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NEWS

The Hamilton County Board of Elections building P H O T O : FA C E B O O K . C O M / H A M I LT O N C O U N T Y B O A R D O F E L E C T I O N S

What to Know for the Nov. 2 General Election Here are the candidates and issues on the ballot in Hamilton County BY M EGA N H A D L E Y A N D A L L I S O N BA B K A

amilton County’s 2021 general election is shaping up to be a doozy and will effectively change the city of Cincinnati’s entire leadership. Voters will decide who will launch the city’s next era as mayor while also filling nine Cincinnati City Council spots from among 35 candidates. Here’s what to look forward to

at the polls within the city on Nov. 2. All candidates, issues and voting information can be found on the Hamilton County Board of Elections website at votehamiltoncountyohio.gov.

MAYOR There is no incumbent candidate on the ballot, as current Cincinnati Mayor

John Cranley, a Democrat, is nearing the end of his second and final term. He now is campaigning to become Ohio’s governor in 2022, joining current Governor Mike DeWine, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and others in the ring. Instead, this year’s mayoral race is between two current government servants — Aftab Pureval and David Mann — both of whom are Democrats. This will be Cincinnati’s first new mayor in eight years. Pureval is Hamilton County’s current clerk of courts. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Ohio State University and a juris doctorate from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He was an associate with the international law firm White & Case for several years. Pureval spent a year as a special assistant United States attorney and then became counsel for global

beauty care at Procter & Gamble. Pureval has served as clerk of courts since 2017. He was the top vote-getter during Cincinnati’s mayoral primary in May, earning 39% of the vote. Pureval’s opponent, Mann, is currently on Cincinnati City Council. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in biochemical sciences followed by a legum baccalaureus (a precursor to today’s juris doctorate) from Harvard Law School. Mann served in the United States Navy, won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and has had several long stints on city council. Mann had previously served for three years as Cincinnati’s mayor and owns a local law firm with his son. During May’s primary, Mann earned 29% of

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the vote. As part of the race for mayor, Pureval and Mann have appeared together in a variety of debates and town halls, including those hosted by media outlets, universities, neighborhood groups and industry groups. Learn about Pureval’s platform at aftabformayor.com and Mann’s platform at mannforcincinnati.com.

CINCINNATI CITY COUNCIL The 2021 race for Cincinnati City Council is one of the largest in the city’s history, with 35 candidates running for nine seats at two-year terms. The Nov. 2 election is nonpartisan and the ballot will not show party affiliations, though candidates may have them. The full list of candidates, in alphabetical order, includes: Jalen Alford (D) Tom Brinkman (R) Jaime Castle (D) LaKeisha Cook (D) Jeff Cramerding (D) Michelle Dillingham (D) Kevin Flynn (D) Jackie Frondorf (D) Bill Frost (D) Brian Garry (D) Steve Goodin (R) Galen Gordon (D) Kurt Grossman (D) Reggie Harris (D)

CPS BOARD OF EDUCATION

Rob Harris (D) K.A. Heard (I)

Six candidates are running for four seats on the Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) Board of Education: Pamela Bowers, Brandon Craig, Gary Favors, Kareen Moffett, Mike Moroski and Mary Wineberg. Bowers, who assumed office in 2019, is running for another term, along with Moroski, who has been on board since 2018. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shaped the candidates’ focus, particularly the option for students to remain in school or return to remote learning if COVID-19 cases were to significantly rise again. In a recent interview with WVXU-FM, most of the candidates claimed they were against returning to remote learning. In September, CPS became the first major school district in Ohio to require a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment (employees may apply for exemptions based on medical or sincerely held religious reasons).

Evan C. Holt (D) Nick Jabin (D) Mark Jeffreys (D) Scotty Johnson (D) Liz Keating (R) Andrew Kennedy (I) Greg Landsman (D) Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney (D) John Maher (D) Peterson Mingo (D) Phillip O’Neal (I) Meeka Owens (D) Victoria Parks (D) Te’Airea Powell (D) Logan-Peter C. Simmering (I) Stacey Smith (I) Betsy Sundermann (R) Jim Tarbell (D)

ISSUES

John J. Williams (D)

The candidates largely are new to city council politics, but many have become known in local activist, political or business circles. Additionally, there is one elected incumbent candidate as

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well as four appointed incumbents on the ballot. Greg Landsman is the elected incumbent. He assumed office in January 2018 and is known for passing 2019’s eviction-prevention program, which aimed to help tenants who fell behind on rent. The four appointed incumbent candidates include Steve Goodin, Liz Keating, Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney and Betsy Sundermann. Goodin, who served as assistant Hamilton County prosecutor for five years, was appointed to Cincinnati City Council in 2020. Goodin took the place of Jeff Pastor, who was arrested on corruption charges. Kearney was appointed to Cincinnati City Council in 2020 after Tamaya Dennard was arrested on corruption charges and later resigned. The Cincinnati Herald publisher has taken an interest in gun issues, including questioning the Cincinnati Police Department’s gun range in Evendale. Keating was appointed in 2020 to replace P.G. Sittenfeld, who was arrested on bribery charges. Earlier this year, Keating proposed a Cincinnati charter amendment in which the mayor and council members would need to resign in order to run for another salaried, elected office. Sunderman, a lawyer and former Hamilton County prosecutor, was appointed to the Council in 2020 after previous member Amy Murray accepted a job working for former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. She is known for her work on anticorruption matters.

In Cincinnati, voters will decide several issues at both the city and county levels. Issue 3 is a proposed Cincinnati city charter amendment of anti-corruption measures, designed to rein in the activities that caused many corruption and

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bribery scandals in recent years. State Representative and city council candidate Tom Brinkman wrote the amendment and gathered signatures for it to appear on November’s ballot. But when the city printed the ballots, a word was changed from the initial language. Brinkman’s draft said “to establish the compensation for members of Council to the amount equal to the median household income for the City of Cincinnati and adjust that compensation annually,” while the city’s version changed “household” to “family,” changing the potential median salary. City solicitor Andrew Garth has claimed the change was a human error, while Brinkman has wondered if it was done to sabotage the issue’s chances. The city declined reprinting the ballots with the original language. Some legal experts anticipate challenges. Here is the charter amendment language that voters will see on the ballot: Shall the Charter of the City of Cincinnati be amended to require approval by Council before litigation on behalf of the City of Cincinnati or any of its officials can be filed; to establish the compensation for members of Council to the amount equal to the median family income for the City of Cincinnati and adjust that compensation annually; to require candidates for Mayor and Council to be residents of the City of Cincinnati for at least one year prior to assuming office; to eliminate the use of successor designation by members of the Council and to provide that if a member of council dies, resigns, or is removed, then the person who received the highest number of votes for election to council at the most recent municipal election but who was not declared elected to council at such election and who is not otherwise already serving or has served as a member of council since the most recent municipal election shall be the successor to hold the office for the remainder of the unexpired term of that member of council. To require the Mayor to assign legislative proposals to the appropriate committee no later than thirty days after being filed with the Clerk and to require the Mayor to put legislative proposals on the Council agenda no later than thirty days after they are reported out of Committee; to provide that the Mayor and members of Council are personally liable for violations of state law regarding open meetings or public records where the violation was to avoid or circumvent those laws or was purposeful, knowing, in bad faith, or in a wanton or reckless manner; and to provide for the removal of the Mayor as provided by state law and other processes, by amending existing Sections 3, 4, 4a, and 4b of Article II, “Legislative Power,” and amending Section 2 of Article III, “Mayor,” and enacting new Section 11 of Article IV, “Executive and Administrative Service,” and new Section 2c of Article IX, “Nominations and Elections.” In Cincinnati’s Issue 4, voters will decide if Kantam, L.L.C., doing business as Andy’s BP, can sell wine and mixed beverages between 10 a.m. and midnight on Sundays.

For Hamilton County, a tax levy for children’s services that would continue support for the care and placement of children is on the ballot. Here is the Issue 1 ballot language: A renewal of two and seventy-seven hundredths (2.77) mills and an increase of one and seventy-four hundredths (1.74) mills to constitute a tax for the benefit of Hamilton County, for the purpose of supplementing the general fund to provide support for children services and the care and placement of children at a rate not exceeding four and fifty-one hundredths (4.51) mills for each one dollar of valuation, which amounts to forty-five and one tenths cents ($0.451) for each one hundred dollars of valuation, for five (5) years, commencing in 2021, first due in calendar year 2022. For Issue 29, Great Parks of Hamilton County is requesting a 10-year levy that would support infrastructure and improvements. If passed, homeowners would pay roughly $33.25 a year per $100,000 of home valuation annually, on top of the current levy of about $30 per $100,000. That levy expires in 2026. Here is Issue 29 ballot language: An additional tax for the benefit of the Great Parks of Hamilton County for the purposes of acquisition,conservation, and protection of natural resources and park land; operation and administration of park facilities, and programs; improvements to park infrastructure, facilities and natural resources;development, maintenance, and provision of outdoor recreation and nature education facilities,trails, programs, and services in current and future parks and nature preserves owned, leased, or operated by Great Parks of Hamilton County; and for such other parks and recreational purposes at a rate not exceeding ninety-five hundredths (0.95) mill for each one dollar of valuation, which amounts to nine and one-half cents ($0.095) for each one hundred dollars of valuation, for ten (10) years,commencing in 2021, first due in calendar year 2022.

