FOOD & DRINK

FOOD

& DRINK

Proud Hound’s new cafe

PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

Silverton’s Proud Hound Coffee Dishes It Out with Dignity

Ethical coffee roaster Proud Hound recently opened a café and kitchen — a dream it has chased for years

BY MACKENZIE MANLEY

If you’re standing in the lobby of Proud Hound Coffee’s recently opened Silverton café and are reminded of Wes Anderson’s aesthetic, that’s intentional.

Co-founders Daniel Smith and David Holman are big fans of the film director. Similar to Anderson’s films, the brand’s distinctive color palette, geometric symmetry and minimal-butplayful atmosphere make it instantly recognizable.

A punch-needle piece reading “Keep Chasing” by Jessica Ufkes of Thread Made Goods greets customers as they stroll in. Flanked by hanging plants on a pink wall, the framed work features a hound herding sheep. A mural spanning two walls by Emily Gable of Indianapolis-based Bootleg Signs is another eye-catcher, marked by Minimalist Pop Art.

“If you did a panorama (of the space), you would see the same thing from one shot to the next,” says Smith of the symmetry. “They would just be flipped.”

Located in a 4,000-square-foot warehouse at 6717 Montgomery Road, the café officially opened on June 26 — a milestone the team has been chasing for years. Since launching in 2019, Proud Hound has been helping Cincinnatians get their caffeine fix via pop-ups with its coffee truck and cart, wholesale operations, events and collaborations. The flagship location, complete with a coffee bar and full-service kitchen, also houses its roasting facility, viewable by customers through large glass windows.

Making approachable coffee minus the pretension is Smith’s and Holman’s aim. They want people to enjoy Proud Hound coffee, whether they’re used to store-bought brews or something more complex. That being said, experimental flavor profiles are available.

Customers can expect all the usual espresso-based beverages — cortados, cappuccinos, americanos, lattes and mochas — alongside cold brews, pourovers and drip coffees. Not into coffee? The café also slings teas, hot chocolate and more. You can even order a picturesque blue matcha.

The kitchen, run by Executive Chef Kierstin Dudley, serves up Southerncentric breakfast and brunch with an emphasis on locally sourced ingredients and seasonal dishes.

Originally from Greater Cincinnati, Dudley had spent the past seven years in South Carolina working at gastropub The Southern Growl. Now she’s excited to be back in the Queen City as a part of

its food culture.

“There’s kind of a void of approachable and affordable food,” Dudley says. “It’s like there is no middle and I’m trying to find the middle for the community.”

From the Nashville-chicken-inspired Nashy ’Nati Chicken sandwich to a Brekkie Banh-Mi, Korean Street Toast and a Cincinnati Love Letter with goetta, there’s much to devour. Dudley says the menu was scaled back for the opening, but the team plans to add more dishes eventually. Mostly, she says, they don’t want to limit themselves to one cuisine or style.

“I really hope that the people in the community are open to all the great options I’m doing,” Dudley says — including her grit tots and grit bowls.

“I love grits and it’s such a great and filling way to substitute for a glutenfree diet,” Dudley says. “So that was my direction with the grit bowls, not just because I’m searching for that Southern influence. But, honestly, grits are great and shouldn’t just be Southern.”

In addition to gluten-free offerings, vegan and vegetarian options are also available.

Proud Hound co-founders Smith and Holman met through Brick, a nowclosed Norwood coffee shop, and found they had similar ideals when it came to coffee.

“We felt the same way about how we wanted to run a shop, our approach to coffee, the culture around a café and what we wanted the hospitality space to be,” Smith says. “So, after a lot of conversation and planning, in 2018 we started getting serious about mapping out what it would look like to open the space.”

They acquired the Proud Hound warehouse in Spring 2019 and kicked off their roasting program in September of that year.

And then, of course, the pandemic hit.

Along with most of the world, the timeline to open their café shifted. While Smith says they didn’t see extreme delays in construction, it did give them more time to boost brand recognition.

They had already planned on using their mobile truck, but the circumstances allowed them to utilize it in a different way. They were able to pop-up at events in an efficient, safe way all while showcasing their coffees and brand.

“It’s helped gain a more established customer base and allowed people to try us,” Smith says. “It gave people time to familiarize themselves with the brand and then the buildup was better to get people more and more excited about the space opening.”

Look above the menu for Proud Hound’s mission statement: “Dignity for all.” And what better exemplifies dignity than a hound, the brand’s logo?

The brand’s forming members all have experience in the industry, both good and bad (along with Smith and Holman is Carl Arvidson, “director of everything,” who recently left to take a design job. Israel Jones, director of sales, and Dudley, are now also part of the crew). Seeing aspects they didn’t like in the coffee business in general, the team asked how they could capture great customer service while creating a better behindthe-scenes environment for employees. Smith notes that there are “a lot of amazing (coffee) shops (in Cincinnati), but especially abroad” that exceed in their focus on culture and employees’ experience.

“It is leaps and bounds beyond whatever we experienced,” Smith says. “We were like, how do we bring that to Cincy? And how do we make that a key component in our business?”

