marina, fettuccine alfredo, penne robusto (a hearty marinara) and rigatoni with meat sauce.

600 Washington Ave., Newport, pompilios.com.

HOFBRÄUHAUS

The first authentic German Hofbräuhaus in America and modeled after the legendary Munich location. Traditionally decorated rooms, beer brewed on-site (in line with the German Purity Law “Reinheitsgebot,” using only hops, malt and water), a huge biergarten and German dishes make this a fun dining option. Servers bring you your schnitzel and wurst in traditional German garb and there’s live music almost every night. MUST TRY: A giant glass boot-stein of whatever beer has been recently tapped and something German. The Bavarian sampler platter for two, or Schmankerlplatte, has schweinebraten (pork roast with bier sauce), schnitzel wiener art (breaded pork cutlet) and three types of wurst with fried cabbage, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. 200 E. Third St., Newport, hofbrauhausnewport.com.

WALT’S HITCHING POST

Walt’s Hitching Post is a kick-back, casual place where everybody knows your name. Open in some iteration since the 1950s, classic menu items include Walt’s Legendary Fried Chicken, Steak Diane and fried green tomatoes with chicken livers. All steaks are dusted with a unique seasoning blend and charred to perfection. MUST TRY: On Fridays, Kosher-salt encrusted prime rib is on special — while it lasts. 3300 Madison

AmerAsia | PHOTO: Hailey Bollinger

Pike, Fort Wright, waltshitchingpost.com.

KUNGFOOD CHU’S AMERASIA

Quaint and comfortable with a huge beer list, AmerAsia offers all the usual Chinese dishes and chef specialties, but the food is anything but the usual. Chef Chu makes it all from scratch. His motto: “Do not take short cuts and do everything with passion and love.” Enjoy it all while taking in the eclectic décor of Kung Fu movie posters and paper lanterns. MUST TRY: Favorite dishes include the inferno-hot Dragon Breath wontons and General Chu’s orange and sesame street chicken.

521 Madison Ave., Covington, facebook.com/kungfoodchu.

BOUQUET RESTAURANT & WINE BAR

Working closely with local sources, Bouquet’s farm-to-table approach means a fresh, frequently rotating menu packed with seasonal ingredients. Elegant small plates, entrées and thoughtful wine pairings set the stage for an intimate dining experience. MUST TRY: The Motherboard charcuterie board

OTTO’S

Otto’s does lunch and dinner, but it’s definitely a happening brunch spot. For brunch, Benedict Otto’s substitutes fried grit cake for the English muffin of a traditional eggs Benedict. It’s delicious, a bit rich and a true indulgence. There are a halfdozen mimosa options, from Violette Royale to citrus vanilla spice, and bloody marys made with house-infused cucumber or jalapeño-garlic vodka. MUST TRY: Otto’s is known for its panko-crusted fried green tomatoes, so if you go during brunch, order the B.L.F.G.T. aka the bacon, lettuce, fried green tomato, egg and cheese sandwich on a croissant. If you’re there for dinner, order the appetizer portion of tomatoes with dipping sauce.

521 Main St., Covington, ottosonmain.com.

The restaurant, named after the legendary painter Frida Kahlo, has Kahlo’s portrait and famous unibrow emblazoned all over the place. The cocktail list is divided into margaritas and house cocktails made with either tequila or mezcal, and they offer both alcohols in a flight, served in copitas (small clay cups). The menu is categorized into antojitos of chips and salsas, salads, nachos and several kinds of tacos. MUST TRY: The vegetarian Brussels sprout tacos are the best, served with a smoked peanut salsa. Also a must: the queso dip. 602 Main St., Covington, fridaonmain.com.

GREYHOUND TAVERN

Famous for its double-deckers, the Greyhound Tavern has been a Fort Mitchell institution since the 1930s. You won’t want to miss the divine fried chicken, the ginormous onion rings, the Hot Brown or the bread pudding. It’s family-style fried chicken night on Mondays and Tuesdays, with generous portions of bird — rolled in secret-recipe herbed flour and fried — mashed potatoes, green beans, coleslaw and biscuits. MUST TRY: A classic Kentucky Hot Brown. Get country ham or oven-roasted turkey on toast points, topped with cheesy mornay sauce, cheddar cheese, bacon and tomato. 2500 Dixie Highway, Fort Mitchell, greyhoundtavern.com.

AGAVE & RYE

Agave & Rye is a taqueria and tequila and bourbon hall that serves self-proclaimed “epic tacos.” Geared toward a hip audience, tacos have names like the Swipe Right and fillings like kangaroo meat, duck confit, butter-poached lobster and veggie options like fried green tomatoes. Sides range from mac and cheese and bourbon-bacon refried beans to “guac

fries” and elote. MUST TRY: The “Sensei,” made with soy and ginger kangaroo tenderloin topped with crispy rice noodles and veggies before it’s finished off with spicy peanut chili oil. 635 Madison Ave., Covington, agaveandrye.com.

COPPIN’S RESTAURANT & BAR

There’s a strong local identity to the location and the menu, with nods to history and the new South, the bourbon and the banter that starts at the Roebling Bridge. Chef Mitch Arens has also placed a specific and intentional focus on reducing waste. By building relationships with local farms and producers to source everything from lamb, beef and chicken to produce, cheese and ice cream, the goal — specifically with the proteins and plants — is to use the entirety of the items that pass through his kitchen, nose to tail and root to stem.

The menu is full of upscale but still Southern-inspired dishes.

MUST TRY: For a romantic date night, try one of the dishes from under the “for two” heading, like a Sakura Farms ribeye. 638 Madison Ave., Covington, hotelcovington.com.

KEYSTONE BAR & GRILL

This chain of neighborhood joints offers a variety of tasty comfort food like huge plates of pasta, a rockin’ quesadilla menu, build-your-own-burgers (including turkey or veggie options) and weekend brunch. MUST TRY: Where Keystone really shines is its macaroni and cheese menu: specialty selections of ooey, gooey carbs smothered in rich dairy, named after famous bands like their “Fleetwood Mac” with mozzarella, pesto and tomato. Multiple locations including 313 Greenup St., Covington; 249 Calhoun St., Clifton Heights; 3384 Erie Ave., Hyde Park, keystonebar.com.

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is ever popular, featuring two cured meats, two house meats, five cheeses and a multitude of accoutrements. 519 Main St., Covington, bouquetrestaurant.com.

FRIDA

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BEST BARBECUE

ELI’S BBQ Eli’s specialty, the pulled-pork sandwich, is a good intro to his amazing barbecue sauce, and you can move on from there to hickorysmoked ribs, smoked turkey or sides like mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, baked beans and jalapeño corn bread. MUST TRY: You haven’t done Eli’s right until you’ve had the 2 All-Beef Dogs. You’ll still get a barbecue fix because the two smoked franks come in a bun with Eli’s famous sauce, however the flash fry preparation and pork crispins and coleslaw toppings will make you forget that Eli’s is known for anything else. 3313 Riverside Drive, East End; Findlay Market, 133 W. Elder St., Over-the Rhine, elisbarbeque.com.

CITY BARBECUE, multiple locations including 2760 Alexandria Pike, Highland Heights, citybbq.com.

MONTGOMERY INN, 9440 Montgomery Road, Montgomery; 925 Riverside Drive, East End, montgomeryinn.com.

LUCIUS Q, 1131 Broadway St., Pendleton, luciusq.com.

PICKLES & BONES BARBECUE 1149 OH-131, Milford, picklesandbones.com.

PONTIAC 1403 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, pontiacbbq.com.

SWEETS & MEATS BBQ 2249 Beechmont Ave., Mount Washington, sweetsandmeatsbbq.com.

JUST Q’IN 975 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills, justqin.com.

MIDWEST BEST BBQ AND CREAMERY 669 Justice Court, Loveland, midwestbestbbq. com.

BIG ART’S BBQ GRILLE 2796 Struble Road, Colerain, bigartsq.com.

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BEST BREAKFAST

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SLEEPY BEE CAFÉ A family-friendly breakfast and lunch spot, much of Sleepy Bee’s food is sourced locally from farms with bee-friendly practices. Expect a healthy wait on weekends for healthy and hearty brunch fare. MUST TRY: Bee Cakes.

These gluten-free beauties marry almond milk, buckwheat and quinoa to make a tasty and healthy pancake on which to layer your favorite toppings. They’re packed with protein, so you won’t immediately be hungry again. 3098 Madison Road, Oakley; 9514 Kenwood Road, Blue Ash; 8 E. Fourth St., Downtown, sleepybeecafe.com.

The Banks; 1135 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine; 2845 Vine St., Corryville; 3825 Edwards Road, Norwood, authenticwaffle.com.

MAPLEWOOD KITCHEN AND BAR 525 Race St., Downtown, 5065 Deerfield Blvd., Mason, maplewoodkitchenandbar.com.

SUGAR N’ SPICE RESTAURANT 4381 Reading Road, Paddock Hills, eatsugarnspice.com.

HANG OVER EASY 13 W. Charlton St., Corryville, facebook.com/hangovereasycincy.

THE ECHO RESTAURANT 3510 Edwards Road, Hyde Park, echo-hydepark.com.

THE MAIN CUP 18 Main St., Milford, maincupmilford.com.

THE ORIGINAL PANCAKE HOUSE 8355 Beechmont Ave., Withamsville; 9977 Montgomery Road, Montgomery, originalpancakehouse.com.

WILD EGGS multiple locations including 301 E. Fourth St., Downtown, wildeggs.com.

BEST BURGERS

ZIP’S CAFÉ Open since 1926, Zip's Cafe is an East Side institution. And the cafe’s claim to fame — besides the little toy train that runs along the ceiling — is having some of the best burgers in town: fresh, flame-broiled Avril-Bleh beef patties (sourced locally every day), served on a honey-egg bun. MUST TRY: The fan-favorite Girth burger — named by former Bengal punter Pat McInally — features a classic Zip burger topped with a split, grilled Avril-Bleh mettwurst.

If that isn’t enough, opt for the Train Wreck, a step up from the Girth with the addition of shaved ham and three types of cheese. 1036 Delta Ave., Mount Lookout, zipscafe.com.

ARTHUR’S 3516 Edwards Road, Hyde Park; 8221 Beechmont Ave., Anderson, arthurscincinnati.com.

KRUEGER’S TAVERN 1211 Vine St., Overthe-Rhine, kruegerstavern.com.

NATION KITCHEN AND BAR 1200 Broadway, Pendleton, nationkitchenandbar.com.

2434 Quatman Ave., Norwood, quatmancafe. com.

GAS LIGHT CAFÉ 6104 Montgomery Road, Pleasant Ridge, gaslightcincy.com.

BEST BURRITOS

GOMEZ SALSA On Weekends, Gomez in OTR is open till 2:30 a.m., making it the perfect drunk Saturday pit stop before piling into your Uber. But this Mexican eatery — which serves up tacos, burritos and turtles — is also a prime spot to pick up grub before lounging in Washington Park, during your lunch break or literally whenever you feel on-the-go. MUST TRY: The Turtle — a burrito tortilla stuffed with rice, beans and the ingredients of your choice, plus a crunchy tortilla right in the center and a layer of crispy melted cheese on top. It’s cut into halves, and you eat it sort of like a sandwich...or a Cruchwrap Supreme. 107 E. 12th St., Over-the-Rhine; 2437 Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills, gomezsalsa.com.

CHIPOTLE multiple locations, chipotle.com MAZUNTE 5207 Madison Road, Madisonville, taqueria.mazuntetacos.com.

BEST CHILI (NON-CHAIN)

CAMP WASHINGTON CHILI A great place for breakfast, lunch or dinner, Camp Washington Chili features greasyspoon breakfast offerings, double-decker sandwiches, Cincinnati-style chili, coneys and even a few salads. A James Beard Award winner, Camp Washington Chili opened its doors in 1940, and current owner Johnny Johnson has been working at the parlor since 1951. Open 24/6 — they’re closed on Sundays. MUST TRY: The "513-Way," three slabs of Queen City Sausage goetta covered in Cincinnati-style chili, beans, onion and cheese.

3005 Colerain Ave., Camp Washington, campwashingtonchili.com.

BLUE ASH CHILI 9565 Kenwood Road, Blue Ash; 4200 Aero Drive, Mason; 11711 Princeton Pike, Tri-County, blueashchili.com.

PLEASANT RIDGE CHILI 6032 Montgomery Road, Pleasant Ridge, pleasantridgechili. com.

TICKLE PICKLE 4176 Hamilton Ave., Northside, ordertickle.com.

FLIPDADDY’S BURGERS & BEERS 165 Pavilion Parkway, Newport; 7453 Wooster Pike, Mariemont; 12071 Mason Montgomery Road, Symmes Township; 8863 US Route 42, Union, flipdaddys.com.

RONEY’S 314 Chamber Drive, Milford, facebook.com/roneysrestaurant.

FIRST WATCH multiple locations including 104 E. Seventh St., Downtown, firstwatch. com.

Ave., Covington, bardsburgersandchili.com.

TASTE OF BELGIUM 16 W. Freedom Way,

QUATMAN CAFÉ 224 W. Main St., Mason;

BARD’S BURGERS & CHILI 3620 Decoursey

BEST MEDITERRANEAN

ALADDIN’S EATERY + LOUNGE Although the Aladdin’s Eatery chain has been around since 1994, their location in OTR marks something novel for the LebaneseAmerican franchise: a full bar. Now, you can not only grab a freshly squeezed juice, smoothie or mint tea, you can also opt for a drink from a clever selection of cocktails. Find food favorites like rolled pita sandwiches, shish kabob plates, kibbie, beef kafta and other Mediterranean flavors. MUST TRY: A pita “pitza,” topped with anything from

baba ganouj and veggies to hummus, ground beef, diced tomatos and pine nuts. 1203 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook.com/ aladdinseateryotr.

PHOENICIAN TAVERNA 7944 Mason Montgomery Road, Mason, facebook.com/ phoeniciantaverna.

SEBASTIAN’S GYROS 5209 Glenway Ave., Western Hills, sebastiansgyros.com.

BEST SEAFOOD

COURT STREET LOBSTER BAR Nary a bright-red shell is in sight at Court Street Lobster Bar. Instead, there are several ways to enjoy tender, buttery lobster meat — in a creamy bisque or as an ingredient in poutine; as part of the decadent lobster mac and cheese; or in one of two styles of lobster rolls. MUST TRY: A “Maine Style” or “Connecticut Style” roll. The Maine roll is a chilled lobster salad with mayonnaise while the Connecticut roll has warm lobster meat drizzled with hot butter. 28 W. Court St., Downtown, courtstreetlobsterbar.com.

PAPPADEAUX SEAFOOD KITCHEN 11975 Northwest Blvd., Springdale, pappadeaux. com.

BONEFISH GRILL multiple locations including 2737 Madison Road, Hyde Park, bonefish.com.

MCCORMICK & SCHMICK’S 21 E. Fifth St., Downtown, mccormickandschmicks.com.

PELICAN’S REEF 7261 Beechmont Ave., Anderson, thepelicansreef.com.

S.W. CLYBORNE CO. 5948 Snider Road, Mason, clybornes.com.

MITCHELL’S FISH MARKET 9456 Water Front Drive, Mason, mitchellsfishmarket.com.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM SALOON & RESTAURANT 1000 Elm St., Downtown, washingtonplatform.com.

CHART HOUSE 405 Riverboat Row, Newport, chart-house.com.

BEST SUSHI

GREEN PAPAYA If you’re a Thai food fan, this mainstay — locally owned by Bangkok-born husband and wife — focuses on unique sushi rolls, curries and noodle dishes. MUST TRY: The namesake Green Papaya roll with shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, mango and cream cheese, topped with spicy mayo, crab stick and tempura flakes. 2942 Wasson Road, Hyde Park; 4002 Plainville Road, Mariemont, greenpapayacincinnati.com.

CLOUD 9 SUSHI 1018 Delta Ave., Mount Lookout, facebook.com/cloud9sushi.

LAKESIDE PARK | COLD SPRING | FLORENCE

COZY, ECO FRIENDLY CAFÉ BREAKFAST & LUNCH LOCALLY SOURCED Open Daily - 8am | Sundays - 9am Open Late - Thursday, Friday, Saturday

CALL FOR CATERING 513-381-3436

Bourbon & Bacon Wednesday, December 4th New Riff Distilling 5:30-8:30 P.M. O C T. 1 6 - 2 9 , 2 0 19 | C I T Y B E AT. C O M

tickets available at www.bourbonandbaconcincy.com

BARLEYCORNS.COM

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ICHIBAN JAPANESE CUISINE 1020 Delta Ave., Mount Lookout, ichibancinci.com.

MR. SUSHI 580 Walnut St., Downtown; 138 W. McMillan St.., Clifton, mrsushicinci.com.

WABI SABI 508 Madison Ave., Covington, wabisabicovington.com.

KAZE 1400 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, kazeotr. com.

FUSIAN 600 Vine St., Downtown; 8060 Montgomery Road, Kenwood; 3780 Paxton Ave., Hyde Park, fusian.com.

WILD GINGER 3655 Edwards Road, Hyde Park, wildgingercincy.com.

IZEN’S DRUNKEN BENTO 212 W. McMillan St., Clifton, searchable on Facebook.

E+O KITCHEN 3520 Edwards Road, Hyde Park, eokitchen.com.

BEST VIETNAMESE

PHO LANG THANG Pho Lang Thang recently relocated to a much larger space a little north of Findlay Market.

There’s a full bar that’ll be fully stocked once their liquor license comes through, but for the time being, Coco Rico or an iced coffee are the best drinks in the house. Diners can enjoy their pho, bánh mì and shrimp salad rolls at the bar or at one of the many tables. MUST TRY: One of Pho Lang Thang’s best dishes is their pho bò nam, or brisket pho: the thinly sliced meat is tender and flavorful, enhancing the body of the already phenomenal broth. For sandwiches, the fried tofu bánh mì is excellent thanks to the crunchy French baguette, crisp cucumber and aromatic cilantro. 1828 Race St., Over-theRhine, pholangthang.com.

CILANTRO VIETNAMESE BISTRO 235 W. McMillan St., Clifton, eatatcilantro.com.

PHO KIMMY 11974 Lebanon Road, Sharonville, pho-kimmy.business.site.

BEST VEGGIE BURGER

KRUEGER’S TAVERN Krueger’s Tavern is part of the rapidly expanding Thunderdome empire, which also owns Maplewood, Bakersfield, Currito and The Eagle. MUST TRY: The veggie burger.