HOW TO VOTE Voter registration has closed for the Nov. 2 general election. Early voting at the Hamilton County Board of Elections office at 4700 Smith Road has begun for those who are registered to vote and continues through Nov. 1. Registered voters also may request an absentee mail-in ballot by Oct. 30. To find your in-person voting location, enter your address at votehamiltoncountyohio.gov/where-tovote. Voting is open 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. on Nov. 2. As long as you are in line by 7:30 p.m., you are allowed to vote. Voters should bring acceptable forms of identification to the polls. This includes an Ohio driver’s license or ID card, a state or federal photo ID card, or certain paychecks or utility bills. For full information on how and where to vote, visit votehamiltoncountyohio.gov.

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Ask any person what their favorite food is, and one of the top answers is likely to be “pizza.” Not only because pizza is delicious, but also because it’s ubiquitous in the American diet, has many subsects from which to choose (New Yorkstyle, Neapolitan, pizza rolls, etc.) and can please just about every diner from babies to foodies and college bros to paleo people (cauliflower-crust pizzas exist in both your grocer’s freezer and at major pizza chains). Pizza is a great equalizer. It’s round. It’s shareable. It’s a communal convenience food and one of the first innovative meals to be delivered directly to your home; before DoorDash and Grubhub, there were pizza delivery guys saving dinnertime for busy families and babysitters everywhere. This Pizza Issue is an ode to the dish as extolled by both CityBeat staffers and readers. In addition to our favorite pizza places — and our favorite dishes to eat there — we have listed the Best Pizza winners from the 2021 Best Of Cincinnati issue as chosen by readers in both “chain” and “non-chain” categories. So, like pizza itself, this publication is a communal experience. Just don’t try to eat it.

St. Francis Apizza // PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

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As University of Cincinnati alumni, my wife and I refer to a dinner date at Adriatico’s as “College Night.” Inside the pizzeria — a local stalwart for almost 40 years — my school spirit is reinvigorated by the familiar sounds of sports on the TV and the kind of buzzed frivolity only heard near a college campus. If you’ve ever been to a house party in Clifton or Corryville, then you’ve likely stood around one of this local institution’s massive 18-inch-by-24-inch “Bearcat” pizzas. Best ordered with Adriatico’s thick Sicilian crust, and topped with their patented slightly spicy sauce, one Bearcat pizza can save an entire fraternity from getting too drunk on empty stomachs (it serves 10-12 people). Adriatico’s also offers tater tots on the menu, which means my wife and I are getting tots, even if I’m the only one eating them. There are also plenty of non-pizza items, if you haven’t had a salad in a while (or a calzone, or chicken wings, or lasagna). BEST BITE: Just put some tots on the Bearcat pizza; it goes really well with Miller Lite. 113 W. McMillan Ave., Clifton adriaticosuc.com

Many of A Tavola’s recipes are torn from the pages of a family cookbook — or at least are inspired by family — and it shows in the restaurant’s rustic and comfortable Italian flavors. When I go to A Tavola, I skip over the other menu items, like pasta, and instead order pizza. It’s woodfired, classically Italian and just simple enough. Expect chewy but buoyant dough that bubbles up and crisps in the oven, leaving you those delightful puffs of charred dough to snack on while you wait for your pie to cool. Don’t expect to build your own pizza. A Tavola has nine beautifully crafted pies with flavor combos ranging from simple — Margherita, Sausage + Sage, Broccoli Rabe — to complex — Pizza Francisco (spinach, mushrooms, red onion, mozzarella, sausage, parmigiano reggiano), Pollo Toscana (chicken, roma tomato, pesto, balsamic, Maldon sea salt) and Gorgonzola (gorgonzola, fior di latte, housemade sausage, pepperoni). The pies are priced similarly to the pasta dishes, with large pies running $16-$19, and they’re perfectly splittable. BEST BITE: Each time I dine at A Tavola, I briefly consider branching out from my usual order. Then I promptly log away that foolish idea and order the Broccoli Rabe pie. It’s a perfectly balanced yet incredibly indulgent pizza. The broccoli rabe itself lends brightness and a slightly bitter taste to an otherwise rich and creamy pie. Fontina is responsible for saltiness, stracciatella accounts for the creaminess and the generous glug of EVOO is simply in good taste. A bite of red pepper flakes will have you craving gelato for dessert from the A-Tavola-owned La Grassa gelateria next door. 7022 Miami Ave., Madeira atavolapizza.com

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A Tavola // PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

Northern Kentucky’s Camporosso was founded by married couple Eric and Amy Redfield, who opened the wood-fired pizzeria in what was previously a 1920s-era gas station in Fort Mitchell. Meaning “red field” in Italian, Camporosso is laid-back yet modern. With both indoor and outdoor seating available, Camporosso is best known for its traditional Neapolitan, wood-fired pizzas. Available selections include the Margherita (crushed San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and a healthy drizzle of olive oil), the Sopressata Hot Honey (which blends the perfect sweet-savory crunch of salami and honey) and the Prosciutto and Fig (a meeting of jam, gorgonzola, arugula and crispy pork). It also slings classic American pizzas — with a chewier crust compared to the crispy Neapolitan — topped with options like All The Meat! (cup and char pepperoni, sausage, sopressata salami, applewood-smoked bacon and shredded mozzarella). If you happen to visit Camporosso when the weather’s nice, grab a seat on the porch — perfect for sipping wine or one of the specialty cocktails, like the Blackberry Whiskey Sour infused with vanilla, lemon juice and rosemary, or a seasonal mojito. Nestled in the heart of Fort Mitchell, it’s an ideal stop to get your pizza fill if you find yourself in the NKY ’burbs. If pasta’s more your thing, Camporosso has that, too. BEST BITE: The Margherita is a classic — and Camporosso knows how it’s done right. The satisfying union of warm, crushed tomatoes, creamy-yet-crispy mozzarella and fragrant basil will have eaters floating in carb heaven. Pair it with the house salad, a wonderful crunch of mixed greens, grape tomatoes and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. 2475 Dixie Highway, Fort Mitchell camporosso.com

The neon signs outside the Chameleon beckon you to enter, where affordable drinks and pizza await. The bar is a humble Northside hub where you can catch a stand-up comedy act or simply enjoy drinks with friends around a piping hot pizza straight from the kitchen. Try an 11-inch slice of classic New-York-style pizza if you don’t need an entire pie. The generously portioned individual slices are topped with either pepperoni, cheese or a veggie medley (the vegetable selection rotates based on what’s in season and recently featured mushrooms, zucchini and green peas). Cheese slices are available starting at $3, and a 19-inch pie starts at $19. Opt to add seasonings like “cooler ranch,” Cajun or garlic to your crust. The kitchen also offers wings, stromboli, fries, and chicken or tofu sandwiches topped with a bit of sweet kimchi. Need something to wash down that extra slice you indulged in? Thank goodness for Chameleon’s fully stocked bar. Takeout and delivery are available, and with pick-up hours until 1:30 a.m. most days, Chameleon makes for an easy late-night meal. BEST BITE: The “veggie of the day” pizza pie or slice uses local produce and changes based on seasonal availability, so it’s a fun game of veggie roulette every time you stop by. 4114 Hamilton Ave., Northside chameleonpizza.com

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Joe’s Pizza Napoli // PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

Quick! When you hear the word “pizza,” what do you think of? For a certain segment of the population, it’s the slice that’s frequently depicted in cartoons: triangle-shaped, heaped with toppings, strings of melted, gooey cheese dripping from it. Fireside Pizza in Walnut Hills has that quintessential version in abundance, but with much more sophistication. Inside the restored 19th-century firehouse, diners enjoy chewy, wood-fired pizzas that delight the tastebuds with locally sourced ingredients. The restaurant’s dozen or so traditional varieties like the Redlegger (pepperoni, onions and roasted red peppers) and the Greek Pie (olive oil, spinach, kalamata olives and feta) are full of robust flavor, but the revolving assortment of specialty pizzas are what makes Fireside shine. Kitchen staff have full freedom to concoct the pizzas of their dreams. This year, Fireside has featured the Cubano (Swiss cheese, smoked pork shoulder, ham, bacon, pickles and mustard), the Fireside Farmer (garlic, pickled watermelon radishes, roasted zucchini, grape tomatoes and yellow squash) and the popular Elote (chipotle crema base, roasted Ohio sweet corn, cotija cheese, cilantro, chili powder) among its limitededition pies. Diners can round out their Fireside experiences with an assortment of salads and a variety of local brews and international wines. Enjoy the meal inside the brick building or at the sidewalk picnic tables, or get it all to go. And even though fall weather is upon us now, plan ahead for next year, when Firehouse throws open the big door at the front to usher in the sunshine and fresh air. BEST BITE: With Fireside’s signature char adding an earthy quality, the White Pie is perfect for fall. It’s a simple pizza — just some olive oil, garlic and a variety of creamy cheeses, with all of it topped with fragrant rosemary — that lets the crust’s flavor come through. 773 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills firesidepizzawalnuthills.com

