CityBeat | Nov. 24-Dec. 7

2021

Gift

Guide

NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

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VOL. 26 | ISSUE 34 ON THE COVER: GIF T GUIDE // PHOTO: TALON HAMPTON

PUBLISHER TONY FRANK EDITOR IN CHIEF MAIJA ZUMMO

2021

Gift

Guide

05 NEWS 08 COVER 25 ARTS & CULTURE 32 FOOD & DRINK 40 MUSIC 48 CROSSWORD

MANAGING EDITOR ALLISON BABKA DIGITAL CONTENT EDITOR MAGGY MCDONEL ART DIRECTOR TALON HAMPTON CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MUSIC: MIKE BREEN ARTS & CULTURE: MACKENZIE MANLEY THEATER: RICK PENDER FILM: TT STERN-ENZI DINING CRITIC: PAMA MITCHELL CONTRIBUTING WRITERS MORGAN ZUMBIEL, ANNE ARENSTEIN, BRIAN BAKER, STEPHEN NOVOTNI, BRIAN CROSS, HAYLEY DAY, JANE DURRELL, BILL FURBEE, JASON GARGANO, GREGORY GASTON, AUSTIN GAYLE, MCKENZIE GRAHAM, NICK GREVER, KATIE GRIFFITH, KATIE HOLOCHER, BEN L. KAUFMAN, DEIRDRE KAYE, JAC KERN, HARPER LEE, MADGE MARIL, ANNE MITCHELL, LAUREN MORETTO, TAMERA LENZ MUENTE, JACKIE MULAY, JUDE NOEL, SEAN M. PETERS, GARIN PIRNIA, KATHY SCHWARTZ, MARIA SEDA-REEDER, LEYLA SHOKOOHE, SAMI STEWART, STEVEN ROSEN, KATHY Y. WILSON, P.F. WILSON CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS HAILEY BOLLINGR, SCOTT DITTGEN, JESSE FOX, PHIL HEIDENREICH, KHOI NGUYEN, BRITTANY THORNTON, CATIE VIOX MARKETING AND EVENTS DIRECTOR JESSICA TOMAIN SENIOR DIGITAL MARKETING CONSULTANT MARK COLEMAN SENIOR MULTIMEDIA ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE DAN RADANK DISTRIBUTION TEAM TOM SAND, STEVE FERGUSON

EUCLID MEDIA GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER ANDREW ZELMAN CHIEF OPERATING OFFICERS CHRIS KEATING, MICHAEL WAGNER VP OF DIGITAL SERVICES STACY VOLHEIN DIGITAL OPERATIONS COORDINATOR JAIME MONZON

WWW.EUCLIDMEDIAGROUP.COM

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NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

MEMI CONCERT CALENDAR December 9 December 10

Tommy Emmanuel with Andy McKee Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit with Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit with Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives LeAnn Rimes Morgan James Brent Smith & Zach Myers (of Shinedown) with J.R. Moore and Zack Mack Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Straight No Chaser Rick Springfield Sal Vulcano & Chris Distefano Clutch with Stoner and Native Howl

Taft Theatre The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center

The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center Taft Theatre The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center

January 15 January 26 January 27 January 28 January 29

Dillon Francis x Yung Gravy with KITTENS Nate Bargatze (7PM & 9:30PM) Falling In Reverse with Wage War, Hawthorne Heights, and Jeris Johnson Oliver Wood (of The Wood Brothers) Lucky Chops Dancing with The Stars: Live!

Alice Cooper Erasure with Bag Raiders

February 9 February 10 February 12 February 16 February 19 February 26

Sleigh Bells Whitney Cummings Foxy Shazam Dream Theater with Arch Echo Beth Hart with Quinn Sullivan Letterkenny Live!

The Ballroom at Taft Theatre Taft Theatre The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center Taft Theatre Taft Theatre

December 11 December 15 December 17 December 18 December 21 December 23 December 29 December 31 December 31

January 8 January 14 January 15

RIVERBEND.ORG

PNCPAVILION.COM

MEMI.BIZ

The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center Taft Theatre The Ballroom at Taft Theatre The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center Taft Theatre Taft Theatre The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center Taft Theatre The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center

The Ballroom at Taft Theatre The Ballroom at Taft Theatre Taft Theatre The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center

ICONMUSICCENTER.COM

TAFTTHEATRE.ORG

GET TICKETS AT TICKETMASTER.COM NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

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Voted Best Smoke Shop

Voted Best Green / Sustainable Goods Store

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NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

NEWS

Future Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney (left) and Mayor-Elect Aftab Pureval P H OTO : A L L I S O N BA B K A

Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney Will Be Cincinnati’s Next Vice Mayor Cincinnati Mayor-Elect Aftab Pureval said recruiting Kearney was a “home run”

BY A L L I S O N BA B K A

A

familiar face will step into the vice mayor role when Cincinnati Mayor-Elect Aftab Pureval’s administration takes over in January.

During a Nov. 18 briefing with reporters, Pureval announced that Cincinnati City Council member JanMichele Lemon Kearney will serve as vice mayor. The announcement came just days after Pureval named his administration’s transition team of Michael Fisher, president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center; Stephanie Jones, a former senior official with the Barack Obama

administration; and former Cincinnati mayor Mark Mallory.

“This is one of my first and most important decisions. In Jan-Michele, I believe we have hit a home run,” Pureval said.

Fittingly, Kearney’s announcement took place at Rockdale Academy in Avondale, which the incoming vice mayor said she had attended through sixth grade. She also mentioned that Rockdale and Avondale in general influenced her meeting and marrying her husband, former State Senator Eric Kearney.

“I feel like in some way, God had this plan that I didn’t know about to meet Eric and marry Eric. I also feel that God had a plan for me to serve the people of Cincinnati,” she said.

Kearney was appointed to Cincinnati City Council in 2020 after Tamaya Dennard was arrested on corruption charges and later resigned. On council, the Cincinnati Herald publisher has taken an interest in gun issues, including questioning the Cincinnati Police Department’s gun range in Evendale.

During the Nov. 2 general election — the same one that revealed Pureval as Cincinnati’s next mayor — Kearney was the top vote-getter of all 35 City Council candidates, with 28,161 votes.

Kearney said she shares Pureval’s priorities of economic development, equitable housing, public safety, environmental issues and infrastructure through a racial equity lens.

“Racial equity is a thread that runs through all of these topics,” Kearney said. “So as we progress as a city, we

have to make sure that we pay attention to the underserved, to the people who are left behind. We have to work for everybody so that everybody has opportunities to advance and to have a safe and thriving life.”

“Our zip codes should not be the determinant of our lifespan as it is now.

So we have work to do,” she continued.

Kearney also said that Pureval reminded her of her friend, former U.S. President Barack Obama. Kearney had gone to Harvard Law School with Obama.

“It’s because of his spirit of collaboration. He really cares for what people think — the way he’s really dedicated and he’s sincere about the work that he does,” Kearney said.

On Jan. 1, Pureval will replace Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, who is ending his second and final term this year. Cranley is now campaigning to become Ohio’s governor in 2022, joining current Governor Mike DeWine, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and others in the race. ■

NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

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NEWS

Local Health Officials Stress COVID-19 Vaccinations, Brace for Holiday Uptick in Cases

BY A L L I S O N BA B K A

COVID-19 continues to circulate within Hamilton County and the surrounding region — something that likely will affect upcoming holidays as well as hospital staff, officials say.

“It’s important for folks to remember that while we’re tired of COVID, it is still here, and we need to continue to exercise caution when we are out and about and in our activities,” Hamilton County Health Commissioner Greg Kesterman said on Nov. 17.

During a briefing with reporters, Kesterman said that there were about 5,200 cases of COVID-19 within Hamilton County; that was an increase from 4,800 cases just one week prior.

The seven-day average was 186 cases per day, which also had been on the rise in recent weeks after a bit of a plateau.

The reproductive value (which measures how fast a virus or disease can spread within a community) for two weeks prior to that date had been 1.05 (experts say that the R value generally should be below 1.0 to slow or halt an increase in cases).

“Once again, this is very closely tied to cases, and as cases start to increase, the pandemic will start to grow within a community,” Kesterman said.

Hospitalizations also are rising within the region, with 346 COVID-19 cases admitted on Nov. 17. On that day, 110 were in the intensive care unit, and 79 were on ventilators, Kesterman said.

The majority of COVID cases have occurred in people ages 50-79, and 85% of those were among unvaccinated people. Kesterman pointed out that while breakthrough COVID cases do occasionally occur in vaccinated individuals, the symptoms and danger are much more mild than in those who have not been vaccinated.

