Cincinnati Magazine - February 2025 Edition

LAURIE PIKE

AMY KNUEVEN BROWNLEE

Second Careers

More Than Skin Deep

Mona Dermatology has expanded its Kenwood based dermatology practice to include an additional 13 treatment rooms and new service offerings.

17 YEARS IN THE MAKING

Mona Dermatology was founded in 2007 by local dermatologist Dr. Mona S. Foad. She had a vision to create a place where both medical and cosmetic dermatology could come together to treat patients’ skin holistically. Since then, her practice has grown to include eleven providers and a staff of over 40 women.

MOVIN’ ON UP

Originally called Cincinnati Dermatology Center, the practice initially operated out of six exam rooms with two providers. In 2013, the practice expanded into a new cosmetic suite called Skinology with a mission to treat the whole dermatology patient, addressing both medical and cosmetic needs. In 2018, Cincinnati Dermatology Center rebranded and changed its name to Mona Dermatology. Mona Dermatology took over the building in 2020 and has since completed two renovations. The first project, completed in the fall of 2021, created 18 patient rooms in the downstairs space along with an expansive lounge-style lobby area. Most recently, an additional 13 rooms were added in the second-floor renovation of the building at 7730 Montgomery Road.

When designing the first-floor space, Dr. Mona set out to help combat the fear that patients often have about going to the doctor by creating a beautiful, relaxing environment that they would look forward to visiting. Beyond aesthetics, innovative design and technology details woven throughout the space enhance the patient experience. As soon as a patient walks into the practice, they are greeted by friendly faces and can enjoy a beverage or a snack by the expansive green living wall. Music is piped throughout the practice as well as into patient rooms to create a relaxing environment. Each room has customizable

ambient lighting, HVAC controls, and a discreet cabinet for patients to hang their clothing during exams. Dr. Mona’s team truly thought of everything. This focus on patient experience is continued in the new upstairs space, with the addition of larger treatment rooms and more private checkouts. A modern staircase completes the vision, creating open communication between floors and offering patients an option other than taking the elevator.

TRUE TO THEIR ROOTS

From the time we opened our doors in 2007 with two providers and six examination rooms, Mona Dermatology has expanded and grown to offer patients the best in dermatology care, today allowing patients access to our 11 talented providers in over 30 state-of-the-art rooms. While Mona Dermatology has expanded and renovated our home on Montgomery Road several times over the past 17 years, our patient care has remained the same. We will always maintain the commitment to care for the whole dermatology patient, medically, surgically, and cosmetically, and all under the same roof. Patients being seen medically still can choose between using their in-network insurance or paying out of pocket at a self-pay discount.

Mona Dermatology is accepting new patients for cosmetic, medical, surgical dermatology, and Mohs surgery. Scheduling is available online at monadermatology.com or by calling (513) 9844800.

P. 26

CHOOSE YOUR OWN (CAREER) ADVENTURE

Tired of your 9–5? Meet seven Cincinnatians who changed their careers to pursue forgotten passions, utilize their talents, and find new purpose.

DRAMA QUEEN P. 42

BY LAURIE PIKE

CRASH COURSE IN HAND-CRAFTING INSTRUMENTS P. 46

Software developer Steve Seifried moonlights as a cymbalsmith, lathing and hammering raw bronze discs in his garage.

Inside the double leading role that D. Lynn Meyers plays in Cincinnati’s movie and theater scenes.

BY AMY KNUEVEN BROWNLEE

132 PARTICIPATING CHARITIES

2,844

14 / CONTRIBUTORS

14 / LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

FRONTLINES

17 / DISPATCH

The future of Kenwood

Towne Centre

18 / SPEAK EASY

Reggie Harris’s move into national politics

18 / POP LIFE

Beethoven and Beyoncé

19 / REAL ESTATE

A Barbie-pink dream house in ColumbiaTusculum

20 / STYLE COUNSEL

Jonas DeLeon’s eclectic presentation

21 / ESCAPE

A relaxing family trip to Florida

22 / DR. KNOW

Your QC questions answered

COLUMNS

24 / LIVING IN CIN

Famed, but forbidden

film: The controversy behind The Birth of a Nation BY JAY GILBERT

80 / OBSCURA

Yottaquest’s 45-foot silver dragon BY CLAIRE LEFTON

DINE

66 / OFF THE MENU

Reimagining business in Madisonville

69 / BAR BITES

The Davidson’s happy hour bar menu

70 / LUNCHBOX

6 ’N the Mornin’, East Walnut Hills

70 / TABLESIDE

Private chef Leland

Cummings

71 / HIGH SPIRITS

The Park Pour, Blue Ash

74 / DINING GUIDE

Greater Cincinnati restaurants: A selective list

Extra servings of our outstanding dining coverage.

Decoding our civic DNA, from history to politics to personalities.

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

Your guide to Oscar faves as they open here.

FOOD NEWS

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(Deep Plane Face, Midface, and Deep Neck Lift)

LuxeEyesSM (Lower eyelid lift with Fat Transfer)

VolumeliftSM (Fat transfer)

Blepharoplasty (Eyelid lift)

Brow lift

Health Watch: Heart Health

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death for women. Learn how heart disease differs in women, and how you can take charge of your heart health.

COMING IN MARCH

Women Who Move Cincinnati

Cincinnati Magazine puts the spotlight on influential women who are making their mark in business, finance, healthcare, and philanthropy.

As one of the nation’s leading mental health centers, we understand your journey is deeply personal. Bringing together unparalleled expertise, and a people-first approach, we provide life-changing care and support, infusing every interaction with the underlying belief that lasting well-being is possible. We see beyond diagnoses — we see you.

LINDNER CENTER OF HOPE lindnercenterofhope.org 513-536-4673

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Fox DESIGN DIRECTOR Brittany Dexter

DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS

Amanda Boyd Walters

SENIOR EDITOR

Aiesha D. Little

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Emma Balcom

DIGITAL EDITOR

Claire Lefton

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

Brianna Connock

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jim DeBrosse, Jay Gilbert, Lisa Murtha, Laurie Pike, John Stowell, Linda Vaccariello, Jenny Wohlfarth, J. Kevin Wolfe

EDITORIAL INTERN Mary Klein

DIGITAL INTERNS Tyler Easterday, Madelyn Stewart

SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Emi Villavicencio

ART DIRECTOR Stef Hadiwidjaja

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTORS Carlie Burton, Jessica Dunham

ADVERTISING DESIGNERS Sophie Kallis, Matthew Spoleti

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Lance Adkins, Wes Battoclette, Aaron M. Conway, Andrew Doench, Devyn Glista, HATSUE, Chris von Holle, Jeremy Kramer, Ryan Kurtz, Lars Leetaru, Marlene Rounds, Jonny Ruzzo, Dola Sun, Catherine Viox

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PUBLISHED BY CINCINNATI MEDIA, LLC

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BUSINESS

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Journalism Awards

Photography by Jenny Walters

OOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH WORK IS ALL OVER THE PLACE THESE DAYS. IT WOULD be unrecognizable to the fresh-faced, shaggy-haired me who entered the fulltime workforce in the 1980s. Like all my peers, I embraced the established college degree/office job/get an apartment/buy a car pathway to adult independence and success.

Work is a bit different today, to say the least. You can work from your bedroom and never see the inside of an office. You can participate in meetings with dozens of people on your smartphone. You can stay busy as a gig worker and never have an actual “job.” It’s much easier—and more accepted, even celebrated—to be an entrepreneur and launch your own products, brand, or business. And it’s almost expected that you’ll try a second or third career before your professional life runs its course—either by choice or by force.

In this month’s issue we interview a handful of Cincinnatians who have taken huge left turns with second careers for “Choose Your Own (Career) Adventure” (page 26). There’s the mechanical engineer who launched his own chocolate candy line. The ex-Secret Service agent who owns a wine and coffee shop. The stay-at-home mom who became a firefighter. And then there’s Yvette Simpson, perched on our cover, who’s one of those people involved in about 20 overlapping careers.

Another work approach, of course, is holding multiple jobs simultaneously. This issue highlights two of those overachievers: D. Lynn Meyers, artistic leader and movie casting director (“Drama Queen,” page 42), and Steve Seifried, software developer and cymbalsmith (“Crash Course in Hand-Crafting Musical Instruments,” page 46). No 9-to-5 for them.

I’m one of the few people I know who’s still working in the career field I studied in college. Not that I haven’t changed jobs and journeyed down roads less traveled by, including a move to Cincinnati, but I’ve been a journalist for most of my work life. Which makes me a little jealous of the fascinating people featured in this issue. But there’s always time for a second career, right?

JOHN FOX EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

CONTRIBUTORS

AMY KNUEVEN BROWNLEE

English teacher (and former CM staffer) Amy Knueven Brownlee was fascinated when colleague Steve Seifried offhandedly revealed his passion project: handcrafting cymbals. “I immediately had a bunch of questions for him,” she says. In “Crash Course in Hand-Crafting Instruments” (page 46), Brownlee explores the what, how, and why of Seifried’s cymbal-making. “His living room looks like a music store sales floor. I knew what to expect, but I just laughed when I saw it.”

Rodney Wilson, a writer and content specialist at UC, used to drive through Madisonville on his way home from work. He noticed the rise in business activity, “but Liz talking about her family’s history in Madisonville helped me understand its rich history,” he says. In “Biz Buzz” (page 72), Wilson explores Liz Fields’s and Ryan Saadawi’s takeover of the growing neighborhood, selling good food with the support of their friends and family.

While Jeremy Kramer operates his own photography business these days, he once played in a touring screamo band. “That was so much fun, but when it came time to pick a new career, I went with another hobby I had been passionate about,” he says. In “Choose Your Own (Career) Adventure” (page 26), Kramer captures Cincinnatians who have made their own job transitions, portraying elements from both their former and current careers in a single shot.

RODNEY WILSON

JEREMY KRAMER

BAKERY

The BonBonerie

BLINK INSTALLATION

The Music Hall Experience

BREAKFAST SPOT

Sleepy Bee Café

CHILI PARLOR

Dixie Chili

COSPLAYER Elk Cosplay

DAY SPA

Woodhouse Spa

DIVE BAR

Uncle Leo’s

DORA DISTRICT The Banks

DOWNTOWN EVENT

BLINK

DRAG EVENT

Bloom’s Sunday Drag Brunch

LOCAL BREWERY

MadTree Brewing

LOCAL CHEF

Jeff Harris, Nolia

LOCAL

METEOROLOGIST

Randi Rico, WLWT

LOCAL RADIO DJ/TEAM

Q102’s Jeff & Jenn Morning Show

PLAYGROUND

Smale

Riverfront Park

RUNNING STORE

Tri-State Running Company

SHOPPING DISTRICT

Vine Street in OTR

SPECIALTY MARKET Jungle Jim’s

SPORTING GOODS STORE

Koch Sporting Goods TACOS

Taqueria Mercado Congratulations

IS KENWOOD TOWNE CENTRE OK?

While malls nationwide are trending downward, Kenwood Towne Centre remains a pillar of resilience. But is its success sustainable?

ELIZABETH MILLER WOOD

MALLS AREN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE. IN 1986, THE U.S. claimed roughly 25,000 malls. Today, there are approximately 1,150. Some sources project that within a decade as few as 150 will remain. Will Kenwood Towne Centre be one of the lucky ones? Local experts are cautiously optimistic. “Kenwood has continued to evolve and decidedly get better because of a couple of things,” says Carl Goertemoeller, executive director of the University of Cincinnati Real Estate Center.

First, Goertemoeller notes that Kenwood Towne Centre was an early adopter of higher-end food experiences, such as The Cheesecake Factory and Maggiano’s Little Italy, when other malls held tight to the grab-and-go food court model. It was an innovative gamble, but one that’s proven effective, as sit-down dining experiences serve as primary destinations and generate their own foot traffic. With those elevated dining locales, “People linger longer, and they combine a dinner trip with a shopping trip,” says Goertemoeller.

Second, Kenwood Towne Centre continues to attract and retain a diverse portfolio of approximately 160 tenants, from accessible brands like Hollister and American Eagle Out-

fitters to luxury brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, as well as novelty shops like Lolli & Pops and Squishable.“We truly have something for everyone,” says Senior General Manager David Jacoby. “Our goal is always to ensure there is a reason to visit the center.”

While Brookfield Properties, Kenwood Towne Centre’s owner, is tightlipped about occupancy statistics, Jacoby notes that Kenwood is “able to be selective about how we curate.” Brookfield is keenly aware of underperforming tenants. “If they feel [a tenant] is not performing and that tenant is coming up on a lease term, Brookfield’s going to be aggressive,” says Goertemoeller.

To create that perfect cocktail of tenants, Goertemoeller says there’s a significant “herd mentality” at play. Meaning, great tenants want to be surrounded by other great tenants. This is especially true for bespoke brands with limited brick-and-mortar footprints such as Apple and Nordstrom.

percent.“If a brand wants to open in Ohio, they want to be at Kenwood,” Jacoby says.

Curation is also driven by the consumers the center seeks to attract, who aren’t just from the surrounding affluent neighborhoods of Cincinnati’s east side. The center also pulls from Dayton, Indiana, and Kentucky. Kenwood Towne Centre seeks to give consumers a destination experience, and people are willing to travel for Kenwood’s high-end stores, which aren’t available elsewhere in the region.

Centre is more than 1.1 million square feet and serves nearly 8 million customers, according to Brookfield Properties.

Kenwood Towne Centre has also earned a reputation for embracing emerging and digitally native brands such as Alo and Warby Parker, a move that keeps the center’s ethos cool and relevant. “If you are an up-and-coming brand, you’re going to choose the center that produces the highest sales per square foot,” says Goertemoeller.

And that is something Kenwood Towne Centre can offer. In the last five years, the overall sales performance of the center’s retailers has increased by 25

Despite the center’s anomalous success, one thing is clear: To survive the next decade, Kenwood Towne Centre can’t rest on its laurels. “It’s essential to create opportunities in your business model to innovate, rather than just stick to what’s worked,” says Gary Painter, academic director of the Center for Real Estate of the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at UC. Fortunately, the center has displayed its willingness to innovate. Recently, it has welcomed recreation tenants like coworking space COhatch and Brkthrough, a new challenge-room complex set to open in the summer.

One avenue Kenwood hasn’t yet embraced, however, is the residential market. This, as well as the application of new technologies and AI capacities, are frontiers the property may need to consider going forward to keep comfortably afloat. “Adaptation is the norm, not the exception,” says Painter. “Real estate has always been about risk and reward, and it will continue to be.”

QUEEN B(EETHOVEN)

On February 11, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra performs 15 of Beyoncé’s biggest hits—from 2008’s “Single Ladies” to last year’s “Texas Hold ’Em”—mixed into Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. cincinnatisymphony.org

TO D.C.

Reginald (Reggie)

Harris spent almost three years on city council before accepting new roles in Washington—first as deputy assistant secretary of economic development with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in October 2024, then as Chief of Staff to Congressman Greg Landsman in January. Harris sits down to discuss his move from local to federal government and the importance of affordable housing.

Tell us about your work on Cincinnati City Council. What are some of the ways that role prepared you for a job in Washington? Relationships matter. Building honesty, trust, and respect is crucial to moving important projects through large organizations/agencies. I’ve always said the government isn’t an abstract, non-sentient being—it comprises people who are impacted by the very policies they work on. Centering relationships and accountability go a long way in being an impactful leader.

What makes you passionate about addressing housing needs in the U.S.? My passion for housing stems from my

grandmother and her ability to buy a house in 1973 on the south side of Chicago. My grandmother bought her home utilizing a now-defunct HUD program called Section 235, which allowed participants living on a fixed income to obtain a subsidized mortgage and money for home insurance. It was a gamechanger. Her purchasing the house changed the trajectory of my family and set us on a course for generational wealth building.

What’s next? After my time at HUD, I am stepping into the role of Chief of Staff for Congressman Greg Landsman. I am excited about this opportunity as it allows me to oversee congressional offices in Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Washington, D.C., manage a team of 16 full-time staff, and serve as the Congressman’s top advisor on legislation and policy. This role draws on my diverse experiences in the arts, social work, affordable housing, campaigns, and politics. I am also eager to continue learning about Capitol Hill, Congress, and how Washington, D.C., operates.

—SARAH McCOSHAM

READ A LONGER INTERVIEW WITH REGGIE AT CINCINNATIMAGAZINE. COM

SPEAK EASY FROM CINCY

Kenwood Towne

DREAM HOUSE

THE PRETTY PINK EXTERIOR AND MODERN AMENITIES IN THIS COLUMBIA-TUSCULUM HOME FEEL LIKE A STEP INTO BARBIELAND. —JEANA HARRIS

SSTEP ASIDE, BARBIE—THERE’S A NEW PINK DREAM HOUSE IN TOWN.

But rather than Malibu, you’ll find this three-story Victorian amid mature trees, atop a hill. Built in 1880, its neighbors are equally venerable, as the neighborhood (Columbia-Tusculum) is Cincinnati’s oldest.

The home has curb appeal in spades, with a petal pink exterior that resembles a tiered birthday cake. The multi-hued fish scale and shake siding on the second and third floors are as sweet as layers of delicately piped frosting, and the decorative spandrels and trim on the quaint front porch are the cherry on top of this charming Victorian.