The housemade patty is a blend of beets, breadcrumbs and other binding ingredients, all mushed together into a sort of disc, then dropped in a fryer. The burger is crispy on the outside and super flavorful on the inside, with a nice reddish hue. It is topped with melty provolone cheese, pesto mayo, mixed greens and housemade pickles on a challah bun. 1211 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, kruegerstavern.com.

TICKLE PICKLE 4176 Hamilton Ave., Northside, ordertickle.com.

S.W. CLYBORNE CO. 5948 Snider Road, Mason, clybornes.com.

ARTHUR’S 3516 Edwards Road, Hyde Park; 8221 Beechmont Ave., Anderson, arthurscincinnati.com.

SLEEPY BEE CAFÉ 3098 Madison Road, Oakley; 8 E. Fourth St., Downtown; 9514 Kenwood Road, Blue Ash, sleepybeecafe.com.

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Wooster Pike, Mariemont; 12071 Mason Montgomery Road, Symmes Township; 8863 US Route 42, Union; 165 Parkway Pavilion, Newport, flipdaddys.com.

MAPLEWOOD KITCHEN AND BAR 525 Race St., Downtown; 5065 Deerfield Blvd., Mason, maplewoodkitchenandbar.com.

ARNOLD’S BAR & GRILL 210 E. Eighth St., Downtown, arnoldsbarandgrill.com.

HARVEST PIZZERIA 1739 Elm St., Over-theRhine, harvestpizzeria.com.

BONES’ BURGERS 9721 Montgomery Road, Montgomery; 3235 Madison road, Oakley, bones-burgers.com.

ADRIATICO’S

Adriatico’s has a huge draft beer selection and 64-ounce growlers to go, plus spicy, garlicky sauce, oversized pepperoni and a super-thick crust. Good luck finding calzones like theirs, too. MUST TRY: A giant 18-inch-by-24-inch Bearcat pizza. It will feed your entire party. 113 W. McMillan St., Clifton, adriaticosuc.com.

A TAVOLA

Armed with a pizza oven from Naples, Italy, A Tavola strikes a resounding chord of authenticity while redefining the perfect pie.

Their playful selection of signature pizzas are a blend of the familiar coupled with the exotic.

Whet your appetite with their arancini fried risotto balls or share a plate of tagliatelle al ragu. MUST TRY: The artichoke pizza — basil

PIZZA PARTY CityBeat’s Pizza Week (cincinnatipizzaweek.com) takes over myriad local pizzerias Nov. 4-10, each of them offering $8 specialty pies for seven special days. Diners can grab a passport and get it stamped as they let it guide them around the city; get four or more stamps and enter to win $250 in gift cards.

And while pizza is delicious any way you slice it, these 10 pizza parlors were the reader pick winners from the 2019 Best Of Cincinnati isse. Some of them are participating in Cincinnati Pizza Week. Some are not. This was just a little shameless self-promotion for pizza all-around.

FIRESIDE PIZZA

Since opening a brick-and-mortar version of their popular wood-fired pizza cart, Fireside Pizza has been able to attract a crowd. With the family-friendly vibe, old school Ms. Pac-Man game and the fact that it’s located inside an actual historic firehouse, Fireside’s appeal transcends its nicely singed wood-fired pizzas. MUST TRY: Eli’s BBQ Pie features Alabama white sauce, a provolone-mozzarella mix, Eli’s BBQ signature rub, pickled red onions, oven-roasted chicken and Eli’s BBQ sauce.

773 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills, firesidepizzawalnuthills.com.

JOE’S PIZZA NAPOLI

When you walk into Joe’s, your eyes are immediately drawn to the massive tiled pizza oven, which the restaurant uses to create delicious Neapolitan pie. Along with masterful pizzas (both red and white varieties), there are green salads, calzones, meatballs and cannelloni. MUST TRY: The Roma with sausage and pep-

pesto, tomato sauce, artichokes, goat cheese and cow’s milk mozzarella. 1220 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine; 7022 Miami Ave., Madeira, atavolapizza.com.

peroni from Columbus-based Ezzo Sausage Co. The pepperoni cup and char perfectly after their time in the oven. The dough is thin, but not overly crisp despite the beautiful coloration from the fire. 507 Chamber Drive, Milford, joespizzanapoli.com.

CATCH-A-FIRE PIZZA

STRONG’S BRICK OVEN PIZZERIA

Located in the MadTree Brewing Co. taproom, this wood-fired pizza purveyor offers a menu of salads, starters, pies and even brunch featuring special breakfast pizzas. MUST TRY: The Reggae-inspired Goettup, Stand Up with Glier’s goetta, caramelized onion, peppadew, cracked egg and four cheeses. MadTree, 3301 Madison Road, Oakley, catchafirepizza.com.

CHESTER’S PIZZA

This old-fashioned family-style pizza parlor has been around since the 1950s. Using a recipe handed down by Chester and Mary Dadabo, who started serving half-baked pies you could take home to finish in your own oven, Chester’s pizzas have an almost crunchy pan crust — with an affordable price point. Carry-out only. MUST TRY: A classic cheese pizza. 2929 Dixie Highway, Fairfield, searchable on Facebook.

Although the exterior doesn’t stand out with screaming colorful signs or a decked-out front entrance, the inside is equipped with a state of the art pizza making machine hailing from Italy — one big brick oven. Strong’s is slated to open its first Ohio location in Reading in November. MUST TRY: The eatery’s signature Pizza Alla Vodka is a goldmine of flavors and combines creamy sauce with mushrooms, spinach and the salty-sweet prosciutto di Parma. 336 Monmouth St., Newport, strongsbrickovenpizza.com.

TAFT’S BREWPOURIUM

An extension of OTR’s Taft’s Ale House, the Brewpourium serves Apizza, a crispy, coal-fired version of Neapolitan pizza that originated in Connecticut, which the Brewpourium opted to serve over other styles (e.g. New York, Chicago)

because William Howard Taft — former president, Cincinnati native and brewery namesake — went to Yale in New Haven.

MUST TRY: The BBQ Pork pie featuring a barbecue sauce made with Taft’s Cherrywood amber ale. 4831 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village, taftsalehouse.com/ brewpourium.

TAGLIO

Taglio is a second pizza joint from brothers Nick and Jared Wayne (of A Tavola).

It is known for both its traditional and deep-dish Detroit-style pizzas (with housemade sauce, A Tavola sausage and bacon and fresh mozzarella), among other menu items, and the fact that they deliver their entire menu — including wine and beer. MUST TRY: Any Detroit-style pie. Detroit-style pizza is a rectangular pie with whole-milke mozzarella applied around the edges of the housemade crust to provide a caramelized edge. The pepperoni and hot honey is a favorite. 3531 Columbia Parkway, Columbia Tusculum; 56 E. 12th St., Over-the-Rhine, eattaglio.com.

TROTTA’S

A beverage drive-thru with above-average pizza, including the Lotta Trotta big-ass pie, available in a variety of interesting topping combinations: the Salami Roll-Up, Chili Pizza and Hot Wing. MUST TRY: Go wild with the Trotta’s Big Boy, a Frisch’s-inspired pizza topped with tartar sauce, lettuce, pickles, ground beef and cheddar cheese. 3501 Werk Road, Westwood, trottaspizza.net.

TWO CITIES PIZZA CO.

Two Cities Pizza Co., a dining destination housed in Mason’s former city hall closes the chasm between the dueling pizza metropolises of NYC and Chicago.

In addition to pizza, they offer tempting best-of-both-worlds street food from each city. MUST TRY: Get New York-style pizza if you’re a moron. If you aren’t, get their Chicago deep dish. 202 W. Main St., Mason, twocitiespizza.com

At Locally owned Skally’s we’re committed to high quality delicious food using no preservatives or chemicals. We make all our products - including pizza dough, salad dressings, BBQ sauce and desserts. Try the best gluten-free pizza in Cincinnati. We are excited for you to taste and experience the difference.

9558 Civic Centre Blvd, Suite D, West Chester, OH 513-342-5004 · www.skallysrestaurant.com 11am to 10pm daily, Late hours coming soon

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Catering and box lunches available with deliver y

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tableside display. They point out the coloration, marbling, and explain the differences while making recommendations. This impressive presentation is as much an education to their guests as an enticement. Those are the key interactions Nelson sees that make up the overall experience.

“The Prime Cincinnati experience is all about creating memories,” Nelson Castillo says. “It’s all about how we can impact and be part of everybody’s day.”

In addition to the classic evening service, Prime Cincinnati also offers lunch, highlighted by its burger selection. Topping the list is Heine’s Prime Dry-Aged Burger, consisting of Certified Angus Beef ® brand ground chuck, topped with bacon, blue cheese and garlic aioli. The restaurant also provides delicious soups and salads for lighter options.

With its focus on providing patrons with premium steaks and an exceptional dining experience, Prime Cincinnati received the Steakhouse of the Year honor from the Certified Angus Beef ® brand.

Long Bone Tomahawk

For information or to make a reservation, visit PrimeCincinnati.com.

B O O K YO U R H O L I DAY E V E N T TO DAY

M e n t i o n t h i s a d a n d re c i e v e 2 0 % o ff y o u r m i n i m u m C o m m i t b y 1 0 / 3 0 / 1 9 a n d re c e i v e a c o m p l i m e n ta r y s i d e d i s h to a ny p r i x fi x e m e n u

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W H E R E T H E F U N B E G I N S. . . !

M O N DAYS $ 5 B e e r s & B u rg e r s T U E S DAYS $ 1 Wi n g s W E D N E S DAYS 1 / 2 Wi n e B o t t l e s & W h i s key F l i g h t D e a l s T H U R S DAYS L a s t C a l l Tr i v i a & S te a k S p e c i a l F R I DAYS R o ta t i o n o f C i n C i t y C o m e d y, Ka ra o ke , a n d H a va n a B o h e m i a n N i g h t s S AT U R DAYS B r u n c h 1 1 a m - 2 p m + L i ve M u s i c S U N DAYS B r u n c h A L L D a y + K i d ' s E a t F re e

October 14-20 Agave and Rye B&A Street Kitchen Coco’s Mexican Bar and Grill Drunken Taco El Vaquero

Frida 602 Horchata J-Taps La Jaiba Lalo Los Potrillos

Lucius Q Miami Style Tacos Pelican Reef Roll On In Sammy’s Craft Burgers and Beers

Slatt’s

Taqueria El Monarca

Taqueria Mercado Tortilleria Garcia Tostado’s Grill

Veracruz Mexican Grill

Wishbone tavern

w w w . c i n c y tacow e e k . co m

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e v e r y day i s taco t u e s day d u r i n g taco w e e k .

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O F F I C I A L C I N C I N N AT I H O R C HATA G

AGAV E & RYE G

PASTOR TACO

TH E PU M PKI N EATER

Rustic sweet potato hash, mushroom and corn ragout, tangy romesco, pepitas seeds.

TH E BECKY

Honey lime chicken, garlic rice, queso, tomato, chicharrones, spicy chipotle crema.

TH E CH EESEBU RGER

Seasoned ground beef, mustard, house ketchup, lettuce, tomato, aged white cheddar, garlic aioli, dill pickle.

Marinated pork, pineapple topping, cilantro, onion. Served in a soft corn tortilla. This is a Mexico City favorite.

CARN ITAS TACO

Pulled pork, pico de gallo (tomato, onion, avocado, cilantro). Served in a soft corn tortilla.

VEGGI E TACO

Zucchini prepared with a delicious topping that includes queso fresco. Served in a soft corn tortilla.

B &A STR E ET KI TC H E N

J -TA PS

Mouthwatering Barbacoa Mixta (beef cheeks and pork shoulder) slow cooked in a savory broth topped with a traditional garnish of onion, cilantro, Cotija cheese and a slice of lime. Enjoy the perfect taco trio served in a grilled flour tortilla. (Limit one order of three tacos per customer, no substitutions.)

TRADITIONAL CARN ITA TACO

CAJU N TI LAPIA TACO

TACOS BARBACOA M IXTA

CO CO’ S M EX I CA N R E STAUAR NT

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Grilled Cajun tilapia, topped with house pico de gallo and lettuce on a warm flour tortilla.

Orange marinade pork shoulder, topped with cilantro, diced onion and house green sauce on a corn tortilla.

J

L A JA I BA

S E A FO O D & TAQ U E R I A

PASTOR

Marinated pork with special red sauce and pineapple topped with cilantro and onions.

CARN ITAS

Roasted pork with special mango and pineapple sauce topped with cilantro and onions.

CAM PECHANOS

CARN E ASADA TACO

Our delicious and tender steak is marinated in a homemade recipe made from scratch and served on a corn tortilla garnished with cilantro and onions.

CH ICKEN TACO

Our delicious chicken is marinated with special ingredients to give that juicy flavor and served on a corn tortilla, garnished with cilantro and onions.

Sirloin steak and chorizo mixed topped with cilantro and onion.

AL PASTOR TACO

The tender pork is marinated overnight in a delicious sauce, with chunks of pineapple and onions and then slowly grilled. Served on a tortilla, garnished with cilantro, onions, lime and salsa.

D R U N KE N TACO S G

BU FFALO CH ICKEN TACO

Chicken with buffalo sauce, lettuce, queso fresco and sour cream on your choice of a flour or corn tortilla.

E L VAQ U E R O ( 2 L O CAT I O N S )

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BARBACOA TACO

Marinated pork in special sauce, cooked with pineapple, topped with cilantro and onions.

TACOS DE TI NGA

Shredded chicken cooked with onions and chipotle peppers, topped with lettuce, tomato and feta cheese.

TACOS DE CARN E ASADA

Grilled sirloin steak topped with cilantro and onions.

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must be 21+ Please drink responsibly

Slow-cooked braised beef topped with fresh pico de gallo, pickled red onion and cilantro.

SESAM E GI NGER TOFU TACO

The original Impossible Taco. Marinated in our house ginger marinade then grilled to perfection.

Topped with pickled carrots, cucumber, red cabbage and Sriracha aioli.

LO S POTR I LLO S G J

TACO PAISA

Grilled steak served with cilantro, onions and salsa verde.

eljimador.com

enjoy an el jimador special, receive an extra stamp

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Pickled carrots, red cabbage and cucumbers topped with a honey chipotle sauce.

PASTOR

EL JIMADOR SPECIAL

L A LO G

HON EY CH I POTLE CH ICKEN TACO

F R I DA 60 2

BRUSSELS SPROUTS TACO

Caramelized Brussels sprouts, smoked peanut salsa and peanuts on fresh corn tortilla.

Garnished with pickled red onion, sliced radish, cilantro.

AL PASTOR

Boneless pork shoulder marinated with our special sauce and pineapple served with cilantro, onions and salsa verde.

LU C I U S Q

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SOUTHWEST BBQ TACO

Choice of pork shoulder or meatless “Veggie Q” smoked low and slow over oak and cherry wood, topped with smoked tomato corn salsa, and finished with picked red onions and Cotija cheese on a flour tortilla.

C I N C Y TACOW E E K .COM

TA C O W E E K L O C AT I O N S TAQ U E R I A M E R CADO

PU LLED PORK TACO Choice of pulled pork or meatless “Veggie Q” taco topped with our famous queso corn and slaw on a flour tortilla.

AUTH ENTIC M EXICAN TACO

Steamed corn tortilla topped with onions, cilantro and lime; your choice of seasoned shredded chicken, seasoned pork, fried pork, Mexican sausage, beef brisket or shredded beef. Choose any of our housemade salsas.

BRISKET TACO Choice of brisket burnt end or meatless “Veggie Q” taco with chimichurri and pickled onions on a flour tortilla.

TO RT I L LE R I A GAR C I A

M IAM I STY LE G TACO S

( 2 L O C AT I O N S )

BARBACOA TACO

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Traditional steamed and seasoned beef cheek topped with fresh corn tortilla, cilantro and onion.

CH ICKEN TACO

TO STA DO’ S G R I LL G

Mojo chicken with tomato salsa fresca and spiced sour cream.

ANY TACO

VEGGI E TACO

Steamed corn tortilla topped with pico and cheese. Your choice of pork carnita, pork barbacoa, beef barbacoa, chicken tinga, grilled chicken, ground beef, grilled steak, grilled shrimp or grilled tilapia.

Corn, pineapple salsa, fresh herbs and spring mix lettuce (vegan).

P E LI CAN ’ S R E E F

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V E RAC R U Z

BAJA STYLE BEER- BATTERED COD TACOS

Lightly fried cod, shredded lettuce, tomato, guacamole, queso fresco cheese, poblano sour cream and charred tomato salsa.

AUTH ENTIC BARBACOA TACO

Authentic barbacoa (marinated beef) made in-house and served on a fresh soft corn taco with lime, onion and cilantro. Served with an order of freshly fried chips and homemade salsa.

Additional sauces available at your table. Steak tacos also available for this promotion.

R O LL O N I N

FRESH CH ICKEN TACO

( 3 L O C AT I O N S )

Freshly grilled chicken served in a fresh soft taco with lime, onion and cilantro. Served with an order of freshly prepared chips and homemade salsa. Additional sauces available at your table.

Beef and veggie tacos also available for this promotion.

NORI TACO

Deep-fried seaweed shells filled with sticky rice and various proteins, veggies and sauces.

WONTON TACO

Deep-fried wonton shells, filled with teriyaki chicken, Asian slaw, spicy mayo and green onion.

WI S H B O N E TAVE R N

SAM MY’ S C RAFT B U R G E R S & G J BEERS

Lightly blackened cod with veggie slaw, cheese, Caribbean mango dressing and drizzled with chipotle mayo.

FISH TACO

BU FFALO CH ICKEN TACO

CARN ITAS PORK TACOS

Crispy chicken topped with Buffalo sauce, mac and cheese and drizzled with ranch.

Homemade roasted green tomatillo sauce with Cotija cheese, red onions and cilantro served on a fresh corn tortilla.

S LATT S G

BEST I N TH E CITY TACO

Flour tortillas with your choice of blackened tilapia, slow-cooked carnitas or slow cooked-chicken, stuffed with curry-cabbage slaw and topped with pico de gallo and spicy aioli.

TAQ U E R IA E L M O NAR CA G

TACO WEEK KEY

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EL PASTOR DEL TROM PO

G gluten free option

Al-pastor marinated pork with pineapple, served with onion and cilantro.

veggie option

Chorizo marinated Mexican sausage served with onion and cilantro.