“The number-one tool... is get a vaccine,” Kesterman said. “It’s extremely effective at preventing people from serious COVID-19 illness.”

As of Nov. 17, about 59.74% of Hamilton County’s total population had started a COVID-19 vaccine series (children ages 4 and younger are not yet eligible). On Oct. 28, that number was 58%.

About 54.78% of all county residents are fully vaccinated (two doses for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines or one dose for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).

Kesterman said that Hamilton County’s goal remains vaccinating at least 80% of its population, a benchmark that county officials originally had hoped to reach by July 4.

He said it’s difficult to estimate when the county might reach that threshold, but it’s important for individual communities to get there.

“In general, the more protected your population is, the less likely you will see a disease spread,” Kesterman said.

“There is always, for every vaccine that we have available, a percentage of the population that is unwilling or

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unable to get that vaccine because of medical issues or religious concerns.

Having a really high number of your population that’s vaccinated creates less opportunity for the disease to spread from individual to individual.”

Dr. Patricia ManningCourtney, chief of staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, also urged vaccinations, especially the newly available COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5-11. ManningCourtney said that in the two weeks Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center that Pfizer’s P H OTO : W I L L I A M C O O P E R / W I K I M E D I A C O M M O N S vaccine had been authorized She added that some parents are for use in still taking a “wait-and-see” approach, younger children, Cincinnati Children’s which she understands. But the administered 2,600 pediatric doses, pediatrician urged parents to take with many parents saying they wanted action soon. to protect an immunocompromised “I don’t want you to wait so long so family member or prepare to see that your child is one of the remaining grandparents over the winter holidays. pieces of wood for this fire that is the She added that many doses also were COVID virus,” Manning-Courtney administered to children of regional said. “COVID will find the unprotected healthcare staff, who have seen individuals, and those will be firsthand the disease’s impact and who unvaccinated individuals, and that’s wanted to protect their own families. where the virus will live and continue to “As a pediatrician, we’re often asked circulate.”

‘Well, what would you do with your Both Manning-Courtney and kids?’ I think it’s a great question to ask Kesterman stressed vaccination and pediatricians. You should know what’s situational awareness as the holidays the standard we hold for our own approach. Kesterman said COVIDchildren,” she said.

19 remains a concern during the “I don’t know a pediatrician who upcoming indoor months and that each hasn’t run to get their children group will have to determine their risk vaccinated. I can tell you that tolerance, especially when interacting pediatricians are so, so supportive of with unvaccinated individuals. He this move, and they have done this with added that he will be gathering with their own children,” Manning-Courtney family for Thanksgiving, and that continued. “And so if that matters to all attending have been vaccinated, you as a parent, what a pediatrician including the children. would do, I can promise you that “If you’re getting together with they’re getting their kids vaccinated.” a family that’s choosing not to get But COVID still continues to spread vaccinated, there is truly increased among children, she said. risk,” Kesterman stressed. “If you are “Kids are still getting sick. We’re still vaccinated and they are not, you have seeing cases of COVID in our region. some protection, and you’ll have to We still have children in the hospital,” make that decision. If you’re inside, Manning-Courtney said. “These are wearing a mask is another layer of healthy kids. These are kids with health protection to protect you and your concerns but who are basically healthy family.” getting hospitalized with COVID, Manning-Courtney said that sometimes in our ICUs, including in hospitals would have difficulty with the this past week. So we can’t emphasize sustained surge of COVID-19 cases the enough the importance of protecting region saw last winter, when Gov. Mike kids, getting them vaccinated, and the DeWine and the Ohio Department of safety of this vaccine.”

NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

Health instituted a curfew and other protective measures to try to control the virus.

“Last December and January were terrifying. They were really frightening times. We didn’t see where it was going to end. We knew that we had some vaccine on board, but it was still limited,” Manning-Courtney said. “We can’t do that again. We really can’t do that again as a healthcare system and as a region. So all the more reason to get vaccinated so we keep that peak down and we don’t live through what we lived through last winter.”

The doctor stressed that local adult and children’s hospitals still are straining from COVID-19 patients, which is affecting care and safety in other areas.

“The volume of patients with COVID in the hospitals, they are the buffer that we usually have to absorb more patients, to take on emergencies if there’s a crisis, God forbid. But that buffer is filled right now still with COVID-positive patients,” she said.

“And we’re busy. You know, hospitals are busy with deferred care, with other illnesses, and we need that buffer. We need it for staffing purposes, we need it for safety purposes. So we need you to be protected so that if you do get COVID, you don’t have to go to the hospital.”

Find COVID-19 vaccine information or locations at testandprotectcincy.com.

NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

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2021

Gift

Guide

THE GIFT GUIDE 50 GIFTS UNDER $50

BY CITYBEAT STAFF And just like that, it’s the holidays again.

Which means gifting — and what to gift — is on people’s minds, especially as the ever-present supply-chain crisis threatens to impact the availability of goods ranging from Christmas trees and iPhones to books and Nike sneakers.

An easy way to make sure you can find something meaningful to give your loved ones this year is to skip the big-box stores and Amazon and focus on local. Of course, budgets are tight and unemployment is high (as is the traditional holiday stress) so we aren’t promoting the “capitalist machine.” But we are promoting the idea that if you’re going to give gifts this year, support small businesses.

The U.S Small Business Administration says that for every $100 you spend at an independent business, $48 of that is recirculated back into the local economy.

Whereas if you spend $100 at a national retailer, only $14 stays local.

As we all continue to struggle to make our way out of the pandemic, you can put your dollars to work for local recovery while simultaneously checking someone off your gift list. Besides, Jeff Bezos already has one spaceship; no need to Prime a present to help fund another one.

In this year’s Gift Guide you’ll find a collection of suggestions to spark some inspiration or literal purchases from local boutiques — something for everyone on your list.

Please note, this is obviously not a representation of every single local small business or every gift inside the included businesses; just use this as a starting point and a reminder to support your neighbors.

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1. MASON CASH NAUTICAL MIXING BOWLS, $29.99-$39.99, ARTICHOKE, 1824 ELM ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, ARTICHOKEOTR.COM 2. OPINEL LE PETIT CHEF SET, $49.99, ARTICHOKE, 1824 ELM ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, ARTICHOKEOTR.COM 3. BLACK COFFEE LOUNGE “WOKE•ANDA” HOUSE BLEND, $17.50, BLACK COFFEE LOUNGE, 824 ELM ST., DOWNTOWN, BLACKCOFFEECINCY.COM 4. BLACK COFFEE LOUNGE SWEATSHIRT, $40, BLACK COFFEE LOUNGE, 824 ELM ST., DOWNTOWN, BLACKCOFFEECINCY.COM

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5. ART PUZZLES, $16-$23.95, CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM, 953 EDEN PARK DRIVE, MOUNT ADAMS, CINCINNATIARTMUSEUM.ORG

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6. ARTIST ENAMEL CAT PINS, $15, CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM, 953 EDEN PARK DRIVE, MOUNT ADAMS, CINCINNATIARTMUSEUM.ORG

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7. DUSEN DUSEN EVERYBODY TISSUE BOX, $35, CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM, 953 EDEN PARK DRIVE, MOUNT ADAMS, CINCINNATIARTMUSEUM.ORG 8. POOLEY VASE (IN ASSORTED COLORS), $35, CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM, 953 EDEN PARK DRIVE, MOUNT ADAMS, CINCINNATIARTMUSEUM.ORG 9. FIONA KISS PRINT, $24.99, CINCINNATI ZOO & BOTANICAL GARDEN, 3400 VINE ST., AVONDALE, CINCINNATIZOO.ORG 10. FIONA ORNAMENT, $24.99, CINCINNATI ZOO & BOTANICAL GARDEN, 3400 VINE ST., AVONDALE, CINCINNATIZOO.ORG

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NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

NAILED IT DIY STUDIO We teach. You create. Give the gift of a DIY experience that the whole family can enjoy from the young to the young at heart. Handmade decor for your home & much more. Custom gifts, workshops, parents night out, birthdays, kids camps & more. We make projects, crafts & memories too!

CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE FOR OUR STUDIO CALENDER OF WORKSHOPS & ALL SPECIAL OFFERS!

Whether Jewish, Jew-ish, or just into experiencing new arts and cultural traditions, the ish Holiday Boxes make great gifts for anyone in your life, including you!

Each curated gift box includes handcrafted edible, wearable, and ritual items from local and regional artisans.