437 Tusculum is a home that possesses the rare ability to satisfy both old house purists and contemporary aficionados, thanks to modern renovations that retain the home’s original character. Passing through the richly-detailed, stained-glass-paned front door, the home unfurls. Its nine-foot ceilings and abundance of natural light make it bright and welcoming.

An original pocket door opens to expand

the living room, and just a few steps beyond lies the remodeled kitchen, complete with quartz counters, stainless steel appliances, and marble backsplash. A window seat in the dining nook allows for additional seating, while the nearby coffee/wine bar offers easy top-offs.

Upstairs, three bedrooms are split between the second and third floors. The primary suite features a sunny walk-in closet that boasts floor-to-ceiling red oak. Both bathrooms on the second floor are remodeled, with luxurious touches like heated tile floors and steam showers. Uniquely, each floor has its own deck, which creates a wholly immersive outdoor experience that’s rare in a home only 10 minutes from downtown.

Columbia-Tusculum has witnessed plenty of history since its founding in 1788. Trends have come and gone, but its vibrant painted ladies remained. As if the beautiful homes weren’t enough, nearby Alms Park is a treasure in its own right. Add in the great shops and eateries, and you’ll be saying, “Malibu who?”

COUNSEL

Jonas DeLeon

OCCUPATION: Host at The Aperture STYLE: Eclectic, modern, “coastal tech worker.”

Are there any eras of fashion or general aesthetics you draw inspiration from? I first developed my style when military-wear and army greens were on trend, around 2016. I still think having a vintage style is my main goal. I’ve always liked the silhouette of the ’70s—the flare pants and stuff like that. I’ve also been enjoying ’90s and Y2K stuff that’s on the scene right now. What are your favorite items in your closet? I have an oversized bomber jacket that I got at an antique mall with colorful, silk animals on it, and also a mesh tank top that I crocheted. I think it looks really polished, and I was impressed with myself for making it. It took around six hours. How did you pick up crocheting? When I was 15, my cousin was into crocheting, so I asked my grandma to teach me. I put it down for a while because I was embarrassed about being a boy and crocheting, but picked it up again a few years ago. People think it takes patience, but I think it’s more drive and motivation. Patience is when you wait around for something, whereas with crocheting, you’re actively doing something for six hours. What role does fashion play in your day-to-day life? It’s interesting because the restaurant I work at is fine dining, whereas when I was a barista for eight years, I could really wear whatever I wanted. Being a host right now, I need to dress up every time I work, and need to think more about what I wear, but it makes me feel more ready for work. —MARY

KLEIN

FLORIDA FOR THE FAMILY

otherwise 12–15 hour drive to Florida with little kids. We drive an hour or so to our beach house, a Cape & Coast rental property.

The beach house itself is a multi-family vacation home perfect for an extended family reunion or a fun week away with your closest family friends and their kids. The “game room” is an instant hit, with arcade-style games, including Pac-Man. Each room is thoughtfully planned and beautifully decorated, though we spend most of the time in the deck pool, which boasts a gulf view and a built-in hot tub. The home was built for many people, and there are washers and dryers on each floor, multiple fridges, and enough seating for three or four entire families.

I also discovered Babyquip, a kids’ equipment rental service that meets you at the airport with car seats, Pack ’n Plays, and strollers, but picks up right from your porch on the other end of the trip.

THE COAST

kids find sand dollars, multicolored shells, and a large crab. Later, near the pool, they chase frogs and lizards, and at night, learn not to bother the sea turtles’ area on the dune.

THE CALENDAR

Aside from a few excellent restaurants, the only outing most days of the week is down the street to Caribbean Coffee & Café. The quaint coffee shop sells massive muffins and creative beverages, and provides outdoor seating and a boardwalk to other nearby shops.

While we don’t often go out to eat with five kids, KrazyFish Grille seems kidfriendly enough to give a shot, complete with massive picnic tables and a nearby patio area for the kids to run and play. This is our

moment to have a beachthemed beverage before heading back to the beach for an epic sunset. About a half-hour down the coast, The Italian Kitchen makes the best “old world” Italian, for takeout or delivery only. After the kids get a whiff of it, we arrive back to the condo with one less pizza.

& Coast Premier capeandcoast.com Caribbean Coffee & Café caribbean-coffee.com

KrazyFish Grille krazyfishgrille.com

The Italian Kitchen theitaliankitchenpsj.com Properties

When planning a “Florida” vacation, a specific image comes to mind—crowded beaches offering limited real estate, with music blaring to the left and someone smoking too close to your kids on the right. Not exactly a relaxing oasis for a family vacation. A series of cities on the Gulf side of Florida, otherwise known as the “Forgotten Coast,” offer an alternative. The quiet and sparsely populated communities, which include Alligator Point,

Apalachicola, Cape San Blas, Carrabelle, Eastpoint, Lanark Village, Mexico Beach, Panacea, Port St. Joe, Shell Point, St. George Island, and St. Marks, make for a perfect family vacation that includes all of the fun of a typical beach vacation but none of the fuss.

THE CONDO

Start vacation off stressfree with a quick 1.5 hour flight to Panama City, followed by an hour drive to Mexico Beach, avoiding that

When they say “Forgotten Coast,” they aren’t kidding. Not only is the closest store nearly 30 minutes away, but not a single other person passes by the beach outside our condo until the third day of our trip. There is so little to do by way of day excursions that we’re able to actually take in what we came for: the beautiful white sand beach (“angel poop,” the locals teach my kids to call it).

Just minutes into our first family beach trip, my

BEFORE

IF YOU’RE COMING THROUGH THE PANAMA CITY AIRPORT ON YOUR TRIP TO THE FORGOTTEN Coast, be sure to make time in your schedule for a pit stop at Pier Park in Panama City Beach. Families can easily spend the entire day at the park, which includes venues for food, shopping, and even a honky-tonk bar for some twangy country music. Kids will be entertained for hours with all its activities. Take a trip up the Skywheel—a 187-foot tall Ferris wheel with mile-long views of Panama City Beach—then pencil in a game of 18-hole mini golf back on ground level, or check out a movie at the Grand IMAX theater. If you want to get some energy out of your kids before a flight, strap on a vest and get ready to run at the Emerald Coast Mirror Maze and Laser Tag, which features an 1,800-square-foot arena. visitpanamacitybeach.com/pier-park THE TRANQUIL “FORGOTTEN COAST” OF FLORIDA IS THE PERFECT SPOT FOR FAMILY BEACH VACATIONS.

Don’t succumb to the Disney World crowds—make a stop at Pier Park instead. —A.F.

Coast Premier Properties’s condo pool.

Deep fried ravioli with marinara, The Italian Kitchen. 3: The coast of St. George Island, Florida.

I’m sad about what’s happened to Frisch’s. I read that one of their first restaurants was on “Main Avenue in Norwood.” I tried finding that street, but I can’t. I know there’s a Main Avenue Creamery from UDF, another Norwood icon. But where is that, and where was Frisch’s? —BUDDY OF BIG BOY

DEAR BUDDY:

Let us solve this problem methodically. We assume you looked at a map of Norwood and noticed that only two major roads run through it. One is popularly known as The Lateral, which did not exist when the Frisch family opened their restaurant in the 1930s, so it can be

Dr. Know is Jay Gilbert, radio personality and advertising prankster. Submit your questions about the city’s peculiarities at drknow@cincinnati magazine.com

discounted. That leaves only one road— a very long, diagonal avenue. You might even call it Norwood’s “main” avenue. Montgomery Road, which extends for miles past both ends, was called Main Avenue inside Norwood, and even that seems unofficial (maps from the 1930s call it Montgomery Avenue). By the 1950s, when just about everyone was calling it Montgomery Road anyway, the change seems to have become official.

Frisch’s Café was at 4736 Main (now Montgomery), roughly where a La Rosa’s now sits (poke in the eye!). “Main Avenue Creamery” is a UDF brand of ice cream honoring its original store on the same street/road/avenue. UDF has never made tartar sauce.

Some residential neighborhoods in Cincinnati have signs warning about “Children at play.” I support that, but why do the signs show kids wearing clothes from the 1920s? The boys are wearing knickers! I bet today’s kids never even heard of knickers! Can’t the city afford modern signs? —SIGN ME OUT

DEAR OUT:

The Doctor can only imagine how many adult readers are, at this very moment, googling the word “knickers.” These signs seem to be just a tradition that refuses to yield. But city of Cincinnati officials plead innocent—they don’t post any Children at Play warnings (especially the insulting ones saying Slow Children ). Traffic engineering studies show that not only do such signs have no effect, but their omnipresence in the absence of actual children can desensitize drivers. The city does post yellow warning signs in school zones (along with the required slower speeds), but the kids on those signs do not exhibit any head-scratching fashion statements.

The signs you saw are posted only in certain suburbs, which the Doctor confirmed when driving in Sycamore Township and St. Bernard. They aren’t so much

a favorite of street departments as they are of parents who demand them. The belief that the signs work can be filed with myths like “a frog in slowly heated water will stay there until it boils to death.” Sorry if you’re just now finding that one out.

You recently wrote about the Rookwood Pavilion mall. I remember there was a guy who refused to give in to its developers for years, and I recall a photo of his house all alone in a huge empty lot. I’m curious: What store is now where that house once stood so stubbornly, and does he ever go there? —EVERYTHING BUT THE HOUSE

DEAR EVERYTHING:

The battle to which you refer was not against Rookwood Pavilion, nor its neighbor Rookwood Commons, nor anyone nearby in the tangled residential maze of Rookwood Drive, Rookwood Court, or Rookwood Place. (The Doctor empathizes with your confusion.) It was the development known as Rookwood Exchange that fought all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court for its God-given right to build yet another sprawling shopping center next to two other sprawling shopping centers. Joseph Horney eventually won that court case, sadly relinquishing for $1,250,000 the property he’d bought in 1991 for $63,900.

The Doctor found that aerial photo of Horney’s lonely home languishing in a vast undeveloped lot and overlaid a current view of Rookwood Exchange. Aha! The vanished home is now an “Epic Home,” because Your Home for Epic Tacos! is the slogan for Agave & Rye, the restaurant that occupies the house’s former footprint. We were unable to locate Horney himself for his evaluation of how epic the tacos might be.

CREATED BY THE EMMY -WINNING WRITER FROM SCHITT’S CREEK

POP MUSIC’S #1 HITMAKER

APRIL 8 - 20, 2025

Our Worst Best Movie

CAN A FILM BE CONSIDERED “THE BEST MOVIE EVER MADE” AND ALSO BE ILLEGAL? IT’S ALREADY HAPPENED.

long years, claiming that the provocative scenes would spark race riots. Banning such a popular movie in 1916 is similar to—pretend this is technically possible—outlawing all Taylor Swift concerts, recordings, and videos in 2025. That’s exactly what people in Ohio faced as The Birth of a Nation took over the world.

Perhaps it’s occurred to you that people in Cincinnati had a secret advantage: the Ohio River. They could simply cross into Kentucky, where the movie never faced any serious opposition; its celebrated director, D.W. Griffith, was from Kentucky. Theaters in Covington and Newport obviously booked the movie right away so audiences from both sides of the river flocked to see it, right?

IMAGINE JOHN LENNON’S GRANDparents. Also imagine the grandparents of Paul, George, and Ringo, as we now get back to where we never belonged: Liverpool, England, in the year 1916. Get comfy, luv.

The Beatles’s grandparents have no idea that their descendants will someday dominate popular culture, but they don’t care—the biggest entertainment phenomenon is right down the road at Liverpool’s Olympia Theatre. It’s an American movie that’s become an international sensation, attracting record crowds everywhere.

Well, not quite everywhere. In Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, the most popular movie on Earth has been banned; theater owners face arrest if they dare show it. I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong: This film has absolutely no nudity or sexual themes. And yet no Cincinnati theater is allowed to book it. Why? What’s so dangerous?

If you haven’t guessed, the film is The Birth of a Nation , a three-hour epic tale of America’s Civil War and Reconstruction. More than a century after its release, people still argue whether everybody or nobody should see it. On one level, it’s universally praised as the greatest single advance in the history of filmmaking. Its

innovations in directing and editing laid the foundation for everything that followed.

On another level, though, The Birth of a Nation is the most racist and repulsive story ever beamed onto a screen. The Civil War and its aftermath are shown from the South’s perspective, depicting freed slaves as crude stereotypes and the Ku Klux Klan as gallant saviors. Black characters gobble watermelon. Klan lynchings are heroic. You can see the problem. Unless you’re in Cincinnati, where you can’t see anything.

THE ENTIRE STATE OF OHIO OUTLAWED the showing of The Birth of a Nation for two

Before getting into why that didn’t happen, let’s remember two things about movies in 1916. First, they were silent; a live piano or organ was the only soundtrack. Second, there was no such thing as a nationwide release. New films typically premiered in larger cities and then slowly made their way around the country.

But nothing was typical about The Birth of a Nation . It was the world’s first epic blockbuster, featuring an enormous cast in sweeping battle scenes. It was first to have a complete music score performed in every theater by a live orchestra, plus a sound effects crew for additional excitement. This thing wasn’t so much a movie as a concert tour.

After the film premiered in Los Angeles and New York, about a dozen separate troupes of musicians and technicians hit the road and traversed the country. One such troupe reached our tri-state area in September 1915 and spent about a year moving through Kentucky and Indiana, but not Ohio. From the river to the lake, The Birth of a Nation was invisible. Cincinnati’s only choices were more than 30 miles away in Maysville, Kentucky, and Greensburg, Indiana—a serious distance for most people back then.

So why didn’t theaters in Northern Kentucky jump at the opportunity to book such

popular movie? Because it was physically impossible. Cincinnati so dominated this region for entertainment in those days that Covington and Newport hadn’t built theaters big enough for an orchestra, crew, and a flood of customers.

The Birth of a Nation didn’t— couldn’t—get a proper showing around here until the Ohio ban was lifted in early 1917. And then the dam broke. A oneweek run at Cincinnati’s Grand Theatre turned into seven sold-out weeks. Until then, absolutely nobody inside Ohio saw the movie.

Well, maybe someone did. Circumstantial evidence suggests that on February 26, 1916—a full year before it was legal—the Cincinnati chapter of the Scottish Rite Masons smuggled The Birth of a Nation into Music Hall and showed it at the end of their week-long annual reunion.

Did that happen? Yes, according to a paragraph in The Cincinnati Enquirer. No, according to local records of the Masons. (I’ve been given private tours of Mason archives, and they keep everything.) Besides, obtaining a print of the film would have required knowing someone with connections. Maybe a fellow Mason with enough influence to adjust the traveling troupe’s itinerary. Like, say, D.W. Griffith.

BY 1917, ALL THE-CAT-AND MOUSE LEgal games were exhausted and The Birth of a Nation has been showing across Ohio without incident since then. Haha, you know I’m kidding, right? The state of Ohio banned the movie again when it was re-released for its 10th anniversary. But things were different by then: Covington had built The Strand, a theater big enough to handle the crew and the crowds. Northern Kentucky finally got the satisfaction of thumbing its nose at Cincinnati, drawing a large Ohio audience.

Today, The Birth of a Nation is in the public domain and viewable on YouTube. I won’t ask you to watch all three hours, but the final three minutes will give you a good sense of things: It’s Election Day, and the good guys (the KKK) are lined up on horseback, preventing the bad guys (some

Black men who are obviously white actors in blackface) from voting. That “happy ending” is followed by a second one: The white South, restored to its rightful place of dominance, is gazed upon by a fadein of Jesus, waving his blessing over this peaceful new world. Fade to black.

The Birth of a Nation returned to The Beatles’s h ometown of Liverpool in 1966, just in time for the Ku Klux Klan to take aim at The Beatles themselves. John Lennon had recently (and stupidly) said, “We’re more popular than Jesus,” setting off a firestorm of anger that was especially strong in America’s Bible Belt. The Klan held a rally with a giant burning cross, using Beatles records as kindling. It didn’t work: The Fab Four played a concert at Crosley Field 10 days later.

D.W. Griffith’s movie didn’t work, either, at least not in the way he’d hoped. The Birth of a Nation is still widely praised for its contribution to cinematic art, but Griffith also dreamed of his “true story” having a lasting impact. Short term, it sparked the KKK revival of the 1920s and ’30s. Long term, it’s now regarded as the worst kind of racist propaganda dressed in a silk suit. Locally, Northern Kentucky University moved a statue of native son Griffith to a less prominent place in 1999.

After The Birth of a Nation, the next big milestone in cinema was the sound revolution, launched in 1927 by The Jazz Singer. That movie’s most memorable scene is the star singing in blackface. The following year saw another medium’s new innovation: radio’s first syndicated sitcom, Amos ’n’ Andy, starring two white actors as dim-witted Black characters. Its theme song was the love theme from The Birth of a Nation.

The internet has more evidence of similar embarrassments from the era’s films, songs, and ads. Personally, I’m glad they’re easy to find. We should never forget how common and acceptable and relentless they were. I hope their visibility can help us keep celebrating their demise as we continue forward on our very long common road. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

The definitive guide to living well in Greater Cincinnati

HOTOGRAPHSBYJEREMY KRAMER

Choose Your Own Adventure (Career)

NO MATTER THEIR AGE OR BACKGROUND, CINCINNATIANS ARE MAKING CAREER CHANGES TO PURSUE FORGOTTEN PASSIONS, UTILIZE THEIR TALENTS, AND FIND NEW PURPOSE.