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Raise your hand if you, too, found yourself binging The Sopranos over quarantine. Goodfellas (yes, named after *that* Goodfellas) serves up giant slices and ’zas fit for a mob boss. This New York-style slicery is perfect for soaking up a boozy night or when you’re in need of quick-and-easy grub after a long day’s work. Goodfellas’ slice options go beyond standard cheese and pepperoni fare. Walk in on any given day and be greeted by a spread of choices, from the basics to more ambitious pies topped with various meats and veggies. With locations in Over-the-Rhine, Covington’s MainStrasse and Pleasant Ridge, this pizzeria is known for its bigger-than-your-face slices, but you can also buy whole specialty pies. Offerings include the veggieladen Wiseguy; Paulie’s Favorite, inspired by one of Tony Sopranos’ top-ranking henchmen; and The Don, which boasts pepperoni, sliced Italian sausage, ground beef, bacon, green peppers, onions, mushrooms and black olives. Or, throw caution to the wind and order the Fuggetaboutit, which has a smorgasbord of every topping available. If you do come in for the slice, though, you’d do well to make it a combo: a drink and side of your choice, including Goodfellas’ equally gigantic breadsticks covered in garlic butter, parmesan and oregano. Bring the New York vibes home by ordering a black-and-white cookie à la Seinfeld. If you want to stay awhile, you and your crew can also hang out in the Wiseguy Lounge (located above/attached to each pizzeria) for cocktails or beers. BEST BITE: Whatever’s available. Part of Goodfellas’ magic is not knowing exactly what slices it’s offering on any given day. Take a chance on whatever hand-tossed pizza calls your name. 1211 Main St., Over-the-Rhine 603 Main St., Covington 6099 Montgomery Road, Pleasant Ridge goodfellaspizzeria.com

Walk into Joe’s Pizza Napoli in Milford and your eyes are immediately drawn to the massive tiled pizza oven, which the titular Joe Nunner chose to have built in the semblance of Mount Vesuvius. The oven is a symbol of home and family, the centerpiece of the kitchen. Food is life, so the oven holds hefty symbolic significance in our metaphor-starved brains (and pizza-starved guts). Nunner was certified by Vera Pizza Napoletana, a group of Italian pizza makers who ensure anyone who claims they’re making Neapolitanstyle pizza is doing so authentically. Naples has strict guidelines for how pizza is made in its traditional style — 100% wood-fired, certain ingredients, certain procedures. Once the pie hits the table, however, the only thing that matters about Joe’s pizza is that it’s absolutely delicious. BEST BITE: If you like a spicy pizza, go for Joe’s signature Vesuvio. Calabrian chilies and prosciutto calabrese give it the fire, but the fior di latte and Parmigiano-Reggiano keeps things cool and balanced. 507 Chamber Drive, Milford joespizzanapoli.com

When Northside nightlife gets hungry, the Kitchen Factory’s pizza window is there to save the day. Every hand-tossed pie at the Kitchen Factory is made of vegan dough and pizza sauce prepared fresh in their kitchen. Wednesdays through Sundays, the dining room opens in the afternoon for dine-in and carry-out, serving up pizzas, sandwiches and salads. After 10 p.m. on weekends, the late-night window charms passersby with the smell of fresh pies, attracting bartenders leaving work and packs of hungry musicians fresh from the stage. You can order by the slice or take a whole pizza home. There are classic options like the Margherita, or adventurous pies like the Dig the Fig, made with a toasted sesame oil and maple syrup fig spread, goat cheese and fresh arugula. Vegan and gluten-free diners can rejoice in myriad choices, including a piece of vegan and gluten-free cheesecake after a Daiya mozzarellatopped pizza slice. The window also offers a handful of non-pizza menu favorites (we’re looking at you, vegan mac and cheese). BEST BITE: A post-show slice of spinach and feta with an IBC Root Beer and a cannoli for dessert. 1609 Chase Ave., Northside kitchenfactorynorthside.com

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Mikey’s Late Night Slice // PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

If you live in Silverton or North College Hill, Krimmer’s Italianette is no doubt a staple in your dining-out routine. Its thick, doughy pizzas are as close to “Detroit style” as you can get. Each pizza comes slathered in a scrumptious sauce that seems closer in consistency to tomato paste than typical thinner pizza sauces. It’s hearty, filling food that the good, hungry people in Krimmer’s neighborhoods all swear by. Need proof? There’s an apartment building near the Silverton location in which the residents almost all live on fixed incomes that would be better suited to certain “good enough” $5.99 pizzas. And yet! If you know what you’re looking for, you’ll see an Italianette delivery guy swing through multiple times a night, every night. Italianette delivers deliciousness to the fine, loyal folks who call them every. Damn. Night. BEST BITE: The Taco Pizza Deluxe is where it’s at! All the fixings of a taco but on, duh, a pizza crust. The best part? This taco pizza is available year-round. 6018 Plainfield Road, Silverton 1704 W. Galbraith Road, North College Hill Italianettepizza.com

Mikey’s Late Night Slice // PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

This pizzeria is run by very business-savvy pizzamakers who understand that a place where people tend to drink during the evening is also a place where their chances of buying a few slices of pizza are radically increased. So, looking at Mikey’s location next door to Rhinegeist’s taproom in Overthe-Rhine — and literally attached to their own Oddfellows Liquor Bar — yeah, that checks out. Mikey’s appetizers include a literal mound of charred pepperoni. And if you like pepperoni that much, then two of Mikey’s signature pizzas should interest you. Plain-Ass Pepperoni comes with a dusting of parmesan cheese, and the Spicy-Ass Pepperoni with Sriracha is topped with banana peppers and red pepper flakes. Alcohol is a depressant, but spicy food is kind of like a stimulant, so that helps to balance out the vibe, right? If you need a laugh, read through the entire menu — its language is casual, to say it sweetly. You’ll also see that Mikey’s has some worthwhile sweets, wings, vegan options and everything you could ask for in a pizza place. BEST BITE: There’s a special place in heaven for the creator of Cheezus Crust, which is a slice of American cheese melted between two face-to-face slices of whatever pizza you want. It’s absurd, it’s inspired and, best yet, it’s blasphemous (and listed under the “Sacraments” tab on the menu). 2014 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine latenightslice.com

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Have you ever walked into a restaurant and immediately felt at home? That’s the vibe at College Hill’s Red Rose Jems Pizza. I ought to know: My family eats Red Rose pizza once a week, often in-house. They know my kid’s name, how we like our pizza and my guy’s favorite beer. You’d never guess that a family from Florida could make such bomb pizza, but they do. Red Rose makes its sauce in-house, and it tastes incredibly fresh. The thin, perfectly baked crust is very occasionally stretched to uneven thickness, but that only serves as a reminder of just how human and homemade it is. Hop into the College Hill Neighbors’ Facebook group and you’ll see I’m not alone in my obsession with Red Rose. Our quiet, friendly and perfectly scrumptious local pizza place is the true star of Cincinnati pizza. BEST BITE: Listen. We’re traditionalists in this house. Start with cheesy garlic bread and go heavy-handed dipping in the homemade marinara. Then get doublepepperoni for a nice kick of spice. 5915 Hamilton Ave., College Hill redrosecollegehill.com

In true hidden gem fashion, St. Francis Apizza’s brickand-mortar location in East Hyde Park doesn’t look like anything special. It’s a clean, well-lit little kitchen and counter designed only for customers to pick up their order; no dine-in at present. Once that pizza box is open, though, things start to get great. “Apizza” distinguishes itself from a pizza with its thin-yet-airy crisp and slightly charred crust, achieved by a coal-fired oven. Review the menu and you’ll find a point of origin for nearly all the ingredients on your pie, with a special emphasis on local, ethically grown produce and meats that are sourced only a short drive from the pizzeria. If you don’t eat the crust, you don’t deserve this apizza. Note: St. Francis changed its name from Parlor Pizza Project earlier this year. BEST BITE: If you want to deeply offend a hyperbolous, opinionated pizza-purist prone to overreactions, order the signature Pineapple & Bee’s BBQ Pork Belly Burnt Ends and prove that pineapple absolutely belongs on pizza. 3392 Erie Ave., East Hyde Park saintfrancisapizza.com

St. Francis Apizza // PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

Alex Plattner, founder of St. Francis Apizza // PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

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Two Cities Pizza Co. // PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

Let’s first take a moment to appreciate this brewpub’s name. Taft’s brews the beer, then they pour it; thus the place where that all happens is called a brewpourium. Lots of folks uninterested in beer still find themselves inside a brewery thanks to Taft’s New Haven, Connecticut-style “apizza.” Baked at 1,000 degrees in a coal-fired oven, these pies are crisped to perfection. One popular signature pie that pays homage to the brewpourium’s location is the Spring Grove Apizza, with crushed tomato, mozzarella, artichoke, mushroom, red onion, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, arugula, green peppers and balsamic. Want something with a bit more animal? The Roebling Apizza is a traditional cheeseand-red-sauce pie topped with garlic, creamy scoops of ricotta, cupped pepperoni and savory sausage crumbles. BEST BITE: This is definitely a good spot if you love a simple Margherita pizza. 4831 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village taftsbeer.com

