Best of Cincinnati 2017

Mar 30 - Apr 6, 2017 / Vol. 26 / No. 13

Best Massive Brewery Expansion

Cincinnati is exploding with new craft breweries these days, but that doesn’t mean the early entries into the market are resting on their laurels. The latest massive investment by a local brewery was MadTree Brewing’s $18 million expansion in Oakley. After just two years, the company realized the need for MadTree 2.0, presumably due to…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Architectural Recreation of Noah’s Ark

Since — despite what Ken Ham says — nobody knows what Noah’s Ark really looked like or even if it actually existed, forget that humongous “life-sized” behemoth of a recreation at Northern Kentucky’s Ark Encounter and go for something more human-scale and charming. Like the small ark with cartoon-like animal figures parked outside the All…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Restaurant To Park Yourself For Three Square Meals

Pleasantry is named after a street — the building sits at the corner of West 15th and Pleasant — but it’s also the perfect description of this polished-yet-easygoing gem of a restaurant. Their motto — “Sip slow. Drink easy. Eat right.” — feels so doable in this calm, inviting space that a person could return…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Homage To American Cheese

Most people don’t have pleasant associations with the phrase “American cheese.” However, The Rhined, opening soon in Over-the-Rhine, aims to change that. The artisanal cheese store focuses on carrying the very best domestic cheese the United States has to offer, as well as wine, beer, nuts, olives and jams to accompany the dairy of your…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Wedding Dress Shop For The Digital Age

LUXEredux Bridal is a high-end consignment boutique that offers gently used designer wedding gown without the big price tags. Designers like Vera Wang, Pronovias, Badgley Mischka and more are all represented and affordable — tons of options under $1,000. The gowns are boutique samples or once-worn garments — all of which are available online. If…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Honest Card Line

“No one wants to hear it will happen when it’s supposed to — people hate that.” That’s what the hand-drawn black and white script reads on the front of one of ap loves design’s fertility cards. Already a successful local card line with whimsical and cute sentiments for birthdays, babies and big events, designer Andi…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Seemingly Doomed Concert Series

The springtime Tunes & Blooms concerts at the Cincinnati Zoo over the past several years have offered wonderful experiences. Timed to the blooming of flowers in the beautiful gardens scattered around zoo grounds, the free event has allowed some of the best musical acts in Cincinnati (artists from Walk the Moon to The Cliftones to Jake…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Free Persian Tea

Covington’s House of Grill is the Cincinnati (and Dayton) area’s only bona fide Persian restaurant. Their tea, which is served in a glass teacup, is complimentary with an entrée, and it’s made with strong black tea and cardamom pods and comes with sugar cubes. And refills are free. While you’re there sipping your tea, stay for…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Jewelry Line For Locals Into Bdsm

Mainstream vanilla culture got sucked into the world of BDSM when the Fifty Shades of Grey book series became a runaway bestseller and then a film franchise. Although not her direct intention, local maker and metalsmith Suzanne Applebaum Jewelry crafts a tantalizing line of leather and bullet casing choker necklaces, bolo ties and forged metal collars for ladies…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Baby Bump

A light bulb went off for entrepreneur and owner of OTR’s Sloane boutique, Duru Armagan, when she was navigating the waters of pregnancy, approaching motherhood and celebrating five years in business. Inspired by her infant daughter (and outfitting her in cute clothes) she undertook new venture sloanebaby. With borrowed square footage from the existing Sloane…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way To Prep For Opening Day

Baseball season is a big deal in Cincinnati. Opening Day is basically an unofficial holiday because everyone either leaves work to get drunk at the parade or go to the first Reds game of the year. To capture that excitement all the time — and on your wrist — Game Day Feels sells bracelets and accessories…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Use of Unemployment as Material for a Play

After getting laid off from her job in radio, Laila B. Hameen began working on her résumé. Recognizing it as a roadmap of her life, she soon found herself occupied by writing Laid Off: A One Woman Show, a monologue that traces her journey from childhood to adulthood. Serving as writer, actor, director and DIY…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Sonic Boom Heard Around Cincinnati’s Classical Music Scene

There was a lot of anxiety about how the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra would sound in the Taft Theatre, its temporary home while Music Hall undergoes renovation. The opening notes of the CSO’s season opener with Emanuel Ax dispelled any doubts, and it’s been uphill all the way. Thanks to the geniuses at Akustiks, an internationally recognized…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Rebranding Of A Perfectly Good Restaurant

When chef Mark Bodenstein opened NuVo in Covington in 2014, it became the area’s first tasting-menu-only restaurant. Apparently Cincinnatians gave the avant-garde eatery tepid reception, so Bodenstein began offering an à la carte menu along with the original. When that didn’t gel, he and his team decided to change the name and concept to a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Fancy Bar Bites

Visiting OTR cocktail lounge Japp’s is already a bit like walking into an era gone by, the space’s sprawling, high ceilings reflecting the low light back down upon your friendly, hip server. So when proprietor Molly Wellmann added a snack menu last year, it was expected to be crafted with as much care as her historically…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Drag Act by Ebenezer Scrooge

Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati’s production of The Legend of Georgia McBride told the story of an Elvis impersonator required to change over to a drag act to spur attendance at a down-on-its-luck bar. As the title character, Michael Gerard Carr made the unlikely transformation guided by a veteran drag queen named Tracy, played by Bruce Cromer. If…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Source of New Opera

For the past six years, Opera Fusion: New Works — a collaboration between the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music and Cincinnati Opera, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation — has been a launching pad for new operas through intensive 10-day residencies. Six operas have gone on to world premieres, including last summer’s acclaimed Fellow Travelers.…

by CityBeat Staff

BEST VODKA PIZZA

Strong’s Brick Oven Pizzeria is not just another pizza joint. Although the house-like exterior doesn’t necessarily stand out of the Newport on the Levee crowd with screaming colorful signs or a decked-out front entrance, the inside is equipped with a state of the art pizza-making machine hailing from Italy — one big brick oven. The…

by CityBeat Staff

Best kegged coffee

Hyde Park’s third-wave coffee shop M5 Espresso eschews local roasters for specially sourced beans from Seattle, Brooklyn, South Carolina and even Berlin, Germany. The menu is simple: batch brew, manual brew, Aeropress and lattes, plus a variety of Spirit Teas. But they’re one of the only coffee shops in the country to offer complex and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Harmonies

Lovers of A Cappella music in 2016 were well served locally by singers who don’t need anything but great voices to entertain. The holiday season afforded two opportunities to hear polished performances by male singers and beat-boxers. The Cincinnati-based “vocal band” No Promises conducted its Christmas tour of six cities in western Ohio, including its second-annual…

by CityBeat Staff

Best infuriating politics-induced traffic jam

After the election, it was a little hard for our now-president to stop campaigning. It’s understandable: the adulation of the crowds, the bright lights, the pumped-up soundtracks made up mostly of Billy Joel echoing through the half-full arenas, the occasional violence from your supporters toward peaceful protesters — it’s gotta be a wild ride. The…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Urban Jungle

Formerly an appointment-only florist and flower shop, Eden Floral Boutique recently opened their Walnut Street storefront to the public. Step inside to purchase a curated line of houseplants, succulents, containers and grab-and-go bouquets or just peruse the fresh flower bar for inspiration. Shop owners Kelly Murphy and Kelly Dragoo studied floral design in Boston and London,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Croissandwich

The expanded French Crust Café is the first full-service brunch and dinner bistro in Findlay Market, and its offerings are as delicious as ever. With expansive windows and golden yellow walls festooned with colorful posters and ceramics from chef Jean-Robert de Cavel’s vast personal collection of très French memorabilia, it’s a Francophile’s dream — a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Eggless Egg Salad Sandwich

For those of you who enjoy the thought of an egg salad sandwich but don’t want to eat the crushed up ovum of a chicken, Fresh Table at Findlay Market has a clever and flavorful alternative. The seasonally focused chef-owned and -operated prepared-food vendor makes a remarkable vegan eggless egg salad with perfectly mushy and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Destination To Buy Some Old Stuff

Ohio Valley Antique Mall is the definitive place to go in Greater Cincinnati for collectors of old stuff, almost all of which is interesting if not destined for your home. Take our word for it: You could spend an entire day here. More than 550 dealers and an endless number of aisles will send you…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Chance for a Movie Filmed in Cincinnati in 2016 to Be Good

Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos and Colin Farrell, the director and star of the dark, edgy, dystopian comedy (and surprise hit)The Lobster, were in Cincinnati to film the follow-up, the promisingly titled The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Farrell toldIndieWire that it makes The Lobster “seem like a kids’ movie” and also called the film “bleak.” Sounds like a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best intra-party schism, local division

The year 2016 witnessed the continued widening of a big split in Cincinnati and Hamilton County politics: a rift between two factions of the local Democratic Party. On one side are established players with mostly moderate policies like Mayor John Cranley. On the other, to varying degrees, are younger, generally more progressive politicians and candidates…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Local Badass, Original-Music-Making Machines

Mad Anthony’s “Mad Anthology” project made the famously (infamously?) prolific Robert Pollard of Dayton, Ohio’s Guided By Voices (who released his 100th album this year) look like Axl Rose. In late winter 2016, the Cincinnati Rock trio launched the project, for which the band promised to release a new song weekly for 52 weeks. The group…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Art Gallery Inside a Skate Shop

If you’ve never been inside The Galaxie Skateshop in Northside, you may have steered clear because teen (and adult) skateboarders can be intimidating if you’re not one. But that would be a big mistake. Not only would you be missing out on a local community of beanied athletes and the nicest guys in town, you’d also…

by CityBeat Staff

BEST NEW REASON TO WALK ON WOODBURN

Woodburn Brewery is one of the city’s newer microbreweries in general and, more specifically, one of the newer highlights of East Walnut Hills’ booming Woodburn Avenue. The brewery and taproom were created by an L.A. Transplant and lifelong Cincinnatian, combining — as the website says — “West Side hustle and West Coast swagger.” Their innovative beer…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way To 3-D Print Without Draining Your Bank Account

Interested in 3-D printing but don’t have $1,000 to blow? The main branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has a solution. The library’s MakerSpace aims to foster creativity, learning and collaboration by providing upscale equipment like 3-D printers, Canon DSLR cameras, laser engravers, sewing stations and an audio conversion booth. The best…

by CityBeat Staff

Best baby boom

It’s been a big year for babies at the Cincinnati Zoo. Since being born six weeks early on Jan. 24, baby hippo Fiona has become a bona fide local celebrity. Initially weighing just 29 pounds, the tiny baby inspired the hashtag #TeamFiona as the city anxiously awaited daily updates on her condition. But the hippo…

by CityBeat Staff

Best reason For A Brewery Crawl In The East End

Over the past couple of years, Bad Tom Smith Brewing and Blank Slate Brewing Company have established themselves within about a five-minute drive from each other. Last fall, Streetside Brewery completed the easternly craft beer triumvirate, opening a mere three-minute walk from Blank Slate and featuring playfully named brews like Raspberry Beret and a Stranger Things-named beer called “011 (EL)” (if…

by CityBeat Staff

Best NKU D-I Splash Part II

Just across campus, another NKU squad powered through the four-year reclassification process to find success in its first year of Division I eligibility. The Northern Kentucky University women’s soccer team wasted little time breaking through with a league championship, also playing in the NCAA Tournament for their first time. The Norse lost in the first round…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Character Award to Top a Great Hoops Career