Engineering Better Chocolate

CONNOCK

Paul Picton loves airplanes. It runs in his blood. “My uncle and grandfather rebuilt airplanes, so I caught the aviation bug,” he says. “But, because I wore glasses, I couldn’t be a pilot.”

If he couldn’t fly planes, working on them was the next best thing. Picton went to school for mechanical engineering and entered the field as soon as he earned his diploma. He liked his role and found he was particularly good at presenting technical information to clients.

Soon, Picton was in the air on a weekly basis. Domestic flights turned to overseas flights, and he began traveling to Europe once a month. While away, Picton bought chocolates to bring back to his wife Marlene, who deserved a gift for staying home with their two sons. “Wherever I would go, I would hunt for the best chocolate in the city and bring it home. It became our thing for quite a few years,” Picton says.

With roles at large corporations such as GE, Delta, and Mercedes-Benz, Picton often dealt with office politics, bosses (some good, some bad), and the typical strains of the corporate world. “At some point, you begin to realize maybe this is not the only option,” he says. After 25 years of travels, at 49 years old, Picton left his career in aviation. He wasn’t sure what was next, but figured he would find another senior-level engineering role, or maybe even start his own aviation business—he comes from a line of entrepreneurs. While pondering his next steps, Picton came to a devastating

realization: He was running out of European chocolates. “I needed it,” he says.

When he discovered that no one in Cincinnati was making confections on par with the treats he’d brought home from Europe, Picton began toying with making his own at home. He shared his creations with friends and family, who told him that chocolate may be his “career 2.0.” Then came the epiphany. “It was a hard right turn, it seemed out of the blue,” Picton says. But, one year after leaving his job, Maverick Chocolate Co. was born, co-owned by Paul and Marlene.

The opportunity was a full-circle moment for the Pictons, who had little experience as chocolatiers when they made white chocolate roses for their wedding day. While he never foresaw owning a business like Maverick, Picton says that many of the skills he used as an engineer still apply to his work today. “I think of engineers as problem-solvers,” he says. “I had a problem that needed solving— needing more chocolate—so I went out to solve that problem.”

More than 10 years later, Maverick is a family affair for the Pictons—part of the reason he has no regrets about his career pivot. “If I had continued, I would have spent significantly less time with my family. I was traveling 20 days a month, and I didn’t get to see them at all,” Picton says. “Now my wife and our sons Ben and Scott work with me in the business, and we’re much closer as a family. That is a huge win.”

SURVEY SAYS

We surveyed Cincinnati Magazine readers who have made a career pivot to fin d out how, when, and why they made a change.

· FROM: MECHANICAL ENGINEER

· TO: CHOCOLATIER

Paul Picton

For the People

VANESSA MELENDEZ TAKES THE PERSON-FOCUSED PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS SHE USED AS A SOCIAL WORKER AND APPLIES THEM TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN PROJECTS FOR P&G—AND SHE’S NOT FINISHED YET. —SARAH McCOSHAM

At age 37, Vanessa Melendez found herself back in school, starting a five-year undergraduate program for industrial design. It wasn’t her first time in college—a self-described people-watcher drawn to human behavior, she secured her first degrees in psychology and sociology in the 1990s. “I wanted to help people,” she says. “I began my career working with at-risk youth in mental health units,” adding that her biggest passion was facilitating conflict resolution and creative selfexpression groups. As her skills developed, Melendez helped

youth integrate into new homes and family environments, leading her to a career in foster care, an opportunity she saw “to help kids find safety and security.” Melendez’s people-focused approach to foster care led her to pursue opportunities in social work at the state level, “but that proved not for me,” she says. “I had to take a moment and reflect on what made my heart happy. It took me back to my time in direct care leading the creative self-expression groups. I found that I could blend my love for art with my love of helping people.”

At the time of this “midcareer crisis,” the agency Melendez worked for didn’t have an art therapist, so they let her develop a curriculum for creative self-expression inspired by art therapy. “That’s where I learned that the journey of making art is almost more important than the final piece,” she says. “Art can be used to tell your story in a way that words cannot.”

The experience was an “aha” moment for Melendez. After researching local programs, she found herself studying industrial design at

the University of Cincinnati—a freshman again, “with a whole new plan.”

The program required six co-ops to graduate; Melendez completed five at P&G for design management and found her calling. Sixteen years later, she’s design director for P&G’s Transformative Technology Platform, which works on proprietary technologies for its family of brands. “I currently work on a product called EC30, a collection of dissolving cleaning products for body and home,” she says. “We are reimagining the world of liquids. No water. No plastic bottles. I love contributing to sustainability efforts and bringing exciting new forms to life.”

The connection between social work and brand design might seem tenuous, but Melendez counts many similarities between the two industries, including problemsolving and working with people. “Design is really about deep understanding of a consumer need,” she says. “In social work, I also needed to deeply understand challenges people were facing before we could propose solutions.”

And Melendez isn’t finished. “I’ve always been inspired by Sheryl Sandburg, who said her professional career was divided into three acts: nonprofit, corporate, and government,” she says. “I’ve done the first two and do feel that a third act is on my horizon. It definitely won’t be government, but something all my own that I have deep passion for.”

NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN

Whether picking up a new skill, furthering your education, or preparing to apply for new jobs, Greater Cincinnati has the resources for it all.

—EMMA BALCOM

CHPL ADULT EDUCATION & WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

The Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library offers free adult education courses in everything from résumé-writing and interview tips to botanical watercolor painting and basic computer skills. chpl.org/services/adult-education/workforcedevelopment

CPS ADULT EDUCATION SOLUTIONS

Cincinnati Public Schools helps adults achieve workplace skills through adult diploma programs, literacy courses, and other services with free day and evening classes, either online or in-person. cps-k12.org/our-community/adult-education

GREAT

OAKS ADULT WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT DIVISION

Adult education at Great Oaks Career Campus involves a diverse array of workforce development programs in everything from skilled trades (such as HVAC and welding) to public safety (police and fire academies), as well as short-term certification courses. Costs vary by program. adults. greatoaks.com

UC WORKING PROFESSIONALS & ADULT LEARNERS

At the University of Cincinnati’s Blue Ash campus, more than 50 degrees and certificates are available for working professionals and adult learners alike who hope to further their education, at about half the cost of a normal university. For adults ages 60 and above, some courses come free of charge. ucblueash.edu/academics/ success/adult-learners.html

NORTHERN KENTUCKY ADULT EDUCATION

Gateway College partnered with Team Kentucky Adult Education to provide workforce education and training to Kentuckians, including GED credentials and certifications, post-secondary education opportunities, and plans to success for unemployed residents and those seeking a better life, free of charge. nkyae.org

SURVEY SAYS

Flower Power

WHETHER IT’S EARLY-MORNING RADIO SHOWS OR DECADENT FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS, ROBIN WOOD JUST WANTS TO MAKE PEOPLE SMILE. —JACLYN YOUHANA GARVER

GET NETWORKED

Whether you’re in the market for a new career or are just looking to make professional connections, these groups can help.

—TYLER EASTERDAY

EXCELSIOR BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE

Every week, the Excelsior Institute of Business and Finance hosts this event, where participants can share ideas and forge partnerships, whether they’re just starting out in business ownership or have years of experience. Noon, Fridays, 8425 Beechmont Ave., Anderson Twp., excelsiorinstitute. org

Robin Wood

· FROM: RADIO DEEJAY

· TO: FLORIST

At her day job, Robin Wood creates beautiful things. Her ultimate goal is to make people happy, to help celebrate the wins or soften the losses. Her performance metrics might include things like “Number of smiles caused” and “Percent of petals sold”—if she wasn’t her own boss.

Wood and her daughter, Sadie Steller, co-own Robin Wood Flowers, but upon reflection, she says she considers herself more of the “hunter and gatherer in chief.”

“Every morning I leave the house before dawn to go to the flower wholesale markets to pick out flowers for the day. Then I come back to peruse the Dutch market to see what’s new there,” she says. “Since Sadie has joined the shop, she handles weddings and the business side. I get to pick out the beauty.”

Wood opened her floral business in Evanston in 2001. It was a stark difference from her previous role—a radio deejay since 1972. Her father and brother, both named Frank Wood, founded WEBN in 1967.

NKY ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP

This job search support group for professionals in career transition offers classes, lectures, and networking opportunities for adults on the hunt for new jobs. 9:15 a.m., Wednesdays, Kenton County Public Library, 401 Kenton Lands Rd., Erlanger, kentonlibrary. org/nkyag

JOB SEARCH FOCUS GROUP

A volunteer-run career outreach program, this group helps those who are either unemployed or in career transition by providing networking opportunities and guest lectures by working professionals. 9–11 a.m., Mondays, Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church, 1345 Grace Ave., Hyde Park, jsfg.com

Shortly after she graduated college, Wood joined the station working with the sales department in advertising traffic. A couple of years later, the morning deejay changed shifts, and Wood moved into that position. “It was unusual to have a female on the air at that time, so it sort of stood out from the pack,” she says.

Wood was on the air at WEBN for 19 years. When she left, she bounced around at a couple other stations for three years, then covered features for WKRC for three years. Eventually, she left media and opened Robin Wood Flowers.

A combination of factors led to the career change: For one, Wood became frustrated with radio’s changing format. “When I started, it was full of humor and mischief,” she says. “As it got more successful, it got more coordinated, and people from out of town were brought in to make it better.”

and deejays participated in more and more pranks to get attention. There were more events like the pregnant bikini contest. “It was primarily a male audience, and I was ready

necessarily changed. “I still get up early,” Wood says. “It’s in my brain. It’s my circadian rhythm now.”

Plus, she’s always loved gardening and flowers—she calls

And she gets to work on exciting projects. Memorable ones include Peter Frampton’s daughter’s wedding, as well as arrangements for musicians and actors when they come to

to move on,” Wood says.

Then shows got repetitive,

Once a month, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber (CUSA) hosts a free public mixer where working professionals can come together over a steaming cup of coffee. 8:15–9:30 a.m., Wednesdays, locations vary, cincinnatichamber.com

Besides, she adds, deejays can deejay for only so long; the hours start ridiculously early— something she admits hasn’t

it “magical,” watching flowers appear in the springtime—and she loves the constant learning. Floral design and trends change every 10 years, she says.

town, including Nicole Kidman, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift.

We had to know: What’d she put together for Beyoncé? Wood says, “A lot of orchids.”

SURVEY SAYS

PARTICIPATED IN A NETWORKING EVENT

HELLO CINCY SOCIAL HOUR

The CUSA Talent platform Hello Cincy launched its social hour this year, aimed at connecting remote and in-person workers, welcoming newbies to the city, and allowing participants to get better acquainted with the community. 5:30–7:30 p.m., Tuesdays, locations vary, cincinnati chamber.com

UC LINDNER COLLEGE OF BUSINESS REAL ESTATE CENTER ROUNDTABLE PROGRAM

Since 1984, this event has promoted connection, community, and growth for local real estate professionals by presenting monthly speakers discussing topics relevant to the industry. 7:30 a.m., Fridays, monthly October through May, locations vary, business.uc.edu

Robin Wood interviewing Johnny Bench for WEBN

CINCY BLENDS

Burns

· FROM: SECRET SERVICE MEMBER

· TO: SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

Michael

Terms of Service

ONCE HIS TIME IN THE MILITARY AND THE SECRET SERVICE WAS THROUGH, MICHAEL BURNS STARTED LIVING HIS AMERICAN DREAM AS A PERSONAL TRAINER AND CAFÉ OWNER. —AIESHA D.

LITTLE

As a member of the United States Secret Service’s Uniformed Division for two years, Michael Burns traveled with the president and vice president everywhere from New York to Hawaii. But over time, he experienced burnout and found he was beginning to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I didn’t want to become a statistic. I looked at people who were 15 years my senior, and you could tell the job was just wearing on them,” says Burns, who spent six years in the Marine Corps Reserve and worked for the Butler County Sheriff’s Office’s corrections division before joining the Secret Service. “It was a lot of travel and a lot of overtime. I asked myself internally if I could see myself doing this for the rest of my life, and the answer was no. ”

The Miami University graduate decided to leave the job, and three and a half years ago, he opened a 24-hour-a-day gym, Burns Barbell, in Monroe. He later purchased a vending machine business (Quick Attractions Vending), and last spring, he opened Café Vino & Espresso in West Chester Township with his partner, Lana Curlis.

Burns says opening Café Vino was his partner’s dream, and he’s more than happy to help her make it come true. “She is the real reason we are where we are,” he notes. “She brings life to the café, and I just love seeing people enjoying the things that we picked out.”

While he runs the back-of-house operations at Café Vino, he’s front and center at Burns Barbell, where he serves as a personal trainer. “That is my passion,” he says. “I love fitness, I love training people, and I love lifting. It’s so fun just being able to watch people grow into their highest potential. Fitness literally saved my life, so I really enjoy helping others.”

Although he does miss some parts of his old job (“I loved the traveling aspect”), Burns enjoys the freedom of being an entrepreneur. In the next five years, he plans to open two to three more businesses.

“I get to wake up every day and never know what the day is going to look like or who I am going to meet,” he says. “I just truly enjoy the grind of being an American small business owner. The aspirations are as high as you want them to be, and there is no ceiling.”

Burns says being a business owner reminds him of an unofficial motto from his time in the Marines—“Semper Gumby,” which means “always flexible.”

“There will always be adversities to face, challenges that arise, it just may not be life or death, rather sink or swim,” he adds. “I never would have imagined being where I am now, but I can honestly say to anyone, if you wouldn’t work where you are now for free, what are you doing? Follow. Your. Dreams. Figure out a plan and execute.”

Going Quackers

WHILE THE PANDEMIC FORCED JIMMY LONGBOTTOM OUT OF THE CRAFT BEER INDUSTRY AND INTO HIS OWN NONPROFIT ANIMAL RESCUE, HE WOULDN’T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY. —CLAIRE LEFTON

When he was in the craft beer business, Jimmy Longbottom never could have imagined he would establish one of the region’s only domestic waterfowl rescues. “I was the craft beer buyer for a chain of Mellow Mushrooms,” he says, “then I worked in local breweries up until COVID.”

A lifelong bird lover, he began raising some pet chickens and ducks that were donated to him, and shared their adventures often on social media. The posts grabbed the attention of people looking for rescues for their own ducks. “I just kept saying ‘yes’ to people

asking me to take the ducks. Before you know it, I had to come out and lease [the farmland] because I was running out of room.”

The pandemic was a turning point for Longbottom. Furloughed when bars and breweries closed, he decided to make the best of it. Longbottom cashed out his 401(k) and committed to rescuing ducks full-time.

As the world emerged from lockdown and businesses began opening their doors to customers once more, he would pick up bar shifts at different breweries—but that soon proved difficult. “I now have nine ducks that need oral medication every 12 hours, so that makes it impossible for me to be an employee,” he says.

To help with fund-raising, Longbottom registered the Longbottom Bird Rescue as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in hopes that the distinction would attract larger donors and bring in more resources through grants. While he isn’t paid for his work, Longbottom hopes that down the line, donations will allow him to become an official employee and eventually buy a permanent piece of land for the rescue.

His previous colleagues from the world of craft beer have been a

JACK OF ALL TRADES

Yvette Simpson wears many hats, both past and present: attorney, city councilmember, CEO, political commentator, consultant, Realtor, public speaker, and founder of her personal wine brand, among other things. She shares her tips for turning opportunity into reality.

HOW DID YOU SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS? I was always motivated to work and was cognizant of setting myself up for success and financial security— things that I didn’t have growing up. I started saving for retirement at 18 years old because I knew there was going to be a day when I wouldn’t want to worry about where my money was coming from.

YOU’VE MENTIONED BEING INVOLVED IN THINGS OUTSIDE OF WORK. WHERE SHOULD PEOPLE TO LOOK FOR THEIR “THIRD PLACE?” Service is a great third place. Legacy is one of the most important human motivators—how do I leave the world better than I found

it? Cincinnati happens to be great for that—there is a nonprofit for everything you could want. It’s also a good way to meet people.

HOW DO YOU PUSH THROUGH FEAR AND DOUBT WHEN STARTING A NEW VENTURE? Fear is false evidence, it’s not actually real. Separating the two different types of fear (real versus imaginary) is important. If you’ve prepared yourself as adequately as you can, then just do it. That pros and cons list is never going to be all pros.

WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR TURNING A HOBBY INTO A MONEY-MAKER? You must really love and be committed to it. I fell in love with wine when I studied in Italy during college, and I always thought it would be something I’d do in retirement. Then I realized, why do I have to wait for retirement? If you love something and there is a market for it, you can do it.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE WANTING TO START A NEW VENTURE? Do it. If you’ve been ruminating over it for a long time, do it.

–BRIANNA CONNOCK

great help in raising money and awareness for Longbottom Bird Rescue, allowing Longbottom to show the animals to the public. “We did a tour of breweries two years in a row,” he says. “We went to 50 breweries in the region, where I just traveled around with the ducks and did education programs inside of breweries.” He also gets the chance to bring the ducks to farmers’ markets, schools, and summer camps.

Since switching from connoisseur of beer to savior of birds, Longbottom’s income has shrunk to nearly nothing. Running a nonprofit with such energy-intensive work takes up most of his time these days—but the ducks are his life, and he’d have it no other way. “I don’t make any money. Sometimes I just eat bologna sandwiches every day. But I’m certainly a lot more content than I was doing something I wasn’t that great at or wasn’t passionate about,” he says.