As they explored language surrounding the characteristics of hounds, the word dignity reappeared again and again.

“Consider when you meet a dog in public, it’s more often than not you will ask the name of the dog, forgetting the personhood of the owner,” Jones told CityBeat’s Hailey Bollinger in an earlier interview. “Proud Hound wants to reverse this trend: illuminate the profound purpose and constant awareness of the valued humans (and dogs) involved in every degree of life.”

That idea extends to every arm of Proud Hound, including coffee farmers, employees, customers, neighbors and wholesale relationships.

“Every person has inherent value. And they should have dignity,” Smith says. Pound Hound’s café was designed with inclusion in mind, with a wheelchair lift, unisex bathrooms, infant high chairs and changing stations.

“We want our actions to represent what we’re doing,” Smith says. “We’re not trying to sell inclusivity. We’re not trying to sell accessibility. We’re not trying to make that a point of, ‘You should support us because we’re doing these things.’ Because many people would argue that a lot of businesses do these things. For us, it’s a standard of who we are and what we want it to be.”

Smith, who lives in Silverton, also says Pound Hound has kept in mind that the neighborhood has existed long before they arrived. How they honor the residents of Silverton and its history is “super important,” he says. He wants to nurture an environment where those who call Silverton home feel welcome in the space.

From the kitchen to the coffee bar to the roasting process, everything is completely open. Like their penchant for Andersonian aesthetics, that’s no coincidence.

“We didn’t just do the food really well and then leave the coffee to the side,” Smith says. “We didn’t just do the coffee really well and then the food was an afterthought. They both have a lot of intentionality.”

A dining area inside Proud Hound

PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

A spread of dishes and drinks available at Proud Hound

PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

Proud Hound’s cafe is open 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Proud Hound Coffee, 6717 Montgomery Road, Silverton, proudhoundcoffee.com.

THE DISH Recent Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Openings: Eight New Places to Nosh

BY CITYBEAT STAFF

Summer is here, and Cincinnati’s food scene is heating up. Here are eight recent additions if you’re looking for somewhere new to eat.

Oakley Kitchen Food Hall

Greater Cincinnati’s culinary scene is rapidly expanding, and with the opening of incubator kitchen and event space Oakley Kitchen Food Hall, area chefs and food entrepreneurs have the opportunity to develop their ideas, skills and products even further.

The first floor of the joint-use space features eight kitchen pods for start-ups and ghost kitchens, plus the Campfire Foods Commissary and a marketplace offering products from both new and established local businesses. All eight kitchen pods are currently occupied by: – La Petite Frite, serving Belgian comfort food like waffles and carbonade; – Khana Gourmet Indian Grill, featuring Indian-style barbecue and “exotic biryanis;” – Jimmie Lou’s, which serves Cajun and Creole; – Loakley, which does farm-to-table small bites; – Parts & Labor, serving hardwood smoke “new school” barbecue; – Onolicious Hawaii, which offers up pupus and plate lunches; – Olive Tree, crafting traditional

Syrian recipes; – and an outpost of Milford’s Padrino pizza and pasta parlor.

Upstairs, Oakley Kitchen Food Hall features a 10,000 square-foot seating space/rentable event venue that can be used for food-centric parties, private events and weddings.

The dining hall’s bar, The Cutaway, officially opened on July 21 with Mike Stankovich, owner of popular Over-theRhine bar Longfellow, at the helm. A post made by Stankovich announcing the bar’s opening explains folks will be able to indulge in a variety of beer, wine, “weird soda,” sake, cider, digestifs and aperitifs, as well as “stuff you want, stuff you don’t want, stuff you don’t have, stuff you’re glad you don’t have, stuff that’s good, stuff that you don’t like.”

You can grab a cocktail from The Cutaway while you enjoy eats from any of the eight pop-up kitchens, or grab their food (or The Cutaway’s drinks) to go. There’s also indoor seating and outdoor picnic tables. 3715 Madison Road, Oakley, oakley-kitchen.com.

Cackleberry

Squeezed into a bitesized vintage trailer, husband-and-wife duo Nate and China Kautz are serving up mobile breakfast sandwiches as the owners of the new Cincinnati-based pop-up Cackleberry (a nickname for a hen’s egg).

Cackleberry currently offers six unique sandwiches ranging from Cincinnati staples to Filipino-fusion cuisine. Cackleberry’s “Benny” bacon sandwich has chipotle ketchup and caramelized onions; the “Lolo” features a sweet Filipino sausage called longanisa and atchara pickled slaw; and the “Porter” is loaded with goetta. The food truck parks in various locations on weekends and operates until all sandwiches are sold out.

Though it is a mobile shop, China says she wanted people’s experience with Cackleberry to be memorable, so

Oakley Kitchen Food Hall PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER A spread of dishes available from vendors at Oakley Kitchen Food Hall PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER they play music near the truck and sell merchandise, including T-shirts and ceramic cups with egg art on them. See a full menu and find where they’ll be next at eatcackleberry.com.