POLLO TACO

take out available

Marinated chicken served with onion and cilantro.

P R E S E NTE D BY:

Cincinnati M I N I M UM 3 TACOS PE R O D E R

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CHORIZO TACO

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halloween party fri oct 25

th

Live music featuring Hairbangers Ball, 80s glam metal tribute band.

Come dressed to WIN $250 FREE PLAY for: Best Costume Best Couples Costume Scariest Costume Funniest Costume Best Dancer

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prizes awarded at midnight

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JUST OFF I–75 EXIT 29 miamivalleygaming.com

Must be 21 or older to gamble. Problem Gambling? Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline (1-800-589-9966) or visit www.org.ohio.gov.

free admission 8PM–MIDNIGHT

HAUNTED HOUSES, TRAILS OF TERROR AND FREAKY ATTRACTIONS TO MAKE YOUR SKIN CRAWL THIS HALLOWEEN

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KINGS ISLAND HALLOWEEN HAUNT | PHOTO: KINGS ISLAND

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is frequently named one of the best haunted houses in America. 7:30-10 p.m.

Thursdays and Sundays; 7:30 p.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 2. $20-$25 general admission; +$20 fast pass; +$30 front of the line.

5963 Harrison Ave., Dent, frightsite.com.

HALLOWEEN HAUNT

TERROR TOWN | PHOTO: ALL HALLOWS’ EVE

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ALL HALLOWS’ EVE TERROR TOWN

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The former grounds of the Old West Fest have been transformed into a Dodge City ghost town — literally. Well, almost literally. A prop fabrication and haunted attraction team has transformed the space into an immersive 19th-century Terror Town with shops, vendors, restaurants, bars and an outdoor movie theater screening classic horror films. There are also theater performances, games and an intense 30-minute haunted trail based on Wild West folklore. If you want an extreme experience, opt for a red bracelet — it allows actors to touch you, grab you or pull you into a scare. All Hallows’ Eve recommends all visitors be at least 16.

They also have a text system to alert you when it’s your turn on the trail so you can enjoy the rest of the park while you wait instead of standing in line. 7 p.m.-2 a.m.

Fridays and Saturdays; 7 p.m.-midnight Sundays through Nov. 3. $25; $35 red bracelets. 1449 Greenbush Cobb Road, Williamsburg, allhallowsevellc.com.

BRIMSTONE HAUNT

Home to four separate attractions, guests can opt to venture through the Brimstone Farm haunted hayride, the Forgotten Forest, Psychosis or Zombie Assault. The farm was a prosperous place until it was laid bare by the curse in the corn. Now it’s home to monsters, madmen and all other iterations of macabre characters whose main goal is to cause chaos on your twisted ride. The Forgotten Forest, a higher-intensity scare experience, is a quarter-mile walk through a supernatural wood. Psychosis offers “disturbing scenes of horror that will pull you further from reality” in an indoor experience. And at Zombie Assault, guests must attempt to survive a barrage of the undead in a small refugee camp after the zombie apocalypse has claimed the rest of the globe. Board an armored bus with friends and an assault team will train you to survive on your way to the camp. In terms of intensity, the hayride is a more family-friendly, low-to-medium intensity scare while the Forgotten Forest

and Psychosis are high intensity. Zombie Assault is a simulator. Ticket office 7-11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights through Oct. 26. $15 Haunted Hayride; $12 Forgotten Forest; $8 Psychosis; $5 Zombie Assault; $27 combo; +$20 fast pass. 472 Brimstone Road, Wilmington, springborohauntedhayride.com.

DENT SCHOOLHOUSE

According to legend, the bodies of several missing Dent Schoolhouse students were discovered in barrels in the building’s basement — and the janitor did it.

Housed in an actual public school, Dent offers real ghost tours Wednesdays in October sans props or actors offering actual history and paranormal experiences. There are also lights-out nights Nov. 1 and 2 for those looking for a true fright, plus lights-on tours for kids and wimps and those interested in seeing the detail that went into building the Dent operation. A Christmas Nightmare returns this year (Dec. 6-7 and 13-14) for a little yuletide terror. Dent

Fear awaits at Kings Island’s annual Halloween Haunt, named the “Best Theme Park Halloween Event” in the country by readers of USA Today.

There are seven outdoor scare zones (Coney Maul, Dance of the Macabre, International Street Fear, Rivertown Reaping, Shipwrecked, Zombie Mall and Pumpkin Eater), spine-tingling live shows and freaky haunted mazes.

The attention to detail and craftsmanship throughout KI is grisly, awe inspiring and otherworldly, featuring enough thrills to strike fear into even the most hard-hearted of monster movie fanatics with indoor and outdoor themed mazes. Snaked in-between are costumed actors stalking the park grounds, and their only job is to make you scream with fright. You can also experience the park’s everyday thrill rides like The Beast, Mystic Timbers and the Vortex — one of your last times to ride the coaster before it’s gone forever. If you're not vying to get scared to death, there's still so much to do at Kings Island this season with the new Miami River Brewhouse — the perfect place to hunker down with a pint — plus video arcades, carnival games, shopping and dining. If you don't want to be spooked, KI offers a "No Boo" necklace for $13, a glowing protective charm that acts as a visual indicator to the park's actors that you don't want to be bothered. Before the sun sets (noon-6 p.m.) on Saturdays, visit the family-friendly Great Pumpkin Fest or HalloTween, a slightly less scary version of Halloween Haunt. 6 p.m.-1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 26. Tickets start at $33.99. Kings Island, 6300 Kings Island Drive, Mason, visitkingsisland.com.

HERITAGE VILLAGE HAUNTED VILLAGE

Described as a “slight fright,” this haunted attraction is completely kid-friendly, offering trick-or-treating, balloon art, wagon rides and a lower-key

haunted house experience that won’t leave the youngsters with recurring nightmares until Christmas. Although there is a headless horseman. 6-10 p.m.

Oct. 18-19 and 25-26. $10; free members and kids 2 and under. Heritage Village Museum, 11450 Lebanon Road, Sharonville, heritagevillagecincinnati.org.

HIGHWAY 50 FRIGHT FIELD

This cornfield and haunted woods attraction is back with a vengeance on a real 1830s farm near an actual Indian archaeological site — both of which are rumored to be haunted. Keep an eye out for zombies on winding trails throughout the woods, and when the sun sets, try your luck at maneuvering a nighttime corn maze. Operation Termination Zombie Paintball arms you with 100 paintballs against a horde of zombies. Corn Cob Cannon gives you three shots for $5; hit a target and win. The Buckeye Trading Post offers gifts, antiques and oddities, plus snacks and drinks. 8 p.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 26. $15 adults haunted trail and woods; $12 kids haunted trail and woods; $10 Operation Termination Zombie Paintball; $5 paintball refill; $23 adult combo; $20 child combo; $27 adult triple threat; $24 child triple threat. 11294 State Route 50, North Bend, highway50frightfield.com.

LAND OF ILLUSION

Why only have one haunted attraction when you could have six? Land of Illusion has six frights to choose from: Killer Klowns, “a 3D maze that will put you in a daze;” Temple of Terror, where “souls from the past feast tonight;” Phobia, where you can dare to face your fears; Zombie Sniper Patrol, a family-friendly thrill ride where you hop in a cargo truck and situate yourself behind a paintball turret before shooting a bunch of zombies before they can escape from the woods; Middletown Haunted Trail, the Midwest’s longest haunted trail where “cackling chainsaw sickos crunch through the undergrowth, soft-footed murderers bare bloody little blades and blowtorch-wielding madmen rip across the trail in hot pursuit;” and Dr. Psycho’s Haunted Estate, a haunted hospital chock full of emaciated corpses, mutilated bodies, decomposed limbs and labyrinthian hallways. In addition to six stations full of live actors in horrifying makeup, the park also offers live music and/or DJs every Friday and Saturday, plus costume parties and even familyfriendly “creature features.” They also have a full bar: the Vodoo Lounge and Creepy Café. You never have to leave!

7-11 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays; 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 2. $19.99 general admission with 1 attraction; $38.99 Thursday and Sunday all-night pass (includes access to 4

attractions); $49.99 Friday and Saturday all-night pass (includes all 6 attractions and live entertainment); $53.99 Thursday and Sunday all-night VIP; $74.99 Friday and Saturday VIP with fast pass. 8762 Thomas Road, Middletown, landofillusion.com.

THE MAYHEM MANSION

As legend has it, when bootlegger Robert Haverford’s 8-year-old daughter Elizabeth died, he poisoned Elizabeth’s mourners and himself in an elaborate alcohol-fueled murder-suicide plot in the family home. Allegedly actually haunted, this collection of gung-ho actors will attempt to scare you to death in the former mansion. Outside, Haverford’s Hollow Terror in the Woods zombie paintball challenge is an interactive zombie trail. 8 p.m.-midnight Fridays; 7 p.m.-midnight Saturdays through Oct. 26. $18; $12 10 and under; $12 zombie challenge; $30 family package; +$5 fast pass. 13966 DeCoursey Pike, Morning View, themayhemmansion.com.

MOUNT HEALTHY HAUNTED HALL

Experience 20 different scenes at this favorite local haunt, featuring a host of classic creatures like the Wolfman, Frankenstein and zombies. In addition to its central house, the hall is comprised of tents, backyard areas and a swirling, brain-bending vortex. Popular scenes

returning this year include the Hellavator and Bate’s Motel. There will be a lights-up night from 6-6:45 p.m. on Oct. 20 so kids can trick-or-treat through the less scary haunted hall. 8-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 7-9 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 26. $10; $2 discount with canned goods; $5 with two cans of soup on Sundays. 7700 Seward Ave., Mount Healthy, mthealthyhauntedhall.com.

QUEEN CITY IS HAUNTED

On this guided walking tour of downtown and OTR, hear stories of grisly murders, ghastly deaths and other disturbing tales buried deep within Cincinnati’s storied past. Now offering a 90-minute Ultimate Queen City is Haunted Tour, which ends in the most haunted room of OTR’s boutique Symphony Hotel. Many tours are sold-out. Through Nov. 2. $25$35. Tour begins at 1332 Vine St., Overthe-Rhine, americanlegacytours.com.

NEWPORT IS HAUNTED

Surprise! Newport is haunted, too. Take a lantern-led walking tour and listen to tales of murder, suicide, decapitation and the horrifying origin of Bobby Mackey’s famous portal to hell. Through Oct. 26. $25. Tour begins 18 E. Fifth St., Newport, americanlegacytours.com.

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SANDYLAND ACRES HAUNTED HAYRIDE

WILMINGTON, OH

OPENS S E P T 2 7 TH FRIDAY

SATURDAY NIGHTS IN OCTOBER

Hold on tight: During this hellish hayride through a cornfield, riders are stalked and taunted by creatures hidden among the crops. Familiar faces like Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface and a bloodied take on Santa Claus appear alongside zombies, backwoodsmen, clowns and chainsawwielders. Cash only.

Includes a concession stand and gift shop.

8 p.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 26. $14 hayride; $10 Farmer’s Revenge; $20 hayride VIP; $23 combo. 4172 Belleview Road, Petersburg, sandylandacres.com.

TWISTED TRAILS

T W I S T E D T R A I L S H AU N T. C O M

START THE WEEKEND EARLY

This outdoor attraction asks, “What’s in the woods?” Find out as you make your way through a maze of terrifying characters — witches, vampires, werewolves and more — all attempting to evade the Collector. The trail is part wagon ride and part walking trail and features a “dark and twisted labyrinth of trees filled with lights, sounds, ghoulish characters and terrifying surprises,” as well as a variety of sets and animatronics. Because it is an outdoor attraction, Twisted Trails may be closed because of weather; closings will be announced on the Twisted Trails website, Facebook page and phone system.

Extreme Night is Thursday Oct. 24. Box office 7 p.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 26. $20 general admission; $30 fast pass. 5719 W. State Route 73, Wilmington, twistedtrailshaunt.com.

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USS NIGHTMARE

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Thursday, November 14

5-8 P.M.

ART • music • COCKTAILS Additional Support

FREE Tickets at taftmuseum.org

Media Partner

The death dredge is celebrating more than 25 years of horror. On a dark, foggy night, the William S. Mitchell steamboat careened into a bridge, killing many on board, including the captain and his daughter. Ever since, anyone who has worked on the now-defunct ship has been doomed to die onboard, cursed to forever haunt the vessel along with the other deceased. Fifteen percent of people who attempt to make it through the USS Nightmare “jump ship.” If you are a sadomasochist, upgrade to the super intense RIP Experience that offers a “hands-on, immersive experience that is not for the faint of heart.” You’ll get an extended tour of the USS Nightmare, plus “the potential for complete separation from the civilized world.” Nov. 2 offers an all-night-long

USS NIGHTMARE | PHOTO: ALIAS IMAGING/BLUESTONE CREATIVE Captain’s Extreme Tour during which the crew of the ship is “unleashed” and allowed to use adult situations and adult language, with more extreme special effects. During the Extreme Tour, crew members can touch you, separate you from your group and are allowed to use more dark humor. There is also the chance you may get wet, whatever that means… If you aren’t into being scared but still like haunted ships, there is a lights-on matinee on Oct. 27. 7-11 p.m.

Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; 7 p.m.-1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 1. $20-$25 general admission; $30$35 fast pass; $50-$55 front of line; RIP Experience starts at $30. 101 Riverboat Row, Newport, ussnightmare.com.

WILMINGTON HAUNTED HOLLOW

Hop on a bus straight out of hell and be trailed by fire-belching semis. Riders will venture through fog-filled tunnels, an abandoned mine, an eerie hollow and more, with peculiar creatures hitching rides along the way. Other on-site attractions include two indoor haunted houses and Death Trap, a group adventure where one of you is “locked” inside of a coffin and the remaining participants must work together to complete a task to get you out — like a very, very twisted escape room. 7:30 p.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 2. $28; $48 VIP speed pass; $22 Haunted Hollow only; $5 Death Trap. 1261 W. Dalton Road, Wilmington, wilmingtonhauntedhollowride.com.

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Mackenzie River Pizza

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sat oct 19th beer, food & music

free Admission

$25 VIP PACKAGE

Available online now at miamivalleygaming.com

• • • •

22oz EVENT BEER MUG ONE BEER FILL $10 FREE PLAY OKTOBERFEST CHEF’S PLATE

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Pretzels with Cheddar & Beer Dip, Potato Pancakes with Apple Compote, Sauerkraut Balls, German Sausages & Cream Puffs with Bavarian Cream (day of price is $20)

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JUST OFF I–75 EXIT 29 miamivalleygaming.com Must be 21 or older to gamble. Problem Gambling? Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline (1-800-589-9966) or visit www.org.ohio.gov.

5–10pm

STUFF TO DO

Ongoing Shows ART: Saya Woolfalk: A Cabinet of Anticipation Contemporary Arts Center, Downtown (through Oct. 27)

WEDNESDAY 16

MUSIC: British Jazz Fusion/Funk quartet The New Mastersounds play Ludlow Garage. See Sound Advice on page 56.

LIT: Campfire Classics In the lead-up to Halloween, Washington Park is once again hosting its Campfire Classics “adult storytime” series. While in previous years, the series — hosted

by Warlock Vorobok, a reference librarian at the downtown Main Library — has featured dramatic readings of spooky pieces of literature by the likes of Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, this year’s program will focus on works written by women authors from the 19th to 21st centuries. The campfire readings take place at 8 p.m. the last three Wednesdays of October and will be read around the park’s “warming table campfires.” Wednesday’s readings include 19th-century works “Was It an Illusion?” by Amelia B. Edwards and “Man-Size in Marble” by Edith Nesbit.

8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16. Free. Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-theRhine, washingtonpark.org.

— MIKE BREEN

THURSDAY 17

ONSTAGE: Titus Andronicus is a bloody tale of revenge set in a Steampunk era at Cincy Shakes. See review on page 50.

ART: Art in Bloom During Art in Bloom, the Cincinnati Art Museum’s permanent collection of fine art will be surrounded by over 90 floral arrangements created by local florists. The

P H OTO : FAC E B O O K .C O M / S V D P C I N C I N N AT I

arrangements — works of art in their own right — will be crafted to “emphasize, challenge and build upon elements and concepts” within works of art across the CAM’s galleries, “creating a dialogue between fine art and beauty,” according to a release. Held every other year, the 2019 Art in Bloom is the museum’s 10th floral celebration. This year’s theme is “Light” and features “In the Park,” a 1927 oil painting by Frank Harmon Myers, as its centerpiece. The bright, impressionist work depicts a cheery view of the museum from Eden Park. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily Oct. 17-20.

Free. Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Mount Adams, cincinnatiartmuseum.org. — MORGAN ZUMBIEL EVENT: RetroFittings Students from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning are out to prove that thrift store threads can be runway ready with a

little needle, thread and creative vision. Fifteen DAAP sophomores were given $50 to use at any local St. Vincent de Paul thrift store and asked to transform their purchases into unique fashion lewks. These upcycled outfits will be trotted down the runway in a special fashion show to benefit SVDP, with a bonus boutique featuring thrifted items, as well as silent and live auctions. 6-9:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17. $60; $100 VIP; $40 YP. Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, retrofittings. org. — MAIJA ZUMMO

FRIDAY 18

MUSIC: AltRockers Taking Back Sunday celebrate two decades with two nights at Bogart’s (and by performing Tell All Your Friends in full).

See interview on page 55.

SATURDAY 19

MUSIC: Veteran singer/ songwriter Rickie Lee Jones will deliver her special brand of magic onstage at the Ludlow Garage. See

Sound Advice on page 56.

EVENT: The City Flea The City Flea’s last regular market of the year takes over Washington Park on Saturday. Whether your closet is looking a little sparse or you are in the mood for some artisan eats, The City Flea has something for you. There will be vendors — local artists, vintage collectors, apothecary shops, plant outposts and more — catering to kids, adults and pets. 10 a.m-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. Free admission.

Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, thecityflea.com.

— CAMERON BYERS ONSTAGE: That Golden Girls Show! A Puppet Parody Throw a party. Invite everyone you know. Revel in an evening of cheesecake, Jazzercise, shoulder pads and elderly puppets talking about their sex lives, with all the witticisms that made the mid-1980s sitcom a classic. The world

of puppetry and Golden Girls have become one. Directed by Michael Hull and written by Doug Kmiotek, the 90-minute production will feature puppets (think Sesame Street) reviving the roles of the beloved, quirky roommates with Meggie Doyle as Rose, Erin Ulman as Blanche, Casey Andrews as Dorothy and Ashley Brooke as Sophia. 1:30 and 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 19; 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20. $25-$45. Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., Downtown, cincinnatiarts.org.

