CityBeat | October 3, 2023

Court Orders Darbi Boddy to Stay Away from Fellow Lakota School Board Member

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones addressed rumors Boddy may ignore the order on Facebook:

Acontroversial conservative board member for Lakota Local Schools, who is known for crusading against “woke” culture, has been ordered by a Butler County judge to stay away from one of her colleagues.

On Sept. 20, Butler County Magistrate Matthew Reed and Common Pleas Court Judge Greg Howard issued a civil stalking protection order against Darbi Boddy to protect the complainant, fellow board member Isaac Adi, from ongoing harassment.

“It’s ridiculous, and we are appealing,” Boddy told CityBeat

The following day, Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Gmoser issued a public statement to Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, addressing reports that Boddy was planning to ignore the order while a 10-day appeals process plays out.

“It has been reported that [Boddy] does not intend to follow the order during such appeal time and expects therefore to be arrested and pursue all available rights based on such arrest,” the statement reads.

Jones posted photos of Gmoser’s statement on Facebook, saying the order is in immediate effect and, barring a successful appeal, will remain so until Sept. 20, 2025.

“There will be no preferred treatment no matter your elected position, if you violate a civil protection order, you will be arrested on-site,” reads a post from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.

The allegations

The order details a months-long pattern of targeted harassment from Boddy towards Adi.

“[Adi] contends that certain actions taken by [Boddy] have caused, and will continue to cause, him mental distress. He further contends that the mental distress caused by [Boddy] has resulted in

hospitalization,” the order reads.

Adi testified that he was hospitalized for three days due to stress, and witnesses testified that Adi had indicated his health was declining as a result of interactions with Boddy.

The order, which took effect on Sept. 20, bars Boddy from going to Adi’s home and place of employment, which includes Lakota School Board meetings.

Lakota Local Schools spokesperson Betsy Fuller told CityBeat the district will “review the order and make adjustments as needed.”

Fellow board member Julie Shaffer and board president Lynda O’Connor both testified in support of Adi, as well as assistant superintendent Stacy Maney. Boddy’s side did not offer up anyone to testify in her defense.

Court documents show witnesses testified that Boddy’s presence at meetings caused “some concern for the safety of all individuals in attendance,” and that school resource officers were specifically stationed during meetings because of Boddy.

The order also addresses Boddy’s concealed carry status, but notes she has never been known to carry a weapon during any of the interactions outlined in the order.

A timeline of tension between Boddy and Adi

Boddy first ran alongside Adi, a fellow Republican, in 2021. They appeared on the Butler County Republicans’ slate card and appeared at campaign events together. Like Boddy, Adi ran a campaign that stood against Critical Race Theory, but in an August interview with CityBeat, said he’s yet to find any proof of a curriculum that matches Boddy’s description of CRT at Lakota Schools.

“Some board members started to create

lies, saying some things that are not there,” Adi said. “But the question is, where is it? Show me. Give us evidence.”

Their relationship quickly soured once Boddy began intensely crusading against CRT, a lens through which scholars explain how racial bias is inherent in many parts of western society, especially in its legal and social institutions. Boddy is also known to rail against all things genderinclusivity related, diversity programs, and anyone who remotely pushed back against her, including Adi.

In April 2023, Adi and Boddy attended a conservative leadership conference in Florida, during which Boddy confronted Adi in front of hundreds of attendees by reading prepared statements where she claims Adi is not conservative enough, according to court documents.

“As [Boddy] saw their beliefs diverge, she felt it necessary to act in a manner so as to make [Adi] see the error of his ways and convince him to, once again, align with her,” the judge writes. “[Boddy] was often the only board member voting against certain issues, issues she felt [Adi] should be in agreement with her on. Rather than try to work through their differences, or respect [Adi’s] possible change of beliefs, [Boddy] took every

opportunity to ext pressure, bully, and, at times, punish [Adi] by embarrassing him in front of others.”

Boddy told CityBeat in an email response that she respects Adi.

“I respect Isaac and I wish him well,” Boddy said. “I will continue to carry out my responsibilities as an elected board member.”

A June incident previously reported by CityBeat was also outlined in the court’s decision. Boddy posted a video to Facebook on June 22 where she is recording Adi as she follows him out of a board meeting, confronting him for allegedly telling Boddy her “brain is empty.” Adi can be seen pushing Boddy’s phone away, prompting Boddy to tell Adi, “You just assaulted me.” Boddy filed an assault report with Butler County Sheriff’s Office, who ultimately determined the incident was not an assault, closing the investigation.

The court also said Boddy confronted Adi in August at a board committee meeting, two days after Adi requested the protection order. She again recorded him during the interaction.

“At some point [Adi] stepped out to take a work related call. Upon his return, [Boddy] proceeded to, according to one of the witnesses, badger [Adi] about his

“If you violate a civil protection order, you will be arrested on-site.”

BY MADELINE FENING

Lakota School Board member Darbi Boddy PHOTO: BODDY FOR LAKOTA ON FACEBOOK

absence. She repeatedly asked him about his absence, to which he kept responding that he did not answer to her,” the order reads. “Not satisfied with his answer, she pulled out her phone and appeared to start videotaping [Adi]. Shortly thereafter, [Adi] started to show signs of distress.”

The campaign to remove Boddy

A signature campaign to remove Boddy from her seat on the board far predates Adi’s recent protection order.

Rachel Zipperian is one of the organizers behind removedarbiboddy.com.

She told CityBeat the recent protection order against Boddy exemplifies what the campaign has been complaining about all along.

“Harassment is harassment. There’s no protection against board members harassing other board members or harassing the staff. I mean, you saw what happened when multiple of our school leaders resigned because of her harassment,” Zipperian said.

The district’s former superintendent, Matt Miller, resigned in January, citing harassment and hostility from Boddy in a letter to the board. Boddy accused Miller of pedophilia and personally promoting CRT at Lakota Schools. Complaints from Boddy and community members led to an investigation from the Butler County Sheriff’s department, which found no probable cause for criminal charges against Miller, according to the board. He resigned anyway.

“Her crusade to force me to resign is direct retaliation for my efforts to protect Lakota students of all genders and races from her destructive efforts,” Miller said in the letter. “While the rest of the Board does not share Ms. Boddy’s views, the fact remains that she has succeeded in her efforts and destroyed my career in the bargain.”

Zipperian said the start of the new school year has reignited the effort to remove Boddy from her board seat before her term ends in December 2026.

“Our petition to have her removed was always [based] on her behavior, her conduct. It’s definitely consistent. We need about 1,500 more Lakota resident signatures to be able to take legal action from our end.”

So far, the petition campaign’s website says they have 69% of the needed signatures (up from 60% in August) to advance to the next step, which is a formal legal process before a judge in the Butler County Court of Common Pleas.

Boddy told CityBeat in August that she’s not worried about the removal petition. She said it’s just “what the political left does.”

“It’s a misinformation and smear campaign, and if they ever try to advance it will be proven to be just that,” she said.

Making Cents

BY MADELINE FENING

Last month, advocates for people with developmental disabilities dropped a bombshell on Ohio lawmakers — without even trying.

For more than 90 years, businesses have been able to use a formal exception to federal wage laws to pay people with disabilities less than minimum wage. Those programs, known as sheltered workshops or Section 14(c) programs, have quietly existed in states throughout the U.S., though they’ve increasingly come under fire from advocates. States from Alaska to Maine have passed laws eliminating the programs within their borders.

Yet it became clear at a Sept. 26 “State of Disability” Town Hall, hosted by Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled (LADD), that some Ohio leaders had no idea the workshops even exist.

Members of LADD’s Empowerment Committee, who also benefit from LADD services, asked city, county and state leaders if they support the sub-minimum wage programs in Ohio. Some panelists looked at one another in confusion.

“Everybody needs to make a decent living. So, sub or low minimum wage sounds horrible to me,” said Cincinnati Vice Mayor JanMichele Kearney. “If that’s a thing now, let’s talk about that because that just resonates with me in a really negative way.”

Hamilton County Commissioner

Denise Driehaus was also stunned by the question.

“Thank you for the question; I didn’t know there was a sub-minimum wage. So, you’re educating me on this issue,” she said. “I do not support a sub-minimum wage for people doing the same work. I can’t think of any rationale why you would pay someone any differently because they have a disability.”

LADD and its mission

As a non-profit, LADD supports 700 adult community members with developmental disabilities to live, work, and connect through community housing, employment, and community engagement programs, according to a press release from the organization. Still, the demand for accommodations for adults with disabilities far outweighs what’s available in Cincinnati and across the state.

Data from a 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) indicates that only 28.4% of working age Ohioans with a cognitive disability were employed.

Susan Brownknight, CEO of LADD, told CityBeat the organization’s job program connects adults with disabilities with jobs that are integrated in the community. At those jobs, unlike sheltered workshops, they earn a standard wage.

“Our job program is all community-integrated employment. People

are working in community-based jobs just like anybody else. We support people in finding a job and securing that job and supporting that person as they learn that job, and then we’re available in perpetuity,” she said.

14(c) programs

U.S. Department of Labor data shows 869 businesses and non-profits hold a 14(c) permit, or have a pending application. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a 14(c) certificate allows “employers to pay subminimum wages to workers with disabilities that impair their productivity for the work they perform.”

In Ohio, there are 50 issued or pending permits, and Cincinnati has two: Easterseals Tristate LLC, which employs 76 workers with disabilities on sub-minimum wage, and Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries, which employs 296 workers on sub-minimum wage.