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It’s a debate that can become as heated as a brick oven: Is a New York-style slice or Chicago deep dish pie superior? But there’s a dark horse in the race when it comes to pizza preferences: Detroit style. Taglio happily slings the latter. Founded by brothers Jared and Nick Wayne (also of A Tavola) and partner Jake Goodwin, the joint is proof that it’s hip to be square. Motor City’s signature ’za is known for its rectangular shape, crispy edges and chewy interior. Taglio’s take is thick with whole milk mozzarella layered across the pan crust to yield the ultimate cheesy crunch. The flavors are divine, from the pepperoni and hot honey combo to the Greek Veggie. There are traditional round offerings, too, including a classic Bianco and a meaty, spicy Italian. Other menu items include salads, appetizers like cheesy bread and fried eggplant and a range of cocktails, beer and wine. Feel like staying in? Taglio now offers make-your-own pizza kits, which if you ask us, is perfect for a laid-back date night. BEST BITE: The Bianco with EVOO, mozzarella, ricotta, garlic, basil and Parmigano-Reggiano packs a cheesy punch that’s not to be missed. Every bite yields a cheesy terrain not yet explored. The Pepperoni + Hot Honey is a must for meat-lovers. 3531 Columbia Parkway, Columbia Tusculum 56 E. 12th St., Over-the-Rhine eattaglio.com

If you need options when dining out, look no further than Two Cities Pizza Co. in Mason, which offers both New York-style and Chicago deep dish pizzas so you don’t have to compromise. Pick from a number of aptly named pizzas like New York’s Gotham Gangster (white sauce, chicken, bacon, cheddar, scallions, barbecue sauce drizzle) and The Cabbie (mashed potato, bacon, red onion, chipotle aioli, garlic crema drizzle), or Chicago’s Wrigley Pie (mushrooms, spinach, feta, red onions, red sauce) or The Capone (pepperoni, sausage, ham, mozzarella, red sauce). If none of the flavor combos speak to you, you can create your own pie. Wait times are a testament to Two Cities’ quality, so join the waitlist online or call early when ordering takeout. It’s worth mentioning that the medium size New York-style is large, and the large is huge. BEST BITE: I have a standing order for the Classic Margherita from Two Cities. I plan ahead and call in a to-go order then plop down on the nearest curb and split the whole pie with my husband: four greasy, floppy pieces each. The chunky tomato sauce is perhaps what makes their New York-style stand out from the rest. It’s tangy and just salty enough, which complements the sweetness of the whole-milk mozz beautifully. And the almost licorice-y torn basil really seals the deal for me. Pro-tip: This pizza is just as good cold and reheats like a champ. 202 W. Main St., Mason twocitiespizza.com

From the 2021 Best Of Cincinnati Reader Picks 1. Trotta’s Pizza & Drive Thru 2. Taglio 3. Adriatico’s 4. Catch-a-Fire Pizza 5. Joe’s Pizza Napoli 6. Krimmer’s Italianette Pizza 7. Two Cities Pizza Co. 8. Fireside Pizza 9. Strong’s Brick Oven Pizzeria 10. Ramundo’s Pizzeria

From the 2021 Best Of Cincinnati Reader Picks 1. LaRosa’s Family Pizzeria 2. Dewey’s Pizza 3. Goodfellas Pizzeria

OCTOBER 27 - NOVEMBER 9, 2021

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Try the best gluten-free pizza in Cincinnati at locally owned Skally’s! Our pizza dough is made fresh daily in the Old World Bakery tradition, with housemade sauces and the freshest ingredients. We are excited for you to taste and experience the difference.

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ARTS & CULTURE

John and Lisa Trump’s camera picks up a ghostly outline (pink, in front of the green spot) next to Terror Town owner James Gregory (turquoise). P H OTO : A L L I S O N BA B K A

Real Paranormal Investigators Explore a Local Halloween Attraction, and CityBeat Tags Along The investigation had mixed results, but the experience was appropriately spooky BY A L L I S O N BA B K A

here are ghosts in Terror Town. Sure, the horror attraction in Williamsburg has its share of costumed ghouls, but those are only actors. The theme park, which formerly was home to the kid-friendly Old West

Festival and now focuses on disturbing, adult-oriented terror, sees its fair share of otherworldly visitors, especially on the trails beyond the attraction’s 1800s-themed town center. Park co-owner James Gregory says

that he has experienced unexplained phenomena at Terror Town numerous times, including during the evening before CityBeat’s recent visit. Those trails, on which Terror Town’s professional actors normally scare willing customers for more than 30 minutes per session, have a different vibe after the theatrics end. When Gregory and a handful of co-workers explored the area, they heard curious noises, felt tugs on their clothing and were nearly pelted with gravel several times. Gravel. In the middle of a rural field with no buildings, roads or driveways nearby. Understandably concerning. That’s just one of the reasons Gregory asked PINK: Paranormal Investigators of Northern Kentucky to explore the grounds again on a chilly October evening. PINK investigators and husbandand-wife duo John and Lisa Trump — who previously worked in engineering

and healthcare, respectively — had picked up some interesting activity at the attraction during their previous visit in August. They experienced spirits watching them from the rafters and sitting in Victorian-style chairs near a Ouija board in Terror Town’s museum of occult oddities, and voices within the vault of old, creepy dolls. Now they’re looking for more. The moon is nearly full as the Trumps return from the trails to the center of “town.” Their assortment of cameras and activity meters didn’t pick up anything unusual out there, they tell Gregory, but they’re eager to explore Terror Town’s Bravado, the “city center” that serves as a hub of bars, shops and activities for attraction visitors during business hours. But now, at 10 p.m. on a Sunday, Bravado is quiet and unsettling. The Trumps unpack their gear on a picnic table at the far end of Bravado and explain that most spirits are simply looking to communicate and connect

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In Terror Town’s museum of oddities, owner James Gregory sits in the chair where PINK had previously seen spirits. P H OTO : A L L I S O N BA B K A

FROM PAGE 25

with humans rather than scare them. The ghosts may have lived or worked in that location or may be attached to a person or object there, the investigators say. PINK frequently is called upon to ask the spirits about what they’re looking for and help them move on. In darker cases, they may work with the clergy to exorcise malevolent souls. Tonight, though, it seems the ghosts are merely curious. Our group is chatting about the Trumps’ prior investigations when John’s heat-sensing camera suddenly picks up some movement. Normally, the camera shows a burst of turquoise light around humans, with a rough, red stick-figure outline within their aura. A spirit, though, has only the stick figure on the camera. That’s what’s happening now. As Gregory stands a few feet away from the picnic table, a group of magenta, vaguely humanoid lines appears to his right on the camera’s screen, seemingly crouching and examining him and perhaps watching John and Lisa. In a soothing voice, Lisa tells the figure that it’s welcome here, inviting it to stay. After blinking away for a bit, it returns and seems to listen, crouching next to Gregory and periodically shifting around. Lisa begins asking the spirit questions — Had it lived on this land? Was there something here that belonged to them? Had they enjoyed their life? She says that personal questions typically elicit the best responses, connecting with a spirit’s emotions and attachments. The spirit shifts around a bit more on camera and even slowly (reluctantly?) raises its hand when John asks. Lisa says she’ll run the audio they’re

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recording through a special machine later that will pull out responses that the human ear can’t hear in real time. The outline moves to sit on and in front of a recycling bin, seemingly content to hang out with us. It continues to shift periodically to get comfortable (just as humans do!) and waves as if to remind us that it’s still here when we start to talk about other things. The ghost hangs around for a good 30 minutes before departing when our group becomes a bit louder and more animated. Lisa then attaches her frequency scanner to an amplifier. The scanner goes through thousands of channels per minute, making it impossible for radio chatter or music to come through. She says that spirits tend to operate on or between different frequencies — the white noise or “snow” — and the scanner picks them up while the amplifier helps human ears to hear their words. The amplifier starts picking up rough blips of a male voice. Lisa asks if anybody on the other side would like to say hello, and over the next few minutes, we hear what sounds like “devil” “level,” “bitch” and “get her.” Eventually, a female voice interjects. Lisa explains that upon reviewing the audio, they’ll often realize that spirits are conversing with each other rather than with humans. After gathering more audio, the Trumps move the session to Terror Town’s museum of oddities. Here, Gregory has amassed an impressive collection of ancient medical paraphernalia, potion jars, human skulls (and a sliced face in a jar), coffins and vintage spirit communication instruments.

