It’s Time for Another Tea Dance is one of the best ways to spend a Sunday Funday in Cincinnati. Once a month, these afternoon parties unfold at a different local bar, inviting the LGBTQ community and allies to get together for cocktails, dancing and to bolster local LGBTQ culture. The “tea dance” is a revived tradition that dates back to the 1940s and ’50s when it functioned as an event in which gay couples could openly interact with one another. “That’s how the tea dances really started, in these tea rooms where same-sex couples could meet, socialize and dance. Back then it was a refined affair,” says Cincinnati Tea Dance co-founder Richard Cooke. “Nice music, maybe a string quartet, there’d be some dancing and if the police came they would scramble and opposite-sex couples would be dancing.” It wasn’t until the Stonewall Riots of 1969 that the modern gay rights movement began to surface into the mainstream. And with it, the dances. In the past, Cooke says tea dances were mainly comprised of white, gay men. When he and his husband Marty decided to bring the tradition back in April 2017, they wanted that to change. One of the goals was to serve the underrepresented community in Cincinnati. And so far, It’s Time for Another Tea Dance has been a resounding success, introducing people to bars they might not frequent — and 400 to 500 new friends and peers. It’s Time for Another Tea Dance, facebook.com/teadancecinci.

2. The Blind Lemon

3. The Overlook Lodge

2. Sundry and Vice

3. MOTR Pub

2. Dutch’s

3. Oakley Pub and Grill

2. Fox & Hound

3. Back Porch Saloon

2. Coppin’s Restaurant & Bar

3. Bobby Mackey’s

2. The Crow’s Nest

3. Knotty Pine Rock Club & Tiki Bar

2. MOTR Pub

3. The Southgate House Revival

2. The Southgate House Revival

3. Madison Theater

2. Sundry and Vice

3. Queen City Exchange

2. Molly Wellmann (Japp’s)

3. Sara Hutslar (MadTree Brewing)

2. Giacomo Ciminello (Night Drop)

3. Nick Squeri (Queen City Exchange)

2. Higher Gravity

3. Queen City Exchange

If there’s one thing Cincinnatians love more than a local brewery, it’s a local brewery with an outdoor drinking area — especially if that drinking area happens to be elevated (cough Rhinegeist cough). So when Braxton Brewing Co. announced a $5 million expansion plan in January, which includes a 5,000-square-foot rooftop deck, it just gave us one more reason to love the Cov and Braxton. The plan permits the brewery to ramp up annual production to 30,000 barrels to allow them to better serve beer drinkers locally and throughout Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Renderings show astroturf, lawn games (aka cornhole), outdoor seating, string lights and fire pits plus a view of the city. The upstairs bar will pour Braxton brews and serve cocktails and the brewery’s new Vive hard seltzer. The rooftop is currently under construction and is expected to open in summer 2019. Braxton Brewing Co., 27 W. Seventh St., Covington, braxtonbrewing.com.

2. Arnold’s Bar & Grill

3. Hang Over Easy

4. The Eagle OTR

5. Northside Yacht Club

6. Maplewood Kitchen and Bar

7. Higher Gravity

8. Taste of Belgium

9. Redwine & Co.

10. S.W. Clyborne Co.

At the end of February 2019, The Anchor-OTR announced it was closing its doors after seven years of slinging super-fresh seafood to Cincinnatians at the corner of 14th and Race streets. It’s always sad to lose a favorite neighborhood haunt, and the loss of the Anchor will be felt quite deeply by fish fans … and bloody mary stans. The restaurant conjured up what might be the city’s most decadent drink via its Longshorman’s Bloody Mary. Named in homage of 1934’s “Bloody Thursday,” when longshoremen went on strike along the Pacific Coast, this drink balanced spice, acidity, sweetness and several sea creatures. The housemade base consisted of tomato juice, horseradish, pickle and olive juice, four different hot sauces, sugar, cayenne, garlic and a touch of umami with Old Bay seasoning. But it went big with the garnish, showcasing the Anchor’s fresh seafood with the option to add a lobster claw, shrimp or an oyster for an upcharge. It was big, bold and beautiful. And its loss is enough to shed a salty tear over.

2. Sundry and Vice

3. Old Kentucky Bourbon Bar

2. Newberry Bros. Coffee & Prohibition Bourbon Bar

3. Wiseguy Lounge

2. Jungle Jim’s International Market

3. DEP’s Fine Wine and Spirits