Cincinnati Magazine - May 2022 Edition by Cincinnati Magazine

Iconic Eats We celebrate all our hometown favorites, from chili to ice cream to pizza and more.

PLUS! New food faves Celebs chow down Groceries to grab

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F E AT U R E S M AY 2 02 2

ICONIC EATS

We celebrate all our hometown favorites, from chili to ice cream to pizza and more.

JOEY VOTTO IS THE GREATEST REDS PLAYER OF ALL TIME P. 60

The shy kid from Canada has better career numbers for Cincinnati than Bench, Larkin, Morgan, Robinson, or Rose. Yet he’s the only one of them not to play in a World Series for the Reds.

JUST CALL US KIN-CINNATI

P. 64

Over the past 150 years, the secretive families of Scottish and Irish travelers developed an unbreakable bond with Cincinnati. BY LAURIE PIKE

BY CHAD DOTSON PHOTOGRAPH: REMBRANDT, PORTRAIT OF A MAN RISING FROM HIS CHAIR, 1633, TAFT MUSEUM OF ART. ACCESSED FROM COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 5

D E PA R T M E N T S M AY 2 02 2

ON OUR SITE

FOOD NEWS

12 / LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

FRONTLINES

18 / SPEAK EASY

The Contemporary Arts Center explores the weight of water

18 / MUSIC

Jodie Gates joins Cincinnati Ballet

17 / DISPATCH

108 / DINING OUT

The Who returns

Le Bar a Boeuf, East Walnut Hills

20 / STYLE COUNSEL

110 / LUNCHBOX

Eric Nally of Foxy Shazam

22 / STOREFRONT 110

DINE

NOLI Italian Kitchens, Over-the-Rhine

Ramsey’s Trailside, Loveland

110 / TABLESIDE WITH…

26 / DR. KNOW

Lucia Calonge of Kids Baking Championship

Your QC questions answered

111 / TAKE 5

28 / REAL ESTATE A real farmhouse in Clermont County

COLUMNS

BY JUDI KETTELER

40 / CITY WISE Beautiful skin with Sylvia Brownlee BY CARRIE BLACKMORE SMITH

112 / TAKEOUT HERO The Arepa Place, Over-the-Rhine

114 / DINING GUIDE Greater Cincinnati restaurants: A selective list

ON THE COVER photograph by MARLENE ROUNDS food styling by KATY DOENCH prop styling by EMILY CESTONE

120 / CINCY OBSCURA BY LAUREN FISHER

6 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M

Cincinnati Magazine

M AY 2 0 2 2

@Cincinnatimagazine

HOME + LIFE

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

SPORTS

Harmony Hill’s wine cave

@CincinnatiMag

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

36 / WELCOME TO MIDDLEHOOD The wider world awaits

CITY NEWS

@cincinnatimagazine

Insight and analysis on the Reds and FC Cincinnati.

PH OTO G R A PHS BY ( TO P) T IM SPA N AG EL / CO U R T E S Y CO L DW EL L B A N K ER RE A LT Y / (B OT TO M) L A N C E A D K I N S

12 / CONTRIBUTORS

COVID-19 reopenings, tweaks, and pivots.

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CONTRIBUTORS

SAM ROSENSTIEL

IN MY ALMOST FIVE YEARS WRITING THIS WELCOME LET TER AS EDITOR IN CHIEF, I’ve managed to avoid the Cincinnati Chili Conversation. You know, the one about how and why chili-and-spaghetti became synonymous with Cincinnati, whether it’s right to even call it chili, and which chain, independent restaurant, or speciﬁc location has the best version. The time ﬁnally has come for me to wade into the treacherous waters of that swirling debate. This month’s section about Cincinnati’s iconic foods (“Our Iconic Eats,” page 46) highlights a number of classic restaurants, shops, and products that bring comfort to natives, make transplants feel like they belong, and often confuse visitors. In my mind, two of them truly are unique to Cincinnati: chili and goetta. The others are mainly local versions of things you can get just about anywhere: ice cream, desserts, ribs, burgers, steaks, potato chips, beer. We’ll gladly argue that our versions are better than counterparts in other regions of the country, but more importantly, smell and taste are incredible triggers for memories, and in a changing world we love clinging to familiarity. Cincinnati chili and goetta are a different story. How are they not popular throughout the U.S.? Think about other regional foods like Philadelphia cheesesteaks or New Orleans gumbo or New York pizza—there are outposts in every major city serving them, including plenty here offering decent versions. There’s nothing inherently “Cincinnati” about chili-and-spaghetti or goetta. They were invented and popularized by immigrant populations here, but there are Greek and Middle Eastern communities everywhere in the U.S., so why don’t they embrace our chili recipe? The same goes with German communities and goetta. I really don’t get why there aren’t packed, successful Cincinnati chili parlors in every major American city. It’s fresh, cheap food that’s a welcome break from the usual burgers/chicken/Mexican fast food menu. If Chipotle can be popular in every city, why can’t Skyline or Gold Star? And if you want to argue that Cincinnati chili isn’t a national phenomenon because it’s a disgusting abomination, well, you’re wrong. Because to us, it tastes like home. End of conversation.

J O H N F OX

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

1 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

ILLUSTR ATIO N BY L A R S LEE TA RU

Digital Editor Sam Rosenstiel had a blast leading his debut magazine package on iconic Cincinnati foods— but deciding what’s “iconic” was a challenge. “There are countless Queen City restaurants and companies making delicious, quality food,” says Rosenstiel. He hopes readers see this issue as “a rough guide to our city’s food culture and the favorite dishes we hold dear.”

CHAD DOTSON Going into his ninth season covering the Reds for Cincinnati Magazine, Chad Dotson makes a stunning declaration: “Joey Votto Is the Greatest Reds Player of All Time” (page 60). Long-known as one of the best interviews in baseball, Votto made it clear that he’s not nearing the end of his time as a player just yet. “At this point in his career,” Dotson says, “I’ll never make the mistake of doubting him again.”

ALEXANDER WELLS Living and working across the pond, contributing artist Alexander Wells doesn’t have the privilege of experiencing Cincinnati summers. “I’ve been illustrating for around 10 years now, living and working on the south coast of England where we get to experience the little amounts of sunshine that the island receives,” Wells says. He’s never been to a baseball game, but next time he’s in the states, he hopes to catch a Reds game featuring Joey Votto, whom he illustrated for this month’s feature (page 60).

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I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H F L E E T F E E T

CINCINNATI’S ICONIC RUNNING STORE LOCATIONS ARE NOW LOCALLY OWNED

X Fleet Feet takes over the four former Bob Roncker’s Running Spot locations, bringing a beloved brand back under local ownership.

rom training programs for the Flying Pig Marathon to supplying the best shoes and gear in the region, Bob Roncker’s Running Spot was iconic among the Cincinnati running community. After Roncker sold to a corporate entity in 2014 and ownership changed, the stores are now going back to their locally owned roots. Fleet Feet Owners Frank and Stacey DeJulius announced that Fleet Feet will acquire the former Bob Roncker's, most recently Jack Rabbit, locations this summer in Glendale, Loveland, Newport, and the ﬂagship store in O’Bryonville, giving Fleet Feet a total of eight stores. “Bob Roncker is a good friend of mine,” says DeJulius. “He’s the ﬁrst person I called when the deal went through. He was really excited that his stores will be locally [owned again]. We are carrying on Bob’s legacy, and the running culture he built paved the way for us.” Some of the stores have team members who were on staff under Ronker’s leadership and DeJulius says they plan to pay homage to the history of the iconic Cincinnati running store while incorporating the Fleet Feet brand,

especially at the O’Bryonville location. For DeJulius and Fleet Feet, it’s less about the products they sell and more about community. “We want to run with the community, not just sell them the product,” says DeJulius. “Those things slipped when it was owned by a corporate entity.” Fleet Feet is the Official Training Partner for the Flying Pig Marathon and Heart Mini, training more than 1,000 athletes in Cincinnati annually, and DeJulius and his teamexpect to grow their offerings and develop new community runs. Fleet Feet also offers the largest curated selection of running gear in the tri-state, stocking apparel and shoe brands including lululemon, Brooks, Asics, and New Balance, while also offering expert personal service and their proprietary 3D ﬁtting technology, ﬁt ID®. DeJulius emphasizes that it’s a partnership with the brands he works with. Annually, he goes to his brand partners and asks how they will help support the community through initiatives and fun events, while also providing the best gear. In return for the business, vendors support local organizations in the running community. Recently, Fleet Feet worked with Feetures socks to

partner with the stores’ shoe donation program. Every year, Fleet Feet donates shoes to the City Gospel Mission for the less fortunate and individuals recovering from addiction. But that means those folks also need socks. Without questions, Feetures shipped hundreds of socks for Fleet Feet to donate with the shoes. In the summer, Brooks partners with Fleet Feet to sponsor the Hyde Park Blast, which beneﬁts The Cure Starts Now foundation, an organization that fund-raises for research around rare forms of childhood cancers. “We invest money from our sales back into our community—it’s an important line item in our annual budget,” says DeJulius. “Whether that’s in the form of cash for big initiatives [like the] American Heart Association, Girls on the Run, the University of Cincinnati Hospital Medical Center, or local churches and schools to buy new equipment for a sports team. We work with them to contribute portions of our sales.” Stop by one of Fleet Feet’s eight locations for the best running clothing and shoes—and ﬁnd a welcoming group of folks ready to hit the pavement with you this summer.

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I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H F L E E T F E E T

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WATER WORKS

A new CAC show explores the ways water both gives life and destroys. STEVEN ROSEN

S AMARA ANTILLA, THE CON-

P H OTO G R A P H BY RYA N K U R T Z . I M AG E CO U R T E S Y O F T H E CO N T EM P O R A RY A R T S C EN T ER

temporary Arts Center’s senior curator, explains it, the idea for the show Breaking Water (on view May 6–August 14) began as she thought about Cincinnati’s proximity to the Ohio River. With awareness of climate change growing, she realized water itself is both a positive life force and an agent of destruction. Antilla began to have discussions with artists she knew or admired, and Breaking Water took shape. “Each of the artworks included raises a different perspective on water, the issues related to climate change, and the need to decenter the human perspective as we think about the environment and water’s central role in our lives,” she says. Ultimately, she and French cocurator Clelia Coussonnet selected work from an international array of 17 artists working in the Philippines, France, Italy, Finland, Britain, Uzbekistan, and several U.S. states. Some have multicultural and multinational backgrounds, including collaborators Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, who live and work in both Lithuania and the Boston area, and Calista Lyon, who comes from Australia but is based in Charlottesville, Virginia. The show fea- CONTINUED ON P. 18

P H O TO I L LU S T R AT I O N BY RYA N S N O O K

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 1 7

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The Who will play TQL Stadium May 15, the band’s ﬁrst Cincinnati show since the infamous crush at their December 1979 concert killed 11. An April 2020 NKU show was cancelled by the pandemic. Expect a lot of emotion both on and off stage. thewho.com/tour 1 8 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

SPEAK EASY

A CHANGING OF THE GUARD AT CINCINNATI BALLET X Cincinnati Ballet has undergone major changes during the pandemic’s two-plus years of turmoil. Artistic Director Victoria Morgan retires this summer, less than a year after the $30 million Margaret and Michael Valentine Center for Dance opened in Walnut Hills. Jodie Gates, founding director of the University of Southern California’s Kaufman School of Dance, replaces Morgan, whose ﬁnal season wraps up with the Bold Moves Festival May 12–22. Your résumé includes every position except artistic director of a major company. Why now? Being a founder and a founding director takes a lot of energy. I was learning on the job. After doing that twice, I’m excited to come into an environment that has a strong foundation, a strong support staff, and is artistically embedded in the community. It has a healthy budget and really smart people, from the dancers to the artistic and administrative staff. Victoria Morgan rebuilt an organization that was in disarray. What is the challenge of succeeding her? My goal is to build on what we have, and I’m up

for those challenges. Children are the future. That’s why I asked to be artistic director of the Otto M. Budig Academy as well. Those young people, teenagers, trainees, and secondcompany dancers are the future, and I hope they’ll become stars of tomorrow. You have spent most of your career on the coasts in New York and California. Did you ever think you’d live in the Midwest? I was here for three weeks in 2013 when Victoria brought me for a program, and I did spend quite a bit of time in Chicago when the Joffrey Ballet [where I performed] was moving there from New York in 1995. I’m excited to get to know my new home. You lived in Southern California for years before accepting your new job in January. Who were you rooting for in the Super Bowl? I was the only Bengals fan at the party I attended. I love football. To me, it’s a form of strategic choreography. If you watch closely, you see the patterns and choreography of the plays. —BILL THOMPSON READ A LONGER INTERVIEW WITH JODIE AT CINCINNATIMAGAZINE. COM

PH OTO G R A PHS BY J O N ATH A N W I LLI S

PH OTO G R A PH S (G ATE S) BY R A LPH PA LU M B O A N D ( TH E W H O) CO U R TE S Y LIV E N ATI O N / I CO N BY J EN K AWA N A RI

tures installation and video art, One artist who will show preexistphotography, painting, sculpture, ing work is Vian Sora, who was born and performance. in Baghdad but now lives in Louisville. “We don’t choose artists based on Her paintings convey a fluid-like sense of motion between the figurative and where they’re from, so it’s in part cointhe abstract. She’ll be presenting seven cidence that we ended up with artists pieces, including the new painting Rivfrom these places,” Antilla says. “But it does demonstrate that the importance of er Bed, a response to last year’s deadly these questions extends beyond CincinKentucky tornadoes. “If you look at that nati or Midwestern conversations into painting, there are deflated bodies restsomething much more international.” ing over branches,” Sora says. “I don’t The exhibition’s title comes from want to say it’s about climate change, but it’s definitely a reaction to that.” the name of a new video installaSora lived with her famtion work that Antilla commissioned from Lyon and Carily in Baghdad during the men Winant, a San Francisco chaotic violence that began native who’s now a Columbusin 2003 when a U.S.-led cobased photographer and an asalition invaded to oust Sadsociate art professor at Ohio Drink It in dam Hussein. Leaving for The Contemporary London in 2006, she met an State University. The multiArts Center is open channel video plays on a loop American man she wanted Wednesdays through to show images not only of the to marry, and they settled in Sundays, and admisways that water can break but Louisville, his hometown. sion is free. also the way the word break She’s come to Cincinnati several times to visit the CAC because can have different meanings. “River it was designed by the Iraq-born archidams exploding,” says Antilla, “and walls being pushed over by water in the tect Zaha Hadid. “It makes me feel safe,” context of hurricanes and other natural says Sora. “It has something that resodisasters.” nates with me, maybe because of all her The meaning of “breaking water” in remodern lines and the way she chose to gard to pregnancy and childbirth figures execute that building. I always wanted to in the work as well.“That’s the transition show there some day.” from being in the womb to the process of Breaking Water opens at the CAC entering the world,” Antilla says. “That’s as the museum seeks a return to northe first pivotal moment in anyone’s life malcy after pandemic cutbacks and last when you start breathing and existing. I year’s departure of its director, Raphaela Platow. Interim Director Marcus Marthink, for Calista and Carmen, that was a really apt metaphor for the shift in pergerum says there could be a new leaderspective that’s necessary as we think ship hire announced by August or Sepabout issues related to climate change.” tember.

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STYLE STYLE COUNSEL COUNSEL

Eric Nally OCCUPATION: Lead singer of Foxy Shazam STYLE: “It’s a confidence thing.”

What’s the connection between fashion and music and fashion and performing? Does one inform the other? I like to feel like I look good. It helps me sound good. I remember hearing an interview with Miles Davis, and he said your posture and the way that you look is how you sound. His bass player was standing a certain way, and he’s like, “Look how he’s standing. He sounds like that. He sounds straight up. He sounds like he’s strong, and he sounds like he has blond hair.” You dress like someone who loves fashion. Or is that something that comes along with the territory of being a musician? I like aesthetics. I’m a visual person, so sometimes I’ll hear a song, and I’ll be like, “I love this song,” and [then] I’ll see the person who’s performing it. It changes how I hear the song. I really do feel like a lot of my fashion sense comes from thrift stores. In the Midwest, when I was a teenager, that was what I did. My fashion was just waiting for something to catch my eye. Do you pick out your own clothes to perform in? There is one person I’ve called upon in the past to kind of help me pick resources, or help me ﬁnd things. But it’s always what I was thinking. Are there any spots in Cincinnati where you love to shop or always ﬁnd great pieces? I used to work at St. Vincent de Paul in Milford. Thrift stores are weird because sometimes there’s good stuff, but it’s all perspective. One thing could be weird to me and another thing could be great to someone else. That’s what’s beautiful about it. What’s the last thing you bought that got you really excited? I bought this body suit. I wore it on stage, and the thing was skintight, so I was just extremely insecure, but it was a challenge, so I was able to get over that. Because of that, it became my favorite thing. — J A C L Y N Y O U H A N A G A R V E R

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PH OTO G R A PH BY D E V Y N G LI S TA

STOREFRONT

LIVIN’ LA DOLCE VITA FROM ITS PRIME FINDLAY MARKET LOCATION, NOLI BRINGS ITALIAN SOPHISTICATION INTO CINCINNATI HOMES, ONE KITCHEN AT A TIME.

—LAUREN FISHER

How does a biopharmaceutical executive from Verona end up becoming Cincinnati’s sole purveyor of luxury Italian kitchens? Good question. For Agostino Fede (below left), owner and founder of NOLI, it went something like this: After retiring from corporate life, Fede moved to New York City, where he began, as he puts it, a sort of grand “rewiring.” The question, he says, was simple—if a bit belated at age 49. “What do I want to be when I grow up?” With a knack for interiors and a background in laboratory design, kitchens felt like a natural ﬁt. “It’s very analytical—very much for engineers like me,” Fede says. “A kitchen needs to be precise.” The average homeowner probably doesn’t think of a kitchen as a lab. But at Fede’s showroom, located in a stylish corner storefront at Findlay Market, you can easily get where he’s coming from. NOLI’s particular style of kitchen is breathtaking in its minimalism. Clean lines, sleek materials, and modern sensibility abound. The appliances, if you can spot them, are typically tucked away, recessed into the cabinetry. Most of the cabinets don’t even have handles— at least not that you can see. “It comes, I think, from the DNA and the history of Italy,” Fede says. “It’s really about timelessness. We have a lot of masters, a lot of architects who

have worked out the timeless component, which is actually taking features away. It’s a subtraction. We’re trying to eliminate all the visual noise we can.” Combined, NOLI’s Italian fabricators— which include high-end brands like MAISTRI, Olivieri, and Edoné— have more than 200 years of experience doing this kind of work. “Those relationships are very deeply built,” Fede says. “And the same with our installers and with stone fabrication and installation. We get the best. Our advantage is the ability to execute—so when we get customers to come into the showroom, they see what they get.” The goal, Fede says,

is to make each NOLI kitchen a setting for people and experiences. Minimal distractions and minimal clutter mean more time to gather and enjoy company and cuisine. “We’re just the canvas,” he says. “And then you can layer it with people, with food, experience, ﬂavor, sounds. We’re just basically a background that needs to be functional, and typically quieting and pleasing. And then we layer it with experiences.”

NOLI MODERN ITALIAN LIVING, 100 W. ELDER ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, (513) 331-1548, NOLIMODERN.COM

Supply chain issues have been wreaking havoc on kitchen construction. But NOLI has been able to avoid the headache, thanks in part to its relationships with Italian fabricators. GOOD TO KNOW

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

DR. KNOW

memory in Milford could be similarly based on a gauzy Hallmark tradition, but prepare for a little disappointment. Seven species of seagulls are known to live in Ohio. They mostly hang around Lake Erie and the Ohio River, but also make their way to inland bodies of water and are frequently found in the parking lots of shopping centers during the winter. It’s not the Christmas sales that attract them—it’s the garbage left in large bins. Humanity’s tradition of throwing away untold quantities of edible food brings the seagulls to Milford just as reliably as the swallows return to Capistrano or the pigeons to Fountain Square. Feel free to cherish your childhood memory. The heart wants what it wants. But so does the stomach.

Q+ A

How does Google Maps get its information about Cincinnati lane closures? For days it’s been showing the ramp from I-71 to the Norwood Lateral as closed, with a speciﬁc re-opening date. But the ramp is not closed at all, and it screwed up my commute. How does something like that happen? —NONE DIRECTION DEAR NONE:

I have fond winter memories of my dad taking me to the old Delco Plaza parking lot in Milford. We’d bring stale bread for the seagulls, who were always circling above. Last winter I drove by, and the seagulls are still there! Why are seagulls in Cincinnati at all, and what’s with this “tradition?” —WHAT THE FLOCK

DEAR FLOCK:

Some readers undoubtedly know of the famous Swallows of Capistrano, who migrate thousands of miles each spring to gather at California’s Mission San Juan Capistrano. Their annual pilgrimage has inspired romantic legends and songs. The Doctor wishes that your treasured childhood

2 6 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

As the saying goes: Google works in mysterious ways, its wonders to sell to advertisers. Google Maps vacuums its data from many sources. Its green/orange/red traffic congestion lines come from millions of users’ phones as they move (or don’t), and its official construction notices come from various local and state highway departments. In other words, the error you noted about the not-really-closed Norwood Lateral ramp was generated by a software glitch, an incompetent human, or Russian disinformation—take your pick. The important thing is that nobody can be held accountable. If it’s any consolation, your query was directly responsible for the retraction of this scurrilous fake news. After the Doctor contacted the Ohio Department of Transportation about your travails, Press ILLUSTR ATIO N S BY L A R S LEE TA RU

Secretary Matt Bruning sprang into action, working the bureaucratic levers at Google Maps, and the image of the red-lined ramp promptly disappeared down the memory hole. Thank you, Citizen None Direction. We need more like you, committed to truth and accuracy. Next, see if you can get Google Maps to teach their friendly GPS voice how far away a quarter-mile actually is.

My veterinarian in Covedale has a framed Cincinnati Times-Star page from 1930, welcoming Covedale’s annexation into the city of Cincinnati. It says 50,000 grapevines were torn out to make way for new homes. What? Was Covedale something like the Napa Valley of the Midwest, minus the spas? —MAKE COVEDALE GRAPE AGAIN

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Raise a glass of Covedale Catawba to the memory of The Times-Star, a long-gone local paper. The page about Covedale does not seem to exemplify journalistic objectivity, though: “Behold Covedale! Bright and sparkling like a freshly cut diamond!” The entire page is like that. One section gushes over a “pioneer farmer” named Henry Ludwig, “hoeing in his neatly-kept garden, ruddy-faced and hearty at 76,” written by a journalist suspiciously named Charles Ludwig. Hmm. On that day’s front page, the banner headline is about a Norwood Kroger holdup man who was quickly apprehended with his toy gun. Not exactly Pulitzer Prize material. Oh, that’s right, you asked about grapevines. The Covedale puff piece mentions that during the previous ﬁve years “more than 50,000 grapevines were torn out by the roots” to make way for about 400 new homes. By 1930 the fresh homes were all mortgage-ready, just in time for the Great Depression. But the Doctor, perusing other documents of the time, ﬁnds no mention of a grapevine massacre—no Napa, no nada. Perhaps this tale came from yet another Ludwig.

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BroadwayInCincinnati.com • 800.294.1816 M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 2 7

ON THE MARKET

ADDRESS: 2242 U.S. ROUTE 50, STONELICK TOWNSHIP LISTING PRICE: $1,249,800

DOWN ON THE FARM

IF YOU’RE LIKE THE VAST MAJORITY OF US, YOU EXPERIENCED A MO-

ment during the pandemic where you thought, Why don’t I drop everything and move to the countryside? For those whose dreams include ﬂeeing the city center for green grass and wide open spaces, homes like this one, set on 14 sprawling Clermont County acres, are more appealing than ever. The current owners purchased the property, located just off U.S. Route 50, with the dream of building a rustic wedding venue. While that dream didn’t quite materialize, there are plenty of opportunities (Hint: Airbnb/bed-and-breakfast/long-term rental) to make this property into much more than just a private residence. The home itself is fresh and airy, removed from the city without being too far away. Farmhouse chic is, as much as we hate to admit it, on its way out. But done in an actual farmhouse? Now we’re talking. Originally built in 1924, the house was recently renovated top-to-bottom to meet modern tastes and standards without sacriﬁcing the char2 8 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

acter. Old-school ceiling medallions crown the living room and study, while spaces like the stairwell and kitchen feature accents of that white shiplap that has become synonymous with the modern farmhouse aesthetic. The owner’s suite is an oasis with its rich blue paneled accent wall and walkout veranda, which offers a postcard-worthy panorama of the property. Draped with curtains and outfitted with a ceiling fan, it’s a tempting hangout space, especially during those sticky Cincinnati summers. But as charming as the house itself is, it’s the sprawling outdoor wonderland that’s the real selling point. Between eight fenced paddocks, a stocked fishing pond, a barn that perfectly matches the house, and a Martha Stewart–worthy garden, you might just be hard-pressed to find time to spend inside. If you do have to break from your farmyard paradise, you’ll find plenty of extra room to stretch your legs in the oversized-garage-slash-man-cave, or in the guest cottage, which is just as adorable as, well…literally everything else.

PH OTO G R A PHS BY T IM SPA N AG EL / CO U R T E S Y CO L DW EL L B A N K ER RE A LT Y

READY TO LEAVE THE CITY BEHIND? THIS CENTURY-OLD CLERMONT COUNTY FARMHOUSE IS AN IDYLLIC COUNTRYSIDE ESCAPE. — L A U R E N F I S H E R

I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H D E S T I N - F O R T WA LT O N B E A C H , F L O R I D A

I T ’ S T I M E F O R Y O U R FA M I LY T O D I S C O V E R

Destin Fort Walton Beach

incinnati and the Gulf Coast have always had an unbreakable bond. For decades, we’ve been making the trek down I-75 to escape too-long winters and find a place where the surf meets the sand. Let’s just say there’s a reason the Florida coasts are dotted with the occasional Skyline Chili. Because that bond of ours? It’s pretty special. With more than 24 miles of white sand beaches, a booming dining scene, and natural wonders around every corner, DestinFort Walton Beach is a Gulf Coast paradise for the whole family. And thanks to new direct flights from CVG through Allegiant, the journey is easier than ever: In less than two hours, you could have your toes firmly planted in the sand. And whether your idea of vacation is relaxing on the beach or getting out to experience the unexpected, a trip to Destin-Fort Walton Beach means your family can have the best of both worlds. Spend a morning at HarborWalk Village, then hit the water on your very own pontoon boat or choose from one of dozens of kid-friendly “Little Adventures.” No matter what you do, this is a trip your family will remember for years to come. t

DECEMBER 2013

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I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H D E S T I N - F O R T WA LT O N B E A C H , F L O R I D A

W H E R E T O S TAY

If you’re looking for a resort experience that harkens back to the Gulf Coast spirit that has kept families coming to the Panhandle for generations, there’s no need to search far and wide. Built in the 1960s, The Island Resort spent its heyday as a Ramada before a total remodel and rebranding in the 2010s that brought the classic waterfront property into the 21st century. Parents will find a nostalgic resort experience that has been modernized, while hanging on to that classic Florida feel. Younger guests, meanwhile, can expect a beachfront wonderland, full of adventure around every turn. The suites are luxurious and stocked with amenities, but what’s the fun of staying in your room? Start the day with breakfast at Fish House, a breezy, Southern-style resort restaurant just steps away from the courtyard. Better yet, take a dip and dine in your swimsuit at The Island Grille, an outdoor restaurant serving American standards, perfectly sandwiched between the swimming pools. On the weekends, be sure to carve out time for a visit with Misty, the resort’s resident mermaid. You heard that right—every Saturday and Sunday, Misty takes a plunge in The Grotto, one of The Island’s crystal-clear swimming pools. Younger guests can join her for a swim or stop by to hear a live reading of her very own book, The Missing Tiara. While the kiddos are occupied with their mermaid friend, parents can 3 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

slip beneath the Grotto’s waterfalls to grab a drink at the swim-up bar while staying close by. The weather in the panhandle can dip a few degrees below the Florida norm in the later season, but luckily, The Island is prepared—if there’s a nip in the air, just bring the family to the heated pool, or relax in the family-friendly hot tub. Ready to trade the pool for a little salt and sand? Thanks to The Island’s prime Gulf-front real estate, it’s a remarkably easy trip to 600 feet of sugar-white beach and emerald waters. Rent a beach chair, grab an umbrella, and park your crew in the sand to enjoy the unbeatable views and fun in the sun. F U N F O R T H E W H O L E FA M I LY

You can’t spend all day lounging on the beach. Luckily, there are even more outdoor opportunities awaiting you a short drive from the water! With 24 miles of beaches, plus numerous protected bayous and bays just a stone’s throw from the Gulf of Mexico, you’d be doing yourself (and your family) a disservice by staying put. With its central location on Okaloosa Island, John Beasley State Park is a popular choice for families—and for good reason. Just off the coast of this amenity-rich beach, you’ll find one of the area’s artificial reefs, built to enhance and protect the natural marine environment. The reefs

I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H D E S T I N - F O R T WA LT O N B E A C H , F L O R I D A

This is a trip your family will remember for years to come.