— MACKENZIE MANLEY

SUNDAY 20

MUSIC: Jidenna with Kelechi Hip Hop artist Jidenna recently released his second album, the Afrobeat-tinged 85 to Africa, which Pitchfork says “invokes a metaphorical highway to Africa, uniting the sounds of the sprawling diaspora.” Issued through Janelle Monáe’s Epic-distributed Wondaland

Records, the album is a clever mix of Hip Hop and contemporary African music, with lyrical themes inspired by the events that transpired after Jidenna’s 2017 eviction from the Atlanta house in which he was living.

Left without a home, the Grammy-nominated/Soul Train Music Award-winning artist decided to journey to Africa, a quest during which he contemplated America’s problems with race and immigration, eventually turning them into song fodder.

In a press release, Jidenna says his unceremonious eviction “felt like the story of being black in America.

We’re living in this beautiful house…everything is dandy, career’s going well, we’re paying the lease on time, we’re doing everything right and then, out of nowhere, at 6 a.m. in the morning, we’re displaced.” Befitting the themes, 85 to Africa features an international guest list, with American artists CONTINUES ON PAGE 4 2

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MUSIC: Actors bring Synth Pop to MOTR PUB. See Sound Advice on page 56.

RetroFittings

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fallfoodfest19.eventbrite. com. — MAIJA ZUMMO COMEDY: Billy Gardell Way back in 2008, Billy Gardell was a headlining comic with a few high-profile TV credits including recurring roles on My Name is Earl and Desperate Housewives. At that time, he told CityBeat, “I love the standup performances, but I like the acting money better.” In fact, he was unabashed about his approach to TV. “Ultimately,” he told us, “I want to get on a show for four years, then disappear and go golf.” Two years later, he began co-starring in the massive hit sitcom Mike & Molly. But instead of winding up on a golf course when the series finished its run in 2016, he continued working. He can currently be found in a new TV series, Bob Hearts Abishola. He’s also LIT: An Evening with Hannah Hart still touring the country YouTube cooking comedy phenom doing stand-up, only Hannah Hart is out with a new cooknow he’s headlining book, My Drunk Kitchen Holidays!, theaters. 7:30 Sunday, named after her popular YouTube Oct. 20. $37.50-$47.50. channel, My Drunk Kitchen. Now more Taft Theatre, 317 E. than a human with a kitchen, a camera Fifth St., Downtown, and a cocktail, this two-time New York Times bestselling author, LGBTQ activist, tafttheatre.org. — P.F. podcaster (Hannahlyze This), Forbes WILSON “30 under 30,” et al is embarking on a book tour. According to a release, the H A N N A H H A R T / / P H O T O : M E T R O P U B L I C R E L AT I O N S book — subtitled “How to Savor and EVENT: An FROM PAGE 41 Celebrate the Year” — is a “humorous Evening with David parish kitchen, entertaining guide that’s both festive and Sedaris probably helped inspirational.” There are almost 50 recilike GoldLink and St. Beauty David Sedaris is known along by somepes arranged into 12 months of themes joining African performers for his witticisms and one’s nonna. Be and holidays, with anecdotes and like Mr. Eazi and Seun Kuti, critically acclaimed warned: Food activities to celebrate both with friends son of Afrobeat trailblazer memoirs and essays. does run out, and family or alone. The cookbook also Fela Kuti. 8 p.m. Sunday, Armed with a dry typically around includes ideas on how to honor Pride Oct. 20. $25. Bogart’s, 2621 sense of humor, he has 4 or 5 p.m., so month and other occasions like Middle Vine St., Corryville, bogarts. get there early. authored a handful of Child’s Day, Video Game Day, Mental com. — MIKE BREEN And bring cash. bestsellers, includHealth Day and Just Because Day. 7 10 a.m. Sunday, ing Naked, Me Talk EVENT: Fall Ravioli p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23. $28 book and Oct. 20. $12 Pretty One Day and Dinner meet-and-greet. Joseph-Beth Bookselladults; $5 kids.

Dress Your Family in Sacred Heart Church has ers, 2692 Madison Road, Rookwood, Sacred Heart Corduroy and Denim. been hosting ravioli dinjosephbeth.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO Church, 2733 His latest book release, ners twice a year for more Massachusetts Calypso, is a collection than a century (108 years Ave., Camp of 21 semi-autobioto be exact). And when we the market will be serving Washington, graphical essays that say ravioli dinners, we mean seasonally inspired eats facebook.com/sacredhearthone-in on the creeping realhome-cooked ravioli made like savory pumpkin and churchcincy. ization of one’s own morality by actual Italians and parishvegetable cobbler from Aunt — MAIJA ZUMMO that comes with middle ioners using Northern Italian Flora, pumpkin waffles from age. Presented by WVXU, recipes brought to Cincinnati EVENT: Fall Food Fest Taste of Belgium and mulled the one-night event, which from the Old Country. The Findlay Market celebrates cider from Gramma Debbie’s. includes a Q&A session and line to grab dinner typithe bounty of the season This event is ticketed and book signing, will unfold in cally stretches around the with a Fall Food Fest. There tickets can be redeemed the Aronoff Center’s Procter block; take-out starts at 10 will be food samplings and at merchants or storefronts & Gamble Hall. 7:30 p.m. a.m. and sit-down dinner fall cocktails at the biergarfor fall goodies. 10 a.m.-4 Monday, Oct. 21. $48.75begins at noon. The meal ten all day, with pumpkin p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20. $10 $58.75. Aronoff Center, includes ravioli (usually painting and a “spooky for five tickets; $20 for 12 650 Walnut St., Downtown, cheese and spinach), meatscavenger hunt” at 10 a.m. tickets. Findlay Market, 1801 balls and sauce — again, all cincinnatiarts.org. and live music starting at made from scratch in the 10:30 a.m. Vendors across Race St., Over-the-Rhine, — MACKENZIE MANLEY

WEDNESDAY 23

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TUESDAY 22

MUSIC: Twenty One Pilots bring their cult-favorite, relentlessly entertaining live show and Emo circus swagger to U.S. Bank Arena. See Sound Advice on page 57.

THURSDAY 24

MUSIC: Celine Dion French Canadian chanteuse Celine Dion is stopping by Cincinnati on her Courage World Tour — her first North American jaunt in more than a decade. Usually seen onstage during her years-long residency in Las Vegas, the diva lost her husband and former manager René Angélil to cancer in 2016 and was rumored to be dealing with hearing issues in 2018. But much like the heart, Celine will go on and on… and onto the stage at the U.S. Bank Arena on Oct. 24. The tour kicked off in September in Quebec City and will hit 50 cities. “I’m so grateful to all the fans who have come to see my show in Las Vegas for so many years, and now I get the chance to create a brand new show and bring it to them in North America, and around the world,” she said in an concert announcement. “I’m very excited about this tour, and my new album...coming later this year.” 6 p.m. doors; 7:30 p.m. show Thursday, Oct. 24. $49.50-$199.50. U.S. Bank Arena, 100 Broadway St., Downtown, usbankarena. com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

MUSIC: Ben Folds with Savannah Conley Pop Rock singer/songwriter/ pianist Ben Folds recently released his memoir, A Dream About Lightning Bugs, and he’s hitting the road to promote it with a mix of solo concerts (just Folds and a piano) and book signing events. Since his early years fronting the popular North Carolina trio Ben Folds Five, Folds has etched out a wide-ranging career in music. Along with his solo albums (which produced the hit “Rockin’ the Suburbs”), he has collaborated with a vast array of artists including Regina Spektor, Sara Bareilles, Amanda Palmer, Nick Hornby and William Shatner (Folds re-kickstarted Captain Kirk’s “ironic covers” career). In more recent years, he was a

judge on the NBC show The Sing-Off for five seasons and he has performed with symphony orchestras all over the world; next year he’ll be playing concerts with orchestras from Minnesota to Australia. 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24. $18.75-$75. Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Downtown, tafttheatre.org.

— MIKE BREEN EVENT: CityBeat’s HopScotch An annual tasting event guaranteed to light a fire in your belly for Scotch, Irish whiskey and American whiskey, the whiskeycurious and longtime liquor enthusiasts alike are invited to this evening of boozeinfused revelry. Sample over 50 Scotch and whiskey varieties from distilleries at home and abroad, ranging from Bardstown, Kentucky’s Preservation Distillery to Ireland’s Slane Whiskey and more paired with light bites from some of Cincinnati’s most-loved restaurants, including Nicholson’s and Lydia’s on Ludlow. The party takes over Newport’s New Riff Distilling for an evening of liquor, live music and all the samples you can handle.

New Riff will be offering their Rye Perfect Manhattan with Scotch-soaked cherries in addition to their bottled-inbond bourbon, rye bourbon and single barrel. (Yes, there will be some bourbon at the party.) You don’t have to wear a kilt to HopScotch. But if you want to, take this as your official nod of approval.

The glory, fame, photo ops and shots shall all be yours.

5:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24. $35. New Riff Distilling, 24 Distillery Way, Newport, hopscotchcincy. com. — MORGAN ZUMBIEL ONSTAGE: The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts at Know Theatre The Mueller Report has been dissected in every major media news outlet, thousands upon thousands of tweets and has even been made into a graphic novel. Now it’s getting the stage treatment. Over-theRhine’s Know Theatre will present a one-night-only staged reading of The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts, written by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning

playwright and screenwriter Robert Schenkkan (the mind behind All the Way, which Cincinnati Shakespeare Company will stage in spring 2020). Described as a “fascinating (and surprisingly funny) dramatization of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report,” the show promises to bring “into vivid focus just what is at stake when self-serving interests threaten our democratic process.” Such a production is a feat in itself — the 448page Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election is so dense and complex that many lawmakers and government officials haven’t even read it.

The bipartisan legal advocacy group Law Works has provided this script to theaters across the United States with the goal of ensuring that the public has access to the findings in the report in a more digestible format.

8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24. $25; $15 rush tickets (if available). Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine, knowtheatre.com.

— MACKENZIE MANLEY

FRIDAY 25

(includes show admission and access to the afterparty); $100 VIP (includes two tickets plus a table at the front of the stage, two drinks and goodies). The Woodward Theater, 1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook.com/passionproductionscincy. — MAIJA ZUMMO EVENT: Art After Dark: Tormented Souls It’s spooky season at the Cincinnati Art Museum,

where things get a little devilish at Art After Dark.

Explore the new Treasures of the Spanish World exhibit (for free), featuring over 200 works of art and historical documents from Spain and Latin America, including Roman Spain; watch a dance performance from Pones; listen to music from DJ AB; get a docent-led tour of the museum with the Playhouse in the Park; look skyward for some stargazing

PI NTT S NI G H

JOIN US FOR PINT NIGHT

Every Friday at Eastagate & Fairfield

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FRIDAY 25

MUSIC: Inhailer Radio: INspired It used to be that to start a legit radio station, you needed everything from a studio to an FCC license. But these days you can get by with a microphone and a website and broadcast any kind of programming you’d like. Of course, to make and maintain an internet radio station that is designed to sustain and grow listenership, a few more resources are often necessary. That’s partially what the Inhailer Radio benefit INspired is all about — it’s the community minded, local-music-friendly media outlet’s inaugural fall fund drive. But it’s also a chance to have some fun, promote local music and explore the craft that Inhailer so lovingly boosts. Inspired by late radio outlet WNKU’s Catfish Ball (during which local acts would pay tribute to artists who’d recently died), Inhailer’s INspired showcase will feature nearly two dozen Cincinnati acts who will play their own music as well as songs by the artists who’ve influenced them.

The event will take over the entire Southgate House Revival with music by the likes of (among others) Automagik, The Vims, Wonky Tonk, Knotts, Ronin Halloway, Quotah, Moonbeau, Beloved Youth, Carriers, Multimagic and Season Ten, who will also be celebrating their new album release, Nature. 5 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 25. $15. Southgate House Revival, 111 E. Sixth St., Newport, southgatehouse.com. — MIKE BREEN

ING ROTAT ED R FEATU IES ER

BREW

DANCE: The Cincinnati Ballet presents what artistic director Victoria Morgan calls a “Broadway-ballet” version of The Wizard of Oz. See feature on page 47.

Junglejims.com SEASON TEN // PHOTO: L ANCE ADKINS

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EVENT: Night Circus: Witchcraft Night Circus: Witchcraft promises an evening of “beautifully wicked entertainment” with a “dark alternative cirque theme.” Think aerial acts, macabre burlesque, tarot readings, belly dancing, pole and lyra performances, assorted vendors and emcee, the “high priestess of horrors” and recent winner of Louisville’s Drag Me To Hell spooky drag queen competition, Stixen Stones. Must be 18 and up. 7-11 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 25. $25 general admission

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FRIDAY 25

MUSIC: You Know You’re Right: A Multi-Genre Tribute to Nirvana The influence of Nirvana is often framed by the effect it had on the music industry but what made the band’s breakthrough so unique was more the freedom and spirit it embodied. The upcoming You Know You’re Right concert at The Redmoor is a celebration of that breadth of influence, with Greater Cincinnati acts who play music from a variety of genres coming together to celebrate Nirvana’s legacy. Timed to the 30th anniversary of the trio’s first Cincinnati show (an “intimate” gig at Murphy’s Pub during the Bleach era, pre-dating Dave Grohl’s enlistment), the tribute show will feature artists ranging from ElectroPop performer Bishop Battle and Funk/Jam crew Sovereign Being to Metal group 6 Hours to Kill and rootsy singer/songwriter Mara Moon (with eclectic local band Hobilly).

The musicians will be playing music from across Nirvana’s career, from the bestknown songs to the deepest deep cuts.

7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25. $7. The Redmoor, 3187 Linwood Ave., Mount Lookout, theredmoor.com. — MIKE BREEN

The Ultimate, Intimate, Entertainment Experience!

PHOTO: FOTOGRAFIA

FROM PAGE 43

with the Cincinnati Observatory; and indulge in some food and specialty cocktails for purchase. 5-9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25. Free. Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Mount Adams, cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

— MAIJA ZUMMO

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TAFTTHEATRE.org Get tickets at TAFTTHEATRE.org, the Taft Theatre box office, or Ticketmaster.com. All tickets subject to applicable fees and day of show increase. Dates, times and artists subject to change without notice.

EVENT: Rhinegeist Halloween Party Creep it real at Rhinegeist’s Halloween Party with killer entertainment from DJ Matty “The Joker” Joy and DJ SKG all night. Snap a photo in your clever or sexy costume in the photo booth or show it off for the costume contest.

Scary, couple and character costumes will all be judged.

Or conjure up some friends to win the group costume contest. Costumes need to be submitted online by Oct. 18. 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday, Oct. 25. Rhinegeist, 1910 Elm St. Over-the-Rhine, facebook. com/rhinegeist.

— ELIZABETH DAVIS EVENT: DesignBuildCincy This design showcase collects over 100 vendors, craftsman and luxury retailers and sticks them all in one place: Music Hall’s Grand Ballroom. If you’re tackling a home remodel, you’ll find everything from architects, contractors and metal

fabricators to woodworkers, tile suppliers and kitchen designers. If you just want to shop, hit the DesignMakersMarket for “one-of-a-kind decorative accents and furnishings.” On Friday night the show has added a special TasteMakers event with food vendors and area restaurants offering their local bites on displays crafted by design companies.

6-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26 and Sunday, Oct. 27. $8; $10 door. Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, designbuildcincy.com.

— MAIJA ZUMMO

SATURDAY 26

CLASSICAL: concert:nova’s Festival of Words blends storytelling and song. See feature on page 51.

MUSIC: Quintron and Miss Pussycat bring their surreal organ-and-puppetshow experience to MOTR Pub. See Sound Advice on page 58.

EVENT: Big Gay Craft Fair Hosted by the Human Rights Campaign Cincinnati, this craft fair features LGBTQ vendors and allies with a cash bar slinging cocktails, mocktails and sodas.

Vendors include the likes of Paper Acorn, The Jammery,

Stormy Soaps, Hempworx, Evergreen Accessories and more, covering all your handmade bases from artwork and apothecary items to jewelry and artisan eats.

Noon-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26. Free admission. Fueled Collective, 3825 Edwards Road, Rookwood Exchange, facebook.com/hrccincinnati.

— MAIJA ZUMMO EVENT: The Niehoff Lecture: Bob Woodward The Mercantile Library will present its 32nd-annual Niehoff Lecture, featuring two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Bob Woodward. In the early days of his nearly 50-year career in journalism, Woodward broke the story of the Watergate scandal in 1972 with fellow The Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein. Still working at The Washington Post, now as an associate editor, Woodward has spent his career covering American government and the nine most recent presidencies. He has authored or co-authored 19 books, 13 of which have been No. 1 national bestsellers. The Niehoff Lecture is the Mercantile’s sole fundraising event and includes a black-tie cocktail reception and multi-course dinner.

Since its inception in 1986,

it has hosted the likes of Tom Wolfe, Ray Bradbury, Julia Child, Joyce Carol Oates and, last year, Margaret Atwood. 7-10 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 26. $175 Mercantile members; $230 nonmembers. Hyatt Regency Hotel Ballroom, 151 W. Fifth St., Downtown, mercantilelibrary. com. — MORGAN ZUMBIEL

EST. 1933

EVENT: Fall Fest Weekend Washington Park hosts a weekend of family-friendly fall fun with PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER vendors and live entertainment. Live EVENT: CityBeat Pizza Week Kick-Off Party music starts at CityBeat’s Pizza Week is back Nov. 4-10. But before you get to noon each day and gorge on seven days’ worth of $8 pies from your favorite local pizruns until 6 p.m. zerias, Braxton Brewing Co. is hosting a kick-off party with sneak with performances peek samples, your first chance to grab a Pizza Week passport, from local acts live music and plenty of Braxton brews. 5:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, including Chelsea Oct. 30. Free admission. Braxton Brewing Co., 27 W. Seventh St., Ford and The Covington, cincinnatipizzaweek.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO Trouble, Warsaw Falcons and Comon Center.

Hand, Landslide Records, door to plotting a mystery In between sets, Rebirth Garments, Sea shop seasonal goodies and a beginner’s guide to Dax, Very Very Small from vendors including Bee self-publishing. 10 a.m.-4 Press, Emlayart, S. Long, Haven, Donna’s Gourmet p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26.

