National Exemplar: 40 Years of Meals and Memories

By Kim Beach

In January of 1983, Ken Pendery and his dad were driving around Cincinnati looking for a home for his potential restaurant. They happened by the Mariemont Inn and noticed the Red Lion Tavern restaurant that was there at the time. Ken thought, “this would be a perfect location” and began to work on the concept of “The National Exemplar.”

At the time, Ken and his brother Paul had extensive experience in the restaurant business, most recently at Madeira’s Cork & Cleaver (now Ferrari’s Little Italy and Bakery). It is also where they met Lisa Hopkins, who has been with them from Day 1, and is currently the manager of the National Exemplar. Ken was a Divisional Manager for the Cork & Cleaver chain; Paul was a bartender, and Lisa was the bookkeeper for the Madeira location. They all left the Cork & Cleaver crew to embark on the new venture with the National Exemplar.

Before the doors opened, there was lots of work to do. Construction began, employee manuals had to be typed (Lisa remembers this well), and servers and cooks had to be hired. On April 13, 1983, the doors to the National Exemplar opened to Mariemont and its neighboring communities. The menu began with breakfast and lunch and then several weeks later they expanded into dinner. The restaurant was immediately successful and has become a family favorite for generations of Mariemonters.

The restaurant’s name, National Exemplar, comes from Village founder Mary Emery’s vision of town planning. She was committed to constructing a community that would shine as a “National Exemplar” according to the principles of town development. The Village, pronounced “Mary-mont”, not “Marie-mont,” was named for Mrs. Emery’s summer home in Rhode Island, which was named for a town in England, thus the English pronunciation.

The restaurant expanded in later years by taking over the space at the front of the Mariemont Inn. In 1999, when the Mariemont Florist moved out, Southerby’s Pub was opened. The pub offers dining as well as a cozy place to have a drink by one of the original 1920s fireplaces. cont'd on page 4