Take your pick between the Winter Select Box, valued at $50 or the Winter Deluxe Box, valued at $125. Boxes can be shipped/delivered or picked up from the ish Garage in Northside. Order yours today (and one for a friend!) at ishfestival.org/holidaybox

INDIGENOUS CRAFT GALLERY where you can shop handmade + local seven days a week.

Discover wonderful handmade goods from 100+ artists with a dynamic selection of pottery, jewelry, glass, art tiles and prints, fantastic ornaments, and more.

10-6 Monday-Saturday; Sunday 12-5 1609 Madison Road, East Walnut Hills indigenouscraft.com

FEATURED MUGS BY SAM HITCHMAN.

GIVE FRIENDS AND FAMILY A GIFT THEY WILL TRULY ENJOY–THE GIFT OF WINE!

mitchellssalon.com

Give the Gift of Music Hall Gift certificates for guided tours of this National Historic Landmark building in the heart of OTR are available from the Friends of Music Hall for just $15.

Knowledgeable guides share the history of this magnificent hall as you go behind the scenes. musichalltour@friendsofmusichall.org

513.744.3293

Perfect for layering, delicate diamonds are bezel-set on fluid chains, offering a meaningful gift meant to be worn every day.

Available in Rose, Yellow, and White Gold.

Starting at $469.

GIVE THE GIFT OF EXPERIENCE THIS HOLIDAY SEASON! Cincy Brew Bus "Brew Bucks" Gift Cards are good for any of our tour offerings, public tours on the Brew Bus, Cincy Wine Wagon, Cincy Bourbon Bus and other tours available online, and for any of our private tours where your special someone gets to pick the experience they want to enjoy. It is simple, you pick the dollar amount, and then they pick the tour and time. Instant delivery is available.

• Concierge service • Gift certificates available • In-store, online and curbside pick up Located in the heart of Mt. Washington, we have: • 2,000+ labels • 400 Champagnes and sparkling wines • Something for every taste and budget

Mothers, sisters, babysitters, teachers, men love massages, too!

Gift certificates are on sale now! $100 for $80, $75 for $60 & more!

Available both online or in-stores.

Sale runs through December, treat those you love, including yourself!

Diamonds by the Yard necklaces and bracelets are timeless Holiday Classics.

Let art be part of your nature at

513.321.3750

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ANYONE ON YOUR LIST:

Watertowerfinewines.com

513•231•9463

CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE AT CINCYBREWBUS.COM FOR MORE INFO NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

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GIVE THE GIFT OF THE JUNGLE

WITH A JUNGLE JIM’S GIFT CARD OF $25, $50 or $100

$

100

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$

S’ VER D LO

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a r e v o c s Di

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Junglejims.com/holidays FOR MORE UNIQUE GIFT IDEAS!

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11. KOKODEMA KIT, $30, FERN, 6040 HAMILTON AVE., COLLEGE HILL; 737 E. MCMILLAN ST., WALNUT HILLS, FERN-SHOP.COM 12. INA SEIFART PERLEN BRACELET KEYCHAIN (MADE IN BERLIN FROM HAND-CARVED WOODEN BEADS), $39, CONTINUUM, 1407 VINE ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, CONTINUUMBAZAAR.COM 13. MOSSER GLASS BATHING BEAUTIES SOAP DISH, $38, CONTINUUM, 1407 VINE ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, CONTINUUMBAZAAR.COM

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14. LOCAL, NATURALLY DYED BANDANA, $36, DEEHAUS DECOR, 135 W. ELDER ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, DEERHAUSDECOR.COM 15. BILLITER STUDIO CINCINNATI PRINT, $20, DEEHAUS DECOR, 135 W. ELDER ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, DEERHAUSDECOR.COM

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16. EARRINGS, $10-$30, HANDZY, 324 W. FOURTH ST., DOWNTOWN, HANDZYSHOPSTUDIO.COM

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17. TERRARIUMS, $10-$50, DEEHAUS DECOR, 135 W. ELDER ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, DEERHAUSDECOR.COM 18. VINTAGE MILITARY LINER, $50, DEEHAUS DECOR, 135 W. ELDER ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, DEERHAUSDECOR.COM 19. THE DOWNBOUND DOZEN — A COLLECTION OF TWELVE BOOKS THE SHOP LOVED THIS YEAR, PRICES VARY, DOWNBOUND BOOKS, 4139 APPLE ST., NORTHSIDE, DOWNBOUNDBOOKS.COM 20. ABSTRACT WALL PATCH BY THREADMADE GOODS, $45, FERN, 6040 HAMILTON AVE., COLLEGE HILL; 737 E. MCMILLAN ST., WALNUT HILLS, FERN-SHOP.COM

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21. HAND-CRAFTED WOODEN WAND, $45, HIEROPHANY & HEDGE, 19 W. PIKE ST., COVINGTON, HIEROPHANYANDHEDGE.COM 22. TERRACOTTA TOPS PLANTER, $40, FERN, 6040 HAMILTON AVE., COLLEGE HILL; 737 E. MCMILLAN ST., WALNUT HILLS, FERN-SHOP.COM 23. KIDS’ GRAPHIC T-SHIRTS, $20$28, GUMDROP, 326 W. FOURTH ST., DOWNTOWN, GUMDROPTOTS.COM 24. PUZZLES, $20-$25, GUMDROP, 326 W. FOURTH ST., DOWNTOWN, GUMDROPTOTS.COM 25. COZY BEANIES, $12, HANDZY, 324 W. FOURTH ST., DOWNTOWN, HANDZYSHOPSTUDIO.COM

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26. SECOND WORLD WAR REPLICA COMPASS, $41, HIEROPHANY & HEDGE, 19 W. PIKE ST., COVINGTON, HIEROPHANYANDHEDGE.COM

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27. SARAH BELLAMY HANDMADE COVID ORNAMENT, $20, HIGH ST., 1401 READING ROAD, PENDLETON, SHOPHIGHST.COM 28. ETCHED CINCINNATI MAP GLASSWARE, $24, HIGH ST., 1401 READING ROAD, PENDLETON, SHOPHIGHST.COM 29. BABY ZODIAC BOOKS, $7.99, KISMET, 1233 VINE ST., OVERTHE-RHINE, FACEBOOK.COM/ KISMETOVERTHERHINE 30. CINCINNATI WIRE ORNAMENT AND CINCINNATI DRAWN PLAQUE, $22.95 AND $16.50, RESPECTIVELY, KISMET, 1233 VINE ST., OVERTHE-RHINE, FACEBOOK.COM/ KISMETOVERTHERHINE

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Stop by the store or visit us online to shop the best selection in CBD, CBN, CBG, Delta-8, Delta-10, THC-O, THC-P, HHC and more!

www.PureCBDAmelia.com

513-797-0024 1723 Ohio Pike #1, Amelia, OH 45102

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31. PLUSH ANIMAL PILLOW, $33, MICA 12/V, 1201 VINE ST., OVERTHE-RHINE, SHOPMICA.COM 32. TRUFFLE BOX, $20, MAVERICK CHOCOLATE, 2651 EDMONDSON ROAD, ROOKWOOD; 129 W ELDER ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, MAVERICKCHOCOLATE.COM 33. NO. 072 MISTLETOE CANDLE, $25, MANITOU CANDLE CO., 4015 EASTERN AVE., COLUMBIA TUSCULUM, MANITOUCANDLECO.COM 34. DREAM GIRL FRAGRANCE OIL DROPPER, $44.40, KOKO, 318 W. FOURTH ST., DOWNTOWN, KOKOTHESHOP.COM

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35. GLASS WATER BOTTLE, $35, KOKO, 318 W. FOURTH ST., DOWNTOWN, KOKOTHESHOP.COM

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36. HERITAGE MUG, $38, ROOKWOOD POTTERY, 1920 RACE ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, ROOKWOOD.COM

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37. ALCHEMY GIFT SET (CHOOSE FROM 7 DIFFERENT PLANETS/ FRAGRANCE COMBINATIONS), $45, QUEEN CITY ALCHEMY, 1808 RACE ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, QUEENCITYALCHEMY.COM 38. BEARD OIL, $20, QUEEN CITY ALCHEMY, 1808 RACE ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, QUEENCITYALCHEMY.COM 39. TATTOOED STRONGMAN EMBROIDERED ART DOLL, $48, MICA 12/V, 1201 VINE ST., OVERTHE-RHINE, SHOPMICA.COM 40. RECHARGEABLE LIGHT BULB, $30, PAPER WINGS, 1207 VINE ST., OVER-THE-RHINE, SHOPPAPERWINGS.COM

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ARTS & CULTURE

Owner Richard Hunt P H O T O : K AT I E G R I F F I T H

A New Chapter Roebling Point Books & Coffee is opening a new location in Newport, just in time for Small Business Saturday

BY K AT I E G R I F F IT H

T

wo years ago, Covington’s only bookstore and coffee shop almost closed for good. The decade-old store — cherished by locals and visitors alike — was threatened by a significant rent increase, constant construction and closure of its main thoroughfare, the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge.