BeachGoth420, Megamax, Cookies, Daisy Jane’s Free admission. Duke Cannoli, Realicide and more.

Flower Truck and Ten Energy Convention Center, Being so close to Halloween, Thousand Villages, plus eats 525 Elm St., Downtown, costumes are encouraged. from Just Q’in, Quite Frankly, booksbythebanks.org.

Get spooky. 1-6 p.m.

Chino’s Street Food and — MAIJA ZUMMO Saturday, Oct. 26. $1-$15 Urbana Café, among others. suggested donation. Art Noon-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. Academy of Cincinnati, 1212 26 and Sunday, Oct. 27.

EVENT: Hallowqueen Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine, Free admission. Washington The drag queens are taking searchable on Facebook.

Park, 1230 Elm St., Overover the dining room at — MACKENZIE MANLEY the-Rhine, washigntonpark.

Metropole for a wickedly rauorg. — MAIJA ZUMMO EVENT: Books by the cous brunch. The restaurant Banks EVENT: Cincy Punx Art invites you to “slay the day” Books by the Banks is Fair as you watch favorite local the ultimate bookworm If you’ve taken a walk in queens, including Amaya bash, featuring authors Over-the-Rhine recently, it’s Sexton, sashay from table of all stripes ranging probable that you’ve seen a to table while you dine on from children’s writers to black-and-white hand-drawn family-style breakfast and memoirists and mystery flyer advertising Cincy Punx brunch dishes and a welnovelists to scribes who offer Art Fair, complete with a come mimosa. 11:30 a.m.-2 some local flair. Meet the cartoon feline wearing a p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27. $35 likes of Karen Abbott, author spikey patch-covered vest (brunch, mimosa and show). of The Ghosts of Eden that reads, “All cats are Metropole, 609 Walnut St., Park; Catherine McKenzie, beautiful.” The brainchild Downtown, metropoleonwalauthor of I’ll Never Tell; and of Ally Bachman, a student nut.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO local Jessica Strawser, of at the Art Academy of

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WEDNESDAY 30

MUSIC: Boz Scaggs brings a blend of Blues, R&B and Rock to the Taft Theatre.

See Sound Advice on page 59.

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Cincinnati, the art fair is imbued with a DIY aesthetic, featuring smaller vendors/ artists (most of which are local), live painting by Zach Gibson and a “badass potluck” — so bring a dish to contribute. Vendors include Doneybat (Bachman), Emma Rose, Lord of the Left

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ARTS & CULTURE

Dancing in Technicolor Cincinnati Ballet gives whimsical classic The Wizard of Oz the stage treatment

BY L E Y L A S H O KO O H E

T

The cast of The Wizard of Oz P H O T O : A A R O N M . C O N W AY

call Disney stories — this is a Warner Brothers story — and they resonate. You just say the title, and it resonates. And the choreography is very clever and inventive.

It was quite the choreographic feat.”

Up for the challenge are principal dancer Melissa Gelfin, performing as Dorothy in several showings, and Cincinnati Ballet Second Company dancer Sterling Manka, who was chosen by Morgan to act as the puppeteer for Toto for the duration of the ballet’s run. Several puppets are featured in the ballet, including flying monkeys, but Toto is the star.

Manka not only learned how to manipulate the puppet (a sweetly scruffy white and gray dog, created by Emmynominated designer Nicholas Mahon, whose work was most recently featured in the 2018 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony) but also himself.

“I move Toto around the stage and give him life and give him interactions between people,” Manka says. “It’s really interesting because I have to be aware of where I am — more importantly where Toto is — because I can’t be covering him or get in the way.

Not only do I have to know where he is physically onstage, but he always has to be focused and looking at something. He’s a very curious little dog. He’s a scrappy dude

and really curious and loves everybody and all the characters.”

Toto is his own character, too, though, and Manka is tasked with making the pup as three-dimensional as the other dancers make the characters they physically embody, as well as creating organic interactions with them. As Dorothy and Toto, Gelfin and Manka have all formed their own unique relationship.

“I’ve caught myself a few times wanting to interact with Sterling, but I’m like, ‘No, the dog!’ ” Gelfin says. “For us, it’s very much, you’re interacting with people here (she gestures to eye-level) but he’s doing all of this work to make sure that he is Toto, so technically he’s not there. It’s all about Toto, so this energy has to go this way (she gestures to a dog’s level).”

Recreating Oz in a different art form, while retaining the film’s spirit — from which several visual elements and themes are borrowed — as well as the original book’s source material, is something the company and the creators ran with.

The flying monkeys are dancers who soar across the stage, as are the poppies in the poppy field where Dorothy and her sidekicks — Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man — fall asleep. When Dorothy makes her way to the Emerald City,

everyone is bathed in green light. Projections are essential for making the twister come to life, and the scale of the set pieces is sky-high. The yellow brick road here is not static, rather, several dancers in yellow brick costumes act as the road; Gelfin and Manka affectionately refer to these dancers as “roadies”.

“There’s so much invention around telling this story,” Morgan says. “I think, because you’ve seen the movie and you’re looking for certain iconic ideas and moments, you’ll find that in the ballet.”

The most iconic element of The Wizard of Oz tale is perhaps the pair of ruby-red slippers; in the book, they were silver, but back in 1939, studio officials wanted to take advantage of Technicolor and changed them to red. They are red in the ballet, too, and Gelfin promises a magical quick-change pointe shoe surprise when Dorothy steps from the monochrome world of Kansas into the colorful Oz, though she won’t reveal the secret.

“It’s probably good we have two weekends,” she says, “because you’re going to want to come twice.”

The Wizard of Oz runs Oct. 25 through Nov. 3 at the Aronoff Center for the Arts.

Tickets/more info: cballet.org.

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he beloved characters of L. Frank Baum’s timeless 1900 children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, have traipsed down the yellow brick road on the page and on the silver screen in Victor Fleming’s classic 1939 film. Now they’re taking the ballet stage by storm.

“This is Broadway-ballet, because it’s so over-the-top,” says Victoria Morgan, artistic director of Cincinnati Ballet. “The sets, the costumes — it’s got these projections. And maybe the most amazing hero of it all is the puppet and the puppeteer (of) Toto the dog.”

Toto and friends come to the Queen City by way of Septime Webre, the choreographic mastermind behind the balletic reimagining, whose larger-than-life storybook productions of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan have also been performed

by Cincinnati Ballet. In The Wizard of Oz, there are some familiar visual and storyline elements from the film, but the music is all-new, featuring a composition

by Matthew Pierce (also the composer of the balletic Alice in Wonderland).

“Just like creating any new work, you just hope that Miss Muse lands on your shoulder, and you can figure out ways of telling the story musically without thinking about the movie score, which of course is so familiar to everyone,” says Carmon DeLeone, Cincinnati Ballet’s music director. He understands the process perhaps better than most; he encountered a similar circumstance when he composed the music for the balletic version of Peter Pan. “We have the advantage, or disadvantage, however you want to look at it, of not having the spoken word as they did in the movie,” DeLeone says. “You can cover a lot of stuff, as in the movie, with just simple dialogue, but it’s our responsibility to have music from beginning to end.”

The Wizard of Oz was co-commissioned by three different ballet companies, including Colorado Ballet, Kansas City Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Morgan says it was a big creative challenge for the companies.

“I think the reason that you do a work like this is because it’s important to keep bringing that younger generation into this art form,” she says. “There’s a few really iconic stories that we sometimes

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ROBERT COLESCOTT Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott

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Now through January 12th, 2020 Opening Celebration: SEP 20 • 8–11PM

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Robert Colescott, Interior II – Homage to Roy Lichtenstein, 1991, Acrylic on Canvas, 16 x 18 inches. © 2019 Estate of Robert Colescott / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Private Collection.

VISUAL ARTS

Feel the Burn Why was The Art of Burning Man the biggest exhibit in the Cincinnati Art Museum’s history?

BY S T E V EN R O S EN

and often-humorous art cars and mutant vehicles were all created with sharing in mind. To a point, they were as irreverent and playful as performance or graffiti art. But there was also a deeply poignant, spiritual side.

Overall, the annual Burning Man event in Nevada (held this year from Aug. 25-Sept. 2) seems to be replacing Woodstock as the quintessentially utopian, humanistic countercultural “festival” (a term its attendees avoid) with 1960s roots, but also with Silicon Valley savvy.

Burning Man didn’t begin until 1986, when Larry Harvey and friends burned a crudely made wooden object on a San Francisco beach. The 2019 version of Burning Man, which because of its remote location and challenging environment has to limit attendance, was capped at 80,000 people. One thing is clear from No Spectators’ smashing success — many, many more people than have ever attended are now familiar with it. They are inspired by it.

As an exhibit, No Spectators was wellmounted if not perfect — I saw it at both the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. and here. It benefitted and gained heft from the inclusion of documentation and archival material assembled by Reno’s Nevada Museum of Art (Black Rock Desert is near Reno).

Not all the actual artworks on display had been at Burning Man previously; some were made specifically for No Spectators by artists who have been at the event in the past. Of these, there were two standouts, in my opinion: Michael Garlington’s and Natalia Bertotti’s “Paper Arch” and Five Ton Crane’s “Capitol Theater.” Of those that had been at Burning Man previously, FoldHaus Art Collective’s “Shrumen Lumen” mushrooms, which opened outward when you stepped on floor pads, were pretty irresistible, especially when you heard reports they still had some desert detritus in their folds.

A new book, Neil Shister’s Radical Ritual: How Burning Man Changed the World, makes clear that the event had to evolve from an early, more anarchic vision of the Nevada desert as a safe place to “fire guns, shoot off explosives and drive cars superfast” to find its current level of reverence.

It still has its hedonistic elements, Shister writes, but not its tolerance of dangerous recklessness. In recent years, the nonprofit Burning Man Project, which was created to oversee the event, has stressed it as a great American experiment in community building. When two Burning Man leaders,

Five Ton Crane’s “Capitol Theater” PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

Michael Mikel and Katie Hazard, spoke at the museum in June, that was the message that impressed me.

Really, the aerial photographic image of the temporary city built every year on the playa for the event, semi-circular with a huge beckoning opening, is starting to become as iconic an image as all the nighttime photos of bright lights and surreal art installations. It’s a dream vision of a perfect city made real.

And I think that vision is one of No Spectators’ allures. We turn to it to see how people build a city out of nothing, without harming either themselves or the environment, and leave room for fun and non-denominational spiritualism. At a time when human-caused climate change is threatening to destroy the way we have lived, Burning Man’s message has a sense of urgency. Can we start over?

The spiritualism is best expressed at Burning Man through its massive temple,

where visitors can address sometimesdifficult past remembrances by leaving notes and offerings, and then watching it all burn on the event’s final night.

Samantha Krukowski — an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning and a Burning Man veteran — tried to rally the community to participate in creating a temple out of honeysuckle.

“InVasive” (as it was called), was placed outside the museum and never quite engendered public excitement equal to what was inside.

But it did provide for a nice closing to Cincinnati’s No Spectators experience.

Museum director Kitchin, who had visited Burning Man in 2018 to prepare for the exhibit, returned this year with pieces of “InVasive” along with some of the material left on it. And he burned them there.

Cincinnati’s temple, the museum says, will “return to nature.”

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I can tell you how the Cincinnati Art Museum’s record-breaking No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man changed me: Since seeing it, I can’t drive past a gigantic, aesthetically negligible power transmission tower without it reminding me of the great wooden effigy Man, legs and arms extended, set afire at the annual Burning Man event at Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. I’m not suggesting these towers be burned, mind you, only that having this new, beautiful image now implanted in my mind makes them more tolerable.

Everyone else who saw the No Spectators exhibit, which was organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, during its April 26-Sept. 2 stay in Cincinnati probably has their own story about how the experience affected them. And overall, No Spectators’ stay here changed the definition of what a 21st-century blockbuster art museum show is.

The Cincinnati Art Museum has reported that fiscal year 2018-19, which ended Aug. 31, saw the highest attendance in the institution’s 133-year history. Some 346,000 people visited; 187,630 of them came during the slightly-more-thanfour-month stay of the free No Spectators exhibition. (The numbers don’t perfectly coincide as No Spectators extended into the first two days of the new fiscal year.)

By comparison, it surpassed the previous record-setter, 1982-83’s ticketed Treasures from the Tower of London exhibition. And 2018’s ticketed Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China, is now the third highest-attended show, not the second.

“Art, design and culture are more democratic and universally important than ever,” Museum Director Cameron Kitchin said, via email. “I am thrilled that No Spectators brought the inventive artists and creative makers of Burning Man from the Nevada desert to Cincinnati. I look forward to more experiments with immediacy and connectivity through art.”

Granted a free exhibit will often draw more people than a ticketed one, but there’s a broader observation to make here.

The museum’s most popular past shows — Tower of London, Terracotta Army — were firmly rooted in art and civilizational history. They were about what authority figures valued in life and death; they offered spectacular relics and antiquities.

No Spectators, by contrast, was more about the way we live now. Or, maybe, about the way we want to live now — cooperatively. Its often-interactive wondrous art installations, fantastical costuming

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ONSTAGE

‘Titus Andronicus’ is Riveting But Hollow R E V I E W BY JAC K I E M U L AY

My high school theater director often regaled us with one of my favorite Shakespeare stories of all time: At the Globe Theatre in London, he stood with hundreds of other theatergoers to watch Shakespeare’s foray into the slasher genre with Titus Andronicus. As the blood began to pour onstage, he recalled audience members dropping like flies.

Disappointingly, Cincy Shakes’ production of Titus Andronicus is The cast of Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s Titus Andronicus nowhere near as bloody.

Nonetheless, director PHOTO: MIKKI SCHAFFNER PHOTOGRAPHY Jeremy Dubin crafts a successful horror show experience by orchestrating several moments the center of this play is a very strong that are exceptionally difficult to watch. woman — Tamora — who employs every Some allege that Titus Andronicus is one last bit of cunning and spite to seize power of Shakespeare’s most tawdry ventures. A and enact revenge on the man who has tragedy, it is certain to end in heartbreak. wronged her. But the horrifying acts of But how necessary are each of the steps he violence committed against Lavinia effectakes to push his characters over the edge? tively work to cancel that message out.

Originally set in ancient Rome, titular It’s not “girl power” to direct such character Titus Andronicus is the city’s violence against another person, let alone star general. Upon his return from war another woman. Tamora knows that with the Goths, Titus brings back as Lavinia is Titus’s property, and “soiling” captives the Queen of the Goths, Tamora; his property is her only motive. her lover, Aaron the Moor; and her three Following the scene of Lavinia’s rape, I sons, Alarbus, Demetrius and Chiron. took a few moments to look around at the To avenge the death of his own sons lost audience. The actions committed against during the war, Titus sacrifices Tamora’s Lavinia are so profoundly disturbing that eldest son, Alarbus, setting off a cycle of not one woman was eager to be amused for revenge between the two that ends in the remainder of the act, a mood that hovbloodshed. So much bloodshed. ered over the audience until intermission.

Tamora is played with delectable spite Little to no action is taken during the

by Miranda McGee, who positively oozes remainder of the play to give Lavinia back sex in her cut-out Steampunk dresses and her agency. Shakespeare’s works are notodisplays meticulous patience and cunning. riously light on stage directions, and there Maggie Lou Rader is Tamora’s perfect are ample opportunities to “flip the script” foil in her portrayal of Lavinia, Titus’s on Act 2’s overall tone. beloved daughter who suffers a terrible fate Coupled with this confused take on how at the hands of the Goth queen. Perhaps a show like Titus Andronicus thematically the most riveting — and viscerally uncomplays into the concept of the “Season of fortable — scene in the entire production the Woman,” the production was designed is the confrontation between the two, with a Steampunk concept. which ends with Tamora ordering her two Though anachronistic in nature, there remaining sons, Chiron and Demetrius, to seemed to be little motivation for the play’s rape Lavinia as she begs for mercy. selected period, other than that it looked It’s a difficult scene to watch, particuexceptionally good. Dubin, along with set larly as Rader fully embodies the pure designer Justen N. Locke and sound and panic and absolute despair imaginable projections designer Douglas J. Borntrager, from a woman in those circumstances. conceived and executed a devilishly Even more difficult, though, were the clever concept through use of vaudevillian obvious and painful attempts made by projections throughout the show. both Shakespeare and director Dubin to Though an interesting theme is bring levity to the following scenes in order interwoven into the work itself, Cincy to lighten the mood. Some of this is done Shakes ultimately failed to bring any meat successfully; after all, Titus Andronicus, at to the concept, which left the production its core, is a very dark comedy, and the cast feeling somewhat hollow. has masterful deadpan deliveries.

Titus Andronicus runs through Nov. 2 at But there is something ironic in Cincy the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.

Shakes tackling Titus Andronicus during More info/tickets: cincyshakes.com.

ArtsWave’s Season of the Woman. Yes, at

CLASSICAL

concert:nova Fuses Song and Storytelling

BY A N N E A R EN S T EI N

In its 13th season, concert:nova’s Festival of Words dives into the synergy of words and music with three events.

“From our first season, several programs incorporated words and music,” says Ted Nelson, cellist and concert:nova producing artistic director. “But Festival of Words is devoted to music prompting responses with narrative and vice-versa.”

The series begins on Saturday Oct. 26 as part of another fest — Books by the Banks — with a free family-friendly performance at 12:45 p.m. of Ferdinand the Bull, cosponsored by classical radio station WGUC.

will cover a range of styles, including Pop. “Any one piece can trigger so many memories and spark feelings,” he says.

“Then we’ll split up into smaller groups to tell our stories.”

Wrapping up the Festival of Words weekend, Cincinnati-native poet Jon Sands returns to perform selections from his most recent collection, It’s Not Magic, a winner in the 2018 National Poetry Series competition.

Sands’s most recent poems explore the experiences of approaching middle age — he’s 36 — and taking on adulthood as a husband and a father, as well as looking back to his adolescence.

SEPT. 14 – OCT. 27, 2019

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“They’re artifacts of an actual lived journey, so just like life, they’re funny, serious and come with their own contradictions,” he said by email. “I found that I couldn’t address loneliness without also addressing privilege and its consequences. I couldn’t address either without traveling back to high school, and considering the stories that made me who I am.”

Sands’s last appearance with concert:nova was in 2013, and he’ll have the same musical Bespoken will host a storytelling session at Festival of Words. forces as six years ago: cellist Ted Nelson, pianist Julie SpanPHOTO: COURTESY OF BESPOKEN gler and percussionist Patrick Schleker.