Pam Green is president and CEO of Easterseals Redwood, which provides employment and education services to Greater Cincinnati individuals with disabilities, as well as veterans and people facing economic disadvantages.

Green told CityBeat she understands why those who hear about the sub-minimum wage for the first time might be shocked.

“When you say you’re going to pay somebody less than minimum wage,

For decades, people with disabilities have been paid less than minimum wage at “sheltered workshops.” Now advocates are coming for those programs in Ohio.

Members of Cincinnati City Council, Hamilton County Commission and Cincinnati Metro receive a question from LADD on sub-minimum wages.

PHOTO: FACEBOOK LIVESTREAM SCREENSHOT, LIVING ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED (LADD)

that sounds absolutely awful,” Green said. “It sounds exploitative. It sounds terrible.” Yet, she said, these programs historically provided a valuable service: “Very often in a capitalist society it is very hard to find employers who are able to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities.”

Green told CityBeat that Easterseals, like many disability organizations, has evolved over the years, giving adults with disabilities the chance to earn a standard wage through community-based employment. Last year, Easterseals Redwood provided job placement and support to 225 people with disabilities, all in community-integrated jobs that pay competitive wages.

Green said that Easterseals has been slowly moving away from 14(c) programs for years.

“In 2015, our board made the decision to not use 14(c) in Hamilton County anymore,” Green said. “At that time, we had 319 people with disabilities who were working under 14(c). By 2018 that number was down to 171.”

Now, all of the 14(c) services Easterseals Redwood provides are in Butler County, in a facility located on Symmes Road. But despite movement away from such programs, Green said the workshop has become essential to the people who work there.

“Those 76 folks you’re talking about, many are older, and this has been their job for a long time. And, quite frankly, out of respect for them and their family, we’ve made the decision not to close that center,” Green said.

These employees are paid a standard rate for the work they complete, but not all employees work at equal paces. Green said the compensation structure operates the same across 14(c)s.

“You get a job in, it’s usually production work, and you have typically-abled people who do the job,” Green said. “Say I can produce one widget every 10 minutes — except we do it on an hourly basis — and so you decide, OK, if the market rate to do that work is $16 an hour, and you can produce 16 in an hour, then you get paid $1 for every one that you produce.”

How many widgets an employee can produce in an hour can vary drastically depending on the employee’s abilities, and Green said the makeup of the assembly environment mean one person’s productivity can impact another’s.

“When you’re operating an organizational employment center, you want to offer employment opportunities to as many people as possible, so it’s inefficient by design,” Green said. “You’ll take a process that could be done in three steps, but you want everybody who’s there that day to have the opportunity to work, so you break it down into 12 steps so that everyone has something to do.”

Green said the programs fill an important need. She says Easterseals is only using them for those without better-paid options: “We really aren’t accepting any new folks there, unless they have tried community employment and have not been able to succeed.”

While Easter Seal’s Butler County program gives its remaining 14(c) employees a long-term place to work, Michael Flannery, public information officer for Ohio Valley Goodwill, told CityBeat Goodwill’s 14(c) program is designed to be a starting point to prepare people for community-based jobs that pay regular wages.

“Ohio Valley Goodwill offers a variety of choice-driven programs. One of which is our ‘Pre-Employment Training Program,’ which teaches people many skills needed for employment. Those who participate in this program, do earn a paycheck but they are not paid an hourly wage; they are paid based on their individual production.”

Flannery said that, of the 1,769 people with disabilities who took part in Goodwill's program last year, 759 ended up receiving competitive jobs out in the community.

Statehouse Democrats push against the 14(c)s

During Tuesday’s LADD Town Hall, Representative Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) said he’s generally against the practice, but said he’s open to hearing from organizations if there is a genuine need for 14(c)s.

“My position on this sort of follows where the Biden and Obama administrations have been, which is one of the first things the Biden administrations did which is restore an executive order from the Obama administration around this. Which is to take all federal contractors back up to $15 minimum wage, including folks with disabilities, including folks on the sub-minimum wage,” he said. “That’s my position, although I’m open to — if LADD feels differently I’d be open to talk to you more about it, certainly.”

Lawmakers at the Ohio Statehouse have introduced a bill to eliminate such programs in the state altogether.

House Bill 716, introduced in August 2022 by Representative Brigid Kelly (D-Cincinnati) and Representative Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus), seeks to eliminate the sub-minimum wage for Ohioans with disabilities

“When these folks are hired to do jobs, they should be paid the same as their able-bodied nondisabled peers,” Kelly told NBC4 after the bill’s introduction.

Green said it’s a common fear among adults with disabilities who collect benefits like Supplemental Security

Income or Social Security Disability Insurance that they will lose those benefits if they start to make more money.

“It is really hard for people with disabilities to get out of poverty,” Green said. “It’s really hard for people with disabilities to feel safe walking away from Social Security Disability income. The people that I talked about that we hired, it was a big struggle to get them to start to work more hours when they started making minimum wage and more; they were terrified of losing their pay.”

Isaacsohn told CityBeat he wasn’t sure if HB716 would protect individuals from losing their state benefits while making a standard minimum wage, but Green said qualifying adults who collect state benefits for their disability are allowed to contribute money to a STABLE account, a savings account that allows adults with disabilities to amass a savings account for basic necessities without losing their government assistance.

Flannery told CityBeat that Goodwill would respect the decision if the HB716 were to become law, but emphasized that Ohioans with disabilities need more employment options, not less. He mentioned Employment First, a policy to ensure every Ohioan of working age has an opportunity to seek employment.

“While Ohio Valley Goodwill is a strong supporter of the state initiative of Employment First, we feel a wide range of vocational options should be available to individuals with disabilities. Goodwill honors the individual’s right to choose the option that best meets their needs,” he said. “In 2022 Ohio Valley Goodwill received the Employment First award from APSE; the Association of People Supporting Employment First. Ohio Valley Goodwill is not advocating for or against Bill 716. If passed, OVGI will comply completely, as we do now with 14(c).”

He encouraged those who are currently struggling to access their disability benefits to reach out to their representative, who can help speed along the process.

“Please reach out if you think we can help,” Isaacsohn said. “Your state representatives can’t do much from the superminority on every policy issue, but we can be great constituent advocates.”

Kristen Saul, a member of LADD’s Empowerment Committee, told CityBeat the surprise among politicians about 14(c) employment proves more people need to know about policies affecting people with disabilities.

“That’s disheartening,” Saul said. “Our people need the pay just as much as regular people. Not quote-unquote ‘what the disability is,’ but how they perform in the job itself.”

The UAW Strike Reaches West Chester: What’s Next for Local Auto Workers?

BY MADELINE FENING

Workers at General Motors’ Cincinnati Parts Distribution Center in West Chester officially went on strike on Sept. 22. The move came after United Auto Workers (UAW) union President Shawn Fain announced that 5,600 workers at 38 General Motors and Stellantis parts distribution centers across 20 states will walk off the job while Ford negotiates in the wings.

“The world is watching and the people are on our side. We’ve seen poll after poll come out saying the American people support what we’re doing,” Fain said during the Facebook live announcement. “Now it’s time to hit the picket lines across the country. It’s time to show the companies we are united, we are fired up and we are ready for a record contract.”

In an effort to ensure fair compensation and working conditions amid an industry shift from gas to electric vehicles, union negotiators are seeking:

• Wage increases/restoration of cost-of-living pay raises

• An end to varying tiers of wages for factory jobs

• A 32-hour work week with full-time pay

• Benefit pensions for new hires

• Pension increases for retirees

The 123 West Chester employees at the GM facility on Jacquemin Drive have joined forces with the 13,000 striking auto plant employees at three Midwestern auto plants. Those workers first walked off the job on Sept. 15 at a GM site in Wentzville, Missouri; a Stellantis center in Toledo, Ohio; and a Ford assembly location in Wayne, Michigan.

The nearly 1,800 workers at Ford’s transmission plant in Sharonville have not yet been called to strike. Fain said Ford has made serious progress as the company works to meet the union’s demands, including agreeing to reinstate a cost of living adjustment that was last suspended in 2009. Ford will also convert all temporary employees to full-time and grant the union the right to strike over plant closures.

Newport’s Falcon Theatre Flies High with its 2023-24 Season

PREVIEW BY RICK PENDER

Falcon Theatre is not located in a cultural zone. Newport’s Monmouth Street is not the “avenue of the arts” by any stretch of the imagination. The address of 636 Monmouth, where Falcon has produced five shows per season for two decades, has a notorious past. In the mid-20th century, it was La Madame’s Cocktail Lounge, one of several strip clubs in Newport, commonly called “Sin City” back then. Today, Newport is a progressive Northern Kentucky town, and Monmouth Street has few vestiges of those seedier times. Falcon Theatre has been a big factor in improving the neighborhood.

When Ted Weil and Dave Radtke launched their theatrical venture in 1989, they were miles away in the historic Westwood Town Hall, a building from 1889. With a mix of musicals and dramas, Falcon was an all-volunteer community theater for a dozen years. In the early 2000s, the city of Cincinnati decided to modernize the building’s interior. Falcon needed a new temporary venue. The family of Weil’s friend, Joy Galbraith, operated the Costume Gallery at 638 Monmouth St. in Newport and owned 636 Monmouth, used for occasional cabaret shows. Falcon became their tenant. The first show there was Gilligan’s Island in 2003.