Luckily for Roebling Point Books & Coffee, high market rates and constant development surrounding the area were no match for the shop’s popularity and beloved neighborhood status.

Owner Richard Hunt struck a deal with

the landlord, who saw the value in keeping the establishment open, and they came to an agreement on rent.

So Hunt’s original search for a new location ended up becoming the search for a second location. After options rolled in, he made a final decision to open the second Roebling Books & Coffee in Newport.

Currently, Hunt and his team are spending a lot of time unpacking the some 25,000 books needed for the new spot as they await Nov. 27, this year’s Small Business Saturday and the Newport location’s grand opening.

“A city needs a bookstore like a body needs a soul,” Hunt tells CityBeat.

“I think reading fortifies a sense of community and if you’re really going to have a neighborhood or a town that can be proud of itself and the work that it does, a bookstore can be your biggest resource.”

The flagship Covington location has always provided free meeting space for community groups and organizations, an offer that is regularly seized by locals and one that Hunt will duplicate in Newport.

“We’ve always hosted, for example, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth events,” he says. “The community room used to have 20 meetings a week pre-COVID. And that’s where I think the ‘soul’ part comes in. When you have six to 12 to 15 people getting together to talk about a subject they are passionately interested in and want to change, that’s a soul.”

Just across the Licking River, far enough to coexist with the Covington store but close enough to manage, Roebling Books & Coffee in Newport effortlessly blends into the neighborhood. On the corner of Sixth and Overton streets, a sizable outdoor foyer welcomes patrons while the inside offers two large rooms with an industrial-yet-cozy feel. And with plans to offer a grand fiction section along with rare and antiquated books and entire collections from certain authors, this second location isn’t just a bonus, it’s necessary.

Exposed brick peeks from behind bookshelves lining the walls, which will debut a new method for displaying books that Hunt is particularly excited about. Books at the Newport location will be organized with the covers facing out, a tactic that makes more sales, Hunt says.

“Having been in publishing for so

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The Newport location of Roebling Point Books & Coffee P H O T O : K AT I E G R I F F I T H

long, we spend an inordinate amount of time talking about the cover,” he says.

“On the spine you get a half an inch and four words, but it doesn’t have the immediacy or the impulse to pick it up.

I have been lucky enough to have been to 500 bookstores around the country, and the people that really use covers sell more books, they have more people picking them up.”

But books won’t be the only item luring in customers. Bagels from longtime neighbor of the Covington store Lil’s Bagels will be sold along with other small bites and even soft-serve ice cream.

Of course, as the store name suggests, coffee will always be available and Hunt hopes to make more meaningful connections with other small businesses in the area the same way he has in Covington. A devoted bike-rider, Hunt named Reser Bicycle Outfitters as a target. The facts aren’t yet fixed but the three businesses have harmonized enough to reimagine the age-old three Rs — reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic

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— to “Reading, riding and rolling,” Hunt says, relating the phrase to books, bikes and bagels, while delighting in the opportunity to alliterate.

Author Sheila Williams, who resides in Newport, has seen years of support from Roebling Point Books & Coffee and as a regular customer of Covington’s store, says she is thrilled to see a second location, especially so close to her home.

“They curate books very carefully,” she says. “I’ve done one or two book events with Roebling Point and of course the nature of the bookstore, it’s an indie, so you’re not going to have as many people necessarily but the people that are in the audience are supportive and they are enthusiastic and they have read enough to be discerning. It’s a very special relationship for an author to have a bookstore, especially the independent ones because they know their products, they know the stories that we are trying to tell and they will hand-sell your books if it’s one that speaks to them.”

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In her catalog of literature, Williams creates worlds in which women thrive — she delicately recounts struggle and triumph through friendships and mother-daughter relationships and through tales of escaping hardship as told in Dancing on the Edge of the Roof, a book released in 2002 that has since been converted into a Netflix film titled Juanita.

“Books have a special place in our culture,” Williams says. “For those of us who are storytellers, it means a lot to have a place where you feel a part of the group, you are supported by the entrepreneur and you are given an opportunity to tell your story. I’m in and out of the Covington store all the time, and it’s a hangout. It serves as a crossroads. You have a lot of different people, different demographics and that’s important, it’s priceless and I think the new location will provide that for Newport.”

Williams is just one of many Covington regulars attracted to the idea of a second location. Chas Brannen, attorney and unofficial leader

of Roebling Point Books & Coffee’s self-appointed “salon,” reiterated the importance of a bookstore’s impact and emphasized the lack of one in both Kenton and Campbell counties.

He says the salon, which meets inside the Covington store just about every morning for coffee and conversation, has endured the pandemic and bridge construction chaos and looks forward to changing up the meeting space to Newport every once in a while.

“We talk about culture, politics, the community, of course we talk about the bookstore itself and the bridge and all those sorts of things you would expect,” Brannen says. “And I hope a similar salon develops over there organically. I don’t know if I could get along without it, and I suspect that the good people of Newport will embrace the bookstore just as our neighborhood has.”

The second location of Roebling Point Books & Coffee will be at 601 Overton St., Newport.

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The 2019 cast of A Christmas Carol. Antonio Michael Woodard in Need Your Love. Photos by Mikki Schaffner.

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R E V I E W BY R I C K P E N D E R

CRITIC’S PICK

ONSTAGE

King Records Star Little Willie John Comes Back to Life in Playhouse’s ‘Need Your Love’

Antonio Michael Woodard as Little Willie John in Need Your Love 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

Antonio Michael Woodard vividly reincarnates early Rhythm & Blues performer Little Willie John in Need Your Love, a world premiere production by playwright KJ Sanchez at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.

Born in 1937 in Arkansas, William Edward “Little Willie” John’s entire but brief recording career was with Cincinnati’s King Records. Sanchez has become somewhat known for her King Records plays; she also wrote and directed Cincinnati King, which premiered at the Playhouse in 2018.

That show featured John among other legendary King Records recording artists such as James Brown.

The 90-minute production of Need Your Love (no intermission) covers the arc of John’s diverse, tragic career.

The show opens with Woodard as a nervous performer, set in the present and putting on an unauthorized show at 1540 Brewster Ave., the nowrundown building in Cincinnati’s Evanston neighborhood that was King Records’ home in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. His aim is to bring some current attention to the place where a lot of stars began their careers.

He’s there with an able backing quartet, featuring the show’s music director Richard Livingston Huntley on drums, Ralph Huntley on keyboard, Terrell Montgomery on bass and Joel Greenberg on guitar. To start, Woodard performs John’s best-known number, the sensual “Fever” — he was the first to sing it, before Peggy Lee’s recording

made it a 1958 hit — complete with sharp finger snaps.

As Woodard mentions Little Willie John’s name several times, the lights flash, as if his ghostly presence is being conjured. Then an electrifying moment transforms Woodard into the historic singer. We follow John’s ambitious, frenetic career, punctuated by constant contract bickering with King Records’ founder and executive Syd Nathan.

Actual recordings of Nathan’s officious, no-argumentspermitted statements he made to everyone about how music and recording should be done are incorporated into the production.

John was a chameleon performer, and Woodard The set for Need Your Love, which represents the King Records warehouse in Evanston excels at demonstrating 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 the diversity of his talent.

Following his boyhood in Detroit where he and his John toured throughout the U.S., even long after John’s death). siblings sang in a Gospel choir, John got employing James Brown as his opening John’s growing reputation led to a his start by turning up at King Records act on several occasions. contract offer from Capitol Records, in Cincinnati and audaciously introducWoodard, like John, has the ability but his ongoing disagreements with ing himself to Nathan, who was in the to convincingly perform a broad array Nathan prevented that from happening. middle of recording a performance by of material from Blues to ballads, from His energetic performances were never another singer, Titus Turner. John, a jittery, staccato numbers to croonaffected. quick study, offered his own rendition ing and early Rock styling. John’s own Woodard has rooted his of Turner’s “All Around the World” after composition, “Leave My Kitten Alone,” performances of the show’s songs hearing the number just once. Nathan was a raucous tune that appealed to The in John’s own stylings, although the and Turner were dazzled, and John was Beatles (who recorded it in the mid13 musical numbers include several quickly signed to an exclusive contract.