University of Cincinnati point guard Troy Caupain this spring wrapped up a tremendous career on the hardwood for the Bearcats. When he showed up in Clifton from Midlothian, Va. four years ago, the then-17-year-old hit the ground running, contributing significant minutes on a good team as a true freshman. He’s been UC’s floor general ever since,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Strip Club Turned Modern Cocktail Lounge

Northern Kentucky’s “strip club” scene’s loss was the area’s classy cocktail lounge scene’s gain with the opening of Covington’s The Globe. The former Club Venus sign is still outside, but little else remains from the structure’s days as a non-nude strip joint. Redeveloped relatively quickly (over the course of a year), The Globe is a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Classic Old Fashioned in Classic Surroundings

Who doesn’t want to drink fancy drinks in a blinging Art-Deco palace? Well, maybe people who don’t drink, which is totally fine. You should still go to Orchids at Palm Court’s bar and get some appetizers concocted by AAA five-diamond chef Todd Kelly and take in one of the most ornate locations in Cincinnati. If…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Portrayal of a Badass Female Scientist

Know Theatre’s production of Silent Sky back in April 2016 took a compelling look at gender equality in the world of science. Lauren Gunderson’s play portrayed Henrietta Leavitt, a real-life aspiring astronomer from the early 20th century who had to work doubly hard to earn recognition for her scientific insights, surrounded by male scientists who relegated…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Deli-Style Egg Salad Sandwich

For more than 25 years, Fred & Gari’s has been a bustling favorite of the downtown lunch crowd, with its ’80s-throwback neon sign, house-roasted meats and homemade dessert. The deli also specializes in a damn-good $8 soup-and-sandwich combo. Daily soup flavors are listed on a whiteboard outside the standing-room-only take-out (and on Facebook), and customers…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Dinner Club WE’LL MISS

Every month in 2016, the farm-to-table connoisseurs at Nectar Restaurant hosted a five-course themed dinner club built around a single country or geographical location; recent installments have revolved around India, Vietnam, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. Part of the goal was to connect diners with local farmers, producers and growers, who attended the events and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Local History Presence on Facebook

Amid the “If you grew up in (blank), then you might remember” pages on Facebook where everyone wants to reminisce about favorite teachers, there are two devoted to local history that are incredibly resourceful at finding old photographs and odd stories. At Old Photos of Cincinnati, the guidelines for the public group’s 57,000-plus members are…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Ambassador for Poetry

There are many reasons why when choosing its first Poet Laureate, Cincinnati got it right in bestowing the honor to Pauletta Hansel. A lifelong devotee to poetry in both her teaching and her writing, she has taken an often-honorary position to new heights with a philosophy of inclusion and participation. Making good on her promise…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Reason To Eat Off The Floor

No, it’s not the five-second rule. Coppin’s restaurant in Hotel Covington is swanky and cool, an amazing eatery in Covington’s up-and-coming city center. And several of their delicious dishes are served on hand-crafted planks that were originally floorboards in the 1910 building. The sweet corn fritters are savory bite-sized delights spiced with smoked togarashi, a Japanese…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Bird In A Frame Shop

Helmed by a rag-tag collection of good-looking dudes and craftsmen, frameshop specializes in modern framing applications for unique artwork and prints to display your favorite pieces to their best effects. With multiple locations full of wall-hanging oddities and a new Hyde Park storefront, the custom framery’s unofficial head of customer service is Yellow-Naped Amazon parrot Jamie.…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Place To Find A Brush For Any Job

Hayes Shanesy and Rosie Kovacs are the duo behind Brush Factory, a contemporary furniture maker and storefront with a focus on beauty and simplicity inspired by fashion, art and the natural world. The new Brush Factory shop on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine is 2,300 square feet of space that accommodates both the house bff line…

by CityBeat Staff

Museum Exhibit

2. Vikings: Beyond the Legend (Cincinnati Museum Center) 3. Dressing Downton: Changing Fashion for Changing Times (Taft Museum of Art)

by CityBeat Staff

Best Contemporary Church Steeples

When Crossroads church started its restoration of the fire-damaged and vacant 1873 Old St. George Catholic Church in Clifton Heights near the University of Cincinnati, it knew it needed to somehow replace the two 169-foot-tall steeples that were destroyed in a 2008 blaze. After all, they were landmarks. But how to do it without reverting to…

by CityBeat Staff

New Bar/Club (Since March 2016

2. The Rook OTR 3. Mecca OTR 4. The Video Archive 5. Queen City Exchange 6. Molly Malone’s (Pleasant Ridge) 7. The Mockbee 8. The Hannaford 9. Crafts & Vines 10. Smoke Justis

by CityBeat Staff

Best Adult Pop-Tart

Very few things beat waking up in the morning as a kid and sliding twin Pop-Tarts into the toaster for a morning jolt of sugar. Benjamin Arington, owner, creator and chef of Fat Ben’s Bakery, has taken that childhood nostalgia and updated it for 2017 (and for grown-ups) with the creation of his pastry pockets.…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Expansion For Late-Night Taco Lovers

If you’ve ever had more than a few drinks in Over-the-Rhine, you’ve probably eaten at Gomez Salsa’s walk-up window. Serving homemade tacos, salsa and their infamous Turtles (a burrito stuffed with everything you could ever want, including a tostada for crunch), the window is open until 2:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Their new Walnut Hills…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Cornucopia of Free Arts Offerings

No other Cincinnati entity presents a similar array of imaginative programming as Northside’s Chase Public, a feat made doubly impressive by the fact that each program happens outside any regular funding and is free. The group features poetry readings, some where the only rule is that no original work is allowed; the popular “Response Project,”…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Use of a Living Room for Intellectual Refinement

Ever wonder what it would have been like to experience Felix Mendelssohn performing in someone’s living room? In the 19th century, you could have. Salon 21 endeavors to update the salon, a gathering of people interested in refinement and knowledge, most commonly associated with the French literary and intellectual gatherings of the 17th and 18th centuries.…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Photograph Displayed During the 2016 FotoFocus Biennial

Frank Gohlke’s 1974 black-and-white “Grain Elevators, Cyclone, Minneapolis,” with its fascinating robot-like piece of industrial equipment on the ground outside some rather dreary buildings, became the symbol for the Weston Art Gallery show After Industry, which itself came to remind us of an America — a world — that is past forever, despite the politicians…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Revamped Ramen House

Formerly known as Maki Express, this itty, bitty izakaya (sans booze) has been a mainstay in Clifton Heights for more than a decade. And after a recent modern makeover, the eatery has reopened with a new name — Maki Express Ramen House — a new look and a new menu. Brightly colored Pop art murals…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Art on Wheels

POPP=D ART gallery borrowed the food truck concept and hit the road last summer and fall to bring art to overlooked neighborhoods. People’s Liberty grantees Janet Creekmore, Melissa “Mellkat” Mitchell and Ben Jason Neal renovated a cozy 1963 Rainbow camper and filled it from floor to ceiling with locally made pieces measuring no more than…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Johnny Cash Impression

While award-winning local Outlaw Country music hero Dallas Moore has certainly been influenced by the Man in Black (not many genuine Country artists haven’t), he’s far from a sound-alike copy of Johnny Cash. But Moore paid more subtle tribute to Cash in 2016 when he ventured to Kentucky’s Bullitt County and performed for prisoners at…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way to Eavesdrop on Your Favorite Local Creatives

If you’ve ever wondered exactly who is behind your favorite local brands, businesses or creative work, look no further than the Creative City podcast. Host Tamia Stinson (of The Style Sample blog) sits down with everyone — from fashion designers and photographers to artists and entrepreneurs — for casual conversations about how they got started and where…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Tartar Sauce And Tall Tales

Since 1979, Elmer Ferguson, the owner of the Old Timber Inn in Northside, has injected the restaurant with an air of his snarky personality and sense of fun. Known colloquially as “the fish logs place” because the sign in front of the blue-gray building perpetually advertises fish logs, Elmer is proprietor, chef and on a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best promising co-op market

It’s been a long time coming, but the former Keller’s IGA in Clifton is finally a grocery store again. After Keller’s went out of business in 2011 following tax woes, it was an open question whether another grocery store would take its place in Clifton’s once-bustling business district. Six years later, Clifton Market is a reality.…

by CityBeat Staff

Best New/Old Development in Photography

After camera shops closed and other institutions dismantled their darkrooms in favor of digital photography, Manifest Drawing Center saw a different trend. In the fall, it opened a community-access darkroom for shutterbugs who wanted to slow down and develop their own black-and-white pictures again. For those who never shot film, it added introductory classes taught by…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Top Soccer Draft Pick Part I

It didn’t take long for Cincinnati native Rose Lavelle to prove herself on the soccer field at the University of Wisconsin. After leaving Mount Notre Dame High School as its all-time leading scorer, Lavelle went on to earn Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors in 2013 and was named to the All-Big Ten team all…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Inaugural Coffee Festival

On Nov. 20, CityBeat contributing writer Ilene Ross and her daughter Cami organized the city’s first coffee showcase, Pour Over Cincy/NKY, based on a similar fest from Ann Arbor, Mich., also organized by Cami. The Northern Kentucky Incubator Kitchen hosted roasteries/coffee shops, such as Deeper Roots and Carabello, which used apparatus like a siphon and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Twist On Tapioca And Tea

Essencha Tea House in Oakley is a haven for tea lovers. With an extensive menu of green, black, white, oolong, herbal and rooibos teas, plus a line of infusions from local Lola’s Botanicals, the tea selection (which you can sample for free) is about as vast as the café menu, which features edibles like kimchi…

by CityBeat Staff

Best new idea to fight violence in Cincinnati’s neighborhoods

While overall violent crime in Cincinnati is still well below levels seen in decades past, the city saw a devastating number of shootings in 2016 — enough to be featured in national media, including a New York Times article on gun violence. While some officials have called for still more police officers on the street, Councilwoman Yvette…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Two-Wheeled Urban Core Adventure

If you’re looking for a fresh way to experience the sights and sounds of downtown, Over-the-Rhine and surrounding areas, pull the old 10-speed or beach cruiser out of the garage and make your way to Fountain Square. Every Tuesday night (in warmer months) the Urban Basin Bicycle Club leads a novice-level group ride around town, stopping…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Rare Sighting of a Local Film Festival

