Cincinnati is super cool, full of fun surprises, and has a few lessons for Ottawa.
Written by Michael Bussière, April 21, 2023
Photo credits: Fred Rutherford Photography
instagram.com/fredrutherfordphotography/
I didn’t know what to expect when I was invited to visit Cincinnati, but I’ve returned home with plenty of good things to say about it, and have to add that Ottawa could take a few lessons from the town that locals call Cincy.
Located on the north shore of the Ohio River across from Kentucky, Cincinnati is situated on rambling, hilly terrain that immediately gives the impression that this cityscape is no predictable grid. The compact downtown is a veritable museum of turn-of-the-20th century corporate architecture, beautifully preserved from the grand entrances and foyers to the soaring penthouses that pay homage to the capitalist aspirations of Athenian America. The Fourth and Vine Building, originally known as the Union Central Tower, stands at 31 storeys and is easily identified by the elaborate Hellenic elements in the upper floors modelled on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. Now that’s ambition!
Very little in the way of modernist boxes or slabs disrupt the skyline. Streets feature broad sidewalks, open plazas, and a cleanliness free of posters, graffiti, and that annoying tagging that make our G7 downtown look just a bit neglected. The contemporary architecture in Cincy is to scale and cleverly detailed so as to make it attractive without competing with the heritage. There are no dilapidated, abandoned buildings permitted by the city a la Bank and Somerset or Murray and Parent Streets. And check this out. There’s a free (repeat: free) electric-powered streetcar that does a 3.6-mile (5.8 km) loop connecting the downtown with the neighbouring Over-the-Rhine and Banks heritage districts.
A fantastic downtown core means great events, and the greatest of all in Cincy is the opening day parade for the fabled Cincinnati Reds, the oldest professional franchise of America’s pastime. On a picture-perfect March morning, daffodils in bloom and blue skies blazing, residents started setting up chairs at dawn for what would be a winding tribute to the home team who would take to the park at 4:00 p.m. that afternoon. 158 participants, including the Reds themselves, the NFL Bengals alumni, countless marching bands, businesses large and small, every civic organization you can think of, and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine turned out.
The tradition for generations has been that the Reds would be the first National League team to start the season with a home game, it once being the most southern and therefore most Springlike city in the league.
The parade was nothing short of amazing. There was an unabashed love of the game and the team on full display, blended with a proud and genuine patriotism. Huge pre-game festivities around the Great American Ball Park and the Reds Hall of Fame, both located along the riverfront, added to the fervour. And finally, there was the game, Air Force flyover and all. It all felt like an unofficial statutory holiday. About four innings in, a cool kid held up a sign on the jumbo screens that read, “Don’t tell my teacher!” He was probably spotted by Teacher who was hiding from the camera somewhere in the bleachers!
All this Cincy enthusiasm makes me wonder how, in the city where Lord Stanley first presented his championship cup to the exclusively Canadian, original National Hockey League, there is no celebration whatsoever marking the Senators home opener. And are we actually ruminating over the no-brainer of a new downtown arena? “Sigh,” as Charlie Brown would have said on the pitcher’s mound.
A great afternoon of sunshine and sports excitement whets the appetite, and so our entourage made its way over the river to Covington, Kentucky where a neighbourhood of perfectly-preserved heritage buildings house restaurants, boutiques, and the coolest music store/nightclub combo you’ve ever seen. Mama’s on Main was our host for what was reported from all sides of the table to be a delicious menu. I split a Caesar salad and selected the Eggplant Parmesan, both of which are super simple in terms of ingredients and therefore easily ruined by an overly creative chef. Not in this case. My dinner was about as close to Mama’s own home cooking as you can get, and therefore perfectly satisfying. Nothing about the food or drink menus goes overboard in any way, and a straightforward selection like that with daily specials means you’ve got to get it right every time, and Mama’s on Main does just that. A cookie platter for the table was the only dolce required. Spare some time to enjoy the Mainstrasse Village neighbourhood.
Day Two and another meal, this time at the complete opposite end of the menu spectrum. The first Sugar n’ Spice Diner opened its doors on Reading Road in 1941 and all locations still faithfully serve an authentic diner menu. The Sugar n’ Spice we enjoyed is located in a district called Over-the-Rhine, or OTR to the savvy Cincinnatian, referencing a canal built by the original German founders that has since been filled in to create an elegant crosstown boulevard. In fact, the entirety of OTR is a homage to the German immigrants whose vibrantly-painted Greek Revival, Italianate and Queen Anne-style brick buildings decorate blocks and blocks that invite casual walking and exploration.
The place is right out of a retro movie set and stays honest to its origins. It’s famous all over town for its secret-recipe Wispy Thin Pancakes, Huge Fluffy Omelettes, Signature Creative Sandwiches, and everything you’d expect to find in a diner, all served up in a colourful interior habitat filled with flocks of rubber ducks. We all squeezed into a conference table-sized booth across the aisle from a family of Mum, Dad, and three squirming boys who were having an honest-to-goodness happy meal.