1960s but didn’t release it until 1995, from the repertoires of other early His early recordings did well, and

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Woodard as Little Willie John 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

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NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

performers.

John’s career, marked by a fierce temper and alcohol abuse (neither of which are significantly represented in this show), ended tragically in a 1964 barroom brawl at Seattle’s notorious Birdland, an after-hours joint.

He fought with a man nearly twice his size — John was a diminutive 5-foot4-inches, not an obvious match for a 6-foot-2-inch fellow weighing more than 200 pounds. But when the dust settled, the large ex-con railroad worker John was fighting was dead from a stab wound.

John, who had previous run-ins with the law, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to prison in Walla Walla, Washington. His appeals failed, and he died of heart failure in prison four years later in 1968 at the age of 30, perhaps precipitated by a failure to give him access to his epilepsy medicine.

In the unfolding of John’s painful, declining years, Woodard gives his most affecting song performances: a furious rendition of “Why Don’t You Haul Off and Love Me,” originally a 1949 Country hit; his own composition, the yearning Blues number “Need Your Love So Bad;” and “Cottage for Sale,” a sad 1929 song about resignation and acceptance.

The show’s finale uses the standard,

“You Are My Sunshine,” the last song John recorded.

Woodard, who returns to the present from his journey into the singer’s story, wraps up the show with a rendition of that familiar, often saccharine number using Little Willie John’s surprising style and unexpected passion. It’s a startling and satisfying conclusion to this stirring portrait.

Need Your Love is an eminently entertaining performance with a sobering ending of a promising career cut short by the social disadvantages faced

by Black performers in the mid-20th century (a footnote: Little Willie John was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, presented by Stevie Wonder).

As Little Willie John, actor Antonio Michael Woodard emphatically proclaims, “My lifetime love was music!” and that’s the final impression that Sanchez’s production leaves with audiences. It’s a Cincinnati-rooted tale that speaks to a much broader audience.

Need Your Love, presented by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, continues through Dec. 12. For tickets and more info, visit cincyplay.com.

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FOOD & DRINK

The Baker’s Table Bakery is a café by day and an artisan pizza joint by night.

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY T H E B A K E R’ S TA B L E B A K E R Y

The Baker’s Table Bakery Celebrates Local Food with Every Bite Dave Willocks and Wendy Braun are using regional flour as the cornerstone to each impeccably baked item R E V I E W BY SA M I ST E WA RT

D

ynamic husband-wife duo Dave Willocks and Wendy Braun of The Baker’s Table are staking their claim on the corner of Monmouth and 10th streets in Newport.

Directly across the street from their flagship restaurant, they’ve opened The Baker’s Table Bakery, an establishment that’s a bakery by day and a pizza joint by night — and it’s taking the locavore

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ethos a bit further by exclusively using local flour.

In late 2018, Willocks wanted to start a restaurant that made its own bread, i.e. The Baker’s Table.

“We did it, and it was incredible,” he says of the popular farm-to-table eatery.

“But the problem was, our kitchen was too small. The restaurant was set up to be a restaurant, not a bakery.”

NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

As the name suggests, Willocks is focused on making everything from scratch at The Baker’s Table, including the bread. “The bread is the canvas our food appears on. This is what makes food unique and personal and inspiring,” he told CityBeat in 2018.

But Willocks and Braun wanted to expand their baked goods program, and to do that, they needed more room.

Luckily, the landlord who rents them the restaurant space was restoring a historical building directly across the street — which is where they opened The Baker’s Table Bakery.

The bakery is open 7 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Wednesday through Sunday, serving local Deeper Roots and Proud Hound coffee and a selection of teas as a sidecar to the pastries. They reopen at 4:30 p.m. as a craft pizza parlor with sustainably sourced Italian wines. But the focus is on the bread, especially in the morning.

“We really decided to prioritize bread here, and by prioritizing bread we had to de-emphasize other things,” Willocks says.

So instead of more time-consuming pastry options like croissants, which require a labor-intensive dough, they make their own puff pastry and a type of brioche charmingly called “rough puff,” which they use to make cinnamon sugar-dusted donuts stuffed with a seasonal filling. They also make whoopie pies — buttercream sandwiched between two cookies — along with cheddar scallion biscuits and seasonal fruit turnovers. The bakery carries grab-and-go sandwiches for both breakfast and lunch, as well as salads and a gluten-free grain bowl, all made fresh daily.

A variety of breads are whisked out of the oven each morning at 9 a.m. (literally, so don’t go before then if you want to pick up a loaf ). The Baker’s Table

The bakery building was formerly a laundromat and a pharmacy.

Coffee comes from locals Deeper Roots and Proud Hound.

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY T H E B A K E R’ S TA B L E B A K E RY

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY T H E B A K E R’ S TA B L E B A K E R Y

The Baker’s Table Bakery specializes in crafting bread with regionally sourced flour.

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY T H E B A K E R’ S TA B L E B A K E RY

Bakery offers naturally leavened and yeast-risen breads including sourdough loaves, baguettes, ciabatta and brioche.

The bakery sources its flour exclusively from Janie’s Mill, a farm and millery in Ashkum, Illinois — part of the five-hour radius surrounding the Ohio Valley that’s home to a wealth of centuries-old wheat varieties (Willocks uses the term “local” to refer to goods sourced within that radius).

“I think the future of baking is the farmer-baker-miller relationship,” Willocks says. “Our bread is telling the same story our food is, which is ‘This is what’s grown here.’ They call that terroir — the flavor of the place; the feeling of the place.”

For Willocks, the challenge has become integrating this principle of exalting local food into all areas of his restaurants, not just the convenient ones. For example, he had been using national King Arthur flour before he made the switch to Janie’s.

“I realized that I had no connection to flour, and flour was the essence of my products. And that felt disingenuous,”

he says.

There’s a charming wholesomeness to the farm-to-table movement, but Willocks says that sourcing locally can be difficult. For example, an early frost suddenly could end the summer pepper crop, which would mean pivoting to a more frost-resistant veggie to add to their sausage pizza.

But it all really comes back to the flour.

“The grains are harder to deal with,” Willocks says of his choice to use only Janie’s Mill. The very backbone of the bakery caused Willocks and his head baker, Kallen Justice, a good bit of grief during the research and development phase. They ran two test recipes side by side for nearly six months leading up to the opening of the bakery until the outcomes made using King Arthur’s flour were indistinguishable from those using Janie’s.

Now, The Baker’s Table Bakery has locked in a dinner menu of about four to five pizzas ranging from $19 to $23, featuring margherita, pepperoni, bianco vegetarian and sausage pies.

“We have general placeholders and then the details change,” Willocks says.

This is the same approach they’ve taken at The Baker’s Table restaurant, which has moved to a seasonal prix fixe menu.

In the future, Willocks and his team plan to expand the antipasti section of the menu at the bakery with some shareable small plates like marinated olives, white beans with pesto and roasted beet salad.

Diners should note the building’s history and evolution as much as they do the food. Long before it was a bakery, it was a laundromat; before that it was a pharmacy dating back to the early 1900s, which Willocks says was challenging from a design perspective “It’s a really cool space and it really forced us to think outside the box,” he says.

Wendy Braun is the sole mastermind behind both spaces’ design, Willocks says. She’s a poet and teacher by trade, but has a knack for finding just the right antiques to make the space.

“I’ve actually had people come into the restaurant and tell me that they’ve

hired interior designers, paid them to come to dinner at our restaurant, and told them to make their house look like our restaurant,” Willocks says. “(Wendy’s) design work is affecting other people. It’s this interesting combination of timeless and vintage and warm and sexy, and she’s able to pull it all together.”

Together, Willocks and Braun have established yet another cozy, community-minded bistro that centers the spoils of the region.

“If I can make you experience something that’s very, very close to the Earth and sustainable and wholesome, and make it utterly delicious and pleasurable, you’re probably going to be more likely to cook like that,” Willocks says.

“You’re going to be more likely to demand that from other aspects of your life. That’s really the whole purpose of the restaurant and the bakery.”

The Baker’s Table Bakery is located at 1001 Monmouth St., Newport. For more info, visit bakerstablebakery.com.

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THE DISH

Fillo Greek Bake Shop Brings a Slice of the Mediterranean to Over-the-Rhine

BY K A R A D R I S C O L L

Serving up an assortment of flaky, buttery pastries and a robust menu of Mediterranean offerings, Fillo Greek Bake Shop is bringing a slice of Greece to Over-the-Rhine.