Let’s face it — Cincinnati has really struggled with film festivals. But in 2016, there was at least one notable success. The Cincinnati Art Museum presented the traveling Internet Cat Video Festival, which offered some 100 videos that were — dare we say it — curated by people who actually feel watching cat videos is…

by CityBeat Staff

Overall Restuarant

2. Dewey’s Pizza 3. Jeff Ruby’s The Precinct 4. The Eagle 5. Boca 6. Incline Public House 7. Taste of Belgium 8. Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse 9. Mazunte 10. Orchids at Palm Court

by CityBeat Staff

Best congressional globe-trotter

Since rebounding from his 2008 loss to Steve Driehaus and returning to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011, Rep. Steve Chabot has flown to 46 countries on 16 separate excursions, gracing the likes of Mongolia, Myanmar and Moldova with his presence. The tab to taxpayers? Almost $200,000. But it’s unclear exactly what those trips, taken…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Top Soccer Draft Pick Part II

While all eyes were on FC Cincinnati’s ongoing bid to join Major League Soccer’s expansion efforts, Xavier footballer Jalen Brown was showing scouts why they should add him to an MLS roster. Brown’s efforts paid off — after participating in the 2017 MLS player combine in Los Angeles, the former Musketeer was drafted in the second…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Musical Menu Series

High-end steak, seafood and pasta restaurant Boca marked its 15th anniversary this year, and to celebrate, it set out to push the limits of its already high standards. Enter Boca Cadenza, a dining experience inspired by Classical music and short, intense instrumental solos. The three cadenza-themed dining performances are held for approximately four weeks each…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Antiquing In Burlington

The antiques and vintage-only collectibles Burlington Antique Market features more than 200 dealers hawking everything from giant metal letters and vintage postcards to industrial lighting, old globes, 1960s Fiestaware and more. Held third Sundays from April to October, the first fair of the season signals the approach of spring. It’s generally pretty crowded, so if you’re…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Cha-Chunker Outside Of Nyc

Mecca OTR, a new no-frills, local-artist-decorated bar in Over-the-Rhine, specializes in a cocktail called a Chunker. Basically, the drink involves taking a tiny airplane bottle of liquor and placing it upside down in the mouth of a full can of San Pellegrino sparkling water. A machine called an arbor press widens the mouth  of a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Replacement For Neon’s

For several years, Neons Unplugged was the place to be for al fresco drinking in Over-the-Rhine, be you a Friday-night millennial or Sunday-afternoon old-timer watching the Bengals have their asses handed to them in the final moments of some meaningless game. Neighborhood residents and bar-goers were all broken up to hear they were closing their…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Incubator For Food Innovators

With fresh produce and affordable eats from around the world, Findlay Market is a melting pot of global cultures, right in the heart of Cincinnati. And expanding on those core values of community, inclusivity and social interaction is the market-adjacent nonprofit organization Findlay Kitchen. The community space aims to give new food entrepreneurs a chance…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Artist Statement of the Year

For their contribution to Aural Latrinalia: The Bathroom Show, the exhibition of sound art installed in six public restrooms around town, the duo Intermedio — Sam Ferris and Justin West — had this to say about their piece “Outdoor Inhouse” at the Weston Art Gallery: ‘‘ ‘Outdoor Inhouse’ engages the controlled, plastic quality of contemporary…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Store In A Bar

Helmed by Cheapside Café co-owners Joe and Robin Creighton and Jon Mouch, Mecca OTR is a cool new bar reminiscent of a place you’d stumble upon in Alphabet City in the 1970s. With a giant patio area and hidden entrance, the bar gets its name from the former Cincy saloon where Boss Cox had his…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Baking Businesses Inspired By Mental Health And ‘2 Broke Girls’

Baking in college helped James Avant IV manage his symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Inspired by the cupcake Cinderella story in the comedy 2 Broke Girls, Avant took his helpful hobby and turned it into a successful business. OCD Cakes is a bakery with a mental health-awareness mission, based out of Findlay Kitchen, with cake flavors ranging from…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Cheap Dolsot Bibimbap

Dolsot bibimbap is a Korean dish served in a hot stone bowl with rice, assorted veggies, a sunny-side-up egg and some type of protein — usually tofu, pork or beef. It’s served to you steaming hot and then you mush up all the ingredients with gochujang chili pepper paste, toasting the ingredients on the side…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Casualty of the New Extra Point Distance

Nuge, we hardly knew you. Actually, we knew Bengals kicker Mike Nugent quite well going back to his days at Ohio State, where he was an All-American kicker before being drafted by the New York Jets. He became the Bengals’ kicker in 2010 and went on to set a team record for points and field goals…

by CityBeat Staff

Best college sports fake out

For a beautiful few weeks, it kinda seemed like the University of Cincinnati was about to join the big leagues. But it was all one big tease. After some flexing for one of the country’s top college sports conferences, we found out this past fall that UC won’t be joining the Big 12 any time soon.…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Architectural Artwork You Probably Haven’t Seen Yet

For almost three years now, the builder/artist Mark deJong has been transforming a Camp Washington three-floor, shotgun-style domicile into the Swing House, a large-scale art installation in which the interior has been almost completely opened up — no stairs, no floors, no rooms with walls. But the center attraction is a new 30-foot-long swing with…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Curated Cookware Collection

Husband-and-wife team Brad and Karen Hughes opened their Artichoke OTR storefront down the street from Findlay Market in order to offer marketgoers a convenient destination for cookware. From basics to unique pieces not available anywhere else — like the reissued Midcentury Modern Kobenstyle enamel cookware line from Dansk — you’ll find the tools you need to throw down…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Late-Season Run

The 2016 Xavier men’s baseball team rode a hot late-season streak to Big East regular season and tournament titles, catapulting them to their second NCAA Tournament appearance in three seasons. The Musketeers went 18-4 down the stretch, winning eight of their last 10 and beating Creighton 8-7 in a dramatic championship game. The Musketeers nearly…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Restaurant For The Well-Heeled — And The Rest Of Us Now And Then

Cincinnati’s newest addition to a rarefied level of restaurant — joining Orchids at Palm Court, Boca, Jeff Ruby’s and a couple of others — the Jean-Robert de Cavel/Richard Brown creation known as Restaurant L has its own upper-crust vibe. L is more intimate than Orchids, more contemporary than Ruby’s and, whenever you can swing it, a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best major bridge that needs a break

When the Brent Spence Bridge collapses and sends eight lanes of vehicles into the Ohio River, we will all wonder why construction of a new bridge hadn’t begun in 2016. After all, we had a president who wanted to spend more on infrastructure, a House speaker (John Boehner) from the Ohio side and the Senate majority…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Community Theater Imitating Broadway

The idea of seeing the landmark hippie-era Rock musical Hair at a tiny community theater in Newport is uninspiring. But after the last actor took his bow and three hours had flown by at a performance CityBeat witnessed, we walked away asking when the next Footlighters, Inc. show was coming to the Stained Glass Theater. The venue is nestled inside…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Letterpress Love Letters

A little snarky and a little sweet, Pistachio Press founder Rachael Hetzel designs letterpress prints and stationery for every station in life, from birthdays (“Happy Birthday. Let’s Get Fucked Up”) and babies (“Welcome to the flock”) to congrats cards (“You’re killin it like a fucking boss”) and, of course, wedding invitations. Wedding options run the gamut…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Gooey Breakfast Sandwich

Nothing says “rise and shine” quite like a golden, creamy egg nestled between layers of warm toast and gooey cheese; it’s like sunshine on a sandwich. And of Cheapside Café’s six breakfast options — served all day — the restaurant’s indulgent soft-yolk fried egg sandwich, topped with thick, crispy bacon and housemade pimento cheese on…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Party In A Parking Lot

September’s MidPoint Music Festival got some pre-event guff from longtime fans after it was taken over by local production giant MEMI (it was formerly owned and operated by CityBeat) and moved from a dozen or so indoor music venues (and a couple of outdoor spaces, including Washington Park) to a large parking area in Over-the-Rhine. But the…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Rum Runner

Get ready to sample a slew of rum — unbarreled, spiced and bourbon barrel-aged — at Second Sight Spirits artisan distillery. Built by former Cirque de Soleil prop masters and engineers/booze pirates Rick Couch and Carus Waggoner, the distillery’s moniker is inspired by a vaudevillian swami. Free tours of the facility take visitors past their on-theme…

by CityBeat Staff

Best underdog win involving the use of a duck

Republicans had controlled the Hamilton County clerk of courts office for so long — 113 years — that the place had become a satellite campaign headquarters for the Republican Party. Along came Aftab Pureval, a Procter & Gamble lawyer who won election to the office on the Democratic ticket. He became the first Democrat to…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Art Show Honoring a Great Calypso Singer

At Clay Street Press, artists Carmel Buckley and Mark Harris worked together to honor Trinidad’s legendary Mighty Sparrow by recreating the fronts and backs of his many recordings on 228 album-size ceramic tiles, crafting a lively and colorful memorial to the still-alive world ambassador of Calypso, whose first album was issued in 1958. The show, Sparrow…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Record Store You Haven’t Heard Of

Venture past Covington and into Latonia, Ky. where you will find a record store by the name of Phil’s Music & Memories, a no-frills musical paradise selling records, CDs (someone please remind us what those are again), artwork and more. In the heyday of the ’90s before streaming, Tidal and artists dropping albums two weeks…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Chili Parlor Upgrade

The recently renovated Covington Chili parlor is a smoke-free gasp of fresh air is Northern Kentucky. The restaurant’s new owners updated the space with a non-smoking mandate and authentic Greek cuisine, while still keeping the dive-bar atmosphere that those who grew up slurping down its spaghetti know and love. The family-friendly casual vibe is typified…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Baller Anniversary

The University of Cincinnati 1992 Final Four team put a young Bob Huggins on the college basketball map. Just three years into his tenure at UC, Huggy Bear put together one of the best squads he would ever field at UC, and only a loss against Michigan’s vaunted Fab Five kept the ’Cats from playing in…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Showcase for Rock Concert Posters

The book Show Posters: The Art and Practice of Making Gig Posters was released in April, offering a great overview of the printing and design effort that goes into making compelling graphics for concert poster art. Written and compiled by Pat Jones and Ben Nunery, the founders of nationally renowned Northern Kentucky-based concert poster shop Powerhouse…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Gourmet Egg Salad Sandwich

If you’re a vegetarian, eating a sandwich can be a relatively uneventful experience. There’s no Reuben or club or BLT; there’s just cheese, tomatoes and assorted greenery stuffed between two slabs of bread. But Bottle & Basket, a Wellmann’s Brands gourmand grab-and-go near Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine, offers an excellent alternative: a fennel shallot egg…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Short-Order Goetta Hoagie