The changes in Westwood Town Hall made a fine recreation center, but it was no longer suitable for theater productions. Falcon’s volunteer board made improvements to the Newport space, including replacing a drop ceiling with theatrical lighting and slightly expanding

the seating capacity to 75.

Falcon is truly a “storefront” theater, wedged into a business district. “Having the flexibility to do something to that space, even before we bought it, made a big difference,” Weil said in a recent conversation with CityBeat. “We had joked with the Galbraiths for years about ‘Oh, we’re going to buy the building from you.’” Then one day they told him they needed to sell it soon. “We weren’t ready. We hadn’t saved any money for a down payment. Fortunately, the Galbraiths really wanted us to have it, so they were flexible and waited a little bit for us.” Falcon is now the owner, with a friendly mortgage from a Heritage Bank branch across the street.

Weil and his board have produced shows there for two decades. They voluntarily provide administrative support; actors and designers are paid a modest stipend. Programming has stepped back from edgy shows and settled into balanced seasons of offerings — typically a classic, several more established works and maybe a premiere or two. “It’s turned into a very comfortable niche,” he says. “People recognize the kind of stuff we do and say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a Falcon show.’”

Falcon has also established outreach programs. An engagement with the Campbell County Library nine years ago for a reading of Soldier, Come Home, a play using family correspondence from the Civil War, began a regular engagement. Now the company offers several additional readings under the heading of “Falcon Takes Flight.” More recently,

HIVoices® was developed with the Northern Kentucky Health Department, based on interviews with people living with HIV that became monologues; it might be developed into a full-fledged theater piece. Future plans include a workshop program, “Falcon Play Incubator,” to cultivate new scripts. The theater is also a rentable venue for everything from magic shows to occasional musical acts.

Falcon’s 2023-2024 season features five shows, eight performances across three weeks. Up first is the regional premiere of Home, I’m Darling by British playwright Laura Wade (Sept. 29-Oct. 14). Weil said choosing it was a no-brainer. “It’s so new and fresh, an interesting look at gender roles and what if we lived like the 1950s.” The characters discover how hard it is to turn back the clock to a simpler time. Their choices make them question everything from sex to careers to their relationships. Becca Howell will direct. An Olivier Award winner in London in 2019, the show has scarcely been produced in the U.S. Next is another regional premiere, Two Point OH by Jeffrey Jackson (Nov. 17-Dec. 2), a show that vacillates between sci-fi and today’s news. A pioneering software mogul dies, and his virtual simulation begins to meet with his business partners and his widow.

“It reads like an episode of Black Mirror,” Weil said. The current attention to artificial intelligence (AI) makes this the perfect time to do this show.

2024 kicks off with Vincent (Jan. 26Feb. 10, 2024), a one-man show about the famously tormented painter Vincent

Van Gogh. It was developed and first performed in 2017 by late actor Leonard Nimoy. Vincent’s brother Theo talks about Van Gogh’s early obsession with religion, salvation and love. His paintings and drawings are used to portray him. The production will be staged by David Derringer, theater director at Milford High School.

Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore (March 15-30, 2024) is about Alan Turing, the mathematician who cracked the secret Nazi code during World War II, saving countless lives from German U-boats. The 1986 play is an insightful portrait of the brilliant mathematician and the persecution he endured in the 1940s when homosexuality was a crime. Veteran local director Ed Cohen will stage this one.

The season’s final production will be Sharr White’s The Other Place (May 3-18, 2024), a show that premiered locally at Ensemble Theatre back in 2015. It’s an account of a scientist who has researched and promoted a drug to treat dementia. She finds herself in the early stages of the disease when her lectures begin to veer further and further from reality. Another Falcon regular, Piper Davis, will direct the show, which Weil called “beautifully powerful and poignant.”

Falcon Theatre lives up to its motto: “Intimate theater. Inspiring performances.”

Falcon Theatre’s 2023-24 season runs from now through May 18, 2024.

Info: falcontheater.net.

J.D. Vance stops by the Butler County Republican Party headquarters in Middletown, Ohio during his 2022 Senate campaign.

PHOTO: MADELINE FENING

Strip Mall The Dining Issue

Mall Eats

18 Greater Cincinnati strip mall restaurants worth a visit

There is something inherently charming about dining at strip mall restaurants. In most cases, the experience offers a no-frills, laidback way to enjoy a number of different cuisines — from Venezuelan-style empanadas to indulgent and messy burgers. Not only that, but restaurants sandwiched between other businesses in a strip mall often exude an under-the-radar charm that make finding a gem among them feel even more special. So, to satisfy your fix, we’ve compiled 18 strip mall restaurants across Greater Cincinnati that are worth a visit the next time you’re craving a down-to-earth nosh.

CCS Empanadas

12082 Montgomery Road, Loveland, facebook.com/ccsempanadas

CCS Empanadas is a hidden gem offering over 18 different Venezuelan-style empanadas. But that’s not all they’re dishing up: they also offer savory arepas, paella, pepitos, fresh and fruity drinks, and sweet desserts, like churros and Tequeño de Nutella (Nutella sticks), that’ll keep you coming back for more.

Kelsey Graham

Loving Hut

6227 Montgomery Road, Pleasant Ridge, lovinghut.us/cincinnati

Pleasant Ridge’s Loving Hut is a low-key spot serving all-organic, non-GMO vegan dishes and plenty of gluten- and soy-free options. Their menu offers wholesome favorites with a spin both carnivores and herbivores can delight

in, from Buffalo wraps and quarterpounder plant-based burgers to both pumpkin and Cincinnati-style chilis and fresh salads. There’s also a variety of plates for kids, like vegan sloppy Joes and nuggets, and a sweet selection of cookies and cakes worth saving room for.

Queens Bakery

4770 Fields Ertel Road, Mason, facebook.com/queensbakerycincy

Queens Bakery is an Asian bakery filled with tasty cakes, breads, buns, pastries and made-to-order bubble teas. Not only are the sweets and treats a sight to see, but the space is so fun and inviting that you won’t be able to stop yourself from taking a selfie (or two) while you peruse. They even make jaw-dropping cakes that you can order ahead for special occasions.

Red Squirrel boasts homey, diner vibes in a nondescript strip mall in White Oak.

PHOTO: ASHLEY MOOR

Sichuan Chili

10400 Reading Road, #205b, Evendale, yelp.com

Unassumingly tucked between an H&R Block and a Firestone, this Chinese restaurant serves sensory feasts that span across taste, texture, flavor and heat — definitely heat. There’s an American Chinese menu with classics like sesame chicken, but everything off of the Sichuan menu is unforgettable. Choose from options like aromatic, salty twice-cooked pork, refreshing vinegar potatoes, fish sautéed in dry chili oil, scallion pancakes or dan dan noodles.

Katrina Eresman

Cincinnati Goodfellows

7466 Beechmont Ave., Anderson Township, cincinnatigoodfellows.com

Not to be confused with another Cincinnati staple of a similar name, this Anderson Township pizza parlor located in the Anderson Towne Center has to be one of the city’s finest. Walking in the door, you’re immediately hit with a classic pizzeria smell. In the first bite, you notice the dense, rich and savory mozzarella before the perfectly balanced ratio of spicy and sweet sauce starts to blend perfectly with the thick layer of cheese and crispy-edged pepperoni. The crust is on the thinner side but adds to the picture, while acting as a canvas for all flavors to stand out. It’s hard not to get an extra slice.

Brent Stroud

Greenwich Pita and Grill

5220 Kings Mills Road, Mason, greenwichpitaandgrill.com

Opened just last October in the Shoppes of Mason near Kings Island, Greenwich Pita and Grill is a low-key and reasonably priced cornucopia of stellar, flavorful food from the Mediterranean and beyond. The Masala Beef Cheeseburger is a standout and, undoubtedly, one of the most flavorful and nuanced burgers in the city. It’s made in-house with a South Asian spice blend and garam masala along with mint, cilantro, dill and parsley mixed into the beef patty, which is topped off with traditional burger toppings with masala-spiced fries on the side, all for $10.99. The restaurant also adds to the already-ample menu regularly, including a recent new zesty mayo blend for fry dipping and the addition of Uzbek dishes after hiring a native of Uzbekistan to help in the kitchen. BS

Baladi Restaurant & Bakery

3307 Clifton Ave., Clifton, baladirestaurantbakery.com

Strip malls are not typical in the Clifton area, and Baladi is not your typical strip mall restaurant. Baladi offers delicious Middle Eastern and Arabic specialties like shawarma, gyros, falafel and more,

all made with fresh ingredients. They also offer fresh, savory baked goods and pastry favorites like baklava. Brian Cross

Marx Bagels

9701 Kenwood Road, Blue Ash, marxbagels.com

Walking into Marx Bagels in Blue Ash’s Keystone Plaza, you’re greeted with the smell of freshly-baked bagels in the longtime bagelry that opened in 1969. Despite being in a shopping center, Marx is a spacious, bright diner-esque space with tile reflecting the red and blue neon light that lines the long counter space where you order from the seemingly endless menu of bagels, sandwiches, spreads and cream cheese varieties. The rich, deep flavors of their cream cheeses pop on their soft-baked bagels. The poppyseed bagel with chive cream cheese is absolutely great and the combo bagel with garlic, onion and poppy and sesame seeds has a nice ratio of softness and crunch. They offer both traditional and outlandish flavors as well as sweet bagels like raisin wheat or orange cranberry, along with cream cheeses like blueberry or honey walnut, among a ton of others. You can also order mini bagels to get as many varieties as possible. BS