I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H D E S T I N - F O R T WA LT O N B E A C H , F L O R I D A

are easy to see through the turquoise water, so grab a snorkel (and a boogie board or two) and get out there! The expansive park is also a prime spot to put your creative skills to the test by booking a sandsculpting lesson for the whole family to enjoy! Beach Sand Sculptures will provide family lessons chock full of tips that’ll take your sand-sculpting game from ho-hum to extraordinary. Be sure to order a sandcastle tool kit, filled with all the forms, brushes, and buckets the experts use to create outof-this-world sculptures. When it’s time to take a breather on dry land, head down the Miracle Strip Parkway and take a breezy walk down the Island Pier, a massive structure that extends 1,262 feet into the Gulf of Mexico. For just $2, you can snag a walking pass that’s your ticket to an afternoon’s worth of family fun. Grab some ice cream for the road (available at the start of the pier) and discover an atmosphere that’s bursting with life. If you keep your eyes peeled, you might just spot a dolphin leaping through the waves, or the shadow of a sea turtle in the water below. Watching the anglers at work is part of the fun. If you bring your own gear, the pier has fishing passes available for the whole family. No gear? No problem. You can rent your own right there at the bait shop. When you’re finished, take a short walk over to The Boardwalk, a beach-

front attraction overflowing with options for everyone, from shopping and dining to amenities for beachgoers of all ages. Take a coffee break at Pino Gelato Cafe and relax while kids enjoy the playground on the beach. A TA S T E O F D E S T I N

Sitting at the culinary intersection of Southern comfort, Louisiana Creole, and Latin flavor does wonders for the dining scene in Destin-Fort Walton Beach. All across the shore (and on the mainland, too!), you’ll find limitless options sure to satisfy every palate—even for the pickiest of diners. Just next door to The Island Resort, Rockin Tacos is a beachside restaurant featuring south-of-the-border flavors and breathtaking views of the Gulf. Snag a table on the expansive balcony and kick off the meal with the Mexican Street Corn, grilled on the cob and smothered in chipotle aioli and queso fresco. Everything here is cooked fresh and served in plus-sized portions, including the deliciously spicy house-made queso. With its central location, unparalleled views, and killer food, Rockin Tacos had us coming back for more. After indulging in the TV-famous blackened shrimp burrito (not for the faint of heart) and a Rockin Rita, we couldn’t not come back for Sunday brunch. The “Everything & The Kitchen Sink” is a delightful hodgepodge of toasty biscuits, scrambled eggs, veggies, cheese, and pico—the perfect fuel for a day of Gulf Coast adventure. And don't worry: There are plenty of options for the kiddos too, including tacos, burgers, and a kid-sized bean and cheese burrito. In the mood for some lighter fare? Located in charming downtown Fort Walton Beach, The Cowhead is a colorful, lively lunch stop with plenty of options to suit everybody in your squad. Build your own burger (or order off the menu), order a side of crispy tater tots, and be sure to try one of the hand-scooped milkshakes that have made this spot a local favorite. If it’s seafood you’re after, check out The Crab Trap at The Boardwalk! There’s nothing quite like enjoying the fresh catch perched above the Gulf, so be sure to put in an order for the crab legs or award-winning gumbo, then kick back and take in the view. INLAND ADVENTURES

The Gulf Coast just won’t stop showing off, will it? Explorers of all ages will marvel at the natural beauty of Destin-Fort Walton Beach, even once they’ve left the shoreline. 3 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

The area is part of the Gulf Island National Seashore, a protected region that serves as both an invaluable haven for wildlife and a barrier that shelters the mainland. Head inland to discover a bevy of nature preserves, parks, and bayous that showcase some of the best scenery the region has to offer.

I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H D E S T I N - F O R T WA LT O N B E A C H , F L O R I D A

paradise featuring 60 campsites and 6,000 feet of open shoreline. Best of all? Henderson is pet-friendly, so feel free to bring Fido along for a truly all-inclusive camping experience. Looking for the perfect place to take the kids for some non-saltwater swimming? At Turkey Creek Park, you’ll find a shady oasis (thanks to the towering cypress trees) and an easy-flowing river that’s practically begging for you to jump in. Bring along a raft to make your way down the stream lazyriver style. G E T O U T O N T H E WAT E R

Just over the bridge from eastern Destin, you’ll discover Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park, a local favorite that’s popular for everything from kayaking and jet-skiing to camping and hiking. Speaking of camping—we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Henderson Beach State Park, a gulfside

Let’s be honest—you didn’t just come to Florida to stay on dry land. You came to Florida to get out on the water. And in Destin-Fort Walton Beach, you don’t have to go far to find some of the best aquatic opportunities the Gulf Coast has to offer. There are plenty of boat rental companies dotting the coast, but we’d recommend Island Watersports Company, which offers single and double-decker pontoon boats. Book your trip with a personal pontoon captain, or pilot one yourself for a day on the water with family. Be sure to secure your Florida Temporary Boating Certificate before you head to the water. It only takes about 15 minutes—well worth a full day cruising across the waves! After an easy jaunt through the harbor, pick up the speed and zip through the bay, where emerald waters and fair breezes made for a perfectly splendid trip. Pack a cooler and plug in some tunes if you’re planning to make a day of it. Better yet, take the family out to Spectre Island, a haven for wildlife located just a few miles away from the harbor. Kids (and parents!) will love the freedom of parking the boat just steps away from the sand to explore everything the island has to offer.

Be sure to check out Island Watersports map, located on your boat, for recommendations on where to cruise—and where to go dolphin-watching! If it’s underwater adventure you’re after, book a lesson with Scuba Tech or Destin Snorkel! Designed for ages 10 and up, this half-day course will teach you everything you need to know to dive beneath the surface. Not quite ready to take the full plunge? Destin boasts plenty of snorkeling options, including SNUBA, an accessible snorkel-SCUBA hybrid that uses a 20-foot air line to keep divers underwater for up to 30 minutes at a time. Once you’re back on dry land at the end of the day, take your crew out for a night of family fun at HarborWalk Village, the beating heart of Destin’s downtown area. There, you’ll find entertainment day and night, from unbeatable dining options to shopping and attractions for the kids. Scale the 40-foot rock wall right in the center of the harbor, get a bird’s eye view from a zipline, or board a pirate ship for a taste of the high seas. When you’re ready to settle in for the evening, grab a cone from the ice cream bar and find a spot to take in the summertime fireworks. The perfect end to a perfect day in Destin-Fort Walton Beach? We certainly think so.

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 3 3

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WE LCO ME TO MIDDLEHOOD BY JUDI KETTELER

A Big World After All VISITING NEW YORK CITY TO BREAK OUT OF OUR PANDEMIC FAMILIARITY, WITH MIXED RESULTS.

WHEN AIRLINES CANCELED FLIGHTS IN MARCH 2020, I WAS TEMPORARILY RELIEVED TO get a break from traveling for my work. But I was sad to miss journalism events, and especially disappointed because I’d been planning on taking my then-9-year-old daughter to Boston for one of them. After all, I had taken our son, now 13, with me to fun locations like Venice Beach while reporting on a story. It was supposed to be her turn. “I’ll make it up to you,” I told her. “But we won’t go to Boston,” she pouted. I searched for consolation, reaching for a destination that was even higher on her list. (Sorry, Boston, I think you’re great.) “How about if we go to New York City instead?” Her eyes danced. “When? Soon!?” “No, not soon.” What I wanted to say was, “I can’t imagine we’ll ever leave town again.” Every morning that spring, I read about what New York City was going through. The ter3 6 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

ror. The stories of people losing parents and spouses. The nurses and doctors who had to watch patients die. I’d visited New York City about 20 times over the last 25 years, and I tried to imagine the familiar places. The people. The closed-in feeling. Living here in suburban Cincinnati, we had the luxury of backyards and uncrowded streets. We bubbled up and stayed put, as the fortunate were able to do. And when we did start going places in 2021—like the beaches of Lake Michigan, a half-day’s drive away—they felt like places cut from the same cloth as here, just with more water. Our life was a gray circle of sameness. There is, of course, huge privilege in sameness. I already worked from home as a writer. My husband was a stay-at-home dad. We were set up for this. So we weathered it. FOR TWO YEARS, MY DAUGHTER KEPT asking me when we were going to New York City. For the longest time, my answer was, “As soon as vaccinations are approved for your age group.” After she was vaccinated, it became, “As soon as this Omicron surge passes.” And then one Thursday a few months ago, she said, “I know we’re never going to New York.” “We will go! I just don’t want to plan and then have to cancel.” I heard the absurdity tumbling from my mouth. Living in fear of cancellation was not the example I wanted to set for my kids. So the minute she got on the school bus, I started searching ﬂights to New York City for Presidents Day weekend. She had days off from school. I still had travel credits from 2020. It was the perfect match. Her squeal when I told her that afternoon was the stuff that parents live for. We immediately started making a list of mustsees. Museums would not be on the list, she informed me. Shopping would be. I was 11 once, so I understood. I also knew there were more ways to experience a place than paying an endless series of admission fees. While her goal was to ﬁnd the perfect jeans and the trendiest sweatshirt, my goal was for her to have new and different experiences. In her mind, we were going to a giant outdoor mall, just with tall buildings. In my mind, we were going to experience the city’s texture and have big adventures. But almost as soon as we got there—and certainly after the long taxi ride from the ILLUSTR ATIO N BY D O L A SU N

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airport—she was already talking about going home. Venturing out the first day, she was scared of the subway, of crowded sidewalks and street performers, of Times Square. She squeezed me like I was her personal Squishmallow. Any time I would hesitate on which subway line to take or which direction we needed to go, she would panic. I would reassure with my “spirit of adventure” pep talk. “This is all part of it,” I’d say, “not quite knowing where you’re going but figuring it out as you go.” “I don’t like that,” she said. Why was she so scared? I tried to riddle it. We’d certainly spent time in urban environments before. She wasn’t frightened of people as much as she was of the idea of being lost. Of the jolt of the unfamiliar. Of the bigness around her. At one point, she said, “My favorite part of the day is when we get back to the hotel.” If I’m being honest—which I try to be, since I wrote a book about the power of being honest—I had known she wouldn’t be comfortable at all times. And that’s exactly why I knew we had to go. We’ve been in a waiting game for two years trying to “stay safe” as we waited to see what was next. But her idea of “safe” had morphed into “never leaving the familiar.” That wouldn’t do. WE SHOPPED IN SOHO, WALKED through the Fashion District, ate fresh doughnuts in Bryant Park, and saw Wicked. But every fun moment seemed to be followed by a moment of her panicking or stressing. The last day, we took the subway down to the 9/11 Memorial to see the remembrance pools, which sit where the North Tower and South Tower once stood. She had learned about 9/11 in school, but she had no frame of reference for what had been destroyed and rebuilt. You can’t understand what resilience looks like from a classroom 600 miles away. Even with Zoom. The names of those killed encircle each reflecting pool, and we read some aloud. “You’re crying,” she said. “It’s because I’m sad and I’m humbled,” I responded. Seeing me upset was almost as stressful for her as the subway. But I wasn’t going to hide it. Being fully

in the world meant sitting with whatever emotions came up. Had I been doing this, or had I been trying to make everything OK for two years? “Let’s walk down by the water,” I said. “There’s something I want you to see.” There, at Manhattan’s tip, she looked out across the pretty blue expanse and said, “Oh yeah, there’s the Statue of Liberty.” It wasn’t quite the “Oh my god!” moment I wanted. But as we further explored The Battery, she spontaneously did a front handspring along one of the paths. That’s her comfort move. The one that says, “I was here,” the way carving your initials into a tree might. The ground wasn’t hers to claim, but the experience was. The moment of bigness. And I realized that’s what I’d wanted all along, not a quick gasp at a landmark. I pulled my hat down over my ears against the freezing February wind and reﬂected on my ideas about things big and things small. We’d been talking about big ideas around our kitchen table while living within small boundaries. I wanted to take my kid somewhere big and eye-opening to counteract that, but the only way to take it in was through a series of small, meaningful experiences. Is it a small world after all, or a big one? For me, these last two years have been about keeping my head down, working hard, giving generously, clinging tightly to the values I believe in, and pulling the people I love in close. How does a person keep all the things close while letting themselves expand again? How does a tween who has come of age during a pandemic do it? I’m not suggesting everyone head to Times Square. In truth, it’s a pretty obnoxious little corner of the world. But I do think we need to get ourselves to the unfamiliar. To the places big in spirit where the small moments live. So pick your city. Or your mountain. Whatever your vibe is. Just go with your family to see the big world. This might be the window right now. We don’t know what’s coming next. We don’t know when everything will get small again.

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M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 3 9

CITY WISE BY CARRIE BLACKMORE SMITH

More Than Skin Deep

SYLVIA BROWNLEE REMINDS US THAT EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL BOTH INSIDE AND OUT.

SYLVIA BROWNLEE INVITES ME TO SIT IN ONE OF TWO COMFY CHAIRS WHERE SHE DOES consultations at her Silverton-based business, Skin by Brownlee & Co. Behind us, her skincare product line is elegantly displayed in tidy, neutral-toned packaging: cleansers, creams, serums, and four products that began selling exclusively on Target.com earlier this year. And to think, seven years ago she nearly called it quits. Chic in a sweater, jeans, white high-heeled boots, and a bright red lip, Brownlee asks to videotape our interview for her social media followers—which number around 16,000 on Instagram alone. There’s a folding table nearby with orders ready for shipment. Customers these days might see an ad for Skin by Brownlee & Co. while reading The New York Times online or in The Cincinnati Enquirer. She’s still on cloud nine from the Target launch and working long days to keep up. 4 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

“When I started my company, I was working out of a suite that was only about 200 square feet, about the size of this area we’re sitting in now,” says Brownlee, 47. She offers a quick tour, including the treatment room where she does facials and other procedures that brighten the skin, reduce acne, or acne scarring known as hyperpigmentation. Brownlee opened a smaller salon in Pleasant Ridge in 2015 after being laid off from a job as an area director for Empire Education Group, a nationwide beauty school with a Cincinnati location in Colerain Township. “I had a daughter, I had a mortgage, I had bills to pay,” she says. She also had some private clients and had gone back to school for a bachelor’s degree in management. Why not become an entrepreneur and start her own business? She was still doing it all then—hair, nails, facials, lashes, wax—but it didn’t feel exactly right. “I wanted to do something that made a difference,” Brownlee says. Today, her clients say she’s doing just that. But it took a leap of faith for her to ﬁnd her niche. Brownlee’s client list was growing in her small salon, but not as quickly as she wanted. “One day, I was like, This isn’t going to work, I’ve got to go get a job,” she recalls. So she packed up the salon and put all its contents in her car. She called the landlord, a long-time family friend, and said, “I’m done.” “No,” the friend replied. “You need to stick it out. You can do this.” Brownlee isn’t entirely sure why, but she listened, took the stuff out of her car, and set everything back up. “Nobody would’ve ever known,” Brownlee says, smiling at the memory. “No one knew I left and came back.” Brownlee decided to buckle down. She’d been dealt challenging hands before and had worked hard for what she had. She recognized that she was happiest when helping her clients get the skin they wanted, so she took every continuing education course she could in acne prevention and hyperpigmentation and never looked back. CHRISTIE BRYANT KUHNS, INTERIM president of the Urban League of Greater Southwest Ohio, began seeing Brownlee years ago to address some longtime skin isPH OTO G R A PH BY D E V Y N G LI S TA

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CITY WISE sues. A former member of the state house of representatives, she says she had no idea her skincare journey would become a selfcare one—and she has Brownlee to thank. “What you want is someone to wave a magic wand and just, you know, clear your skin up and make it glow,” Kuhns says. “But this is a partnership.” Brownlee and Kuhns talked about her diet and how she deals with stress. They settled on some lifestyle changes and a skincare routine. “When you’re on 50 different committees and you’re on everybody’s board, it can get really stressful, and my body reacts physically to stress,” says Kuhns says, who is currently a member of the Diversity Advisory Board for the Cincinnati Reds and a board member for the Ohio Poverty Law Center and the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati. “Sylvia helped me recognize my triggers and treat them, not just with the products but by establishing more healthy habits for my skin and managing my stress.” When Kuhns follows her skincare routine, she says the results are amazing. She appreciates that Brownlee makes her clients feel beautiful no matter what’s going on with their skin. “Depending on your current skin condition, you’re not going to see immediate results,” Kuhns says. “And you don’t want someone to feel ‘less than’ for the six months to a year before they start to see the dramatic results that they’re looking for.” The two women also talked about Brownlee’s business, her struggles, and her strategy. Kuhns watched Brownlee persevere when ﬁnances got tight and the schedule got crazy, when she created her own skincare line with a chemist in 2017, when she moved into her larger beauty and skincare clinic in Silverton, and when she nabbed the Target contract. Along the way, Brownlee stayed humble and true to her course, Kuhns says. “I’ve done a lot of work around women- and minority-owned companies,” says Kuhns. “It’s so inspiring to watch how much she’s grown over the years.” Ashley Styles met Brownlee a few years ago while looking for someone to help her learn how to take care of her skin. She’d just ﬁnished a degree in communications, and Brownlee brought her into the company to 4 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

“do her thing” and help with public relations work for the clinic. “It was important that I could find someone who looked like me,” says Styles, who is also Black. “Sylvia has taught me that change starts from within.” Brownlee was born and raised in Kennedy Heights, one of Cincinnati’s most diverse neighborhoods. She attended Withrow High School and completed the cosmetology program there. Her mother and grandmother inspired her to get into the beauty industry, teaching her to always put her best foot forward and modeling natural confidence. Until she started treating her breakouts, Brownlee struggled with acne herself, so she knows first-hand what skin problems can do to one’s confidence. “When their skin starts to clear, the change in attitude is priceless,” she says. “If you’ve never dealt with acne or hyperpigmentation, then you can’t really sympathize or empathize with what someone’s going through it.” Those issues can lead people to hide their skin with makeup or talk down to themselves. “I feel liberated in knowing that I’ll still shine without putting on makeup,” says Styles. “Not only is Sylvia knowledgeable in her field, but she genuinely cares for each client and improving their confidence through their skincare journey.” THERE’S NOTHING QUITE LIKE SEEING someone shine, Brownlee says, and knowing you helped them shine brighter. In the years before COVID, she organized a self-esteem camp for girls ages 13–18. The sleepover camp featured activities such as creating vision boards and yoga and was held at various places around town, including the Six Acres Bed and Breakfast in College Hill. Brownlee invited female speakers to talk about their journeys. The most popular activity by far was “Girl Talk,” when participants could drop nagging questions anonymously into a can and Brownlee would start discussions around a campfire while the group made s’mores. She encourages every young woman to find a person in her life she can feel comfortable going to with anything. “That could be an aunt or an older cousin,” she says. “It has to be someone older, someone

Sylvia’s Skincare Advice Be proactive instead of reactive with skincare. Acne takes 30–90 days to form, and skin takes 28–30 days to renew itself, Brownlee says. Start with these suggested routines below and know that breakouts might get worse before getting better. No matter your age, the ﬁrst thing to commit to is sunscreen every day at SPF 30 or higher. ▶

IN YOUR 20s

Use a cleanser, a moisturizer, and a sunscreen in the morning, and a cleanser and moisturizer at night. (Makeup wipes are not a cleanser.) ▶

IN YOUR 30s

Use a cleanser, a moisturizer, and a sunscreen in the morning. Add anti-aging products to your routine, such as a retinol or vitamin C serum. Start slow with these new products, a couple of times a week. Cleanse and moisturize at night. ▶

IN YOUR 40s AND UP

Use a cleanser, a moisturizer, and a sunscreen in the morning. Anti-aging prevention continues, but you may want to start correcting things like the loss of elasticity in your skin or the need for more moisture. Brownlee recommends a skin consultation to learn exactly what your skin needs. Take her free skin quiz to get started at skinbybrownleeandco.com.

who you’d respect what they tell you.” Brownlee knows two things from her own journey: You can’t do it alone, and you must stay committed to your skincare routine and yourself. First, though, you must know you’re beautiful inside and out. Still excited from the Target line launch party, Brownlee is planning another one: her seventh anniversary as a business. She’ll celebrate on June 12 at Somerhaus in Over-the-Rhine. “It’s important to celebrate the big wins, but the small wins, too,” she says. ICON BY IRINA STRELNIKOVA / STO CK . ADOBE .COM

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photographs by MARLENE ROUNDS opener food styling by KATY DOENCH prop styling by EMILY CESTONE

MAY 2022

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LaRosa’s Buddy LaRosa is the son of Italian immigrants who witnessed how much people loved his Aunt Dena’s pizza recipe at church festivals, so he and some friends took a chance in 1954 and opened their own pizzeria on the West Side. When his friends left the business, he renamed it LaRosa’s. While maintaining a family-friendly tradition—along with the original recipe—LaRosa and his own sons, Mike and Mark, have embraced consumers’ new dining and ordering habits by introducing dairy-free cheese and plant-based pepperoni options, regionally-sourced greens, and drive-through pickup windows. • Multiple locations, larosas.com

Izzy’s Reuben Known for its superior cuts of meat, Izzy’s has been in the deli business for more than 120 years. And nothing on the menu is more well-known than the restaurant’s “world’s greatest” Reuben. Stacked high with Izzy’s famous corned beef, the sandwich comes with sauerkraut, Izzy’s special dressing (a rich Thousand Island-ish ﬂavor), and melted imported Swiss cheese, served on rye bread. If you need an extra dose of corned beef, order a “Reubenator,” the double decker version of the classic. One bite and Izzy’s guarantees that you’ll be back. • Multiple locations, izzys.com

Skyline To many of us, Skyline and “Cincinnati chili” are synonymous. Visitors, ex-pats, and Cincinnati celebrities on national TV will all say, Let’s get some Skyline! when referring to the local delicacy. It’s easy to understand why, given its outsized presence downtown, at sports stadiums, and in numerous neighborhood business districts. And yet you can still harken back to the juggernaut’s early days by visiting the old-school Clifton parlor. • Multiple locations, skylinechili.com

Celebrity Dis Aftab Pureval, Cincinnati Mayor Shio Ramen, Kiki College Hill “My favorite food right now in Cincinnati, which I think is unique, is the Shio ramen at Kiki in College Hill. We Cincinnatians are well known for our love of noodles, and this is a dish that is reflective of a new classic that builds on the traditional love of Cincinnatians and is reflective of the growth, the diversity, and what’s next in our city. My wife and I found Kiki and specifically their ramen a couple years ago, and we really fell in love with it. It’s one of our favorite date night spots, we’ll go there pretty regularly, either just as a couple or with friends. It’s a great atmosphere there in College Hill. That is really reflective of the energy and dynamism that’s going on in Cincinnati.”

Glier’s Makes Goetta Evangelists of Us All —BRANDON WUSKE

Glier’s Meats, located in the heart of Covington, describes goetta as “A German breakfast sausage that blends the textures and ﬂavors of pork, beef, whole grain steel-cut oats, fresh onions, and spices.” And Glier’s should know: they sell more than a million pounds of the delicious breakfast mash-up every year. In the same way that goetta has become synonymous with breakfast in Cincinnati, Glier’s has become synonymous with goetta. I asked Glier’s second-generation president, Dan Glier, what makes goetta such an iconic local dish. He credits goetta’s quirkiness for its regional— and, increasingly, national—success: “It’s strange enough— weird enough—that people in Cincinnati take pride in it. And people take it with them, so that the whole country recognizes it.” Glier’s has a term for Cincinnatians who spread the gospel of goetta beyond our region: “Goetta Missionaries.” “Goetta Evangelists,” on the other hand, is the Glier’s term for goetta fans who introduce uninitiated locals to

P H OTO G R A P H CO U R T E SY O F F I C E O F M AYO R A F TA B P U R E VA L / G O E T TA FO O D S T Y L I N G BY K AT Y D O E N C H

our beloved breakfast meat. Of course, Glier’s Meats is the ultimate “Goetta Evangelist,” and has been since 1946. That’s when Dan’s father Robert Glier (who also came from a family of butchers) opened a small sausage shop on Pike Street in Covington. According to Dan Glier, the business operated relatively under the radar for decades before becoming the area’s premier purveyors of goetta: “For a long time, we weren’t getting any recognition. Then, about 35 years ago, we decided to focus on our best product: our goetta.” For evidence that the company’s paradigm shift paid off, look no further than Goettafest. The Glier’ssponsored event has been expanded to two weekends this year, in late July and early August. Dan Glier told me that this year’s festival will

feature 50 unique goetta concoctions (no duplicates allowed). Goetta Missionaries and Evangelists take note: this festival will be worth the pilgrimage.

MAY 2022

Iconic Sweets

These Cincinnati food icons know a thing or two about la dolce vita.

