Food & Wine’s Senior Editor David Landsel could have been pandering directly to our outsized Midwestern egos when he named Over-the-Rhine as one of the most promising food scenes in the country.
Not only does he delve into the area’s excellent eats — historic, hip, hidden and all within blocks of each other — he also addresses the complex fall and rise of this gentrifying urban space, calling out the 19th-century Findlay Market as a neighborhood stalwart. Primarily he refers to OTR’s growth as comeback, because it is, and places a lot of that recognition on the Cincinnati food scene.
As Landsel says, “Cincinnati has always had (a local food scene), and a proper exploration will lead you all over the city, into rustic chili parlors and sparkling downtown dining rooms, out into the hills and across the river to Kentucky, but there is so much going on right here in Over-The-Rhine at the moment, complimenting the market and the other classic spots that held on tight through it all, that a thorough investigation of the neighborhood is all but required.
“With your two feet, the city's Red Bike program and the Bell Connector light rail, a whirlwind day in this fascinating neighborhood is easily accomplished, all without the aid of a car. Here's how you do it.”
He goes on to list the city's best eats, broken down by coffee and pastry stops, breakfast joints, Findlay Market favorites, lunch cafés, happy hour destinations and hip dinner spaces.
He names Collective Espresso as one of the city’s best modern coffee shops, along with Ferrari Barbershop & Coffee Co., Brown Bear Bakery and, of course, Holtman’s.
For breakfast, there’s Tucker’s and French Crust. For lunch? Quan Hapa and Panino. Happy hour suggestions include Rhinegeist, Revel OTR and Taft’s Ale House.
And to crown the evening, Landsel recommends Please, Sartre or Salazar — some of OTR's trendiest dining spots — and Longfellow for late-night pierogies.
Read the full story here.