Servatii Pastry Shop

Several locations, servatii.com Servatii is well known for its bakery, pastries and cakes, and deservedly so, since their breads and desserts are some of the best in the city and a great part of the local food world. They also sell deli sandwiches at select locations (Mason, Maineville, Symmes, Beechmont and Mariemont) that are great go-tos for lunch. The Smoked Bavarian, a personal favorite, is an immediate blast of rich flavor. The melted swiss cheese blends with the smoked turkey, juicy red tomato and Bavarian sauce that are all held together figuratively and physically by the housemade pretzel bun. It’s served with a pickle spear and a few Servatii butter cookies, and at $9.75, for the size and quality of the sandwich, it isn’t a bad deal. BS

Tavern on the Bend

5471 N. Bend Road, Green Township, searchable on Facebook

Craving craft beer, mac and cheese and a stacked burger? Tavern on the Bend is your spot. This pub may appear modest with its paper plates and plastic cutlery, but quality ingredients and a creative bar menu keep people coming back. Mac and cheese varieties include Philly steak mac and lobster mac, while burgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs and

chicken sandwiches come topped with everything from jalapeno bacon to roasted Mexican street corn. KE

Taglio Pizzeria

3531 Columbia Pkwy., Columbia Tusculum (plus two additional locations in Montgomery and Over-the-Rhine), eattaglio.com

Taglio is an upscale take on pizza and Italian food, making several things fresh daily from sourced ingredients. They have New York and Detroit style pizzas. The more traditional New York style pizza features a thinner crust that tastes like bakery quality bread on its own, but the savory and slightly sweet sauce, dense layer of cheese and pepperoni baked into a perfectly crispy bowl steal the show. The Detroit style pizza has a delicious buttery, crispy baked outer crust that’s a gargantuan of flavor surrounding the thick, baked dough with a full layer of perfectly greasy mozzarella, a dollop of chunky tomato sauce and, in this case, large slices of pepperoni. They also offer a curated wine and beer list, cocktails, appetizers, salads and gelato. BS

Jot India

1709 C, Monmouth St., Newport, jotindiatogo.com

Based in an old laundromat in Newport,

Baladi Restaurant & Bakery is far from your typical strip mall dining experience.

PHOTO: BILADI RESTAURANT & BAKERY’S FACEBOOK

Garin Pirnia

Jot India offers a wide variety of northern Indian food. They have the standards — samosas, dal soup and chicken curry — but also a long list of vegetarian and seafood entrees. Make sure to try one of their naans, especially the garlic one. Order online for a quick carryout, or take the time to dine in their ample dining room. Soon, a second location in Florence will open so that more people can enjoy their food.

Thai Namtip

5461 North Bend Road, Green Township, thainamtip.net

Thai Namtip has that “been here for 20 years” look and feel inside, which is a good sign: they haven’t changed what’s been working. And that is great authentic Thai cuisine with friendly service. The family-owned West Side mainstay offers a variety of stir fries, soups and entrees like basil salmon in addition to fresh sushi for dine-in or carryout. BC

Truva Turkish Kitchen

8060 Montgomery Road, Suite 400, Kenwood, truvaturkishkitchen.com

do-it-all Mexican joints in town. Maybe it’s hard for a restaurant to go wrong with the rich, spicy and bold flavors paired with a tangy refreshing margarita, but Cancun is definitely doing it right. After all, they’ve been successful enough to open nine area locations over the years. Cancun on the river and the Glenway location with windows that look into Western Bowl are standout locations. BC

Red Squirrel

8227 Colerain Ave., White Oak, redsquirrelcolerain.com

An American-style diner that’s anything but typical. The large menu spans breakfast, lunch and dinner, and includes burgers, hot sandwiches, double deckers, salads and soups. Red Squirrel offers a wide variety of tasty options for every meal. If you’re the indecisive type, you might have a hard time but you’ll definitely leave satisfied. BC

Toki Japanese Steakhouse

726 E. Main St., Lebanon, tokilebanon.com

Truva is already a CityBeat notable and it deserves additional props for its elegance, service and superb cuisine in a strip mall. It boasts generous portion sizes, exquisite presentation and the best fresh pita.

Cancun Mexican

Anne Arenstein

Multiple locations, cancunmexicanglenway.com

Cancun is one of the best large-menu,

Deirdre Kaye

Tucked into the very end of Lebanon’s oldest strip mall, Colony Square Shopping Center, is hands-down one of the best Japanese restaurants in the Tri-State. Toki offers everything you’d expect from a classic Benihana-style hibachi restaurant but at much less jarring prices. Plus, they don’t make you wait to fill your table with strangers. Their sushi is a little more pricey but worth every penny.

If you’re into creative bagels, Marx Bagels is the perfect destination for adventurous foodies.

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY MARX BAGELS

ARTS & CULTURE

Sporting Fashion exhibits more than 60 fully accessorized ensembles and hundreds of objects like helmets, bows, bags, rackets and skis among many other objects. Brands still relevant today like Champion and Spalding are represented throughout the outfits and accessories, which have transformed from practical garb to works of art.

“Fashion is an art form. Every object

The Sport of Progress

Taft Museum of Art’s Sporting Fashion exhibit includes authentic garments and accessories worn by women involved in athletic pursuits from 1800 to 1960.

BY KATIE GRIFFITH

Women’s sports have always been an undeniable display of talent, dedication and entertainment. Yet, whether women have historically gained the attention, pay or credit they deserve hasn’t been so evident. The rise of popularity in women’s sports has been slow, especially in the early years when it defied social norms and expectations for how women should participate in society.

An upcoming exhibit at the Taft Museum of Art is uncovering more than a century’s worth of fashion and feminism surrounding the history of female athletics.

Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960 opens at the Taft Museum on Oct. 14 and runs through Jan. 14, 2024. The display demonstrates women’s value in and

contribution to all sports while exploring their lives through clothing, accessories and ephemera.

“The Taft aims to present exhibitions that spark conversations and allow us to engage with various communities,” Ann Glasscock, associate curator at the Taft, said in an email. “The works in Sporting Fashion will challenge visitors to consider the important intersection between fashion and women’s greater role in public life and drive toward social equality.”

The traveling exhibit was organized by the American Federation of Arts and the FIDM Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. It is the first of its kind to examine women’s sporting attire in Western fashion throughout the 160-year period. In the 1800s, when women began to pursue new roles outside of their domestic responsibilities, wardrobes and gear had to be invented and manufactured to suit their activities.

The evolution of these garments during this specific time period hasn’t been explored in this way. Sporting Fashion is a one-of-a-kind display that carries lessons in history and fashion. Most importantly it tells the story of how powerful women earned their place in the world of sports and how that progressive journey informed and affected women’s everyday lives, too.

“The outfits are only part of the picture,” Glasscock says. “We should recognize the strong-willed, independent and talented women who wore the clothes that advanced the history of sports over the 160-year period covered in the exhibition. These garments are a reminder of how fashion developed over time, how technology changed and that what was socially acceptable changed from one decade to the next — all with powerful women pushing the boundaries for a better tomorrow.”

has a story to tell,” Glasscock tells CityBeat. “In the case of this show, it could be a story about the wearer, designer, materials, technology, activity, move away from corsets, use of pants by women or a combination of these and other things.”

In a virtual event about Sporting Fashion, FIDM Museum curator Kevin Jones revealed that each item displayed in the exhibit is authentic. He explains that finding actual surviving objects and clothing was a difficult task because 200 years ago no one thought of them as worth saving. Jones said there are tons of surviving ballgowns and couture dresses but far less sportswear, which is why this exhibit’s collection is so rare and impressive.

“Looking at the history of sportswear is difficult,” Jones said during the virtual event. “There have been other projects that have come about with sportswear but, generally, it’s men and women

Bathing ensemble, 1900

PHOTO: BRIAN DAVIS © FIDM MUSEUM COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS

Mountaineering ensemble, 1890s

PHOTO: BRIAN DAVIS © FIDM MUSEUM COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS

Motorcycling ensemble, 1930s

PHOTO: SANDERSON © FIDM MUSEUM COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS

Archery ensemble, 1820s

PHOTO: BRIAN DAVIS © FIDM MUSEUM COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS

Behind the scenes of Sporting Fashion. Curator Kevin L. Jones adjusts sandal ribbon.

PHOTO: BRIAN DAVIS © FIDM MUSEUM. COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS

together and it starts maybe around 1900 and it’s always brought up to the present because, of course, we live in a world of sportswear now. And there’s lots of sportswear now. We wanted the challenge of just focusing on women only, no men, and also taking it back to as far as we could with actual surviving objects because we are a museum and

1920s when outdoor activities and leisure became more popular.

Swimming garments and gear show the evolution of mindset as well. As exposed skin became more acceptable, designers and manufacturers followed suit, creating more fashionable and practical garments. Winter sport ensembles show how outfits protected women from the elements, while gear for cycling, motoring and flying were initially adaptations from men’s wear.

The exhibit is organized into seven themes: Stepping Outdoors, Further Afield, Subzero Style, Taking the Reins, A Team Effort, Wheels and Rings and Making Waves. The themes feature specific sports or activities that chronicle tales of women exploring previously male-dominated pursuits, women who were ultra adventurous and took up mountaineering or the development of regulation uniforms.

Sporting Fashion considers women’s roles in breaking boundaries and taking action for a better future, though it does focus on garments and accessories primarily from western Europe and North America that were owned mainly by the

every project that [we] work on, they are acquisition exhibitions.”