Graeter’s Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip The family-owned ice cream company introduced this ﬂavor in the late 1970s, and owner Richard Graeter says it’s the best-seller—more than 1.5 million gallons are devoured each year. What’s the secret to BRCC’s luxurious texture, distinct mauve color, and signature dark chocolate chunks? “Without question, you have to start with quality ingredients,” Graeter says, like local eggs, pure cane sugar, Peter’s Chocolate, Oregon black raspberries, and cream from the same fourthgeneration family dairy his father bought from. Then, there’s the signature French pot process. “When our ice cream comes out of a French pot, it’s thick, like peanut butter. Modern ice cream is still very liquid-like and foamy, so that it can be pumped into containers at a high speed.” Sacriﬁcing quality for speed has never been the Graeter’s way. The company still makes each batch 2½ gallons at a time, packing pints by hand. • Multiple locations, and your local supermarket, graeters.com

Kings Island’s Blue Soft Serve A day at Mason’s biggest playground isn’t complete without a ride on the Beast, a spin on the Monster, or a stop for a blue Smurf cone. The blueberry-ﬂavored soft serve was introduced in 1982 as an homage to those happy blue Hanna-Barbera characters, and it’s been sold (almost) every season since. When it took hiatus in 1992, fans cried out for the Smurf cone’s return, leading to its permanent reinstatement on park menus. Future generations reap the beneﬁts of their brave stand. • 6300 Kings Island Dr., Mason, (513) 754-5700, visitkingsisland.com

Busken Smiley Face Cookies Move over, Goldﬁsh—Cincinnati loves another snack that smiles back. Busken’s smiley sugar cookies have taken many forms over the years, like candidate cookies for presidential elections, honoring the seasons and our favorite sports teams, and even custom cookies with your image iced on. Nothing’s wrong with the classic smiley, though, which are tasty enough to eat by the dozen (we’re not talking about the minis, either). • Multiple locations, and your local supermarket, busken.com

Holtman’s Donuts There are simply too many tasty pastries at Holtman’s to single out just one icon, so we’ll say anything that ﬁts in that classic black-and-white box is iconic—from apple fritters to Long Johns, from maple bacon doughnuts to vegan treats, from blueberry cake dunkers to yeast raised glazed. Since 1960, Holtman’s has been serving up scratch-made breakfast treats (delicious at any time, and always best fresh). • Multiple locations, holtmansdonutshop.com

United Dairy Farmers Milkshakes and Malts A trip to UDF typically means fueling up, but where else can you top off your tank and grab an old-fashioned milkshake for the ride home? Made with UDF’s Homemade brand ice cream, a special malt base, malt powder, and fresh dairy, any ﬂavor you choose for this signature summer treat tastes like the good old days. • Multiple locations, and your local supermarket, udﬁnc.com

Schneider’s Ice Balls On any given summer evening, Schneider’s Sweet Shop has a line around the block for this wonderfully simple combination of snow cone and homemade ice cream. Owner Kelly Schneider-Morgan, who recently took over from her parents and has worked at the family business since she was 13, says there’s a reason people keep coming back: Everything about the ice balls, from the ice cream to the syrups to the ice itself, is made in-house using the same recipes the shop used when it opened in 1939. • 420 Fairﬁeld Ave., Bellevue, (859) 431-3545, schneiders candies.com

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Favorite Local Candies Aglamesis Bros. Chocolates For more than 100 years, Cincinnati has indulged in the rich gourmet chocolate confections (and signature ice cream and Italian ice) at Aglamesis Brothers. Picking up opera creams, salted caramels, toffee, or a double scoop cone in the charming Oakley location feels like stepping back in time to an Old World candy shop—but the ﬂavors inside are timeless.

Airheads The air smells a little sweeter near the Perfetti Van Melle plant in Erlanger, where these fruity treats are born. Airheads are undoubtedly a Halloween favorite, but we see no reason why you can’t grab a Mystery ﬂavor or a classic cherry chew any day of the week.

Papas Opera Creams Since 1935, Papas Candies in Covington has made chocolate-covered opera cream eggs an Easter favorite. Fill a basket with a dozen ﬂavors like peanut butter, maple nut, and mint cream. Whichever’s your favorite, Papa’s eggs are a delight to ﬁnd in your Easter grass.

Doscher’s Candy Canes and French Chews When you get something right the ﬁrst time, sometimes it’s best to leave it be. That seems to be the Doscher’s philosophy—the handcrafted candy canes still use the same recipe Claus Doscher created in 1871, and its signature French Chews have gotten stuck in the teeth of Cincinnatians for decades.

Buckeyes These chocolate-dipped peanut butter treats are named for their resemblance to the seeds that fall from the Buckeye trees dotting Ohio’s landscape, which themselves are named for, well, bucks’ eyes. A bevy of local shops stock the delicious confections—leading us to wonder if an “official state candy” designation might be in order. We’ll keep writing our congressman—and chowing down on Buckeyes in the meantime.

The BonBonerie Opera Cream Torte This luscious torte is made with delicate opera cream—a Cincinnati creation, in case you didn’t know—layered between rich chocolate cake, studded with chocolate shavings, and decorated with creamy white icing and white chocolate accents. The torte also features on many local dessert menus, and for good reason—you’d be hard-pressed to ﬁnd a cake more luxurious than this for a special occasion (or a just-because indulgence). • 2030 Madison Rd., O’Bryonville, (513) 321-3399, bonbonerie.com I C O N S BY E M I V I L L AV I C E N C I O

MAY 2022

New Icons

They may not be dynasties yet, but these local eateries have already cemented their status as instant Cincinnati classics.

Taste of Belgium In 2007, Jean-Francois Flechet began selling his dense Belgian waffles—made with a 120-pound cast iron press—in the back of a produce shop inside Findlay Market. Today, his empire has grown to seven bistro locations across the tri-state serving the most iconic chicken and waffle dish around. • Multiple locations, authenticwaffle.com

Gomez Salsa Andrew Gomez brought his abuelita’s ﬂavors from Brownsville, Texas, to Cincinnati, including the restaurants’ eponymous salsas like classic Gomez pico, spicy Kowabunga pico, corn, pineapple, and salsa verde. Perhaps most famous are the Turtle shells, stuffed with your choice of savory meats and ingredients, folded, and ﬁnished on a griddle to achieve maximum crispy goodness. • 107 E. 12th St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 381-1595 • 2437 Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills, (513) 954-8541; gomezsalsa.com

Bakersfield Tacos. Tequila. Whiskey. That’s the mantra of this western-themed bar and grill, which opened on Vine Street in 2012 and has since grown to seven restaurants in six states to bring its homage to Bakersfield street food to the masses. We especially love the short rib and fish tacos, paired with a whiskey strong enough to make a cowboy blush. • 1213 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 579-0446, bakersfieldtacos.com.

Kung Food Chu’s AmerAsia Don’t let the hole-in-the-wall appearance fool you— you’ll ﬁnd delicious Asian fusion fare at AmerAsia, like the Dragon’s Breath wontons, spicy boiled pork dumplings served with chili bean paste and hot chili oil. Look beyond the “beginnings” menu to ﬁnd whimsical names—Sesame Street Chicken, Fly Rice, Brocco-Lee—for a unique take on classic dishes. • 521 Madison Ave. Suite E, Covington, (859) 261-6121, kungfood.online

Pho Lang Thang The ﬂavors of Vietnam abound at this Findlay Market spot best known for pho, a traditional dish of rice noodles in broth with herbs and meat. Go with the Bò (beef), Gà (chicken), or Chay (veggie) in any combo of add-ins you wish. And don’t sleep on the bánh mì, either. • 1828 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 376-9177, pholangthang.com

Just Q’in This Black-owned BBQ joint opened in Walnut Hills

52 MAY 2022

in 2016, and it prides itself on making everything from scratch. All of the meat, sourced from Fischer Farms in Jasper, Indiana, is cherry- and sugar maple-smoked, and all of the sauces and rubs are made in-house. No wonder it’s all so good. • 975 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills, (513) 276-7507, justqin. com

Dewey’s Pizza The year-round offerings on hand-tossed crust and the fresh salads are equally iconic, but Dewey’s seasonal pies truly shine, like the Cuban, topped with pickles, Canadian bacon, pulled pork, and mustard sauce; the Tito Santana, named for the Mexican-

American wrestler and built like a taco with beef, lettuce, tomato, chipotle ranch, and Fritos; and the Ballpark, which piles on stadium favorites sauerkraut, caramelized onions, and spicy sausage atop a mustard sauce and mozzarella base. • Multiple locations, deweyspizza.com

Maverick Chocolate Co. Sitting around their kitchen island, chocolate lovers and avid travelers Paul and Marlene Picton decided they wanted to make their own worldclass candy from ethically sourced ingredients. In 2014, they opened Maverick in Findlay Market followed by a Rookwood Commons store in 2018.

Today, the Pictons create their chocolate delights in small batches, focused on quality and care. • 2651 Edmondson Rd., Norwood, (513) 834-8369 • 129 W. Elder St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 381-0561; maverick chocolate.com

The Eagle On The Eagle’s culinary stage, fried chicken steals the spotlight. The food and beer hall is well-loved by OTR’s hungriest, seeking crispy, peppery fried chicken with spicy honey and southern comfort accoutrement, like collards, spoonbread, homemade biscuits, and more. • 1342 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 802-5007, eaglerestaurant.com P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E S Y S H E I L A G R AY

Celebrity Dis Sheila Gray, WKRC anchor

Graeter’s Ice Cream “I was familiar with Graeter’s years and years before I ever moved here. I grew up in Sydney, Ohio, and when I was in high school, I was in all the plays and musicals. And my drama teacher got the costumes down here in Cincinnati at this place that doesn’t exist anymore.... If you were really, really on her good side, you could come down and get the costumes and go to Graeter’s. So that would probably have to be my number one choice just because it’s been the Cincinnati food that I’ve known the longest. I like to switch it up. I love the mint chip, that’s what I always used to get. But I love the coffee ﬂavor and the new [Caramel Macchiato ﬂavor].”

MAY 2022

1922 The Kiradjieff brothers begin serving signature chili over spaghetti at Empress Chili

“The First Edition of a Cincinnati Tradition” —SAM ROSENSTIEL

Cincinnati chili has been a constant in our lives. We’ve never known a time before it was available over spaghetti with mountains of cheese at chili parlors, on hot dogs with mustard and onion at ball games, and in cans and freezer aisles ready to satisfy at-home cravings. It has inspired heated debate—is it chili, is it meat sauce, who makes it best—but chili is undeniably a Queen City food icon. For its creation, we owe a debt of

gratitude to Empress Chili and the brothers Kiradjieff. In 1922, Macedonian immigrants Tom and John began serving a tangy meat sauce with Mediterranean spices over spaghetti to hungry show-goers funneling in from the Empress burlesque theater downtown. The popular restaurant went on to become a local chain that inspired many versions of its signature dish at more than 250 chain and independent parlors.

The original Empress Chili may be long gone, but a single location remains in Alexandria, Kentucky, to serve those seeking the original Cincinnati chili. “I absolutely think it’s an icon,” says current Empress owner Steve Martin. “Different areas have their unique food items, and [when] you think of Cincinnati, chili is the ﬁrst item that comes to mind.” His fondest memories at Empress include late night chili runs

after band gigs in high school, and he started his ﬁrst franchise in 1985 at age 23. Running the business has always been a family affair—Martin’s parents, siblings, and 29 nieces and nephews have all worked in the parlor at some point. “Now, other employees that were like family, their children are now starting to work in the store,” Martin says. Like its family dynamic, Empress hasn’t changed what goes in the pot for 100 years, a secret blend of spices that comes from the Kiradjieffs’ homeland. Martin himself has eaten chili nearly every day for 37 years, be it a threeway, four-way, or some classic coneys: “I mix it up since I eat it so much.” Tastes surely change over a century, but will our love for Cincinnati chili endure another 100 years? “I think it just keeps growing,” Martin says. “We’ve got people moving in from out of the area…who have never heard of it, and all of a sudden they seem to like it. They think of it being not what they’re used to, and then discover the good taste of a Cincinnati-style chili.” Chili Time Joe Kiradjieff,

son of original co-owner Tom Kiradjieff, at an Empress Chili in the 1970s.

54 MAY 2022

1929 Dixie Chili opens in Newport 1940 Camp Washington Chili opens on Colerain Avenue 1949 Skyline Chili opens its original location in Price Hill 1962 Price Hill Chili opens 1965 Daoud brothers rename their Hamburger Heaven restaurant “Gold Star Chili” to celebrate their new chili recipe in Mt. Washington 1969 Blue Ash Chili opens 1971 Skyline opens its ﬁrst Florida location in Ft. Lauderdale 1985 Daoud family relative opens Chili House in Amman, Jordan, and would go on to open several franchises across the Middle East 2000 Camp Washington Chili wins a James Beard American Classics award 2012 President Barack Obama visits Skyline Chili at Seventh and Vine streets 2013 Smithsonian Magazine names Camp Washington Chili one of 20 “Most Iconic Food Destinations” 2020 Skyline Chili featured in The Simpsons episode “The Road to Cincinnati” 2022 More than 250 chili parlors are currently open in Greater Cincinnati

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY EMPRESS CHILI

Frisch’s Big Boy Tartar sauce? On a hamburger? Don’t make that face. You shouldn’t knock it until you try it. According to some diehard Frisch’s fans, it’s exactly what makes Frisch’s Big Boy worthy of icon status. This quarter pound of beef is divvied up into two patties, layered with cheese, lettuce, and pickles, served on a double decker bun, and slathered with that tangy sauce. It’s so popular that when NRD Capital purchased the chain in 2015, the owner almost immediately announced that the burger was staying on the menu to assuage fans’ fears. Now that’s iconic. • Multiple locations, frischs.com

Greyhound Tavern A century ago, the Dixie Tea Room served ice cream to streetcar travelers at the very end of the line in Ft. Mitchell. Today’s hungry travelers are greeted with a more substantial menu, including two house specialties that rightfully belong in any local food hall of fame. First, the onion rings. Huge, sweet Spanish onions, hand-sliced and hand-battered, are deep-fried golden brown, the platonic ideal of onion rings. Follow that with fried chicken. While it’s on the menu every day, on Monday and Tuesday, the moist, perfectly breaded half chicken is served family style, with bottomless bowls of mashed potatoes, gravy, coleslaw, green beans, and biscuits. It’s true home cooking. • 2500 Dixie Hwy., Ft. Mitchell, (859) 3313767, greyhoundtavern.com

Celebrity Dis Caty McNally, tennis player Skyline Chili (honorable mentions to The Precinct and Graeter’s Ice Cream) “We would always go to Skyline on Sunday night after family practice. So that’s the ﬁrst thing that always comes to my head. And it’s one of the meals that I always try to have when I get back in town from traveling for a long time. I just go to Skyline and it never really disappoints. And on a fancier note, I would say, if we’re going to celebrate an occasion with a family member, or I’ve been traveling for a long time I would say The Precinct is always a really good option. The meals there are great, and the service there is amazing, so that’s always another good place to go. And then Graeter’s—I love ice cream. I don’t know how you can’t not like it. I’ve been going to Graeter’s obviously since I was a really little girl, and I am always telling people to go there when there’s the [Western & Southern Open] tournament in Cincinnati and Mason I’m always telling them ‘You’ve got to go to Graeter’s, you’ve got to go to Skyline.’ ”

P H OTO G R A P H BY W TA / J I M M I E 4 8

MAY 2022

Seven Supermarket Faves If these items aren’t on your grocery list, are you even from Cincinnati?

Rhinegeist Truth Let’s get one thing straight: a list of Cincinnati’s iconic beers could ﬁll its own issue of CM, but Rhinegeist’s original India pale ale stands out for its haunting hoppiness, its citrusy brightness, and its reach beyond the Rhine. Available in seven states, a cold Truth offers outsiders a taste of the Queen City’s craft beer scene at home.

Pringles In 1968, Procter & Gamble began selling these stackable crisps in Indiana. The name may have derived from a phone book listing with a Pringle Drive address, but that origin story is hotly contested among chip fanatics. Now owned by Kellogg’s, Pringles are available in dozens of ﬂavors in snack aisles around the world.

Ale-8-One George Lee Wainscott concocted this spicy-sweet pop in Winchester, Kentucky, for the 1926 Clark County Fair. It is said a young fairgoer christened the drink “A Late One,” or 1920s slang for the latest and greatest. Nearly a century later, Ale-8-One is still bottled in Winchester, and its balance of sweet citrus and hot ginger is still the greatest thing in soft drinks.

Gold Star This titan of Cincinnati’s chili scene, like most others, built its business on family recipes from the founders’ Mediterranean homeland. The Daoud brothers came from Jordan, however, not Greece, and their chili has a spicier, meatier ﬂavor proﬁle when compared to the Empress/Skyline/Camp Washington approach. The four brothers bought a restaurant in Mt. Washington, Hamburger Heaven, in 1964 and changed its name to Gold Star the following year. Today, their sons run the company, which has 70 company-owned and franchise locations in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana offering a varied menu of chili and sandwiches, including (of course) hamburgers. • Multiple locations, goldstarchili.com

Grippo’s Bar-B-Q Chips Cincinnati’s snackers have been reaching for bags of Grippo’s for more than 101 years because of the spicy zing of their Bar-B-Q, the light crunch of their classic potato chip, and their new ﬂavors, like Carolina Classic Bar-B-Q.

Zip’s Burger Last summer, Zip’s Café was ranked the best burger in Ohio by Food & Wine magazine. Be they amateur or professional, the Mt. Lookout joint consistently makes nearly everyone’s “best burger” list. It’s deceptively simple (onion, pickle, tomato, lettuce, and mayo on a Klosterman bun) so we chalk its popularity up to the chuck—the burgers, seasoned and hand-formed into patties, are made fresh with ground chuck from Avril-Bleh. Jazz it up with your choice of condiments but you won’t need much; just let that ﬂame-broiled goodness shine through. • 1036 Delta Ave., Mt. Lookout, (513) 871-9876, zipscafe.com

Barq’s Red Crème Soda Richard S. Tuttle ran the Barq’s Bottling Franchise downtown in 1937, according to “Food Etymologist” Dann Woellert (also a distant relative of Tuttle’s). Tuttle had the brilliant idea of adding red food dye to Barq’s famous crème soda, and the world was never the same. Who knew a simple color change could turn an old classic into one of America’s favorite soft drinks?

Queen City Sausage We have QCS founder Elmer Hensler to thank for continuing Porkopolis’s meat-packing heritage. Whether it’s a game day celebration for the Reds or FC Cincinnati, the entrée of a summer family cookout, or a Queen City-themed breakfast, these craft sausage makers have fed our get-togethers since 1965. Pass the mustard.

Hen of the Woods Chips Bold ﬂavors like red wine vinegar, white cheddar jalapeño, and everything bagel helped grow this chip empire from a stand in the Washington Park farmers’ market to a popular snack available in stores all over the country.

Celebrity Dis Lucho Acosta, FC Cincinnati Sammy’s Craft Burgers & Beer’s Lucho Burger (also available at TQL Stadium) “The Lucho Burger, of course. I made it. I made the chimichurri, the steak, how we cook it, the sauce, the cheese, of course. We tried three burgers, and I made the difference. We wanted it to be something exciting and innovating, something the fans had never seen. Something new. We talked, and we decided that it would have to be a burger. And we called it the Lucho Burger, and we gave it the number 10, for the fans at the stadium.” (Editor’s note: The Lucho Burger is also available at TQL Stadium on match days.) Do you have a sweet tooth for any Cincinnati desserts? “Prime Cincinnati has this brownie, [the Grippo’s Pretzel Crusted Brownie] with ice cream. It’s amazing...I’ve never tried anything like this.”

P H OTO G R A P H C O U R T E SY F C C I N C I N N AT I

MAY 2022

Sum of Its Parts

What makes an icon? Take a closer look at what comprises three classic Cincinnati dishes.

6 6

5 5

4 4

3 3

Five-Way Chili Spaghetti 1 No matter where you go, spaghetti is the bedrock of this quintessential Queen City meal. 2 A generous ladleful of Cincinnati chili goes next, made

58 MAY 2022

with a special blend of cinnamon, cocoa, and other spices depending on your preferred chili parlor. 3 Beans offer a hearty boost to the ﬁve-way, whether they’re kidney or black-beans-and-rice mix at Skyline, red beans at Gold Star, or red kidney beans at

Empress. 4 Diced onions add a bit of freshness. 5 A heaping mound of shredded cheese completes any ﬁveway, but you can go the extra mile with oyster crackers, 6 fried jalapeño caps at Blue Ash Chili, or fresh chopped garlic at Dixie Chili.

LaRosa’s Buddy Deluxe 1 It all starts with the crust: your choice of traditional thin, hand tossed, or deep dish pan. 2 The family chain has used Aunt Dena’s pizza sauce recipe for

nearly 70 years. 3 Pepperoni always goes under the cheese on a LaRosa’s pie to give it more ﬂavor from the sweet and savory sauce during the bake. Buddy LaRosa has been doing it that way since 1954. 4 Speaking of cheese, LaRosa’s uses 40 tons of fresh provo-

lone each week—or 1,920 tons annually. It seems like a lot until you ﬁgure LaRosa’s serves more than 7 million pizzas a year. 5 This pie piles up some serious Italian meats with capocollo ham and sausage. 6 Zesty banana peppers add a tangy kick to this deluxe pie.

I L LU S T R AT I O N S BY K E L S E Y C O B U R N

Jeff Ruby Steaks Almost from the moment it opened in 1981, The Precinct became known as the best steakhouse in town, delivering prime aged beef to diners hoping for a side of sports hero stardust. New Jersey transplant Jeff Ruby started his local hospitality career managing Holiday Inns and overseeing iconic nightclubs, including Lucy’s, before he made the jump to his own spot in a 1901 former police station on Columbia Parkway. Over four decades, the sports heroes have changed (all hail Joe Burrow), but the steaks have stayed spectacular. Ruby’s daughter Brittany Ruby Miller is now CEO, overseeing the company’s seven restaurants across three states • Multiple locations, jeffruby.com

Taco Casa Polly Laffoon is sometimes credited with introducing Tex/Mex to Cincinnati when she opened Taco Casa in 1968, and the devoted fans of Taco Casa’s particular brand of Americanized “Mexican” food would likely agree. There’s nothing authentic about much of the menu. The taco salad here is iceberg lettuce, seasoned ground beef, onions, tomatoes, pinto beans, ranch dressing, and cheese. Not even a tortilla bowl for novelty. Then there’s the tuna boat: Tuna salad, wrapped in a tortilla, warmed, topped with cheese and buttermilk ranch dressing, plus diced onion and jalapenos on top. It’s an onlyin-Cincinnati institution. • 4600 Smith Rd., Norwood, (513) 827-9440 • 10798 Montgomery Rd., Montgomery, (513) 891-8333; tacocasa.com

Montgomery Inn In 1951, Ted Gregory and his wife Matula purchased McCabe’s Inn, where he’d been working, and renamed it for its suburban home. Gregory would eventually become known as Cincinnati’s Rib King, thanks to Matula’s barbecue recipe and homemade sauce as well as to the movie stars, pro athletes, and U.S. presidents who stopped by for a bite. The family’s Boathouse on the Ohio River has a higher proﬁle these days, and fans across the country can have ribs, chicken, and desserts shipped to them. But you owe it to yourself to lounge at the old inn with a bowl of warm Saratoga chips and sweet barbecue dipping sauce and let the world drift by. • montgomeryinn.com

Celebrity Dis

Bootsy & Patti Collins, funk ambassadors

Zip’s Café Double Zip Burger 1 Like many great sandwiches, it’s hard to start with anything but a fresh Klosterman bun.

2 Zip’s uses a no-nonsense blend of local beef from Avril-Bleh Meats, with your choice of cheese melted right on. 3 Bacon makes everything better, and that goes double for this double cheeseburger.

4 Finish it off with all the ﬁxin’s: fresh lettuce, tomato, sliced onion, pickles, and mayo. 5 Top with a bun, tuck a napkin into your shirt collar, and dig in.

Graeter’s, Skyline, and Gold Star Patti: “One of our favorite treats is taking our grandkids to Graeter’s and enjoying all the sweet treats there.… For my kids, it’s the Graeter’s vanilla ice cream with sprinkles, and for me, it’s the wonderful Graeter’s vanilla milkshake. And then my mom—every week I go there to get like a half-dozen brownies. That’s her go-to. So it’s a family affair, right?” “I’m a Skyline girl, and he’s a Gold Star guy. So if we’re out and about and I’ll say to him, ‘Hey, wanna go to Skyline?’ he’s like, ‘Hey, you wanna go to Gold Star?’ A lot of times, we’ll just go through the drive thru, and I’ll go through Skyline, and he’ll go through Gold Star. Or I’ll give in some times and I’ll just do Gold Star.… And Gold Star was a partner of ours some years back with the Bengals. We actually did a song for the Bengals, and the CD was actually sold at Gold Star, so we would go in and do in-store celebrations with them. Bootsy would sign the CDs, and we would get free coneys and all that.… For Bootsy, it’s the coneys with some mustard on it, with the onion, and the cheese, and the chili, of course. For Gold Star, I like the fourway with the chili and cheese and a little onion. We always get everything on the side and then we just add it ourselves.” Read longer interviews with Cincinnati celebs about their favorite local eats on cincin natimagazine.com.

P H OTO G R A P H C O U R T E SY PAT T I C O L L I N S

MAY 2022

JOEY VOTTO BY

Chad Dotson

ILLUSTRATION BY

Alexander Wells

THE GREATEST

REDS PLAYER Even now, but certainly by the time he retires,

the shy kid from Canada has better career numbers for Cincinnati than Bench, Larkin, Morgan, Robinson, or Rose. Yet he’s the only one of them not to play in a World Series for the Reds.

PA G E

DECEMBER 2013

JOEY VOTTO HAS ALWAYS BEEN

DIFFERENT No, that’s not quite accurate.

HE’S ALWAYS BEEN

SPECIAL.

EADING UP TO THE 2002 MLB DRAFT, VOTTO

had barely registered on professional baseball’s radar. The Cincinnati Reds got lucky, stumbling upon him at an amateur showcase event in Jupiter, Florida. The team’s scouting director at the time, Kasey McKeon, wandered over to watch an early morning game in which his nephew was playing. His attention kept getting drawn to this kid Votto at third base. McKeon’s interest was piqued. Votto had an idea that he was going to be drafted, but teams weren’t beating down his door. He was from Etobicoke, Ontario, and suburban Toronto isn’t what you’d call a hotbed for baseball talent. The list of MLB stars from the Great White North isn’t exactly long. Remember, though, Votto was different. He played Little League on a team sponsored by his family’s restaurant, and he became obsessed with the game from an early age. “Baseball was comfortable for me. It felt right. It was kind of an escape,” Votto told a Canadian magazine early in his career. “Something I could put all my energy into, both positive and negative.” He carried around a copy of Ted Williams’s book The Science of Hitting, and

Votto actually had a Ted Williams poster on his bedroom wall. How many high school boys do you know who own a poster of a slugger from the 1940s? As a teenager, his coach—for a town club named the Etobicoke Rangers—also owned a batting cage and a baseball academy, and Votto spent every available minute there working on his craft. “If you told him to work on something, he’d go and do it,” said the coach, Bob Smyth. In time, that work ethic would become legendary around the Reds organization. Eventually, teams began to take notice. The Reds decided to ﬂy Votto into Cincinnati to work out at Cinergy Field with a few other prospects before the draft. The workout got off to an inauspicious beginning. No longer a third baseman, by that time he was seen as a potential catcher, and he was demonstrating throws to different bases. Looking on, evaluating, and offering advice was a catcher whose name might be familiar to you: Johnny Bench. “He was very supportive and gave me tips,” Votto later told MLB.com. “I think pretty clearly I wasn’t a catcher, but I had an OK arm. I had a pretty accurate arm but

PA G E

was probably one of those guys you wouldn’t be excited about, long-term.” But then Votto picked up a bat and started hammering baseballs all over the stadium, including one into the upper deck. Eyes began opening. Then former Reds star Ken Griffey Jr. appeared. “Ken was my favorite non-Blue Jays player,” Votto says via telephone from Spring Training in Arizona. “I played his video game, he was everywhere. Most left-handed hitters attempted to copy his style, his swing.” Junior stood behind the cage, watching the hitters. But Votto wasn’t intimidated; to the contrary, he began mimicking Griffey’s famous batting stance, bat waggling in the left-hand batter’s box. “I have a silly streak in me,” he says. “I said, Hey, everyone, who’s this? There were 15 to 30 scouts and front office-types around. I did his stance and his swagger.” Yes, this kid was different. Reds General Manager Jim Bowden thought he looked like a ﬁrst round pick that day. Very soon, everyone in the park would come to understand just how special he really was. No one, however, expected that Joey Votto would surpass Bench and Junior—as well as Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Barry Larkin, Frank Robinson, and everyone else—and turn into the greatest player in the history of the Cincinnati Reds.