There’s not much in the way of dining pleasure in the corridor of Hamilton Avenue beyond Pit to Plate, but plan a trip to Brotherton’s Family Restaurant in downtown Mount Healthy for a cozy atmosphere and friendly service. The breakfast menu is loaded with big omelets, home fries, pancakes, goetta, corned beef hash and sausage…

by CityBeat Staff

Best City Council motion that failed

It seemed like a reasonable idea at the time: Indigenous Peoples’ Day — a city proclamation that celebrated the indigenous cultures that existed in Ohio and across the country before European settlers arrived. Putting it on the second Tuesday in October — Columbus Day — also didn’t seem like such a huge leap. After all, 22…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Protein-Packed Power Shot

The Northside Yacht Club, Northside’s land-locked nautically themed bar and gastropub — a light homage to the neighborhood’s flood of 1937 — specializes in smoked wings (chicken and/or cauliflower), live music and fresh cocktails of the tiki persuasion. Owners Jon Weiner and Stuart MacKenzie have worked with Cincinnati’s queen of cocktails, Molly Wellmann, and it…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Museum-Quality Art Exhibit at a Gallery

Galleries in New York have lately been organizing the kind of retrospectives traditionally the provenance of museums, and it’s good to see that trend catch on here with nonprofit The Carnegie’s staging of E is for Edie: An Edith McKee Harper Retrospective. Although a prolific artist in a variety of mediums, her reputation was somewhat…

by CityBeat Staff

Best reminder that lawmakers in Ohio and Kentucky are still weirdly and infuriatingly hung up about what women do with their bodies

It’s not news that conservative lawmakers have a strange preoccupation with choices women make regarding their reproductive health. But as 2016 ended, conservative legislatures in Ohio and Kentucky prepared to ram home some of the most restrictive anti-abortion legislation in the country, banning access to most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. These restrictions could be…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Concert Cancelation Make-Up Gesture

Just a few weeks before it was to occur, the Buckle Up Festival — a sister festival to the Alt-music-oriented Bunbury Music Festival that was also acquired in the purchase of Bunbury by Columbus, Ohio’s PromoWest — was canceled. The event had been put on hold for one year and slated to return to a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Artisan Bagels

Before Julia Keister of Lil’s Bagels started baking and selling her “made with chutzpah” small-batch bagels at Covington’s farmers market (and Findlay Market, Hotel Covington, Covington Coffee Company, Trailhead Coffee, the Coffee Exchange, Bouquet…), Cincinnati experienced a dearth of these East Coast-style breakfast staples. Using a “sponge” starter (which makes the bagels satisfyingly NYC-chewy), Keister hand-rolls,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Bathroom For A Selfie

Chef Ryan Santos’ Please, a new upscale American eatery tucked away on Clay Street in Over-the-Rhine, features fine dining à la carte and creative four-course tasting menus boasting dishes such as honey-brined cod with celery root or pasta-like enoki mushrooms cooked in walnut milk. Helmed as a gypsy pop-up concept since 2011, Santos opened his…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way To Say Goodbye

The worst part of owning a pet is having to say goodbye. (Really, it’s cruel and unusual they don’t live as long as humans.) Thankfully, Angel Paws is there to help, offering complete end-of-life services for pets including hospice care, home euthanasia, private cremation and more — all available 24 hours, seven days a week. The…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Private Island

Island Frydays is the definitive restaurant to break out of culinary monotony, featuring authentic Caribbean cuisine made by former University of Cincinnati football captain and Jamaican native Leo Morgan. The place has been in Corryville for seven years but has somehow remained one of the city’s best-kept secrets, despite an appearance on Guy Fieri’s Diner’s,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Mixture of Poetry and Industrial Safety

First published in 1994 by Cincinnati transplants Matt Hart and Eric Appleby in an attempt to capture some of the poetry being spilled inside Kaldi’s Coffeehouse, Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking, & Light Industrial Safety has come a long way from its modest newsprint beginnings. Utilizing the same adventurous spirit that earmarks his own…

by CityBeat Staff

Best New Downtown Live-Jazz Hangout

If you follow the music/pop culture press, Jazz music (particularly in a live setting) has died a million times over. Even if that was true, it must mean Jazz cats have nine million lives. The great American artform has proven its endurance over and over again. Every time Cincinnati’s Jazz club scene takes a shot (like the…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Brave New Opera

Fellow Travelers wasn’t only an opera with legs — it had balls. Cincinnati Opera took a risk staging the world premiere based on Thomas Mallon’s novel of a doomed gay love affair during the 1950s Lavender Scare, and rumors flew about offended patrons withdrawing support. But the opera played to full houses and the international…

by CityBeat Staff

Best what-in-the-hell-is-going-on-with-local-politics moment

In yet another sign of 2016’s topsy-turvy political environment, Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil set off minor political shockwaves when he appeared at a March 13 campaign rally for GOP presidential primary frontrunner Donald Trump in West Chester. Neil, a Democrat, did not speak at the event but was named by Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Use of a ‘Dumb Ledge’

Upon renting a 400-square-foot apartment in Over-the-Rhine, Maya Drozdz proclaimed herself mayor of Tinytown and decreed that a seemingly useless “dumb ledge” in her home would become a gallery. She curated friends’ collections of matchbooks and baseball cards, designed and distributed bookmark-sized posters and let strangers in on her joke during Final Fridays. The Ledge…

by CityBeat Staff

BEST DOWNTOWN FOOD DELIVERY

Whether it’s raining, sleeting, snowing or hailing — or you just don’t feel like walking to get your lunch — 53T Courier has your back. Between jaunts to the CityBeat office (seriously, these guys bring us food pretty much every day), one of 53T’s friendly cyclists/staffers will hop on a bike and deliver food from…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Expensive Restaurant For An Affordable Lunch

Spending the night out at Sotto is considered special occasion dining — with the candle-lit atmosphere and indulgent Italian pastas — but as of summer 2016, Sotto is also open for lunch. A midday escape from the cubicle drone or a clandestine destination for some bavette pasta con bottarga (pasta topped with salty fish roe),…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Goodwill Ambassador From Ohio to the World

True, the 19th-century Creeping Baby doll discovered awhile back at Ohio’s Clinton County History Center looked more like a “creepy baby,” because time had been unkind to the wax originally put on her face to make the automaton/mechanical clockwork doll more lifelike. But because of its rarity and overall good condition, the DASA Museum in Dortmund,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best SEASON TICKET DEAL

Cincinnati’s hottest sports ticket in town last year belonged to Futbol Club Cincinnati, which spread its orange-and-blue fandom all across town during its inaugural season. With uber-professional business and marketing efforts led by the deep pockets of Carl Lindner III and former Bengals executive Jeff Berding, the organization asked for — and did receive —…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Most-Anticipated eclectic Expansion

It’s hard to believe Melt Eclectic Café has been holding down its spot next to the Northside Tavern for more than a decade. What began as a uniquely vegan- and vegetarian-friendly café (for Cincinnati) in 2005 added sister locations over the years dedicated to healthy carry-out options, first as Picnic & Pantry in Northside and later…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Covington Bar Triangle

In case you didn’t notice, Covington is flourishing, especially on Madison Avenue. In September of last year, Hotel Covington and its Coppin’s Restaurant & Bar opened their doors. In November, cocktail bar The Hannaford opened, joining the taproom at nearby Braxton Brewing Company as a cool neighborhood hangout. It’s easy to hit up all three places in a short span of…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Taco Tuesday

Covington’s mezcal bar and taqueria Frida 602 is the second MainStrasse eatery for owners Paul Weckman and his wife Emily Wolff, who also run Otto’s down the street. Named after colorful painter Frida Kahlo, the restaurant mirrors her work with cerulean bar stools, bright-orange chairs, a floral banquette and Day of the Dead artwork, including…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Donut And Coffee Combo

A lot of local breweries have combined the flavors of donuts and beer, but that holy hole-y breakfast staple really belongs paired with and dunked in coffee. At Carabello Coffee’s six-seat Analog Slow Bar — which opened last fall — they soaked Holtman’s glazed donuts in whole milk and then warmed up the donut milk…

by CityBeat Staff

Pizza (Non-Chain)

2. A Tavola 3. Adriatico’s Pizza 4. Fireside Pizza 5. Catch-a-Fire Pizza 6. Strong’s Brick Oven Pizzeria 7. Mac’s Pizza Pub 8. Krimmer’s Italianette Pizza 9. Newport Pizza Company 10. Trotta’s

by CityBeat Staff

Best Artichoke Sub

Neapolitan pizzeria A Tavola expanded their trattoria menu last year to include pastas — lasagna Bolognese, cacio e pepe and cannelloni — charcuterie and sandwiches. Of the sandwiches there is one vegetarian-friendly option and it’s a really good one: a fried artichoke sub. The sub is served on Sixteen Bricks’ ciabatta and topped with goat…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Wispy Thin Anniversary

Huge, fluffy omelets and “wispy-thin” pancakes — plus a kitschy neon pink exterior and retro Cadillac-teal booths — have made Sugar n’ Spice a bona fide breakfast institution for 75 years. The story about the restaurant, opened by barber Mort Keller in 1941, goes that Keller was on a trip to California and happened to…

by CityBeat Staff

Sushi

2. Kaze 3. Ichiban 4. Fusian 5. Green Papaya 6. Mr. Sushi 7. Wabi Sabi 8. Wild Ginger 9. E+O Kitchen 10. Izen’s Drunken Bento

by CityBeat Staff

Best mob-approved Hot Brown

Established in 1947, Newport’s landmark Green Derby is one of the granddaddies of local eateries. It got its name from the original owner, Helen Cummins, as both a reference to a famous California restaurant of the time (the Brown Derby) and a nod to her Irish heritage. She and her husband ran the place until…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way To Add Width With A Girth

Raise a Rhinegeist to Zip’s Café, the dark-paneled Delta Avenue burger joint that celebrated its 90th birthday last year. Settle into a booth and ponder your order as you watch a nostalgia-inducing model train glide across a track that runs along the ceiling. If you’re feeling like a light meal, order a classic Zip burger,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Big-Box-Store Black Friday Musical Alternative

Shopping locally is a great way to avoid those nightmarish day-after-Thanksgiving (aka “Black Friday”) sales at the mall or chain retail outlet stores. And if the person you’re buying a present for is a big music fan, Cincinnati musicians are now regularly providing some cool Black Friday options for your gift list. Timed to Record…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Reason To Wait In Line At 9 A.M. The Third Sunday Of the Month

Originally a coffee shop and bistro, Newberry Brothers Coffee is now primarily a speakeasy nestled in the Mansion Hill neighborhood of Newport. But on “Third Sundays,” Newberry’s opens from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to serve its famous handmade pastries, like ham and cheese and goetta and cheddar croissants, cinnamon rolls, scones and more —…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Reminder That Pete Will Always Be Pete