The Taft’s “More to the story” labels throughout the exhibit uncover everything from fun facts to accounts of women overcoming oppression. Labeled near an ice skating outfit from the ’30s, the story of Madge Syers (1881–1917) is revealed.

She was an English figure skater who took advantage of an oversight in the 1902 World Skating Championships that gained her access to the competition even though it was comprised only of men. She won second place.

Another label reveals the need for garments to cover the skin in order to keep it pale, which was in fashion in the 19th century and early 20th century. Pale, unblemished skin used to signify upper class, as tanned skin or freckles “suggested manual labor and lower social class.” Some women began to reverse their mindset about skin tone in the

affluent, who had the means to participate. The exhibit is as much of a lesson in history as it is an account of style and fashion. These women challenged the status quo and shaped a future of design, progression, talent, taste and athleticism.

“Broadly speaking, we hope that visitors will learn about women’s sporting and leisure attire from 1800–1960, but we also hope that they understand how the clothes on display influenced and impacted what we wear now,” Glasscock says. “Plus, everything is original, it’s the last chance to see it in the Midwest, and this is the first exhibition to explore the evolution of women’s sporting attire in Western fashion over this 160-year period.”

Sporting Fashion is on view at the Taft Museum of Art from Oct. 14 through Jan. 14. Info: taftmuseum.org.

Riding ensemble, 1890s

PHOTO: BRIAN SANDERSON © FIDM MUSEUM COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS

Baseball ensemble with Spalding cleats, 1930s

PHOTO: BRIAN DAVIS © FIDM MUSEUM COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS

Roller derby ensemble, 1940s

PHOTO: BRIAN DAVIS © FIDM MUSEUM COURTESY AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS

MUSIC

The Kronos Quartet Brings 50 Years of Boundary-Shifting Chamber Music to Cincinnati

BY ANNE ARENSTEIN

The Kronos Quartet makes an overdue return to Cincinnati on Oct. 10, opening Chamber Music Cincinnati’s 2023-24 season. Kronos has been on music’s cutting edge, upending chamber music and music itself since their first appearance in Seattle in 1973. From the outset, they challenged chamber music’s dominant, white male, Eurocentric boundary, wearing more casual clothing rather than formal suits and forging collaborations with an astounding range of artists across continents and media.

As it continues adding to the library of hundreds of commissioned works, Kronos keeps nudging chamber music into a world of vibrant, contemporary artistic creation.

Judging by a conversation with Kronos founder, violinist David Harrington, Kronos is also a remarkably effective antidote to aging. Speaking on Zoom from his studio in San Francisco, Harrington conveyed youthfully intense enthusiasm for Kronos’ work and their upcoming appearance at Memorial Hall.

“We’re not overly precious about tracking our history,” Harrington

laughed, but he readily agreed that the lineup reflects Kronos’ penchant for programming all over the map.

The playlist includes “Aheym” from The National’s Bryce Dessner, which Kronos premiered at the 2009 MusicNOW Festival; Steve Reich’s “Different Trains” (1988); works by Nicole Lizée; electronic musician Jlin; Javanese composer Peni Candra Rini; and Kronos’ cellist Paul Wiancko. There will also be what Harrington says is a preview of a new piece by Gabriella Smith.

“And some guest artists TBA,” he added slyly.

Half the composers are women and Harrington credited his wife with pointing out the missing half at Kronos’ first performance in Seattle.

“When I asked her what she thought, she said, ‘It was fine. But where were the women composers?’ It was like a bucket of ice water — where were women composers? And for that matter, where were composers from Asia, Africa, the Middle East?”

Kronos committed to artistic inclusion, forging relationships with contemporary composers, both established

and emerging, with collaborations and commissions. A Kronos concert might include works by Patti Smith, Thelonius Monk, Philip Glass or Aleksandra Vrebalov, whose opera The Knock had a sold-out run for Cincinnati Opera this past summer.

It’s never less than edgy and eclectic, and there’s always something new, which is precisely the quartet’s goal.

Harrington pinpoints Kronos’ origins to August 1973, when he first heard George Crumb’s “Black Angels,” a stunning work for electric string quartet, bowed water glasses and percussion.

“I’d never heard anything like that,” Harrington recalled. “I had a musical response to the war in Vietnam — the piece combined sounds from Jimi Hendrix and [Franz] Schubert, with so many different approaches to performance.

“That was the spark. I didn’t have a choice: I had to start a group who could play that piece because I wanted to play it.”

Two of Kronos’ members have remarkably long tenures. Violist Hank Dutt joined in 1977; violinist John Sherba in 1978. Composer and cellist Paul

Wiancko took over from Sunny Yang in January.

“I knew Paul first as a composer; we’re playing one of his pieces at our Cincinnati concert,” Harrington said. “And he’d subbed for Sunny several times and it was natural to call on him.”

Wiancko agrees that Kronos was an influencer as he studied cello and expanded his career to composition. “I feel I owe so much to these guys who’ve made my life, the way it is, possible,” he said in an interview with San Francisco Classical Voice. (Wiancko recently moved to Cincinnati with his partner, violist Ayane Kozasa, who joined CCM’s faculty last year).

Kronos’ 50th anniversary offers an excuse to search for karma, and there’s no shortage. Fifty years after Harrington’s wife observed there were no women composers at that first concert, Kronos was named Ensemble-inResidence for Luna Composition Lab, the groundbreaking initiative mentoring female, non-binary and gender-nonconforming composers in their teens, founded by composers Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid.

Fifty for the Future is Kronos’ most ambitious and wide-ranging commissioning project, initiated to create a body of contemporary works for any string ensemble, anywhere, available as free downloads.

To date, there have been over 35,000 downloads in over 100 countries, Harrington said. “And we’ve noticed that many of these compositions are being performed more frequently.” Every Kronos program includes at least one FFF work; Cincinnati’s program features two, including “Only Ever Us” by Wiancko and “Meduswara” by Rini

Chamber Music Cincinnati requires its visiting artists to work with young musicians and Kronos will spend time with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Nouveau players and with CPS students.

When asked to reflect on Kronos’ longevity, Harrington laughed. “After our first rehearsal, I wondered if there’d be a second one! But it’s really happened slowly. It happens one piece at a time, one note at a time.”

Exuberance returns as he adds, “When you jump into a life like this, there’s no end to music. There are so many things that are not in the realm we work in. I could live to be 500 years old, and I would not run out of material.”

Kronos Quartet performs at Memorial Hall on Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. Info: cincychamber.org.

The Kronos Quartet performs in Cincinnati on Oct. 10.

PHOTO: LENNY GONZALEZ

Newport’s Falcon Theatre Flies High with its 2023-24 Season

PREVIEW BY RICK PENDER

Falcon Theatre is not located in a cultural zone. Newport’s Monmouth Street is not the “avenue of the arts” by any stretch of the imagination. The address of 636 Monmouth, where Falcon has produced five shows per season for two decades, has a notorious past. In the mid-20th century, it was La Madame’s Cocktail Lounge, one of several strip clubs in Newport, commonly called “Sin City” back then. Today, Newport is a progressive Northern Kentucky town, and Monmouth Street has few vestiges of those seedier times. Falcon Theatre has been a big factor in improving the neighborhood.

When Ted Weil and Dave Radtke launched their theatrical venture in 1989, they were miles away in the historic Westwood Town Hall, a building from 1889. With a mix of musicals and dramas, Falcon was an all-volunteer community theater for a dozen years. In the early 2000s, the city of Cincinnati decided to modernize the building’s interior. Falcon needed a new temporary venue. The family of Weil’s friend, Joy Galbraith, operated the Costume Gallery at 638 Monmouth St. in Newport and owned 636 Monmouth, used for occasional cabaret shows. Falcon became their tenant. The first show there was Gilligan’s Island in 2003.

The changes in Westwood Town Hall made a fine recreation center, but it was no longer suitable for theater productions. Falcon’s volunteer board made improvements to the Newport space, including replacing a drop ceiling with theatrical lighting and slightly expanding the seating capacity to 75.

Falcon is truly a “storefront” theater, wedged into a business district. “Having the flexibility to do something to that space, even before we bought it, made a big difference,” Weil said in a recent conversation with CityBeat. “We had joked with the Galbraiths for years about ‘Oh, we’re going to buy the building from you.’” Then one day they told him they needed to sell it soon. “We weren’t ready. We hadn’t saved any money for a down payment. Fortunately, the Galbraiths really wanted us to have it, so they were flexible and waited a little bit for us.” Falcon is now the owner, with a friendly mortgage from a Heritage Bank branch across the street.

Weil and his board have produced shows there for two decades. They voluntarily provide administrative support; actors and designers are paid a modest stipend. Programming has stepped back from edgy shows and settled into balanced seasons of offerings — typically a classic, several more established works

and maybe a premiere or two. “It’s turned into a very comfortable niche,” he says. “People recognize the kind of stuff we do and say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a Falcon show.’”

Falcon has also established outreach programs. An engagement with the Campbell County Library nine years ago for a reading of Soldier, Come Home, a play using family correspondence from the Civil War, began a regular engagement. Now the company offers several additional readings under the heading of “Falcon Takes Flight.” More recently, HIVoices® was developed with the Northern Kentucky Health Department, based on interviews with people living with HIV that became monologues; it might be developed into a full-fledged theater piece. Future plans include a workshop program, “Falcon Play Incubator,” to cultivate new scripts. The theater is also a rentable venue for everything from magic shows to occasional musical acts.