“Jon’s poetry covers a lot of ground and, Written for solo violin and speaker by when curating the music, we’re tryAlan Ridout, this delightful 10-minute ing to reflect that range,” says Ixi Chen. piece features Munro Leaf’s beloved tale concert:nova’s managing artistic director. of a bull who would rather “sit quietly and Sands is equally inspired by smell the flowers” than fight the Madrid concert:nova’s commitment to collaboramatador squad. Naomi Lewin, producer tion with artists across the spectrum. and host for WGUC’s popular series “I love that their mission brings Classics for Kids, narrates the story while classically trained musicians to people Yan Isquierdo, Cincinnati Symphony who might not otherwise seek them out,” Orchestra diversity fellow, lends the he says. “I feel the same way about poetry, soundtrack as violin soloist. this word that conjures such different Audiences can provide their own words images in each person’s head. One person via a storytelling session with Bespoken is thinking T.S. Eliot, another Tupac, and — an organization devoted to storytelling no one’s wrong.” as a way to foster community and But he also knows, too, that general communication — the following afternoon, audiences aren’t picturing what he does, Oct. 27 at 3 p.m. Founded in 2015 as a which he says “means it’s on curators to nonprofit branch of media company Rebel find exciting ways to bring the work to the Pilgrim, Bespoken has since expanded people. concert:nova does that.” its offerings to include weekly gatherings Sands and the concert:nova trio perform and workshops on college campuses and at First Lutheran Church on Race Street, an community centers. intimate venue with perfect acoustics.

Their collaboration with concert:nova “There are people (in Cincinnati) who marks the first time that music has been have known me since I was a baby,” he on an equal footing with stories, says says. “That history, I think, is palpable in Bespoken co-founder Brad Wise. the room. Growth is probably the thing in “We’ve never done anything like this my life that’s most important to me, and before and I’m really excited,” he says. right behind it is being recognizable to the “When we hear these amazing professionpeople who have known me the longest.” als play this music, what will happen?”

The venue is Rebel Pilgrim’s space on concert:nova’s Festival of Words unfolds Walnut Street. Though the playlist was still Oct. 26-27. More info: concertnova.com. being curated when we spoke, Wise says it

OCT. 19 – NOV. 16, 2019

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‘Jojo Rabbit’ Bounces to its Own Beat R E V I E W BY T T S T ER N - EN ZI

How are we supposed to feel about young the tone for Jojo’s re-education.

Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), an undersized She’s aided and abetted by Captain pipsqueak living in Nazi Germany who Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), the leader of longs to be accepted as an equal among Jojo’s Hitler Youth camp. Klenzendorf is the Hitler Youth of his community? He’s not the usual smirky oddball that Rockwell whip-smart and decidedly hip in an plays. Rather, there’s a sense that this man anachronistic way — perfectly suited to is an older, wearier version of the kind step out of the frames of Taika Waititi’s of person who might have been like Jojo film Jojo Rabbit and waltz right into a Wes in his early days. Of everyone in the film, Anderson story without missing a beat. It Klenzendorf is the only other character probably wouldn’t even be an issue that who might have dreamed up his own young Jojo has an otherwise problematic version of an imaginary friend like Adolf. imaginary friend named Adolf (Waititi), But at this late stage in life, he’s seen for who, despite being a bumbling and rather himself that Hitler and the Nazi plan is foolish figure, is still Adolf Hitler. doomed to fail. He’s just too tired to get off It seems highly unlikely that any of the the hamster wheel. other kids participating in the Hitler Youth camp believe in the Nazi philosophy to such an extent that they have their own version of Adolf prancing around in their heads. That, of course, is what makes Jojo such an adorable creation, perfectly embodied

by Davis, who exudes so much child-actor charm that he finesses his way into our hearts as he bulldozes that fine line and crosses over into obnoxiousness. That’s exactly what Davis and Waititi are aiming for in this tango Taika Waititi (left) and Roman Griffin Davis in Jojo Rabbit they’re performing.

PHOTO: KIMBERLEY FRENCH /20TH CENTURY FOX As both screenwriter and director, Waititi knows that there’s only so much of this dynamic that we can take What’s most fascinating about Jojo on the screen at any given time, so Davis Rabbit is the idea that it has to proclaim shoulders the load, quite expertly, sharing itself as an anti-hate satire in its time with a talented cast that seems to marketing. Have we so lost touch with any enjoy playing second, third and sometimes understanding of comedy that something fourth fiddle to the wise youngster. as broad and obvious as Waititi’s film There’s Jojo’s mother, Rosie (Scarlett needs extra disclaimers?

Johansson), a known and quite respected That’s not to say that there aren’t some woman in the community. She’s a single subtle and incisive moments in the movie. mother raising her precocious child while I thoroughly appreciate how Waititi hiding a number of secrets about herself uses the pairing of characters with Jojo and her family that triggers an ethical to spotlight not only where he is along crisis for her son. his journey, but also where these other Like an abolitionist masquerading characters are along the spectrum, too. among plantation owners, Rosie has been And maybe, at the end of the day, hiding a young Jewish girl named Elsa that’s what audiences at the Toronto (Thomasin McKenzie) in the attic, right International Film Festival responded to as under the nose of the fanatical Jojo. When they made Jojo Rabbit this year’s Grolsch he finally stumbles upon Elsa, a somewhat People’s Choice Award winner, setting it dangerous series of exchanges begins. up for Academy Award expectations.

Jojo attempts to overlay all of his It has been an unusual year thus far, outrageous stereotypes about Jews onto with both this selection and Joker snagging Elsa. His blind adherence to these silly the Golden Lion (Best Film) at the Venice notions is zealotry in the extreme, but it Film Festival. This could be the year for is easy to see and accept how a child can an oddball or two to breakout during the learn through exposure to overcome such awards season. faulty logic. Elsa is like the straightest And Jojo Rabbit just might have enough straight woman opposite Jojo’s lunatic spring to leap ahead of the pack — and our and quite manic thinking. With little more limited comic sensibilities. (Opening Oct. than a single word or a stern look, Elsa sets 18) (PG-13) Grade: B+

CULTURE

Halloween Is Forever at Fairborn’s Foy’s

BY L I L L I A N C U R R E N S

Just outside of Dayton, Ohio, in a town called Fairborn, is a place where October is eternal, candy is eaten with every meal and hyper-realistic animatronics are on standby, ready to scare the bejesus out of any brave soul willing to shell over three dollars. This magical place is Foy’s Halloween Stores — a series of related shops on main street U.S.A. that feels like walking straight onto the set of Disney’s Halloweentown.

Foy’s Halloween Store PHOTO: MACKENZIE MANLEY

Foy’s Halloween Store is located at 18-20 E. Main St., Fairborn, Ohio. For more info, visit foyshalloweenstore.com/home.html.

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The Foy’s conglomerate consists of six different locations, open year-round and specializing in every imaginable facet of the holiday. The centerpiece, of course, is the original Halloween Store, which was opened by Albert Foy in 1929. According to Michael, Albert’s grandson and third generation owner (his son will be the fourth), the founding Foy started out in the sweets business, baking by night and running his shop by day. Once he hit his 50s and was diagnosed with heart disease, that lifestyle began to take a toll.

Always the entrepreneur, the 55-yearold opened Foy’s five-and-dime “just four months before the stock market crashed,” Michael says. But it wasn’t until the early 1970s that the Foys would focus their attention on what their empire is famous for today. Michael says the acquisition of masks, Halloween-themed favors and party supplies started out slow, but the demand was there and the business kept growing. Nowadays, Fairborn’s Main Street is packed with people in town for Foy’s by mid-September.

“If we would have stayed a five-andten, we probably wouldn’t be in business (today),” Michael says.

By the ’80s, the five-and-dime was bursting with costumes and skeletons. The Foy family realized the only way to meet this newfound demand for all-thingsspooky was to expand, leading to their second venture in 1989: the Adult Costume

Store, which opened right next door. To protect the innocent from the shop’s sexier offerings, the Kid’s Costume Store opened soon after.

By the mid-’90s, a Haunted House Store, Glow Shop and a 1950s-style diner — the Rock-n-Roll Grill — completed the lineup.

It’s not hard to see why Michael felt the need to expand. The original shop is practically stocked floor-to-ceiling with an array of rubber masks, 10-cent toys, plastic body parts, vintage gags and even a rotating case of fake Area 51 IDs. In the Haunted House Store, an uncanny execution scene pulls out all the stops with a hooded figure strapped to an electric chair, violently convulsing as lights flash and screams flood the shop’s tiny back room.

Foy’s hasn’t strayed too far from its roots though, as evidenced by their worn wooden counter stacked high with glass jars of penny candy and a display window full of classic sweets, with photographs of all four generations of the Foy family taped to the front.

While Foy’s plays heavily into people’s nostalgia for what some might consider “simpler times,” some things have changed. For one, live monkeys no longer greet customers when they enter the shop. The family raised capuchins until their vet retired and a law that passed in 2013 made it illegal to own exotic pets in Ohio. The two eldest Foys are gone, too, though Michael swears he has heard footsteps and things moving around late at night — both at the shop and his grandmother’s house, which he purchased after she died for the purpose of decorating for Halloween.

His own house — a renovated church just off the main drag — boasts a fullscale horse-drawn hearse in the yard and a souped-up Ghostbusters hearse in the wrap-around driveway. Michael says they are two of seven hearses that he currently has in his collection, which he rolls out for the annual Fairborn Halloween Festival, held Oct. 18-20.

He suspects he’ll see a lot of clowns this year (because of the IT franchise and Joker) but says most of his staff will go all out with unique costumes they cobble together themselves. Ironically, when asked the age-old question, “What are you going to be for Halloween?” Michael said he wasn’t sure.

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MUSIC Sunday’s Best Influential AltRock band Taking Back Sunday will play full albums — including breakthrough debut, Tell All Your Friends — on their current 20th-anniversary tour

BY A L A N S C U L L E Y

T

now considered a classic within the Modern Rock sub-genre known as Emo, so called for the passionate and often dramatic nature of the music and lyrics. The album spent 78 weeks on Billboard’s Independent Album chart and Taking Back Sunday saw its audience grow rapidly as Tell All Your Friends gained steam.

But after a year of touring the album, Nolan (who was Lazzara’s main songwriting collaborator) and Cooper left the band, having found it difficult to deal with the whirlwind of success and the strain of touring. Taking Back Sunday barely paused, bringing in guitarist Fred Mascherino and bassist Matt Rubano and jumping onto the 2003 Warped Tour as the band’s momentum continued.

The next few years saw the group release well-received albums like Where You Want To Be (2004) and Louder Now (2006) before Mascherino was replaced by Matt Fazzi for 2009’s New Again.

But within the band, tensions grew worse. In spring 2010, Rubano and Fazzi were jettisoned and O’Connell suggested approaching Nolan and Cooper about rejoining Taking Back Sunday; the duo’s post-Taking Back Sunday band, Straylight Run, had flamed out after some initial success. Lazzara and Reyes agreed, and Nolan and Cooper rejoined.

Over the course of the three albums since the return of Nolan and Cooper, Taking Back Sunday’s sound has evolved to the point where it feels like a fairly timeless brand of melodic Guitar Rock that doesn’t belong to Emo or any other sub-genre.

In Nolan’s view, Taking Back Sunday never belonged in the Emo scene in the first place.

“To us, we didn’t feel particularly tied

Taking Back Sunday P H O T O : N ATA L I E E S C O B E D O

to (Emo),” he says. “It was just sort of the music that influenced us, and, yeah, it connects us to this scene. But that’s not an important part of who we are.”

Nolan says other influences have emerged in the writing process in recent years, which — coupled with a desire to not repeat themselves — naturally redefined the Taking Back Sunday sound.

“We’ve always wanted to do something that’s sort of timeless and not part of a particular scene or era,” he says. “I remember when I was coming back to the band, I wanted to talk to Adam about what his goals were. I wasn’t sure what their perspective was. I didn’t know if they were looking to like make Tell All Your Friends Part 2 or something that wasn’t interesting to me.

“His thing was, ‘I just want this band to make a great Rock record.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I can get on board with that.’ That’s a simple way to put it, but I do think there is that common feeling with all of us, that we would love to have one of the great Rock records ever, hopefully. I think it feels like we’re always working toward that.”

The group will make its next batch of new music without founding member Reyes. He left Taking Back Sunday in 2018 and has since started a new band, Fate’s Got a Driver. Longtime touring guitarist Nathan Cogan has filled Reyes’ slot.

“He’s actually been touring with us for almost 10 years,” Nolan says of Cogan. “So

now, we’re a five-piece, where before it was a six-piece with him.”

With Cogan in tow, the band is promoting the Twenty collection, which does a fine job of touching on all of the Taking Back Sunday albums and summing up the group’s career to this point. But the set list for the 20th-anniversary tour will not mirror the tracklist of Twenty. Instead, the group is playing Tell All Your Friends in its entirety — plus a selection of other songs — on every date of the tour. In cities like Cincinnati where there are two back-toback shows, the group will play Where You Want To Be or Louder Now in full on the second night.

“If we were going to do a set that was sort of like what the Twenty album is, that would actually be fairly similar to what we’ve been doing for the past four years or so of touring — taking the best songs from our catalog and making a set of 22 songs, more or less,” Nolan says.

“We felt like if we went out and did that, it wouldn’t be that much different. So there were a lot of songs from Where You Want To Be and Louder Now that we’d never played live and (that) people have asked about. It felt like doing all three albums would be a lot more of an interesting and exciting thing.”

Taking Back Sunday plays Bogart’s on Oct. 18 and 19. Tickets and more show info: bogarts.com.

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his year marks 20 years since Taking Back Sunday formed in Amityville, New York. The two decades have seen several band members leave and, in 2010, a pair of them — guitarist John Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper — return.

Through it all, the group has continued to release albums on a regular basis, in the process outgrowing an original affiliation with Rock’s Emo scene to reach a point where they seem positioned to have a solid career for years to come.

Perhaps the most rewarding part of reaching this milestone is that Taking Back Sunday, which recently released a best-of album, Twenty, enters its third decade with a greater sense of confidence and musical freedom than at any time in the band’s career.

“I think when the band started, everybody’s goals were sort of all over the place, but we were kind of bound together by the idea that we knew we wanted to be in a band and we wanted that to be our career,” Nolan says, looking back over Taking Back Sunday’s history. “We just wanted to make it.”

He says that ever since he rejoined the band, he’s noticed Taking Back Sunday has regained some of the scrappy spirit of its early years, as if they were out to prove “that we were still worth listening to and paying attention to as a band” every time they entered the recording studio to make a new album.

But between making 2014’s Happiness Is and the group’s most recent studio album, 2016’s Tidal Wave, the creative focus shifted more inward.

“The focus has sort of shifted toward what we can do that is going to make us happy, that is going to be exciting to us, moving away from the idea of proving anything and wondering what the reaction might be,” Nolan says.

It didn’t take long for Taking Back Sunday to achieve that initial goal of making it on the national scene. Founded in 1999 by guitarist Eddie Reyes, Taking Back Sunday cycled through a few early band members before solidifying its lineup with the additions of Nolan, singer Adam Lazzara, drummer Mark O’Connell and Cooper.

In 2002, that’s the lineup that created debut album Tell All Your Friends, which is

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SOUND ADVICE

The New Mastersounds

C I T Y B E AT. C O M |

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Wednesday, Oct. 16 • Ludlow Garage

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If you’re unfamiliar with The New Mastersounds, you’ve got plenty of catching up to do. The British Jazz Fusion/Funk quartet is celebrating its 20th anniversary and touring behind its most recent recordings, the just-released Shake It and last year’s Renewable Energy and The Nashville Session 2. During the group’s two-decade history, the band has released over 20 group and solo full-length albums and EPs, plus a similar amount of singles, and amassed a sizable global fanbase with regular tours of the U.K., U.S., EU and Japan.

The New Mastersounds began in 1999 when guitarist/producer Eddie Roberts expanded his club night at The Cooker in Leeds to include live music as an adjunct to DJ sets. Roberts recruited drummer Simon Allen, who had played with Roberts in a trio called the Mastersounds two years before, and added bassist Pete Shand and Hammond organist Bob Birch, dubbing the aggregation The New Mastersounds.

In 2003, the band created the label One Note Records (named after their track “One Note Brown”) and, in 2006, added saxophonist/flute player Rob Lavers as a regular studio/stage guest. The following year, home obligations forced Birch to reluctantly resign his position, and his spot was filled by Joe Tatton, who had previously filled in for Birch.

Since their 2007 decision to concentrate on their core guitar/bass/organ/ drums sound, The New Mastersounds has released 10 albums and built a diverse audience, particularly within the Jam community. The band has played every conceivable festival, sharing stages with the likes of Umphrey’s McGee, moe., Les Claypool, Galactic and Greyboy Allstars, and collaborated with a diverse pool of talent, including Corinne Bailey Rae, Grace Potter, Phish’s Page McConnell, Karl Denson and legends like Fred Wesley and The Meters’ George Porter Jr. Born on the eve of the new millennium, The New Mastersounds has spent the past 20 years exploring, shaping and defining Funk, Fusion and Neo Soul with reverence for the groove and an affinity for the dance floor. (Brian Baker)

Actors with Skeleton Hands Thursday, Oct. 17 • MOTR Pub

By the late ’70s, Punk had upended all perceptions of what constituted Rock, and New Wave was offering a slightly more antiseptic but still anarchic perspective on the same subject. Of particular interest were the chilly Synth Pop bands that combined the aggression of Punk with the

The New Mastersounds PHOTO: NEWMASTERSOUNDS.COM/ PHOTOSHOP BY TREVOR HIRST

broad appeal of Pop and swirled it into a Dairy Queen confection that was both sweet and dark. For Canadian Synth Pop quartet Actors, that musical period is a living, breathing entity that has never gone out of fashion.

That’s not to say that Actors are trapped in the unyielding amber of genre worship.

The Vancouver, British Columbia band is invested in its Gothic/New Wave roots but it is also a product of its contemporary Electronic environment, and the result is a sound that nods to its past while barreling full-tilt into the second decade of the new millennium. The true wonder of Actors is how the foursome — guitarist/vocalist Jason Corbett, synthesizer/vocalist Shannon Hemmett, bassist Jahmeel Russell and drummer Adam Fink — has become so masterful in its relatively brief seven-year history.