OCTOBER 27 - NOVEMBER 9, 2021

Items on display in Terror Town’s museum of oddities P H OTO : A L L I S O N BA B K A

With only a few lights shining through the window from outside, John and Lisa begin setting up their recorders. They also place three flashlights throughout the dark room, explaining that some ghosts prefer to communicate by moving the flashlights or turning them on. John also places a receiver on the Ouija board between the two chairs where spirits had been sitting during a previous visit. The Trumps say that the device can pick up bits of words that the spirits say on their frequencies, match them with human words, and amplify those through the speaker. In the eerily quiet room, Lisa welcomes any spirits to make themselves known through speaking or by operating the flashlights. She begins asking questions — Did anything in this room belong to you? What do you think of the mourning gown over there? — and for about 10 minutes, not much happens. But when John moves to adjust the receiver, we hear one word: “Evil.” After more silence from the spirits, John moves the receiver to the floor near the shelves, wondering aloud if perhaps the spirit had thought that the Ouija board was evil. At one point, Lisa sees a flicker of a shadow in the reflection on the coffin mounted on the wall, noting that it had to have happened outside. She

continues with more questions about the land, the objects and what the spirit’s life had been like, but the room is completely still. At 11 p.m., CityBeat’s time is up, but for the Trumps and Gregory, things are just getting started. They’ll make their way through Terror Town all night, hoping to connect with more ghostly inhabitants of the haunted attraction — and hoping that they’re friendly.

All Hallows’ Eve Terror Town is an immersive horror-themed attraction that generally operates on weekends September-November in Williamsburg. Via a wristband system, there are different levels of terror for visitors, ranging from mildly scary to extreme. Tickets are $25-$35, with additional costs for some special events. Find information and tickets at allhallowsevellc.com PINK: Paranormal Investigators of Northern Kentucky explores unexplained phenomena by request primarily in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. PINK does not charge for its investigations but does accept donations. Connect with Pink at facebook.com/PINKParanormal and at paranormalinvestigatorsofnky.com.

ONSTAGE

Cincinnati History is Front and Center In Playhouse World Premiere ‘The West End’ R E V I E W BY R I C K P E N D E R

For the first time in 18 months, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park has a live theater production onstage. In fact, it’s a world premiere: The West End, by Cincinnati born-and-bred playwright Keith Josef Adkins. His play Safe House debuted at the Playhouse in 2014. That story, rooted in a past as experienced by his mother’s family in Kentucky, was set in 1843. As its title suggests, his new play — commissioned by the Playhouse — is about life in a historic Cincinnati neighborhood: the West End. Set in 1941, it chronicles the Great Migration of Black Americans from the rural South who were moving north, with some people settling in Cincinnati and populating an area west of Central Parkway, where Adkins’ extended family lived for several generations. Grace (LaTonya Borsay) is a thoughtful, sometimes outspoken woman who owns a row house where she rents rooms to several boarders. Chloe (Shanelle Leonard) is a stylish, young, aspiring singer hoping to catch on with Count Basie’s band. Zieglar (Kevin Cristaldi) is a German descendent, a drinker and occasional handyman. A regular guest is Peek (Brian D. Coats), a neighbor who is a deacon at the nearby Union Baptist Church. An admirer of the activist minister Rev. Wilber A. Page, Peek aspires to rouse the local population to demonstrate in opposition to Jim Crow laws that relegate Blacks in the military to kitchen and janitorial jobs. Peek also aspires to win the affection of Grace, whom he calls “ornery.” She can have a sharp tongue when she grows impatient with his attention. “Sometimes I bite before I should,” she says. Grace occasionally alludes to a past she’d like to forget. Like Peek and many others, she’s migrated north from Georgia to Cincinnati and has established a life that seems settled, although shards of that past still haunt her. She doesn’t sleep well, and one night she encounters a young man in her backyard. It is Heath, another Georgia migrant, who upsets her with reminders of her roots. He appears several times in the middle of the night — it’s possible that he’s a ghost or a figment of her imagination. He never interacts with other characters, and his nettlesome insights into Grace’s life and character reveal reasons why she is the way she is. The year 1941 was a complicated time in Cincinnati and America. With the nation hurtling toward another war with Germany, Cincinnati’s German population was again the object of discrimination. At the same time, the influx of Black people from the American South was met with resistance, too. As such, Peek warns Grace that housing Zieglar will result in problems. Peek has become passionate about early issues of civil rights protests and is recruiting neighbors and church members for a march to Fountain

The West End, written by Cincinnati born-and-bred playwright Keith Josef Adkins, takes place in 1941 in the titular neighborhood. P H OTO : M I K K I S C H A F F N E R P H OTO G R A P H Y

Square to protest Jim Crow laws, just like the demonstrations that happened in numerous American cities that year. Adkins’ play is clearly set in the West End, with repeated references to Cincinnati details. For example, Peek has food preferences (chili) and dislikes (sauerkraut) that reflect his politics. The German restaurant Mecklenburg Gardens is mentioned, as are the Regal Theater on Linn Street and the Cotton Club, a Jazz joint that flourished for several decades at Sixth and Mound streets (Chloe yearns for an audition with Count Basie’s band there). The Union Baptist Church, formed in 1831 and still a presence today, provides further historical context for the story. The Albee Theater, once adjacent to Fountain Square, is mentioned, as is Ezzard Charles on his way to boxing stardom. The texture of mid-century Cincinnati is as tangible as the settings that Black playwright August Wilson used for his “Century Cycle” of 10 plays set in Pittsburgh. The West End resembles Wilson’s admirable body of work with strong, opinionated characters who are wrestling with contemporary issues. Borsay is especially powerful as Grace, a woman who knows her mind but can’t quite escape her past. Director

Shanelle Leonard, Brian D. Coats and LaTonya Borsay in The West End P H OTO : M I K K I S C H A F F N E R P H OTO G R A P H Y

Nicole A. Watson has put together an engaging production that’s a solid reminder of how much we have missed during 18 months of dark theaters. Patrons need to be masked and fully vaccinated against COVID or show proof of a negative COVID test from the past 72 hours to attend this indoor performance.

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The West End, presented by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, continues through Nov. 7 on the Marx Theatre mainstage. For tickets and more information, visit cincyplay.com.

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Our most popular show returns this holiday season!

CINDERELLA book by Joseph McDonough lyrics by David Kisor music by Fitz Patton

DEC 1 – 30, 2021

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

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OPERATING SUPPORT

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ARONOFF CENTER JA R SO N - K A PL A N T H E AT E R

Norm Lewis: Naughty and Nice December 3-4, 8:30 p.m. Tickets: artswave.org/norm, 513.621.2787, Aronoff Center Ticket Office

2021-2022

SEASON PREMIERE

& A S S O C I AT E S

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OCTOBER 27 - NOVEMBER 9, 2021

ONSTAGE

Cincinnati’s New American Legacy Theatre Tackles Social Issues Via Performance BY R I C K P E N D E R

While Matthew David Gellin was an undergraduate theater major at the University of Buffalo in 2007, he was questioning his chosen career. “I feel like I’m wasting my life,” he told his advisor. “I hate theater.” Asked what was troubling him, he confessed to love his studies and performing, but that wasn’t enough. He had been reading theater history, and he felt that contemporary theater wasn’t playing the important role it had in the past. “I was in love with how the Peloponnesian Wars would cease fire and even go into peace treaties after participating in a theater festival. I was enamored with the idea of New York City’s yellow taxicab drivers going on strike because they saw Waiting for Lefty on Broadway. For me that is what theater has always been about, and we’ve gotten away from it,” Gellin tells CityBeat. Gellin had big ideas and wrote a 20-page paper about the role he envisioned theater playing and handed it to his advisor, Kazimierz Braun, the former director of Poland’s National Theatre. Gellin says the veteran theater professional told him, “About half the things in your writing are not really done here in the United States. They’re done in theater in other parts of the world, but not here.” When Gellin asked about the other half, Braun responded, “That’s easy. I’ve never seen it done before.” Gellin says Braun told him, “Maybe that’s what you’re supposed to do in this life. Maybe that’s your space in the world of theater.” That set Gellin to pondering a different kind of theater as he traveled the world. Once he and his wife with Cincinnati roots settled in the Tri-State, the time seemed right to launch a new type of theater. In 2018 he decided, “Let’s actually do this. I devised a singular mission and started to roll it out,” he says. The result is a new Cincinnati-based theater company, American Legacy Theatre. Its stated mission is to generate “inviting, reimagined theatrical experiences for people to have a voice in enriching society.” Gellin thinks of it as a “national theater,” the kind of institution that exists in many nations — like London’s National Theatre, which aims to entertain, challenge and inspire, per its mission statement, or The National Theatre in Poland, conceived in the 1700s to present theatrical works and engage in debate — but not in the United States. American Legacy Theatre plans to both present productions and enrich society with professional shows in a “sporting event” atmosphere where livetweeting, eating, drinking and chatting about the performance are encouraged. Gellin also intends American Legacy Theatre to be a professional development opportunity for local theater artists, using experimental