In 2016, the Reds received special permission to honor iconic hometown baseball star Pete Rose on the field for his induction into the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Pete wouldn’t see his lifetime ban from baseball officially overturned, however, as new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred denied his latest appeal after Manfred’s staff found “new evidence”…

by CityBeat Staff

BEST HEALING VIBRATIONS

Jennifer Simone classifies her music as Soul — as in real soul, from her soul to yours. A self-described blend of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, whale calls, Gregorian chants, Nina Simone, Paul Simon, Erykah Badu, Elvis and “a ton of Jazz and Blues,” each musical performance is an improvised healing process. At her shows, emotions run…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Avant-Garde Performance

How can anyone who attended possibly forget the Contemporary Arts Center’s presentation of Tanya Tagaq, the Canadian/Inuit throat singer whose wild, seemingly trance-induced singing style channels both her native traditions and also Yoko Ono in her prime? With her Jazz-oriented accompanists, she provided a riveting live soundtrack to the 1922 silent film Nanook of the North,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Cultural Exchange

Clifton’s Elephant Walk Injera & Curry House offers diners a real bang for their buck with a double-sided menu, featuring Northern Indian cuisine on one side and Ethiopian on the other. If you’ve never eaten Ethiopian food, it’s similar to Indian — stew-style dishes made with ingredients like chicken, lentils, cabbage and lamb (and beef,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Import From The Left Coast

Fifteen years ago, native Cincinnatian Tali Ovadia opened a food cart in Portland, Ore. serving a single recipe: a bowl of brown rice, beans, black olives, cheese, avocado slices and lemon-garlic Tali Sauce. Within a few years, she had seven brick-and-mortar locations under the name Whole Bowl in and around Portland. In December her brother…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Kentucky Beer Lineup

Crafts & Vines, a great new wine and beer store, opened in Covington’s MainStrasse last fall. The shop has more than a dozen different beers and wines on draft, and all of the beer is from Kentucky and Cincinnati. It also features Mash Cult beers, making it one of the only places in the area…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Excuse To Keep Your Shirt On

The brainchild of local duo Kysoc — a Covington, Ky.-based comedy writer and artist — Keep Your Shirt on Covington celebrates the quirky side of the Tristate. From “Straight Outta Covington” mugs to “I Wish I Knew How to Quit You” Bengals tees, there’s no shortage of ways to express your local pride (or, in some…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way To Emote Yourself

Neighborhood women’s clothing store Leeli + Lou is known for its fashionable and wallet-friendly styles from wash-and-wear basics to cocktail dresses and beach-ready rompers. After fashioning yourself, check out their new line of Hipstapatch stickers, adhesive patches that stick to pretty much anything and everything. Basically, they’re wearable emojis. Want to express your love of wine…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Deliveries by Two Mothers

Dos Madres Press has quietly amassed an astonishing catalog of quality books, many of them by Cincinnati literary luminaries such as Ralph LaCharity, Pauletta Hansel, Tyrone Williams and Norman Finkelstein. Founded in 2004 by Robert J. Murphy, with contributions by Vera Murphy and Libbie Hughes (its “two mothers”), the Loveland-based press specializes in books where…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Twisted Theater Performance

Taking on the title role in The Elephant Man, a great play from 1979, is no easy task. But Cincinnati Shakespeare Company had the right veteran actor for the role when it staged the show in October. In his 17th season with Cincy Shakes, Giles Davies totally inhabited the part of John Merrick, a severely…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Use Of A Whimsical Yellow Door

A bright yellow door with a high-five handprint marks the opening to Handzy Shop + Studio, a purveyor of cheerful cards, art prints and calendars in Covington. Helmed by best friends who met at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, the colorful shop offers a wide assortment of watercolor invites…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Cincinnati-Music-History Street Cred

Cincinnati has gotten increasingly good about honoring its rich musical history, thanks to increasingly “woke” politicians (including Mayor John Cranley) and organizations like the Cincinnati Music Heritage Foundation. In the past couple of years, the city has helped honor the 11 fans killed before a 1979 Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum with a historical marker…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Reason To Work out At The YWCA

Having a membership to downtown’s YWCA means you have access to a hot tub and a salt water pool. But it also means you’re within walking distance of Lalo, the new Asian-Latin fusion restaurant from the Neuf (formerly Huit) folks, located in the former location of Huit. Confused? Don’t be. After working out, treat yourself…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Jam Of The Month Club

The grape jelly that has been a permanent fixture in your fridge for years just isn’t cutting it anymore. It’s time to get a little frisky with your fruit spreads — like, apple-jalapeño jelly frisky. Made by Mavis jams are made the old-fashioned way in a French copper pot using the finest ingredients and organic…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Guatemalan Tamales

A burgeoning community of Guatemalan refugees are beginning to call Price Hill home. And establishments like the Maranata Store are offering both a taste of Central America and an authentic cultural experience for outsiders. The tienda stocks ethnic groceries while the modest restaurant serves colorful cilantro-infused ceviche, pork pupusas, fried plantains and three-milk cake. The…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Red Whose Shenanigans We’ll Miss

Brandon Phillips could be a fickle guy sometimes, as demonstrated by his resentful comments about team management after signing a lucrative contract extension in 2012. But for every instance of the somewhat self-conscious BP getting a little too defensive — let us not recall the on-base-percentage flap with The Enquirer’s C. Trent Rosecrans — Reds fans will remember…

by CityBeat Staff

Best reason to be terrified and confused about the world

Well, it happened. The thing many thought impossible. After a campaign filled with gaffes, scandals, racist rhetoric and near-meltdowns, reality TV star Donald Trump won the nation’s highest office. The victory of a candidate who just months before was a seeming non-starter and whose campaign looked to be at most a sideshow attraction upended the perceived…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Tarantino Tribute You Can Drink To

Named in honor of the video rental store where director Quentin Tarantino once worked, The Video Archive is a video store that doubles as a speakeasy, like a Blockbuster with a back-alley bar. Brought to you by Gorilla Cinema Presents, the same team behind Overlook Lodge, the Shining-themed bar in Pleasant Ridge, the front 100 square feet…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Podcast About Art That’s Really About Business

Caroline Creaghead knows your secret. If you’re a freelancer or creative type, she knows you have anxiety about money. She’s been there. As a comedy producer in New York for seven years, her business was helping artists with their business. But as a freelancer in her own right, she experienced the same anxieties as her…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Underground Music Fest

The unique location of Cincinnati’s Ubahn Fest — an underground “tunnel” between Pete Rose Way and Third Street, near Paul Brown Stadium — instantly made it one of the cooler musical events of 2016. But the lineup last year (featuring mostly Hip Hop, with a little Electronic and Pop sprinkled in) upped the ante even more,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best launch of a new mode of public transit in Cincinnati

Cincinnati’s first streetcar system in more than 65 years launched with great fanfare back in September. The opening weekend for the transit project was a huge hit, with riders hopping on board for more than 50,000 free rides. By the end of October, ridership had reached around 215,000, and even excluding its big debut, the streetcar…

by CityBeat Staff

BEST FERMENTED SUGARCANE cocktail

Mita’s is chef and owner Jose Salazar’s tribute to his Colombian grandmother’s spirit — his mamita — and to Spanish and Latin American food and drink. Like Latin culture itself, the restaurant is fun, designed with Moroccan-influenced tiles, architectural columns and concrete, plus one-of-a-kind lighting. The atmosphere is lively, especially at the bar — a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Artistic Tribute to Henry David Thoreau

Hamilton’s Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum, in a brilliant stroke of innovative programming, invited Minneapolis-based theater company TigerLion Arts to stage Nature, a “walking play,” amid its open space. Actors playing Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson discussed their mutual love of the natural world with the help of an ensemble of other actors, who…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Superfood-Infused Brunch Drink

Implementing a fresh menu that focuses on healthier foods, Thunderdome Restaurant Group’s latest venture, Maplewood Kitchen and Bar, serves up dishes and ingredients that would be right at home on the West Coast: cold-pressed juices, superfood salads, egg-white omelets and somewhat nutritious cocktails, one of the most thirst-inducing of which is the roasted tomatillo bloody…

by CityBeat Staff

Best half of a prosecutor

Hamilton County voters decided in November that part of Joe Deters was better than all of Alan Triggs as county prosecutor. Deters went to part-time status in 2009, something conveniently omitted on all of his campaign signs and advertising. Of all the elected prosecutors in Ohio’s 10 biggest counties, Deters is the only one with a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way-Too-Good Impression of 97X

Many fans of the late, internationally renowned Oxford, Ohio Alternative radio station WOXY (aka 97X) were in heaven when they discovered WNKU on their radio dials after a programming change away from folkier Americana music to current and classic Alternative and Indie sounds (while retaining its longstanding attention to local music). But the story of the…

by CityBeat Staff

Best View From a Putting Green

There’s no doubt Greater Cincinnati has some of the best parks in the country. Some of our favorites boast captivating views of our picturesque skyline. But if you don’t spend much time on the links, you’ve likely missed out on one of our favorite vantage points — the fifth green at Devou Park Golf Course.…

by CityBeat Staff

Best moment proving people still have power

Early November 2016 was a tense time in Cincinnati. Donald Trump had just been elected president and a Hamilton County jury declared it could not reach a verdict in the case of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing’s shooting of unarmed black motorist Samuel DuBose. That tension was especially high outside the Hamilton…

by CityBeat Staff

Best In-House Brand Expansion

Article, Over-the-Rhine’s flagship menswear store, professes quality over quantity. The shop is highly curated and designed solely with guys in mind, providing access to brands that combine style with durability — no more clothes that fall apart after a couple of washes. Featured brands include Mollusk, Tanner Goods, Deus Ex Machina, Bill Reid, 3sixteen and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Parenting Hack

We have for you the holy trinity of parenting hacks — and yes, it involves sandwiches. Pleasant Ridge’s Red Balloon Café + Play is a one-stop destination for baby care, play time and to grab a quick meal. While the menu has a number of kid-friendly options (cheese sticks, turkey cubes, freeze-dried strawberries), parents are welcome…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Deco Décor Throwback

Founded in 1880 by Maria Longworth Nichols, the Rookwood Pottery Company was the first female-owned manufacturing company in the nation. Taking inspiration from Japanese designs she saw at Philadelphia’s Centennial Exhibition, Nichols built her company in a renovated schoolhouse with a team of potters, craftspeople, students and glaze chemists, encouraging them to exchange ideas, innovations and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Nona-Approved Sandwiches

If you’re looking for a relatively simple menu with locally sourced ingredients and a die-hard dedication to authentic charcuterie, look no further than Panino, OTR’s former food truck turned artisan panini shop. Nino Loreto and Joe Helm are the owners of the fast-casual sandwich and cured-meat restaurant located on Vine Street. Firm believers in the…

by CityBeat Staff

Best BEER-FUELED Family Game Night

Popular Northside brewery/venue Urban Artifact attracts a crowd with fresh beer and mostly free live music — it even has a Swing dance night on certain Sunday afternoons, and longtime local favorites the Blue Wisp Big Band perform every Wednesday. Its appeal also expands beyond the expected age range for a “bar.” The brewery has a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Two-For-One Homegoods Hot Spot