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FROM PAGE 24 Clear Mountain Food Park

Food parks seem to be the next big trend in dining, with spots like Bridgeview Box Park and Covington Yard opening in Greater Cincinnati in the past year or so. Now, Cincinnati’s deep East Side has their own and it is “one of the largest outdoor beer and live music venues in the Tri-State,” according to a release.

Clear Mountain Food Park opened July 23 on a lot that once held a Gold Star chili. The park features a rotating variety of food trucks (for lunch and dinner), live music, outdoor games and “indoor/outdoor beverage stations,” with local craft and national beers, wine and spirits. The upcoming food truck schedule, available online, includes popular eateries like Kabobske, Sea Cuisine and Mama Bear’s Mac.

Obviously, the location has undergone significant renovations since its days as a chili parlor. The space now features indoor and outdoor seating, including picnic tables, tables with shade umbrellas and tables set up in recreated pick-up truck beds; firepits; greenery; outdoor lighting; and a playground. 2792 Old State Route 32, Batavia, clearmountainfoodpark.com.

Frosthaus

Frosthaus — located next to Germanstyle spaghetti eis cream shop Eishaus — offers a slew of frozen delights, specifically booze-infused slushies. Opt for the rainbow-hued Cov Sunset, with mango, strawberry and mojito; or the Frosé + Cream, with rosé wine, vodka and ice cream. Frosthaus also offers non-alcoholic frozen drinks, Germaninspired salads and sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and flatbreads. 115 Park Place, Covington, frosthauscov.com.

Gulow Street

Gulow Street is Northside’s new cozyyet-sophisticated bar and restaurant. Located at the corner of Hoffner and Gulow streets (the establishment’s namesake), it’s a family operation owned by brothers/cousins Jonathan, Danny and Alex Mouch. The trio built the business with hopes of providing an approachable hub where folks can “gather, socialize, create memories and strengthen community,” says Jonathan.

The historic building has served many purposes over the course of its life, originally housing a saloon and later a metal fabricating company and showroom. But Jonathan says the space sat vacant for a long time before his team began its most recent transformation, which now boasts repurposed old doors, tin ceilings, beadboard, lighting fixtures and more comfy details.

The bar and kitchen sports a small but mighty food menu, offering seven dishes ranging from breakfast to dinner. Stand-out items include sesame noodles, a pimento-stuffed breakfast sandwich, rigatoni bolognese and a cheeseburger (on Tuesdays you can grab a $10 burger and draft beer during happy hour). The cocktail menu has four craft cocktails ranging in spirits from bourbon and vodka to gin, including a clever Carrot Moscow Mule, infused with carrot juice. The bar/ restaurant has also converted a former garage into a dogfriendly patio. 1614 Hoffner St., Northside, gulowstreet.com.

La Cantina

A new flavor is coming to downtown’s Clear Mountain Food Park Crown Republic PHOTO: PROVIDED BY CLEAR MOUNTAIN FOOD PARK Gastro Pub. On Tuesday nights, the restaurant group — which also owns Losanti Steak House and Rosie’s Cocktails & Pies — will host a special “La Cantina” pop-up inside Crown Republic. The Cantina will be open from 5-9 p.m. Tuesdays, with limited seating. Chef Johnny Curiel and owner Anthony Sitek are the masterminds behind the menu, which offers “a modern take on some traditional Mexican dishes,” says Curiel in a release. Dishes include corn elote, which “uses nixtamalized Heirloom corn from farmers in Mexico.” There are also tacos with fillings ranging from Baja fish and carnitas to suadero (smoked brisket), pollo asado and sweet potato. Entreesized options include enchiladas verdes and chicken mole. All dishes are glutenfree. 720 Sycamore St., Downtown, crownrepublicgastropub.com. Gulow Street

OLLA Taqueria Gutierrez

The folks behind Covington’s Gutierrez Deli recently opened OLLA Taqueria Gutierrez on W. MLK Jr. Boulevard in Covington. The eatery serves up Mexican-style street food. The menu is stacked with tacos, burritos, nachos and “Guti fries,” with nine different meat/veggie options (including birria) to choose from, plus a couple of entrees, sides and drinks. 302 W. MLK Jr. Blvd., Covington, facebook.com/OllaCov.

Taco Fuerte

A taco truck has set up shop outside of Braxton Barrel House in Fort Mitchell. Called Taco Fuerte — from the Spanish word meaning “strength” — the truck boasts a selection of hand-crafted creations ranging from birria or cheesecake tacos to totchos and vegetarianfriendly bites. A release from Braxton says the truck’s menu was crafted to pair nicely with the brewery’s beers.

The truck is the third venture by Chef Mike Schieman and his team. Schieman opened two other restaurants that are positioned alongside Braxton Breweries: Parlor on Seventh in Covington and Pendalo Wingery in Pendleton. Taco Fuerte will be parked outside of the Fort Mitchell taproom

PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

Taco Fuerte

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY BRAXTON BREWING CO.

Thursdays through Sundays. 5 Orphanage Road, Fort Mitchell, facebook.com/ braxtonbarrelhouse.