HRIS DENORFIA NOTICED PRETTY QUICKLY

that Votto was different. The two were drafted by the Reds in the same year, and they were teammates with the rookie league Gulf Coast Reds. Denorﬁa would go on to play in parts of 10 seasons in the big leagues, making his debut with Cincinnati two full years before Votto. Early on in his professional career, Votto looked completely lost, but Denorﬁa was struck by the way he worked methodically at his craft day after day, week after week. One day, he saw Votto in the batting cage not swinging, just taking pitch after pitch from the machine, trying to get his timing down. After all, professional pitchers were throwing just a tiny bit harder than the teenagers back in Etobicoke, and Votto felt overmatched. “I don’t know big leaguers that would do anything like this,” Denorfia told Sports Illustrated recently.“Just a special, special baseball player.” That same season, Votto spent time with Cincinnati’s minor league hitting coordinator, Leon Roberts, a former big leaguer in his own right. He’d actually discussed the craft of hitting with Votto’s baseball idol a number of times. “I found out Joey Votto was a big Ted Williams enthusiast,” Roberts said

P H OTO G R A P H S C O U R T E SY T H E C I N C I N N AT I R E D S

later. “When I heard that, I started teaching him some of Ted Williams’s concepts. I’d tell him, Here’s what you’re doing, here’s what Ted did. It helped him see what changes he needed to make.” Votto was an enthusiastic student, and his study sessions extended late into the evenings after minor league games. He paid for a subscription to MLB.TV and spent hours watching the best hitters in baseball—Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, Todd Helton—breaking down their at-bats and trying to figure out what made them so great. Even then, Votto aspired to greatness. The Reds drafted pitcher Carlos Guevara in the seventh round a year after Votto, and he ﬁrst met Votto when they were

CONTINUED O N PA G E

“HE WAS THE BEST PLAYER IN THE LEAGUE. THAT’S WHEN I REALIZED, I’M NOT JUST LOOKING AT A FUTURE BIG LEAGUER, I’M LOOKING AT AN

All-Star,

A DIFFERENT KIND OF PLAYER.”

– CARLOS GUEVARA

NOT SO MINOR VOTTO DURING A STINT WITH THE DAYTON DRAGONS.

JUST CALL US

KIN-CINNATI OVER THE PAST 150 YEARS, THE SECRETIVE FAMILIES OF SCOTTISH AND IRISH TRAVELERS DEVELOPED AN UNBREAKABLE BOND WITH CINCINNATI.

ILLUSTRATION BY

ZACHARY GHADERI

LAURIE PIKE

Since the late 1800s, local law enforcement and media warned of the springtime “invasion” of nomadic peddlers, fortune tellers, and tinsmiths from all over the nation. Curious in customs, speech, and dress, the visitors rode into town in barrelshaped horse-drawn wagons; camped along the Mill Creek in Northside, Carthage, and Lockland; and cooked on open ﬁres.

They came to swindle residents, said the warnings, divide up territory for organized crime, and possibly steal children. (They needed the babies, you see, to breed into their gene pool, which was perverted by intermarriage.) As railroads were built, they began shipping their dead here for burials. What sounds like a crackpot fable has a few surprising kernels of truth

and astonishing staying power. You may have heard of the “Gypsy funerals” in Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum over Memorial Day weekend, or even seen for yourself the oversized floral displays laid at the foot of red granite gravestones. Maybe you remember the Cincinnati Business Courier, from 2009 through 2016, using the relative modesty or copiousness of what the paper called “gaudy” floral displays as bellwethers indicating the general economy’s direction. Perhaps you are unaware of the tradition, as many locals are. Either way, it’s a thing. A misunderstood thing. About 400 of these nomads come through Cincinnati annually, according to past police figures. (Cincinnati Police officials did not respond to requests for updated information.) Prior to World War II, their presence was more visible. In clothing more starkly different from ours than it is today, they would draw water from public pumps and bring it back to campsites observable from the road. They were called Gypsies then, and often still are today. The first thing to know about these “Gypsies” is that they aren’t gypsies in the traditional sense. The second thing to know is that gypsy is a pejorative word, offensive to those more accurately known as Travelers (who are mainly indigenous to the British Isles) or Rom, Roma, or Romany (originating two millennia ago in India). The third thing: Whatever you’ve heard about Travelers in Cincinnati is second-hand information, including this article. Because, importantly, fourth: Travelers do not talk to outsiders. In the U.S., many Travelers, whose numbers are unknown, maintain customs such as making large purchases

nation to send children to high school, and a belief that outsiders are “unclean.” By definition, Travelers move—though less so in the U.S. than elsewhere. They’re m o re u n d e rthe-radar here, especially compared to their more impoverished and persecuted European counterparts. As the diaspora continues to span the globe, Cincinnati stands as an unexpected yet important locus for those based in the U.S. It isn’t just a regular stop in their journeys—it’s the national headquarters for many. “You could say Cincinnati is a temporary capital,” says podcast host Sam Biagetti. The most popular of the 140 episodes of his Historiansplaining show is about Travelers. Baby-stealers or colorful bohemians? There’s an idealized view of itinerant people. They are exoticized as ﬂamenco dancers and music-makers, carefree ramblers living off the grid. They eschew “homogenous Netflix culture,” as Biagetti puts it. They are not losers who can’t afford homes, but modern hunter-gatherers whose closeness to extended family provides a connectedness that gadje sorely

P H OTO G R A P H S P R OV I D E D BY T H E N E C R O TO U R I S T / T N T I M AG E S ( C ) 2 0 2 1 . P H OTO G R A P H S BY C H A R G R AV E S

Most U.S. Travelers are Christian. Quite a lot of them cleave to practices that keep them intentionally separate from mainstream society. with cash and working as psychics or mobile repairmen. It’s not a monolithic culture, of course. Many descendants of Travelers are indistinguishable from the average Joe. Others are more quietly Old World, similar in many ways to the more traditional Roma. Cincinnati has its share of Rom residents and visitors, but Travelers are more numerous here. To split a hair, the Scottish and Irish Travelers who circle through Cincinnati are for the most part not Rom or have little Rom blood from intermarriage. But they’ll often have lifestyle likenesses with Roma, the result of a similar itinerant life. Most Travelers in the U.S. are Christian. Like fundamentalists or cult members, though, quite a lot of them cleave to practices that keep them intentionally separate from “gadje,” or non-Roma: intermarriage, restrictive cleansing rituals, a marked difference in gender roles, a disincli-

BLOOM TOWN Cincinnati has become home base for a good many Irish and Scottish Travelers, who meet up in the spring to bury and honor their dead at two local cemeteries.

yearn for. They inspired the #vanlife and #gypset brands of on-the-go chic. Reality is somewhere in between. “They’re different,” Robert Winter says of the Travelers who have patronized St. Joseph New Cemetery in Price Hill since 1872. The Gorman and Hamilton surnames reign, with some 350 plots between them. “They always pay in cash. Two or three guys will come in and pull out rolls of $100 bills,” says Winter, who, as general manager of the Catholic cemetery, has served Travelers for more than 40 years. “They try to outdo each other with monuments. There’s a black faceted one with gold CONTINUED ON PAGE 102 lettering, and so

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Coldwell Banker (513) 708-7770 TINA & CANDACE BURTON TEAM

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 368-3715 MOVE2TEAM

Keller Williams Pinnacle Group, 6377 Branch Hill Guinea Pike, Loveland, OH 45140, (513) 697-SELL, www.move2team.com

SHANE ACHOR

Coldwell Banker (513) 400-4949 MICHAEL ALFORD

Coldwell Banker (513) 470-9121 JUANITA ALLEN

Coldwell Banker (859) 433-6140 TIFFANY ALLEN-ZEUCH

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 349-7311 AMBER ALLRED

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 814-4044 JON AMSTER

Comey & Shepherd (513) 307-3937 SUSANNE ANTON

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 519-9455 LIZ AQUILIA

Coldwell Banker (513) 470-1746 TAYLOR ARTHUR

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 255-3187 OSCAR ASESYAN

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 800-9299 BENJAMIN AUSTIN

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 706-3159 SCOT C. AVERY

Huﬀ Realty (513) 325-1361 DEBRA AYERS

Coldwell Banker (513) 673-8810 THOMAS BADEN

Coldwell Banker (513) 255-5566 GERI BAKER

INDIVIDUAL AGENTS

Coldwell Banker (513) 305-0948

BOB ABNER

SCOTT BAKER

Huﬀ Realty (859) 442-4385

Coldwell Banker (513) 547-2997

7 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

Coldwell Banker (513) 403-5323

AMY J. BARNES

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 322-9400 KELLY S. BARRETT

Huﬀ Realty (859) 525-5776 BARRY BATES

Coldwell Banker (513) 258-8690 JESSICA BAUER

Comey & Shepherd (513) 884-1606 BRIAN BAZELEY

Hoeting Realtors (513) 604-8543 ANNE BEDINGHAUS

Coldwell Banker (513) 235-1358 CHRIS BEHM

Comey & Shepherd (513) 518-2353 LISA BELINKY CRAWFORD

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 708-1600 JEANNE M BERGER

Huﬀ Realty (859) 750-8055 DONNA BERLING

Huﬀ Realty (859) 240-6544 KAREN BEVINS

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 260-6272 KIMBERLY BEYER

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 600-1419 MIRANDA BEYER

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 500- 9680 JOSH BLATT

Coldwell Banker (513) 226-7219 BETH BOKON ONTHANK

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 505-8815 MELISSA C. BOLSER

Star One Realtors (513) 602-7450 CINDY L. BOND

Huﬀ Realty (513) 284-6773 SHERI BOONE

Comey & Shepherd (513) 252-3647

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

JOHN BOWEN

ANDY CHILDS

MARTY DEWALD

JULIE L. FEAGAN

Coldwell Banker (513) 309-4741

Coldwell Banker (513) 818-5959

Comey & Shepherd (513) 226-8868

Huﬀ Realty (859) 547-8500

JON BOWLING

SHANNON M. CLARK

TIMOTHY M. DIRR

JILL FERGUSON

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 325-2171

Huﬀ Realty (859) 525-2741

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 201-5678

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 485-2882

JEFFREY BOYLE

CURTIS CLEMONS

JENNIFER DONATHAN

ANGELA FISCHER

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 295-5750

Coldwell Banker (859) 620-6642

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 520-3540

Lohmiller Real Estate (513) 508-4549

CLINT BRADLEY

KEITH COLYER

ROBIN DONOVAN

EMILY A. FOEBAR

Ken Perry Realty (859) 866-8725

Huﬀ Realty (513) 674-5609

Coldwell Banker (859) 468-5023

Huﬀ Realty (513) 409-3276

LISA J. BRANDENBURG

NAT COMISAR

KYLE DOUGHMAN

Huﬀ Realty (859) 653-3420

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 378-5801

Coldwell Banker (513) 505-8323

RONALD F. BROSSART

JUDITH L. CONNETT

STEVEN DOUGLASS

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (513) 264-9999

Huﬀ Realty (859) 630-0867

RE/MAX TIME (513) 225-5090

MARGARET BROWN

PATRICIA COSLETT

ELIZABETH DOWLING

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 374-5802

Huﬀ Realty (859) 653-8825

Comey & Shepherd (513) 237-3314

TROY BROWN

TIM COTTRILL

MARY DRODER

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 403-2675

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 324-7447

Star One Realtors (513) 607-4666

VINNIE BROWN

KATIE COUGHLIN

JENNIE DRUMM

Coldwell Banker (858) 414-8162

Coldwell Banker (513) 365-6789

Coldwell Banker (513) 478-0991

CYNTHIA D. BRUNER

BARBARA J. COX

KEVIN DUFFY

Huﬀ Realty (513) 708-6642

Huﬀ Realty (859) 444-1628

Comey & Shepherd (513) 602-6000

PATRICIA BRUNER

STACEY CRAIG

TERESA DURBIN

Comey & Shepherd (513) 886-7721

Lohmiller Real Estate (812) 584-7005

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 520-7124

SANDRA L. BURKHART WILLIAMS

GREG S. CRASE

STEVE EARLY

Huﬀ Realty (513) 519-4683

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 743-5056

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 382-1218

ERIKA BUSSARD

DAWN L. CRAVEN

KAREN ELKINS

Coldwell Banker (513) 319-3317

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 372-6018

Coldwell Banker (859) 802-7241

REBECCA CAMPBELL

STEFANIE CREECH

MARY E. ELSENER

Robinson Sotheby’s International Realty (513) 900-7009

Coldwell Banker (513) 218-1864

Comey & Shepherd (513) 200-3263

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 310-4448

JAN GERDING

WENDY ROGAN CAREY

DAVID DAWSON

KELSIE M. EMERY ROARK

Coldwell Banker (513) 608-3770

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 479-6333

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 236-1891

Star One Realtors (513) 392-6739

DENISE GIFFORD

CELIA CARROLL

DAN DAY

JENNY ENGLAND

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 987-1111

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 477-1536

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 226-5588

Coldwell Banker (513) 926-6257

DIANE GILLESPIE

SANDY CARTER HALL

JENNIFER DAY

SUE ERBECK-RAPP

Coldwell Banker (513) 720-1002

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 254-5523

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 276-2996

Comey & Shepherd (513) 702-4637

TERI GILLMAN

NADINE CATALANO

MICHELLE DE LA VEGA

RHONDA EVERITT

Comey & Shepherd (513) 403-3000

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 290-6459

Coldwell Banker (513) 919-3844

Comey & Shepherd (513) 290-1899

HALLIE GOLDCAMP

BARBARA CHASTEEN

NATALIE DECKER

APRYLL R. FAMBRO WATKINS

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 464-0333

Coldwell Banker (513) 280-0014

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 225-2223

SARA FOLTZ

Keller Williams Realty Services, 7210 Turfway Rd., Florence, KY 41042, (513) 377-1070, www.sarafoltz.com MICHAEL FRANCY

Star One Realtors (513) 316-0239 MICHAEL FRANZ

Coldwell Banker (513) 259-7719 STEPHANIE FROST

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 468-4227 NICK FURNISS

Coldwell Banker (513) 478-3895 RON GARLAND

Comey & Shepherd (513) 703-4945 JERRY T. GARRISON

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 325-2245 STACY GENDELMAN

Coldwell Banker (513) 321-0124

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 7 3

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

LAURIE SIMON GOLDMAN

Sibcy Cline Realtors, Kenwood Oﬃce (513) 550-0124 Lgoldman.agents.sibcycline.com CONNIE GREENE

Robinson Sotheby’s International Realty (513) 842-3236 MARCIA GREENWALD

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 503-1573 SUSAN A. GRIFFIN

Huﬀ Realty (513) 519-3827 PATRICK GUNNING

Coldwell Banker (513) 300-6929 AMBER GURUNG

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 510-3510 BOB HAHN

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 802-7700 LORI HALL POLLARD

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 368-9331 REBECCA HAMILTON

Comey & Shepherd (513) 470-9443 JONATHAN HARDY

Keller Williams Seven Hills Realty (513) 888-1525 NOAH HARING

Lohmiller Real Estate (812) 290-3099 TERRY R. HARTKE

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 535-8232 NOAH HAWKINS

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 315-5110 ADAM HAYHOW

Coldwell Banker (513) 315-1501 KATHY HEIMBROCK

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 512-8383 MIKE HELSON

Realty Executives Select (859) 341-7355 TODD HELTON

RE/MAX Incompass (513) 478-7615 JENNIFER HEMMELGARN

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 218-4114

LYNN HENSLEY

KATIE M HUG

LAURA KRAEMER

Coldwell Banker (513) 260-0509

Star One Realtors (513) 509-2409

Comey & Shepherd (513) 305-8215

KIM HERMANN

LISA IBOLD

TERESA KRAFT

Huﬀ Realty (859) 468-6429

Hoeting Realtors (513) 324-1484

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 380-3846

JENNIFER HERRON LIGHTCAP

DAWN ISENHOWER

BRIANNE KROGER

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 295-5769

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 236-1254

Coldwell Banker (513) 407-0796

ANDREW M. HERSEY

MELISSA JAKUBOWSKI

SUSAN KUEHNLE

Star One Realtors (513) 835-5506

eXp Realty, LLC (859) 468-2218

Coldwell Banker (513) 379-4967

KARAN HEUER

COCO JAMES

LINDA KUNKEL

Coldwell Banker (513) 602-6959

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 801-0542

Coldwell Banker (513) 404-7115

TIM HINDE

SUZI JOHN

Coldwell Banker (513) 615-5850

Comey & Shepherd (513) 233-1259

MARY JO HOFFMAN

WHITNEY L. JOLLY-LOREAUX

Comey & Shepherd (513) 235-6067

Huﬀ Realty (859) 380-5811

BRITTNEY HOLLAND

LEAH JOOS

Coldwell Banker (513) 225-6638

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 407-5901

COLEEN HOLT

BARRY KAPLAN

3B Realty Group, LLC (513) 509-4924

Comey & Shepherd (513) 368-9000

KATRINA ROBKE HOLTMEIER

CARL KAPPES

Keller Williams Realty Services, 7210 Turfway Rd., Florence, KY 41042, (513) 504-0280, https://katrinaholtmeier.kw.com

Coldwell Banker (859) 866-0347

VICKIE J. HOUSE

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 512-7070 MISHA L. HOUSTON

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 919-1808 CINDY HOWARD

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 319-2796 JENNY HOWARD

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 218-2799 MONICA HOWE

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 393-5778 RICK HUBBARD

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 448-0001 ANGIE HUDDLESTON

Lohmiller Real Estate (513) 260-8634 MICHELLE HUDEPOHL

Coldwell Banker (513) 254-5440 FELICIA S. HUESMAN

Huﬀ Realty (859) 652-0757

7 4 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

KEVIN KELLY

Coldwell Banker (513) 702-0414 CHRIS KENNEDY

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 250-2992 BISHNU KHAREL

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 857-9888 AMY KING

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 464-3455 DENNIS KING

Comey & Shepherd (513) 378-5464 TASHA KLABER-FLOOD

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 991-9044 ROBYN W. KLARE

Huﬀ Realty (859) 866-2500 JOE KNAB

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 615-3030 HEATHER KOPF

Kopf Hunter Haas Realtors (513) 378-1167

PATRICK LACH

Sibcy Cline Realtors Kenwood Oﬃce Cincinnati, OH 45236, (513) 633-6296, https://plach.agents.sibcycline. com/proﬁle/my-bio DEB LAFRANCE

RE/MAX Preferred Group, 3522 Erie Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45208, (513) 652-9256 KURT J. LAMPING

Star One Realtors (513) 602-2100 SANDRA LETTIE

RE/MAX Preferred Group, 3522 Erie Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45208, (513) 310-6922 EDWARD LINDENSCHMIDT

Coldwell Banker (513) 207-1040 LINDA C. LINTON

Star One Realtors (513) 477-9436 JOE R. LINZ

Star One Realtors (513) 300-6663 NEIL LOBERT

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 266-7711 DEBORAH LONG

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 675-8844 TONI K. LOUIS

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 477-1900 ANDREW LOVETT

Realty Executives Select (859) 512-5578 DREW MAHONEY

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 258-4040

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

RYAN KIEFER

ANN LAFFERTY

ASHOK GHILDYAL

PRIMELENDING, CELEBRATING 11 YEARS IN CINCINNATI

ROBERT DIEDERICHSEN III

Is buying, refinancing, or renovating a home in your future? Let your local PrimeLending team help you achieve your home ownership goals through their simple and hassle-free home loan process. They’ll be by your side delivering personalized service, professional guidance, and timely results on the way to your ideal home loan. They also rise above the competition with a total of five Mortgage Broker All-Stars. “We’re honored that so many real estate agents recommend PrimeLending to their clients as the go-to resource for local mortgage expertise,” says Kiefer, Branch Manager for PrimeLending in Greater Cincinnati and the state of Kentucky. PrimeLending Cincinnati is the No. 1 local lender for renovation loans and the No. 2 local lender in purchase market share. And in this ultra-competitive house buying market, Buyer’s Edge with PrimeLending can give you a competitive advantage and a conditional loan approval. Sellers will know you’re positioned to close faster and more easily when the time comes to submit an offer. Buyer’s Edge also gives you the extra confidence to examine your options objectively since you know the extent of your buying power. 2718 OBSERVATORY AVE., FLOOR 1, CINCINNATI, OH 45208, (513) 698-8026, HTTPS://LO.PRIMELENDING.COM/CINCINNATI/; 7594 TYLER’S PLACE BLVD. #B, WEST CHESTER, OH 45069, (513) 847-0164, HTTPS://LO.PRIMELENDING.COM/WESTCHESTEROH/

KELLY SCOVANNER

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 7 5

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

TIM MAHONEY II

DOUG MAYBERRY

MIKE MCKEOWN

CARA MILLER ALIFF

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 673-6612

Huﬀ Realty (859) 816-3393

Huﬀ Realty (859) 653-2884

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 380-4181

ANTHONY MANCINI

MICHAEL E MCCAFFERTY

FLOR DE MARIA MCNALLY

JESSICA MILLS

Coldwell Banker (513) 368-0281

Star One Realtors (513) 662-8800

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 227-3870

Comey & Shepherd (513) 226-8473

DOUG E. MANZLER

JENNI MCCAULEY

CARRIE MCVICKER

RON D. MINGES

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 884-9944

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 543-6969

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 748-8985

Star One Realtors (513) 604-1877

BOBBY P. MARLOWE

DON E. MCCLANAHAN

MICHELLE MEENACH

SARA MIRUS

RE/MAX Results Plus (513) 315-8122

Huﬀ Realty (513) 792-3000

Star One Realtors (513) 813-1979

Keller Williams Realty Services (859) 835-6553

LAURIE MARRA

JUDY MCCOY

ELA MILDNER-SHAPIRO

DOLORES MIZE

Coldwell Banker (513) 259-4215

Comey & Shepherd (513) 766-0889

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 703-4202

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 476-1986

DENA MATHES

MIKE I MCENTUSH

LINDA MILDON

DAN MORENA

Coldwell Banker (513) 404-2360

Star One Realtors (513) 675-1702

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 802-2815

Huﬀ Realty (513) 498-1697

KRYSTY M. MATTHEWS

JENNIFER MCGILLIS

SHELLEY MILLER

GREG MORGAN

Huﬀ Realty (859) 466-0310

eXp Realty, 7017 Miami Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45243, (513) 344-9077, www.facebook. com/cincinnatijenn

Coldwell Banker (513) 256-3411

Comey & Shepherd (513) 516-9129

SUSAN MILLER

KRISTINE MORGAN

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 368-6715

Coldwell Banker (513) 283-4192

MARK MATTINGLY

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 320-0220

MEGAN HOSEA ABNER KEN PERRY REALTY On any given day, you might meet Megan while she’s networking at a local coffee shop or volunteering at schools or for one of the nonprofits she champions. Megan is a tireless worker and she is committed to this community. Through three decades of representing clients both listing and selling real estate in Northern Kentucky, she has successfully built a trusted network of colleagues and has an outstanding reputation in the industry. Megan’s clients benefit from her savvy knowledge of local neighborhoods and schools as well as her professional 1:1 service. All of which have been integral in her becoming a top agent in the area. 4135 ALEXANDRIA PIKE, COLD SPRING, KY 41076, (513) 532-5662, MEGAN@KPREALTY.NET, HTTPS:// MABNER.KENPERRYREALTY.COM

7 6 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

BRENDAN MORRISSEY

LYDIA C. NATTIN

JEFF OLINGER

AIMEE PELLETIER

Sibcy Cline Realtors, 30 E. Central Pkwy., Suite 101, Cincinnati, OH, 45202, (513) 365-8383, bmorrissey@sibcycline.com, https://sibcycline.com/ bmorrissey

Huﬀ Realty (513) 388-5739

Coldwell Banker (513) 900-8822

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 525-8888

BOB NEAL

REBECCA ORTH

STEPHANIE PELUSO-STEFFEN

Comey & Shepherd (513) 237-5251

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 743-0582

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 617-3172

KATHERINE NELTNER

CHRISTINE OWENS

MEG PEREZ

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 240-4865

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 257-3757

Coldwell Banker (513) 658-7478

LORI O’BRIEN

CYNDA PARKINSON

DIANA PFAFF

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 503-9683

Coldwell Banker (513) 509-5647

Coldwell Banker (859) 640-1860

MICHELE M. O’BRIEN

STAN C. PARKINSON

MAUREEN PIPPIN

Huﬀ Realty (859) 380-6535

Huﬀ Realty (513) 236-0664

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 793-2121

MARCUS PARRISH

TOM PORTER

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 846-1381

Coldwell Banker (513) 616-9563

JACQUELINE L. PATRICK

JESSICA POWERS

Star One Realtors (513) 476-0848

Huﬀ Realty (859) 445-5355

KATHY PATTERSON

KAREN POWERS

Premier Properties (513) 535-2877

Coldwell Banker (513) 302-4918

NICHOLAS MOTZ

Motz Real Estate (513) 202-3251 TRACY P. MUCHMORE

RE/MAX Results Plus (513) 382-9865 CATHERINE MUELLER

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 677-1830 LORI D. MULLEN

Huﬀ Realty (859) 802-6111 KIM NACHAZEL

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 525-8888

JERI O’BRIENLOFGREN

Sibcy Cline Realtors, 9979 Montgomery Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45242, (513) 266-8568, https://jobrien. agents.sibcycline.com

HOLLY L. NALLY

CHERYL ODONNELL

Huﬀ Realty (859) 525-5748

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 919-3086

THE MOVE2TEAM KELLER WILLIAMS PINNCLE GROUP Led by Ellie Kowalchik, this all-star team boasts 20-plus years of real estate experience and specializes in digital marketing, utilizing innovative technologies to promote listings and match buyers with available homes for sale. Renowned for their customer-first approach, the full-service team consists of a client concierge, transaction coordinator, stager, photographer, director of marketing, and 10 licensed agents who have a clear understanding of the mindset of home buyers and sellers and in-depth knowledge of the regional housing market. They employ a multi-faceted strategy to skillfully and compassionately guide clients through every step of even the most complex real estate transactions. 6377 BRANCH HILL GUINEA PIKE, LOVELAND, OH 45140, (513) 697-7355, WWW.MOVE2TEAM.COM

PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW DOENCH

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 7 7

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

MARIANNE POWERS

DOUG RAIS

KELLI ROBERTS

KATHY SANTANGELO

Coldwell Banker (513) 484-3753

Comey & Shepherd (513) 505-9995

Comey & Shepherd (513) 969-4841

Coldwell Banker (513) 237-2827

DONNA PRAMPERO

JULIE RAY-RITCHIE

LAURA ROHLING

CARMEN SAYLOR

Comey & Shepherd (513) 368-9364

Coldwell Banker (859) 466-1067

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 380-4790

Comey & Shepherd (513) 535-4880

CAROL PRAZYNSKI

TOM REESE

JULIE ROSE

STEPHANIE SCHEID

Star One Realtors (513) 702-1662

Huﬀ Realty (859) 393-1293

Coldwell Banker Realty Cincinnati, Ohio, (513) 317-7452, www.julierosehomes.com

Realty Executives Select (859) 240-9296

JONATHAN PRICE

Coldwell Banker, 9321 Montgomery Rd., Suite C, Cincinnati, OH 45242. Licensed in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. (513) 484-1415 RAUL PULIDO