Retailer of all things modern from the 1950s through the 1970s, Leftcoast Modern has a changing inventory of design-geek favorite finds from furniture makers Milo Baughman, Herman Miller, Knoll and Raymor, plus new mod pieces inspired by the originals. While you’re browsing for Mad Men dresser sets and Scandinavian seating, peep next door at the attached Your Friends &…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Three-Peat

Before last season, no Ohio high school had ever won three consecutive Division II state championships. Standing in La Salle’s way of such a prestigious accomplishment last fall was northern Ohio football powerhouse Massillon Perry, which La Salle had smoked in the 2015 state championship game 42-0. The Lancers again prevailed, this time in a…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Clothes For Tiny Humans With An Instagram Account

Offering dozens of clothing brands for babies and toddlers, Oakley’s The Spotted Goose helps your kids unleash their inner Rock stars by mixing and matching whimsically printed onesies with hipster hoodies and quirky graphic T-shirts. Complement outfits with items like snuggly beanies, floofy tutus, colorful moccasins or a pair of cat-eye sunglasses and snap a picture…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Representational-Realistic Painter Working the Streets

This is a little bit of a tricky category because there isn’t really a real-life Mr. Potato Head, so you can’t call a painter’s depiction of him “realistic.” But all you need to have done is watch Jared Queen painstakingly, meticulously and lovingly paint his colorfully detailed renderings of Kenner Products-related toys for a new…

by CityBeat Staff

Burgers

2. Zip’s Café 3. Flipdaddy’s Burgers & Beers 4. Arthur’s 5. Five Guys Burgers & Fries 6. Quatman Café 7. Krueger’s Tavern 8. Nation Kitchen and Bar 9. Gordo’s Pub & Grill 10. Tickle Pickle

by CityBeat Staff

Best Vet Your Pets Might Actually Look Forward To Seeing

With more than 20 years of veterinary experience, Dr. Robert Biederman — better known as Dr. Bob — has brought genuine affection to his doctoral duties, making visits to the vet a little less painless for both pets and their people. His Plum Street Pet Clinic provides everything from surgery, dental care and endocrinology services to…

by CityBeat Staff

Best East Side Sports Brewery Playland

Beer and sports go together beautifully. Everyone knows this. The campus of East Side brewery Fifty West has gone way beyond simply providing pints to sip while watching the big game or sixers to chug on the bench during a summer night softball game. The brewery’s Production Works facility is a straight-up adult beer-themed playland: a…

by CityBeat Staff

BEST WOMAN-HELMED WINERY

Over-the-Rhine’s The Skeleton Root winery and tasting room pays homage to Cincy’s wine-making past. Before California’s ubiquitous Napa Valley and even before the state in which it resides existed, the Ohio River Valley was our country’s premier wine region. By the numbers, it was the largest grape-growing area in the United States; inside the city limits…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Natural Gel Manicure

When Spruce Natural Nail Salon opened last year on Vine Street, their mission was to provide “five-free” nail services, using nail polishes free of the five most common toxins found in most other polishes: formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, camphor, DDT and toluene. All of their products, including their Columbus-made Spruce-brand lotions, scrubs and cuticle oils, are also…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Imitation Of Borgin And Burkes

While the Harry Potter reference to Borgin and Burkes may seem a bit outdated (#harrypotterforver, nerds), Hail, Dark Aesthetics is definitely the place you’d go locally if you were in the market for a vanishing cabinet. Or a dark wizard. With a home base in East Nashville, the second location of oddities and record shop Hail…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Chicken Shack For Liver Lovers

If you’re starting to experience occasional bouts of light-headedness, chances are you’re suffering from an iron deficiency. What better way to address that than to add some iron-rich liver to your diet, and what better place to get that liver than at Ron’s Roost? A West Side institution since 1960, Ron’s Roost is known for…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Funny Freestylers

Detecting a lack of improvisational comedy downtown, OTRimprov was formed in 2010 by a group of like-minded individuals with hopes of highlighting and further developing Cincinnati’s scene. Currently co-directed by Kat Smith and Dave Powell, it’s proved a success with shows at Below Zero each Saturday, monthly Improv Jams, where improvisers of all experience levels are…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Blooms For A Cause

Gia and the Blooms owner Yuliya Bui’s love for animals goes beyond the name of her shop, which refers to her pitbull Gia: A portion of the store’s proceeds are donated to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, from which Gia was adopted. Burlap-wrapped bouquets begin at $35, and delivery is free…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Place To Find A Clawfoot Tub

Remodelers donate used or leftover building materials to the nonprofit Building Value, which resells these materials to the public at a deeply discounted rate; prices are often a third the cost of new, and inventory includes a lot of architectural salvage you can’t find anywhere else. The constantly changing merchandise selection includes antique doors and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Escape From The Perils Of Adulting

There’s nothing quite like getting lost among the shelves at King Arthur’s Court Toys, a purveyor of beloved classic toys for more than 25 years. Rediscover old favorites like LEGO, Playmobil, Calico Critters and Breyer horses and ride back home on a purple micro scooter for a little additional online shopping; shipping on orders over…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Yes Way, Rosé

Rosé wine has seen a surge in popularity in recent years — a fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed by one local brewery’s brew masters. Inspired by the feel-good pink vino, Rhinegeist created Bubbles Rosé Cider, a twist on their popular Cidergeist hard ciders, which features cranberry and peach flavors. Sipping on a pint of the…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Freak Athlete Still on the Reds’ Roster

It wasn’t so long ago that the Cincinnati Reds boasted a number of straight-up freaky athletes, from the 105-mph flame-throwing Aroldis Chapman to the quirky windup of Johnny Cueto and the enigma that is star first baseman Joey Votto. With the departures of the two aforementioned pitchers, Votto these days is flanked on the “all-freak”…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Beautification Of Four-Letter Words

Looking for a way display your hatred of people or your foul vocabulary? Look no further than Northside’s The Hoop & Needle, where owner Sarah Fisher offers a modern line of cross-stitching patterns, kits and completed pieces. Although designs featuring four-letter words are the store’s best-sellers — popular phrases include “nature is bullshit” and “Thomas…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Stopped-In-Time Steakhouse

Step back in time to the 1950s at Maury’s Tiny Cove, a retro steakhouse with low lights, red vinyl and dark wood. Since 1949, they’ve been serving damn-good steak, Atomic Age sides (shredded lettuce salads; a complimentary ramekin of pickles on every table) and a perfect martini. Ask for the Carol booth — the restaurant…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Museum Tour for Families

On the third Friday of each month, the Cincinnati Art Museum sponsors its popular Baby Tour. Adults can let their infants and toddlers get up close and personal (as long as they don’t touch the art) with masterpieces by Joan Miró, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol along with antiquities and objects from such collections as African,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Local Beer/Local Music Synergy

Soul Step Records, a Cincinnati-based record label specializing in pressing vinyl releases, hatched an ingenious idea that brought two hometown specialties together in its Cincy Brewers Series. The label curated the pairing of a local music act and a local brewery, releasing a 45 rpm single from the artist and hosting a free release party…

by CityBeat Staff

Best NKU D-I Splash Part I

There are mid-major men’s college basketball programs that wait decades for their first taste of the NCAA Tournament. Others come and go during a single Cinderella season now and then. The Northern Kentucky University men’s basketball team hopes to fall into a third category after winning the Horizon League tournament and advancing to the Big Dance…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Resource For Ethical Knitters

Silk Road Textiles in College Hill is the area’s premier stop for ethically sourced fibers from fine fabrics to yarn. With an emphasis on eclectic, exotic and globally sourced textiles, their expert staff can recommend materials for almost any knitting, quilting, felting, crocheting, dyeing or sewing project. In store you’ll find better-than-craft-store brands like Leilani…

by CityBeat Staff

Best OTR Makeover

For more than a century, Memorial Hall has stood quite literally in the shadow of Music Hall, just a few steps south of it on Elm Street in Over-the-Rhine. In 1978, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but it wasn’t often used because it lacked air conditioning and had barely minimal amenities…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Burger Dive

Open in 1939 as Heine’s Café by Henry Boehmker, Herb & Thelma’s Tavern (the name comes from Henry’s son, who took over the enterprise) is situated on a bend in the road along Pike Street in Covington. The small drop-ceilinged dining room is what some may call a “hole in the wall,” but the simple…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Place To Adopt, Not Shop

Rescue organization League for Animal Welfare was established in 1949 by a small group of people concerned about the care of stray and unwanted pets. Today, it finds homes for more than 1,000 animals per year with the help of its trained adoption counselors, who work with potential adopters to match them with the dog or…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Trio Pulling For Girl Power

After graduating from the Art Academy of Cincinnati, friends Amy Scarpello, Chelsey Hughes and Linda Winder founded Pull Club, a girl-powered design and printmaking studio. Today, the three use the printing process to transfer hand-drawn images and designs — including whimsical rabbits, crisp yellow peaches and cute (but tomato-devouring) hornworms — to paper prints and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Bookstore Making Kids Want To Read

Between cellphones, computers and tablets, getting your kids to reach for a book is getting harder and harder. But Blue Manatee Bookstore changes up that equation, fostering a cozy and colorful space that promotes creativity and offers an expansive selection of titles alongside a friendly and knowledgeable staff. Frequently held activities — ranging from arts and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best local political shakeup

It wasn’t a guaranteed win, and for one of the two Democrats now on Hamilton County Commission, it came down to the wire. But here’s hoping that Commissioner Todd Portune’s re-election and the election of former State Rep. Denise Driehaus bring a new, more forward-looking direction to the county, which has been stuck in neutral…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Rediscovered Old Master

Charles-François Daubigny, the 19th-century French landscape painter, isn’t unknown in today’s art world, but neither is he considered a crucial link in the march toward Modernism. For that matter, few would call him “crucial,” period. But in the Taft Museum of Art’s exhibit Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape, curator Lynne Ambrosini made a…

by CityBeat Staff

Overall Bar/Club

2. 16-Bit Bar+Arcade 3. Arcade Legacy: Bar Edition 4. Below Zero Lounge 5. Arnold’s Bar and Grill 6. Japp’s 7. Queen City Exchange 8. MOTR Pub 9. The Blind Lemon 10. Queen City Radio

by CityBeat Staff

Best Ticker Fixers

At Cleves & Lonnemann Jewelers, the seconds, minutes and hours passing beneath the face of your watch have been the focus of a family art spanning three generations. Established in 1932, the shop is now headed by Charlie Cleves, a Certified Master Watchmaker 21st Century (CMW21). Over the years, Cleves & Lonnemann has continued in…

by CityBeat Staff

Best move by local faith groups giving us faith in humans

Before Cincinnati formally declared itself a sanctuary city, local faith leaders convened by the Amos Project stepped up, offering support for immigrants and others who might be targeted by policies promised by the incoming Trump administration. If mass deportations or Muslim registries become a reality, these mosques, churches and synagogues have pledged to have the backs…

by CityBeat Staff

Best All-Grown-Up Birthday Party

ArtWorks keeps artsy teens employed in the summertime creating cool murals all over town. In 2016, they added eye-catching walls celebrating boxer Ezzard Charles, astronaut Neil Armstrong, sharpshooter Annie Oakley and dynamic singer Rosemary Clooney, to name just a few. (There are currently more than 100 murals around the city.) The program marked its 21st…

by CityBeat Staff

BEST BUZZ IN THE ’BURBS

It didn’t take long for the sustainability-focused Sleepy Bee Café to become a booming breakfast nook in Oakley, where it opened its doors back in December 2013. Thankfully for ’burb-dwellers, owners Sandy Gross and John Hutton expanded upon that success, opening a second, larger location in Blue Ash right off of Kenwood Road. At 5,000…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Artistic Statement Involving Houseplants