SURVEY SAYS

MAKING THE CHANGE

At the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission (NKCAC), a federally granted employment training program, Director of Senior Employment Stephanie Stark offers adults 55 and up an opportunity to start fresh in their professional life. With experience in job coaching, interview assistance, and hands-on training, she offers advice on finding success with late-stage career changes.

DO MANY PEOPLE SEARCH FOR NEW EMPLOYMENT LATER IN LIFE? Yes. In 2023, we had 247 participants come through the program at NKCAC. I often hear “I’m older, no one wants to hire me.” But people need employees who want to work, so my biggest tip is not to use age against themselves.

WHAT BARRIERS EXIST FOR OLDER PEOPLE WHEN JOB-SEARCHING? Some

people could be facing homelessness, disability, or previous incarceration. But also, they may just have been a homemaker their whole life, have no job experience, and don’t know where to start.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR PEOPLE LOOKING FOR A CAREER CHANGE? Career centers are absolutely fabulous resources. They have senior employment participants who will sit down with you and ask questions such as, “Where are we going to look?” “What have you done in the past?” and “What’s your ideal job?” They are a huge, huge help.

HOW CAN PEOPLE LEARN TO LET GO OF STABILITY WHEN SWITCHING CAREERS? There are so many advantages to learning something new, and although sometimes we get set in our ways, it is important to not be afraid. Talking to other people about your career and having a support system is great to have something to lean on.

—MADELYN STEWART

Nicole Phillips

· FROM: STAY-AT-HOME MOM · TO: FIREFIGHTER

Just Say Yes

AGREEING TO A CHALLENGE LED NICOLE PHILLIPS TO THE CAREER SHE WAS ALWAYS MEANT FOR. —EMMA BALCOM

Nicole Phillips is a strong believer in the power of saying yes. That one word has led her through one of the most significant changes of her life.

Just three years ago, Phillips was a 38-year-old stay-at-home mom to her three elementary-age children. An ultramarathon runner and fitness enthusiast, she taught spin and strength classes for TriHealth’s wellness division part-time to get out of the house.

When TriHealth requested that she instruct a contract bootcamp for local firefighters, she was resistant at first—spending so much time together at the station, she expected to encounter a close-knit but closed-off group of men she wouldn’t fit in with. “Firefighters can be a difficult group to integrate into—they work together for 24 to 48 hours at a time,” she says. “When you spend that kind of time with somebody, they don’t really let people in too well.”

Reluctantly, she said yes. What she didn’t expect was to be welcomed with open arms, to understand and take part in their jokes, and to feel like part of their team. “I don’t know if I was just always meant for this and I found it really late or what, but I integrated with those crews really quickly.”

Halfway through the bootcamp, the fire chief asked if they could extend her contract through the end of the year. With confidence this time, she said yes. Soon after extending the contract, when the fire chief pulled her aside and asked if she would ever consider pursuing a full-time career in firefighting, in her head she enthusiastically agreed, yes! After a couple of weeks to consider, she was all in. “I was never meant to stay at home and be a full-time mom forever,” says Phillips. “It was great when my kids were little, but I knew that I always wanted more.”

With a glowing recommendation from the chief, Phillips joined the fire academy at Great Oaks’s Scarlet Oaks campus. The transition was rewarding, but difficult—aside from the grueling workload, her young children couldn’t quite understand what was going on. “My kids didn’t know anything besides myself being home with them, so when I went to Scarlet Oaks, it was class from 7 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m., not to mention study time at home. I would wake up at 4 in the morning to do it so I didn’t have to study while they were awake,” she says.

By March 2023, Phillips secured a job as a firefighter at the Anderson Township fire department. She is one of only two female firefighters at her station, a fact that’s inspired her to encourage girls and women of all ages to follow in her footsteps. “People still don’t expect to see a female on the crew,” she says.

Although she’s worked as a full-time firefighter for nearly two years now, Phillips still makes a point to say yes to her new life each and every day. “I have what it takes to wake up and say, ‘I’m not going to quit today,’ even if it’s a bad day,” she says. “You have to be fully committed, to keep saying yes a whole bunch of times, to remember what your goal is and why you started.”

There’s a Buzz

APPLYING THE SKILLS OF A SALESMAN BRANDON REYNOLDS RAISES AWARENESS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES.

—JACLYN YOUHANA GARVER

Brandon Reynolds was a normal kid, he stresses. “I would go outside and get a stick and hit weeds like I was a samurai, but I wouldn’t call myself a nature kid.” It’s a far cry from his current preoccupation with conservation—Reynolds is founder and CEO of B the Keeper and community engagement coordinator at the Civic Garden Center (CGC).

His path into the industry was not clear cut. Reynolds attended the University of Cincinnati’s business program, where he learned he had a knack for marketing and sales, and decided to concentrate in advertising. As the program required in-the-field co-ops, Reynolds spent his final semester working at Carriage House Farm in North Bend. It was there, learning about sustainability techniques, that he found a passion. He could use his advertising skills to tell stories around projects that help people.

Despite this epiphany, he took a more traditional route post-graduation. Reynolds joined Curiosity Advertising in December 2015 and helped work on campaigns for Cincinnati Bell, Penn Station, Mentos, and The Christ Hospital. After work, he’d get home and turn on CNN, where he saw stories

about the Amazon rainforest on fire.

He knew he needed to find a way back into conservation. “If I can sell you on the internet, on breath mints, food, and hospital procedures through billboards,

maybe there’s a way I can get people to think more mindfully on the environment,” he says.

Reynolds left Curiosity in April 2017 and called his old stomping ground: Carriage House Farm. “Can you teach

me beekeeping?” he asked, remembering watching the farm manager put on a suit and reach right inside the hives. Carriage House Farm took Reynolds on as an apprentice beekeeper. The next year, he took over farm op-

erations and found a job as an ecological landscaper, installing landscapes composed of native plants and features (native plants require less maintenance and are functional for local wildlife, thus conserving

natural resources).

Blending his experiences in beekeeping and ecological landscaping, Reynolds founded B the Keeper in November 2018. His goal: Get people excited about using landscapes to

Brandon Reynolds

∙ FROM: SALESMAN

∙ TO: CONSERVATIONIST

help local wildlife and reduce their carbon footprint. One of his clients is his alma mater, St. Xavier High School, which displays his billboards on its property.

Because Reynolds under-

stands the power of proper advertising, he knows how to tell a story that will resonate with people. Consider his 2019 partnership with Rhinegeist Brewery—a volunteer with the CGC at the time, he suggested that Rhinegeist brew a beer with CGC honey. A percent of sales could fund CGC conservation projects.

“We were their first ever project of that type,” he says. “We had an event, and the beer sold out in 45 minutes.” They got another keg, and that one sold out in a half hour. “I met you where you are. You’re a fun Cincinnati person who likes to drink beer. I didn’t force anything on you. I developed a convenient pathway to learn about conservation.”

Reynolds now works fulltime at the CGC, and his mission at B the Keeper has shifted to “much more than landscaping.” His partnership with St. X has expanded to include a pollinator habitat—the school has three hives on the ground, which Reynolds helps students manage through the Bomber Bees club.

And where he once managed 20 hives at Carriage House, he’s now down to one: his most successful hive, at his grandmother’s in Lincoln Heights.

D. LYNN MEYERS PHOTOGRAPHED ON JANUARY 2, 2025.

When a thirtysomething woman with long blonde hair entered a dive bar halfway between Columbus and Cleveland, the clientele, mostly male, took note. She handed the bartender $10, but not for a drink. She wanted permission to stand on the bar and ask a question.

D. Lynn Meyers stepped up, looked around the joint, and yelled, “Who’s done time?” The response was curiosity and confusion. Many of the customers had indeed seen the inside of a prison cell. After all, this was Mansfield, home of the Ohio State Reformatory. She then yelled, “Who’d like to be in a movie and make $100?”

“Bam! Bam!” says Meyers of her coup, with more than 100 men signing up to be extras in a film she was helping to cast. “They were perfect and real. All those guys in the prison scenes of the movie were excons and guards.”

The film was The Shawshank Redemption, which was nominated for seven Oscars in 1995, including Best Picture. Of the 50-plus movies Meyers has done location casting for, it remains her favorite. “Its message of not giving up and of finding a way through corruption to justice is something that touched my soul and has never left it,” she says.

The casting decisions made in Shaw-

shank inspired her, too. “Morgan Freeman’s role as Red was originally written for a hot-headed Irishman,” she says. “So I asked Frank Darabont, the director, ‘Why Morgan?’ He said, ‘If I was in prison for something I didn’t do, that’s who I’d want as a friend.’ It didn’t matter what race someone was. That decision has inspired every movie I’ve cast since. My casting has been ‘nontraditional’ since before that was a word.”

Meyers has put thousands of Cincinnatians of every stripe on the big screen. She’s the top location casting director in a city whose cinema business is booming. She and her associate Becca Schall booked real bikers for The Bikeriders , found a young biracial brother and sister for big roles in The Old Man and the Gun, and hired men who resembled the players in Miles Davis’s band and could also play instruments for Miles Ahead

Some of the folks in her vast casting database include Sheila Mayer, a west side

retiree who’s been an extra in six movies shot here. She gets a kick out of meeting celebrities like John Travolta and Mark Ruffalo and observing up close how the Hollywood sausage is made.

Another of Meyers’s favorites, Christine Dye, is more ambitious. She’s parlayed larger and larger roles in 10 locally-shot feature films into a bona fide international acting career. Meyers had a hand in getting her scenes opposite Robert Redford, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Patrick Wilson, Jessica Biel, and Bruce Willis. Dye traveled to Boston for work alongside Zendaya and Josh O’Connor in Challengers, and last year flew to Europe to work with Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield. “This would not have happened without Lynn,” says Dye. “I owe that woman so much.”

As film production crews, big-name actors, and successful directors flow into and out of this region, Meyers and the nonprofit Film Cincinnati organization remain constants. “Lynn is the heartbeat of the talent we have in Cincinnati,” says Film Cincinnati President and CEO Kristen Schlotman. “Her ability to source new, interesting, unique talent is incredible. And she does not stop until she finds what the director

needs.”

When Meyers isn’t casting movie productions, she immerses herself in the world she came up in: live theater. As producing artistic director of Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, she chooses the five plays that make up ETC’s fall-to-spring season and oversees all aspects of their production and ancillary programming, such as apprenticeships and education, with an annual budget of $3.5 million and staff of 26 full-timers and about 175 part-timers. “This might not make sense,” she says, “but I give 100 percent of myself to Ensemble.”

In a small, square conference room, Meyers is finessing the casting of Mastermind. The art heist film, set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the women’s liberation movement, stars Josh O’Connor and Alana Haim and is scheduled to premiere later this year.

In today’s digital world, casting calls often happen without hopefuls lining up in person. Meyers sits over a metallic-pink laptop to organize more than 35 speaking roles, 1,000 background actors (a.k.a. extras), and 80 “featured background” actors (non-speaking but often notable or even

DOUBLE TAKE There aren’t enough hours in a day for D. Lynn Meyers, producing artistic director of Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati (opposite page) and casting director for major movies filming here, including Carol (left, starring Cate Blanchett).

hair or afros, and also men with beards,” reads a post on the D. Lynn Meyers Casting page on Facebook. Extras in a movie’s crowd scene could be veteran actors or just randos off the street with the right look.

memorable roles.) As usual, she’s wearing black pants and comfortable black shoes, topped today with a red plaid shirt. Her strawberry blonde hair is long and loose.

A software program displays a quilt of faces. The squares link to video auditions that Meyers can shuffle, select, and share with Mastermind director Kelly Reichardt and other movie executives. Sides (small script portions) had been sent to some of the actors in advance to perform on phone cameras and e-mail to her.

For anyone else, keeping track of thousands of actors with constant new arrivals on the scene would be a full-time job. But it’s a side gig for Meyers. “In the time other people would do things like go to dinner or play pickleball, that’s my casting time,” she says. “I would rather work with Becca at 10 p.m., like, We need four more 30-year-old men! It’s my kind of shopping or putting together a 1,000-piece puzzle. It’s an emotional victory for me when I cast someone who’s hoping to get a break.”

No one is quite sure how she squeezes in time for her longtime boyfriend and two dogs or to care for her nonagenarian mother, with whom she lives. She rarely has the luxury of taking in entertainment herself; she’s never seen The Sopranos or Schitt’s Creek.

Meyers clicks on Alexis Nichole Neuenschwander’s audition. To look the part of a 1970s office worker, the actor wears a bob hairstyle, vintage blouse, and frosted lipstick. Her performance, which lasts under a minute, is understated and nuanced; she does as much with her eyes and facial expressions as she does with her voice. Meyers thinks she’s perfect. Everyone else agrees, and she gets the part.

Meyers will often submit more than 100 actors for a role as minuscule as one line, so she’s always on the hunt for new talent. Social media gets the word out. “We’re looking for lots of background actors for upcoming films in the area! Especially looking for some men with longer

When Meyers exits the casting session in the conference room at Ensemble Theatre, she finds herself in airy second-floor offi ces. Her large and light-filled corner office—decorated with hippo figurines, potted plants, and framed posters of past ETC plays—overlooks Vine Street between Central Parkway and 12th Street. This is home base for one of just three Cincinnati theaters aligned with Actors’ Equity, the union for actors and stage managers. (Playhouse in the Park and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company are the other two.)

“Ensemble provides offerings that are different, occasionally a little controversial, but not unacceptably so,” says Otto Budig Jr., a major arts donor in the city. “It’s a mainstay for theatergoers who want good theater and not just the folderol that sometimes occurs • CONTINUED ON PAGE 62

Software developer Steve Seifried moonlights as a cymbalsmith, lathing and hammering raw bronze discs in his garage.

-CRAFTING INSTRUMENTS

BY AMY KNUEVEN BROWNLEE

WALL OF SOUND

Seifried’s impromptu cymbal showroom— a small subset of his growing hand-made inventory—has expanded to fill his Mason living room.

STEVE SEIFRIED DOESN’T KNOW how many instruments he owns. The number surely runs into the hundreds, especially if you include the 60-odd cymbals crowding his living room.

In fact, cymbals are packed and stacked all over Seifried’s house in Mason. They’re suspended beneath the staircase and in front of the windows. Loosies are slotted into open cases on the floor and piled on shelves in the corners. They fill out the drum kit that occupies the space where you’d usually find a couch. Apparently, when you start making your own cymbals, they tend to multiply.

A classically trained musician, Seifried attended UC’s College-Conservatory of Music, finishing with a degree not in percussion (as you might think) but in jazz saxophone. Despite his cymbal fixation, his career has never been about one instrument. Instead, he’s fascinated with how they all work together.

Seifried runs freelance sound design for the Sycamore Community School District’s theater programs, and his day job is working in software development at the educational tech nonprofit Learn21. “I’ve always thought it was pretty funny that I spend the day managing huge data sets,” he says, “then go home and have this caveman moment with a piece of bronze and a hammer.”

CYMBALS HAVE A PR PROBLEM. “Reputationwise, a drum set is mostly drums,” says Seifried. “I used to work at a music store, and people would spend hours picking what kind of drums they wanted and asking the price, and then say So the cymbals come with, right? Nope. Hey, funny story, the cymbals are going to be more expensive than the drums.”

Cymbals are singular pieces of alloyed metal. Other instruments are endlessly customizable, made up of wood, plastic, and metal components and all the requisite hardware holding them together. But cymbals just are . If they sound bad, there isn’t much you can do about it. You can swap in a new drum head or restring a guitar, but you can’t replace any part of a cymbal. And you definitely can’t tune it.

Add to that the fact that most cymbals are mass-produced, and you’ve got an instrument that often sounds mediocre. “Though there is a wide range of sounds

that cymbals can achieve,” says Seifried, “only a very small portion of that is represented by the major brands.”

You can’t talk about cymbals without mentioning Zildjian. The company recently celebrated its 400-year pedigree, citing the moment in 1623 when the Sultan Murad IV of the Ottoman Empire granted the Avedis family the name “Zildjian,” or “cymbalsmith.” Fifteen generations later, the Turkish manufacturing behemoth (headquartered in the U.S. since 1929) virtually owns the global market. Even Canadian competitor Sabian is an offshoot of the original cymbal superpower; it was founded in 1981 by Robert Zildjian.

But with market saturation comes an almost predictable decline in quality. And the longer he played drums, the more frustrated Seifried became with what was available. “I’d go to a big-name music store and walk down the line and hit the cymbals and be like, Nope, nope,

nope,” he says. “And I got so sick of that. Why are there 50 of the same-sounding thing?”

One local cymbal-dealer understands Seifried’s search for that distinctive sound. Charlie Andrews, owner of Badges Drum Shop in Mason, carries Seifried’s new and relathed cymbals alongside hundreds of others he’s curated from independent cymbalsmiths, vintage dealers, local drummers, and major brands.

“There are a lot of people in town who have started to pick up on Steve’s work because he really knows what he’s doing,” says Andrews.

Seifried’s process of fine-tuning during production—listening and revising with each step—is what sets his product apart. “Each cymbal is a unique piece, especially when you’re talking about a one-man operation,” says Andrews. “You get buyers who are like, I’m never going to hear this exact sound again unless I get this, so that’s the appeal.”