Rehearsals for American Legacy Theatre’s production of Higher P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY M AT T H E W D AV I D G E L L I N

workshops to create new best practices in theater and to develop new American works. He is emphasizing educational impact on students and considerable community engagement. Gellin’s first endeavor — funded by a grant from the now-shuttered local creative incubator People’s Liberty — produced 10 theatrical performances in October and November 2018 on the Cincinnati streetcar. Transit Theatre’s sketches were presented in three different four-hour blocks during which streetcar riders could watch the material in its entirety or hop on and off as young actors addressed gentrification in Over-the-Rhine, the neighborhood through which the streetcar travels on its 3.6-mile loop. “Many people who ride the streetcar are not traditional theatergoers,” Gellin says. “So we were listening to the community, meeting them where they’re at, breaking down the walls of thinking what theater is supposed to be. Whether someone showed up for just a few minutes or more, they might get a beginning, middle and end story told with a call to action.” Gellin is about to take another step toward creating theater to address contemporary issues with the upcoming production of Higher, an original Rock musical. Produced as part of The Carnegie in Covington’s “Creative Disruption” initiative, it’s the story of Benjamin, who seeks love from people around him and develops a lifelong relationship with heroin. The Carnegie’s goal with their

initiative is to “act as a creative engine and rapid response team to the changing situation of live performance in a pandemic world.” Gellin’s Higher, with original music by Mark Levine, demonstrates how a love affair with heroin has a ripple effect on Benjamin’s family and community. American Legacy Theatre partnered with local agencies Price Hill Will, Housing Opportunities Made Equal and others, bringing theatrical emotion and experience to demonstrate the missions and goals of these organizations. Gellin collaborated with Levine, a composer and musician who struggled personally with addiction but is now a recovery counselor. The show grew out of stories of hundreds of veterans who Levine has met across the United States and who are affected by the stigma of addiction, which Levine hopes his show can reduce. Higher came out of American Legacy Theatre’s program to help playwrights and composers bring their ideas to life. “We work with them one-on-one for every single week for three years, in this particular case, to move that idea into an actual, publishable, producible piece,” Gellin says. He envisions that Higher will be produced elsewhere after its six performances on The Carnegie’s mainstage. Gellin has helped Levine craft the show. “It’s still something of a workin-progress. There’s only so much you can do in a vacuum — you need the response from the audience to say this piece is great,” Gellin says.

Gellin workshopped Higher at the Recovery Center of Hamilton County and hoped to produce the show there. “But there’s a lot of red tape around that, and the space did now allow for audiences,” he says. Nevertheless, he’s already in conversation with possible subsequent locations. “We spoke with the Heroin Coalition of Hamilton County,” Gellin says. “They say they have great strategies in place to rehabilitate people, to get them in the doors to seek help, but what they don’t have is a great strategy to get public awareness to support and move this forward.” He hopes that people who don’t regularly go to the theater will attend this show. American Legacy Theatre is offering discounted tickets for people receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and other subsidies. Anyone unable to afford regular admission should call American Legacy Theatre directly at 513-443-5429. The ambitious Gellin no longer feels he is wasting his life, he says. His vision for American Legacy Theatre, while currently limited to his hometown, shows promise for using theater to engage communities well beyond Greater Cincinnati.

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Higher, presented by American Legacy Theatre, will be onstage at The Carnegie (1028 Scott Blvd., Covington) from Oct. 29 to Nov. 7. For tickets and more information, visit americanlegacytheatre.org.

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FOOD & DRINK

Kombuchinnati Brewing Company founder Ione Sally P H O T O : C AT I E V I OX

Brewing New Business COVID-19 claimed Kombuchinnati in 2020, but Ione Sally is bringing his kombucha-brewing business back this fall BY A L L I S O N BA B K A

one Sally has big plans for putting Cincinnati on the nation’s kombucha map while providing entrepreneurship and learning opportunities to those who traditionally don’t get them. But first, he has to get back to work, and he needs the community’s support to do it. Sally launched Kombuchinnati Brewing Company, a small-batch kombucha business, in 2019 after learning about the fermented tea’s wellness properties from his foster mother (few scientific

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studies have been done on kombucha, but proponents claim it boosts the immune system and prevents digestive issues). At just 17, he had been shouldering a lot of stress — a stomach ulcer, a new home environment, a job, rehearsals — as a student at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, so he was ready for any boost he could get. “I didn’t like it the first time, but I developed a taste for it,” Sally says of kombucha. “Eventually, you end up drinking it because your body needs

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the probiotics, not just because it tastes a certain way.” Doing his own research, Sally developed his first kombucha recipe that he still sells today, which is fermented with elderberries to give more depth to the flavor. He dove further into his new hobby, bringing samples to school. What Sally didn’t anticipate was that his friends wholeheartedly would embrace kombucha, as well, not only drinking it but also encouraging him to sell it. Sally’s kombucha became a hit on campus, and he began thinking seriously about how to develop a business around the drink. “They told me, ‘This is better than what I can get at the grocery store,’” Sally says. Sally’s trajectory was full-speed ahead for a while. In addition to his high school classes, Sally put together a business plan using entrepreneurial

resources from SCORE, a national nonprofit business mentorship program. He was admitted into a culinary incubator program, where he could brew kombucha in a shared, professional kitchen while learning from other entrepreneurs. He also reached out to Cincinnati beverage leaders like Scott Hunter, co-owner at Urban Artifact Brewing, and Allen Moellmann, master pilot brewer at Listermann Brewing Company, who shared their beerbrewing chemistries and business knowledge before Sally began pitching his products to local stores. Soon, Sally was stocking Kombuchinnati at ETC Produce and Provisions and Whole Foods, plus filling online and in-person orders. Business was good. Until it wasn’t. The COVID-19 pandemic hit Kombuchinnati hard, just as it did to so many

Sally says the mission of Kombuchinnati is to “unite people of different socioeconomic backgrounds through not only our beverages but also the work that we’ll be doing for the community.” P H O T O : C AT I E V I OX

other businesses. With lockdown and uncertainty, many customers were staying in and watching their finances, which started a domino effect. Fewer customers meant fewer orders. Fewer orders meant less revenue. Less revenue meant no way to pay rent at the incubator. Top all of that off with Sally getting a bout of COVID-19, himself, and 2020 simply was not a fun year. But now, with the pandemic slowly receding, Sally is rising again. He already has developed new flavors and is making plans to rent a professional kitchen where he can fill the kombucha orders that his returning customers have been clamoring for. He’s also planning collaborations and opportunities in which young would-be entrepreneurs can learn about how small businesses can make big impacts on their own neighborhoods. “Once Kombuchinnati is making enough revenue, my company is going to be known as a force for good, not just in Cincinnati but across the world,” Sally says. “My mission statement is printed on my packaging, and the mission statement basically is to unite people of different socioeconomic backgrounds through not only our beverages but also the work that we’ll be doing for the community.” “And when I say ‘community,’ I don’t just mean my community, the Black community. I mean communities around the world. Because let’s face

facts, a ghetto is a ghetto everywhere, and we aren’t the only people to have issues,” he continues. “I feel like God put me here to positively impact the lives of many people before I die.” To make that mission happen, Sally just needs to restock the special equipment that he’d let go earlier in the pandemic, hire a few helping hands and cover general operating expenses. That’s where the community comes in. Sally has launched a GoFundMe to restart Kombuchinnati and begin production to fill new orders. Those who donate $25 or more will receive a 25% discount on their first order. Every dollar raised will help Sally achieve some pretty big dreams at such a young age. “The overall goal is to produce 125 million barrels (of kombucha) a year. That’s roughly the same amount as what Budweiser produces. In order for that to happen, I’ll definitely need the support of more than just Cincinnati,” he says. “Honestly, I think (in the future, the kombucha market) will be really close to what the craft beer industry is doing right now.”

Learn more about Kombuchinnati and donate to the GoFundMe at gofundme.com/f/ help-kombuchinnati-brew-again.

Ione Sally in a Kombuchinnati-branded shirt P H O T O : C AT I E V I OX

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FOOD & DRINK

Amanda Bowman specializes in psychedelic gelatin creations as Calliope Sweets P H OTO : S C OT T B E S E L E R

Get Jelly As Calliope Sweets, local baker Amanda Bowman’s colorful, whimsical gelatin creations are in as much demand as her traditional baked goods BY SA M I ST E WA RT

onsider, if you will, the gelatin mold. Sixty years ago you’d be hard-pressed to find a household that didn’t have one nestled in a cupboard with the bundt pans and pie plates. Jelly desserts and gelatinencased foods were expected at dinner parties. These days, your best shot at finding a gelatin mold is next to the tarnished kitchenware at your local antique store. At least that’s where Amanda Bowman finds hers. Through her home-based

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baking business, Calliope Sweets, she’s putting jelly desserts (as well as cakes, cookies, pies — you name it) back on the table after decades of dormancy. Bowman founded her bakery in January and named it after the giant steam-whistle organ popularly played at circuses. She’s always loved Pierrot clowns (as evident on Calliope’s logo) and the circus tie-in nods to her “irreverent and whimsical approach to pastry,” Bowman says. She isn’t timid about using psychedelic color palettes and

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concocting unexpected flavor combos in her work, and she has the longtime culinary expertise to whip up just about anything requested of her. Bowman’s pastries run the gamut from sculpture-esque cakes to classic 1960s-era pastries to gelatin molds of all shapes, sizes, colors and flavors. But the latter has been her particular fascination over the last year. “(Gelatin is) really playful and almost mysterious,” she says. “I kind of like that it’s something really beautiful but also a little bit gross at the same time.” Beyond its weird science-defying constitution, gelatin has a roller coaster of a history. In the beginning, gelatin was almost exclusively for those in bourgeoisie circles. “Before refrigeration, it showed you had a whole team of people behind you creating this (dish), and when it sat on your table, it was a status symbol,” Bowman says.

