You’re reading part of our 2026 Best of Cincinnati edition. Explore the full guide, including winners for Food & Drink, Things to Do, Shopping, Services and People & Places.
Milkman founder Nick Pesola and current owner Paul Folker say they’re cooking up delicious burgers and shakes to fill a community need.
“In Over-the-Rhine, there’s plenty of gourmet burger spots or expensive, full-service restaurants,” Pesola said. “Personally, I like casual food. And more than anything, I like affordable food. I was like, ‘Why is everyone not doing the obvious in this area?'”
Since opening in September 2022, Milkman has become a staple of the neighborhood and the city at large. The restaurant is constantly overflowing with customers, it’s been the No. 1 restaurant in the area on Uber Eats for years and it took home six trophies in CityBeat’s 2026 Best of Cincinnati awards — including outright wins for Best Burger and Best Fries.
Milkman fits into a lot of categories: a retro diner with modern stylings; a fast-casual joint with fine-dining sensibilities; a simple, cheap menu with a deceptively large amount of work going into each and every item. Really, its entire menu could fit in one short paragraph. There’s a few burgers, a chicken sandwich, a salad, a couple sides, some hot dogs, a kid’s menu and a short list of milkshakes with the option to add booze to each.
Burgers at Milkman start at just $7 — a rarity in a neighborhood full of lunch meals that can run upwards of $30 or $40. Keeping the price point low while maintaining a level of quality that’s a lot higher than you’d find at your average fast food spot is why the restaurant is a perennial community favorite.
“When I designed the concept, I thought, if we could have only one of each type of item, what would we have? And how could we make it as good as humanly possible while remaining simple and inexpensive?” Pesola said. “There’s this vein of simplicity that runs through everything we do. It’s not like we’re gonna start doing wagyu burgers or something. People will say they want wagyu, but then you hand them the bill and they’re like ‘never mind.'”
The building that houses Milkman was originally home to Pesola’s first restaurant. After working under Folker at Dewey’s Pizza for several years, he struck out on his own to begin the chicken-focused spot Revolution Rotisserie as a tent at Findlay Market in 2014. It was a huge hit, and eventually he expanded to a brick-and-mortar in Milkman’s current building before spinning off a second location in Pleasant Ridge. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic decimated business.
“I got burned by COVID, and I was like, ‘This one can’t fail.’ So if I was going to build a concept that couldn’t fail, it needed to be one that really resonates with people,” Pesola said. “The irony of this is that it’s actually incredibly complex to create a simple restaurant that only does a few things.”
While Pesola was sitting at a local coffee shop prior to Milkman’s opening, he was furiously scribbling ideas in his notebook for what the restaurant should be called and how it should look. Then he looked on the wall and saw a painting of a “psychedelic cow,” and the name came to him.
“And then the weirdest thing happened,” he said. “The lady next to me asked what I was working on, and I told her I was sketching out my next restaurant concept that I was probably going to call Milkman. She gasped and said her father was a milkman. And I immediately got chills. What are the chances? Like, that’s so unlikely.”
He sat and talked with the woman for a while, then incorporated some of the stories he heard about her father into the restaurant’s branding and atmosphere. With their mascot, a burly, “badass” milkman, he indicates that the diners of old have been brought into the 21st century.
“There’s a lot of innuendos in our branding. Like our slogan, ‘a damn good time.’ It’s a double entendre referencing the milkman hooking up with the housewife or whatever. I just leaned into that,” Pesola said. “Our milkman, he’s a real person, you know? He’s got a little dirt on his scrubs, and he’s got some stubble, and he puts bourbon in his milkshake. He runs marathons, but then he’ll get a double cheeseburger and fries to reward himself.”
As Pesola transitioned careers to become a commercial real estate agent and business broker, he couldn’t imagine anyone better to take ownership of Milkman than Folker, his former mentor. While Pesola is still involved with the restaurant, Folker now handles day-to-day operations.
“I actually had moved to Asheville, North Carolina, but was still working with Nick in a consulting capacity,” Folker said. “But then he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse with Milkman … and I got to move back and fall in love with Cincinnati all over again. It’s been my dream to have a restaurant my entire life. I kinda feel like I’m in bizarro world every day, ’cause I’m living the dream now. I have to pinch myself all the time to make sure it’s real.”
In the near future, Folker has some fun surprises coming up for the city’s annual Burger Week that he’s tight-lipped about. He also plans to produce several “interactive moments” at the restaurant for BLINK, the biannual light and art festival that just happens to take place right outside Milkman’s front door.
Folker credits his team for the restaurant’s continued prosperity, and takes special care to shout out his executive chef, Myke Brake. He credits Milkman’s success to the restaurant’s two most important aspects.
“Simplicity is good,” Folker said. “And simplicity is our secret sauce, so to speak. Our success comes from our simplicity. And then we focus all of our effort on doing the little things right, focusing on the basics, and that builds consistency. It’s all about having a good time and eating some really good food. To be honest with you, what we do is not flashy or groundbreaking, but it works. It’s blue collar work, and we’re not afraid of it, and we embrace the fundamentals.”
Milkman is located at 1106 Race St. in Over-the-Rhine. Find them online at milkmanbar.com.
This article appears in Best of Cincinnati 2026.
