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The Baker’s Table rewrites the restaurant’s menu each week.

PHOTO: MICHAEL TITTEL

Jazzing Things Up

Rustic seasonal cuisine and live music enhances the charming ambiance during Sundays at e Baker’s Table in Newport.

REVIEW BY PAMA MITCHELL

If you live north of the Ohio River, the plentitude of chef-driven restaurants makes it easy to dine in Cincinnati and not venture far a eld. We have convenient access to meals from kitchens helmed by the likes of Jose Salazar, Jean-Robert de Cavel, Vanessa Miller and Josh Campbell, to name just a few favorites. What attracted me to dinner at e Baker’s Table in Newport was the chance to hear a jazz duo that plays a regular Sunday gig there. To my surprise and delight, the meal turned into one of my top dining experiences this year.

I had enjoyed dinner at e Baker’s Table a couple of times before COVID19 upended everything. e talent behind the establishment deserved wide attention from its opening day in late 2018, but it didn’t seem like an essential destination, given all the more accessible options closer to my Clifton home. Now, however, I think it may be one of the very best restaurants in the region, worthy of frequent visits.

Owners Dave Willocks and Wendy Braun have made a few crucial changes since the 2020 early-pandemic days and subsequent shrinkage of the restaurant world. ey switched from day and evening service to dinners only and moved from an a la carte menu to a xed-price menu. ey also opened a fast/casual place across the street, e Baker’s Table Bakery and Pizza. As we move – however cautiously – out of pandemic mode, Willocks says that these e orts have paid o , creating a more thriving, stable business. e result for diners is evident not only in the delicious food but also in seamless, attentive but unobtrusive service. e utility of having a separate bakery increasingly made sense after the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, Willocks says. After all, the importance of bread and other baked goods to the mission of the restaurant is clear from the name they chose. Willocks says that they have never bought a loaf of bread, pie crust or even crackers from another purveyor. When the restaurant closed and then reopened at reduced capacity in 2020, he realized that they needed more baking capacity. Although the bakery seats only 30, it’s also set up for easy carry-out, not only for bread and other baked goods but also for a selection of 12-inch pizzas now o ered

The Baker’s Table opened to rave reviews back in late 2018.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE BAKER’S TABLE

several nights a week.

As with most full-service restaurants, Saturday dinner is the busiest meal at e Baker’s Table. Sundays are special, though, with live music during dinner service and brunch at the bakery 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. I’d visited the bakery just for co ee and scones or cookies, not yet for brunch or pizza. But now I also can enthusiastically recommend Sunday dinner at the restaurant.

On top of his expertise as a chef, Willocks is an accomplished musician with a degree in jazz guitar. Almost as soon as e Baker’s Table added dinner service, in 2019, he brought in musical entertainment. One night, Phil DeGreg substituted for another act and told Willocks he would love to have a regular gig at e Baker’s Table. Now you can catch DeGreg and his partner, bass player Aaron Jacobs, most Sundays starting at 5:30 p.m.

Patrons can thank co-owner Braun for the congenial environment of both the restaurant’s dining room and the bakery and café. Her design skills are evident in myriad ways, such as how the bakery allows customers to watch the sta as they craft loaves, pizzas, scones and other pastries for the big ovens. e main dining room of e Baker’s Table couldn’t be more inviting, with wellspaced tables and spot-on décor.

As pleasant as it is to listen to the live music in the lovely ambiance of the restaurant, the experience gets even better thanks to the wonderful food coming out of the kitchen. Willocks started as a chef in California before moving to Newport and had the good fortune to work with Jose Salazar at both Mita’s and Salazar’s. He reveres Salazar as “a meticulous teacher” who helped him develop skills as a chef. In fall 2020 when most of the COVID restrictions had been lifted, Willocks and Braun hired a young chef de cuisine, Porter Lewis. Willocks describes Lewis as a gifted butcher, wonderfully creative with pasta, and as having the same approach to produce as he does: “We let what comes from the farm drive the menu.”

Willocks and Lewis “rewrite the menu every week,” Willocks says, so your choices will be di erent from those my date and I had a couple of weeks ago. You’ll select either two or three courses, prix xe ($48 or $66), from menu sections labeled Beginnings, Pasta, and Mains, with Desserts priced separately. e Beginnings tend to be variations on salads but can also

Pianist Phil DeGreg performs at The Baker’s Table.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE BAKER’S TABLE

Bassist Aaron Jacobs performs at The Baker’s Table.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE BAKER’S TABLE

include hot dishes; my braised spring greens was just that, spring on a plate, served warm. We skipped the pasta and went for Mains. I had ocean trout with Carolina Gold rice (always an enticing ingredient), and he enjoyed a dish based on lamb sausage and farro. Two weeks later, the trout was still on the menu but the lamb had been replaced by a duck preparation that sounded just as inviting.

