The East End hasn’t always been a main stop on most Cincinnatians’ nightlife or culinary tours of the city, but recent food and bar additions like Eli’s BBQ and Pearl’s have drawn renewed attention to the area, and for good reason.
A new collaboration between Eli’s and the folks behind another popular restaurant team — the Lang Thang Group — is the latest welcome addition to Columbia Tusculum: the newly christened Hi-Mark, a nautical sports bar with a menu that packs a punch.
The modern, open space is perfect for catching a ball game on one of the plentiful TVs or cozying up at a high-top table to enjoy one of the more creative culinary offerings you’ll find at a local sports bar. Both the menu and space are quirky — go check out the beer wolf statue on the second floor — but feel as natural as the bar offering Fresca. Some things are weird, but they work.
Half the menu comes from the Eli’s BBQ side, whose pulled pork sandwich and so-thick-it-breaks-your-plastic-spoon macaroni and cheese proved their worth long ago.
On any given day, Eli’s is so loaded with customers it could make the most chic and popular OTR restaurant jealous. Back when it had limited seating inside and outside, I remember waiting in line forever for one of the coveted indoor tables.
Hi-Mark’s other culinary inspiration comes from the Lang Thang side, the people that brought us the beloved Over-the-Rhine eateries Pho Lang Thang and Quan Hapa. Their flavors dance across Hi-Mark’s menu with the unreal Smoked Pork Bánh Mì and Lang Thang Chili. The South meets Vietnam in Hi-Mark’s Southern-Fried Chicken Thigh Sandwich, topped with tangy coleslaw and tossed in Buffalo sauce.
Wings are available in orders of six or 12 with sauces ranging from classic Buffalo style to Eli’s BBQ sauce, garlic pepper lime or a dry rub. A basket of crinkle fries can be “loaded” with variations of bacon, cheddar, green onion, tomatoes, scallions and either beer cheese or Lang Thang Chili.
Both of the bar’s signature sandwiches are served on hefty baguette-style breads with a heftier side of napkins. You’ll need all of them to clean yourself up with after wolfing down the food.
The Smoked Pork Bánh Mì I tried elevated Eli’s classic pulled pork sandwich to a new height, combining the meat with do chua, cucumber, Eli’s own BBQ sauce, cilantro and green onion.
The fermented bite of the pickled vegetables cut through the BBQ. If that’s not enough for you, each sandwich served with a side of golden crinkle fries.
I also opted to sample the bar’s Psychobeer Cheese, made with Mad- tree Psychopathy IPA (since what is more Cincinnati than food made out of an IPA?).
I dipped my crinkle fries in the beer cheese while watching a game on one of the bar’s many TVs. After consuming more delicious calories than Guy Fieri does in a week, I decided I needed a drink. One of the most accessible features of Hi-Mark is the cocktail menu.
Each drink includes the option to go with the basic well liquor served in the cocktail, or an upgrade to a premium liquor. The options show how well Hi-Mark understands its clientele: Some will want a fancy cocktail to savor the complexity, and some will want one just to knock back in a minute flat.
I went with the Cuba Libre, a mix of rum, simple syrup, lime juice and Coke. I’ve been a big fan of rum and cokes since my college days, but to see the Cuban cocktail done traditionally at an Ohio bar is interesting.
The Cuba Libre (meaning “Free Cuba”), rumored to have been invented in the early 1900’s, was consumed as a toast to the freedom of Cuba by Spanish-American war soldiers. Of course, back then it wasn’t coke, but cola — a mix of dark syrups with rum. The lime juice brings out the texture of the rum.
I went with the well rum for my Hi-Mark Cuba Libre, though I wish I’d upgraded to the premium — the sweetness of the simple syrup and Coke would be perfectly balanced by a smooth upper shelf rum.
If cocktails aren’t your thing, there are also a wide selection of craft brews like Blank Slate, Ballast Point, Woodburn and Rhinegeist, or just cozy up with a Miller High Life. The bar is gorgeously decorated with kitschy old signs and industrial lighting, but this isn’t a snobby OTR bar that will smirk when you order a High Life.
Like nearby Pearl’s, the building is a former home that was built in the 1860s. The bar exposes much of the early brickwork, and the basement game room feels like walking down into my family home’s lower level. It’s a warm and homey feeling.
The name Hi-Mark comes from the demarcation of where the floodwater peaked in 1937.
“The history of Cincinnati and the Ohio River will always be intertwined, and we wanted to respect and pay homage to that, especially since it has affected our project so directly,” said Mike Dew of Lang Thang Group in a news release marking the opening of the bar.
A true neighborhood feel permeates Hi-Mark. It’s a perfect addition to the East End — a modern watering hole that respects the history of the area and brings Cincinnati’s culinary renaissance to the locals.
This article appears in Oct 18-25, 2017.
