Over-the-Rhine’s The Skeleton Root winery and tasting room pays homage to Cincy’s wine-making past. Before California’s ubiquitous Napa Valley and even before the state in which it resides existed, the Ohio River Valley was our country’s premier wine region. By the numbers, it was the largest grape-growing area in the United States; inside the city limits during Cincinnati’s prime grape-growing era in the 1850s, there were 2,000 acres of vines. Today, there are that many acres of vines spread across the entire state. But Skeleton Root owner and vintner Kate MacDonald is reinvigorating the city’s deep-rooted heritage by highlighting local grapes — the most well-known of which is the catawba — along with regional (and when necessary, continental) grapes. Skeleton Root wines are produced in-house in OTR with minimal intervention, showcasing the terroir of the fruit in bottles of red, white and even rosé wine. The tasting room, with its beautiful illustration of grape harvesters on a Cincinnati hillside, is a perfect backdrop for happy hour and rotating live music, food and yoga events. The Skeleton Root, 38 W. McMicken Ave., Over-the-Rhine, 513-918-3015, skeletonroot.com.
2. Molly Wellmann (Japp’s)
3. Nonta Perkins (MOTR Pub)
2. Justin Simmons (Sundry and Vice)
3. Bennett Cooper (16-Bit Bar+Arcade)
Popular Northside brewery/venue Urban Artifact attracts a crowd with fresh beer and mostly free live music — it even has a Swing dance night on certain Sunday afternoons, and longtime local favorites the Blue Wisp Big Band perform every Wednesday. Its appeal also expands beyond the expected age range for a “bar.” The brewery has a huge selection of board games and allows kids in with accompanying adults, so some evenings can turn into genuine family affairs, especially on warmer nights, with parents letting their kids run around in the yard between the converted church and the rectory buildings. And you thought the only options for “beer-assisted family game night” were at home or at an overcrowded Dave and Buster’s. Urban Artifact, 1660 Blue Rock St., Northside, 513-620-4729, artifactbeer.com.
Shopping locally is a great way to avoid those nightmarish day-after-Thanksgiving (aka “Black Friday”) sales at the mall or chain retail outlet stores. And if the person you’re buying a present for is a big music fan, Cincinnati musicians are now regularly providing some cool Black Friday options for your gift list. Timed to Record Store Day’s nationwide Black Friday alternative, local record shops in 2016 offered exclusives from local artists like Country singer/songwriter Jeremy Pinnell (who reissued an expanded vinyl version of his stellar OH/KY album) and Wussy (which put out the rare Funeral Dress II acoustic album on vinyl for the first time). Legendary downtown bar Arnold’s Bar and Grill and Neltner Small Batch Records also teamed up for a great local-music holiday compilation (issued on vinyl), featuring Christmas-themed songs by Honey and Houston, The Part-Time Gentlemen, The Tillers and many other superb Roots/Americana acts.