A few blocks north of the best diner in town is the Findlay Market, Ohio’s oldest continuously operated public market. It is a richly-flavourful food emporium where over 50 vendors offer meats, fish, poultry, fresh produce, flowers, cheese and deli selections and other specialties all housed in the original wrought iron building. This is a place where someone can enjoy a casual meal and shop for groceries. Barb Cooper of Cincinnati Food Tours guided our taste buds from one sample stop to the next, starting with a distinctively Cincinnati favourite.
Eckerlin Meats opened with the Findlay six generations ago. In addition to a fresh selection of locally-sourced meats and their own sausages, Eckerlin makes a German-American breakfast dish called goetta, a spicy blend of pork shoulder, beef chuck, onions and pinhead oats, formed into a loaf that makes for a crispy slice when fried in butter with eggs.
Findlay Market has become more international as Cincinnati has welcomed new communities. Dean’s Mediterranean Imports is a classic Lebanese grocery featuring shelves of olive oil, bins of nuts roasted in-store, every taste and scent found along the ancient Spice Route, many-flavoured pita bread treats, goat and sheep cheeses, and plenty of other mouthwatering temptations. Churchill’s Fine Teas was founded by London expat Kathleen Kern, who is on a mission to bring tea culture to the US Midwest. She told us Canucks that Americans are slowly coming around and are delighted to discover the walls filled with over 265 varieties of loose-leaf and sachet tea from around the world. Makers Bakers Co. is owned by Kevin Foston and his business partner Tara Patterson who creates all of the yummy treats. We were served a Banana Pudding with Bourbon Caramel Sauce that was not too sweet and not too rich, exactly what a dessert should be!
Cincinnati has done a beautiful job of taking vacant land along the Ohio River and creating a waterfront park that connects some of its most important cultural institutions with its two main sports venues: The Great American Ball Park and the NFL Bengals’ Paycor Stadium. The walk provides excellent views of an important work of engineering, an early suspension bridge designed by Prussian-born John A. Roebling. The project faced stiff opposition, primarily because it was feared that the bridge would serve as an escape route from Kentucky, where enslaved persons from Africa were the foundation of the economy, to Ohio, which was a free state. The Ohio Legislature eventually approved construction with a scope of work that called for a bridge longer than any other in the world, high enough (122 feet or 37 metres) and wide enough (1,000 feet or 304 metres) for steamboats to pass beneath it. The John A. Roebling Bridge became the prototype for the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.
Near the symbolic bridge and just south of the downtown is an institution whose home and programming evoke the spirit of a temple to human dignity and perseverance. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center tells the largely untold story of the escape route north to Lake Erie and across to Canada and freedom from being hunted and recaptured, making this great epic a part of our history as well. While no railroad would have ever actually been traveled, or permitted for that matter, the term symbolizes a secret and unwavering journey that was fraught with risk requiring strength and tenacity to arrive at an ultimate destination.
In the heart of the Freedom Center, located in its central pavilion, on the second of three floors of exhibits, is a reconstructed square-log structure, recovered from a nearby Kentucky farm, that would have historically been referred to as a slave pen (that’s correct: pen, as in animals), where enslaved persons would have been incarcerated until sold for back-breaking work in the fields further south. It is a disturbingly vivid, immersive conveyance of a reality lived by human beings that no photograph or text could possibly report with such visceral impact. Only the shared spaces and experiences of museums can impart knowledge to this degree of emotional intensity. It is for this reason, and many, many others, that The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center was recently voted best museum by a USA Today Readers poll. It is, perhaps now more than ever, an absolute must-see.
After some time to decompress and regain composure, dinner that evening was hosted by The Montgomery Inn, a veritable “world-famous” institution of a Cincinnati restaurant, where the walls are lined with photos of celebrity diners and the menu amounts to a carnivore gala. One guest at our table exclaimed in shock when her meal of ribs and beef brisket arrived looking like it had been stacked high enough for Fred Flintstone to enjoy. In ancient times, the place would have been thick with cigar smoke. The original location is up in the village of Montgomery. We dined at the riverfront “Boathouse” location where we could enjoy the view of paddle boats and barges plying the waters. From drinks and apps to mains and desserts, the food was perfect and the atmosphere was casual and fun.
Finally, if you want a great example of just how cool Cincy is, there’s a giant video sculpture called Metrobot by the late Korean artist Nam June Paik, known as the father of video art, looming over the traffic in front of the Contemporary Art Center and part of its excellent collection. The museum is attached to the 21C Museum Hotel where artwork exhibits are found throughout the public spaces and the heritage of the original building has been carefully preserved around fully-modern accommodations. It is dog friendly, has an excellent and affordable restaurant off of the foyer, and is located in the heart of the downtown.
Cincinnati had a lot more to discover than I could have covered in a couple of very rewarding days. It is also a great jumping-off point for exploring Kentucky. For more information, visit www.visitcincy.com
