Foodie Jason Klapfish has traveled the world, including the Arctic Circle and half of Mexico. Not one to settle down, Cincinnati is the only place he keeps coming back to.
Current dining room manager of Tavern on the Hill’s Hillside Room in Mount Adams, Klapfish won’t be in Cincinnati for long — he’s leaving for Europe in March to work on a book about his life and travels. In the meantime, you can find him at the Hillside Room, giving guests free wine tastings and suggesting customized appetizers for each table with the guidance of Executive Chef James Stamper. He can tell you more about food and just about every city in the world than most people in the service industry.
Q: What’s the coolest thing about you?
Klapfish: (Laughs). My pursuit not to be cool. I’m just open to anything. Out to see as much as I can.
Q: What’s the coolest thing about your job?
Klapfish: I love the restaurant business. I like the quaintness of this place. What I enjoy doing is going into a place and helping them reorganize and define the cuisine, reestablishing the finer twist. We’re going to be casualing down at the Hillside Room, going with an Italian-American menu. Right now, people look in the window and they’re intimidated. That’s going to change.
Q: What’s the coolest thing about introducing people to new wine and food tastes?
Klapfish: People’s reactions. Everybody tastes differently and thinks differently, like with everything in life. It’s a sense — you’re involving senses in it, so it’s a very neat thing. What I think about the food or wine doesn’t really matter; it’s how other people react to it that matters.
TAVERN ON THE HILL is located at 1111 St. Gregory St., Mount Adams, 513-421-3309.