Up until last year, Actors had been content to share their music by way of regular single releases, but 2018 finally saw a full album’s worth of material — the compelling It Will Come to You. With a sonic texture that suggests the psychedelic maelstrom of Echo & the Bunnymen, the arctic blast of Tubeway Army, the perpetual boys’ swing of David Bowie and the dark modernity of The National, Actors has succeeded in making entrancing music that is simultaneously expansively

Actors P H OTO : K I R A C L AV E L L

cinematic and yet somehow claustrophobically intimate. It’s a rare band that can successfully absorb and still transcend their source influences, but Actors has done it with casual brilliance on a slate of bracing singles, including their recent cover of The Sound’s “Mining for Heart,” and the first of hopefully many full-length albums. (BB)

Rickie Lee Jones

Saturday, Oct. 19 • Ludlow Garage

Between her excellent new covers record, Kicks, and her fall tour, Rickie Lee Jones has been riding a late-career resurgence this last decade.

The veteran singer/songwriter still

Twenty One Pilots with MisterWives Tuesday, Oct. 22 • U.S. Bank Arena

Rickie Lee Jones P H OTO : DAV I D M C C L I S T E R

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delivers her brand of magic onstage, whether performing her own classics from over 40 years of recording or doing eclectic covers chosen from the Great American Songbook. Now settled in her adopted hometown of New Orleans but ever restless, Jones has always enjoyed interpreting torch songs of yore for her nightclub jaunts.

Including It’s Like This from 2000 and The Devil You Know from 2012, Kicks is the chanteuse’s third collection of covers.

Jones still writes her own inimitable, boho ballads, as reflected on 2015’s The Other Side of Desire, but, in the delicate touch and funky brio she brings to these projects, it’s clear she takes delight and inspiration in rearranging other writers’ standards.

Jones opens Kicks with a bold reimagining of “Bad Company” by the ’70s group of the same name. With her band’s help, she turns this anthem into a slinky swagger with brooding arpeggios, conga percussion and her own scrappy electric guitar flourishes.

Elsewhere, Jones updates America’s “Lonely People” with elegant panache, emphasizing empathy and sweet slide guitar. Though piano has always been her main instrument, she’s also an accomplished guitar player, something that becomes immediately clear at her intimate shows as she effortlessly switches from keys to six-string. One of the deep cuts on Kicks is Elton John’s “My Father’s Gun,” in which Jones blends Southern defiance with Gospel fervor for a bravura version.

It’s not all Classic Rock covers — Jones glides from the jazzy romp of “Nagasaki” to the Country croon of Skeeter Davis’s 1963 chart-topping single “The End of the World,” which provides the record’s emotional anchor as she eschews the original’s little-girl-lost sorrow for a grittier worldweariness, perhaps all the more appropriate for these times. (Gregory Gaston)

Columbus, Ohio’s Twenty One Pilots is the biggest “cult” band in the world.

They’ve sold millions of albums worldwide, headlined the biggest music festivals and sold-out huge venues, but they’re not really a household name. And many of those who are aware of them are often dismissive, writing them off as that silly Pop band that raps sometimes and rides Big Wheels in their music videos.

The bad rep among those unfamiliar with Twenty One Pilots is understandable. On paper, they sound awful: a Pop duo with Reggae, EDM, Screamo and Rap flourishes sounds like a Sublime copycat band that went through an Emo phase and discovered dance music via the Chainsmokers.

But there is a depth to Twenty One Pilots quite unlike the majority of multiPlatinum-selling acts. From a songwriting standpoint, singer/multi-instrumentalist Tyler Joseph has the ability to craft songs with a weight and pull more timeless than his contemporaries in the Pop music world. Strip away the Reggae bounce, the rap flow and the Electronic touches that carbon-date the sound somewhat and you’re left with sturdy songs that are built to withstand the test of time.

That’s especially true on Twenty One Pilots’ most recent album, Trench, which features several ambient ear-grabbers, like “Cut My Lip,” “Morph” and “Leave the City,” perhaps a reflection of the influence and production assistance of Mutemath frontperson and keyboardist Paul Meany.

That hazy, hypnotic quality works well as a delivery system for another of Joseph’s exceptional talents — using lyrics to tell a multi-faceted story that’s threaded throughout the entire LP. As with on the breakthrough Blurryface LP, the (fairly complex) storyline functions as a broader metaphor about mental health and self-care, something also heard in the songs removed from the narrative arc, like “Neon Gravestones,” which examines the impact of celebrity suicide. It’s clever and relatable in a way that, once you figure it out, you feel as if you’re a part of a secret club or, if you will, cult. Twenty One Pilots’ ability to intimately speak to listeners in a way that provides both understanding and guidance is the biggest key to their enduring widespread success.

Pushing the undercurrent along is Josh Dun, one of the best contemporary Rock

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SOUND ADVICE

Twenty One Pilots P H O T O : AT L A N T I C R E C O R D S

drummers in the game today. Dun also provides constant energy during Twenty One Pilots’ relentlessly entertaining live show, a tastefully overblown Arena Rock spectacle that’s akin to an Emo circus, with compelling visuals, acrobatic antics, fire, explosions, confetti and a David Copperfield-ian magic trick or two. The bombastic live act is in-line with the duo’s fan-friendly nature — concerts cost a shit-ton of money these days and Twenty One Pilots do all they can to make it feel worth every penny for their followers. (Mike Breen)

Quintron and Miss Pussycat with The Three Brained Robot

C I T Y B E AT. C O M |

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Saturday, Oct. 26 • MOTR Pub

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With a few exceptions, in Cincinnati’s underground Rock circuit of the ’90s, there was a period of time where you basically knew what you were going to get when you went to a show — some variation of scruffy Gen X-ers playing loud guitars. But every now and then, an act would come to town that was blissfully confounding. It wasn’t just “unique,” there was literally nothing else like it.

Emerging from New Orleans, Quintron and Miss Pussycat were an enigma.

And they still very much are. To nutshell it: Quintron plays organ, triggers other sounds and sings while Miss Pussycat performs puppet shows. It’s wonderfully strange and compelling and a bit surreal, though even that word doesn’t fully explain the experience. David Lynch himself would probably fall into a paralyzed state of chin-scratching contemplation trying to contextualize one of the duo’s

performances.

Getting her artistic start in Oklahoma at a “Christian Puppet Youth Ministry,” Miss Pussycat’s puppetry is storyline-based, playful and fantastically odd. The hand puppets and sets are handmade and colorful, resembling something Pee Wee Herman might play with between takes while filming his Playhouse on the big-boy set.

With Miss Pussycat often singing backup and playing maracas, Quintron coaxes music out of his huge organ set up, which is built into the front of an old car.

Quintron is an inventive tinkerer, so the organ is like a Hammond B3 that has been completely rewired and tricked out with an array of analog electronic quirks. The music has been called “Psychedelic Soul” and “Swamp Tech” (also the name of the duo’s 2005 album, which was paired with Miss Pussycat’s puppet film, The Electric Swamp).

Describing the act on a surface level makes it seem like Quintron and Miss Pussycat — whose Cincinnati show last September was canceled at the last minute — are some sort of art project meant to be stared at and deeply considered. But the shows are very much Rock & Roll — energetic, explosive and life-affirming testaments to the power of performance and DIY ingenuity, however unconventional.

The pair’s latest projects include a book (written by Quintron and illustrated by Miss Pussycat) about traveling through Europe and a music video for their cover of Roky Erickson’s “Creature with the Atom Brain,” which is featured on the compilation Dr. Demento Covered in Punk. (MB)

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and Sailor, both released in 1968. That year, Scaggs signed a solo deal with Atlantic Records; his eponymous 1969 sophomore album, featuring Duane Allman on guitar, was critically acclaimed but commercially disappointing.

Scaggs’ fortunes changed with Columbia Records; 1971’s Moments and 1972’s My Time sold decent numbers, but it was 1974’s Slow Dancer, helmed by Motown songwriter/producer Johnny Bristol, that saw the emergence of Scagg’s slick Soul persona. Slow Dancer made it better than halfway up the Billboard 200 album chart, and softened the ground for 1976’s Silk Degrees; the album’s session band formed Toto. Silk Degrees earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, and Scaggs and co-writer David Paich won the Grammy for R&B Song of the Year for the million-selling “Lowdown.”

Scaggs’ never hit those heights with subsequent recordings, although 1980’s Middle Man featured two Top 20 singles and he had a sizable hit with “Look What You’ve Done to Me” from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack and “Miss Sun,” a new track included on his 1980 Hits! compilation.

Scaggs recorded sporadically thereafter, releasing only two solo albums in a 14-year span; in that time, he did a three-year stint with the Donald Fagen/Michael McDonald project outfit, The New York Rock and Soul Revue. In the late ‘90s, he returned to more traditional R&B, and in the new millennium, he dabbled in Jazz, reteamed with Fagen and McDonald in the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue, and released his Roots/Blues triptych — 2013’s Memphis, 2015’s A Fool to Care (which featured appearances by Lucinda Williams and Bonnie Raitt) and last year’s Out of the Blues.

Boz Scaggs is not just a renaissance musician but a living example of the history of contemporary music. (BB)

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WED 23

THU 17

ACTORS (VANCOUVER, BC) W/ SKELETON HANDS

6, MUSIC BINGO 9:30, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (PHILADELPHIA) W/ DINGE

THU 24

NOAH SMITH’S CROONER CIRCUS

FRI 18

KNOTTS, MOONBEAU, LEO PASTEL

FRI 25

BRICK + MORTAR W/ DENTIST (NEW JERSEY) AND BUILD US FICTION

S AT 19

THE CLIFTONES (2 SETS)

S AT 26

QUINTRON AND MISS PUSSYCAT (NEW ORLEANS) W/ COLD STEREO AND THE THREE BRAINED ROBOT (GREENSBORO, NC)

SUN 20

TURTLEDOVES W/ ZOO

SUN 27

HARLOT, CREAMBOY, AND FAST EDDY

MON 21

TIGERSHARK, SANS AXIOM, THE GREY

MON 28

WED 16

TUE 22

6, MUSIC BINGO 9:30, SARAH ASHER, MAVIS GUITAR,

WRITER’S NIGHT W/ BRENDAN FEAT. ROXIE HENNESSEY

TUE 29

FICKLE HELLCAT

W/ WHISKEY SHAMBLES 7, WORD OF MOUTH: FEATURED / OPEN POETRY READINGS 9, WRITER’S NIGHT W/ KYLE FEAT. MAX VIGNOLA

1345 MAIN ST. IN OVER-THE-RHINE | SINCE 2010

O C T. 1 6 - 2 9 , 2 0 19 | C I T Y B E AT. C O M

Seventies Blues/R&B/Rock singer Boz Scaggs was supposed to perform earlier this year at Rising Star Casino in Indiana, but undisclosed health issues caused the show (and other dates) to be canceled on doctor’s orders. Now, Scaggs is back on the road and returning to Cincinnati proper for a show in the big room at the Taft Theatre.

A lot of casual music listeners may believe Scaggs began his career with Pop/ Rock staples like “Lido Shuffle” and “Lowdown” from his five-times platinum album Silk Degrees. In fact, that 1976 landmark release was Scaggs’ seventh solo album, and by then his music career was nearly 20 years in the making. He’s since gone from finding his greatest commercial success in the ’70s to maintaining an active recording and performing schedule in his 70s.

Scaggs was born in Canton, Ohio, but his salesman father moved the family frequently, finally landing in the Dallas, Texas area. Scaggs attended a Dallas private school, where he acquired his nickname from a classmate (William became Bosley which became Boz) and a new friend, guitarist Steve Miller. At 15, Scaggs became the vocalist for Miller’s band, the Marksmen, which ultimately led the pair to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison together, where they teamed up in a variety of Blues bands. Scaggs quit school and knocked around Europe, finding his way into the English and Swedish Blues scenes.

In 1965, Scaggs recorded his debut solo album, Boz, which sank like a stone. By 1967, he had moved to San Francisco and reconnected with an old friend; Scaggs played guitar (he learned at age 12) and sang occasional lead vocals on Steve Miller’s first two albums, Children of the Future

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59

LISTINGS

CityBeat’s music listings are free. Send info to Mike Breen at mbreen@citybeat.com. Listings are subject to change.

See CityBeat.com for full music listings and all club locations. H is CityBeat staff’s stamp of approval.

WEDNESDAY 16

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Blue Wisp Big Band. 8 p.m. Big Band Jazz. $10.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Carlos Vargas Trio. 6 p.m. Jazz. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Dallas Moore. 10 p.m. Country.

Free.

THE LISTING LOON - Ricky Nye. 8 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie. Free.

H

LUDLOW GARAGE The New Mastersounds with Josh Hoyer and Soul Colossal. 8 p.m. Jazz/Funk. $20, $25 day of show.

H

MADISON LIVE - Andy Frasco and the U.N. with The Trongone Band.

8:30 p.m. Blues/Rock. $12, $15 day of show.

MOTR PUB - Sarah Asher, Mavis Guitar, Billy Alletzhauser and Beth Harris.

9 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

H

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Safari Room, Joesph and The Mitchells. 9 p.m.

Indie Rock. Free.

H

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Tweens with Jimmy Whispers. 9 p.m.

Indie Rock.

REVEL OTR URBAN WINERY - “The High Note.” 8:30 p.m. Jazz. Free.

H

C I T Y B E AT. C O M |

O C T. 1 6 - 2 9 , 2 0 19

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Just Friends, Save Face, The Sonder Bombs and Pool Kids. 7:30 p.m.

Rock/Various. $13, $15 day of show.

60

STANLEY’S PUB - Chase Makai Band. 8 p.m. Pop/ Rock/Roots/Jam. $10, $12 day of show.

THURSDAY 17

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Philip Paul Trio.

7:30 p.m. Jazz. Free.

H

ARONOFF CENTER FOR THE ARTS - The Mersey Beatles: 50 Years of Abbey Road. 7 p.m. Beatles tribute. $39-$69.

H

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Brian Charette Trio. 7:30 p.m.

Jazz. Cover.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Marc Wolfley Trio. 6 p.m. Jazz. Free.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Marc Fields Quartet. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

SORG OPERA HOUSE The Magnums. 8 p.m. Rock. $15-$20.

KNOTTY PINE - Kenny Cowden. 9 p.m. Acoustic.

Free.

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - Airwave. 9:30 p.m.

R&B/Pop/Dance/Various.

Cover.

H

H

LUDLOW GARAGE “Night of the Living Prog” with 3.2 featuring Robert Berry, Chris Clark and Kenny Grohowski. 8:30 p.m.

Prog Rock. $30-$50.

H

MOTR PUB - Actors with Skeleton Hands.

10 p.m. Post Punk/AltRock.

Free.

H

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Dead Humor, The Midwestern and Feral Friends. 9 p.m. Alt/Rock/Various. Free.

H

THE REDMOOR - Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra: CCJO Goes to the Movies. 7 p.m. Jazz. $20.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT Jordan Pollard Duo. 8 p.m.

Jazz. Cover.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Charlie Parr. 7 p.m.

Folk Blues. $12, $15 day of show.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Joanne Shaw Taylor with Noah Wotherspoon. 8 p.m.

Blues. $25, $30 day of show.

STANLEY’S PUB - Strange Mechanics. 10 p.m. Funk/ Jam. Cover.

H

TOP CATS - QUIX with MUUS and Ski Patrol.

10 p.m. EDM.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Grassroots Ramble. 8 p.m.

Bluegrass. $10 (food/drink minimum).

FRIDAY 18

BLIND LEMON - Sal & Raven. 9 p.m. Jazz/Blues/ R&B. Free.

H

BOGART’S - Taking Back Sunday. 8 p.m.

AltRock. $35.

LUDLOW GARAGE - Eric Roberson. 8:30 p.m. Neo Soul/Blues. $25-$55.

H

MADISON LIVE - Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound. 8 p.m. Americana/Country/Folk. $12, $15 day of show.

H

MADISON THEATER Cigarettes After Sex. 8 p.m. Indie Rock. $23, $26 day of show.

MANSION HILL TAVERN - Jamie Carr. 9 p.m. Blues.

Cover.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - The Minks with The Nailers. 8:30 p.m. Rock. $8, $10 day of show.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - 500 Miles to Memphis with El Escapado, The Grove, True Falcons, Eric Bolender and Moonshine Drive. 7:30 p.m. Rock/Roots/ Various. $12, $15 day of show.

STANLEY’S PUB - Thunder Chicken. 9 p.m. Jam. $10.

THOMPSON HOUSE RVNT and Glass Hands. 8 p.m. Metal. $10.

H

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Jim Smith Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

H

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - Squeezy McSqueezyface. 7:30 p.m.

Rock/Country/Folk. Free.

MOTR PUB - Knotts With Moonbeau And Leo Pastel. 10 p.m. Indie/Alt/ Pop/R&B/Various. Free.

MURPHY’S PUB “Dirty Thirty” with The Dummy Ups, IdleAires, Harambe’s Heroes, 11,000 Switches and Tweens. 7 p.m.

Rock/Punk/Various. $15; $25 for two-day pass.

H

MVP BAR & GRILLE Ekoostik Hookah with Freak Mythology and The Nathan Whitt Band. 8 p.m.

Rock/Jam/Various. $10, $13 day of show.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN Ruby Vileos, Vireo and The Quiet Lives. 10 p.m. Indie Rock. Free.

H

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Hell Scorched Earth with Inferious, Scarangella and Automaton. 8 p.m.

Metal. $10.

PLAIN FOLK CAFE - White Line Fever. 7:30 p.m. Bluegrass/Roots. Free.

THE REDMOOR - The McCartney Project. 7 p.m.

Paul McCartney tribute. $25.

RICK’S TAVERN - Wayward Son. 9:30 p.m. Rock. Cover.

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - Steve Schmidt Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT - Pat Kelly Trio. 8:30 p.m. Jazz.

Cover.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Erwin Stuckey Trio. 8:30 p.m. Jazz.

Cover.

SILVERTON CAFE - Basic Truth. 9 p.m. R&B/Soul/Funk.

Free.

SATURDAY 19

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Modern Groove Jazz Band. 8 p.m. Jazz.

Free.

H

BOGART’S - Taking Back Sunday. 8 p.m.

AltRock. $35.

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - John Zappa with the Steve Schmidt Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - The Burning Caravan. 8:30 p.m. Jazz.

Cover.

CENTENNIAL BARN Bubbles and Brew at the Barn with Lady Joya. 6 p.m.