Falcon’s 2023-2024 season features five shows, eight performances across three weeks. Up first is the regional premiere of Home, I’m Darling by British playwright Laura Wade (Sept. 29-Oct. 14). Weil said choosing it was a no-brainer. “It’s so new and fresh, an interesting look at gender roles and what if we lived like the 1950s.” The characters discover how hard it is to turn back the clock to a simpler time. Their choices make them question everything from sex to careers to their relationships. Becca Howell will direct. An Olivier Award winner in London in 2019, the show has scarcely been produced in the U.S.

Next is another regional premiere, Two Point OH by Jeffrey Jackson (Nov. 17-Dec. 2), a show that vacillates between sci-fi and today’s news. A pioneering software mogul dies, and his

virtual simulation begins to meet with his business partners and his widow. “It reads like an episode of Black Mirror,” Weil said. The current attention to artificial intelligence (AI) makes this the perfect time to do this show.

2024 kicks off with Vincent (Jan. 26Feb. 10, 2024), a one-man show about the famously tormented painter Vincent Van Gogh. It was developed and first performed in 2017 by late actor Leonard Nimoy. Vincent’s brother Theo talks about Van Gogh’s early obsession with religion, salvation and love. His paintings and drawings are used to portray him. The production will be staged by David Derringer, theater director at Milford High School.

Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore (March 15-30, 2024) is about Alan Turing, the mathematician who cracked the secret Nazi code during World War II, saving countless lives from German U-boats. The 1986 play is an insightful

portrait of the brilliant mathematician and the persecution he endured in the 1940s when homosexuality was a crime. Veteran local director Ed Cohen will stage this one.

The season’s final production will be Sharr White’s The Other Place (May 3-18, 2024), a show that premiered locally at Ensemble Theatre back in 2015. It’s an account of a scientist who has researched and promoted a drug to treat dementia. She finds herself in the early stages of the disease when her lectures begin to veer further and further from reality. Another Falcon regular, Piper Davis, will direct the show, which Weil called “beautifully powerful and poignant.”

Falcon Theatre lives up to its motto: “Intimate theater. Inspiring performances.”

Falcon Theatre’s 2023-24 season runs from now through May 18, 2024. Info: falcontheater.net.

Falcon Theatre’s 2023-24 season started on Sept. 29 with Home, I’m Darling

PHOTO: RICK PENDER

Ted Well and Dave Radtke launched Falcon Theatre in 1989.

PHOTO: RICK PENDER

FOOD & DRINK

Haute Cuisine

The addition of sushi restaurant Baru further elevates Downtown’s dining scene.

REVIEW BY PAMA MITCHELL

Over the past several months, my appreciation for Japanese cuisine has grown exponentially thanks to a few remarkable additions to Cincinnati’s dining scene. College Hill’s Kiki and East Walnut Hill’s Café Mochiko aren’t all that new, but I admittedly was slow to make my way to try them.

Considering how much I love seafood and vegetables, it’s a head-scratcher that I’m just getting around to appreciating how wonderful Japanese food can be. Thanks to its proximity to my Clifton home, Kiki has become my fairly regular haunt. And it’s open on Sunday.

There probably are dozens of places in Greater Cincinnati to sample sushi, but restaurants that also offer an array of Japanese dishes are not as plentiful. That’s why I was intrigued to sample the downtown restaurant Baru, which opened a few months ago in a prime location.

Baru occupies a large, high-ceilinged corner of the same building as Mita’s — Jose Salazar’s flagship, James Beard Award nominee standout — and Maplewood Kitchen, home of perhaps the best brunch in town, as well as the splashy karaoke bar, Tokyo Kitty. Baru features a lot of visual and aural details that will stimulate your senses while you dine. In fact, I alternate between admiring the drama of the place and feeling dwarfed and a bit intimidated by the vast, almost cavernous space. My dining companions and I agree, though, that the clever design of the room’s light fixtures, which slide up and down on slender poles, is mesmerizing.

A pre-opening press release announced that Baru would feature an “elevated sushi concept” modeled after a type of Japanese establishment called izakaya. The rough translation into English suggests a casual bar that also serves snacks, and I can see how that applies to what Baru owner Tyler Wogenstahl seems to be shooting for. There’s a clear

emphasis on specialty cocktails, a deep dive into sake, and a handful of inventive, shareable small plates that invite patrons to linger. If you can make it for happy hour (Monday-Friday, 4-6 p.m.), you’ll find good discounts on cocktails, beer, wine and sake. Cocktails with unusual ingredients, such as a wasabi margarita or a Japanese whiskey highball, beckon the adventurous — but the list also features familiar libations like daiquiris and old fashioneds.

I’ve never paid a great deal of attention to sushi. Not because I dislike it, but I just don’t appreciate its nuances. So many sushi preparations are

indistinguishable from the next sushi bar around the corner. And for the most part, I prefer hot food to cold dishes, except perhaps in the heat of summer. Dining at Baru, therefore, I have to defer to my companions in assessing the sushi, while my focus inevitably is on the other dishes. Luckily, the menu offers plenty of enticements in addition to the ten maki rolls and almost as many nigiri compositions. But sushi aficionados should be well served by the skill of Sammy Kim, Baru’s head sushi chef. Two of my companions tried some of the sushi, including one friend who made sushi most of his meal. The regular

menu offers rolls with shrimp, tuna, king crab, yellowtail or escolar, often in combination. Two special sushi bar additions one evening were Waloo Fire Crunch (escolar and chili crunch) and Messi Roll (shrimp, asparagus, avocado, tuna and spicy eel sauce). One of the rolls and one of the nigiri featured wagyu beef. The roll, dubbed Land and Sea, is chock full of delicious ingredients including lobster, asparagus, beef and truffle aioli. It’s pricey, though, as is the roll they call Rodeo Drive, which has king crab and caviar among its fillings. For significantly fewer dollars, the Trifecta roll is a knockout, filled with bits

Baru opened earlier this year in a prime location downtown.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF BARU

Baru features a lot of visual and aural details meant to stimulate your senses while you eat.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF BARU

of three different fish and garnished with colorful soy pearls.

The small plates menu section tends toward items enhanced with well-balanced spicy and/or sweet-spicy ingredients. Steamed edamame pods wake up your taste buds with togarashi sauce, while the crispy brussels sprouts feature a sweet chili coating, and serrano chili wakes up the crispy rice spicy tuna. That spicy tuna tartare with smoked soy, seared rice and the serrano was the standout among the small plates we tried. There’s also wagyu tartare and an iceberg wedge salad, along with Hamachi jalapeño, which I will put on my list to try on a subsequent visit.

Of greater interest to me are the hot dishes at the bottom of the menu, which is where head chef Robert Grace hit my culinary sweet spot. Even something as uncomplicated as chicken fried rice hits all the right notes, the rice tender but with bits of crunch, the seasoning moderately spicy. It’s comfort food, pure and simple. Seared salmon has a sweet, umami-laden miso sauce and comes with sticky rice and greens with a peppery ginger sauce. Chilled soba noodles accompany seared scallops dressed with sweet maple soy. There’s also ishiyaki (stone-cooked) salmon, tuna or wagyu, and sides that include coconut rice and panko asparagus.

There’s not much for dessert here, but we wanted to try what they do have. Yuzu tart, with cream cheese, miso caramel and white chocolate pearls, could do with a little more sugar in the recipe, but otherwise makes a light, tasty ending to a meal. Or you can go for mochi ice cream, available in at least three flavors.

A lot of talent and a significant financial investment went into getting Baru up and running. There’s nothing else like it downtown and the location

couldn’t be better. I always thought the best block of downtown was right around the Aronoff Center on Walnut Street, where you almost feel like you’re in a bigger city. With the addition of Baru, their block of Race Street could give the Aronoff area a run for its money.

Baru, 595 Race St., Downtown. Info: barusushi.com.

The restaurant is an “elevated sushi concept” modeled after a type of Japanese establishment called izakaya.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF BARU

Alive & Well Bar Hopes to Be Friendly Neighborhood Watering Hole in Clifton’s Gaslight District

BY HAYLEY GARR

The Gaslight District in Clifton is a hot spot for nightlife in Cincinnati. Ludlow Avenue, the main street within the Gaslight District, includes many bars, restaurants and even the Ludlow Garage venue. These attractions pull many people to browse around Ludlow and surrounding streets during a night out on the town. At the beginning of August, a new bar, Alive & Well, opened just around the corner on Telford Street.

Alive & Well was conceptualized by Hickory Wald, a hospitality group that operates many bars across Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, including Nation Kitchen & Bar, Rhinehaus and others. Andrew Salzbrun worked with Jack Weston and Aaron Kohlhelpp of Hickory Wald to establish and open Alive & Well. The goal was to continue establishing hospitality venues in the area, while placing one in a location that was close to Salzbrun’s heart.

“We’re looking to continue to grow our portfolio of hospitality venues consistently, but this one was really special, because I actually grew up going to grade school down the street from Alive & Well,” explained Salzbrun. “After basketball practice, after school, we would walk up to Ludlow and skateboard to get donuts at Graeter’s and wait for the bus right in front of the building, so I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the building from a nostalgic standpoint.”

Salzbrun and his partners went into their venture for Alive & Well with the goal of bringing a quality drinking establishment to the Gaslight District. “We wanted to create something that residents that live in the neighborhood can be excited to go to, but also so people that are visiting the the Gaslight District for a date night at the Esquire, or show at the Ludlow Garage, can have someplace to convene before and after an event like that,” he said.