Entrepreneurial — and husband-andwife — duo Evan and Evi Papanikolaou quietly opened the European-style café earlier this month next to Taft’s Ale House.

While cooking and baking Greek foods has been a staple in their household for decades, this is the first time the family will monetize their talents (Evan previously owned and managed an automotive dealership in Fairfield).

Boasting a sleek interior design and natural lighting that glistens off marble tables, Fillo is a labor of love, with every detail of the 2,300-square-foot space impeccably planned.

The Papanikolaous write on their website: “We believe each bite honors the rich, simplistic flavors of our Greek heritage, and we proudly bring these flavors straight to Cincinnati. We believe our journey must begin at the very place where these savory and sweet goods have been embraced by locals for centuries — Greece.”

From the intricate homemade pottery flown in from Greece to the authentic pastries made from scratch, there is meaning behind every element of the restaurant, Evan tells CityBeat. The café is named after phyllo, the thin pastry dough included in so many of their menu items. And it’s a full-fledged family affair. In addition to Evan and Evi, the Papanikolaous’ oldest daughter, Angelina Papanikolaou — who is also the baker behind popular food blog bakedambrosia.com — helps with menu design and recipe development. Their two other daughters are involved in the café’s branding, marketing and public relations.

Evan and Evi, along with their staff, wake up in the earliest hours of the morning to craft authentic pastries, breads and desserts. Some of the recipes are two- and three-day processes. Evan says Fillo is always trying different recipes and menu items, but customers can expect delicious standards like Baklava, Tahinopita (a tahini, honey and raisin pastry) or a Feta Cheese Flute (a thin pastry stuffed with warm, oozing feta cheese).

Customers can order from a full coffee and tea menu, which includes an authentic Greek coffee, a honey oat milk latte and a mocha, among other drinks. Tea offerings include a chai latte as well as black, cinnamon, green and chamomile teas.

Fillo also offers lunch items, like the popular Fillo Salata, an arugula salad with pear, caramelized manouri cheese, dried figs, pine nuts, mint and red and balsamic vinaigrette. There are sandwiches, like the Halloumi Panini with rustic sourdough bread, halloumi cheese, tomato and cucumber. The Kotopoulo Sandwich serves up lemon-and-garlic-marinated chicken, kasseri cheese, tomato and arugula on a toasted baguette. And the classic Greek lamb kebab is served in a pita with tzatziki, tomatoes, onions and parsley. To keep it authentic, an ice cold

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Mythos beer — a pale European lager you won’t find at many other restaurants in Over-the-Rhine — pairs well with any lunch entrée.

The café also carries Beeyond Bar, a brand of power bars created by two of the Papanikolaou sisters.

By combining filling fats and protein (sesame and nuts) with high-energy carbs (honey and dried fruit), they came up with a crisp and slightly chewy snack.

Evan says that the atmosphere at Fillo is a large part of the experience for guests. In addition Fillo Greek Bake Shop in Over-the-Rhine to the food, the P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY F I L L O G R E E K B A K E S H O P outdoor patio lined with greenery offers an authentic tie to how Greeks dine overseas.

“The outdoor seating wasn’t part of the original plan, but it’s turned out so well and has been one benefit of this difficult time,” he says.

The outdoor area is part of dozens of permanent “streateries,” a combination of parklets and concrete bump-outs/ sidewalk expansions created by the city of Cincinnati to help restaurants and diners feel safer dining out during the pandemic.

When they were made permanent in December of 2020, Mayor John Cranley touted the benefits of the expanded seating and traffic-calming measures, as well as the ability of the streateries to add “vibrancy in the urban core.”

Currently, the café is open for limited hours and their team hasn’t been able to implement half of their ideas due to the worker shortage.

In a recent poll by the Ohio Restaurant Association (ORA), 65% of restaurateurs said staffing is a critical issue for them and another 26% said finding workers is in their top three “most-pressing” concerns.

Evan said customers will notice that their display case isn’t as filled with pastries and menu offerings as it should be — and they want to change that as they hire more staff. The restaurant is currently hiring pastry chefs, kitchen team members, bartenders, servers and baristas.

“We just haven’t been able to find the workers we need to do everything that we know we can do,” he says.

Fillo has a full liquor license and will eventually add a night concept with Fillo owners Evi (left) and Evan Papanikolaou alcoholic beverages, music and additional P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY F I L L O G R E E K B A K E S H O P menu items. Evan says he envisions Fillo transforming from a bakery during the day when people come in,” Evan says. “We to a café that sells small plates of Greek have a lot of plans we haven’t gotten to dishes, cheese plates, cocktails, wine and yet. Hopefully, by next year, we can take beer by night. full advantage of the space.”

“We want it to feel like an experience

NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

Fillo Greek Bake Shop is located at 1505 Race St., Over-theRhine. For more information, visit fillogreekbakeshop.com.

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Graze + Gather Charcuterie Board Company Wants to Make Extravagance Accessible

THE DISH

BY K A R A D R I S C O L L

When Liz Sheeks and Kalisa Mora started arranging meat and cheese boards together during quarantine, they thought it would be a clever way to impress friends and family at future get-togethers.

Working from home and living together as roommates in Oakley, the pair’s creative outlet of neatly designing decadent cheese boards gained the attention of friends, acquaintances, and thousands of users browsing their Instagram account.

Now, a year and a half later, their passion project has turned into Graze + Gather, a charcuterie experience business that “aims to bring people together to celebrate life in the most beautiful settings possible,” according to its website.

“Anytime someone we don’t know asks us to do a board, we get so excited,” Sheeks tells CityBeat. “Our goal is to get people to just sit down and enjoy the food together and have a conversation. Just have a good time around a dinner table or in a park at a picnic.”

The two, who became friends through church, say they didn’t expect their side hustle to grow as fast as it has. Sheeks works as a full-time digital marketer, and Mora works as a lawyer — and their co-workers and colleagues are among some of their most supportive customers.

“It’s nice because it’s not our full-time job so it’s not like we’re reliant on it for the money,” Mora says. “It’s really a passion project for us.”

And Sheeks says the business has pushed them to become a real team.

“Kalisa is the creative visionary, truly,” she says. “I’ve learned everything from her. But now I feel like we’re part of a collaborative partnership.”

They get the majority of their cheeses, meats, jams, bread, fruits and crackers from Kroger, Trader Joe’s and Germanowned discount supermarket chain ALDI to keep costs down. For Mora, Trader Joe’s creamy Toscano cheese soaked in syrah is her go-to cheese to add to a board. Sheeks is a fan of any kind of goat cheese and seasonal options, like a cranberry sharp white cheddar she recently found.

“We’re less focused on artisanal, rare cheeses,” Sheeks says. “We’re both really practical people so it’s more about just enjoying really good cheeses that are costefficient for anybody.”

At any given time, they’ll scour local ALDI and Kroger stores for dozens of boxes of crackers, dried meats and cheeses. It’s less about introducing people to uncommon cheeses and more about finding good, affordable products that people will want to graze on.

Mora says that a lot of people are unaware of the wide selection of quality cheeses available at stores like ALDI, and they love introducing clients to new items.

“We’re just two girls working from home, and we want it to feel attainable for the average person,” Sheeks says.

While the number of orders ebbs and flows, Sheeks says sales have increased 200% since they first started out. Holidays like Valentine’s Day, and now Thanksgiving and Christmas, have

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become popular times for orders, she says.

Prices for boards start at $60 and serve anywhere from four people to more than 30. Sheeks says one of their favorite parts of building the business included coming up with names for the cheese boards.

Boards include: The Host, serving 4-6 people for $60; The Socialite, serving 6-8 for $90; The Entertainer, serving 9-15 for $150; The Baller, serving more than 20 for $230; and The Even Bigger Baller, serving more than 30 for $350 Beyond their regular menu, they offer customizable Graze + Gather curates cheese and charcuterie boards. boards for all party P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY G R A Z E + G AT H E R sizes while also designing long “grazing tables.”

For $15 per person, Graze + Gather will arrange luscious layers of all types of cheeses and your favorite dried meats on a table for you and your guests.

They have also partnered with local businesses like Taft’s Brewing Co. and Braxton Brewing Co. on classes and brewery experiences. Events have included a Charcuterie Date Night at Taft’s Ale House, where each ticket came with a beautifully arranged charcuterie box built for two people. Guests got one free beer and $1 off beers for the rest of the evening.