HAMMER TIME

“The hammering makes dents but more importantly makes the shape, the curvature,” says Seifried. “The lathing is to make it the right thickness and to add what they call tonal grooves, which affect the sound. Those are the little ridges.”

SHAPE UP

“You have to make your tools in this profession,” Seifried says.

“You don’t just buy a cymballathing stick. I ground it to that shape; it’s a carbide-tipped bit.” Seifried made his own anvil and hammers, too.

SPIN DOCTOR

Cymbals are made using expensive raw materials like copper, tin, and even silver (in trace amounts). When Seifried lathes a raw bronze disc to create a cymbal, it throws off razor-sharp metal shavings—along with toxic bronze dust—that fill his makeshift garage workshop. It’s not a process to undertake lightly (or without eye protection).

SEIFRIED KNOWS THAT HE MAKES A HIGH-VALUE PRODUCT. He isn’t shy about telling you that his work will be better than what you can pick up at the average music store. It isn’t bluster, but the studied conclusion of a born musician.

While he wants to see success with his venture, Seifried has more wholesome aspirations than global cymbal domination. “I want to make neat cymbals for the drummers in town, many of whom I know,” he says. “I want them to want to play them. I might be able to sell this set for $700. But who’s going to buy it, a collector in Denver? I’d rather sell to the drummer in Cincinnati.”

So why does Seifried make cymbals? “Because I can’t not make them,” he says. It’s an impulse driven by a life spent making music, something that’s fundamentally intangible.

When you hit a cymbal, he says, you create a sound that rings beautifully, but only for a moment. But when you make a cymbal—when you hand-hammer a piece of metal into shape until it transforms into an instrument—you can grab that moment back and keep it always within arm’s reach.

“I’ve been feeling lightheaded lately. Could this be connected to my heart?”

- Alexis, Cincinnati, OH

“Yes, and you shouldn’t have to wait to have it checked.”

Dr. DP Suresh Heart & Vascular Institute

At St. Elizabeth we’re committed to providing you with the heart care you need from one of our nationally ranked cardiologists. Our team is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to listen, discuss your symptoms and make sure you get an appointment quickly. We understand you have questions, and at St. Elizabeth we personalize care with answers you need.

To schedule your expedited appointment, please call (859) 287-3045.

HEALTH WATCH 2025 HEART HEALTH

Women’s Heart Disease

Doctors have a better understanding of women’s risks and outcomes than ever before.

Heart disease kills women. According to the CDC, it’s the leading cause of death for women overall, surpassing all types of cancer combined. Women are at risk at any age, and both social and biological factors put AFAB (assigned female at birth) patients in greater danger than their male peers.

“Cardiovascular disease has traditionally been viewed as a male problem,” says Victoria Zysek, D.O., a cardiologist with Mercy Heart Institute. “In fact, in the 1960s, the American Heart Association hosted a conference titled: How Can I Help My Husband Cope with Heart Disease?”

The assumption driving these views grew out of available research. While clinical trials and studies explored men’s heart health with a general treatment plan in mind, women were severely underrepresented at these key stages. Without anything to compare them to, men’s symptoms and outcomes became a universal standard. A study from the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in

2021 revealed the gendered research gap still hasn’t closed, especially for women from racial and ethnic minorities.

“There are still knowledge gaps in the field of women and heart disease,” Zysek says. “Doctors rely on research to inform our patients. That said, now more than ever there is emphasis on sex-based research rather than a onesize-fits-all approach. The real change started in the 1990s with a push for more equitable care. Since then, heart disease as a men’s disease has been debunked. There has been progress in understanding women’s unique risk factors in the past two decades.”

Everything from the type of heart disease to its symptoms varies between sexes, but broader research has revealed life stages and secondary conditions that elevate women’s risk.

“We see a lot of women develop cardiac disease later than men, and there are protective effects of estrogen that go away. Cholesterol changes. As those things change risk increases,” says Konstantin German, M.D., a cardiologist with TriHealth.

Menopause isn’t the only common biological concern women face.

Transforming Cardiac Care In The Greater Cincinnati Region

A streamlined approach to heart and vascular services provides better access to quality and innovation for St. Elizabeth patients.

The need for cardiac care is great: Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Heart Association. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports one in every five deaths are caused by heart disease.

The tools available to providers are impressive, with constant advancements in medications and medical devices. But sometimes in that mix, the needs of the patient can get lost.

The Florence Wormald Heart & Vascular Institute at St. Elizabeth is working to change that dynamic. A team of 70 providers—36 physicians and 40 Advanced Practice Providers—are focused on delivering comprehensive cardiac care to patients from Northern Kentucky, Southeastern Indiana, and beyond.

The St. Elizabeth program is under the leadership of Executive Medical Director Dr. DP Suresh and is certified by

The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association as a Comprehensive Cardiac Center.

Accessing care, faster

Often, patients who report heart concerns, like chest pain or shortness of breath, might have to navigate their way to multiple providers and specialists to get the treatment they need. At St. Elizabeth, there’s a direct line from Primary Care to heart and vascular specialists.

“Our approach is designed to reduce the burden on patients,” says Dr. Suresh. “If you need to see a cardiologist and then have bypass surgery, that care is managed for you. Our providers are constantly collaborating. That means we can make decisions faster to best meet the needs of our patients. And it’s what sets St. Elizabeth apart.”

Innovative research and surgical approaches

The team at St. Elizabeth integrates the latest technology to benefit patients. Surgeons utilize more efficient endoscope techniques for many procedures, meaning that they often don’t have to open a patient’s chest. This in turn can reduce recovery time.

St. Elizabeth is also contributing to research in the space, participating in a variety of drug and device trials. These trials include phase I through phase III studies, aiming to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and optimal dosing of new treatments for chronic diseases and rare conditions.

“Through our advanced surgical techniques and participation in the latest research, we can offer the best and most current care to our patients,” says Dr. Suresh. “Our providers are often the first in our region to perform an advanced procedure, meaning that our patients get advanced treatments close to home.”

Reducing the burden of disease

Efforts to improve cardiovascular health at St. Elizabeth are ambitious, Dr. Suresh notes. As a system, St. Elizabeth has set a goal of decreasing heart-related morbidity and mortality in the region by 25 percent by 2025. The burden of heart disease is greater in some communities than others, so to improve heart health throughout the region, St. Elizabeth must address inequities in treatment among African American and Latino populations. The team is currently evaluating data that will help physicians better support these communities, Dr. Suresh says.

Bringing the best to our region

In addition to his leadership role at the institute, Dr. Suresh is the President of the American Heart Association in the Midwest and co-chairman for their international committee on systems of care. This allows him to learn best practices from hospital systems around the U.S. and the globe. “My colleagues in China, India, Mexico, and Japan are all working to improve their systems of care,” he says. “I take that learning and share it back to our team at St. Elizabeth.”

Take Time for Your Heart

During February’s Heart Month, Dr. Suresh and his team make an extra effort to raise awareness of heart disease and its impact. One tool is “Take Time for Your Heart” a free, online program. Dr. Suresh and several members of the St. Elizabeth team share tips for living a longer, healthier life. Learn more at https://www.stelizabeth. com/care/take-time-for-your-heart/.

Coronary disease and adverse coronary events are the most common indirect causes of mortality during pregnancy according to a Global Cardiology Science and Practice report.

“Pregnancy-related complications are some of the unique risk factors women have because heart disease is a leading cause of death in new moms as well,” says Shree Lata Radhakrishnan, M.D., with The Christ Hospital Women’s Heart Center.

Complications like gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and strain on existing cardiovascular problems are all potentially life-threatening. They also increase a woman’s chance of developing heart disease later in life.

different symptoms. Even the pathophysiology of heart attacks in women differs.”

Everyone thinks they know what a heart attack looks like, but most people only recognize a particular scene. In reality, heart attacks often appear in disguise.

“When we talk about coronary disease—clutching chest pain while you’re shoveling snow—that’s present in some people, but for a lot of folks the symptoms may be different,” German says. “Folks have a lot of uneasiness and think it’s indigestion, but they find when they take medicine it doesn’t go away. Trouble sleeping or waking up

easily confused, and it’s not unusual to see patients go through rigorous testing with family physicians that come up inconclusive,” Zysek says. “I see women being treated once or twice for a pulmonary infection and then finding out this is heart failure. If the first treatment go-round isn’t successful, thinking of the cardiovascular system as a potential cause is reasonable.”

Besides dealing with warning signs considered atypical by many doctors, women face further obstacles when they seek care. A report by the American Heart Association found that many doctors were either unaware of female patients’ key risk factors or were inattentive to them. Female patients were

The drive to improve women ’ s heart health continues gaining momentum.

Cancer, already a terrifying diagnosis, increases the likelihood of developing heart disease too, as can treatments like chemo and radiation, according to the European Journal of Cancer Supplements. This is particularly concerning for breast cancer patients, as the disease disproportionately affects women.

Even well-established heart health considerations impact women differently.

“The traditional risk factors remain—smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes,” Zysek says. “However, diabetes and high triglycerides confer a greater risk for women than for men with coronary disease. Women’s health has traditionally taken on a bikini approach, focusing on the breasts and reproductive health. Women are different biologically and may present with

short of breath could be signs of coronary dysfunction. A lot of fatigue can be hidden coronary disease.”

“Even when the signs are subtle, the outcomes may be deadly,” Radhakrishnan says. “Some symptoms can be so non-specific that you just ignore them. Look for uncomfortable pain, squeezing, or pressure in the chest. You may also have discomfort or pain in your arms, in the back, in your neck, or in your jaw. You can have shortness of breath, sweating, and nausea. If you don’t feel right, have a high index of suspicion. Go seek help.”

The American Heart Association has a long list of issues women suffering a heart attack may experience. They include problems as common as cold sweats, lightheadedness, and anxiety.

“All of those symptoms can be

also more likely to feel as if their concerns were dismissed or played down by healthcare providers according to another study.

“Women have worse cardiac outcomes than men for the same diagnosis,” Radhakrishnan says. “We underestimate the risk in women. Doctors tend to be less aggressive in treatment, and the presentation can be different. So, those all play a role.”

Despite all the barriers, there is hope. Increased awareness, improved research standards, and insights from specialized care are beginning to yield fruit. Reexamining heart disease beyond the narrow scope of the 1960s has revealed opportunities for new technology, techniques, and therapies to combat multiple forms and stages of heart disease.

“Here at the Women’s Heart Center, we have specialized programs that are targeted to take care of women across their lifespan,” Radhakrishnan says. “Some of those are preventative, like our heart health clinic. And then we have cardio obstetrics and post-partum programs. One of our newest programs is the CMD program, or Coronary Microvascular Disease program. This takes care of a growing proportion of women we recognize who have heart attacks without obstructions in their coronary arteries.”

Advances in treatment for CMD are major steps in closing the heart disease care gap. German says women are much more susceptible to microvascular dysfunction, "which is a type of disease you can’t diagnose on a plain angiogram. It’s a really important thing

to get diagnosed.”

A cardio angiogram is the go-to diagnostic tool for stereotypical heart attack symptoms like chest pain. While it’s a fantastic way to detect blocked arteries quickly and save lives, it cannot detect the smaller blockages more common in female patients. Many times, when women go to the emergency room with symptoms of a heart attack, they are misdiagnosed based primarily on angiogram results.

“The misconception is that chest pain without blocked arteries is a non-coronary condition, and that is not true,” Radhakrishnan says. “There are many conditions that can cause chest pain from the heart without an obstruction in your coronary arteries. We have a specialized test called coronary reactivity testing to diagnose

small vessel dysfunction, or microvascular dysfunction, as a cause for chest pain. That has been very exciting and life-changing for a lot of women.”

Change may have started slowly, but the drive to improve women’s heart health continues gaining momentum as better data and fresh perspectives roll in. Many of these involve imaging and ease of access.

“Another issue we come across a lot is atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter, which is an irregular heart rhythm that increases your risk of stroke,” German says. “Just being female gives you a higher risk of stroke, so it’s important to address. Technology like PET and MRI can help us get a diagnosis without an invasive procedure using catheters. A lot of our technology is getting better.”

Even COVID has played a role. During lockdown, doctors became far more comfortable with virtual healthcare tools, and although patients can visit in person again, those tools still have potential. This is especially true for long-term care for chronic conditions or monitoring of patients with a high risk of developing heart disease.

“Scientific advances and novel ther-

apies are on the horizon with the use of artificial intelligence and digital health technology,” Zysek says. “We’re a busy society, and it may not be advantageous for us to tell a patient to stop smoking and come back in six months. Virtual alternatives let us stay in touch with the patient and encourage healthy behaviors.”

Eighty percent of heart disease is preventable according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Tools like the American Heart Association’s “Life’s Essential 8” can help guide anyone toward a better future with significantly less risk. In general, doctors recommend eating more vegetables, exercising, and getting quality sleep.

“Go get an annual physical exam,” Radhakrishnan says. “Ask your doctor about the ASCVD [Atherosclerotic

Cardiovascular Disease] Score. That’s something that can be easily checked, and just by asking a few more questions, your doctor can tell you if you qualify for further tests. Advocate for yourself. If you are having symptoms that affect the quality of your life and you feel you are being brushed off, we want to empower you to advocate for yourself and seek help.”

“Awareness is the first step toward reducing risk,” Zysek says. “Be aware that heart disease is the leading cause of death in women. Empower others in your family and community with awareness, be aware of your personal risk factors, and be aware of symptoms that should prompt seeking medical care. Don’t wait. It’s never too late to change your health, and we all have a platform to promote change.”

in the grander scheme.”

ETC is dedicated to employing professionals in the region, which in turn has boosted the base of experienced actors available for films that come here. The company houses everything under one roof, which is rare for an Equity shop. It was founded in 1986, mounting shows at Memorial Hall before moving to its own home in a 100-year-old former Fifth Third Bank branch.

“I love the steep rake [of the seats] and the high ceiling at ETC,” says Theresa Rebeck, a Cincinnati native and New York–based playwright with five Broadway shows to her credit. “Those epic proportions elevate anything you do in there.”

When a former clothing store adjacent to the theater became available in 2009, Budig bought it, sight unseen, for $400,000 and donated it to Ensemble. It houses the scene shop, and vestiges of vintage wallpaper with a belt print still adorn the walls.

In time, more space was acquired so that ETC now occupies 40 percent of the block. Concentrating all administrative and production activity in one place has generated buzz, business, and belief in Over-theRhine since well before the neighborhood’s revitalization.

Live theater can be a hard sell in these short-attention-span times. But Meyers has intrepidly—some say indestructibly— guided ETC through changing audience habits as well as a series of crises. There was insolvency in the 1990s, OTR riots in the aughts, the recession of the 2010s, and the fresh hell of a global pandemic in recent years. She constantly deflects praise, insisting credit go to her “amazing” staff, “brilliant” apprentices, and “world-class” actors. But everyone knows there would be no ETC without Meyers—because when she was hired in 1995, the job wasn’t to run Ensemble Theatre; it was to close it.

MEYERS GREW UP WITH A SISTER IN A multi-generational home in Bridgetown. The D in her moniker is for Deborah. Her dad was a cop. Her grandfather worked at a laundry during the week and at Findlay Market on Sundays, where he was paid in leftover goods. “I grew up thinking we were really rich because we had all this food,” she says.

Meyers was accepted into Yale University for grad school after earning degrees in English and theater at Thomas More University. But without money for tuition, she instead took a job as assistant to Michael Murray, then the producing artistic director of Playhouse in the Park. She was 19.

“He was magnificent,” Meyers recalls. “I watched every move he made.” In her decade at the city’s first and, at the time, only Equity theater, “I did whatever needed doing. I took minutes at board meetings and notes in rehearsals, I put up posters for shows, I wrote thank-you notes to donors. I cut Michael’s grass, babysat his kids, and did his laundry.”

This was where her passion for casting developed. “We were spending all this money for a New York casting director,” she says. “I told Michael, If you make it part of my job, you can save $50,000 a year. He gave me a shot.”

With her growing familiarity with local actors, Meyers, then 24, was tapped to cast a TV movie, The Pride of Jesse Hallam, about an illiterate Kentucky coal miner who moves to Cincinnati. Could Meyers find a disabled teenage girl who could hold her own opposite Johnny Cash? Of course she could. For the wrap party, Johnny and June Carter Cash cooked all the food and then gave the cast and crew a concert. “I thought, This is incredible. How is this possible?”

Meyers moved up to working on the coasts, saying, “I had one foot in New York, one in L.A., and a toe in Cincinnati.” In addition to writing plays, she directed and produced shows in a chain of theaters in Canada.

Then came the telephone call in 1995, not long after Shawshank. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati was bleeding money.

When Meyers returned to her hometown, she says she grew angry. “Here were [founders] Ruth Sawyer and Murph [Mary

Taft] Mahler—generous, caring, considerate, smart women—who bought a building in Over-the-Rhine for $100,000 and put in $3 million to turn it into a theater. They did it because they wanted a professional theater in Cincinnati for local actors, directors, writers, and designers.”

At the time, Playhouse in the Park generally didn’t hire locals. A joke among Cincinnati actors was that they had to go to New York to audition for Playhouse roles.