The space features a darker ambiance with a variety of seating arrangements. Surrounded by wood fixtures full of a range of vinyls, patrons can choose a seat at the bar, on a couch or at one of the many high and low-top tables. With dim lighting and abstract artwork, Alive & Well provides a diverse and edgy take on the trendy bar scene.

Aside from the alternative indoor theme, Alive & Well also boasts a huge patio with a wider selection of seating options. “We are the only establishment in the Gaslight District that has an outdoor street level parklet patio, and it’s a fairly significant one, so we have a lot

of street frontage,” explained Salzbrun.

“But from an offering standpoint, just the interior design and the finishes are two steps above anything else that’s offered in the Gaslight District.”

The menu began with just spirits and wines, but the bar has now added a draft beer list, along with a small bites menu. Cocktails featured on the menu are meant to be familiar, and not too overwhelming to recreate. Salzbrun pointed out that the goal of their drinks is to want more than one, not to make every single drink an elaborate experience. The cocktail list includes familiar favorites such as an old fashioned, a house margarita and Mai Tai, along with Alive & Well originals such as the Thunderbird, Gin Fizz and Two to Tango.

“We did a big workshop amongst some of our key leaders in the organization upon developing what the cocktail menu was going to be,” said Salzbrun.

“We wanted this to be a menu that had some familiarity, but also had some really fresh takes that you couldn’t get anywhere else in the district, but also for it to be approachable. We’re not trying to be a Sundry and Vice-style cocktail bar, where it’s super over the top with smoke and garnish and like a science experiment.”

The small bites menu includes items such as olives, charcuterie, truffle popcorn and salami florets. Soon, Alive & Well is adding seasonal menus, including fall cocktails and holiday specials. They will even be selling Christmas trees on the patio during the holiday

season, and decoration packages for the trees. The bar is also hosting themed events on certain nights, such as ping pong on the patio on Mondays, vinyl listening on Tuesdays in partnership with Torn Light Records, and a running club on Wednesdays.

Salzbrun vocalized the need for community gathering at the establishment, and the wide amount of opportunity that exists for this in Clifton’s Gaslight District.

“It’s getting a chance to meet neighbors that I wouldn’t have otherwise in our community,” Salzbrun said. “It’s developing some nice relationships close into a very transient community due to the universities that are nearby,

and the hospital systems, which is great. We felt like this was a place that would allow us to develop some longer-term relationships with the people that live around us.”

The University of Cincinnati is just around the corner, with many surrounding Clifton neighborhoods as well. Community engagement is likely, and Salzbrun recognizes that as a citizen of Clifton himself.

Overall, the newly established bar, Alive & Well, hopes to be just what Clifton needs for some edge, casual drinks and a fun night out.

Alive & Well, 3410 Telford St., Clifton. Info: aliveandwellbar.com.

Alive & Well is the newest bar located on the main drag of Clifton’s Gaslight District.

PHOTO: PHIL ARMSTRONG/PROVIDED BY HICKORY WALD HOSPITALITY GROUP

Alive & Well features plenty of outdoor seating.

PHOTO BY PHIL ARMSTRONG/PROVIDED BY HICKORY WALD HOSPITALITY GROUP

MUSIC

The End of the Road

KISS co-founder Paul Stanley discusses the band’s unique path to international fame ahead of their (potentially) last show in Cincinnati.

BY BRENT STROUD

In the early ‘70s, an era of hippie holdovers, soft rock and toughlooking bands, four guys from New York City in seven-inch black and silver heels stepped through a fog-filled stage under the glow of spotlights with larger-than-life charisma. Their sound exploded with pure rock and roll power, with bombs going off behind them like a literal and figurative Big Bang.

Their era-defining look and sound took over rock and roll and pop culture and forever changed music history and millions of lives along the way.

In 1973, KISS was formed when New York musicians Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons left their band Wicked Lester sensing the need for a change, and set off alone following their instincts and ambitions. The new band was cemented shortly after with the addition of drummer Peter Criss and lead guitar player Ace Frehley.

Change was in the air, but KISS took

it to another level and in a different direction. KISS existed simultaneously in and outside of the burgeoning New York City scene when bands like the proto-punk androgynous New York Dolls were at the center of the city’s burgeoning punk scene.

“I think from the very beginning, we realized we were special, in that we weren’t like everyone else,” Stanley told CityBeat. “When Gene and I did finally see the Dolls, for example, live, they had tremendous charisma and a tremendous look but we both realized that we were kidding ourselves if we thought we could compete with these guys whose waists were as big as my wrist. They flaunted an androgyny that we couldn’t. We looked more like linebackers in women’s clothes.”

Between early performances, they holed up in their loft rehearsal space on 10 East 23rd Street in New York City to explore and build on what would become KISS. “While other people

were hanging out at Max’s Kansas City or the Mercer Arts Center, we were rehearsing.” Stanley said. “I think those bands wanted to be the biggest band in New York. We wanted to be the biggest band in the world.”

It was in this period that the band built what Stanley describes as a “firm foundation” that they would only add to. First, bringing a mirror up to experiment with makeup, creating their nowiconic image, and later, the stage show that would help change the concert industry. Something Stanley explains “had nothing to do with lasers” and effects but was about “projecting something” and amplifying the power of what was already there. “Everything that we added was not to replace something, but to enhance it. So that’s why to this day we can go and play, and we have without anything and it’s just as potent because, ultimately, a crap band with a big show is still a crappy band.”

After signing to Casablanca Records in November 1973, the band had a slow commercial start but growing success live. They found their first breakthrough with their fourth record, 1975’s Alive, a live album with the hit single “Rock and Roll All Nite,” a song off the Dressed to Kill album.

The band found further success with the monumental Destroyer in 1976, displaying massive, cinematic production from producer Bob Ezrin and the band. They operated at new heights with singles like “Detroit Rock City,” “Shout It Out Loud” and the 1977 People’s Choice Award winners, “Beth.”

At this point, in the mid-to-late ‘70s, the band saw success that can be likened to Beatlemania the decade before, even breaking the Beatles’ sales record while performing at Japan’s Budokan arena in 1977. Their records went Gold, then Platinum, then Double Platinum. They were voted the most popular band in America in

KISS

PHOTO: CASABLANCA RECORDS, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

a 1977 Gallup poll and featured on magazine covers, in Marvel comics, a made-for-TV movie in 1978 and a slew of merchandising including trading cards, dolls and a pinball machine among countless other now soughtafter treasures of KISStory.

After a period of major success and some decadence, the band fractured with Criss leaving in 1980 replaced by Eric Carr and Frehley in 1982 replaced by Vinnie Vincent, who both received their own makeup designs.

The band made a move forward in 1983, taking the makeup off for the first time in a MTV appearance that coincided with the release of their new record, Lick It Up, the cover of which featured the band standing prominently without makeup over a white background.

“Due to the fact that the band was about more than just makeup, we needed, at that point, to take it off because it had not only lost its impact but we had also diluted it by coming up with new characters as opposed to building on what we had started,” Stanley said.

Ditching the makeup and costumes, KISS joined the next class of rock and rollers, many of whom they influenced, and a new era was born.

Vincent was replaced by Mark St. John briefly before Bruce Kulick joined to solidify the lineup for the rest of the 1980s. The band showed their staying power throughout the ‘80s, receiving major airplay on MTV and releasing hit albums and singles.

After the unexpected death of Carr in 1991 due to cancer, Eric Singer joined the group. With another change in the air, they recorded the grittier, harder edged Revenge — a record that brought the band into yet another era and a return to form. After a brief reunion for a segment of the band’s 1995 MTV Unplugged special, they decided to reunite the original lineup and bring back their stage makeup and costumes.

“Certainly, nothing can compete as far as the magnitude of the KISS image in makeup and full regalia, but it still was an important time for us and we had Platinum albums and then reached a point where we felt it was time to revisit and recharge the classic KISS batteries,” Stanley said.

The band shocked the world when they announced their reunion at the 1996 Grammy Awards introduced by Tupac Shakur. The “Alive/Worldwide Tour” was the biggest tour of that year and they played to sold-out audiences all over the world. Released in 1998, Psycho Circus would be the band’s highest-charting album to that point and was followed by another successful tour and the theatrical release of the 1999 teen comedy built around

the band, Detroit Rock City. However, issues eventually formed within the band once again.

The “Farewell Tour” began in 2000. “We decided to call it quits, which was interesting, because it was contradictory to everything we stood for, in that the band is bigger than any member and yet there we were miserable enough to say ‘let’s put the horse down, lets shoot the horse’ and it wasn’t until a little while later that fans were saying, ‘when are you going to go on tour?’” Stanley said.

The band continued on once again without Frehley and Criss, bringing back Singer on drums and longtime associate Tommy Thayer on lead guitar. This time, in Criss and Frehley’s image as the Catman and Spaceman.

KISS toured regularly over the next decade, releasing the popular Sonic Boom in 2009 — 35 years after their first release. It was another return to form, recorded on analog tape and produced by Stanley. The release was followed by fanfare in KISS style and a world tour.

They released another album, Monster, in 2012, and made their first appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2014 when the original members were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that same year.

In October 2018, the band announced its next tour would be its last.

On the “End of the Road World Tour,” Stanley tells CityBeat: “The band has never been better, the show has never been better and that’s a perfect reason now to pull the plug … With that in mind, it’s the biggest show we’ve ever done and the most complete and comprehensive in terms of covering different periods and we couldn’t be more proud and audiences have proved it.”