Wave Pool, the Camp Washington art gallery known for unconventional exhibitions with a community-building component, came to the rescue of sick Cincinnati houseplants — and their distraught owners — with a summer project called People via Plants. Richmond, Va.-based artists Valerie Molnar and Matthew Spahr invited people to drop off their ailing friends and then return in…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Mommy Dearest Sleep Mask

Harkening back to the Hollywood of yore, full of marabou slippers and gold cigarette holders, Donna Salyers’ Fabulous Furs’ faux fur sleep mask — in snuggly blush, cream, brown or cheetah print faux mink — has all the panache of Joan Crawford and none of the cruelty. Crawford once said, “I never go outside unless…

by CityBeat Staff

Best intra-party schism: state division

Things got ugly pretty quick for the Ohio GOP this year. Ohio Gov. John Kasich bucked his party and opposed their nominee for president. Other elected officials like U.S. Sen. Rob Portman hemmed and hawed about their support for Trump, saying no, then yes, then no again to a Trump presidential nomination. Trump’s campaign in Ohio…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Free-Range Trivia

The Approximate Knowledge Institute of Cincinnati, a local pub-trivia company helmed by Justin Schafer, is one of the only independent trivia creators in the city. Each week, Schafer conceptualizes and writes entire trivia games — including a name-that-tune halftime — for his group to present at multiple area bars, including the Northside Yacht Club, Queen…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Classic Cincy Shirt Creations

Cincy Shirts is a “vintage” T-shirt brand helmed by local stand-up comic Josh Sneed that mines both the past and present to create apparel showcasing Cincinnati’s unique institutions and idiosyncratic culture. Some screenprinted creations feature staples like three-way chili and Pete Rose, but dig deeper and you’ll find distinctive and so-Cincy tees advertising everything from The…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Use Of Sitar

Unique Cincinnati duo Dawg Yawp (Tyler Randall and Rob Keenan) has had quite a year, and things only seem to be looking up from here. Winners of the 2016 Cincinnati Entertainment Award for New Artist of the Year, the twosome’s unique use of electronics and sitar and its imaginative blend of Psychedelia, Folk and Pop (heard…

by CityBeat Staff

Best protracted electoral Halloween costume

Sometimes, your getup isn’t the most convincing, but it’s still enough to get you into the club. Despite voting for the North American Free Trade Agreement and initial support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, two trade deals that are generally the kiss of death with working class voters these days, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman still managed to…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Hip Happy Hour

Japanese gastropub Kaze is smartly divided into a restaurant side and a bar side, complete with its own entrance. The bar connects to a giant urban patio and is the perfect place to head for daily happy hour, even on weekends. Specialty cocktails start at $5, with discounted sushi rolls and small bites. The Kato…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Movie Screening for Adults Who Like the Theater to be Really, Really Dark

For British artist Britt Hatzius’ Blind Cinema project, which the Contemporary Arts Center brought to The Carnegie’s auditorium in early fall, the adult audience sat blindfolded while children sitting behind them whispered descriptions of what was occurring on screen. (The movie had no dialogue.) Upending the typical parent-child relationship, Blind Cinema showed how all people need…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Late-Night Mac And Cheese

Since it opened the doors of its third location at U Square in Clifton, Keystone Bar & Grill has become an instant classic with University of Cincinnati students. Their craft beer selection and extensive macaroni and cheese menu are the stuff of college-kid legends. Inspired by the success, the Keystone team opened the Mac Shack,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Restaurant That Has Literally Risen From The Ashes

It took more than a year of fundraising, elbow grease and community involvement for this Over-the-Rhine landmark to reopen after a devastating fire, but the renovated Tucker’s Restaurant was back in business in mid-September. The unassuming little diner had been an OTR mainstay for an astonishingly long run, almost 60 years, when a grease fire…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Packaging of Chamber Music in a Hip Festival

If you think Chamber Music is a snooze fest, that’s because you haven’t attended Summermusik, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra’s varied annual August concert series. There are traditional Saturday evening orchestral concerts at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, but since it’s at a time of year when not much else is happening, it also curates…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Vintage Kimono Merchant

Inside the womb-like interior of lingerie store Swoon OTR, shoppers will find a selection of ethical intimates in earthy nudes and pale pastels, plus pasties, phallic geode chakra rubs, personal grooming products and musky-scented South American Palo Santo wood to burn to cleanse your energy, enhance creativity and bring good fortune. Owner Melissa Lieb is…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Art Show Using Light as a Material

Into the Ether, an exhibit organized by the Dayton Art Institute, gave visitors a chance to see some visually stimulating and thought-provoking work involving artificial light as a substantial if ephemeral element in the work. It offered work by such top names in the field as James Turrell, Robert Irwin and Erwin Redl. In its…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Newcomer to the Classical Music Community

Cincinnati Song Initiative — devoted to performance of the “art song” — drew a sizeable crowd to its first concert at the Weston Art Gallery, Americana: A Cultural Tapestry, and has big plans for 2017. In so doing, it is extending the local offerings available for Classical Music aficionados. An art song is poetry set to…

by CityBeat Staff

Best All-Purpose Gift Shop

Fresh out of gift ideas? Pomegranate & Lime has you covered. The cozy Mariemont boutique is overflowing with unique finds for basically anyone in your life: men, women, babies, significant others, parents — the list goes on. Throw rugs, stuffed animals, dessert toppings, jewelry, silverware sets, picture frames… It might actually be impossible to leave this place…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Rentable Pottery Wheel

Queen City Clay offers pottery classes, demonstrations and goods for sale to nurture the human impulse to create. And in this day and age, when hand-thrown ceramics are all the rage in functional design, why not try to make your own? The studio offers intensive eight- and 12-week classes to teach novices and increasingly advanced…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Brews/Books Tagteam

Roebling Point Books & Coffee doesn’t skimp on either of its namesakes. Its brews are some of the best Cincinnati has to offer, and its extensive collection of titles is enough to keep caffeinated customers browsing for hours. Owner Richard Hunt hand-picks titles ranging from best-sellers to pieces by local authors. With a bit of…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Slice Of Pizza Heaven

Within a one-block radius on Main-Strasse’s Main Street, you’ll wander across something plucked right from a pizza-lover’s dream: Mac’s Pizza Pub, Goodfellas and Pizza Tower all within walking distance. All three opened in 2015, and each offers a different dine-in experience: Mac’s establishes a sports-bar vibe; Goodfellas has its own bar, Wise Guys, right upstairs;…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Kentucky Dive Bar in Over-the-Rhine

Know Theatre’s Underground Bar has played many roles, including as a hip playground hangout following Fringe Festival performances. But in late 2016 when Know premiered Darkest Night at the Gnarly Stump, a new play by Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin, it transformed into a Kentucky dive bar — The Gnarly Stump — a place where patrons…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Place to Launch a Kid’s Theater Career

People might think that the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati is based at downtown’s Taft Theatre, since that’s where its professional productions have entertained thousands of children since 1924. In truth, the company’s cramped offices and limited classrooms for many years were in suburban Fairfax. But in 2016, the company relocated to a renovated warehouse facility with…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Classic Cobb Salad

Many origin stories exist for the creation of the Cobb salad, the most popular of which is that it was created for Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant owner Robert Howard Cobb in the 1930s. Traditionally served with romaine lettuce, hardboiled egg, avocado, tomato, chicken, onion, bacon and blue cheese dressing — use the mnemonic device EAT…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Curses That Won’t Be Broken

Kenyon Martin’s broken ankle. The Reds being no-hit in the playoffs or blowing a 2-games-to-0 lead on the Giants. Jeremy Hill and Vontaze Burfict snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against the Steelers. The past 20 years of Cincinnati teams’ playoff appearances have been demoralizing enough to cause even the most optimistic fans to…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Little Shop Of Knickknacks

Stocking everything from greeting cards to jewelry to Vera Bradley purses, The Village Junction is a great stop to cure any gift-giving slump. Tucked behind a Shell station and situated beside a butcher shop, it’s a slightly hidden treasure trove overflowing with finds. Head upstairs to sift through piles of discounted items. The Village Junction, 10827 Montgomery…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way to Relive a Childhood Love for Books

When Julia Mace — a longtime Cincinnati writer and mother to young twins, Calvin and Max — found herself craving an art project, she bought her 20-month-olds some crayons and paper and then watched as they ate the crayons. Soon after, though, she saw them become enamored with children’s books, and was thus reminded of…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Family-Style Chicken Dinner

The Greyhound Tavern has been serving classic fried chicken in Fort Mitchell since the 1920s. The exterior of the building looks like a big, old white house with forest-green shutters, and the interior has the same down-home feel, with round tables, wood paneling, checkerboard curtains and carpeting in one of the main dining rooms. The…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Reason to Get Your Mind in the Gutter

Ever wondered what’s lurking beneath your feet within the city’s massive, twisting sewer system? Know Theatre founder Jay Kalagayan did, and he’s giving Cincinnatians a peek underground into a gooey, alien world. MeSseD, a new comic book series written by Kalagayan and illustrated by local artist and musician Dylan Speeg, descends into the Metropolitan Sewer…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Unexpected Coney Topper

People underplay the role shredded lettuce has as a condiment — it’s crunchy and chilled and green and it’s showing up more and more as a trendy topping on dishes like salad pizza and the Chili Hut’s slaw dog. The Chili Hut food truck offers a simple menu of street-food dishes centered around Cincinnati-style chili.…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Poutine Power

Once a gourmet-street-food trend, poutine is becoming a menu staple at area eateries. If you’re not familiar with the French-Canadian dish, poutine is a relatively simple combination of french fries, brown gravy and cheese curds. Starting with that foundation, endless variations abound — including these favorites from across the Tristate. Paying tribute to Cincinnati’s three-way,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way To Avoid People At The Grocery Store