As early as the 10th century, people were using aspic (essentially meat-stock jelly) to encase savory foods, especially in fine dining — a trend that carried on for centuries up until recent decades. Creating gelatin back then required extracting collagen from the bones of livestock or fish, an undertaking that most couldn’t afford. Several hundred years later, the patenting of powdered gelatin coupled with accessible refrigeration caused gelatin desserts to “develop this kind of pedestrian, everyday connotation,” Bowman says, which is where the gelatin mold as we know it comes into play. A popular trend even into the 1980s, gelatin salads and desserts eventually began to lose their mainstream appeal. Decorative molds went out of style and were donated to thrift stores. Now, for the first time in decades, gelatin is coming back into trendiness.

A carrot, cardamom-vanilla and apricot-ginger-chile-flavored gelatin creation P H OTO : S C OT T B E S E L E R

Bowman witnessed its renaissance in her side gig as a freelance food stylist, where she’s been seeing gelatin used in marketing. The concoction has gone through drastic changes in social status since its invention, which is partly what makes it so interesting to Bowman. “I really love the high-brow and lowbrow connotation of gelatin,” she says. “I think it almost has an exotic sort of connotation, but it can’t escape being low-brow at the same time.” Before Calliope, Bowman had been cooking in restaurants and baking on the side for more than a decade. In professional kitchens, she says, “you really have to take your food seriously and fit into certain confines. Now, I feel like I’m going in a different direction where I’m going to do this on my terms.” Bowman freelances exclusively these days, which can be both a blessing and a curse. She has a lot of scheduling freedom this way and complete control over the timing of her work weeks, but “if you pass up work, that’s your bread

and butter, so I generally say yes to everything,” she says. Bowman operates Calliope through Instagram (@enjoycalliope) since she’s a home-based baker. The best way to start a conversation about ordering jellies, layer cakes or anything else you can dream up is to simply shoot her a message. Bowman works mainly from special requests and appreciates the challenge of creating for different dietary needs. Bowman says she once received a request for a veganized opera cream cake, an indulgent dairy-and-egg-laden dessert, which meant she had to “break every recipe down and really think about how to substitute each (animalbased product) for something vegan,” Bowman says. “It’s very fun to push your boundaries and test new recipes.” The same goes for gluten-free baking, for which she receives a decent amount of requests, as well. Bowman goes the extra mile for her clients by blending her own gluten-free flour so she can

have full control over the texture of those pastries. While she rarely turns down requests and is happy to fulfill them (as long as she has time), she delights in the rare client who grants her full creative freedom. “I love the challenge of somebody telling me, ‘I love this ingredient; other than that, you can do whatever you want,’” Bowman says. Bowman’s most recent full-freedom request was commissioned by a fellow artist who asked her to make a “campy cake,” which she interpreted two ways — “campy” as in outdoorsy, and “campy” as in wacky. “The vintage cake aesthetic, I would consider campy, so I incorporated the frilly buttercream elements,” she says. Bowman drew inspiration from a recent trip to Red River Gorge, where she and her friends sat around a campfire on a moonless night. “I was thinking about edible celosia flowers and how they look like spires of fire,

so I decided to build an edible flower arrangement on the top of the cake that looked and felt like a glowing campfire,” Bowman says. As for the future of Calliope, “there’s no solid plan,” Bowman says. Her husband owns The Lodge in Dayton, Kentucky — a recording studio and art collective in a former Masonic Lodge that has been sectioned into studios and rented to area creatives — and they plan to build out a commercial kitchen for Calliope to grow into. “We’ve always talked about having a pick-up window out of The Lodge. I’ve always loved the idea of doing a creamy whip type thing but with pastries,” Bowman says.

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See Amanda Bowman’s creations and message her about orders on Calliope Sweets’ Instagram at instagram.com/enjoycalliope.

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CMY

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2:52 PM

MUSIC

Blake Hammond P H OTO : P ROV I D E D

Blake Hammond is Ready for His Comedy Close-Up The Cincinnati comedian is preparing to tape his Amazon Prime special at MOTR Pub in OTR BY B R I A N BA K E R

lake Hammond heard the siren’s call of stand-up comedy not long after he learned the alphabet. As

a somewhat sickly child, Hammond spent a fair amount of time at home with the television, and his go-to

viewing preference in the late 1980s and early ’90s was The Comedy Channel (precursor to Comedy Central) — particularly the stand-up segments, but especially reruns of old Saturday Night Live episodes. By second grade, Hammond was being home-schooled in his future career. “Norm MacDonald’s (‘Weekend Update’ segments on SNL) were the best,” Hammond says. “I remember repeating his O.J. (Simpson) jokes at school and they’d be like, ‘What? We’re 7, we don’t even know who O.J. is.’ And I’d say, ‘He was a football player. He killed people. These jokes are great!’” Fast forward to right now: Hammond

is preparing for the taping of his Amazon Prime comedy special, which will be a half-hour broadcast consisting of the best bits from two shows performed at MOTR Pub on Oct. 28. The special’s air date has yet to be determined. Given his relatively low profile at the moment, Hammond has some flexibility in structuring his sets for the taping; he’s writing new material, but he also has plenty of audience-tested bits that haven’t had the kind of broad exposure that Amazon Prime will offer. “I’m not going to do totally different sets, but if I can nail it down and CONTINUES ON PAGE 37

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FROM PAGE 35

get it the first time, I’ll probably do a bunch of different shit for the second one,” Hammond says. “They’ll edit stuff together and edit stuff out. I do crowd work sometimes and I always riff, and I usually say something that’s too fucked up so they’ll cut that out.” Hammond is a lifelong Cincinnatian; his parents lived just inside the Mariemont school district. He studied journalism at the University of Cincinnati and after graduation became a CityBeat freelancer, writing features and reviews under Music Editor Mike Breen. His experiences in school and in our offices steered him away from his chosen path and into stand-up about eight years ago. “I liked it, but I didn’t love it,” Hammond says of journalism. “I was like, ‘I just want to write jokes.’ I started going to open mics and I knew I could do this. It was hard but it was pretty fun, and I enjoyed it more than doing what you’re doing — interviewing people and writing. I was doing reviews and music writing, but when I ‘d write a review and I didn’t like it, it would be like a roast, and that was not what you’d want. So I was like, ‘I should just do comedy.’” Hammond scored the Amazon Prime special after opening for fellow Cincinnati comic Lee Kimbrell’s Prime special. Kimbrell’s set was recorded by local A/V company Four by Three Productions, and Four by Three liked Hammond and offered him a special of his own. Deciding what he will perform on the night of the taping is a process that may well extend into the taping itself. “I’ve got a bunch of jokes that could be on it, or I could do the special tomorrow and not use any of the jokes I’m working on,” Hammond says. “I’ll probably decide like a week before, then change my mind the night of the show, and halfway through my set, switch it up and go, ‘I’m gonna do this,’ because I’m dumb. It’s going to be fun and silly and a little dark, but it’s going to be good.” “I’m not sure if I have a general genre of comedy I do,” Hammond continues. “It’s a little alt at times but I’m, at my core, a club comic. I try to incorporate every style though: one liners, stories, longer bits, short jokes. It helps break up the monotony for me and the audience.” Hammond just returned from a quick tour of comedy clubs in the South, where he workshopped some of his new material. And he’s excited about the reopening of his home comedy club, Go Bananas in Montgomery. The Prime special would likely have been taped there, but the club was still shuttered due to COVID precautions during the planning phase, so the decision was made to do his sets at MOTR Pub. “Go Bananas would have been the spot. It’s where I’m most comfortable, but outside of Go Bananas, MOTR is the best room in Cincinnati for comedy,” Hammond says. “It’s small and dank and there’s low ceilings (in the basement) and it feels kind of dingy and gross down there, but I like that. It’s like a punky Metal bar, and I’m into that

feeling.” “And people who go there are cool,” he continues. “They have a built-in audience, people who want to have fun and are open-minded. MOTR’s had a comedy night since before I started, so they have people that go just for that.” MOTR hosts MOTRMouth standup every second Tuesday in the bar’s basement. Mirroring Cincinnati’s music scene, the city’s comedy community is extremely supportive and cooperative. Beyond simply raising his own profile, Hammond is intent on shining a light on the Queen City’s comedy talent with his Amazon Prime special. “Our scene is getting some national attention now, which is crazy, and it feels good,” he says. “We’ve built it up and we have a lot of really good comics who didn’t leave for New York or L.A.” Hammond has a sporadic restaurant job, which has become even more intermittent with his frequent regional tour jaunts. But he doesn’t mine that particular aspect of his life for material. He’ll occasionally overhear something at work that finds its way into a joke, but for the most part, they remain separate domains. “It’s nice because it keeps me grounded to real world stuff,” Hammond says of his other job. “At the restaurant, I talk to people and hear what they think about what’s actually happening. It’s nice to talk to someone where it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re a person,’ because these people are the audience. Besides, (national stand-up comic) Todd Barry told (local comedian) Geoff Tate and Tate told me, ‘Don’t let the audience know you do anything but comedy. You don’t want them to think you’re not professional.’ Even though most professionals have other jobs.” Regardless of how his career is affected by the Amazon Prime special, Hammond’s goal is to remain an integral part of the Cincinnati comedy scene. He and comedian Jeremy Johnston currently co-host Just the Clip, a podcast they describe as “two fat guys on a couch talking shit.” The podcast is released every Wednesday. With the reopening of Go Bananas, Hammond has resumed hosting an open-mic comedy workshop every Tuesday at 7 p.m., where comics can get feedback from other professionals on their nascent material. And he’ll continue to publicize his hometown and its burgeoning comedy scene. “I opened for Patton Oswalt two years ago, right before the pandemic. He found me on Twitter and invited me to open for him,” Hammond says. “He was like, ‘You’re really great. You’re here in Cincinnati? I can’t believe you didn’t move.’ And I was like, ‘You don’t have to.’ It’ll take longer to get a bigger following, but I don’t mind.” Follow Blake Hammond on Twitter at @bigradmachine for updates about his Amazon Prime special and its air date, as well as his other upcoming gigs.