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 477-7151 ROSE M. PUTNICK

Star One Realtors (513) 368-4094 ROXANNE QUALLS

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 404-7263

SHERILYN REYNOLDS

Lohmiller Real Estate (513) 266-3022 SARAH RICKERT

Coldwell Banker (513) 801-5120 LORRA RIPPERGER

Star One Realtors (513) 256-1023 PAULA RITTER

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 512-4630 BRIT ROBERTS

Coldwell Banker (513) 328-5484

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 378-2575

DERON G. SCHELL

GARY ROSSIGNOL

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 543-2513 SHIFALI ROUSE

Coldwell Banker (513) 602-1400 KATHY SANDEL

Coldwell Banker (859) 380-9442 PRIYA SANGTANI

Comey & Shepherd (513) 460-9969

YVONNE E. SCHEIDERER

Huﬀ Realty (513) 505-2344

SUSAN ROSE

Huﬀ Realty (859) 640-5149 SARA P. SCHEYER-FARMER

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 802-4735 ROBBIE SCHLAGER

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 477-1751 KATIE SCHMIEG

Coldwell Banker (513) 479-1171

TIM O’BRIEN ZIPFEL CAPITAL You’ve not heard of Tim O’Brien or Zipfel Capital? There may be a reason. The boutique broker firm located in Hyde Park caters to predominantly large dollar borrowers. Last year, Tim O’Brien originated $161 million in residential loans, which ranked him #1 in Ohio by Scotsman Guide magazine. With an average residential loan size exceeding $500,000, Zipfel Capital’s affluent clients seek the market’s most aggressive terms, period. For the past 16 years, Zipfel Capital has delivered. Are you borrowing large sums of money for either residential or commercial? Zipfel Capital is the phone call. “It’s an honor to be nominated as a leader amongst lending peers by the Realtors of the Cincinnati community. I owe this nomination to my fantastic clients.” —Tim O’Brien 3440 EDWARDS RD., CINCINNATI, OH 45208, (513) 321-0111, TIM@ZIPFEL.COM, WWW.ZIPFEL.COM NMLS# 246789

7 8 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

STACIE A. SCHOEPLEIN

JUDIE SEITZ

LAMINE SIDIBE

JANELLE SPRANDEL

Star One Realtors (513) 237-9723

Comey & Shepherd (513) 607-8925

Huﬀ Realty (513) 354-6648

Comey & Shepherd (513) 236-9928

ANGELA SEXTON

BETH SILBER

CINDY STEFFEN

Coldwell Banker (513) 702-3419

Coldwell Banker (513) 317-6042

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 653-3571

GREG SHARMA

MICHELLE R. SLOAN

ALICIA STOUGHTON

Comey & Shepherd (513) 252-1408

RE/MAX TIME (513) 600-5277

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 532-6462

CHIP SHAW

KATIE SLONIM

BRAD STRUNK

RE/MAX Results Plus (513) 407-2447

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 235-4819

Comey & Shepherd (513) 532-9229

DAWN P. SHEANSHANG

JESSICA SMITH

ELLEN SULLIVAN

Huﬀ Realty (859) 578-3930

Keller Williams Realty Services (859) 466-6657

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 708-8098

DIANNA SHELTON

KATHIE SMITH

GREGG SUTTER

Coldwell Banker (513) 403-1095

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 385-3330

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 404-3920

JASON SHEPPARD

JEREMY W. SPAULDING

VICKI SYLVESTRE

Comey & Shepherd (513) 313-6991

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 866-6633

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 967-0756

PATTI SIBCY

SALLY SPEARS

ANDREW TANEN

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 254-1776

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 793-2121

DORY SCHRICKEL

eXp Realty, LLC, 6520 CinciDayton Rd., Liberty Township, OH 45044, (513) 520-4562 JUDY A. SCHUERMANN

Huﬀ Realty (513) 470-8464 JEFFREY E. SCHUPP

Star One Realtors (513) 207-7518 MARK SCHUPP

Star One Realtors (513) 385-0900 KISHA N. SCRUGGS

Huﬀ Realty (513) 858-7020 LEE SEARCY

Realty Executives Select (859) 468-0605

JULIE ROSE JULIE ROSE REALTOR GROUP Julie Rose Realtor Group is dedicated to providing their personal touch when helping you buy or sell your home, bringing enthusiasm and integrity to every real estate challenge. They know that each situation is unique, and take the time to understand your needs. The Cincinnati Board of Realtors has recognized Julie as one of the top 10% of Realtors in the Cincinnati area. In addition to expertise in home buying and selling, she uses her 10 years of marketing and advertising experience to successfully market your home. A skilled negotiator, Julie’s average selling price is 98% of listed price. Looking forward to working together on your next Real Estate move! SERVING ALL OF CINCINNATI (513) 317-7452 WWW.JULIEROSEHOMES.COM

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 7 9

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

LORI TAYLOR

HUNG P. TRI-RUDOLF

ANNE WAGNER

SUMMER WIEDENBEIN

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 486-8239

Star One Realtors (513) 616-2110

Comey & Shepherd (513) 543-5806

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 254-7101

LARRY THINNES

CARL F TUKE III

GAIL V. WAGNER

KELI WILLIAMS

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 720-9900

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 543-8504

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 505-1769

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 348-4548

BRIAN THOMAS

SHAWN D. TURNER

MIKA WALKER

KRISTA WILMHOFF

Coldwell Banker (513) 503-9763

Huﬀ Realty (859) 442-4310

Coldwell Banker (513) 218-8716

Huﬀ Realty (859) 663-7379

KIMBERLY THORPE

ANNE S. UCHTMAN

MICHAEL R WALLET

MAGGIE WOMACKS

Comey & Shepherd (513) 607-6078

Star One Realtors (513) 205-5106

Star One Realtors (513) 266-6714

Coldwell Banker (513) 312-1400

TOM TOBIAS

CATIE S. VANDERVELDE

PADDY WARD

MIKE WRIGHT

Comey & Shepherd (513) 313-5261

Huﬀ Realty (513) 477-3263

Comey & Shepherd (513) 235-3998

Hoeting Realtors (513) 227-8344

DARLENE TODD

VARUN VARMA

KELLY WEIR

PAIGE WURTZ

Comey & Shepherd (513) 779-6263

Coldwell Banker (513) 307-3599

Coldwell Banker (513) 200-3577

Premier Properties (812) 221-7031

LARRY E. TRAME

KIM VINCENT

JENNA WESTRICK

ZACH ZEGAR

Star One Realtors (513) 314-0222

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 739-0493

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 518-4693

Coldwell Banker (513) 970-2500

STEVE TRANTER

DON C. VOLLAND

KELLY M. WHELAN

KATIE ZEINNER

Comey & Shepherd (513) 703-6792

Huﬀ Realty (859) 525-5725

Star One Realtors (513) 910-3405

Lohmiller Real Estate (812) 584-1156

Ryan Kiefer Branch Manager PrimeLending | 513.314.2248 www.ryankiefer.com Buyer’s Edge with PrimeLending* is the advantage home buyers need in this competitive market. Think of Buyer’s Edge as a step up from pre-approval. Ryan Kiefer and his team will verify your financial information and credit history to give you a conditional loan approval. That shows everyone – from your real estate agent to the seller – that your offer is serious. You eliminate the risk of being treated as a casual shopper and command the attention of a serious buyer – even as strong as a cash offer!

Brendan Morrissey Sales Vice President Sibcy Cline Realtors | 513.365.8383 bmorrissey@sibcycline.com Brendan Morrissey is the agent you need to get the house you want! He’s an expert negotiator and student of the market who knows what it takes to win. Buying or selling, Brendan brings his vast experience and knowledge to each deal. Happy clients and referrals make him the agent of choice serving all of Cincinnati with a focus downtown. He handles it all whether you’re looking for a condo, single family home, or investment property.

8 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

JOSEPH S. ZEMBRODT

CAMERON GROUP

DRAZNIK GROUP

JANE ASHCRAFT-WEST TEAM

Huﬀ Realty (859) 250-4557

Sibcy Cline Realtors, 7395 Mason Montgomery Rd., Mason, OH 45040, (513) 519-7872 www.camerongrouprealestate. com

Coldwell Banker (513) 616-0409

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 344-5766

DUFFY TEAM

JE TEAM

Comey & Shepherd (513) 317-1000

Comey & Shepherd (513) 535-5911

DWELL513

JEANNE RIEDER TEAM

Coldwell Banker (513) 616-3798

Hoeting Realtors (513) 253-3992

FAULKNER TEAM

KEY PROPERTY PARTNERS ADAM CURRY

TEAMS ALLRED GROUP

Coldwell Banker (513) 317-7869 ANDREA DESTEFANO TEAM

Sibcy Cline Realtors 9979 Montgomery Rd., Montgomery, OH 45242, (513) 309-3184, https://aldrealestate.com BARBARA BROWNING

Coldwell Banker (513) 300-7990 BRYSON WARNER REAL ESTATE TEAM

CHASE & PAMELA, PARTNERS

Coldwell Banker (513) 237-6495 CLENDENIN HOME TEAM

Huﬀ Realty (859) 371-2228 DIANE TAFURI TEAM

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 602-6610 DAWSON DREAM HOMES KATE DAWSON

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 560-0660 DEDE & JENS TEAM

Huﬀ Realty (859) 652-2222

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 226-4737

C & A HOME TEAM

DENISE MCCOY

Keller Williams Realty Services (859) 322-3850

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 912-1969

Comey & Shepherd (513) 646-4681 GERBUS AKELEY GROUP

Comey & Shepherd (513) 295-6425 GINA DUBELL-SMITH’S DESIGNED2SELL TEAM

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 373-4328 LEWIS & DONOHOO TEAM

Huﬀ Realty (513) 388-5781 LISA PHAIR & ASSOCIATES

eXp Realty, LLC (513) 683-8181

Coldwell Banker (513) 604-9151

HOETING-WISSEL TEAM

MADDIN HOFMANN TEAM

Hoeting Realtors (513) 256-6934

Huﬀ Realty (513) 519-0006

HORNSBY GROUP

MAHONEY GROUP

Huﬀ Realty (513) 218-6621

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 477-6520

KATRINA ROBKE HOLTMEIER THE SCARLETT PROPERTY GROUP

THE FOLTZ TEAM KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY SERVICES Led by Sara Foltz, The Foltz Team is recognized as one of the top dually licensed teams in the area—we can help you find your perfect home anywhere! Whether buying, selling, investing, or building, our knowledge of the market, dedication to our clients, and attention to detail are key to exceeding expectations. We love this city and give back regularly to the community as well. Call us for a free home valuation or buyer’s consultation! 7210 TURFWAY RD., FLORENCE, KY 41042, (513) 377-1070, WWW.SARAFOLTZ.COM

”While paying attention to the details and working tirelessly for my clients, I’m going to ‘knock it out of the park’ every time,” says Keller Williams Realty Services agent Katrina Robke Holtmeier. She works with sellers, buyers, investors, and developers throughout the tri-state area. Her knowledge and experience makes her equipped to handle each client’s unique situation. She will partner with you as your trusted advisor in this fast-paced market, setting you up for success. Katrina is continually recognized as a top producer in her market center and was recognized as the #2 agent in listings taken and a top growth partner in 2021. Skill, compassion, integrity, and an entertaining sense of humor, Katrina will be the one you’ll always call your Realtor. 7210 TURFWAY RD., FLORENCE, KY 41042, (513) 504-0280, WWW.SCARLETTPG.COM

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 8 1

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

MARTIN & ASSOCIATES TEAM DEBORAH MARTIN

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 480-6680 MEGAN STACEY GROUP

Coldwell Banker (513) 702-8886 MELISSA MAXWELL

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 372-8060 MOLLY EYNON AND SARA LIMPER

Coldwell Banker (513) 544-2231 NEXUS PROPERTY GROUP XAOJIE ZAVON

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 586-2821 NKY SOLD

Huﬀ Realty (859) 993-7653 NORRIS GROUP

Coldwell Banker (513) 479-2411

OVERBECK REALTY GROUP

REED AND ROE

STEVE SYLVESTER & ASSOCIATES

3B Realty Group, LLC (513) 278-7089

Coldwell Banker (513) 379-5445

Comey & Shepherd (513) 675-2560

PARKER REAL ESTATE GROUP

RON AND ANNA BISHER GROUP

TEAM FERRY - CHERYL FERRY

Huﬀ Realty (859) 486-3300

Coldwell Banker (513) 574-4300

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 289-2320

PARKER RICH GROUP

SARAH WOODY GROUP

TEAM HAMILTON

Coldwell Banker (513) 831-7424

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 405-0013

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 615-1517

PAT GREGORY

SHERRY O TEAM

TEAM HOELZER

RE/MAX Victory + Aﬃliates, Inc (859) 344-7303

Huﬀ Realty (513) 304-9042

Coldwell Banker (513) 839-5595

PITZER GROUP

SKYLINE PROPERTIES GROUP

Coldwell Banker (513) 225-3069

Coldwell Banker (513) 907-2606

TEAM KOESTERMAN - DENISE KOESTERMAN

POONAM BHARDWAJ GROUP

SOUTHERN OHIO PROPERTIES

Coldwell Banker (513) 225-3666

Comey & Shepherd (513) 502-9065

PRESTIGE GROUP

SPICER-WIRTH & KAUP

Coldwell Banker (513) 836-8433

Coldwell Banker (859) 250-6657

QUIGLEY TEAM

SPOUSES WHO SELL HOUSES

Comey & Shepherd (513) 615-4798

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 485-2882

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 289-7322 TEAM MORALES

Coldwell Banker (513) 218-0687 TEAM MORALES

Coldwell Banker (513) 907-0470 TEAM SANDERS

Sibcy Cline Realtors (859) 750-4392

LETTIE & LAFRANCE RE/MAX PREFERRED GROUP Sandra Lettie and Deb LaFrance are consistently recognized by clients and peers as industry leaders in Cincinnati real estate. Sandra and Deb met 25 years ago while earning their real estate licenses, and quickly became friends and business partners with a shared vision of providing exceptional, personalized service to every client, every time. Lettie & LaFrance offer clients an outstanding real estate experience, superior negotiation skills, and the ability to make the buying or selling experience less stressful and more enjoyable! RE/MAX PREFERRED GROUP, 3522 ERIE AVE., CINCINNATI, OH 45208, S: (513) 310-6922 AND D: (513) 652-9256

JENNIFER MCGILLIS EXP REALTY With 12+ years of experience Jennifer is continuously recognized as a top-producing agent. She surrounds herself with a team that excels in their fields while exerting passion, professionalism, integrity, and industry knowledge. As a former Marine, her military mentality serves her clients well by adapting and overcoming obstacles while offering the polished edge of experience. Jennifer regularly gives back to the community, has served as a head coach for Girls On The Run, and was a ProKids CASA. 7017 MIAMI AVE., CINCINNATI, OH 45243, (513) 344-9077, WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/CINCINNATIJENN

8 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

THE BARON GROUP - DANNY BARON

THE CINCY TEAM (KYRIA GRAVES)

THE MARKOWSKI TEAM/AMY MARKOWSKI

THE ZIMMER GROUP - PETER ZIMMER

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 600-4117

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 200-5580

Real Brokerage Technologies (513) 805-8406

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (859) 992-9654

THE BEVERLY CORSMEIER AND GREG TASSONE GROUP

THE COURTNE BRASS TEAM

THE RIES TEAM

TOM STURM GROUP

Coldwell Banker (513) 314-9447

Coldwell Banker (513) 470-0564

Coldwell Banker (513) 470-8785

THE DREW & INGRID GROUP

THE RILEY GIRDLER TEAM

TREAS TEAM

Coldwell Banker (513) 240-1043

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 607-9329

Huﬀ Realty (859) 801-1088

THE GIBLER TEAM

THE SCHUERMAN GROUP

WAITS TEAM

Coldwell Banker (513) 382-4109

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 368-9349

Sibcy Cline Realtors (513) 324-6046

THE GIFFORD TEAM

THE SCHWARBER TEAM

WOEHRMYER TEAM

Keller Williams Advisors Realty (513) 987-1111

Comey & Shepherd (513) 307-1728

Comey & Shepherd (513) 850-3272

THE CANNING TEAM

THE JANELL STUCKWISCH GROUP

THE TOM JOHANSING TEAM

MORTGAGE PROFESSIONALS

Comey & Shepherd (513) 703-5430

Coldwell Banker (859) 992-1602

THE CHRISTY JONES TEAM

THE JOHNNY HODGE TEAM

Coldwell Banker (513) 470-8909

Coldwell Banker (513) 315-8420

Coldwell Banker (513) 607-6400 THE BILL GABBARD GROUP

HER Realtors (513) 616-3835 THE BRITTNEY FRIETCH TEAM

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 258-1003 THE CAGNEY FAMILY

Coldwell Banker (513) 319-7312

THE CINCINNATI MODERN TEAM

RE/MAX Preferred Group (513) 207-1008

NRL Mortgage (614) 597-4629

THE TYE GROUP

eXp Realty, LLC (513) 478-3794

TONY AUTULLO

THE WEEKS GROUP

Keller Williams Advisory Realty (513) 258-1783

Keller Williams Advisory Realty (513) 886-7841

DORY SCHRICKEL EXP REALTY

JUSTIN ALLEN

AnnieMac (513) 769-2071

EXPERTISE THAT GETS RESULTS!

I have been in the real estate industry for over 17 years and follow this motto: ‘Professionalism, defined by outstanding service and expertise.’ I strive to assure all is accurate, consistent, reliable, and running smoothly for all parties involved. I’m a dedicated, honest, hard-working, high energy, positive, inspiring professional Realtor blessed with many new and returning clients, with whom I love working and who trust me with their most valuable asset. 6520 CIN-DAY RD., LIBERTY TWP, OH 45044, (513) 520-4562, HTTPS://DORY SCHRICKEL. EXPREALTY.COM

MARC & HELENA CAMERON

KAS WINKLER

513-403-4023 CameronGroupRealEstate.com

S E R V I N G WA R R E N , B U T L E R A N D H A M I LTO N CO U N T I E S

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 8 3

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

REAL ESTATE & MORTGAGE

ALL-STARS

MIKE BEHRENS

TOM FREPPON

KAILI MCCOOL

DJ SESSIONS

Novus (513) 289-4337

Stockton Mortgage (859) 240-2332

Preferred Rate (513) 679-1045

Guaranteed Rate (937) 397-5632

MIKE BODKIN

MATT FRUMP

BRIAN MILLION

JENNIFER SHEIL

Cincinnati Federal (513) 652-7711

USA Mortgage (513) 260-7918

Movement Mortgage (513) 214-9834

Cross Country Mortgage (513) 796-6024

SHEILA BRAUN

ASHOK GHILDYAL

SUSAN MORGAN

MARK SHOONER

Union Home Mortgage (513) 652-2366

PrimeLending 7594 Tyler’s Place Blvd. #B, West Chester, OH 45069, (513) 600-4961, https://lo.primelending.com/ aghildyal/

American Mortgage (859) 512-6430

Prosperity Home Mortgage (513) 623-3322

BRANDON MORYL

DREW STACEY

Option Financial (513) 582-3512

Guaranteed Rate (513) (404) 8622

TIM O’BRIEN

TERESA STRAPP

Zipfel Capital, 3440 Edwards Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45208, (513) 310-7180, www.zipfel.com/team

Union Home Mortgage (513) 259-3876

CHRIS BRITTON

Union Home Mortgage (513) 703-7500 SCOTT BURLEIGH

Huntington Bank (859) 866-5588 ED COLLINS

Cincinnati Federal (513) 574-3025 CODY COOMER

Stockton Mortgage (513) 479-4630 LESLEY COONEY

Prosperity Home Mortgage (859) 991-5204

MELANIE GOULD

River Hills Bank (513) 702-5830 COREY GRACE

Guaranteed Rate (859) 466-4421 DAN HARDIN

American Mortgage (859) 441-8900

Huntington National Bank (513) 659-2731

ROB OVERBECK

MICA JAMES

JOHN CORNETT

Western Ohio Mortgage Corporation (513) 280-8723

Union Savings Bank (859) 468-6760

PAT KEMPER

TIM CRAFT

NRL Mortgage (812) 496-5733

Fifth Third Bank (513) 247-1246

JOHN KENKEL

CHAD CURTIN

Heartland Bank (859) 578-7105

NRL Mortgage (513) 592-3855

RYAN KIEFER

MATT DAVIS

Sibcy Cline Mortgage (937) 408-3007 ROBERT DIEDERICHSEN III

PrimeLending 7594 Tyler’s Place Blvd. #B, West Chester, OH 45069, (513) 720-2279, https://lo.prime lending.com/rdiederichsen/ ANDY DIPUCCIO

Caliber Home Loans (859) 912-7513 JESSICA EDDY

Envoy Mortgage (513) 748-6987 TIM EICKHOFF

American Mortgage (859) 393-3953 JUSTIN EPURE

Ruoﬀ Mortgage (513) 264-2578 TIM FELLER

Thrive Mortgage (513) 377-0579

DAVE OSBURG

PrimeLending 2718 Observatory Ave., Floor 1, Cincinati, OH 45208, (513) 314-2248, www.ryankiefer.com MEGAN KING

Fifth Third Bank (513) 443-5186 JOE KOESTER

Eagle Savings (513) 476-4575 ANN LAFFERTY

PrimeLending 2718 Observatory Ave., Floor 1, Cincinati, OH 45208, (513) 478-7430, Ann.laﬀerty@primelending.com, www.applywithannlaﬀerty.com KATHY LAMB

Thrive Mortgage (513) 310-3301 STEVE LOECHTENFELDT

Ameriﬁrst (513) 615-5484

Front Row Mortgage (513) 484-3997 RAJ PARIKH

Huntington Bank (513) 777-8777 COLLEEN PARSONS

American Mortgage (859) 578-7834 RAVI PATEL

Guaranteed Rate (404) 556-1157 JOHN PERIATT

Ruoﬀ Mortgage (513) 382-4319 JUSTIN PHILLIPS

Rapid Mortgage (513) 769-2032 BRANDON RICHTER

Option Financial (513) 582-3512 RAJVALLA ROBINSON

Fifth Third Bank (513) 398-3205 MATTHEW ROLPH

Rolph Mortgage (513) 449-4704 SHELLY SCHEUER

Caliber Home Loans (513) 515-5333 KELLY SCOVANNER

PrimeLending, 2718 Observatory Ave., Fl 1, Cincinnati, OH 45208, (513) 884-6618, https://lo.prime lending.com/kelly.scovanner/

JEBB LYONS

DAVE SCULLY

Rapid Mortgage (513) 769-2080

Ruoﬀ Mortgage (513) 633-8476

8 4 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

STACEY TANNER

River Hills Bank (513) 344-4123 ROB TRUMP

American Mortgage (859) 462-7410 ELOISA VINSON

Fifth Third Bank (513) 204-9881 MICHAEL WILSON

NRL Mortgage (513) 795-9006 TONYA WOLFE

Preferred Rate (513) 304-4684

Unparalleled learning. Unlimited growth. Exceptional patient care. Our academic roots enable our nurses to experience more, learn more and impact more lives.

BE EXTRAORDINARY BE A UC HEALTH NURSE. APPLY TODAY!

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

TO R C H O F E XC E L L E N CE 3 0 TH A N N U A L N U R S I N G A W A R D S CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2022 WINNERS

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

TORCH OF EXCELLENCE

A LETTER FROM THE DEAN

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI COLLEGE OF NURSING

Through the last two years, increased recognition has been brought to nurses as the backbone and frontline of health care. In hospitals, medical offices, clinics, schools and communities, nurses are the primary and, in some areas, the only health care providers and educators. Under normal circumstances, they must account for a long list of factors that influence a patient’s health care outcomes, such as language barriers or literacy issues, cultural behaviors or traditions and costs of medication or services. With the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses have done all of this and more, as they have faced additional and sometimes personal challenges that have made their mission harder to accomplish. In this context, the choice to center the 2022 Torch of Excellence in Nursing Awards around Lillian Wald was an easy one. Wald created the term “public health nursing” to emphasize the community value of nurses whose work was built upon an understanding of the problems that invariably accompanied the ills of the poor. Practicing among the poor quickly revealed that their diseases most often resulted from causes beyond their individual control and that treatments needed to be prescribed accounting for aspects including social and economic conditions. By encouraging personal and public responsibility and providing a unifying structure for the delivery of comprehensive, equally available health care, Wald conceptualized a new paradigm for nursing practice. During a challenging period for all, but an especially demanding one for nurses, the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing is proud to recognize Greater Cincinnati area nurses who continue to carry the torch of excellence by impacting health outcomes through quality, equitable and safe care to all. We are thankful for this year’s nominees’ coworkers, patients, family members and supervisors, who took the time to share the incredible commitment and dedication of more than one hundred nurses in the region.

Denise Gormley, PhD, RN, FNAP Interim Dean University of Cincinnati College of Nursing

8 8 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

TORCH OF EXCELLENCE

TORCH OF EXCELLENCE NURSING AWARDS 2022 Proﬁles by Jennifer Hogan Redmond

or three decades now, the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing has brought together the community to recognize and celebrate outstanding Greater Cincinnati nurses. Previously the Florence Nightingale Awards for Excellence in Nursing, the celebration has been renamed Torch of Excellence Nursing Awards, shining a spotlight on deserving, significant nurse leaders of the past and present. This year’s event highlights Lilian Wald (1867-1940), an American nurse, humanitarian and author known for her contributions to human rights and for being the founder of American community nursing. In 1893, Wald coined the term “public health nurse” to identify nurses who worked outside hospitals. These nurses, who specialized in both preventative care and the preservation of health, received fees based on patients’ ability to pay. Wald’s influence can be seen in many aspects of public health, including initiating lectures that led to the formation of Columbia University’s Department of Nursing and Health. Like Wald, the recipients of the 2022 Torch of Excellence Nursing Awards are examples of nurses who go above and beyond to provide exceptional care to all. Regardless of the setting where they work, the population they care for or the role they perform, their commitment to and positive impact in our community deserve recognition.

CINDY BRUNSMAN, MSN, RN, CNM TriHealth Nurse Midwives Caring for women, delivering babies and assisting expectant mothers who struggle with chemical dependencies has been Cindy Brunsman’s vocation for 40 years. She began nursing at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in 1979 and will soon retire from TriHealth Nurse Midwives (THNM), the practice she helped found in 2002. Her nursing journey spans several states and multiple leadership positions, including co-founder of an organization that provides primary care to inner city drug users in Michigan, and coordinator of a program at the University of Cincinnati for pregnant women who formerly or currently battle addiction. While in her current role treating patients and delivering babies at Good Samaritan Hospital, Brunsman was part of the medical team that spearheaded the Helping Opiate Women Evolve (HOPE) Program at TriHealth. (HOPE strives to improve birth outcomes and provide nonjudgmental care for chemically dependent women in Greater Cincinnati.) Brunsman’s “dedication to women and especially women who have struggles with substance abuse has impacted more lives than we will ever know,” notes her colleague. Described as a “beacon to the nursing profession,” Brunsman is also credited with sharing her passion and knowledge with the next generation of nurse midwives in Greater Cincinnati through her work as student coordinator.

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 8 9

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

TORCH OF EXCELLENCE

NICOLE DEGREG, MSN, RN, FNP-BC Cincinnati Health Department As leader of the Roberts Academy School-Based Health Center (SBHC), Family Nurse Practitioner Nicole DeGreg juggles everything from routine immunizations and well check-ups to medication follow up appointments and treatment for chronic childhood illnesses. Lauded as “the finest orchestrated symphony of collaboration,” for their work with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, other healthcare providers, and area schools, DeGreg’s “small but mighty team” of four professionals provides health education and medical care not only for Roberts Academy’s 800 enrolled students, but for many of their families, community members, and students from other institutions. DeGreg speaks Spanish fluently, a skill that facilitates direct communication with the school’s many students and families from South and Central America. Her knowledge, professionalism and understanding of the cultural needs and challenges of all students have helped make SBHC an accessible and comfortable hub, even during the pandemic when other centers were closed. DeGreg’s influence is vast, yet begins with the simplest of gestures: a smile to greet every patient who enters SBHC.