It never fails: Grocery stores are a cesspool of long-lost coworkers, high school classmates and exes. But an ingenious new way to shop allows you pick up everything you need without leaving your vehicle. Kroger Clicklist gives shoppers access to more than 40,000 items online — confirm your order, select a pick-up date and time and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best $25 Steak for $24

We write these words not to encourage the fine proprietors of Over-the-Rhine staple Senate to raise their prices but to acknowledge that without such a deal many of us would not often indulge in such fare. The “$25 wood-grilled, dry-aged ribeye” — which costs just $24 — with marrow butter and truffle fries is kind…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Library Where Talking Is Encouraged

The Play Library, a place that felt straight out of the Tom Hanks movie Big, wasn’t kidding around about providing everyone with access to quality toys and games. The all-ages lending and activity space that People’s Liberty grantee Julia Fischer operated last summer in the philanthropy’s Over-the-Rhine storefront returned March 15, 2017, just a few…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Chicken And Waffles You Can’t Stop Thinking About

Fried chicken, cornmeal waffle, spicy maple glacé, buttermilk ice cream: Has there ever been a better combination of ingredients? Although there are plenty of mouth-watering menu items at MainStrasse’s Commonwealth Bistro (a hardboiled egg wrapped in goetta, salsa verde pork on a bed of grits), the definitive star is their dreamy chicken and waffle dish.…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Do-Good Dog Treats

Each dog bone purchase at Brewhaus Dog Bones goes to benefit the parent not-for-profit Brewhaus Bakery Company, which provides vocational training for young adults with disabilities, dubbed the Brew Crew, who participate in all aspects of the program: baking bones, calculating costs, processing orders and making bank deposits. The organization produces handcrafted small-batch dog treats using…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way To Turn People On To Fermented Food

The world doesn’t give proper respect to fermented vegetables, but fortunately chef Gary Leybman does. As a Jewish immigrant from Belarus who settled in Cincinnati with his family, Leybman draws on his Eastern European cultural legacy and history as a private chef for the ferments he makes for artisan pickling business The Pickled Pig, which…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Thrifty Craft Session

Indigo Hippo founder and executive director Alisha Budkie describes her Over-the-Rhine shop as a “creative re-use center” — kind of like a thrift store for art supplies. Offering a wide range of traditional and eccentric materials, Indigo Hippo’s stock is entirely donation-based, coming largely from area artists, students and makers. Inside, you’ll find everything from…

by CityBeat Staff

Best West Side Mac And Cheese

For some unfair and ungodly reason, Price Hill Chili only serves its homemade macaroni and cheese on Fridays, available from 4 p.m. until they run out. Simply listed as “Macaroni & Cheese” in the Extras section of the menu, the down-home dish has a crusty baked top and creamy interior that makes it worthy of…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Place to Outfit Yourself If Your Favorite Movie Is ‘Easy Rider’

Whether you identify with the traditional 1960s West Coast outlaw biker gangs or simply like the culture and look of motorcycle wear, Camino Motor Co. has got you covered. As described on their website, “Camino Motor Co. is a retail representation of our motorcycle community … focusing on the lifestyle and culture that surrounds riding and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way To Put Your Money Where Your Reproductive Organs Are

Not to get toooooo political, but since taking office (and before), Donald Trump and extreme Republicans have done a few things to freak women out, like reinstating a “Global Gag Rule” that prohibits the United States from issuing funding to international aid groups which in any way engage with abortion or telling Planned Parenthood it…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Tripe Bowl

On some level, Chinese food is a foreign flavor to an American tongue, but at Clifton’s Fortune Noodle House, the foreign gets authentic with a big bowl of beef tripe noodles. Conveniently located on the corner of Calhoun and Clifton streets, Fortune is perfectly situated for international students at the University of Cincinnati to get…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Tribute to a Dearly Departed Architect

While the Contemporary Arts Center’s exhibit of sculpture by South Korea-born artist Do Ho Suh was planned and installed before the unexpected death in March of the building’s radical architect, Zaha Hadid, the show, Passage, honored her building in a transcendent way. Two of Suh’s major sculptural installations were soft structures, made of gossamer-like fabric,…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Great Outdoors

Founded in 1974, friendly outdoor mecca Benchmark Outfitters stocks everything you need to tackle the wilderness, from footwear, clothing and hiking gear to tools, luggage and electronics. The shop’s knowledgeable staff even hosts classes and events to help explorers of all ages thrive in the wild, including canoe nights and scout badge classes. Benchmark Outfitters, 9525 Kenwood…

by CityBeat Staff

Best New Live A/V Musical Showcase

In September of last year, WCPO (channel 9 on the TV; wcpo.com on the interwebs) launched WCPO Lounge Acts, a new series in which local and touring bands are invited into the studio to record performances and an interview. Solid production values and a knowledgeable host — veteran music journalist Gil Kaufman — have made…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Wearable Exercise Enhancer

Whether you’re practicing yoga, barre or Pilates, AVA Yoga Bodywear has a revolutionizing wearable solution to enhance your exercise. Designed by University of Cincinnati industrial design student Laura Koven and friend/Yale graduate student Melinda Agron, this colorful accessory is a lightweight wearable you attach to your hands and feet to help streamline your yoga practice and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Pro Guard Coming Back Under Unfortunate Circumstances

Things didn’t go Xavier’s way during the 2016-17 men’s basketball season. After starting the year ranked in the top 10, the Muskies struggled against the better teams in the stacked Big East, failing to separate themselves from the middle of the conference pack. The daunting conference schedule didn’t make things easy — during a five-game…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Return Of A Classic Local Beer

Founded in 1958, the story of Little Kings represents only a sliver of Cincinnati’s more than 200-year beer history, but its legacy is a long and complex one. Little Kings and its distinctive 7-ounce green bottle were invented in the ’50s when patrons of Montgomery Inn didn’t want to purchase full-sized beers to pair with shots…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Thai With A Side Of Pineapple Fried Rice

There’s nothing quite like a restaurant staff knowing your name and order the second you walk in the door. And that’s exactly what you get at Lemon Grass Thai, a cozy, family-owned eatery nestled near Rookwood Pavilion. Their crispy meatless spring rolls are the perfect way to start off a meal before delving into entrées…

by CityBeat Staff

BEST VEAL VARIETY

Family-run for more than a century, Scotti’s Italian Restaurant is the kind of historic gem that diners need to patronize so it’s not lost to the sands of time or expansion of Olive Gardens. Multiple generations of the DiMarco and Scoleri families have made this eatery a Vine Street mainstay, with its quirky interior and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Sock Game

Working Girls Co. is a locally based purveyor of feminist and satirical fashion and accessories. Founded in 2015 by designer Shailah Maynard, the product scope includes everything from a sheer apron-top dress and mock turtleneck dickie with the words “nip slip” hand-embroidered on it to a pool float that looks like a boob. Working Girls…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Feast For Fur Babies

Argos, All-Natural Pet Food and Supply is an independently owned and operated shop dedicated to providing personalized service and products of superior quality. It stocks a wide variety of food for dogs and cats — dry, wet, treats and beyond — as well as health products like probiotics, calming chews and senior formulas. Their in-house…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Quiet Hall of Fame Career in the Making

The Bengals’ offensive stars in recent years have enjoyed much of the team’s limelight — wide receiver A.J. Green is one of the best in the game, and quarterback Andy Dalton and running backs Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill get to score all the touchdowns. But there are some pretty legit dudes on the other…

by CityBeat Staff

Best New Restaurant In A Familiar Spot

Northside favorite Melt is moving down the road into bigger digs, but luckily, something just as good has come along to satiate the lunch crowd and neighboring Northside Tavern’s evening congregants. Bridges offers up fresh, invigorating Nepalese food from the Hamilton Avenue hangout, their first brick-and-mortar restaurant. Think Indian food, but lighter in texture and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Sustainable Shopping Spree

Boutique retailer Deerhaus Décor places an emphasis on small-batch manufacturing while pursuing a passion for sustainable design. Deerhaus provides a brick-and-mortar location for local craftsmen and artisans to display their work, which ranges from soaps and ceramics to jewelry and woodwork. There are also unique maker-made items from across the United States — laser-cut suede jewelry…

by CityBeat Staff

Local Brewery/Tap Room

2. MadTree Brewing Company 3. Braxton Brewing Company 4. Taft’s Ale House 5. Fifty West Brewing Company 6. Listermann Brewing Company 7. Urban Artifact 8. Blank Slate Brewing Company 9. Woodburn Brewery 10. Christian Moerlein Brewing Co.

by CityBeat Staff

Best Ohio Pride Anthem

When the Cleveland Cavaliers became NBA champions in 2016, legendary Cincinnati Hip Hop producer/DJ Hi-Tek (who has worked with greats from Talib Kweli to Snoop Dogg to 2017 Grammy nominee Anderson .Paak) showed that Cincinnati’s rivalry with Cleveland can be put aside in the name of Ohio love. Tek released the celebratory song and music video “Ain’t…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Free Theater Opportunity

The Know Theatre has established itself as the Queen City’s “theatrical playground,” and The Welcome Experiment on Wednesdays invites everyone to play — for free. That’s right. Guests can watch the current Know mainstage show at no cost. (For each show, 50 free tickets are available and 50 tickets for just $5 are also available.) In…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Way to Get Your 15 Minutes of Insta-Fame

Local photographer Louis Rideout shares the Insta-love with his curated Instagram account Cincishooters. He chooses the best photos that use #cincishooters and reposts them on the popular account. You don’t have to be a pro or use a fancy camera to be featured. You get credit and a shout-out for your compelling capture. But it’s not…

by CityBeat Staff

Overall Boutique (Local)

2. HOMAGE 3. MiCA 12/v 4. Rose & Remington 5. Downtown Girl 6. Black Owned Outerwear 7. Durham Dept. 8. Kismet 9. Article (TIE) 9. Continuum (TIE)

by CityBeat Staff

Best Indian Dinner Buffet

While it might be the only Indian dinner buffet in town, Grill of India’s evening buffet stands in a class of its own. What else could be expected from the team that brought us cult culinary favorite Swad in College Hill? Opened last fall, Grill of India offers not one but two buffet tables and…

by CityBeat Staff

Best Reason To Carb-Up In Butler County

When the fine folks at the Butler County Visitors Bureau realized they had a wealth of sweets on their hands, they created the official Butler County Donut Trail: a collection of mom-and-pop shops that will render any and all pre-packaged supermarket donuts unacceptable forevermore. Among the highlights are the Red Storm Roll, a raspberry-filled donut…

by CityBeat Staff

Best of Cincinnati 2017

Last year, CityBeat’s Best of Cincinnati issue turned 20. That’s two decades of recognizing the best people, places, organizations and things happening in our treasured river town — as voted on by readers and pontificated upon by our intrepid team of Cincy-loving staffers. While turning 20 was a big deal, turning 21 is more fun: It means…

by CityBeat Staff

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