The “End of the Road Tour” kicked off in early 2019 but was delayed for a time as things came to a stop during the pandemic. There is now just one leg of the tour left that starts here in Cincinnati before the band ends things where they all began — in New York City — with a two-night set at Madison Square Garden in December.

“What a great way to end back in New York,” Stanley said. “There was a time I drove a cab (his job pre-fame) to Madison Square Garden to see Elvis Presley. I always believed, even at that point, it wouldn’t be too long before people came to see us, and they did. Here we are back there again and it’ll be an amazing way to thank everyone who’s there and for all of us to have a glorious last hurrah.”

KISS performs at the Heritage Bank Center on Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m. Info: heritagebankcenter.com.

SOUND ADVICE

JULIANA HATFIELD

Oct. 11 • Woodward Theater

If you were attuned to the airwaves in the ’90s, you were probably aware of alt-rock singer-songwriter and Bostonian Juliana Hatfield. In 1993, she formed the Juliana Hatfield Three with Todd Philips and Dean Fisher. Her song “My Sister” became a hit. On the memorable tune, her lilting vocals sang: “I hate my sister/she’s such a bitch.” (She doesn’t have a sister). In 1994 she supplied the song “Spin the Bottle” to the Reality Bites soundtrack; it also appeared on the Three’s 1993 debut studio album Become What You Are

After going solo with 1992’s Hey Babe, Hatfield performed with the Lemonheads and Blake Babies. In 1987, the Blake Babies released Nicely, Nicely. In 2001, she formed Some Girls with Heidi Gluck and Freda Love Smith, and they came out with two albums. In 2015 she reconvened the Three with the album Whatever, My Love, their first new record in 22 years.

Ever the collaborator, she’s played with luminaries the Lemonheads — most recently on their 30th anniversary tour — and formed a group with the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg. However, it’s her undying love for covers that gets her attention these days. She’s covered everyone from Elliot Smith to Electric Light Orchestra. In 2019, she released a cover of the Police songs called Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police

On the record, she sings their bestknown songs like “Roxanne” and “Every Breath You Take.” The year before, she dug into Olivia Newton-John’s discography and recorded Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John, giving songs “Physical” and “Xanadu” the rock treatment. In 2023, she released another album in her covers series: Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO. Hatfield continues to surprise fans with new releases. What will she cover next?

Juliana Hatfield plays the Woodward Theater on Oct. 11 at 8 p.m. Info: woodwardtheater.com. (Garin Pirnia)

MOL SULLIVAN

Oct. 13 • Hoffner Park

An expertly and lovingly crafted set of superb songs is what local singer-songwriter Mol Sullivan will bring to Hoffner Park in Northside on Friday, Oct. 13. In every performance, armed with a yellow Fender Telecaster and Nord Electro, the Cincinnati-based musician coats her listeners in a musical emulsion of

all that is Sullivan, feeding her growing audience a full range of emotions.

Sullivan began her musical journey in middle school, taking guitar lessons, then at age 17, began writing original material. Her early performing opportunities were singing in choirs and some musical theater. But later, it was singing harmonies in her church youth group worship band that Sullivan credits as being the most beneficial in developing her sense of comfort and familiarity in being on stage. Since then, through her many appearances, from her first live show in the parking lot of a hardware store in Oakley, to touring around the United States, Sullivan now takes the stage with the ease and confidence of a seasoned performer.

As a child, Sullivan listened mostly to ‘90s hitmakers like Sheryl Crow and Lisa Loeb, then in her teens, artists like Sufjan Stevens and Broken Social Scene. When it comes to influences though, it’s Sullivan’s relationships and personal life experiences, like getting sober, that act as her writing weathervanes. “Since quitting drinking, I’ve taken a more inquisitive ear, challenging myself to dig deeper,” Sullivan told CityBeat

Sullivan’s first full length album, Goose, produced by Sima Cunningham, is set to release in early 2024, with the first single “Eggshells,” accompanied

by an incredible music video, to be released Oct. 10.

Mol Sullivan plays Hoffner Park on Oct. 13 at 6 p.m. Info: facebook.com/ molsullivanmusic. (Eric Bates)

THE CHURCH

Oct. 13 • Madison Theater

Far away from America, in 1980, The Church formed in Sydney, Australia. New wave music was popular all over the world, and the group capitalized on it with their debut record, 1981’s Of Skin

and Heart. The song “The Unguarded Moment” — more pop than new wave — became a chart-topping hit in their native country. Based on the song’s success, the major labels called. However, their U.S. label dropped them after their sophomore record failed to meet the success of their debut.

The Church are one of those bands that should be more popular in the U.S. than they are. But in 1988, “Under the Milky Way,” from their fifth album Starfish, became a hit on college radio stations and landed them more notoriety

Juliana Hatfield

PHOTO: RAPH PH, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Mol Sullivan

PHOTO: JACOB HAND

in the States; it peaked at No. 24 on the Hot 100 chart. It’s difficult to describe the sound of that song. It’s dreamy, provocative, otherworldly and evokes strong emotions with the lyrics: “Wish I knew what you were looking for.” It’s a departure from other rock-pop songs of that era because the ending features

an EBow and a synth. At times it sounds like bagpipes. In 2001, the song was featured in Donnie Darko and helped a new generation discover the band’s rarefied gifts.

Vocalist and bassist Steve Kilbey is the only founding member still a part of the group. Throughout the years,

the band has seen a rotating lineup of 10 different members. Despite the fact their most revered song was released 35 years ago, the band continued to record new material throughout the ’90s, and aughts, and in 2023. Their latest, 2023’s The Hypnogogue, is a psychedelic concept album. Some fans have called it a “masterpiece,” which demonstrates decades later, how The Church are able to mesmerize like they did early in their career.

The Church plays Madison Theater on Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. Info: madisontheater.com. (GP)

MEN I TRUST

Oct. 18 • Andrew J Brady Music Center Montreal band Men I Trust has been building dreamy, jazzy, avant-pop soundscapes since 2014. Founded by two high school friends studying music at Université Laval, their first releases, Men I Trust and Headroom, featured a rotating roster of Québécois singers. By the time the band released their third studio album, Oncle Jazz, singer Emmanuelle Proulx had become their full-time vocalist.

To their 2019 release, Proulx adds breathy, soft vocals to groovy bass

riffs and smooth, cruising arrangements. Their next studio album, 2021’s Untourable Album, follows suit with more dreamy textures and smooth pop tracks akin to Mac Demarco.

Since then, Men I Trust has released a string of stand-out singles, some of which venture into more upbeat territory. “Billie Toppy,” which came out in 2022, is driven by rhythmic guitar and bass, and a vocal melody that floats along like a summer drive. Their latest release, “Ring of Past,” features groovy bass and a singing synth line. An accompanying roller rink music video amplifies the song’s late disco vibes.

This fall, Men I Trust will head out on tour with Montreal peers TOPS. Their first date will be in Cincinnati at the Andrew J Brady Music Center.

According to an interview with Miami New Times this summer, Men I Trust have plans to record after the tour.

“We are super thrilled to embark on a new album journey together right after our big U.S. tour this fall,” Proulx told Miami New Times. “We have really good songs on the way.”

Men I Trust and TOPS play Andrew J Brady Music Center on Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. Info: bradymusiccenter.com. (Katrina Eresman)

Men I Trust

PHOTO: JUSTIN HIGUCHI, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Steve Kilbey of The Church

PHOTO: STUART SEVASTOS, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

CROSSWORD

Across

1.  Mini split meas.

THE STROKES

BY BRENDAN EMMETT QUIGLEY WWW.BRENDANEMMETTQUIGLEY.COM

4.  Restaurant that serves shareable plates

11.  Aware of the latest social justice problems

15.  Vivek and Donald’s competitor

16.  Do

17.  Logan’s brother on “Succession”

18.  Gary’s st.

19.  Add Altoids?

21.  Just made it, with “by”

23.  Boxer who said “you lose nothing when fighting for a cause”

24.  To the point

25.  Actress Mia spotted on the street?

29.  Indie rocker Dupuis

30.  “Wish Tree” conceptual artist

34.  Was familiar with

36.  Dandy dude

38.  One with tastes outside the mainstream

39.  LQTM, only much bigger

40.  Shuffle around the extras?

44.  Fun run freebie

45.  Bitly shrinks them

47.  Filipino American History Mo.

48.  Very much so

50.  Unnamed man

53.  Ecological community

54.  Person no longer into being a hawk?

59.  Knighted conductor George

61.  Words that come with a certain ring?

62.  Actor LaBeouf

63.  Idiots age?

67.  Shocked internet initialism

68.  Enjoy a staycation

69.  “Unh-unh, it’s bad”

70.  Grazing ground

71.  Untaken

72.  Welsh port city where Dylan Thomas was born

73.  They get their stories straight: Abbr.

3.  Doesn’t make the case enough

4.  Arm band?

5.  German cry

6.  “Wheel” category

7.  Fish burrito topping

8.  Cover with fake locks

9.  Flying pref. 10.  Have, as a tenant

Children’s author DiCamillo

36.  Broadcast regulator

37.  Table scrap

43.

46.  Fruity German bread

51.  Tinnitus docs

2.  Big name in trucks

57.  Pointed (toward)

60.  Flow like sludge

63.  Rapper ___ Milli

64.  Have a stroke?, or what has been added to this puzzle’s theme answers

65.  Spike in film production

66.  “___ know what I’m sayin’?

LAST PUZZLE’S ANSWERS:

Bertha G. Helmick

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