Graze + Gather has also offered charcuterie classes at Taft’s Ale House, providing an instructional experience on putting together tasty and aesthetically pleasing boards. Attendees were provided with three types of cheeses, dry salami, pistachios, fruit, honey and crackers.

“I feel like we always want to keep growing and do more,” Sheeks says. “We would love to continue partnering with all these local breweries.”

They’ve hired an additional team member — who’s also a friend — to help with the influx in business. As they fulfill new orders and continue new partnerships with local businesses, they remain focused on why they started the business: bringing people together.

“At the end of the day, cheese is the product and we were passionate about the product but it’s really about community and each other,” Mora says. “I think in the pandemic, we learned so much about how we need people and we need community.

We feel like we’re helping people find that again.”

Learn more about Graze + Gather or place an order at grazeandgather513.com.

NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

Graze + Gather owners Liz Sheeks (left) and Kalisa Mora P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY G R A Z E + G AT H E R

Boards start at $60.

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY G R A Z E + G AT H E R

Graze + Gather offers options for events.

A “grazing table” offers a variety of snacks and bites.

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY G R A Z E + G AT H E R

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY G R A Z E + G AT H E R

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We’re saving a seat for you!

Metro is hiring operators.

• Great pay and benefits • Paid training including CDL training • $2000 bonus paid after training We can’t fill the rest of the seats until we fill the driver’s seat, so apply today. www.go-metro.com/careers

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MUSIC

Sylmar P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY SY L M A R

Sylmar Kicks Down Genres and Climbs ‘Glass Ladders’ The Cincinnati Stoner Jazz band celebrates five years together with their best album to date — and a look at where they’re headed

BY B R I A N BA K E R

T

here are odd similarities between Indie Soul band Sylmar, who self-identify as “Stoner Jazz,” and Fiona, the Cincinnati Zoo’s irrepressible kindergarten hippopotamus. They were born in 2016, they have outsize personalities and they’re incredible ambassadors for their hometown. They depart in one very significant aspect: Fiona doesn’t have an amazing new album to publicize and Sylmar most assuredly does: their just released sophomore full-length, Glass Ladders.

In conversation about their new album, Sylmar’s members — vocalist Brian McCullough, guitarists Luke Glaser and Dan Sutter, bassist Dominic Franco and drummer Ethan Kimberly — vacillate between being in full agreement on a given answer to batting the answer around like a volleyball that no one is spiking over the net until some version of a consensus is reached.

Chaotic democracy or democratic

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chaos; either way, it works for them, during interviews or in-studio.

One point of agreement among Sylmar’s members is that the soulful Vampire-Weekend-meets-Radiohead sound on Glass Ladders comes from many different places and none of them are particularly intentional.

“There’s a certain level of pride and stubbornness in each individual’s voice in the band, which is a good thing,” McCullough says. “Each song writes itself differently than the others. That’s the thing about us; if you listen to our music enough, you’ll be able to tell who wrote ‘that one.’ This record is a little all over the place, in a good way. In some respects, it’s a good debut record for us.

It showcases how we can be tame, but also out of control.”

Newly installed bassist Franco has a unique perspective on Sylmar after joining the band last year to fill the void left by departing original bassist Chase

NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

Watkins. Franco and his previous band Misnomer shared numerous bills with Sylmar, and he was a huge fan of the band long before he was a member.

“I think the soul of the self-titled record (from 2017) and on into the Telford EP (from 2020) is carried through to Glass Ladders, but Brian is right — it is like a debut because the variety of sounds is different, but the song structure is Sylmar’s music,” Franco says. “And for me, adapting the bass parts, I didn’t want to copy what Chase had done. I have a lot of respect for him as a bassist, so I wanted to maintain the feel that made Sylmar what it is.”

The other relatively new addition to Sylmar is drummer Ethan Kimberly, who was installed as the band’s new beatkeeper two-and-a-half years ago after C.J. Eliasen left to pursue other musical endeavors. Kimberly made his mark fairly quickly.

“I ran into Ethan at a house party; we were jamming for some guy who had a home studio,” Glaser says. “I was like, ‘Where have you been? Our drummer quit a week ago. You want to come play?’”

“It was one practice. He played one song,” McCullough says. “We were like, ‘Yeah.’”

One critical departure between Sylmar’s two full lengths is the amount of time devoted to writing and recording. The band cranked out their self-titled introduction the year after their formation, while Glass Ladders

has been in the works for considerably longer.

“The first album was done really quickly, and this record was done over a long period of time but in short increments,” Sutter says. “There would be two days where it was like, ‘We’re working on the record.’ Then there was a month of playing shows and jamming.”

The long process involved in crafting Glass Ladders, which obviously intersected with the pandemic year, also had the unintended consequence of allowing the songs to mutate in new and interesting ways.

“There’s even evolution within the record itself because it was such a long period of time,” Kimberly says. “I feel like this is Sylmar’s senior thesis record, where we get out into the real world.

We’ve cracked the source code.”

A good deal of the evolution on Glass Ladders is inherent, as the majority of the material dates to the band’s earliest days. The gauzy Indie Rock whisper squall of “Clubmasters” is the first musical idea that McCullough and Glaser conceived in Sylmar’s nascent period, and “Kinks” took two years to write, becoming a live staple in the process.

“When we started recording, we started diving into ‘Clubmasters’ at different times,” Glaser says. “We formed it into what we collectively managed to have in mind.”

In addition to Sylmar’s vital chemistry within this new iteration,

two outside catalysts were equally important: Soul Step Records owner/ operator Melvin Dillon and local producer/former Pomegranates guitarist Isaac Karns. Dillon had just moved to Nashville and contacted McCullough about wanting to release a new Sylmar album.

“He told us, ‘I’m about to do some distribution with Secretly Group and I want yours to be one of the first records I do,’” McCullough says. “I was like, ‘Oh, well, we’ve got to make a record then!’”

Karns had produced Sylmar’s 2018 singles, “Bi-Polar Ball” and “College Try;” the latter’s rebooted version appears on the vinyl of Glass Ladders, while an updated version of “Bi-Polar Ball” — even newer than the new version currently posted online — will be featured on the CD and digital releases. The band was eager to work with Karns on a full album.

“He’s kind of grown into our sound,” Glaser says. “I think we work really well with him and it was nice to do a whole project with him and watch it evolve over time. We had him remix and remaster the singles because we realized we had a better understanding of each other and gelled better now.”

In perfect Rock band synchronicity, Sylmar has an album’s worth of new material just as they’re releasing Glass Ladders, some of which is working its way into their current setlists. Everyone in the band sees the new album as a signpost to their future sound and selves, and they’re stoked to see where it leads.

They’re emerging from their quarantine cocoon in a big way — they’re playing Lexington, Louisville, Chicago, Columbus and Cleveland in the coming weeks (check sylmar. bandcamp.com for details), capping it off with an appearance at Motherfolk’s annual Christmas show at Bogart’s on Dec. 17.

Whether live or in-studio, Sylmar has a unique formula for achieving their goals, even if they often don’t quite understand their own equation (“It’s always screwy. There’s always drama and it’s never smooth,” McCullough jokes.) Newest member Franco has the best approximation of it.

“It’s the Sylmar way; you’ve got five very creative people who have tons of awesome ideas,” he says. “The only way to get those ideas into songs is to get those five people in the same room at the same time for two hours.”

As the conversation spirals into an internal discussion of a definition of Sylmar as an entity, someone poses the question, “Are we a boy band?” That leads in several divergent directions until McCullough clarifies succinctly.

“We’re a bunch of boys in a manband.”

Perhaps that is ultimately the Sylmar way.

Sylmar plays Motherfolk’s annual Christmas show at Bogart’s on Dec. 17. Get details and tickets at bogarts.com. And for more on Sylmar, visit sylmartheband.com.

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

SEASON PRESENTING SPONSOR

SEASON FUNDER

OPERATING SUPPORT

www.ensemblecincinnati.org NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7, 2021

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SOUND ADVICE Playboi Carti

Wednesday, Dec. 1 • BB&T Arena The internet made Playboi Carti. But, unlike most contemporary rappers, he isn’t interested in revealing his every move on social media. The 25-year-old Atlanta native prefers an enigmatic approach, mixing various, sometimes disparate influences — 1970s Punk Rock, Prince, vampire movies, Lil Wayne, Givenchy — to cultivate an evolving persona that is as much about feel and atmosphere as it is about the actual beats and vocalizations that emerge from his increasingly fascinating musical output.