SANDRA GIRTEN, BSN, RN, CPN, CNOR Bon Secours Mercy Health-Anderson Hospital Characterized as a “lifelong learner” for her varied achievements and credentials, Sandra Girten settled on nursing as a vocation after a stint as a flight attendant. She worked first with pediatric patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center before joining the team at Mercy Health in 2017. She has been a circulator in the operating room for 20 of her 42 years in the field. Girten is praised for her impact on patient care and lauded as a “safety champion” for completing projects to improve the operating room (OR) and prevent hazardous situations there, in the lab, and during the patient transport process. She has collaborated with multiple departments to spearhead change and protect patients and medical staff alike. Girten also acts as a mentor and preceptor to nearly all nursing staff entering the OR and is leader of the Surgical Shared Leadership Committee. Her efforts go well beyond her compassionate caregiving and professionalism, however. Girten is generous, passionate and creative, whether she is coordinating staff milestone celebrations and contests or cheerleading for the surgery department’s participation in campus-wide charity drives. “She is the spark that continues to ignite passion for all that came in contact with her… Her flame sets the world on fire!” notes her nominator.

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Congratulations TO OUR NURSES We’re proud of all our nurses who work tirelessly to provide compassionate care to our patients. We’re honored they’ve chosen to share their passion and talent with us. Congratulations to our

CONGRATULATIONS SANDRA GIRTEN

Torch of Excellence Nursing Award Winner Mercy Health — Anderson Hospital

nominees for the 2022 Torch of Excellence Nursing Awards!

W here nurses mean the world.

MERCY HEALTH — FAIRFIELD HOSPITAL

Briana Berry Laura Brown Krystal Harden MERCY HEALTH — WEST HOSPITAL

Myka Bowen Mary Jo Oldendick Scott Johnson Kady Martini Amy Stahley THE JEWISH HOSPITAL — MERCY HEALTH

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ABIGAIL JOHN, BSN, RN Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Abigail (“Abbi”) John is the Program Nurse Coordinator for the Functional Independence Restoration (FIRST) Program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, but “her commitment to excellence goes beyond her many formal job duties,” states the FIRST team that collectively nominated her for this award. John is credited with developing several programs to streamline internal processes, facilitate family/clinic communication and ease patients’ comfort as they enter the interdisciplinary inpatient pain treatment program, one of few in the world to treat children with severely disabling pain conditions. Dedicated to the consistent improvement of the program, John has a can-do attitude and has used initiative and ingenuity to create comprehensive admission packets and pre-visit screening assessments. In fact, she is responsible for many of the processes, procedures and materials that have made FIRST a success, all while grappling with the complexities and challenges of insurance authorizations, appeals and peer-to-peer evaluations. As she efficiently coordinates so many moving parts, colleagues note John’s “endless compassion for patients and families.” Her kindness and efforts have changed lives, evident from parents who consistently report “how happy they are to meet her and how hard she has worked for their child to come to our program and get their lives back,” says the FIRST team.

KELLI LICHNER, MSN, RN, CPN Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Clinical manager Kelli Lichner is praised for significant contributions to the wellness and safety of patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) through several recent initiatives. A skilled nurse with 20 years of experience, Lichner partnered with a CCHMC physician to create a reciprocal shadowing experience between new nurses and physicians on her unit. The program successfully fostered collaboration and understanding on the team and was featured at the 2020 Society of Pediatric Nurses Conference and published in Hospital Pediatrics. Lichner also initiated an effort to reduce response time to emergency bedside alarms. Due to her efforts, which included a competition of teams, the unit improved response times by 62%. Her impact on patient care is evident additionally in the unit’s ability to assess a patient’s medically ready status and sustain a greater than 80% discharge rate within two hours of meeting medical goals. Lichner is appreciated for her diligence as an advocate for patient needs, and for her positive, upbeat demeaner as she goes about her daily tasks. She coordinates nursing schedules, mentors nurses and supports staff so they remain healthy. Her daily texts to nurses to make sure they have eaten lunch are appreciated, as is her support to provide patient care so they can take needed breaks. “We are ever so grateful to have her,” state her colleagues.

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Molly Norrish Kelsey Webster Heather Frommeyer

for always being right here for our patients and community.

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DENESHIA SMITH, BSN, RN Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center “Deneshia Smith is a rare, special nurse,” notes one of many colleagues who nominated her for the Torch of Excellence Award. As a Special Resource Unit (SRU) Charge Nurse, Smith is adept at juggling multiple aspects of nursing, including ICU, emergency and general bedside assignments. She also serves as a radiology transport nurse on the SRU Radiology Team, and as lead RN at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s COVID-19 vaccine clinic. Managing through the challenges imposed by the pandemic with a smile and an “incredible work ethic” have garnered Smith much admiration. She is an outstanding nurse who “injects enthusiasm, energy, positivity and personality everywhere she goes,” and she is an astute clinician with “a wonderful way of interpreting the needs of those around her and jumping in without waiting to be asked” note her peers. Beyond her nursing duties, Smith serves as co-coordinator of The African American Professional Advisory Board (AAPAC) and as a Peer2Peer Supporter, providing emotional support to staff who have experienced difficult clinical situations. Colleagues view her as a surrogate “mother/sister to many” in the hospital, quick to offer help and a shoulder to lean on in every circumstance. While the accolades for Smith are exhaustive, perhaps the most powerful reflection of her as a nursing professional is this comment from a colleague: “She is the nurse you want at your bedside, your child’s bedside, on your worst days.

Leading, advocating & collaborating to improve child health, here and around the world. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE 2022 2021 FLORENCE FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE NIGHTINGALE AWARDEES AWARDEES

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ADELE CORBIN, MSN, RN, CNP UC Health The award recipient in the team-leading category, Adele Corbin has devoted 50 years to nursing. Though often recognized for her expert diabetes care, her efforts and impact extend broadly throughout Greater Cincinnati. Corbin graduated from Good Samaritan Hospital School of Nursing and worked at General Hospital as a bedside nurse before earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, followed by a Master of Science in Nursing in Community Health Nursing and a post-master’s certificate in Adult Health Nursing. She served as director of the After-Hours Nurse Clinic at City Gospel Mission from 2004 to 2021, working with volunteer nurses and UC nursing students to provide basic care to homeless clients. Th is work garnered attention in the Journal of Community Health Nursing (2014). Corbin also volunteered as a parish nurse at St. Dominic Church for a decade, where she organized health fairs, screenings and flu shots. In addition, she served multiple years as Delegate to the Ohio Nurses Association. Board certified in Advanced Diabetes Management, Corbin has been an integral part of the Diabetes NOW Team (an inpatient diabetes management initiative) since 2006. Concurrently as nurse practitioner for UC’s Sweet Transitions Program, she provides outpatient follow-up and education to those recently discharged from the hospital, working with the Medication Access Services Team to make sure patients can afford access to medications. During her lifelong vocation, Corbin’s impact on patients, fellow nurses and healthcare workers has been considerable. “She leaves every institution better than she found it,” states an admirer.

Proud to prepare the next generation of nurses to act as champions for their communities and reduce health inequities.

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JOEY VOTTO

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 63

JOEY VOTTO BY

Chad Dotson

ILLUSTRATION BY

Alexander Wells

THE GREATEST

REDS PLAYER Even now, but certainly by the time he retires,

the shy kid from Canada has better career numbers for Cincinnati than Bench, Larkin, Morgan, Robinson, or Rose. Yet he’s the only one of them not to play in a World Series for the Reds.

PA G E

DECEMBER 2013

teammates on Cincinnati’s rookie league affiliate in Billings, Montana. He didn’t pay much attention to the young slugger at that time, but the following season they were at Class-A Dayton together and became roommates on road trips. They got along well immediately, but it was a bizarre season for the franchise’s minor league affiliates. Prior to the campaign, Reds GM Dan O’Brien issued an edict requiring every hitter to take pitches until he got a strike. Before long, other clubs ﬁgured out what the Reds were doing and took advantage of

ing season, and Guevara noted that Votto was trying to pull the ball all the time. They were both promoted to Double-A Chattanooga in 2006, and Guevara was amazed at what he saw from his roommate. “He put it all together. He was spraying the ball all over the ﬁeld. He was the best player in the league. That’s when I realized, I’m not just looking at a future big leaguer, I’m looking at an All-Star, a different kind of player.” Guevara had long since noted that Votto approached the job unlike anyone else. “This was his job, and he was going to get the most out of it every single day, seven times a week,” he says. “Everything he does when he gets up in the morning is preparation for the game that day. Then, when the game is over, everything is about being prepared for the next game. He used the minor leagues to ﬁgure out how he was going to make himself the best big leaguer he could be. He was playing chess while we were all playing checkers. And he still kind of is.”

“I’M NOT DONE PLAYING,” VOTTO SAYS WHEN ASKED HOW HE STACKS UP AGAINST OTHER REDS GREATS. “I’M HONORED [AT THE COMPARISONS], BUT I PLAY TO PLAY WELL.” it, burying practically every minor league hitter in a one-strike hole right away. The Reds adjusted somewhat, picking one or two hitters before each game who were allowed to swing before they saw a strike. But it was a silly concept, eventually abandoned by the organization. Votto responded with a maturity uncommon among minor leaguers. “That whole season,” says Guevara by telephone, “I watched Joey working on spraying the ball to the left side. Everything he hit was to the opposite ﬁeld, even his home runs were almost all to the opposite ﬁeld. He told me, I’m working on my 0–2 approach. I’m going to be down 0–1 or even 0–2 all the time, so I’m working on that approach.” “In retrospect, I think it was a good thing,” Votto says now. “It made hitting that much harder and forced us to have more resilience, trying to get hits with one strike and especially deep in the count.” They were both in Sarasota the follow9 8 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

WHAT DOES “GREATNESS” EVEN MEAN? Here’s a decent measure: Since Votto made his major league debut in September 2007, only two players have accumulated more wins above replacement (WAR) than his 64.6: Mike Trout and Robinson Cano, a couple of potential Hall of Famers. And then there’s this, perhaps the single best argument in favor of Votto as a baseball legend. Over the course of his career, he’s led the National League in on-base percentage (OBP) seven times. The list of players in baseball history who have led their league in OBP at least seven times over the course of their career: Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, Votto. That’s it. Even better, Votto led the league in OBP for four consecutive seasons, from 2010 to 2013. In the entirety of baseball history, only three other players have ever done that: Hall of Famers Hornsby, Williams, and Wade Boggs. Some of you might be thinking, Big deal.

All he does is walk. Back in 2013, after Votto had already won a National League MVP award, then-Reds GM Walt Jocketty accused him of that very crime against oldschool baseball. Throughout his career, observers in the stands and in the broadcast booth have charged that Votto was too content to accept a base on balls, especially with runners on base. Shouldn’t he be looking to put the ball into play, even if it means swinging at pitches outside the strike zone? It’s always been a silly argument, for a number of reasons. First of all, just on the surface, it’s clear that there is more to Votto than standing in the batter’s box, bat on shoulder, waiting for ball four. After all, the guy has led the league in slugging percentage, doubles, and OPS and has pounded 24 or more homers in nine different seasons. Votto has even won a Gold Glove. He’s a well-rounded player who has been one of the game’s best for a long, long time. You might say, But he doesn’t drive in runs like, say, Tony Perez! Certainly, Votto’s RBI totals don’t look as gaudy as Perez’s numbers with the Big Red Machine. But don’t ever let anyone tell you that’s because Votto isn’t a good “run producer” or that he isn’t “clutch.” Perez had a good career average with runners in scoring position (.284); Votto’s is a superior, even gaudy .325. Unlike Perez, Votto hasn’t had the good fortune of Morgan and Rose hitting in front of him in the Reds lineup. For his part, Votto has mostly tried to ignore the nonsense. Before the 2016 season, however, he executed a perfect troll job on his critics. In discussing his off-season regimen, Votto said, “A lot of sleeping, a lot of walks. I went for a lot of walks. The Cincinnati fan base can be excited about the future of my performance. I’m rested and I practiced walking a lot.” Only one other Reds player in recent times, Barry Larkin, even compares to Votto, but we’re at the point now where evergrowing numbers of Cincinnati fans didn’t actually see Larkin play. The more, shall we say, seasoned among you might be inclined to add a few more players to the conversation, from the Big Red Machine stars all the way back to Frank Robinson. Whatever names you have floating around in your head right now, I’m guessing they’re players who ended up in the National Baseball

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JOEY VOTTO Hall of Fame in Cooperstown (or, in Rose’s case, deserve to be there). No matter how you slice it—rate stats, counting stats, traditional metrics, advanced metrics—Votto compares favorably to any other player who’s ever played for Cincinnati. As things stood before the 2022 season, Votto has the highest career OBP in franchise history (.416), and he’s second only to Robinson in slugging percentage. He’s second to Bench in career home runs, third in runs batted in and doubles, and ﬁfth in hits (despite having 500-plus fewer plate appearances than anyone ahead of him on that particular list). And yes, he’s collected more walks than any other Reds player. When asked about his place in Reds history, Votto says he’s honored just by the comparison. “I have nothing but respect for those players,” he says. “Frank Robinson is one of my favorite players of all time. Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Barry Larkin— to be in that category is an honor." Votto is quick, however, to say that it’s far too soon

for discussions about his place in club history. “There are two things: One, I’m not done playing. And two, I have expectations that match my skill level. I’m honored, but I play to play well.” And that’s why Votto will go down in history as the greatest Reds player ever: He isn’t ﬁnished. Barring injury, it’s likely that he’ll pass Bench for the career home run crown and will be no lower than second in RBIs and doubles by the time he retires. You could go broke betting on 38-year-old baseball players to perform well, but Votto demonstrated pretty clearly last year that he’s still relevant. Midway through the 2020 season, it really appeared as if Votto were on the inevitable age-related decline. But then he retooled his swing and became a completely different hitter. This just doesn’t happen at the highest level of the most difficult of sports, but that’s Votto—always tinkering with his swing and always succeeding. Playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.

If you want a quick and dirty measurement of how good Votto’s age-37 season was last year, note that his OPS+ (a statistic that normalizes a player’s OPS to adjust for park and league factors; an average OPS+ is 100) was 136. Only 22 other players in the entire history of baseball have posted a better OPS+ at age 37. And when you look at the names ahead of Votto on the list, it’s mostly a who’s who of baseball greats: Bonds (268!), Ruth, Williams, Willie Mays, George Brett, Stan Musial, Mike Schmidt. No, Votto isn't quite as productive a hitter as he was at his peak; he’s not walking as much, and the batting average is down. But he's come to terms with the fact that he’s getting older, and he’s made a compromise with Father Time, sacriﬁcing walks and more-perfect control of the strike zone in exchange for hanging onto the power for a little longer. VOTTO IS UNDER CONTRACT WITH THE Reds for two more seasons, with the club

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holding an option for a third season (2024). While he was outstanding last year, time is certainly running out, even if Votto has slowed down the aging process temporarily. Unfortunately, Reds ownership seems prepared to squander this remarkable career. In the wake of last season, with a fun and talented (though ﬂawed) Reds roster that remained in a playoff race deep into September, most fans thought owner Bob Castellini and Reds management owed it to the greatest player in club history to patch the lineup holes and help Votto ﬁnally get the championship he deserves (the championship Castellini promised to fans upon purchasing the team in 2006). Votto has played in a total of 11 playoff games in his remarkable career, and his teams have never won a playoff series. Compare that to the Big Red Machine’s Morgan, Rose, and Bench, who played in 37, 42, and 45 playoff games as Reds, respectively, including multiple World Series. As soon as last season ended, the Reds

began executing a fire sale, trading away Sonny Gray, Jesse Winker, Eugenio Suarez, and Tucker Barnhart and allowing Nick Castellanos and Wade Miley to leave town with little more than a pat on the back. All of a sudden, with team management attempting to “align our payroll to our resources,” in the immortal words of current General Manager Nick Krall, the Reds are back to pretending they’re too poor to compete. Which means that Joey Votto will almost certainly never play for a championship team in Cincinnati. It means that he’ll finish his career here with more last-place finishes (six currently) than playoff appearances. It means that during a long Hall of Fame-caliber career he’ll never be a part of a Reds team that advances in the playoffs. He’ll be the only player in the inner circle of Reds greats, however you define that, who never made it to the World Series. Joey Votto has simply been incredible in almost every way for the last couple of decades. From the teenager who imitated

Junior to the man who homered in seven straight games at age 37, he’s been a joy to watch. Votto has grown up in Cincinnati in many ways that matter. Initially a shy, sensitive kid, he’s emerged as an elder statesman of the game who enjoys joking around on the ﬁeld as much as he insists on working harder than anyone else off the ﬁeld. And he’s remained incredibly productive even as his physical gifts begin to wane. Joe Morgan was great, no question about it, perhaps the best second baseman in baseball history. Johnny Bench? Well, we’ll never see another like him. You can make an argument for Frank Robinson, and I know some of you will say that native sons Pete Rose, Barry Larkin, and Junior Griffey were the best Reds players you’ve ever seen. Give me Joey Votto. By the time he’s done, he’ll retire as the best player in the long and storied history of this great franchise. And you can still watch him play this summer at Great American Ball Park. He’s just special, you know?

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JUST CALL US KIN-CINNATI CONTINUED FROM PAGE 67

JUST CALL US

KIN-CINNATI OVER THE PAST 150 YEARS, THE SECRETIVE FAMILIES OF SCOTTISH AND IRISH TRAVELERS DEVELOPED AN UNBREAKABLE BOND WITH CINCINNATI.

ILLUSTRATION BY

ZACHARY GHADERI

LAURIE PIKE

last year a 10-foot slab went up.” One grave was recently festooned with ﬂoral sculptures depicting a Chicago Cubs logo and a pair of white horses. At the cemetery entrance on Rapid Run Road is a 6-foot disc, evoking a wagon wheel, inscribed “Gorman’s.” The apostrophe may be a grammatical error, but it could also be seen as intentional; the extended family occupies a good chunk of real estate here, more than 500 plots. “Bernie Hamilton is the person we deal with, their leader,” says Winter. “He’s a big, strong guy with meat-cleaver hands.

the public sphere that gets filled by rumors and what scraps of information we do have. Most of the factual records are crime reports. What doesn’t get notated is the significant economic and societal benefit of their presence here. The story I originally hoped for was not to be. The Travelers would not take the mic and speak for themselves. A single one allowed an interview on condition I not use his real name. I have instead relied on conversations with historians, law enforcement, and those who do business with Travelers supplemented with information from books, scholarly research, documentaries, message boards, and news reports. WE KNOW THEM BEST FROM THEIR BURIals. The wayfarers return to Cincinnati faithfully, shipping bodies of loved ones across multiple states. Many in these dynasties have no other relationship to the city. And while many aspects of the Traveler lifestyle have changed over the

WHY POKE INTO THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO WANT TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS? IT’S AN IMPORTANT PART OF CINCINNATI HISTORY THAT’S BEEN TOLD INACCURATELY. One time about 25 years ago we were finishing business in the office and one of the younger boys came in and peeled a $100 bill off the pile, put it in his pocket and walked off. The next day, Bernie hauled the kid in by the ear and made him give it back. He told the kid, Apologize! These people have been good to us!” (Hamilton, a 75-year-old roofing contractor in Oswego, Illinois, according to his Facebook profile, did not return phone calls. Messages to several other members of the Gorman family also went unanswered.) Why poke into the lives of those who want to remain anonymous? I woke up in the middle of the night with this question, posed by a man who does business with Travelers but declined to go on the record. It’s an important part of Cincinnati history, I told him, a chapter that’s been told inaccurately. Another reason is that the Travelers’ quietness has left a void in 1 0 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

decades—shifting from covered wagons to luxury cars, life on the road to settled existence, ﬂoor-length dresses to miniskirts—Cincinnati’s importance as the gathering place remains constant. The Irish Travelers hold 15-minute graveside funerals instead of the church services of yore. They come throughout the year, not on one appointed holiday as the Scottish do. They don’t dress up for the occasion. “The men are in T-shirts and jeans, and the young women are often, um, inappropriately dressed,” Winter says. “There’s never a problem with them. But they do drink a lot. They drink before, after, and sometimes during the service. If it starts at 11, they’ll show up at the cemetery at 10 and will be here until 2 or 3 in the afternoon.” Fights have broken out, and once a family member stole the car of another. The Crow’s Nest bar, near the cemetery, often becomes the site of a

days-long wake. On the other side of town at Spring Grove Cemetery in Spring Grove Village, Scottish Travelers, who are mainly Protestant (and increasingly Pentecostal), bury and honor their loved ones each Memorial Day weekend. Julie Niesen, a Cincinnati writer and small business owner, makes a point of strolling through on that holiday to catch a glimpse. “What struck me was the children’s graves, where they still place kid-themed floral arrangements,” she says. “One kid had been gone 40 or 50 years, and there was a brand new Shrek-themed arrangement. That melted even my cold, cynical heart.” Barbara Osterbrock Loukes, a florist, is another longtime observer of Scottish Travelers. She grew up riding her bike through Spring Grove. “I thought, Man, these people spend a lot on flowers!” Now they’re her clients. At Osterbrock Florist in North College Hill, she arranges blooms in baskets and on easels and places them at Spring Grove, predominantly in section 17. The graves bear the surnames Johnston, Stewart, Halliday, Horne, Reid, Gregg, Keith, Williamson, Burns, and McDonald. (It’s important to note that not everyone interred at Spring Grove with those names is a Traveler.) “We do a lot of placing by death year because there are 100 Virginia Stewarts,” says Loukes. “It’s very confusing.” (Travelers and Roma are known for repeating names within families, even giving multiple siblings the same name, and referring to kin by their nicknames.) Memorial Day, she says, “is like their Christmas. It’s their big holiday. They put out lawn chairs and visit with each other.” Loukes knows it’s one of the clan on the phone when orders start up in the spring. “They all talk alike, no matter where they come from,” she says. “It’s a thick accent. I can’t describe it. They talk very fast and over you and over each other. They repeat themselves a lot, some of them.” Loukes’s associate, Heather McGuire, adds, “They’re very warm. When you finish a conversation, they’ll say, Love you!” Williamson is the best known Scottish Traveler name. The family was the inspiration for the 1997 movie Traveller, starring Bill Paxton and Mark Wahlberg as

JUST CALL US KIN-CINNATI con men from a tribe that lives in a jumble of mobile homes in the woods. The frequency of the scams said to be operated by them—shoddy contracting, selling fake Irish lace—led to them being dubbed the “Terrible Williamsons” by Newsweek in 1956. The moniker stuck, repeated in publications as established as The Saturday Evening Post. The Newsweek article, a journalistic “patient zero,” seeded subsequent reports. Its exaggerations about the extent of the roving family’s purported crimes were debunked in the academic Journal of American Culture in 1997, but the words had been printed four decades prior, and they spread. It may have been correct, however, when the piece called Cincinnati the family’s “command post.” “The Williamsons ﬁrst arrived in Cincinnati in the 1800s,” says Dennis Marlock, a retired lieutenant detective from the Milwaukee Police Department. “Robert Williamson started luring other Travelers to the U.S. by saying, There’s a sea of

and escalated to barring them from living in certain cities or states—in essence, from existing. Some of those laws have only recently been struck from the books. Cincinnati Police no longer videotape Travelers at funerals and follow them back to their hotels from the cemetery—something they boasted of doing in the 1980s—but last year the Mariemont Police issued a public warning about scams by “gypsies.” I called to ask when the last such complaint was reported. The answer: Eleven years ago. Stan Davies knows from proﬁling and harassment. The 70-year-old is typical of Travelers living in Ohio. A descendant of English immigrants who settled in Dayton in 1855, he has Indian and Anatolian genes, traces of the peregrinations of his Rom ancestors. He grew up with some aspects of Rom culture but has always lived a settled life. He looks and sounds like any other middle-aged Buckeye. Like some Travelers, he still uses the G-word. (Stan Davies

“MY FRIENDS AND CLIENTS DON’T KNOW I’M A GYPSY,” SAYS A LOCAL TRAVELER WHO DIDN'T WANT TO BE NAMED IN THIS STORY. “I COULD LOSE BUSINESS.” gullible marks here.” In the 1990s, Marlock developed a seminar to teach cops how to combat crimes associated with Travelers and Roma. (Such proﬁling still takes place; a training session like Marlock’s was scheduled for this month in Kansas City until accusations of bias forced it to be cancelled.) Marlock believes Roma and Travelers are “organized crime,” but he allows a caveat. “They were doing rooﬁng and driveway scams, but sometimes they did good work,” he says. “They were capable of that.” Is the rate of crime by Travelers any higher than that of the general public? It’s impossible to say, since Traveler identity isn’t captured by demographic studies or the U.S. Census. What isn’t questioned is that crimes by Travelers are, by a wide margin, nonviolent, and that police harassment of Travelers has been rife. It began with evicting them from campsites 1 0 4 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

is not his real name; he requested anonymity to speak freely. “My friends and clients don’t know I’m a Gypsy,” he says. “I could lose business.”) “We were always taught not to wash our hair or wash a baby in the kitchen sink,” says Davies. It’s a watered-down particular of Roma cleaning practices, which also involve laundering women’s clothing separately from men’s. His grandmother would make “gypsy” bread, which is pan-fried and unleavened, a vestige of campﬁre cooking. In a common Traveler tradition of communal family support, he learned home improvement trades and turned over his entire paycheck to his father well into his twenties. Davies bristles at the characterization of Travelers as rip-off artists. “I am a licensed painting contractor,” he says. “We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.” Still, the police seminars started by

Dennis Marlock “would super-criminalize us,” he says. “The police would say, Be on the lookout for Gypsies. [Traveler] families who may have been there for years would be terrorized. People were encouraged not to pay Gypsies for legitimate work.” THE FIRST PROMINENT TRAVELER TO call Cincinnati home was John Gorman, who emigrated from County Cavan, Ireland, in the mid-1800s. Living on Dirr Street, just steps from the Mill Creek in what’s now South Cumminsville, he was friends with Charles A. Miller, whose eponymous funeral home sat at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Knowlton Street in Northside. They were both Civil War veterans and horse-traders. Gorman’s achievements—he ran a rodeo!—were documented in The Enquirer and The Penny Paper, precursor to The Cincinnati Post. His stature made him a beacon for family far and wide. The origins of the Scottish Travelers here are less evident. There are more families, and they’re less cohesively related. How did they come to patronize Spring Grove? Oft told is the story that a Traveler child passing through Northside was killed by a horse carriage or a street car. The family could not afford a burial, but Miller offered to take care of it on credit (or for free; versions differ). The interment was at Spring Grove Cemetery, so the story goes. Word of the kindness spread in the wandering communities, and the gesture was repaid with more than a century’s worth of repeat business to both Miller and Spring Grove. (A Spring Grove representative said the cemetery does not comment on clients.) It’s a heartwarming tale, so it’s too bad that it may not be true. It emerged in a 1990 essay by Paul Erwin, a late University of Cincinnati professor, who said he learned it from Pete Miller, the last relative of Charles A. Miller to be involved in the business. But Erwin’s telling of the story doesn’t include any benevolence on the part of Spring Grove; it was the funeral home that made the grand gesture. Although there’s a slim possibility the tale is accurate, there is no corroboration of it anywhere and no mention of it in a century’s worth of pre-1990 media

who, like Stan Davies, never told you of their heritage. In this era of self-revelation, identity pride, and “connectedness,” why don’t we hear more about this subculture? “My grandfather said that if everybody knows your business, you don’t have any business,” says Davies. “Hold your cards close to your chest. Love all, trust few.” Observers of the clans say it’s only a matter of time before its more extreme differences ﬁzzle out. “There are changes in the wind,” says Dennis Marlock. “Because of the internet, it’s getting harder to keep the culture together. The kids can see life outside what they’ve been told their whole lives is the best life on the planet.” Perhaps. But modern communication methods were said to be degrading the colorful culture more than a century ago. “They are getting used to the telegraph more and more everyday,” reports an 1897 newspaper article. “Poetically inclined persons may agree with the old-school Romany that this innovation is a regrettable one, but the convenience of the wire appeals to the young gypsy.” The Enquirer lamented in 1902 that “the romance of gypsy life is really fast disappearing” because of the automobile. The Post, in 1976, announced, “Gypsies are, shockingly, becoming homeowners.” Death customs, though, have not changed. Both Robert Winter, at St. Joseph New Cemetery, and Barbara Osterbrock Loukes, who services clients at Spring Grove, say business is as brisk as ever. A culture that’s been dirt poor, undereducated, and persecuted for two millennia—yet continues to thrive and maintain a semblance of ancestral ways— isn’t easily obliterated by Facebook. “They would have disappeared long ago if there was not a viable niche and demand for what they have to offer in society,” says historian Biagetti. “Travelers and the settled majority are not opposites that cannot reconcile. They are two sides of the same coin, all part of the same civilization. I don’t see them as a holdover from the past. I see them as part of modern society, just in a different role from others.”