R&B. $25.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Dixie Karas Quartet. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - Brass Tracks. 9:30 p.m. Rock/Various. Cover.

JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Excalibur. 9 p.m.

Rock. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Bad Habit.

10 p.m. Rock. Cover.

H

LUDLOW GARAGE Rickie Lee Jones. 8:30

p.m. Folk/Pop/Various. $35-$60.

THE MAD FROG - Notixx. 9 p.m. Bass/EDM. $10-$15.

MANSION HILL TAVERN - The Heaters. 9 p.m. Blues.

Cover.

H H

MOTR PUB - The Cliftones. 10 p.m. Reggae. Free.

MURPHY’S PUB - “Dirty Thirty” with Smoothy, The Mudlarks, The Tigerlilies, Stallone ’N Roses and Tiger Sex. 7 p.m. Rock/ Punk/Various. $15; $25 for two-day pass.

MVP BAR & GRILLE - John Corabi. 8 p.m. Rock. $12.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN Reign, Degrave, Flesh Warfare, Bloodgate and Crypt Seeker. 9 p.m. Metal.

PLAIN FOLK CAFE - The Dreadful Wind and Rain.

7:30 p.m. Folk. Free.

THE REDMOOR - Hurricane Relief Fundraiser featuring Scarlet Fire. 7:30 p.m.

Acoustic/Americana. Free (donations accepted).

RICK’S TAVERN - Templin Road. 10 p.m. Rock. Cover.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT - Ron Enyard Quartet. 8:30 p.m.

Jazz. Cover.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - Maurice Mattei (album release party). 9:30 p.m.

Singer/Songwriter. Free.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Cincinnati Noir. 10 p.m. Dance/Alt/Various. $5.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Morgen & Alan and the Achy Breaky Hearts, Olyssa Oeder Band. 7:45 p.m. ’90s Country tribute. $15, $20 day of show.

STANLEY’S PUB - Bourbon Branch and Jason Ritchie.

10 p.m. Rock/Country. Cover.

THOMPSON HOUSE - Destry Delilah. 7:30 p.m. Roots/ Blues/Rock/Various. $10.

URBAN ARTIFACT - Saxsquatch & Bridge Band and Hher. 8 p.m. Rock/Funk/ Various.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Pamela Mallory Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - Ricky Nye and Paul Ellis. 7 p.m. Blues/ Boogie Woogie. Free.

SUNDAY 20

BLIND LEMON - Jeff Henry.

8 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

BOGART’S - Jidenna with Kelechi. 8 p.m. Hip Hop. $25.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Jazz Brunch with Rob Allgeyer.

8:30 a.m. Jazz. Free.

LATITUDES BAR & BISTRO - BlueBirds. 8 p.m.

Rock/R&B. Free.

H

MADISON THEATER Q102 Bosom Ball with Ingrid Michaelson and Maddie Poppe. 8 p.m. AltPop. $35.

MOTR PUB - Turtledoves with Zoo. 8 p.m. Indie/Electronic/Pop/Various. Free.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT Ricky Nye and Bekah Williams. 6 p.m. Jazz/Blues

H

TOP CATS - The Aquadolls. 8 p.m. Indie Rock. $12.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Traditional New Orleans Jazz Brunch with Buffalo Ridge Jazz Trio. 11:30 a.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

WESTSIDE VENUE - Blues Jam with Jimmy D. Rodgers and Lil Al Thomas. 7 p.m.

Blues. Free.

H

WOODWARD THEATER - School of Rock Mason: A Tribute to The Who. 6:30 p.m. Rock. $6, $8 day of show.

MONDAY 21

BLIND LEMON - Ben Armstrong. 8 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Nick Fryer Trio. 6 p.m. Jazz. Free.

MCCAULY’S PUB - Open Jam with Sonny Moorman. 7 p.m. Blues/Various. Free.

MOTR PUB - Tigershark, Sans Axiom and The Grey. 9 p.m. Free.

H

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Merauder with Leeway NYC, Treason, Constraint, Three Poisons and

By Force. 7:30 p.m. Metal/ Hardcore. $13, $15 day of show.

MADISON LIVE - Bumpin Uglies. 8 p.m. Ska/Punk/ Reggae. $12, $15 day of show.

TUESDAY 22

NORTHSIDE TAVERN Cordial Sins, Oginalii and Pocket. 9 p.m. Rock. Free.

BREWRIVER CREOLE KITCHEN - The Twirlers. 7 p.m. R&B/Classic Pop/Standards. Free.

H

BOGART’S - UFO. 8 p.m.

Rock. $27.50.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Amy McFarland & Billy Larkin.

7:30 p.m. Jazz.

H

THE COMET - Fruit LoOops. 10 p.m.

Experimental/Electronic/ Rock/Various. Free.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Braza Trio.

6 p.m. Jazz. Free.

H

THE MOCKBEE - Science Man, Felixx Moon, Nervous Tick and the Zipper Lips, Human Program and Civic Center. 9 p.m. Rock.

Cover.

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Outlier with Ballista, Virtue and Split Tongue. 8:30 p.m.

Metal. $10.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Southern Culture On the Skids with the Carolyn Sills Combo. 8 p.m. Roots/ Various. $20, $22 day of show.

STANLEY’S PUB - RumpRyder. 9 p.m. Bluegrass/ Jam. Cover.

H

U.S. BANK ARENA Twenty One Pilots with MisterWives. 8 p.m. AltPop. $39.50-$79.50.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Blue Wisp Big Band. 8 p.m. Big Band Jazz. $10.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Camile Smith Quartet. 6 p.m. Jazz.

Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Dallas Moore. 10 p.m. Country.

Free.

H

LUDLOW GARAGE Marc Roberge of O.A.R. 8:30 p.m. Rock. $35-$60.

PLAIN FOLK CAFE Chicago Farmer. 7 p.m.

Folk. $8, $12 day of show.

REVEL OTR URBAN WINERY - “The High Note”. 8:30 p.m. Jazz. Free.

RIVERFRONT LIVE - Suffocation with Belphegor, Abiotic and Necronomicon. 7 p.m. Metal. $25.

H

STANLEY’S PUB Donnie & The Dry Heavers, Howard Brothers Band and Leopold The Ghost. 9 p.m. Alt/Electro/ Rock. Cover.

THURSDAY 24

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Philip Paul Trio.

7:30 p.m. Jazz. Free.

BLIND LEMON - Billy Otten.

8 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

BLUE NOTE HARRISON - Demun Jones. 7 p.m. Country Rap. $15.

BREWRIVER CREOLE KITCHEN - Ricky Nye. 7 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie.

Free.

H

SORG OPERA HOUSE - Coco Montoya. 8 p.m.

Blues. $30.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Kelsey Waldon. 8 p.m. Country/Americana. $12, $15 day of show.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) Sawyer Fredericks. 8 p.m.

Americana. $20-$30.

STANLEY’S PUB - The Qtet.

9 p.m. Funk/Jazz/Fusion.

Free.

H

TAFT THEATRE - Ben Folds with Savannah Conley. 8 p.m. Pop/Rock. $18.75-$75.

U.S. BANK ARENA Celine Dion. 7:30 p.m. Pop. $49.50-$199.50.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Grassroots Ramble. 8 p.m.

Bluegrass. $10 (food/drink minimum).

FRIDAY 25

BLIND LEMON - Donna Frost. 9 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

BLUE NOTE HARRISON Powerman 5000 and Hed Pe with Adema and Genitorturers. 7 p.m. Rock. $25.

BOGART’S - That Arena Rock Show. 8 p.m. Metal/ Hard Rock tribute.

Minnesota Folk Blues artist Charlie Parr plays Thursday, Oct. 17 at the Southgate House Revival

CAFFÈ VIVACE Bobby Broom Trio. 8 p.m. Jazz. Cover (shows at 8 and 10 p.m.)

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - Rusty Burge with The Phil DeGreg Trio. 9 p.m.

Jazz. Free.

LAWRENCEBURG EVENT CENTER - 98 Degrees. 8 p.m. Pop. $39-$150.

COMMON ROOTS - Open Mic. 8 p.m. Various. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Five Little Bears. 8:30 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

DELHI PUB - Rockne’s Open Mic. 9 p.m. Various.

Free.

THE COMET - Molly Drag.

10 p.m. Indie Rock. Free.

H

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Phil DeGreg Trio. 6 p.m. Jazz.

Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Mitch Greve. 9 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

MOTR PUB - Noah Smith’s Crooner Circus. 10 p.m.

Singer/Songwriter. Free.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Bon Air, AM Nice and Toebow. 9 p.m. Rock. Free.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Ricky Nye Inc. 9 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie. Free.

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - The Sly Band. 9:30 p.m. Pop/Rock/Dance/Various. Cover.

JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Danny Frazier. 9 p.m. Country. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Black Bone Cat. 10 p.m. Rock. Cover.

PHOTO: GRAHAM TOLBERT

LUDLOW GARAGE Rumours: A Fleetwood Mac Tribute. 8:30 p.m. Rock. $20-$35.

MANSION HILL TAVERN Chuck Brisbin and the Tuna Project. 9 p.m. Blues. Cover.

H

MOTR PUB - Brick + Mortar with Dentist and Build Us Fiction. 10 p.m. Alt/ Rock/Pop. Free.

H

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Big Gorgeous, Dracula Wolf and Black Signal. 9 p.m.

Electronic/Pop/Rock/Dance/ Various. Free.

PLAIN FOLK CAFE - Low Country Boil. 7:30 p.m.

Americana. Free.

H

THE REDMOOR - You Know You’re Right: A Tribute To Nirvana featuring 6 Hours to Kill, Bishop Battle, Sovereign Being, Mara Moon and Jacob Perez. 7 p.m. Various. $7.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT Emily Grace Jordan Trio.

8:30 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

H

THE SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL NHAILER Radio: INspired featuring Automagik, Physco, Carriers, Knotts, The Grove, Multimagic, Kid ESP, Wonky Tonk, Season Ten and more.

5 p.m. Alt/Rock/Pop/Various. $12.

H

STANLEY’S PUB WAIF Fundraiser with The Inturns, The Ram Ones, Twig & Leaf, Maritime Law

and Michael Holmes. 9 p.m.

Acoustic/Jam/Folk. $10.

H

TAFT THEATRE - Rhett Miller. 8 p.m. Roots Rock/Pop. $25, $28 day of show (in the Ballroom).

TOP CATS - In Real Life.

7:45 p.m. Pop/R&B. $25-$99.

H

URBAN ARTIFACT Weird Phishes plays Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’.

8 p.m. Alt/Rock/Jam. Cover.

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Warrick and Lowell.

8 p.m. Americana. Free.

O C T. 1 6 - 2 9 , 2 0 19 | C I T Y B E AT. C O M

WEDNESDAY 23

MOTR PUB - Spirit of the Beehive. 10 p.m. Indie Rock.

Free.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT Andrew Haug. 8 p.m. Jazz.

Cover.

BLIND LEMON - Zack & Corey. 9 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

61

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Kris Keith Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

SATURDAY 26

MUSIC EDITOR MIKE BREEN KNOWS MUSIC. BLUE NOTE HARRISON Seckond Chaynce. 7 p.m.

Rap. $20.

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - Ron Jones with The Steve Schmidt Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

BE LIKE BREEN.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Craig Bailey Quintet. 8:30 p.m.

Jazz. Cover.

H

THE COMET - Rock & Roll Costume Ball with Abertooth Lincoln, Fycus, IN2ITIV3, Starlight Park, Spacer and Fast Eddy. 9 p.m. Rock/Various. Free.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Gary Gorrell/Jim Connerley Quartet. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Black Bone Cat. 10 p.m. Rock. Cover.

H

LUDLOW GARAGE Music of Cream. 8:30 p.m. Cream tribute. $20-$45

READ CITYBEAT.COM/MUSIC EVERYDAY.

THE MAD FROG - Rest in Pierce, HUMORME, XAV, Organtica and $quwa. 9 p.m.

Bass. $10.

H

MADISON LIVE - Dudley Taft (album release party) with Brent James. 9 p.m. Blues/Rock. $15, $17 day of show.

MANSION HILL TAVERN - Johnny Fink and the Intrusion. 9 p.m. Blues. Cover.

1404 MAIN ST (513) 345-7981

C I T Y B E AT. C O M |

O C T. 1 6 - 2 9 , 2 0 19

10 /20

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10 /2 5

10 /27

H

MOTR PUB - Quintron And Miss Pussycat with Cold Stereo And The Three Brained Robot. 10 p.m.

Rock/Various. Free.

SCHOOL OF ROCK MASON: A TRIBUTE TO THE WHO

1 1 / 2 BOOTS AND BOW TIES: 2019 HAPPY FEET BALL

H H

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - AmpFibians and Team Void. 9 p.m. Surf Rock. Free.

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - The Harlequins, Psychotic Reaction, The Hussy and All Seeing Eyes.

9 p.m. Rock.

11/5

NIGHT CIRCUS: WITCHCRAFT

FRIGHTFILM PREMIERE SCREENING

11 / 2 6

LUCY DACUS WITH LIZA ANNE

CLOUD NOTHINGS

JAZZED ABOUT ART PRESENTED BY ART BEYOND

1 1 /1 BOUNDARIES FEATURING ART GORE & THE JAZZ 11 / 27 KNIGHTS AND CATERED BY OLLIE’S TROLLIE

BUY TICKETS AT MOTR OR WOODWARDTHEATER.COM

DAWG YAWP

PLAIN FOLK CAFE - Kade Puckett. 7:30 p.m. Acoustic.

Free.

RICK’S TAVERN - Naked Karate Girls. 10 p.m. Pop/ Rock. Cover.

RIVERFRONT LIVE - Chris Webby with Futuristic, Jarren Benton, Locksmith

and Ekoh. 7 p.m. Hip Hop. $20-$200.

for Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign).

SCHWARTZ’S POINT Andrew Lin Trio. 8:30 p.m.

Jazz. Cover.

H

SORG OPERA HOUSE Cincinnati Transit Authority.

8 p.m. Chicago tribute. $20.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - The Tillers, The Handshake Deals and Chelsea Ford & The Trouble.

8 p.m. Folk/Americana/Bluegrass/Various. $10, $15 day of show.

STANLEY’S PUB - Electric Son and Moselle. 10 p.m.

Funk/Jam. Cover.

TAFT THEATRE - Trisha Yearwood with Kim Richey.

7:30 p.m. Country. $50-$128.

URBAN ARTIFACT - That 1 Guy. 8 p.m. Experimental/ Funk/Pop/Rock/Jazz/Various. $10, $15 day of show.

URBAN ARTIFACT - Beat Faction with Mindcandy and DJ Troll. 10 p.m. Alt/Dance/ DJ. Free.

U.S. BANK ARENA - Casting Crowns with Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes and Jamie Kimmett. 7 p.m. Christian Rock/Pop. $24-$79.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Myers, Sharfe, DeGreg & Taylor. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Boundaries, Heavens Die, Roseblood, Enforced and more. 6 p.m.

Metal. $12.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT Riely Comisar with Evan Uveges. 6 p.m. Jazz.

H

TOP CATS - Mystery Skulls with Phangs, SnowBlood and Moonbeau.

7:30 p.m. AltPop. $15-$35.

WESTSIDE VENUE - Blues Jam with Jimmy D. Rodgers and Lil Al Thomas. 7 p.m.

Blues. Free.

MONDAY 28

BLIND LEMON - Ben Armstrong. 8 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

H

BOGART’S - Loud Luxury with Dzeko and VAANCE. 8 p.m. EDM.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Nick Fryer Trio. 6 p.m. Jazz. Free.

H

MOTR PUB - Fickle Hellcat and Whiskey Shambles. 9 p.m. Rock/ Blues/Various. Free.

TUESDAY 29

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Ricky Nye. 7 p.m.

Blues/Boogie Woogie. Free.

BLIND LEMON - Nick Tuttle.

8:30 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

SUNDAY 27

H

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Jazz Brunch with Mike Darrah.

10:30 a.m. Jazz. Free.

BREWRIVER CREOLE KITCHEN - The Twirlers. 7 p.m. R&B/Classic Pop/Standards. Free.

LATITUDES BAR & BISTRO - BlueBirds. 8 p.m.

Rock/R&B. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Pam Mallory & Wayne Yeager. 7:30 p.m. Jazz

MOTR PUB - Harlot, Creamboy and Fast Eddy. 8 p.m.

Roots. Free.

THE COMET - Fruit LoOops.

10 p.m. Experimental/Electronic/Rock/Various. Free.

BLIND LEMON - Jeff Henry.

8 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

H

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Weekend for Bernie with Counterfeit Money Machine, Patterns of Chaos, Krystal Peterson, Gio Getem and K. Jehuti. 8 p.m. R&B/ Hip Hop. $5 (donation

BOGART’S - New Years Day and The Black Moods. 7 p.m. Rock. $11.50.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Emily Jordan Trio. 6 p.m. Jazz. Free.

STANLEY’S PUB - Trashgrass Troubadours with Sweet Lillies. 9 p.m. Bluegrass. Cover.

SEE CITYBEAT.COM FOR FULL MUSIC LISTINGS AND ALL CLUB LOCATIONS.

PUZZLE Note: In a letter bank, solvers use all of the given letters as many times as needed to make a longer word or phrase. For example, the letters of TOUCAN serve as a letter bank for ACCOUNTANT.

Letter Banking

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55. INTRODUCE 60. “I’m buying this round, the same?�

62. “Darn right that happened�

63. Like high stakes

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1. The universe and everything

64. Placed side by side

poker

27. One singing to the cops

46. Didn’t dance around the truth

28. Fielding who co-hosts “The Great British Baking Show�

47. Storybook girl who lives in New York’s Plaza Hotel

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52. Impressive feat

36. Singer ___ Del Ray

56. Rider’s rope

37. “Don’t tell me that!�

57. Deco illustrator born Romain de Tirtoff

4. Law firm job

38. Like shorter golf sessions

58. Pakistani’s language

5. Pretentious and then some

39. Abiliene-toAustin dir.

59. Amphibian in a witch’s cauldron

6. Bathroom partition

40. Some holy men

61. Some people wait for it

2. With the leadoff man retired 3. Real bully

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32. Prop used in the first electricity test

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66. Hesitate, verbally

35. Employed

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33. Congresswoman who was once a bartender, briefly

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22. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ayup,â&#x20AC;? in Amiens

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18. First nation to hold elections over the Internet

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