“I’ve been like this my whole life,” Carti said in an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year. “When I do speak, it’s for a reason. But with the world, the only thing I want to show them is the creative process and the music. I think people want to see the normal side of Playboi Carti, but you can’t normalize me.”

Following an array of teenagerecorded, Soundcloud-released mixtapes and a burgeoning affiliation with ASAP Mob, Carti drew wider attention with the 2017 single “Magnolia,” which revealed its creator’s clipped rapping style, often nonsensical lyricism and sugar-high energy.

Carti released his first “official” studio album, Die Lit, a year later via AWGE and Interscope Records. The album rose as high as No. 3 on the Billboard charts, cementing Carti as an emergent and uncommonly elusive figure on the mainstream landscape.

Besides features on other artists’ material, all was quiet for the next two years (an eternity by contemporary Hip Hop standards) as Carti crafted his most recent record, Whole Lotta Red, which dropped in December 2020.

It debuted at No. 1 on Billboard, yet another signal of Carti’s rising cultural cachet.

The achievement is all the more impressive given the new material’s often challenging nature — Carti’s delivery has diversified, moving from his more playful “baby voice” beginnings to a territory that can only be described as gothic. He’s backed by beats both experimental and melodic, yielding music at once familiar and uneasy.

Where the man born Jordan Terrell Carter goes next is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure — he’s likely to push the boundaries of expectation.

“That’s my job as of right now,” Carti said in the Rolling Stone interview. “This sound is something that’s going to be regular and relevant in the future. That’s just part of creating something new. If this is something that people accept right away, how different is it?”

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. All attendees are required to wear a mask. (Jason Gargano)

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Playboi Carti P H OTO : N I C K WA L K E R

Blue Oyster Cult

Thursday, Dec. 2 • Ludlow Garage More than a half-century after bubbling up out of Long Island, New York, Blue Oyster Cult still exists, and not just as a perpetually touring oldies act — the band released its first album in nearly two decades, the well-received The Symbol Remains, in October 2020.

BOC originally formed as Soft White Underbelly in 1967 before switching to their forever name in 1972, which is when their self-titled debut dropped.

The fivesome — which currently still includes original co-vocalists/guitarists Eric Bloom and Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser — is more than their classics “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” and “Burnin’ for You” might suggest, releasing eight albums in their first decade of existence (and 15 overall), including landmarks like 1974’s Secret Treaties and 1976’s commercial breakthrough Agents of Fortune, which feature a heady mix of Hard Rock, Metal, Prog and Pop. The Symbol Returns is just as adventurous, jumping genres as fearlessly as ever.

“We approach every song as a song,” Roeser said in an interview with Metaltalk.net late last year. “We don’t set any limitations for ourselves in terms of overall style. We didn’t even anticipate what the record would sound like all together, we just wrote songs that would fit the lyric or the concept of what we had in mind.”

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Blue Oyster Cult P H O T O : B L U E OYS T E R C U LT. C O M

“Also, different writers in the band covered different bases,” he continued.

“Obviously, Eric Bloom is responsible for the heavier stuff and Buck Dharma does his thing and Richie Castellano bridges that gap and brings his own broad Rock sensibility into the band, and you hear the result of that combination.”

“The Alchemist” — a song written

by Castellano, who has been a BOC member since 2004 and was actually born after the band’s 1970s heyday — is the most curious of the new material,

coming off like a proggy Tenacious D cover of a BOC song, its epic vocals, crunchy guitars and shifting tempos backing a tale about an alchemist who also appears to be a sorcerer. The song culminates with the line, “Our lives were a prison of my design,” which should sound just as operatic in a live setting.

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8:30 p.m. No health check required. (JG)

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 Lacs October 8th Ana Gasteyer

Samantha Fish October 21st

P H OTO : I D P R

Ana Gasteyer

Wednesday, Dec. 8 • Memorial Hall Saturday Night Live alum Ana Gasteyer does more than comedy — she’s also a highly accomplished singer.

Renowned for her Martha Stewart impersonation, “Schweddy Balls” skit and playing Cady’s mom in Mean Girls, Gasteyer also played Elphaba in the original Chicago cast of Wicked before taking over on Broadway in 2006-2007.

Gasteyer also hit the Great White Way with roles in The Rocky Horror Show, Funny Girl, The Threepenny Opera and The Royal Family.

She’s tapping into that skillset for her latest announcement: A tour behind her 2019 holiday album Sugar & Booze, described as a “collection of festive seasonal songs offering a swinging nod to the vintage holidays of yore with a modern touch and plenty of style” in a release.

Billboard called the record “an uproarious homage to Christmas albums of old,” with highlights including original songs like “Secret Santa,” a jaunty Cuban-inspired number featuring Maya Rudolph, and renditions of classics including “Let It Snow” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” It hit in the top 5 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.

For more Gasteyer, keep an eye out for A Clüsterfünke Christmas, airing Dec. 4 on Comedy Central. Written and produced with and starring SNL alum Rachel Dratch, the holidaymovie parody follows a New York real

estate powerhouse named Holly who heads to a tiny town to transform the Clüsterfünke Inn into a resort. Her plans are interrupted when she meets a sexy lumberjack.

The show is at 8 p.m. Dec. 8. All attendees must provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test from the past 72 hours, and wear a mask. (Maija Zummo)

SteelDrivers November 6th Buckcherry March 19th

MORE UPCOMING

CONCERTS Freekbass and the Bump Assembly Funksgiving Nov. 26, Ludlow Garage

STAY TUNED FOR MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS COMING SOON!

Holiday Pops Dec. 3-5 and Dec. 10-12, Music Hall BBNO$ Dec. 3, Madison Theater Shakey Graves Dec. 4, Bogart’s CHVRCHES Dec. 5, PromoWest Pavilion at OVATION The Queers Dec. 8, Southgate House Revival Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit Dec. 10 and 11, ICON Music Center Leann Rimes Dec. 15, Taft Theatre Christmas with Over the Rhine Dec. 17-19, Memorial Hall

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

Where Performances Become Legend

The Detroit Cobras Jan. 5, Woodward Theater

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CM

MY

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CMY

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GOING TOO FAR

BY B R EN DA N E M M E T T Q U I G L E Y W W W. B R E N DA N E M M E T TQ U I G L E Y.C O M

CROSSWORD ACROSS

36. Election day: Abbr.

1. “Memory” musical

37. “Please,” to Shakespeare

70. Livestock identifier

5. Old Testament prophet

39. Shake and quake

71. “So much ___!”

21. “Clan of the Cave Bear” novelist Jean

10. Just starting out

42. 2021 hurricane

14. Cookie that comes in “the Most Stuf” variety

43. Scruffs of the neck

DOWN

24. 59-Down prefix

15. “Get Shorty” novelist Leonard

47. “Around the Horn” host Tony

1. Brother’s hood

48. John Wick, e.g.

2. Classic font choice

51. Cognitive development psychologist Jean

3. Change for a $50, say

16. Coca ___ 17. Alternatives to some air conditioners 20. Trattoria order served in slices 22. Bipedal: Hyph.

26. La ___ opera house 30. Mooches (off of) 34. Carrot-munching critters 35. Strictly off-limits

28. Dogie collar?

29. Rent out

62. Goes down a runway 63. ___ voter

8. Four-star: Hyph.

66. Height meas.

9. Part of a triathlete’s stats: Abbr.

67. Most achy

10. Quito’s country

68. Paragraphs before the actual story

11. Frayed

32. “2001” actor Keir 33. “Look! Over there!”

38. Make, as money 40. Supremely uncomfortably scary 44. Work with feet?

13. Zap with a gun

31. Chapeau container

41. It might have sides

12. “___ in Borderland”

27. Rap’s ___ B

7. “___ Ramblin’ Man” (Waylon Jennings hit)

69. German city where Big

26. Receptacle at the bottom of a fireplace

6. Plant used in hay

57. Shiatsu session

21. Subtle shade

25. Conductor Solti

5. Like some patches

54. Slender

18. Nonsensical poppycock

23. Stay or go, e.g.

4. Soft drink selection

52. Sky-high cost?

19. “Trinity” novelist Leon

Bertha was manufactured

45. Narcissist’s focus

46. Ocean spray 49. “No harm, no foul” 50. Get something down

53. Reggae fan

55. Smooshed circles

54. Cosmetician Lauder

56. Old couples 58. Put in the mail

59. Blue planet

60. Spice Girl Halliwell 61. Mulligans 63. Caviar 64. Marked time 65. Former Disney CEO Bob

LAST PUZZLE’S ANSWERS:

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