A sign above the front door announces “Rustic Seasonal Cuisine.” Willocks elaborates on the term “rustic,” saying, “We draw our inspiration from old-world, handcrafted culinary traditions. We don’t use modern gastronomical techniques or technology — or even plastic wrap — and the plating presentation is intended to be simple and natural. e goal is to let the ingredients speak for themselves, instead of being complicated by a lot of fussy technique.”

I love the bit about not using plastic wrap. e musicians seem to appreciate the place as much as diners do. Bassist Jacobs says this is his favorite gig, and pianist DeGreg agrees, mentioning the great meal they get after they’ve played. “It’s a very friendly place,” DeGreg adds, “with no stodginess and a very low-key, relaxed atmosphere.” e Baker’s Table serves dinner ursday-Saturday. e bakery/café is open for co ee, pastries and lunch Wednesday-Sunday and reopens for pizza service 5-9 p.m. on those evenings.

The Baker’s Table is located at 1004 Monmouth St., Newport. Info: bakerstablenewport.com.

REVIEW

BY SEAN M. PETERS

Fried chicken, collard greens and macaroni and cheese are on the menu at Soul Secrets.

PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

Candice Holloway makes her ancestors proud.

When describing the soul food showcased at her newly opened Soul Secrets in Over-the-Rhine, Holloway talks about her grandmother, Alice, who was born in 1927 in Forsyth, Georgia.

“We trace back to 1864,” Holloway tells CityBeat. “I know that a lot of the recipes that my grandmother shared with me, she shared with her own grandmother. So, our recipes – that’s what we bring to the table. ey’re historic, they’re traditional, they are original, they’re from scratch, they are made with love.”

Even more speci cally, the recipes are delicious.

A look at the menu shows entrees that, in a lot of the South, would just be called good ol’ home cooking, like fried chicken, shrimp and grits, fried whiting and cat sh. On the side there’s macaroni and cheese, collard greens with turkey, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes and cornbread — the kinds of dishes prepared for the family and that you’d hope for when someone o ers to “ x you a plate.”

Soul food is deeply personal, but it serves the community.

“My grandmother would cook on a holiday and she would make pans of food for di erent people in the community or church members,” Holloway says. “So, starting to cater is really just duplicating some of the things that my grandmother did.”

Holloway launched Soul Secrets as a caterer in 2018 after she began to transition out of her business-consulting career to focus on food with her daughter. Utilizing non-pro t food business incubator Findlay Kitchen, Soul Secrets was able to reach a wide enough clientele to entice real-estate development group 3CDC to lease its newly opened storefront at 1434 Vine Street in OTR, the neighborhood’s main strip with a majority of its most lucrative

Candice Holloway uses her grandmother’s recipes in Soul Secrets’ cuisine.

PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

investments. e e ort required an immense amount of work for Holloway, but she credits her family for getting her through.

“I think that strength and determination comes from when I watched my grandmother, but she wasn’t fortunate enough to get to where I am today,” Holloway says. “She didn’t have the resources or the tools or even the education; my grandmother had a sixth grade education. I think that this is just something that I would like to leave for my own daughter and her daughter, to say that this is what we can carry on.”

Soul Secrets’ menu will expand once operations are a bit more established, but I’d be content eating the fried sh that was brought to the table every time I visit. My rst plate was fried whiting with macaroni and cheese and collards on the side. e sh was hand-breaded and seasoned with a savory blend of spices that highlighted the aky, avorful sh. With nothing more than a few dashes of the Frank’s RedHot that Soul Secrets provided, I gladly ate the generously sized entree.

If you’ve had genuine homemade macaroni and cheese with the nice charred bit of topping, then Soul Secrets’ version was one to compare with your favorites. e collards also are an essential component in soul food, and the ones here were a crowdpleaser. Not overly salty or acidic, the greens had enough bite for me to know they weren’t overcooked into mushy oblivion. Of course, the cornbread was handy once I’d eaten my greens, as the little puck-sized portion sopped up any remaining collard-braising stock.

Soul Secrets has a modest cocktail menu with bright, eye-catching drinks that are begging for Instagram clout while favoring sweeter tasting notes. e house cocktail is made with Hennessy, lemonade, strawberry slices and puree, garnished with a lemon wheel. For something truly beautiful but potent, the 427 is a rainbow in a glass, made with white coconut rum, vodka and a blend of fruit juices and colored liqueurs.

Eagle-eyed Soul Secrets visitors may notice that the logo features a little red bird. is has a very special meaning to Hollowway.

“Red birds are typically symbolic of ancestral spirits that are present with you,” Holloway explains. “It’s re ective of our roots, our heritage. I want people to know we’re a Black-owned business but we are not only a Black-owned business – I’m a woman as well. So I wanted to stand out and say, ‘Hey, we can do this.’ We want to make some changes in how we are doing business in the city, so I wanted to highlight the fact that we’re here.”

When I visited, the waitsta wore black T-shirts with a simple-yet-profound message: “My ancestors sent me.” at’s certainly the case for Holloway, who has made it a point to bring those ancestors along with her, making sure they never fade away.

Shrimp and grits is one of Soul Secrets’ menu offerings inspired by Holloway’s family recipes.

PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER