Tim Willig is awesome and he has the business cards to prove it. The shoe and leather repairman doesn’t have “cobbler” written anywhere on his aforementioned business cards. Rather, the official title listed for the owner/operator of Awesome Time Shoe and Leather Repair simply reads: “Awesome Guy.”  

The Northside Bridal Expo at bar/event space Mayday has gathered a group of local and independent businesses that understand the concept of different and put them all in one place so your unconventional, individual wedding ideas — from catering and floral to planning and makeup — can come to life.  

Kelsey Kalnow started as a collector, grabbing up unique vintage items, stocking her closet and selling what she didn’t want. Today, she’s an entrepreneur; the creative and driving force behind global plus-size clothing line Unholy Hips.   

It was the ever-evolving OTR landscape of empty lots and abandoned Italianate buildings that inspired Michael Stout to create what is arguably VisuaLingual’s most recognizable product — muslin vegetation bundles called “Seed Bombs.”   

Hamilton Avenue in Northside is home to a slew of eclectic storefronts like Melt and Shake It Records, and, since April, Northsiders have enjoyed The Listing Loon as a place to swing by and load up on bottles of hand-selected microbrews by a couple of Cincinnati’s tenured bartenders.  

Jerome Jaffe is a character. With his thick New York accent, wiry frame, perma-five o’clock shadow and penchant for misnomers, he’s kind of a minor celebrity in his home base of Brighton in the West End. He recently bought Rake’s End from long-time area resident/developer Fred Lane, and is determined to see the bar succeed.