coverage of Travelers. Subsequent repetitions and looseness in the press of Erwin’s original words created a game of “telephone,” conﬂating the two establishments. (In fact, Erwin said the child’s name was Gorman, in which case he or she would have most likely been interred at St Joseph.) The selection of Spring Grove is probably less due to the cinematic fate of an unlucky child and more to the cemetery’s proximity to the Mill Creek camping spots and the Northside offerings within walking distance: horsetrading, wagon-making, a water pump, and the undisputed home for Traveler funeral services, Charles A. Miller. Spring Grove was also nondenominational, something novel in the 1800s. Widening the lens from Spring Grove to the city of Cincinnati, geographic centrality is the most logical reason this area became the homeaway-from-home for Travelers. It made a convenient meeting point for people edging North in summer and South in winter. As Traveler families multiplied and dispersed across the nation, an agreed-upon time and place for reunions helped maintain customs and relationships. The wakes that anchor the gatherings are only one part of the events: They were (and are) an occasion to announce engagements, arrange marriages for the next generation (that still happens), and—as law enforcement has it—divide up territory for “business.” Many Traveler women still tell fortunes, modernizing their profession’s name to “psychic reader” or “spiritual advisor.” As for the scams and swindles, yes, they’ve happened. The Cincinnati chapter of the Better Business Bureau, which decades ago regularly warned of Traveler visits, now says it has no records of recent reports. What is likely— but never mentioned—is that the Travelers have poured way more money into Cincinnati’s economy than they’ve ever pulled out. Monuments, cemetery plots, ﬂowers, hotels, restaurants…it adds up. Chances are great you have come in contact with a Traveler, done business with one, or are acquainted with one,

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AREPAS IN OTR P. 112

MAINE MEAL Tossed with a honey Dijon and harissa mayonnaise, Le Bar a Boeuf’s “Reds” Maine lobster salad crackles with red peppers, radicchio, red onion, red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, radish, peanuts, and Cracker Jacks.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEREMY KRAMER

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 1 0 7

DINING OUT

THE FRENCH CONNECTION LE BAR A BOEUF is Cincinnati’s lifeline to classic French cooking. — B R A N D O N W U S K E

F IT’S BEEN A COUPLE OF YEARS SINCE YOU’VE BEEN TO LE BAR A BOEUF—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 be time for a revisit. The restaurant has undergone dramatic (and welcome) changes since our initial review in 2015. The formerly burger-centric menu now approaches the full repertoire of bistro classics. The changes are so extensive that the restaurant’s name, which essentially translates to “The Beef Bar,” no longer fits, despite the numerous cow sculptures that grace its interior. Perhaps “Table Redux” would be more apt. The closure of de Cavel’s beloved downtown bistro in 2020 is largely responsible for the changes. After Table’s closure, many of that restaurant’s kitchen and front-of-house staff, including Chef de Cuisine Jordan Brauninger, made the move to East Walnut Hills. Luckily, the eatery’s renowned hospitality and commitment to approachably exquisite French cuisine made the move, too. Service starts with airy slices of warm, crusty baguette, accompanied by a small glass of creamy butter—the perfect start to any decadent deep dive into French cooking. 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. As appetizers go, the artichoke appetizer (a deceptively simple name) is highly recommended. The pungent, vinegary artichokes perfectly counterbalance the creamy poached egg, mushroom ragout, and creamy hollandaise, which, like all sauces at Le Bar a Boeuf, is brought to the table in a gravy boat that your server 1 0 8 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

FYI

Le Bar a Boeuf 2200 Victory Pkwy., East Walnut Hills, (513) 7512333, lebaraboeuf.com Hours Wed & Thurs 5:30– 9:30 pm, Fri & Sat 5:30–10:00 pm Prices $8 (French Onion Soup)– $36 (Vin Rouge Braised Short Rib) Credit Cards All major The Takeaway French classics impeccably but approachably served.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEREMY KRAMER

C’EST SI BON Chef de Cuisine Jordan Brauninger with Le Bar a Boeuf proprietor Chef Jean-Robert de Cavel; local chicken over grits, leeks, fava beans, asparagus, and Shimeji mushrooms with an arugula puree; one of the restaurant’s dining areas; Duo of Mousse with ube (purple yam) gelato from Madisono’s.

will happily pour over your dish at your request. This welcome option epitomizes the restaurant’s exceptional service; it extends the royal treatment without forcing it on you. Le Bar a Boeuf has an extensive and thoughtfully curated specials list—one that featured a different array of items on each of my two visits. In true French tradition, the specials make creative use of scraps and trimmings. The fish cakes feature scraps of grouper and halibut, breaded and lightly fried, topped with capers, and served with a tart remoulade. It’s a meaty fish cake, with just enough filler to hold it all together, its briny flavor deeply craveable. De Cavel says that he expects the specials to rotate frequently based on seasonality because most of his meat and produce come from local farmers and purveyors. The freshness of said produce is best typified in the salads at Le Bar a Boeuf. The “Trio of Grapes” might be a bit of a misnomer since the grapes serve more as garnish. The base itself is arugula and cauliflower, supplemented with creamy goat cheese and almonds and drizzled with a red wine vinaigrette. The entrées are soul-warming French comfort food. The “local chicken”—served with soft root vegetables, a decidedly restrained mushroom risotto, and a rosemary wine demi-glace—is a simple dish, exquisitely executed. The juicy chicken’s crisp skin offers a delightful textural contrast to the velvety risotto. This heartyyet-refined dish encapsulates Le Bar a Boeuf’s raison d’etre: to provide an approachably elevated take on French cooking. De Cavel describes Le Bar a Boeuf as a place where someone can grab a foie gras dish, followed by a cod sandwich or mac and cheese. The menu, with its focus on restraint and subtlety, reflects a

lifetime spent in French kitchens. The most delicious “fruit” of this labor is the crispy duck, starring crispy, fatty duck filets served with goat cheese grits, shiitake mushrooms for additional umami, kale, and a honey bourbon demi-glace. This playful mixture of French and Southern techniques reflects the restaurant’s creativity. And Le Bar a Boeuf doesn’t just play the “greatest hits”; it improvises on them. Case in point, the delicate bacon-wrapped salmon, served over a bright, fragrant saffron orzo. Ditto for the spoonably soft short rib, served with a pungent parsnip puree, instead of a more predictably bland starch. All of the entrées were excellent, from the peppery steak and frites, with its accompanying harissa mayo for the fries, to the veggie entrée: a creamy-yet-crunchy mac and cheese interspersed with fresh fall vegetables. The server must have known we would love our entrées because she asked “How was your first bite?” as we dove in. In all my years of dining out, I’ve never been asked that. I suppose if I were serving food this good, I would be eager to know, too. Le Bar a Boeuf has no formal dessert menu, but Pastry Chef Jean-Philippe Solnom offers a selection of weekly dessert specials. The silky crème brûlée, with its glassy caramel shell, is the platonic ideal of the dish. The chocolate mousse, served with chocolate powder and sour, juicy berries is likewise an excellent end to a fine French meal. While de Cavel says he hopes to reopen Table someday, he’s in no rush to do so. I ask him if Le Bar a Boeuf’s menu will change again if Table reopened. His answer? “Good question. We’ll see.” I confess, I asked the question because I was hoping the restaurant would stay just like it is. But I suppose it doesn’t really matter— that this food exists somewhere nearby is the important thing. M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 1 0 9

TABLESIDE WITH...

LUCIA CALONGE

LUNCHBOX

THE MADEIRA RESIDENT TALKS about her time on this season of Kids Baking Championship. How long have you been baking? I really started getting into baking on my own when I began watching Kids Baking Championship when I was 8 years old. I was motivated to do all that I could to become the best baker I can be. What’s the ﬁrst baked good you ever made? My great grandma Marsala’s sugar cookies—they are ﬂuffy, crumbly, delicious goodness. What was it like competing on the show Kids Baking Championship? It was a dream come true and I am so proud and grateful for the experience. I am so grateful for all of the love and support our amazing Cincinnati community has shown me.

On the Beaten Path THE NAME DOESN’T LIE. RAMSEY’S TRAILSIDE SITS ALONG THE LITTLE MIAMI STATE Park, also known as the Loveland Bike Trail. The restaurant’s enclosed patio, which is open year-round, offers the best views for people watching. It also provides the fun of outdoor dining without the wind, sun, and bugs interrupting lunch. Cyclists, runners, and other adventurers move through town in a steady stream, and diners can enjoy the parade through the broad windows as they wait for their meals. It makes an excellent stop for anyone who works up an appetite exploring the trail, too. Although best known for its family-friendly pub food, Ramsey’s Trailside keeps an eclectic menu. The Kingston Salmon Plate serves up a very pretty piece of fish, a grillmarked pink fillet coated in a mango habanero rub that adds a little extra flavor without notable heat. And each bite of fish comes with friends. On top, the pineapple salsa adds some nice texture, but a lot of the dish’s most important flavors come from the sweet chili slaw at the bottom of the stack, bringing out the salmon’s savory side. Ramsey’s menu offers healthy sides, but it’s worth pretending the potato is a vegetable rather than a starch when you’re trailRamsey’s Trailside, side. The shoestring fries are incredible. Golden and crispy, they’re 200 W. Loveland Ave., Loveland, (513) 444what every fast food restaurant pretends to sell in its commercials. 4763, ramseystrail —M. LEIGH HOOD

1 1 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

side.com

What was the best part about the competition? The best part about being on Kids Baking Championship was walking into the kitchen. I had to keep pinching myself because I couldn’t believe I was in the kitchen and on the show! What have you been up to lately? I had the opportunity to teach a virtual cookie decorating class at The BonBonerie and we’ve talked about an in-person class this summer. A few Girl Scout troops have asked me to teach a class as well. I love to meet other kids who love to bake, teach classes, and help others enjoy baking as much as I do! —A I E S H A D . L I T T L E Instagram: @baking_my_way_to_heaven Read a longer conversation with Lucia at cincinnatimagazine.com

PH OTO G R A PH BY L A N C E A D K IN S / ILLUSTR ATIO N BY C H R I S DA N G E R

TAKE 5

COOKIE MONSTERS The Queen City is home to many fine purveyors of one of our favorite types of baked goods. Get your fix with this lip-smacking assortment of cookies. — A I E S H A D . L I T T L E LEMON-CRAN POPPYSEED This fruit-flavored 1 cookie from Blackowned vegan bakery Like Mom’s Only Vegan is a summertime favorite among owner Naomi Sams’s meat-free customers. For some loyal fans, they double as dessert and breakfast. $11–$13 per dozen. 1801 Race St., Overthe-Rhine, (513) 384-7311, likemomsonlyvegan.com PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARLENE ROUNDS

MOLASSES While Cincin2 nati institution The BonBonerie is known for its opera cream torte, this mouth-watering baked mashup of brown sugar, spices, and molasses shouldn’t ﬂy under the radar. Especially not when it’s topped off by that creamy brown butter frosting. $2.25 each. 2030 Madison Rd., O’Bryonville, (513) 3213399, bonbonerie.com

S’MORES Insomnia Cookies’s 3 gooey cookie— made with graham cracker, toasty marshmallow, and chocolate chunks—will conjure up memories of nights around a campﬁre, all without needing to head outdoors. $3.50 each. 1126 Main St., Overthe-Rhine, (513) 448-0925; 216 Calhoun St., University Heights, (513) 434-3781, insomniacookies.com

SHORTBREAD Mon Petit Choux 4 serves up baked goods so Francophile focused it’s probably more proper to refer to this cookie by its native name, sablé (it means “sandy” in French). Pair one with some French pressed coffee to heighten your experience. Oui. $4.50 each. 24A W. Court St., downtown, (513) 631-8333, mon-petit-choux.com

CHOCOLATE CHIP Sugar, Andrea Sut5 ton Lee’s boutique bakery, has many, many goodies but sometimes you have to roll with a classic. Made with all-natural signature dough, you can get this one with Reese’s peanut butter chips, walnuts, Oreos, or just chocolate chips. $3 each. 6 W. 14th St., Over-theRhine, (513) 884-0787, sugarcincinnati.com

M AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 1 1 1

TAKEOUT HERO

The Good Place ISIS ARRIETA-DENNIS, OWNER OF The Arepa Place, refers to her restaurant’s signature dish as “the Colombian version of a grilled cheese.” It’s a good description for the street food favorite served in many Latin American countries. (Arrieta-Dennis made them for family and friends at parties and other gatherings before she decided to open her business.) The cornmeal-based bread—split like a pita and stuffed with black beans, cheese, and a protein of your choice (chicken, steak, chorizo)—is deﬁnitely good comfort food if we’ve ever seen it. Not sure which one you want? Try the Great Arepa. With steak, chicken, chorizo, black beans, and cheese, it has nearly every ingredient on the menu, including just-this-side-ofsweet fried plantains. The sandwich is a two hander—a savory mix of meat and cheese with pops of the plantains’ sweet flavor—but easy to chomp on while you’re perusing the stalls at Findlay Market on a Saturday afternoon. Those abstaining from meat aren’t left out of the mix. You can snag a veggie arepa with just black beans, cheese, and plantains, if that’s more to your liking. If breakfast is more your speed, the Arepa De Huevo (the deep fried version with egg and ground beef) or the scrambled egg and cheese arepa with green onion and tomato are the way to go. Don’t forget to wash it all down with an Aguapanela, sugarcane water with lemon (a Colombian lemonade of sorts), or any number of a rotating roster of Latin American sodas. No true foodie will regret a quick trip through this South American foodscape. — A I E S H A D . L I T T L E The Arepa Place, 131 W. Elder St., Over-theRhine, (513) 744-9500, arepaplace.com

1 1 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW DOENCH

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WHERE TO EAT NOW

AMERICAN 114 BARBECUE 115 CAJUN/CARIBBEAN 115 CHINESE 115 ECLECTIC 115 FRENCH 116 INDIAN 117 ITALIAN 117 KOREAN 117 MEDITERRANEAN 118 MEXICAN 118

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

KEY: No checks unless specified. AE American Express, DC Diners Club DS Discover, MC MasterCard, V Visa MCC Major credit cards: AE, MC, V $ = Under $15 $$$ = Up to $49 $$ = Up to $30 $$$$ = $50 and up Top 10

= Named a Best Restaurant March 2020.

SEAFOOD 119

from Urban Stead populate the “Artisan Cheese and Charcuterie Board,” which dresses up the main attractions with honey, dijon mustard, house pickles, and Sixteen Bricks purple barley bread. The mussels—made with seasonally rotating sauces and chorizo from Napoleon Ridge Farms in Gallatin County—were served with a peppery tomato sauce, perfect for sopping up with bread. The seven-ounce Sakura Farms Wagyu rib eye with wild mushrooms, roasted parsnip, and beef jus is a must have. Or try the striped bass with grape farro roasted broccolini and mussel cream sauce.

AMERICAN THE BIRCH On any given evening, guests nibble at spicy hummus served with French breakfast radishes and pita bread while sipping slightly spumante glasses of Spanish Txakolina. And while the dinner menu reads strictly casual at first glance—soups, salads, and sandwiches—the preparation and quality is anything but. An endive salad with candied walnuts, Swiss cheese, crispy bacon lardons, and an apple vinaigrette surpassed many versions of the French bistro classic. And both the Brussels sprouts and Sicilian cauliflower sides refused to play merely supporting roles. Both were sensational studies in the balance of sweet, spicy, and acidic flavors. 702 Indian Hill Rd., Terrace Park, (513) 8315678, thebirchtp.com. Lunch and dinner Tues– Sat. MCC, DS. $

BRONTË BISTRO You might think this is a lunch-only spot where you can nosh on a chicken salad sandwich after browsing next door at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. But this Norwood eatery feels welcoming after work, too. The dinner menu features entrées beyond the rotating soup and quiche roster that’s popular at noon. Fried chicken? Check. Quesadillas and other starters? Yep. An assortment of burgers? Present, including turkey and veggie versions. Casual food rules the day but the surprise is Brontë Bistro’s lineup of adult beverages, which elevates the place above a basic bookstore coffeeshop. The regular drinks menu includes such mainstays as Hemingway’s Daiquiri, a tribute to the author who drank them (often to excess).

AND THE WINNER IS…

Elaine Townsend of Café Mochiko is a semiﬁnalist in the Outstanding Baker category and Jose Salazar is a semiﬁnalist in the Best Chef: Great Lakes category of the 2022 James Beard Awards. Winners will be announced on June 13 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

jamesbeard.org/ blog/the-2022-jamesbeard-award-semﬁ nalists

2692 Madison Rd., Norwood, (513) 396-8970, josephbeth.com. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days. MCC. $

COPPIN’S With wine on tap and an extensive local beer list, Coppin’s is an ideal place to meet for drinks. In addition to plenty of Kentucky bourbon, much of the produce, meat, and cheese comes from local growers and producers. House-cured meat and cheese from Kenny’s Farmhouse and cheese

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638 Madison Ave., Covington, (859) 9056600, hotelcovington.com/dining/coppins. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days. MCC. $$

EMBERS The menu here is built for celebration: poshly priced steak and sushi selections are meant to suit every special occasion. Appetizers are both classic (shrimp cocktail) and Asian-inspired (crabcakes); fashionable ingredients are namechecked (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 corn-fed prime; non-steak entrées (Chilean sea bass or seared scallops with mushroom risotto and broccolini) make for highstyle alternative selections. Talk about a party. 8170 Montgomery Rd., Madeira, (513) 9848090, embersrestaurant.com. Dinner seven days. MCC, DC, DS. $$$$

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. The Wagyu Frisco is basically a cheeseburger, but the exceptional tomme from Urban Stead gives it that extra something. The cocktails are things you’ve probably seen before, but everything—from the bourbon rhubarb sour to the Queen City’s Bees Knees—had an extra dash of liveliness from a house-made element, like a rhubarb honey syrup or the raspberry shrub. Even when an ingredient seems out of left ﬁeld, like the burnt grapefruit hot sauce on the pork belly and tenderloin, it never tastes as unusual as it sounds. Tthe hot sauce is just a hint

of sweet citrusy spice that melts into the grits—a softly intriguing element rather than a slap in the face. Ivory House also has an excellent brunch. 2998 Harrison Ave., Westwood, (513) 3890175, ivoryhousecincy.com. Lunch Wed–Fri, dinner Wed–Sun, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC. $$$

OTTO’S Chef/owner Paul Weckman opened Otto’s, named after his father-in-law, with $300 worth of food and one employee—himself. Weckman’s food is soothing, satisfying, and occasionally, too much of a good thing. His tomato pie is beloved by lunch customers: Vine-ripe tomatoes, fresh basil, and chopped green onions packed into a homemade pie shell, topped with a cheddar cheese spread, and baked until bubbly. Weckman’s straightforward preparations are best. The shrimp and grits with sauteed shrimp spinach, mushrooms, Cajun beurre blanc atop a fried grit cake, short ribs braised in red wine and herbs, served over mashed potatoes with green beans and caramelized baby carrots that will bring you the comfort of a home-cooked meal. This is, at its heart, a neighborhood restaurant, a place with its own large, quirky family. 521 Main St., Covington, (859) 491-6678, ottosonmain.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Fri, brunch and dinner Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

RED FEATHER KITCHEN Historically peasant-grade cuts of meat get the full Pygmalion treatment at Red Feather in Oakley, where there’s deep respect for the time and tending necessary to bring a short rib, pork chop, or hanger steak to its full potential. After a quick sear to lock in juices, the steak takes a turn in the wood-ﬁred oven. While primal cuts play a leading role, the supporting cast is just as captivating. The hot snap of fresh ginger in the carrot soup was especially warming on a winter evening and the crispy skin on the Verlasso salmon acts as the foil to the plump, rich ﬂesh. Service here only improves the experience. 3200 Madison Rd., Oakley, (513) 407-3631, redfeatherkitchen.com. Dinner Tues–Sun, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

TRIO Trio is nothing if not a crowd pleaser. Whether you’re in the mood for a California-style pizza ICON BY JESSICA DUNHAM

or filet mignon (with side salad, garlic mashed potatoes, sauteed swiss chard, and mushroom jus), the menu is broad enough to offer something for everyone. It may lack a cohesive point of view, but with the number of regulars who come in seven nights a week, variety is Trio’s ace in the hole. A simple margherita pizza with roma tomatoes, basil, Parmesan, and provolone delivered a fine balance of crunchy crust, sharp cheese, and sweet, roasted tomatoes. Paired with a glass of pinot noir, it made a perfect light meal. The service is friendly enough for a casual neighborhood joint but comes with white tablecloth attentiveness and knowledge. Combine that with the consistency in the kitchen, and Trio is a safe bet. 7565 Kenwood Rd., Kenwood, (513) 984-1905, triobistro. com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DC. $$$

YORK STREET CAFÉ Five blocks from the Newport riverfront, Terry and Betsy Cunningham have created the sort of comfortable, welcoming environment that encourages steady customers. A dependable menu and quirky atmosphere appeal to a broad range of diners, from non-adventurous visiting relatives to non-attentive children. Desserts have always been one of the stars: ﬂourless chocolate hazelnut torte, bittersweet, rich and moist; butter rum pudding that would be equally at home on a picnic table or a ﬁnely dressed Michelin-starred table. 738 York St., Newport, (859) 261-9675, yorkstonline. com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sat. MCC, DS. $$

BARBECUE 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 MasonDixon line, and browned mashed potatoes that would make any short order cook diner-proud. The small no-frills restaurant—packed cheek-by-jowl most nights—feels like it’s been there a lifetime, with customers dropping vinyl on the turntable, dogs romping in the side yard, and picnic tables crowded with diners. The hooch is bring-your-own, and the barbecue is bona ﬁde. 3313 Riverside Dr., East End, (513) 533-1957, elisbarbeque.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $

SINNERS & SAINTS TAVERN You won’t leave this Texas smokehouse/sports bar hungry. From the brisket—served with Texas BBQ sauce, white bread, and pickles, or on toasted sourdough—to the chicken thighs, you can’t go wrong with these richly smoked flavors. Several dishes, like the Korean style pork belly, the pulled pork naan tacos, and Bigos stew, draw on global influences, while the sides take flavors back to the country (try the creamy coleslaw, the house-made mac and cheese, and chili-spiced cornbread). The resaurant’s character shines through its decor, which includes hanging hockey memorabilia, pictures of public figures and tables made from real NBA courts. 2062 Riverside Dr., East End, (513) 281-4355, sinsaintsmoke.com. Lunch Sat & Sun, dinner Tues–Sun. MCC. $$

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

CAJUN/ CARIBBEAN BREWRIVER CREOLE More than 800 miles from New Orleans, this may be as close as you can get to the real deal here in your own backyard. The menu fully leans into Chef Michael Shields’s penchant for cuisine from the Crescent City. His six years of training under NOLA’s own Emeril Lagasse comes through in a scratch kitchen menu that spans a range of the city’s classics. The enormous shrimp and oyster po’ boys—the former protein fried in a light and crispy beer batter and the latter in a hearty cornmeal breading—are served on ﬂuffy French bread loaves and dressed with lightly spicy rémoulades. The jambalaya packs all the heat of a late summer day in the French Quarter without masking a hint of its satisfying ﬂavors. Paired with a Sazerac and nightly live jazz, you may just feel tempted to start a second line. 4632 Eastern Ave., Linwood, (513) 861-2484, brewrivercreolekitchen.com. Dinner Tues–Sun, brunch and lunch Sat & Sun. MCC. $

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

KNOTTY PINE ON THE BAYOU The Pine serves some of the best Louisiana home-style food you’ll find this far north of New Orleans. Taste the fried catfish filets with their peppery crust, or the garlic sauteed shrimp with smoky greens on the side, 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. $$

GREAT TANG Although the (24-page!) menu features classic dishes in every style, the specialty at Great Tang is the reﬁned coastal cuisine of Zhejiang. If you like spice, you can get still the Sichuanese and Hunanese classics. One dish will hint at the surprises in store for people who are mainly used to Chinese takeout: the lovely Xian cold noodle. The dish is exquisitely layered: the creamy and nutty undertone of sesame paste, mixed with notes of tang and spice, topped with the bright pop of cilantro. The combination of textures is also delightful, with crunches of cucumber and sprouted mung and the softness of the ﬂat noodles. And that tofu! It was wonderfully meaty, with dense layers, substantial and satisfying as a counterpart to the noodles. Be as brave as you are in the mood to be. Ask for some suggestions and prepare to be astonished. 7340 Kingsgate Way, West Chester, (513) 847-6097, greattangohio.com. Lunch and dinner Wed–Mon, dim sum Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

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

SICHUAN BISTRO CHINESE GOURMET Like many Chinese restaurants that cater to both mainstream American and Chinese palates, this strip mall gem uses two menus. The real story here is found in dishes of pungent multi-layered flavors that set your mouth ablaze with fermented peppers and fresh chilies and then just as quickly cool it down with the devilish, numbing sensation of hua jiao, Sichuan pepper. Its numbing effect is subtle at first: appetizers of cold sliced beef and tripe, as well as slices of pork belly with a profusion of minced garlic, lean toward the hot and sweet; mapo tofu freckled with tiny fermented black beans and scallions, and pork with pickled red peppers and strips of ginger root, progress from sweet to pungent to hot to salty—in that order. Alternated with cooling dishes—nibbles of rice, a verdant mound of baby bok choy stir-fried with a shovelful of garlic, refreshing spinach wilted in ginger sauce, a simply sensational tea-smoked duck—the effect is momentarily tempered. 7888 S. Mason Montgomery Rd., Mason, (513) 770-3123, sichuanbistro.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sun. MCC, DS. $$

CHINESE ECLECTIC

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

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 violet-derived purple sugar beside the pain de Gênes (French almond cake). In others, there is a dramatic suspense, like the whole egg yolk quivering in the center of the Fassone 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. $$$