It didn’t seem to matter, though, how dazzling Ensemble Theatre’s shows were; patrons avoided blighted Over-the-Rhine. “There were drug dealers up and down Vine on every corner,” Meyers recalls. “Every other day somebody was shot.”

The organization, almost $2 million in debt, could not survive, its board of directors concluded. They asked Meyers to “close it with grace.” In her second day on the job, she discovered a dead body near her car in the lot nearest to the theater. A knife was still plunged into his torso.

“Everyone was looking at OTR with despair and not hope,” says Meyers. “It made me furious. I knew it had to turn around. Any neighborhood that essential to Cincinnati’s history is going to be essential to its future.” She was convinced Over-the-Rhine could recapture the vitality she remembered from her childhood, when she and her sister would safely stroll from Findlay Market to Shillito’s on Seventh Street.

Instead of shuttering ETC, she rebooted it. “It wasn’t working because it didn’t have an identity besides being regional,” Meyers says. It needed more ambitious programming, which to her meant more of-themoment subject matter. It also needed to be more integrated into the neighborhood, not a refuge from it.

Meyers came up with a new mission: Ensemble would produce “new works with a social conscience to enrich and enliven the neighborhood.” In other words, “Where we are is who we are.” This was long before 3CDC started its Vine Street transformation.

“We invited in kids who were hanging out in the streets to do homework or color or get a juice box,” she says. “Word spread they could be there from 3 to 6 in the afternoon. That’s how you build a community. You see what it needs. Instead of only

theater, we turned around and focused on OTR and finding ways to support the businesses around us.”

Meyers, well-connected on the national theater scene, pulled strings to get hot plays straight from Broadway. She secured the regional premiere of Side Man, which had won the Tony Award and was still in its original New York run. Edward Albee gave Ensemble the first regional license for his Pulitzer-winning drama Three Tall Women. By the turn of the millennium, the struggling company was starting to thrive.

The cliché is true: What did not kill Ensemble Theatre only made it stronger. “We are a constantly changing population, so I’m trying to put out stories about the change,” says Meyers, singling out recent productions featuring a Black hair salon, a man who lives as a woman during the Nazi era, and, closer to home, Fiona. “Theater lets you get out of your comfort zone for a couple of hours and walk in someone else’s shoes and see the world as they see it. It allows us to think about our fellow citizens as our peers.”

Pipeline (2021) exposed the systemic racism that impacts public schools. Garbologists (September 2024) invited audiences to metaphorically walk in the crud-encrusted shoes of a sanitation worker. (In a stroke of genius, Meyers secured show sponsorship from Rumpke Recycling.) ETC’s annual holiday extravaganza, meanwhile, offered respite with pure entertaining joy and quirky takes on crowd favorites such as Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella.

The next show, I Need That (opening February 8), is quintessential ETC. It’s comedic with a dark underbelly, newly written by a native Cincinnatian (Rebeck), and fits perfectly with the 2024–25 season’s themes of loss, grief, and resilience. The play broke box-office records at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City, where it premiered last fall starring Danny DeVito.

PERHAPS THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH having such a beloved force of nature for a leader is the reality that Meyers can’t lead Ensemble Theatre forever. Though

there’s zero indication she’s slowing down, there is no succession plan. “I never think about retiring or changing my role,” she says. “I’ll fall over, and they’ll throw me in the dumpster on trash day.” Her staff is less light-hearted about the prospect. “There is a lot of denial,” says Shannon Rae Lutz, who has worked at ETC for 30 years; her current role is props curator, design assistant, and director of apprentice programming. “We don’t want to think about it. That kind of change is a little frightening.”

A 40th anniversary fund-raising campaign, the company’s most ambitious, aims in part to stabilize Ensemble’s current staff and for the generations to come. Expected to run through March 2026, the $10 million campaign has already secured a $1 million kick-off pledge.

Meyers estimates she spends 70 percent of her time looking for corporate and individual sponsorships for each production and for the organization as a whole. “Most people leave the world with unfinished business, so I’d like to finish as much as I can,” she says. She intends to expand the ETC season from five to six or seven plays, do more “inbetween” special events such as table readings, and nurture new works by local writers. Funding can also allow Ensemble to keep ticket prices as low as $30.

An invitation to speak to the Cincinnati Woman’s Club, a centuryold philanthropic organization, afforded her an opportunity last summer to network with wealthy members. Christine Dye, Cincinnati’s highest flying actress at the moment, recalls Meyers inviting her along. Always deflecting praise, Meyers wanted to offer up Dye rather than herself as a hometown performing arts success story.

When Dye received the invitation from Meyers on What’s App, she responded, I can’t! I’m in London being chauffeured in a Mercedes-Benz to a private screening a director invited me to. Can you believe this? Who the hell do I think I am?

Without missing a beat, Meyers wrote back, “You deserve this, and more.”

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OUT OF THE BOX

The fast casual options at Hurry Curry—like the curry bento box (red curry pictured here)—add more culinary choices to Madisonville’s food scene.

D NE

MAD ABOUT MAD’VILLE P. 66 HAPPY HOUR AT THE DAVIDSON P. 69

PRIVATE CHEF Q&A P. 70

BOOZE IN BLUE

ASH P. 71

Biz Buzz

Local entrepreneurs shine up Madisonville, a hidden gem of a neighborhood.

—RODNEY WILSON

AFTER EMERGING FROM YEARS OF ECOnomic distress, Madisonville is a real Cincinnati Cinderella story. Medpace, with its sprawling campus and associated building projects, has a lot to do with this transformation. New businesses are also popping up in the historic business district, creating a homegrown movement for economic sustainability. And Liz Field is pretty much at the center of it all.

“I’m a sixth-generation resident,” she explains. “Both sides of my family immigrated to Madisonville. My dad’s family’s from Germany, my mom’s from Sicily, and my mom’s family had a grocery store in the community for 80 years.”

Field continues the familial legacy of serving up sustenance to the east side neighborhood with a family of food-centric businesses of her own. She opened a bubble tea shop called Bramble Bubbly on Bramble Avenue last summer. Then there’s her soft-serve ice cream shop, Whetsel Whip. And, of course, her flagship business is The Cheesecakery, the bakery she opened in 2009 and expanded into a brickand-mortar in 2019 after years of refining her skills in the kitchen.

“I never planned on opening my own business, but I couldn’t find a job that I really wanted to do after graduating from UC,” she explains. “My friend was like, ‘Why don’t you come over and bake with me?’ ”

This was in 2009, during the Great Recession, and Field was feeling the national malaise. Though she had no previous experience as a baker (“I’d always known baking as a cake box mix”), she felt her mood lift as the two made cinnamon rolls and cheesecake, and the baking sessions

became a regular affair. “I was just blown away,” she says. “Like, This is so cool that my hands made something you can eat! ”

Baking sparked joy for Field, but she was still seeking a career when a mentor suggested she combine her business education from UC with her burgeoning kitchen skills to establish an entrepreneurial endeavor. She took the advice, creating tasty treats in her home kitchen for family and friends. “I just baked anything and everything,” she recalls. “I was just so excited about it.”

She followed her passion to culinary school, expanding her baking skills while also making important connections. All the while she continued home baking and began wholesaling her goods to cafés and restaurants, leveraging experience as a restaurant worker to make inroads with buyers.

Field might have been happy to continue her home operation indefinitely were it not for a twist of fate and those important Madisonville family ties. Ready to retire, her mom said she was going to put her mobile food truck business to bed, but Field offered to help keep the wheels turning. “We had 30 stops within five hours, which is a big undertaking,” she says. Serving food out of the truck got her thinking about her own baking business and the potential for a food truck. She joined CO.STARTERS, ArtWorks’s nineweek business development program, and narrowed her niche to cheesecakes.

And voila, The Cheesecakery food truck was born. “I did the food truck for three or four years before I decided I wanted to expand,” she recalls. “And I knew I was ready to expand when I had to start canceling events because I would bake all night and run out of space.”

Madisonville was an obvious choice, as she figured her family and friends would continue to support her in a brick-andmortar location. “It’s home, you know,” she says. “It’s kind of cool, and you can actually see my family’s grocery store from the front door of the shop.”

Field’s friends and family did show up to support her, as did the community of Madisonville and, as

CONTINUED ON P. 68

MAD ABOUT MAD’VILLE

Small businesses like The Cheesecakery (top row with Liz Field), Hurry Curry (second row with Ryan Saadawi), and Bramble Bubbly (third row) are changing Madisonville’s culinary landscape.

From start to career in less than a year

time went on, folks from all over Cincinnati. She changed her menu numerous times and expanded with a commissary kitchen, an indoor dining room, and a second food truck. She earned the title “serial entrepreneur” as additional business ideas grew out of The Cheesecakery, including Hurry Curry, Ryan Saadawi’s flavor-forward business that the bakery’s general manager started during the COVID-19 pandemic using one of its food trucks. (He now rents a pop-up space from Field on Bramble.)

But the thing about being part of a Next Big Thing neighborhood, even as a cornerstone, is that one has to go through the before to get to the after, and Madisonville is still in its process of becoming. “I remember in 2008 during the recession, there was like, buyone-get-one houses in Madisonville,” Saadawi says.

Something of a serial entrepreneur himself, the doctor of chemistry (he has a Ph.D. from UC) got his start in selfemployment with a snow cone truck he purchased with his sister. The mobile food venture led him to a food truck event for animal welfare where he met Field, who eventually invited him to be a part of The Cheesecakery.

“Growing up, I was always telling people, I live in Madisonville, and they’re like, ‘Oh my god!’ ” Field laughs. “But I was always proud, and I was kind of happy it was a hidden gem.”

Just a handful of years later, Madisonville is certainly shining brighter, with businesses like Mom ’n ’em Coff ee, Element Eatery, and Walls of Wellness joining Field and Saadawi in the revitalized business district. And for their part, the two plan to keep growing Madisonville one business at a time, inviting friends to start businesses as well as plotting their own next ventures.

“Once you get a taste of it, it just keeps growing,” says Saadawi. “Who knows? Maybe there’s Italian down the road or something else fun.”

“I don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, I’m doing all the things,’ ” Field says. “But I do love coming up with concepts. I have a couple more ideas.”

BAR BITES

Power Hour

This

eatery offers a menu to tide you over until dinner.

BACK IN NOVEMBER, THE DAVIDSON introduced a new happy hour bar menu, a welcome addition to downtown’s landscape of post-lunch/pre-dinner dining options. It’s full of modern takes on some classic French, Italian, and American dishes, serving as a condensed version of the restaurant’s full dinner offerings. The goal seems to be to hit the menu’s highlights at a slightly lower price point for the cost-conscious diner.

For starters, the mushroom bisque is an homage to the popular soup from the old Palomino, which closed its Fountain Square location back in 2018. With torn bread croutons, crème fraîche, and sherry, it’s a creamy reminder of the gone-but-not-forgotten restaurant. For something a little lighter, go with the yellowfin tuna crudo (served with citrus vinaigrette, cucumber, Calabrian chile, sesame, and capers). The vinaigrette offers a vibrant, zesty contrast to the mushroom bisque’s earthy taste. There are also several entrées available to help you soak up all of that happy hour booze. Try the pesto creste di gallo (almond basil pesto, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and fresh herbs). Have the waiter pile the parm high on top of the pesto-coated pasta and watch your fellow diners turn green with envy.

Remember: This menu is available only at the restaurant’s bar, so it’s not necessarily conducive to conversation with large groups of people, but it’s perfect for a quick bite with a couple of friends or coworkers. —AIESHA D. LITTLE

The Davidson, 501 Vine St., downtown, (513) 263-1060, thedavidson.com

True Grits

6 ’N THE MORNIN’ BRINGS NEW SPICE TO CINCINNATI’S BRUNCH SCENE BY WAY of Louisiana. The restaurant makes the most of the site’s high ceilings, tall windows, and Art Deco appeal, with all the light illuminating the stage for some of East Walnut Hills’s best breakfast fare.

The New Orleans Shrimp ’N Grits (cheese grits, shrimp, and chives) is as classic as it gets. It’s a dish to eat with your eyes before you pick up your spoon. The shrimp balances salt and spice, never tipping the scale to “hot” and contrasting neatly with the grits. Even if you don’t like grits, these may change your mind. Signature cheese grits come standard, but even the regular grits are rich, creamy, and taste like sunshine.

Want your side and main separate? Try the New Orleans Fish ’N Grits (fried whiting or catfish, cheese grits, and chives), and fork over an extra buck for catfish instead of whiting. Golden and tender as childhood memories of your first fish fry, the flaky meat soaks in the breading’s artful flavoring. Tabletop salt and pepper shakers must feel neglected in these parts. You won’t be tempted to reach for either.

Word to the wise: get a reservation. 6 ’N the Mornin’ has a dedicated fan base and pulls lots of local foot traffic. Without a reservation, your brunch may end before it even begins, and that’s a Faulknerian tragedy.

—M.LEIGHHOOD

THE PRIVATE CHEF COOKS with creativity for high-end clientele.

Who taught you how to cook? My Nana Rosemary was a huge inspiration for me. She taught me the importance of cooking with love and making meals that bring people together. Her influence is reflected in my passion for comfort food and hospitality.

How is cooking as a private chef different? As a private chef, cooking is much more intimate and detail oriented. It’s less about volume and more about precision and creativity.

What types of clients do you typically serve? I’ve worked with a diverse range of clients, including professional athletes, actors, and families. Each client has unique needs, from meal prep to traveling with them to provide consistent, high-quality dining experiences.

What do you like most about cooking for athletes? It involves a mix of creativity and precision. Athletes often have specific dietary requirements to fuel their performance. I love being part of their support system and helping them achieve their goals through well-balanced, flavorful meals.

What’s your favorite dish to cook? Anything that brings people joy. If I had to pick, it would be braised short ribs. It’s simple yet allows for so much flavor development, and it’s the kind of meal that feels like a warm hug on a plate.

6 ’N the Mornin’, 1535 Madison Rd., East Walnut Hills, (513) 221-0510, 6nthemornin.com

– BRIANNA CONNOCK occamdining.com

NIGHT AND DAY

YOU COULD SPEND all day at The Park Pour in Blue Ash. Anyone who drops in can find the perfect beverage at this cozy, sophisticated social house that’s a café in the morning and wine bar in the evening. By the many bottles lining the walls, it’s clear that wine is the primary focus. Whites, reds, rosés, and sparklings are sold by the glass and the bottle. Some see the establishment as their bottle shop of choice with rotating seasonal selections on offer individually or as part of its various wine clubs. For those who prefer cocktails, it doesn’t get much better than the rich Aperol spritz or espresso martini (Tito’s, Bailey’s, Kahlua, and Deeper Roots Coffee). The Bailey’s in the martini adds a delightfully creamy element to the drink, and in tandem with the freshly brewed espresso, makes it taste like a delicious boozy latte. Shots of amaro, Bailey’s, Frangelico, Kahlua, or Chambord can also be added to any coffee drink both in the morning and evening. If you like to finish off with something sweet and can’t get enough of that espresso, the affogato with vanilla bean ice cream and house-made toffee sauce is the perfect closer.

—CLAIRE LEFTON

The Park Pour, 4815 Cooper Rd., Blue Ash, (513) 376-7247, theparkpour.com

HIGH SPIRITS

BR EAK FASTDinner

Presenting Sponsors

Sponsored by F e a t u r i n g : Featuring: Front Street Café | French Toast Heaven Biscuit Love | The Hive | Café Alma | More to come!

$40 per ticket includes: Breakfast and brunch foods from local breakfast hot spots and favorite national brands, 2 drink tickets, live music from 4 bands, complimentary parking www.cincinnatimagazine.com/breakfast

Wednesday, February 19

The Cincinnati Club 30 Garfield Place

6–8:30 p.m.

CRITIC’S PICKS

BROWN DOG CAFÉ

If you haven’t had a plate of Shawn McCoy’s design set in front of you, it’s about time. Many of the menu’s dishes show his knack for the plate as a palette. A trio of duck breast, lamb chop, and demi haute chocolate boar is a standout. The eye for detail and contrasts of colors and textures belongs to someone who cares for food.

1000 Summit Place, Blue Ash, (513) 794-1610, thebrowndogcafe.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat, brunch Sat. MCC, DS. $$$

EMBERS

The menu here is built for celebration: poshly priced steak and sushi selections are meant to suit every special occasion. Appetizers are both classic (shrimp cocktail) and Asian-inspired (shrimp tempura); fashionable ingredients are name-checked (micro-greens and truffles); a prominent sushi section (nigiri, sashimi, and rolls) precedes a list of archetypal salads; Kobe beef on sushi rolls sidles up to steaks of prime; non-steak entrées (Chilean sea bass or Dover sole with haricots verts and almondine) make for high-style alternative selections. Talk about a party.