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SOUND ADVICE Dawes

Wednesday, Nov. 3 • Taft Theatre Dawes just keeps on moving, revealing a new record of tuneful Rock & Roll every couple years, each a variation on the last. Yet the group’s most recent effort, 2020’s Good Luck with Whatever, is simultaneously looser and more compact. At nine songs over 39 minutes, it’s the shortest of the L.A.based band’s seven full-length albums. The presence of Roots/ Country producer du jour Dave Cobb — who’s worked with everyone from Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson to Houndmouth and Brandi Carlile — seems to have had an impact on frontman/chief songwriter Taylor Goldsmith, whose first-person tales and earnest vocals have rarely sounded as convincing. Album opener “Still Feel Like a Kid” finds the 36-year-old Goldsmith in a restless mood, his straightforward lyrics as accessible and weirdly intimate as ever: “I can’t stay up past midnight anymore/But I still feel like a kid/There’s always part of me that’s a little sore/But I still feel like a kid/I got dreams of coaching little league/But I still feel like a kid.” He’s backed by Dawes rollicking honky-tonk P H OTO : C L A R A guitar, rolling piano and a steady beat that persists clear through album closer “Me Especially,” a bluesy slow burner from the Jackson Browne self-exploration playbook. “It’s this feeling of like, did I fuck up?” Goldsmith said in a Rolling Stone interview when asked about whether he in fact still feels like a kid. “Did I pursue this like 17-year-old hobby at the expense of adulthood? And in some ways, the answer is yes. But I think it’s in the good ways. I am prouder than ever that what I do for a living is yell my head off, and pace a stage at full speed, and play guitar solos and nerd out. I think I was nervous, like, ‘Oh, man, am I not a mature human?’ And I think, ‘No, I am.’ I show up in the ways I need to,

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B A L Z A RY

when I need to, but when I’m on tour, when I’m writing a song, I actually am nurturing the 15-year-old in me.” (Jason Gargano)

Bob Dylan

Tuesday, Nov. 9 • Aronoff Center Released unexpectedly on March 27, 2020, just weeks into a pandemic that is only now beginning to abate, “Murder Most Foul” became the first No. 1 Billboard hit in Bob Dylan’s long and winding career. That fact was a surprise for myriad reasons, the most obvious being that Dylan has been releasing music for six decades.

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Even more curious is that “Murder Most Foul” is also a 17-minute streamof-consciousness elegy about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that seems to synch up psychically with our current crazy times. Then there’s the moody, dark-hued instrumentation and voice: pensive piano, violin and percussion backed by Dylan’s hushed, spoken-word delivery, which has rarely sounded as convincing or moving. And, of course, the lyrics, which seem to cover the whole of the last 60 years, punctuated by this simple sentiment about a quarter in: “What is the truth, where did it go?” “Murder Most Foul” closes Dylan’s 39th studio album, Rough and Rowdy

Ways, which dropped a few months later, his first set of original tunes since 2012. The record’s nine other songs are more in line with Dylan’s late-era masterworks, Love and Theft and Modern Times, which excavate equally from traditional Blues, Rock and Folk songbooks. But, like “Murder Most Foul,” the new songs seem more preoccupied with specific cultural figures than anything in Dylan’s vast canon. Edgar Allen Poe, Beethoven, Anne Frank, Marlon Brando, Jimmy Reed, Martin Luther King, William McKinley, The Beatles, Jack Kerouac and Wolfman Jack are name-checked, among many others. “Those kinds of songs for me just come out of the blue, out of thin air,”

RIVERFRONT LIVE PRESENTS:

UPCOMING SHOWS Dark Star Orchestra (The Grateful Dead Experience) September 24th & 25th Horseshoes & Hand Grenades w/ Kyle Tuttle Band, The Tillers and Restless Leg String Band October 1st

The art for Bob Dylan’s current tour P H O T O : C I N C I N N AT I A R T S A S S O C I AT I O N

The Lacs October 8th Samantha Fish October 21st SteelDrivers November 6th

Ben Folds will be stopping at the Taft Theatre in Cincinnati on Nov. 18 P H O T O : J O E VA U G H N

Dylan said in a 2020 interview with The New York Times shortly after Rough and Rowdy Ways surfaced. “I never plan to write any of them. But in saying that, there are certain public figures that are just in your subconscious for one reason or another. None of those songs with designated names are intentionally written. They just fall down from space. I’m just as bewildered as anybody else as to why I write them.” (JG)

MORE UPCOMING CONCERTS: Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live Nov. 4, Taft Theatre Ledisi - Nov. 5, Taft Theatre Silversun Pickups - Nov. 6, OVATION Silverstein: 20 Year Anniversary Tour - Nov. 7, Bogart’s John Hiatt and the Jerry Douglas Band - Nov. 9, Memorial Hall

The Lone Bellow - Nov. 10, Taft Theatre Dennis Quaid - Nov. 11, Ludlow Garage GWAR - Nov. 11, Bogart’s

Buckcherry March 19th

STAY TUNED FOR MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS COMING SOON!

Gary Clark, Jr. - Nov. 12, ICON Alien Weaponry - Nov. 12, Madison Theater Shake & Holla Tour with the North Mississippi Allstars - Nov. 13, Memorial Hall Nelly - Nov. 14, ICON David Cross - Nov. 17, Bogart’s Ben Folds - Nov. 18, Taft Theatre Shovels & Rope - Nov. 19, Ludlow Garage Freekbass and The Bump Assembly Funksgiving - Nov. 26, Ludlow Garage

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TICKETS, SHOWS & POLICY, PLEASE VISIT: @RIVERFRONTLIVE RIVERFRONTLIVECINCY.COM (513) 417-4555

Where Performances Become Legend

An Evening with David Sedaris - Nov. 30, Aronoff Center

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ARMY BASE

PUZZLE ACROSS

1. Country that is more than 80% Saharan desert 6. Evil villain’s laugh

BY B R EN DA N EM M E T T Q UIG LE Y

36. Person who grew up with a dot matrix printer, maybe 37. Crossword construction, for me 40. Deplete 42. Sweetie 44. Scalp during 57-Across? 48. Denon rival 49. “Personally,” initially 50. Dumbbell front raise target 51. Scrap of food 52. “No, really, my treat” 56. Hair application

62. Up position? 63. Most humble 64. Stereo part

61. Excel in every way

33. “That’s ... strange”

23. Tending to be moody and covered in eyeliner

32. Ice cream maker

59. Mazda best seller

31. Plastic duck, e.g.

21. “The Godfather” actor

30. Get to

20. Darth Vader, in his youth

25. English prog rock band that provides the soundtrack for 57-Across?

57. 2021 Netflix series whose players hope to win won

24. Be a super fan

18. Japanese electronics manufacturer

14. Inspected, as a worksite

17. “Smells delicious”

16. Two things needed to review for 57-Across?

13. Resident on the Persian Gulf

15. Martin Sheen’s real first name

L AST PUZ ZLE’S ANSWERS:

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DOWN

1. Unpretentious unisex fashion trend 2. “Wow, just ... wow!” 3. Radioactive decay emission 4. Capital One’s online assistant (presumably whoever named it is a fan of Brian’s) 5. Coyotes prowl on it 6. The “B” in “N.B.” 7. Put on 8. “PEN15” cocreator Konkle 9. Brick porter 10. Fly 11. Some temporary tattoo dyes 12. Actor Adam of “Pig” 14. Fast-moving hand

16. Apple, e.g. 19. Even so 22. Actor Cage of “Pig,” for short 24. Underhanded 26. Selected 27. Nickname for an El Paso pal

41. Light refractors 43. ___ Soundsystem 44. Turning force 45. Observant 46. Tours girlfriend 47. Desperate code message

28. Big heart?

48. Chest

29. One of the Ionian Islands

52. In neutral

34. ___ Comedy Jam 35. Bridge partnership, e.g.

53. Some grocery stores 54. GOP elephant cartoonist

37. Senator on the Space Shuttle Discovery

55. Grp. named after Renaissance painters

38. Fluffy breakfast

60. Debtor’s paper

39. “The Wizard of Oz” star 40. Strummed instrument

58. “Yuck!”