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WHERE TO EAT NOW

BRANCH Located in a huge Art Deco building, formerly a bank, Branch has taken this potentially cavernous and impersonal space and made it intimate. Diners might recognize the vibe from this restaurant group’s first venture, Northside’s The Littlefield. It maintains a balance between cooking to a higher price point and creating an atmosphere of refinement without losing the informal neighborhood feel. The shrimp and grits—served soupy in a big bowl with an addictively sweetand-sour green tomato marmalade swirled into the creamy grits—are taken surprising heights. Another notable item is a dish that wouldn’t normally get a mention in a review: the french fries. They demonstrate that food that is usually mindlessly inhaled can be worth savoring if it is made with enough love. 1535 Madison Rd., East Walnut Hills, (513) 221-2702, eatatbranch.com. Dinner Mon–Sun, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

CROWN REPUBLIC GASTROPUB

COFFEE KINGS

Food & Wine recently released its list of the country’s best coffee shops and a Camp Washington gem is representing Ohio. Writer David Landsel says: “At Austin and Tony Ferrari’s Mom ’n ’em Coffee & Wine, you’ll feel the warm hug of Italian-American hospitality.”

foodandwine.com/ coffee/best-coffeeshops-in-america

What makes Crown Republic special isn’t its handful of outstanding dishes. It’s the place’s sheer consistency. No single dish is absolutely mind-blowing or completely original, but when almost everything that comes out is genuinely tasty, the service is always friendly and attentive, and (stop the presses!) the bill is quite a bit less than you expected, you sit up and pay attention. The crab and avocado toast, served on grilled bread with lime juice and slivers of pickled Fresno chiles, is a prime example of what makes Crown Republic tick. The cocktails are equally unfussy and good, like the Tipsy Beet, made with vodka, housemade beet shrub, cucumber, mint, and citrus peel. Crown Republic has a mysterious quality that I can only describe as “good energy.” 720 Sycamore St., downtown, (513) 246-4272, crgcincy.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$

E+O KITCHEN The former Beluga space comes alive with a menu that conjoins minimalist Asian with gutsy-cumearthy Latin. The results are hit-or-miss: while guacamole was pointlessly studded with edamame, the pork belly buns are especially tender. Taco plates are a safe bet, with the “sol” pastor— pineapple coupled with Korean kimchi, bulgogi pork, and cilantro—hitting all the right notes. More adventurous palates may opt for the nuanced ramen—the pork and soy broth teeming with cuts of both pork belly and slow-cooked shoulder, while a superbly poached egg lingers at the edge, awaiting its curtain call. Service is friendly but tends to sputter when it comes to the basics of hospitality. 3520 Edwards Rd., Hyde Park, (513) 832-1023, eokitchen.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $$

MAPLEWOOD KITCHEN The latest effort from local restaurant juggernaut Thunderdome, owner of the Currito franchise. Order at the counter, then ﬁnd your own table, and a server will deliver what you’ve selected. There’s no cohesive cuisine, rather, the menu takes its cue from all corners of the globe: chicken tinga, spaghetti pomodoro, a New York Strip steak, guajillo chicken are all represented, along with a satisfying pappardelle with housemade sausage. Brunch is available all day; try the light lemon ricotta pancakes or the satisfying avocado benedict. 525 Race St., downtown, (513) 421-2100, maplewoodkitchenandbar.com. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days. MCC. $$

MASHROOTS After serving mofongo at Findlay Market for nearly four years, Mashroots opened its ﬁrst brick-and-mortar spot in College Hill this year. For the uninitiated, mofongo is a traditional

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Puerto Rican dish of mashed fried plantains with garlic and olive oil, typically served with protein and sauce. Here, you can get plantain, yuca, or sweet potato as your root and a protein, like skirt steak or pulled chicken. Top it off with veggies (pinkslaw, vinagrete, citruscarrot) and a sauce (pink mayo, anyone?), and wash it all down with refreshing cocktails made with rum and harderto-ﬁnd spirits. 5903 Hamilton Ave., College Hill, (513) 6204126, mashroots.com. Lunch and dinner Tues– Sat, Lunchand dinner Sun. MCC. $

METROPOLE Metropole has been remarkably stable since it opened in 2012. Even when chefs have left, the organization has promoted from within, kept popular dishes on the menu, and maintained a certain vibe, a balance between sophistication and rusticity. Its vegetarian fare contains many of its most inventive and delightful creations. The chilled cantaloupe soup has a creamy note from coconut milk and a hint of spice floating in at the end of every bite to balance the subtle, melon-y sweetness. The fancy “candy bar,” with its light and crispy peanut wafers and ring of flourless chocolate cake and caramel, encapsulates Metropole at its best: fun and whimsical, but rooted in careful execution of deep and satisfying flavors. 609 Walnut St., downtown, (513) 578-6660, metropoleonwalnut.com. Breakfast and dinner seven days, lunch Mon–Fri, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

OKTO This lively mash-up is a telling symbol of Earth+Ocean Restaurant Group’s flexible approach to traditional food. In what other Greek restaurant would the best cocktail be a smoky, chile-laced paloma, normally associated with Mexico? Or would the dish of lamb chops come dressed with gremolata, which we’ve never seen on anything but Italian food? E+O has always prided itself on its eclectic take on regional cuisine and they serve up something similarly fun and varied here. Those looking for classic Greek food will find plenty to satisfy them. The lamb kebabs, served ground, with the classic roasted tomato on the side; or the spanakopita, which had a lovely flaky crust, not too oily, and a perfectly seasoned balance of feta and spinach in the filling. The fun Okto has with Greek cuisine means there is already plenty that is good, plus plenty of room to grow. 645 Walnut St., downtown, (513) 632-9181, oktocincinnati.com. Lunch & dinner Mon-Sat. MCC. $$

mussels charmoula means either ordering additional grilled bread to soak up every drop of the herby, saffron-laced broth or drinking the remainder straight from the bowl and perfectly crisped and seasoned fries inspire countless return visits. 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 croquettes—molten Emmenthaler cheese sticks—plus a gem of a Bolognese. And let’s not forget the beer. Six rotating taps offer some of the best the Belgians brew, not to mention those made in town. 1133 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 381-4607, and other locations, authenticwaffle.com. Breakfast and lunch Mon–Sat, dinner Tues–Sat, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

YUCA Yuca is in The Fairﬁeld’s former space, retaining much of the same modern, airy, and inviting café vibes with a neighborhood feel, but boasting a menu certainly worth a commute. In the mood for a hearty breakfast? Indulge in the Fat Zach, a heaping corn gordita packed to the brim with chicken, chorizo, and scrambled egg, served with avocado, pineapple pico, and sweet and spicy potatoes. There’s a full drink menu ranging from coffee to Bloody Marys—or a selection of margaritas and palomas if you’re looking to stick around. 700 Fairﬁeld Ave., Bellevue, (859) 360-0110, yucabycedar.com. Breakfast and lunch seven days. MCC. $

ZULA For a restaurant whose name loosely derives from an Israeli slang term for “hidden treasure,” it seems apt that a dish or two might sneak in and stun—like the mussels Marseilles, with its bouillabaisse-style broth, rich with saffron, tomato, and fennel. But Zula is no one-trick pony. With a wood-ﬁred oven on the premises, it’s incumbent on you to try the ﬂatbreads. One zula is the eggplant option, where caramelized onions and marinated red bell peppers pair well with subtly sweet fontina. Not every bite at Zula is a game-changer, but one is all you need. 1400 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 744-9852, zulabistro.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$

SALAZAR A freewheeling tour through Korean, Moroccan, Italian, and French ﬂavors—and that’s just on one iteration of the ever-evolving menu. Salazar turns out fresh, well-balanced dishes dotted with seasonal surprises: the cauliﬂower steak special (a Moroccan spiced, seared wedge of the cruciferous vegetable complemented by a strong hit of lemon), the chicken liver mousse (so good it deserves its own trophy), and the succulent chicken Milanese (with its musky, sweet-and-sour notes of ground cherry). With its bustling bar and cheek-by-jowl tables, Salazar hums with energy at every meal. 1401 Republic St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 6217000, salazarcincinnati.com. Lunch Thurs–Fri, dinner Mon–Sat, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC. $$

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

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

FRENCH CRUST

Located in the old Globe Furniture building at the corner of Elm and Elder Streets, this Jean-Robert de Cavel creation offers French fare in the heart of Over-the-Rhine. Swing by for lunch and have a quiche Lorraine (French Crust’s quiches are unrivaled in our humble opinion) and an avocado and shrimp salad, or opt for a more hearty entree—like bouillabaisse or cassoulet—for dinner. If you’re an early bird, a Croque Monsieur (sunny side up egg) is a great way to start the day. 1801 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 455-3720, frenchcrustcafe.com. Breakfast and lunch Wed– Sun, dinner Thurs–Sun. MCC. $$

LE BAR A BOEUF

Jean-Robert de Cavel’s upscale alterna-burgershack features bifteck haché, ground beef patties that are a mainstay of French family dinners, according to de Cavel. His “Les Ground Meat” is available in beef, Wagyu beef, bison, lamb, and ﬁsh (a blend of albacore tuna and salmon). Portions are eight ounces, taller than a typical burger, and seared on the kitchen’s iron griddle. It’s easy to turn many of the generously portioned appetizers into dinner. Pair the open-faced beef tongue “French Dip” sandwich with a spinach salad and you’ll have one of the best choices in the house. Or go for mac-and-cheese. The lobster mac always sounds lush, but do consider the humble beef cheek version, enlivened by a touch of truffle oil, instead. 2200 Victory Pkwy., East Walnut Hills, (513) 751-2333, barboeuf.com. Dinner Tues–Sat. MCC. $$

INDIAN AMMA’S KITCHEN

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

properly made is balm to the soul of a homesick immigrant, and fresh treasure for any American lover of this cuisine. 12140 Royal Point Dr., Mason, (513) 794-0000, bombaybraziercincy.com. Dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$$

BRIJ MOHAN

Order at the counter the way you might at a fast food joint, except the shakes come in mango and there’s no super-sizing your mint lassi. The saag, full of cream in most northern Indian restaurants, is as intensely ﬂavored as collard greens in the Deep South—real Punjabi soul food. Tarka dal is spectacular here, the black lentils smoky from charred tomatoes and onions, and the pani puri, hollow fried shells into which you spoon a peppery cold broth, burst with tart cool crunch. Follow the spice with soothing ras malai, freshly made cheese simmered in thick almond-ﬂavored milk, cooled and sprinkled with crushed pistachios. 11259 Reading Rd., Sharonville, (513) 7694549, brijmohancincinnati.com. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sun. MC, V, DC. $

I TA L I A N A TAVOLA

In 2011, Jared Wayne opened A Tavola Pizza with two friends just as OTR was blowing up. A Ferrara pizza oven was ordered from Italy; Wayne, a skilled woodworker, built custom tables; and the menu was fleshed in with trendy crowd-pleasers like charcuterie and craft cocktails. Fast-forward a decade. The OTR outpost is closed but the second location is still going strong in the ’burbs: A Tavola Madeira capitalizes on the menu from the Vine Street location, including the fresh and zesty asparagus, artichoke, and feta pizza on a Neapolitan crust; gooey mozzarella-filled arancini, or risotto fritters; and the unequaled Blue Oven English muffin eggplant sliders. Wash down your small plates with a glass of crisp and grassy Sannio falanghina or an ice-cold Peroni lager.

ADRIATICO’S

Everything about this place says it’s about the pizza: the herbed sauce, the assault of the cheese, the toppings. It’s all evenly distributed, so you get a taste in every bite. Adriatico’s still delivers the tastiest pizza in Clifton. On any given night the aroma wafts through every dorm on campus. It’s that popular because it’s that good. Being inexpensive doesn’t hurt either. 113 W. McMillan St., Clifton Heights, (513) 281-4344, adriaticosuc.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC. $

BOMBAY BRAZIER

FORNO

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK FREELANCER

As with all of Thunderdome’s restaurants, you get a sense that they want to deliver a meal that satisfies many different kinds of people. The prices are reasonable, with pasta entrées about $15. The dishes are familiar in their flavors, but everything feels balanced and modulated and gradually perfected. There is lovely variety: the limone pasta is zippy with lemon and chili flakes, and just the right mixture of tart and creamy; the deep meaty flavors on the mushroom toast are balanced with a nice acidity; and the heat in dishes like the eggplant involtini is just enough to wake up the sauce without overwhelming the flavor. The menu has a wealth of excellent vegetarian and pasta-alternative options. 1501 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 419-1820, peppanddolores.com. Lunch Sat & Sun, dinner seven days. MCC. $$

PRIMAVISTA

Besides offering the old world ﬂavors of Italy, Primavista also serves up a specialty no other restaurant can match: a bird’s eye view of Cincinnati from the west side. The kitchen is equally comfortable with northern and southern regional specialties: a Venetian carpaccio of paper thin raw beef sparked by fruity olive oil; house-made fresh mozzarella stuffed with pesto and mushrooms; or artichoke hearts with snails and mushrooms in a creamy Gorgonzola sauce from Lombardy. Among the classics, nothing is more restorative than the pasta e fagioli, a hearty soup of cannellini, ditali pasta, and bacon. Most of the pastas are cooked just a degree more mellow than al dente so that they soak up the fragrant tomato basil or satiny cream sauces. The fork-tender osso buco Milanese, with its marrow-ﬁlled center bone and salty-sweet brown sauce (marinara and lemon juice), is simply superb. Desserts present further problems; you’ll be hard-pressed to decide between the house-made tiramisu or bread pudding with caramel sauce, marsala soaked raisins, and cream. 810 Matson Pl., Price Hill, (513) 251-6467, pvista.com. Dinner Tues–Sun. MCC, DC, DS. $$

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

7633 Reading Rd., Roselawn, (513) 821-2021, ammaskitchen.com. Lunch buffet seven days (all-vegan on Wed), dinner seven days. MC, V, DS. $

Indian food in America is hard to judge, because whether coming from the kitchen of a takeout joint or from a nicer establishment, the food will rarely taste all that different. It will generally be some twist on Punjabi cuisine. Bombay Brazier does it just right. Chef Rip Sidhu could serve his dal tadka in India, along with several other extraordinary dishes, and still do a roaring business—and this is not something that can be said of most Indian establishments in America. Try the pappadi chaat, a common Indian street food rarely found on American menus, and you will see what sets this place apart. They do everything the way it is supposed to be done, from the dusting of kala namak (a pungent black rock salt) on the fried crisps to the mixture of tamarind and mint chutneys on the chopped onion, tomatoes, and chickpeas—having this dish

PEPP & DOLORES

Cristian Pietoso’s second restaurant has all the bones of an upscale eatery, but the menu is infused with enough Italian soul to make nonna proud. In most instances, raving about a side of creamed corn wouldn’t bode well for the rest of the menu. Here, that side dish—kernels swimming in a pool of truffle-laced heavy cream that demands sopping up—is evidence that each component prepared by chef de cuisine Stefano Carne is purpose-driven. The red wine–braised honeycomb tripe, which carries a warning label (“Don’t be scared!”), and the pappardelle with spiced cinghiale (wild boar) ragu are examples of the elevated, adventurous comfort food that Pietoso strives for. 3514 Erie Ave., East Hyde Park, (513) 818-8720, fornoosteriabar.com. Dinner Tues–Sun, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

KOREAN

HORSIN’ AROUND

This month, horse enthusiasts can grab some Kentucky Derby–themed wine for their party needs. Kentucky Derby x Kendall-Jackson 2020 Mendocino County Chardonnay ($14.99 a bottle) and Kentucky Derby x Kendall-Jackson 2019 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($28 a bottle) will be available just in time for this year’s 148th race on May 7.

kj.com/wine

HARU

After the closing of Sung Korean Bistro, Haru is a welcome addition to the downtown scene. Dishes are served along with the usual Korean accompaniment of pickles, kimchi, ﬁsh cakes, and other mysteriously delicious dainties. A favorite is the japchae, a traditional dish sporting silky sweet potato noodles with sesame-andgarlic sauce, matchsticks of assorted crisp vegetables, and behind it all a wonderful smokiness that pervades the whole meal. The accompanying pot of gochujang, a fermented Korean chili paste, adds its own sweet and spicy note. The result is a homey, soulful, and satisfying taste that appeals even to those who’ve never eaten a bite of Korean food before. 628 Vine St., downtown, (513) 381-0947, harucincy.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. MCC. $$

RIVERSIDE KOREAN RESTAURANT

Come for the jo gi mae un tang—a bowl of sizzling, happy hellbroth pungent with red pepper, garlic, and ginger, crowded with nuggets of fish, tofu, and vegetables. Come for the restorative power of sam gae tang, a chicken soup for the Seoul—a whole Cornish hen submerged in its own juices and plumped with sticky rice and ginseng, dried red dates, and pine nuts. Revered for their medicinal properties, both dinner-sized soups will leave your eyes glistenM AY 2 0 2 2 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 1 1 7

WHERE TO EAT NOW ing and your brow beaded with sweat. They’re a detox for your overindulgence, rejuvenation for when you’re feeling under the weather. Expect crowds on weekends. Expect too, that dozens of them have come for dolsot bibimbap, the hot stone pots filled with layers of rice, vegetables, meat or tofu, egg, and chili paste. Characterized by its electric color and addictive flavors, Riverside Korean’s version is a captivating bowl of heaven. 512 Madison Ave., Covington, (859) 291-1484, riversidekoreanrestaurant.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner seven days. MCC, DS. $$

MEDITERRANEAN

Top 10

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.

It’s easy to find a cheap burrito place around a college campus, but you’d be hard-pressed to find one as consistently good as Habañero, with its flavors of Latin America and the Caribbean wrapped up in enormous packages. Fried tilapia, apricot-glazed chicken breast, hand-rubbed spiced flank steak, shredded pork tenderloin, or cinnamon-roasted squash are just some of the ingredients for Habañero’s signature burritos. All salsas are house-made, from the smoky tomato chipotle to the sweet-sounding mango jalapeño, which is hot enough to spark spontaneous combustion. 358 Ludlow Ave., Clifton, (513) 961-6800, habanerolatin.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DC, DS. $

SEBASTIAN’S

MAZUNTE

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. Co-owner Andy Hajjar mans his station at the end of the bar, smoking a hookah pipe that fills the air with the sweet smell of flavored tobacco, while the friendly but hurried staff hustles through. 906 Nassau St., Walnut Hills, (513) 281-9791, andyskabob.com. Lunch Mon–Sat, dinner seven days. MCC. $$

5209 Glenway Ave., Price Hill, (513) 471-2100, sebastiansgyros.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat. Cash. $

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HABAÑERO

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

When the wind is just right, you can smell the garlicky meat roasting from a mile away. Watch owner Alex Sebastian tend to the rotating wheels of beef and lamb, and you understand how Greek food has escaped the American tendency to appropriate foreign cuisines. Sebastian’s specializes in gyros, shaved off the stick, wrapped in thick griddle pita with onions and tomatoes, and served with cool tzatziki sauce. Alex’s wife and daughter run the counter with efficient speed, and whether you’re having a crisp Greek salad with house-made dressing, triangles of spanikopita, or simply the best walnut and honey baklava this side of the Atlantic (often made by the Mrs.), they never miss a beat, turning more covers in their tiny deli on one Saturday afternoon than some restaurants do in an entire weekend.

ANDY’S MEDITERRANEAN GRILLE

MEXICAN

Mazunte runs a culinary full court press, switching up specials to keep both regulars and staff engaged. Tamales arrive swaddled in a banana leaf, the shredded pork filling steeped in a sauce fiery with guajillo and ancho chilies yet foiled by the calming sweetness of raisins. The fried mahimahi tacos are finished with a citrusy red and white cabbage slaw that complements the accompanying mango-habañero salsa. With this level of authentic yet fast-paced execution, a slightly greasy pozole can be easily forgiven. Don’t miss the Mexican Coke and self-serve sangria (try the blanco), or the cans of Rhinegeist and MadTree on ice. 5207 Madison Rd., Madisonville, (513) 785-0000, mazuntetacos.com. Lunch and dinner Mon–Sat, brunch Sun. MCC. $

MONTOYA’S

Mexican places seem to change hands in this town so often that you can’t get the same meal twice. Montoya’s is the

exception. They’ve been hidden in a tiny strip mall off the main drag in Ft. Mitchell for years. It’s unpretentious and seemingly not interested in success, which means success has never gone to their head here. At a place where you can get Huracan Fajitas with steak, chicken, and chorizo or Tilapia Asada, the tacos are still a big item. 2507 Chelsea Dr., Ft. Mitchell, (859) 341-0707. Lunch and dinner Tues–Sun. MC, V, DS. $

NADA

The brains behind Boca deliver authentic, contemporary, high-quality Mexican fare downtown. You’ll ﬁnd a concise menu, including tacos, salads and sides, large plates, and desserts. Tacos inspired by global cuisine include the Señor Mu Shu (Modelo and ginger braised pork) and fried avocado (chipotle bean purée). The ancho-glazed pork shank with chili-roasted carrots comes with a papaya guajillo salad (order it for the table); dreamy mac-andcheese looks harmless, but there’s just enough of a roasted poblano and jalapeño punch to have you reaching for another icy margarita. 600 Walnut St., downtown, (513) 721-6232, eatdrinknada.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner seven days, brunch Sat & Sun. MCC, DS. $$

TAQUERIA MERCADO

On a Saturday night, Taqueria Mercado is a lively fiesta, with seemingly half of the local Hispanic community guzzling margaritas and cervezas, or carrying out sacks of burritos and carnitas tacos—pork tenderized by a long simmer, its edges frizzled and crispy. The Mercado’s strip mall interior, splashed with a large, colorful mural, is equally energetic: the bustling semi-open kitchen; a busy counter that handles a constant stream of takeout 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. $

and lovely firm cashews, and the stew itself is packed with mussels, shrimp, and chunks of fish. 3036 Madison Rd., Oakley, (513) 631-3474, oakleyfishhouse.com. Lunch Fri–Sun, dinner Tues–Sun. MCC. $$$

PEARLSTAR

SEAFOOD MCCORMICK & SCHMICK’S

The daily rotation here reads like a ﬁsherman’s wish list: fresh lobsters from the coast of Maine, ahi tuna from Hawaii, North Carolina catﬁsh, Massachusetts cod. But high-quality ingredients are only half the equation; preparation is the other. Flaky Parmesan-crusted tilapia, with a squeeze of lemon, makes the taste buds dance. The spacious digs and attentive waitstaff bring a touch of class to Fountain Square, and make it a sophisticated destination. It’s likely to remain a favorite. After all, it’s right in the middle of things.

Over-the-Rhine’s buzzworthy oyster bar marks owner Terry Raley and his Amaranth Hospitality Group’s first foray outside of Nashville. The oysters—flown in every 24 to 36 hours—are delivered on a bed of crushed ice with lemon wedges and a vinegary herbed mignonette sauce. Add a few refreshing drops of lemon and mignonette, mix in the additional fresh horseradish, house-made hot sauce, or cocktail sauce, and slurp your way to the sea. The entrées (Pearl “Stars,” as they’re called on the menu) is equal parts surf and turf, with the Arctic char and Texas redfish living up to the “star” billing. The char, with its topping of lemon caper butter, was creamy enough to eat by the spoonful while the soft, spicy redfish was flecked with a chocolaty chorizo oil that tasted like a master chef’s take on Cincinnati chili. All of this can be washed down with PearlStar’s extensive drink menu, including cleverly named cocktails like Thyme to Fly and Golf Pants.

21 E. Fifth St., downtown, (513) 721-9339, mccormickandschmicks.com. Lunch and dinner seven days. MCC, DC, DS. $$

1220 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 381-0427, pearlstar.com. Dinner Wed–Sun, brunch Sun. MCC. $$

OAKLEY FISH HOUSE

CINCINNATI MAGAZINE, (ISSN 0746-8 210), May 2022, Volume 55, Number 8. Published monthly ($19.95 for 12 issues annually) at 1818 Race St., Ste. 301, Cincinnati, OH 45202. (513) 421-4300. Copyright © 2022 by Cincinnati Magazine LLC, a subsidiary of Hour Media Group, 5750 New King Dr., Ste. 100, Troy, MI 48098. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or reprinted without permission. Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, and artwork should be accompanied by SASE for return. The magazine cannot be held responsible for loss. For subscription orders, address changes or renewals, write to CINCINNATI MAGAZINE, 1965 E. Avis Dr., Madison Heights, MI 48071, or call 1-866-6606247. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send forms 3579 to CINCINNATI MAGAZINE, 1965 E. Avis Dr., Madison Heights, MI 48071. If the Postal Service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year.

Chanaka De Lanerolle sold Mt. Adams Fish House back in 2011, and Oakley Fish House is its reincarnation—and reinvention. Most of the menu tends toward fairly conservative takes on classics, like well-seasoned crab cakes and thick, creamy chowder full of seafood. The handful of ethnic experiments on the menu are among its most vibrant offerings, including a Mediterranean fish stew that takes inspiration from the North African coast. Tender, fluffy couscous soaks up a fiery but sweet tomato sauce that showcases chiles and peppercorns, golden raisins,

Hummingbird

DLM CLASSIC COFFEE CAKE Our new seasonal DLM Hummingbird Classic Coﬀee Cake is bursting with refreshing pineapple and banana, and is chock-full of homey ﬂavors like toasted pecans and cinnamon. Baked in classic pans to a perfectly caramelized crust with a moist, dense interior.

Oakwood (937) 299-3561 Washington Square (937) 434-1294 Springboro (937) 748-6800 D O RO T H Y L A N E . CO M

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CINCY OBSCURA

Perfect Harmony

“PEOPLE DON’T REALIZE IT,” BILL SKVARLA SAYS, INSPECTING HIS LATEST BARREL OF

Woodwind, a fruit-forward blend that’s a favorite of dry white drinkers. “But Cincinnati, to this day, is considered the birthplace of the American wine industry.” What once was a thriving land of hillside vineyards is now a shadow of its former self, but boutique wineries like Skvarla’s Harmony Hill are keeping the tradition of locally grown, locally enjoyed wine alive. Skvarla and his wife, Patti, planted every one of the 3,500 vines on their property by hand. In years since, they’ve hired help—Bill still won’t trust anyone else with the pruning—to meet the demands of a growing business, but the operation remains intensely small-scale. A wine connoisseur’s trip to Harmony Hill isn’t complete without a visit to the wine cave, tucked discreetly into a man-made hillside. When they outgrew their renovated barn space, the Skvarlas went underground, building the cave piece by piece with the help of a Kentucky-based construction company. Each arched segment of the structure weighs 30,000 pounds, meaning the assembly took a village (and a giant crane). Today, it houses some of Harmony Hill’s finest blends, keeping every barrel at a crisp 45 degrees. We’ll cheers to that. — L A U R E N F I S H E R 1 2 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M M AY 2 0 2 2

PH OTO G R A PH BY C ATIE V I OX

2022 EVENTS

CALENDAR MONTHLY Musical Brunch 2/27, 3/27, 4/24, 5/22, 6/26, 7/31, 8/28, 9/25, 10/30, 11/27, 12/18

JUNE Girls Night Out – Madeira 6/8

PRIDE Party 6/24

JULY Summer Food Fest 7/16 & 7/17

SEPTEMBER On The Rocks 9/16

Slice Night 9/21

OCTOBER (SFBU $JODJOOBUJ #BLF 0Ɗ 10/20

Downtown Living Tour 10/8 & 10/9

NOVEMBER Fall Savor Chef’s Table 11/8 – 11/11

DECEMBER Celebrate Cincinnati Box featuring the Best of the City On sale 11 /18 – 12/17

cincinnatimagazine.com/ourevents

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Cincinnati Magazine - May 2022 Edition

Articles inside

WELCOME TO MIDDLEHOOD

DINING OUT

TAKEOUT HERO

STOREFRONT

REAL ESTATE

DINING GUIDE

TAKE 5