8170 Montgomery Rd., Madeira, (513) 9848090, embersrestaurant.com. Dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$$$

GREYHOUND TAVERN

Back in the streetcar days, this roughly 100-year-old roadhouse was at the end of the Dixie Highway line, where the cars turned around to head north. The place was called the Dixie Tea Room then, and they served ice cream. The fried chicken came along in the 1930s, and they’re still dishing it up today. Families and regulars alike pile in on Mondays and Tuesdays for the fried chicken special. While the juicy (never greasy) chicken with its lightly seasoned, crisp coating is the star, the side dishes—homemade biscuits, coleslaw, green beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy—will make you ask for seconds. Call ahead no matter what night you

DINING GUIDE

CINCINNATI MAGAZINE’S

dining guide is compiled by our editors as a service to our readers. The magazine accepts no advertising or other consideration in exchange for a restaurant listing. The editors may add or delete restaurants based on their judgment. Because of space limitations, all

of the guide’s restaurants may not be included. Many restaurants have changing seasonal menus; dishes listed here are examples of the type of cuisine available and may not be on the menu when you visit. To update listings, e-mail: cmletters@cincinnati magazine.com

choose: There’s bound to be a crowd. Not in the mood for chicken? Choose from steaks, seafood, sandwiches, and comfort food options that include meatloaf and a Kentucky Hot Brown. Or just try the onion rings. You’ll wonder where onions that big come from.

ALL THAT JAZZ

Nostalgia Wine & Jazz Lounge is expanding this year, with plans for two new locations in Columbus and Atlanta by fall. Customers can expect curated wine lists and live music. “Columbus and Atlanta are vibrant cities with rich cultural and music scenes and we believe our lounge will be a perfect addition to their nightlife,” says cofounder and owner Tammie Scott. nostalgiaotr.com

2500 Dixie Highway, Ft. Mitchell, (859) 3313767, greyhoundtavern.com. Lunch and dinner seven days, brunch Sun. MCC, DS. $$

MR.

GENE’S DOGHOUSE

Cumminsville is home to arguably the best hot chili cheese mett and chocolate malt in Greater Cincinnati. A family-owned business that began as a simple hot dog stand more than 50 years ago, Mr. Gene’s still attracts lines of loyal customers at its windows. Can’t stand the heat? Order the mild chili cheese mett—more flavor, fewer BTUs. And if you still haven’t embraced Cincinnati-style coneys, try the Chicago-style hot dog with pickles, onions, relish, mustard, tomato, sport peppers, and celery salt; a pork sandwich; or wings (a sign proclaims “So hot they make the devil sweat”). Although the chocolate malt is the biggest seller, we love the $4.75 pineapple shake, made with real pineapple.

3703 Beekman St., South Cumminsville, (513) 541-7636, mrgenesdoghouse.com. Open Feb–Oct for lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. MC, V. $

Top 10 IVORY HOUSE

The menu here generally doesn’t reinvent dishes or introduce outlandish flavors, but simply pays attention to enough little things to make the results unusually good. All steaks are premium and hand-selected, the star player being the Japanese A5 Wagyu. The Ultimate Surf & Turf is a date night favorite with a 34-ounce Angus Tomahawk, four shrimp, four scallops and two lobster tails. Bluefin tuna steak is complemented by cilantro lime rice, a vegetable medley, chimichurri, and a soy ginger vinaigrette. Confit duck leg, an Ivory House specialty, is served with parsnip mash, confit beets, and berry gastrique. The cocktails are ones you’ve probably seen before, but everything—from the Death Valley Farm Old Fashioned to the Best West Lemon Drop—has an extra dash of liveliness from a house-made element, like the rosemary syrup.

2998 Harrison Ave., Westwood, (513) 389-

0175, ivoryhousecincy.com. Dinner seven days, brunch Sun. MCC. DC. $$$

SUGAR N’ SPICE

This Paddock Hills diner, with other locations in Over-the-Rhine and Blue Ash, has been dishing up wispy-thin pancakes and football-sized omelettes to Cincinnatians since FDR was signing new deals. Breakfast and lunch offerings mix old-hat classics like steak and eggs, corned beef hash, and basic burgers with funky iterations that draw on ethnic ingredients such as chorizo and tzatziki. Get here early if you don’t want to stand in line.

4381 Reading Rd., Paddock Hills, (513) 2423521; 1203 Sycamore St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 762-0390; 10275 Summit Pkwy., Blue Ash, (513) 447-6453, eatsugarnspice.com. Breakfast and lunch seven days. MCC. $

ELI’S BBQ

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

3313 Riverside Dr., East End, (513) 533-1957; 133 West Elder St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 5331957, ext. 2, elisbarbeque.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $

KNOTTY PINE ON THE BAYOU

The Pine serves some of the best Louisiana homestyle food you’ll find this far north of New Orleans. Taste the fried catfish filets with their peppery crust, or the garlic sauteed shrimp with smoky greens on the side, and you’ll understand why it’s called soul food. Between March and June, it’s crawfish season. Get them boiled and heaped high on a platter or in a superb crawfish etouffee. But the rockin’ gumbo—a thick, murky brew of andouille sausage, chicken, and vegetables—serves

the best roundhouse punch all year round. As soon as you inhale the bouquet and take that first bite, you realize why Cajun-style food is considered a high art form and a serious pleasure. And you’ll start planning your return trip. 6302 Licking Pke., Cold Spring, (859) 781-2200, theknottypineonthebayou.com. Dinner Tues–Sun. MCC, DS. $$

AMERASIA

A sense of energetic fun defines this tiny Chinese spot with a robust beer list. The glossy paper menu depicts Master Chef Rich Chu as a “Kung Food” master fighting the evil fast-food villain with dishes like “fly rice,” “Brocco-Lee,” and “Big Bird’s Nest.” Freshness rules. Potstickers, dumplings, and wontons are hand shaped. The Dragon’s Breath wontons will invade your dreams. Seasoned ground pork, onion, and cilantro meatballs are wrapped in egg dough, wok simmered, and topped with thick, spicy red pepper sauce and fresh cilantro. Noodles are clearly Chef Chu’s specialty, with zonxon (a tangle of thin noodles, finely chopped pork, and mushrooms cloaked in spicy dark sauce and crowned with peanuts and cilantro) and Matt Chu’s Special (shaved rice noodles, fried chicken, and seasonal vegetables in gingery white sauce) topping the menu’s flavor charts. 521 Madison Ave., Covington, (859) 261-6121, kungfood. online. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner Sat. MCC. $

ORIENTAL WOK

When Mike and Helen Wong opened Oriental Wok in 1977, the couple wanted to recreate the glamor and refinement of the Hong Kong-Cantonese cuisine they knew. Today, locals and expats alike enjoy authentic Chinese and Chinese-American dishes in dining rooms reminiscent of Beijing. Beyond the elephant tusk entryway and fish ponds and fountains is the warmth and hospitality of the Wong family, service on par with the finest establishments, and very, very good food. Best are the fresh fish: salmon, grouper and sea bass steamed, grilled or fried in a wok, needing little more than the ginger-green onion sauce that accompanies them. Oriental Wok is the tri-state’s longest-running family-owned Chinese restaurant for a reason.

317 Buttermilk Pke., Ft. Mitchell, (859) 331-3000; 2444 Madison Rd., Hyde Park, (513) 871-6888, orientalwok. com. Lunch Mon–Fri (Ft. Mitchell; buffet Sun 11–2:30), lunch Tues–Sat (Hyde Park), dinner Mon–Sat (Ft. Mitchell) dinner Tues–Sun (Hyde Park). MCC. $$

UNCLE YIP’S

Long before sushi somehow un-disgusted itself to the Western World, China had houses of dim sum. Uncle Yip’s valiantly upholds that tradition in Evendale. This is a traditional dim sum house with all manner of exotic dumplings, including shark fin or beef tripe with ginger and onion. As for the seafood part of the restaurant’s full name, Uncle Yip has most everything the sea has to offer, from lobster to mussels. The menu has more than 160 items, so you’ll find a range of favorites, from moo goo gai pan to rock salt frog legs.

10736 Reading Rd., Evendale, (513) 733-8484, uncleyips.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, discount for cash. $$

Top 10 ABIGAIL

STREET

Most people who’ve eaten at Abigail Street have favorite dishes that they order every visit: the Moroccan spiced broccoli, for example, or the mussels charmoula, with its perfect balance of saffron, creaminess, and tomatoey acidity. Many of the new items on the menu have the same perfected feeling as these classics. Working within a loose framework of Middle Eastern and North African flavors, Abigail Street has never fallen into a routine that would sap its energy. Offerings like the lamb belly skewer with tzatziki and pickled shallots, feel just as accomplished as old favorites like the falafel, beautifully moist and crumbly with a bright parsley interior. The restaurant is always watching for what works and what will truly satisfy, ready to sacrifice the superficially interesting in favor of the essential.

1214 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 421-4040, abigailstreet.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC, DS. $$

ALCOVE

Alcove lives up to its name, the embodiment of a green oasis at the corner of Vine and 14th streets. A lot of care goes into the space’s bright, floral design—it features more than 300 square feet of plant-covered “living

walls,” which are pruned by their creator, Urban Blooms, on a weekly basis. Equal care and attention went goes into Alcove’s the seasonal farm-to-table menu. It’s an uncomplicated affair featuring exceptional-but-approachable dishes. As one might expect from a restaurant where plants cover most of the walls, vegetables are done very well here. The simple, clean pear and quark salad stands out as do the stuffed mushrooms. Like the produce, much of the meat is sourced from local and regional farms (for instance, the “Denver Cut” of steak— a lean cut, taken from the shoulder—comes from Sakura Farms in nearby Westerville, Ohio). Among other local vendors, Rich Life Farms, Urban Stead Cheese, and Eli Settler (a.k.a. “Eli the Farmer”) all contribute to Alcove’s menu. This is a restaurant that takes sustainability seriously, and sustainability has a funny way of going hand-in-hand with quality. 1410 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 371-5700, madtree. com/locations/alcove-bar-restaurant. Brunch Fri–Sun, dinner seven days. MCC. $$

THE APERTURE

After several pandemic-related setbacks, Chef/ Owner Jordan Anthony-Brown opened his Mediterranean-inspired restaurant in Walnut Hills’s historic Paramount Square Building. And it was worth the wait. The restaurant’s seasonal menu draws on flavors from across the Mediterranean with subtle touches, such as its woodfired pita, elevated with za’atar seasoning and olive oil. The sublime charred carrots are served with Middle Eastern spice blends like dukkah and ras el hanout as well as mint and crumbles of lamb merguez sausage. Brined, poached, and cooked over coals, the carrots themselves eat like a tender smoked sausage. It’s a dish that perfectly encapsulates The Aperture’s commitment to serving substantial versions of traditionally lighter fare. For a restaurant so serious about food—and exceptional wines—it’s refreshing to see it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The original cocktails have offbeat names like #lemon and I’m Her, and the catchy playlist is heavy on old-school hip-hop. At heart, The Aperture is a neighborhood restaurant, albeit one that’s bound to bring people in from all over.

900 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills, (513) 872-1970, theaperturecinci.com. Dinner Wed–Sat. MCC. $$

ATWOOD OYSTER HOUSE

While Atwood has done an excellent job of working closely with coastal purveyors to curate a focused but eclectic selection of oysters, the rest of its menu consists of southern coastal cuisine prepared with rigorous French technique. The wild-caught fish is as fresh and deliberately sourced as the eponymous oysters, and grilled shrimp with Calabrian chili and arugula. The modern, clean-lined space, adorned with busts and oil paintings (curated with the help of neighborhood artist Alex Frank) matches the elegant food. It’s stately without being stuffy; it somehow feels both timeless and hip. Like everything else at Atwood, it’s the result of a delicate, highly successful balancing act. 1220 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 246-4256, atwoodoysterhouse.com. Dinner Wed–Sun. MCC. $$

Top 10 BOCA

With its grand staircase, chandelier, and floorto-ceiling draperies, Boca has an atmosphere of grandeur and refinement. There is a sense of drama not only in the decor but in everything it serves. In some dishes, there is a painterly sense of contrast and surprise, like the maple tuile served with the maple mascarpone cheesecake. In others, there is a dramatic suspense, like the whole egg yolk quivering in the center of the beef tartare waiting to be broken. While staying mostly grounded in the fundamentals of Italian and French cuisine, Boca has an air of international sophistication that sets its food apart. The hamachi crudo, an old standby on the menu, takes Japanese flavors and gives them new dimensions with grapefruit suprêmes and slivers of shishito pepper. This is food of extraordinary creativity and flair.

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

Top 10 BOUQUET RESTAURANT

Normally diners aren’t pleased when a restaurant runs out of something. At Bouquet, though, surprise changes to the menu are simply a sign of integrity. The restaurant is serious about using seasonal ingredients, and if the figs have run out or there is no more chicken from a

local farm, so be it. The flavors at Bouquet are about doing justice to what’s available. Preparations are unfussy, complexity coming from within the vegetables and proteins themselves. A spring salad—wonderfully fresh and vibrant, so you know the strawberries included have just come off a nearby vine—is dressed with candy-striped beets, jerk-seasoned pepitas and whipped goat cheese. This determination to make something delicious out of what’s on hand, to embrace limitations, gives the food at Bouquet a rustic, soulful quality.

519 Main St., Covington, (859) 491-7777, bouquetbistro. com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC, DS. $$

FIVE ON VINE

The fifth venture from Anthony Sitek and wife Haley Nutter-Sitek’s Crown Restaurant Group, Five on Vine achieves excitement through comfort food with meticulous attention to detail: the meat is butchered in-house, the bread and pasta are made from scratch, and the bacon is housecured. House-butchered beef and house-made pasta come together beautifully in the pappardelle stroganoff, served with chunks of short rib that are as tender as the noodles themselves. Thick, cleanly acidic fried green tomatoes make an appearance, as does a bountiful cioppino, a tomato-based seafood stew created by Italian American fisherman in San Francisco. Some of the dishes are pulled straight from Sitek’s own childhood, in New Jersey. “Gracie’s Meatballs,” named in honor of his grandmother, use her unique blend of raisins and pine nuts. A love letter to the long-beloved dishes, the menu is an extended rebuttal against the tired argument that American food is bland and boring.

1324 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 246-4301, fiveonvine.com. Dinner seven days. MCC. $$

Top 10

MITA’S

It’s fitting that Chef/Owner Jose Salazar named this restaurant after his grandmother, because there is something deeply homey about the food at Mita’s. With a focus on Spanish and Latin-American tapas, it always feels, in the best possible way, like elevated home cooking. Its sophistication is modestly concealed. The flavors are bold and direct, whether the spicy freshness of the ceviche de camarones with passionfruit leche de tigre or the intensely bright sourness of the pozole verde. The tacos de barriga de cerdo, which come in pairs, are made with fried pork belly, citrus gastrique, habanero slaw, huitalacoche mayo, and are served on house-made corn tortillas. But what mainly comes through is the warm-hearted affection a grandmother might have put into a meal for a beloved grandson. It’s the kind of big hug everyone needs from time to time.

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

NOLIA

Chef/Owner Jeffery Harris, a New Orleans native, prepares the cuisine of his beloved city with sophistication and flair, drawing on all the influences that have contributed to the cuisine of the Big Easy—from West African to French to Japanese to Haitian. The menu changes seasonally, with almost a complete overhaul each time. If classic New Orleans dishes do show up on the menu, they’re likely to get delightfully unexpected touches. The smoked chicken, for example, comes with peach Alabama barbecue sauce, greens, mirliton, and charred peach. It’s exquisitely prepared food served in a funky, laid-back atmosphere. 1405 Clay St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 384-3597, noliakitchen.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC,DC. $$$

OPAL

Opal’s hip-ly minimal menu (many of the dishes have one syllable names like “Duck” or “Fish”) centers around the restaurant’s wood-fired, 88-inch grill. You can taste the grill’s handiwork on the “Cauliflower” appetizer, which also comes with citrus supremes, fennel pollen (a potent and rather pricey spice), salsa brava (a smoky Mediterranean sauce, not to be confused with the ubiquitous Latin American salsa), feta, and almonds. For the duck, the kiss of flame locks in the juices while a medley of blackberry, peanut, chow chow, and jus add the sweetness that one expects to flavor a good game bird. According to Owner Bill Whitlow, Opal’s menu started small as the team figured out which dishes worked best with its signature grill. The selections, like the restaurant, have continued to grow, so you can expect tweaks and seasonal changes to a

menu this committed to fresh meat and produce.

535 Madison Ave., Covington, (859) 261-0629, opalrooftop.com. Dinner Tues–Sun. MCC, DC.

$$$

SENATE

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

1100 Summit Place Dr., Blue Ash, (513) 7690099, senateblueash.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sun. MC, V, DS. $

TASTE OF BELGIUM

Jean-François Flechet’s waffle empire grew from a back counter of Madison’s grocery at Findlay Market to multiple full-service sit-down spots. There’s more on the menu than the authentic Belgian treat, though it would be a crime to miss the chicken and waffles: a dense, yeasty waffle topped with a succulent buttermilk fried chicken breast, Frank’s hot sauce, and maple syrup.

There are also frites, of course, and Brussels sprouts—served with pancetta and sherry vinaigrette—plus a gem of a Bolognese. And let’s not forget the beer. Six rotating taps offer some of the best the Belgians brew, not to mention those made in town.

1135 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 3965800, and other locations, authenticwaffle. com. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner Tues–Sun, breakfast and lunch Mon, brunch Sun. MCC, DS. $$

COLETTE

At his new “mostly French” restaurant Colette, which occupies the former Zula space across from Washington Park, Chef Danny Combs has built a more laid-back home for his focused, pristine cooking. While there is classic bistro fare, like steak frites, on the concentrated menu, there are also less familiar but equally classic French dishes, like Brandade de Morue (a silky emulsion of whipped salt cod served with rustic bread) and the savory puff pastry known as Vol-au-Vent. One can turn to the extensive drink menu (also “mostly French”) to find a wine or cocktail to go with any dish on offer. Like Zula, Colette would function just fine as a wine and cocktail bar, though we can’t imagine coming to a place this good and not eating something.

1400 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 381-1018, coletteotr.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC, DC. $$

Top10 LE BAR A BOEUF

If it’s been a couple of years since you’ve been to Le Bar a Boeuf—the late Jean-Robert de Cavel’s fun-yet-refined French bistro located on the first floor of the Edgecliff Private Residences in East Walnut Hills—it may

Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior

be time for a revisit. The formerly burger-centric menu now approaches the full repertoire of bistro classics. The menu reads like a greatest hits list of bistro fare, with escargot, beef tartare, duck leg confit, steak frites, and French onion soup all making appearances. As France’s influence on American fine dining has waned, it’s refreshing to see a restaurant committed to not only preserving the French classics but reinvigorating them.

2200 Victory Pkwy., East Walnut Hills, (513) 751-2333, lebarboeuf.com. Dinner Wed–Sat. MCC. $$

LUCA BISTRO

Luca Bistro opened in October 2022, but it feels like it has been around for decades. The unabashedly French restaurant, with its French posters, bright red outer paneling, and chalkboard menu proclaiming its specials to passersby, fits into its Mt. Adams environs so perfectly that it’s hard to imagine Hatch Street without it. That, combined with warm service, timeless French fare, and relaxed joie de vivre makes this a true neighborhood establishment. Chef Frederic Maniet grew up in the south of France and has done an excellent job transporting his native cuisine to a quiet corner of Cincinnati. These are the dishes that culinary Francophiles often c rave, prepared in a straightforward, time-honored way. The Bouchées à la Reine, a buttery, flaky puff pastry filled with chicken, mushrooms, peas, Gruyèere cheese, and béchamel sauce, is so warm and comforting it makes chicken pot pie seem aloof by comparison. It’s a warm, gentle reminder that French food can be convivial and affordable.

934 Hatch St., Mt. Adams, (513) 621-5822,

LIFE AFTER WORK

Entrepreneur Tracy Liu—who worked as a corporate accountant in a previous life—plans to open Afterlife Bar on Court Street this summer. She’s leasing the 873-squarefoot space inside of the Court Street Condos project, where she’ll serve up a cocktail menu featuring traditional drinks (with a twist) and seasonal, Asian-inspired specialty drinks.

Shahzia Sikander (Pakistani and American, b. 1969), Cholee Kay Peechay Kiya? Chunree Kay Neechay Kiya? (What is underthe Blouse? What is under the Dress?) (detail), 1997, vegetable color, dry pigment, watercolor, and tea on wasli paper; Hessel Museum of Art, Marieluise Hessel Collection, Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, R1999.49, © Shahzia Sikander.

Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior is made possible through generous funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts, alongside other foundations and individual donors.

Exhibition support is provided by

lucabistro.com. Breakfast and lunch Tues–Sun, dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$

AL-POSTO

Al-Posto is an upscale southern Italian spot that reflects the same commitment to quality ingredients and delicate preparation that made its predecessor Dear such a gem. Appetizers include classic sharables like marinated olives (prepared with orange zest, rosemary, and Calabrian chile), burrata with grilled focaccia, and coppa (a cured pork served with preserved peppers and almonds), but it’s the pasta (which can be ordered as an entrée or a first course) that’s not to be missed. We recommend the Cacio e Pepe, a seemingly simple dish comprised of bucatini (similar to spaghetti, but thicker), black pepper, and a sharp pecorino Toscano. Since you’re probably wondering, “Al-Posto” roughly translates to “at the spot.” Located in the middle of Hyde Park Square, this eatery seems poised to become the culinary focal point of the neighborhood.

2710 Erie Ave., Hyde Park, (513) 321-2710, al-posto.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC, DC, DS. $$

Top 10

NICOLA’S

Chef/Restaurateur Cristian Pietoso carries on the legacy of his father, Nicola, as the elder Pietoso’s Over-the-Rhine eatery celebrated 25 years in business in 2021. You can still get the old Italian classics, and they’ll be as good as ever, but the rest of the menu has blossomed into a freewheeling tour of modern American cuisine. Any establishment paying this level of attention to detail— from the aged balsamic and lavender honey on the Italian cheese board to the staff’s wine knowledge—is going to put out special meals. Rarely have humble insalate been so intricately delicious, between the non-traditional summer gazpacho, filled with crab, zucchini, peaches, and squash, or the balance of the tangy, salty, and citrusy Siciliana salad. Order an old favorite, by all means, but make sure you try something new, too.

1420 Sycamore St., Pendleton, (513) 721-6200, nicolasotr.com. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DS. $$$

Top 10 SOTTO

There are certain books and movies that you can read or watch over and over. Eating at Sotto is a similar experience: familiar, but so profound and satisfying that there is no reason to ever stop. Unlike other restaurants, where the techniques are often elaborate and unfamiliar, the magic at Sotto happens right in front of you, using ordinary elements and methods. When you taste the results, though, you realize that some mysterious transmutation has taken place. The woodfired branzino with zucchini, matched with the warm, smoky taste of the Calabrian pepper, offers a flavor that you could go on eating forever. From the texture of the chicken liver mousse to the citrusy lemon aioli on the tartare di fassone, most of the food has some added element of soulfulness.

118 E. Sixth St., downtown, (513) 822-5154, sottocincinnati.com. Dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$$

VIA VITE

Via Vite serves up crowd-pleasing entrées, including the Pietoso family Bolognese, over penne, right on Fountain Square. (Add in a golf-ball-sized veal meatball heavy with lemon zest, and it’s an over-the-top comforting main dish.) The same applies to the risotto, where a few small touches add sophistication. Carnaroli rice results in a glossier, starchier dish. A puree of asparagus turns the risotto an eye-popping green, and the poached lobster garnish creates a nice back-and-forth between vegetal and briny flavors. Braised lamb shank over polenta is comforting workhorse, and the flavorful Faroe Island salmon with roasted carrot puree, caramelized Brussel sprouts and truffled brown butter balsamic vinaigrette.

520 Vine St., downtown, (513) 721-8483, viaviterestaurant.com. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DS. $$

BARU

Baru, the sleek izakaya in the former MidiCi space, prioritizes bar dining, which is meant to be enjoyed alongside its eclectic drinks list. The menu is broken down into drinks, sushi, “small plates,” “plates,” sides, and ishiyaki. Start with clever cocktail offerings, like the Japanese Highball (which uses Japanese whiskey), the Sake-tini, or the sweetly spicy Wasabi Margarita. Baru’s sushi offerings are—like the rest of the menu—fun and funky. The sushi menu is varied, but concise, featuring a trio of ahi tuna, spicy tuna, and escolar, as well as a quail egg nigiri. If sushi got the party going, the theatrical ishiyaki kicked it into high gear. The term refers to dishes that diners grill tableside on a hot stone, such as the prime New York strip. For all its convivial buzz, Baru is also a spot where solo diners can enjoy a few peaceful bar-side bites. The Crispy Rice Spicy Tuna from the small plates section brought the same level of freshness and quality as the rest of the menu. Sometimes it pays to dine alone.

595 Race St., downtown, (513) 246-0150, barusushi. com. Dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$$

Top 10 KIKI

Kiki started as a pop-up at Northside Yacht Club, then leapt into brick-and-mortar life in College Hill’s bustling business district. Your best bet here is to share plates, or simply order too much, starting with the edamame; it comes either salted or tossed in tare, a savory dipping sauce. Add the karaage fried chicken, with the Jordy mayo and the oroshi ponzu, confit chicken on spaghetti and rice that somehow works. And, yes, the ramen, too. The shio features pork belly and tea-marinated softboiled egg, but the kimchi subs in tofu and its namesake cabbage for the meat.

5932 Hamilton Ave., College Hill, (513) 541-0381, kikicincinnati.com. Lunch Sun and dinner Wed–Sun. MCC, DS. $

RIVERSIDE KOREAN RESTAURANT

Come for the jham bong—a seafood soup with flour noodles in a spicy broth with pork, shrimp, squid, mussels, and vegetables. Revered for its medicinal properties, the dinner-sized soup will leave your eyes glistening and your brow beaded with sweat. It’s a detox for your overindulgence, rejuvenation for when you’re feeling under the weather. Expect crowds on weekends. Expect too, that dozens of them have come for dolsot bibimbap, the hot stone pots filled with layers of rice, vegetables, meat or tofu, egg, and chili paste. Characterized by its electric color and addictive flavors, Riverside Korean’s version is a captivating bowl of heaven.

512 Madison Ave., Covington, (859) 291-1484, riversidekoreanrestaurant.com. Lunch Tues–Fri, dinner Tues–Sun. MCC, DS. $$

ANDY’S MEDITERRANEAN GRILLE

In this lively joint with a burnished summer lodge interior of wood and stone, even the food is unrestrained: rough-cut chunks of charbroiled beef tenderloin, big slices of onion and green pepper turned sweet and wet in the heat, skewers of marinated and charbroiled chicken perched on rice too generous for its plate.

906 Nassau St., Walnut Hills, (513) 281-9791, andyskabob.com. Lunch Mon–Sat, dinner seven days. MCC. $$

Top10

PHOENICIAN

TAVERNA

No matter how much restraint you go in with, meals at Phoenician Taverna quickly become feasts. There is just too much that’s good, and everything is meant to be shared. With fresh pita bread continuously arriving from the ovens, and a table of quickly multiplying meze (hummus, falafel, muhammara), there is a warmth and depth to the cooking that envelops you. With such traditional cuisine, you may think there isn’t much left to discover beyond simply executed classics prepared according to time-tested methods. But there are always new discoveries as the flavors mingle from plate to plate: the tabbouleh with the hummus, mixed with a touch of harissa, or the smoky baba ghanoush spooned onto falafel. Phoenician Taverna keeps taking these classics a little further.

7944 Mason Montgomery Rd., Mason, (513) 770-0027, phoeniciantaverna.com. Lunch Tues–Fri, dinner Tues–Sun. MCC. $$

MAZUNTE

Mazunte runs a culinary full-court press, switching up specials to keep both regulars and staff engaged. Pork tamales arrive swaddled in a banana leaf, the shredded pork filling steeped in a sauce fiery with guajillo and ancho chilies yet foiled by the calming sweetness of raisins. The fried fish tacos are finished with a citrusy red and white cabbage slaw that complements the accompanying mango-habañero salsa. With this level of authentic yet fast-paced execution, a slightly greasy pozole can be easily forgiven. Don’t miss the Mexican Coke, the margaritas, or the non-alcoholic horchata.

5207 Madison Rd., Madisonville, (513) 7850000, mazuntetacos.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat, brunch Sun. MCC. $

NADA

The brains behind Boca deliver authentic, contemporary, high-quality Mexican fare downtown. You’ll find a concise menu, including tacos, salads and sides, large plates, and desserts. The Pork Al Pastor tacos, zesty with salsa verde and sweet with grilled pineapple, are definite crowdpleasers. If you’re biased against Brussels sprouts, Nada just might convert you. The crispy sprouts, served with chipotle honey and candied ancho pepitas, are a deliciously intriguing starter.

600 Walnut St., downtown, (513) 721-6232, eatdrinknada.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner seven days, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC, DS. $$

TAQUERIA MERCADO

The Mercado’s strip mall interior, splashed with a large, colorful mural, is equally energetic: the bustling semi-open kitchen; a busy counter that handles a constant stream of take-out orders; a clamorous, convivial chatter in Spanish and English. Try camarones a la plancha, 12 chubby grilled shrimp tangled with grilled onions (be sure to specify if you like your onions well done). The starchiness of the rice absorbs the caramelized onion juice, offset by the crunch of lettuce, buttery slices of avocado, and the cool-hot pico de gallo. A shrimp quesadilla paired with one of their cheap and potent margaritas is worth the drive alone.

6507 Dixie Hwy., Fairfield, (513) 942-4943; 100 E. Eighth St., downtown, (513) 381-0678, tmercadocincy.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $

ROSEWOOD SUSHI, THAI & SEAFOOD

Chanaka De Lanerolle sold Mt. Adams Fish House back in 2011, and Rosewood Sushi, Thai & Seafood

NO MORE CLUCKS

Revolution Rotisserie & Bar closed in December and Nick Pesola announced a planned re-brand would be scrapped. He told the BusinessCourierhe is closing other Pesola Restaurant Group properties Amador Cuban Restaurant and Bridgeview Food Hall to focus entirely on Milkman in Over-the-Rhine.

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is its reincarnation—and reinvention. Most of the menu includes crowd favorites such as Pad Thai, made with rice noodles, egg, bean sprouts, and a choice of protein. The handful of ethnic experiments on the menu—like the Black Tiger Roll, one of the chef’s special sushi rolls, made with shrimp tempura, eel, shiitake mushrooms, and topped with eel sauce—are among its most vibrant offerings.

3036 Madison Rd., Oakley, (513) 631-3474, rosewoodoakley.com. Lunch Fri–Sun, dinner Tues–Sun. MCC. $$$

JEFF RUBY’S

Filled most nights with local scenesters and power brokers (and those who think they are), everything in this urban steakhouse is generous—from the portions to the expert service. White-jacketed waiters with floor-length aprons deliver two-fisted martinis and mounds of greens dressed in thin vinaigrettes or thick, creamy emulsions. An occasional salmon or sea bass appears, and there’s a small but decent assortment of land fare. But most customers are there for the slabs of beef (dry aged USDA prime). The best of these is Jeff Ruby’s Cowboy, 22 ounces of 70-day dry-aged bone-in rib eye. This is steak tailor-made for movers and shakers. 505 Vine St., downtown, (513) 784-1200, jeffruby.com. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC, DC. $$$$

Top

10 LOSANTI

A bit more upscale than its sister restaurant, Crown Republic Gastropub, Losanti is also more conservative in its offerings. Service is friendly and informal, and though the meal feels like a special occasion, prices and atmosphere are right for, say, a date, rather than a wedding anniversary. The filet mignon, rib eye, and New York strip are cut to order for each table (there are a few available weights for each). The steaks themselves are totally irreproachable, perfectly seasoned, cooked to precisely the right point. Losanti even makes the steakhouse sides a little special. Sweet and smoky caramelized

onions are folded into the mashed potatoes, a nice dusting of truffles wakes up the mac and cheese, and the sweet corn is at least freshly cut off the cob and recalls elote with lime and chile.

1401 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 246-4213, losantiotr.com. Dinner seven days. MCC. $$$

Top 10 THE PRECINCT

Part of the appeal of the Ruby restaurants is their ability to deliver deep, comfort-food satisfaction. And the steaks. The meat is tender with a rich mineral flavor, and the signature seasoning provided a nice crunch, not to mention blazing heat. The supporting cast is strong—the basket of warm Sixteen Bricks bread with a mushroom truffle butter, the addictive baked macaroni and cheese, the creamy garlic mashed potatoes, the crisp-tender asparagus with roasted garlic and lemon vinaigrette—and dinner ends on a sweet note with a piece of Ruby family recipe cheesecake. Neither cloyingly sweet nor overwhelmingly creamy, it’s a lovely slice of restraint.

311 Delta Ave., Columbia-Tusculum, (513) 321-5454, jeffruby.com/precinct. Dinner seven days. MCC. $$$$

TEAK THAI

Owner Chanaka De Lanerolle has said that he decided to bring back Teak’s take on Thai food because of the renewed vibrancy in Over-the-Rhine, which he compared to the energy he felt in Mt. Adams during his time there. But for all of the hype around the restaurant’s re-emergence on the scene, it’s probably best to consider it a reimagining rather than a reopening. While long-time favorites show up on the menu, prepared by many of the same kitchen staff members from Mt. Adams, some adaptations have been made to better meet expectations of modern diners. Letting go of preconceived notions about Teak will serve you well. With a two-sided, standalone sushi menu and a wide variety of main plates ranging from small bites to

signature dishes, you have plenty of room to craft your own dining experience.

1200 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 421-8325, teakotr. com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sun. MCC. $$

PHO LANG THANG

Owners Duy and Bao Nguyen and David Le have created a greatest hits playlist of Vietnamese cuisine: elegant, brothy pho made from poultry, beef, or vegan stocks poured over rice noodles and adrift with slices of onions, meats, or vegetables (the vegan pho chay is by far the most flavorful); fresh julienned vegetables, crunchy sprouts, and herbs served over vermicelli rice noodles (again, the vegan version, bun chay, is the standout); and bánh mì. Be sure to end with a cup of Vietnamese coffee, a devilish jolt of dark roast and sweetened condensed milk that should make canned energy drinks obsolete.

1828 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 376-9177, pholangthang.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DS, DC. $

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Miami MOVES

A HEALTHY COMMUNITY IS A THRIVING COMMUNITY

Miami University’s commitment to your academic success includes caring about every aspect of your well-being and health. RedHawks can explore our state-of-the-art recreation center, try out one of Oxford’s many beautiful trails, or participate in a M.O.V.E. (Miami and Oxford Value Exercise) bootcamp. A monthly fitness class hosted by President Greg and Dr. Renate Crawford, is free of charge and open to people of all ages and abilities within the Miami community. Enjoy an invigorating outdoor workout where you can meet new people, enjoy the fresh air, and work toward your daily fitness goals.

Get Moving