Spring in Cincinnati (April Flawrs!)

Cincinnati had an annual flower show on the regular.  Then the recession hit and then the Cincinnati Horticultural Society couldn't do it (or didn't do it) for four years.  Then in March I started to notice billboards go up for the return of the Show this year. 

Rain or shine.  Guess which day we went.

Saturday weather was idyllic, and we therefore spent it weeding and mowing the lawn and chasing after Smalls.  Sunday it gushed pretty much unceasingly so naturally we suited up to walk around outside in the wet.

  I'm told the crowds thronged in for the great weather, but the good luck within bad luck was that there was no crowd for us.  Or, you know, hardly anyone at all.   We came around 4pm with no tickets, and were given courtesy tickets at the gate for free so this event cost us only what I spent in plants and cheddar+carmel corn.  The rain meant business, and Smalls has a dangerously short attention span anyway, so we just did a quick race through.

There were actually people here, just not many to be found out of tents

There was a barbecue event (special tickets), and a bourbon tasting on Saturday (cry), and a mother-daughter tea (which I would delightedly drag my kid to because they had a gloriously dressed Mary Poppins lady in full chalk-painting-land regalia there I kid you not.  I didn't get a photo, I was trying to juggle my giant golf umbrella and at the time I didn't realize I was blogging again.  Regrets.)  

What I used to love about the flower show is the model plantings, where you can see new and tested plants in garden settings.  

I saw this and thought, "Why! Sweet Woodruff.  I should have that in my yard."  Of course that might require you to reign yourself in if you start to see things that you covet all around.    

"Why!  I totally need these red star thingies!"

This year they featured a variety of model window boxes.  I love looking at the new coleus and heuchera cultivars.  So many more colors than they used to have! 

And, as in the past, they had a competition run by the Horticultural Society.  People compete with their gorgeous orchids and toad lillies and I'm afraid I didn't get more than a few minutes in there.  I did manage to catch this friggin awe-inspiring arrangement featuring David Austin Garden Roses.

needwant  :: drool ::

And lots of perky deer-bait I mean tulips.

excuse my jealousy...

Yeatman's Cove was splendidly decked out with blossoming trees.  The grounds were meticulously cared for, and it was a lovely space to spend time in and sit beneath the trees.  You know, probably.

Despite the unceasing rain, that got quite nasty around 5pm, it was a really nicely turned out spot for the show and I hope they consider having it by the river next year as well.  I enjoy the Flower Show, and I'll go back as long as they keep doing it.  

*

April is also the time when the mature cherry trees in Ault Park bloom.  We did go and picnic.  

"Is that a leaf?  Don't eat the leaf.  No, DON'T eat the leaf."

 I'm glad we went, though it's a bit more of a production than it used to be.  Cincinnatians know that the cherries in Ault Park are a sight to see.   

Lately I feel it's more important than ever to not be content to just let time march on, but to mark it with personal observances, make my own traditions, and to celebrate life and renewal when the opportunity strikes.   

Preferably with bourbon.

LINK : PR Bit on the Flower Show from the Cincinnati Business Courier

Local Love to The Faux Frenchmen

Now, its true that every year Maifest in Mainstrasse has crafts and foods and beer and live entertainment.  And hey, who can deny the appeal of an oompah band, huh?  NO ONE, that's who.  

I got myself down to Covington,

.....

But this year it wasn't for the oom-pah bands. 

I threaded the maifest maze of tented booths, 

OMG, Red John?

And found both the Moerlein booth and the Taste of Belgium Booth.  

nommmmm

I sat down contentedly with my Sangerfest Bock and my waffle and thoroughly enjoyed the live entertainment :  

The gypsy jazz awesomeness of Cincinnati's own Faux Frenchmen.  

You should have seen the wee kids out there, shakin' it.  

The Faux Frenchmen.  

Fine musicians.  Catch them around town and show some local love.   

Bockfest Brewery/History Tour

Saturday we got up bright and early.

Ha, no silly, not to run in the 5K in the snow

We took the brewery history tour through historic and still-reviving Over the Rhine.  The tours sold out again this year, as they have every year since we've been going to Bockfest.  This was the first year we've bought tickets early enough.

The tour also goes underneath OTR, into the catacomb-like Lagering Cellars and tunnels built underneath the brewery buildings and even under Vine Street.

Crown Lagering Cellars

Crown Brewing

Crown History

Some of these tunnels have only been re-discovered in recent years.

Hudepohl Brewing

The view from Hudy building to Findlay Market

As we were climbing in-and-out of whitewashed brick tunnels, and up-and-down rickety staircases ladders, we passed this sign on one of the walls in the Hudepohl Brewery Building:

 
Which was hilarious.
It was as if the sign was meant for us personally.
D and I had bought a beer sign at the Bockfest Hall right before the tour began, which the vendor was holding for us until the end of the tour.  It made us laugh that we were being reminded not to leave without the Hudepohl sign I'd purchased, in the Hudepohl building.

And then, on our way to the next site, I saw this hilarious sign painted on the side of this red building.

Perhaps the most puzzling use of punctuation I've ever seen.
"We" like people.  
heh heh

OTR is famous for being one of the biggest collections of Italianate architecture anywhere.  And even if you don't know much about architectural design, all you need to do is look up to find something to appreciate.

The Moerlein Building

Another terrifying, narrow, steep, staircase into ...


...an enormous, air-raid-shelter-grade structure.  For real, if Cincinnati is ever going to be bombed, this would be the place to be to wait it out.  With ventilation to help C02 brewing byproducts escape, you'd be safe and sound, and only a little bit cold.

The photos really don't capture how huge these spaces are.  Hundreds of German immigrants down here, digging in the dark in the 1880s.  I can barely imagine it.  They were paid in money and beer.

Ticket prices help to fund further excavations.  It's so impressive to me, what people were able to build.  It's kind of thrilling too, to think that we have a warren of cellars and tunnels underneath the city, just like Paris, and a lot yet that remains unexplored.  

I think it's great too that the excavations of Cincinnati's brewing history comes at a time when Cincinnati brewing is coming back, the business of brewing is being developed here again.  

I like that its come back to its roots, becoming a local, craftsman industry again, and reweaving itself into the community.    

The Time of Year for Beer in Cincy

This time of year is big for craft brewers and craft brew lovers in Cincy.  

This very weekend, is Bockfest, that celebration of Spring, OTR, and bock beer.

ein bock --the goat

 Bock is tapped only in spring, made from grains harvested around October.  It's sweeter and more nutritive, and it sustained the clergy during their lenten fasts, during which some would only drink beer.  Cincinnati has a lengthy brewing (and drinking) history, which is now being reclaimed with old names like Christian Moerlein and Hudepohl.

Posters in Arnolds cataloging Bockfest history were a nice touch 

We own a copy of Over The Rhine, When Beer Was King.  It's pretty interesting (unpaid, unsolicited plug) to learn about not only Cincy's heritage, but also to understand how devastating Prohibition was to the City and the lives of the people who ran and operated its 32 breweries.  

Friday night one of our local favorites 46 Long played Arnolds.  We listened to some delta blues while we sampled and enjoyed the bocks on offer.

Bell's Consecrator Doppelbock
Triple Digit Gravitator Doppelbock
Rivertown Bock
Hudy Bock
Troeg's Troegenator Double bock

And we missed the parade, again, like every year.  This year we were actually inside Arnolds, eating kangaroo meat and boar bacon, while the parade left from right outside.
Maybe next year we'll be sitting even closer to the actual parade without seeing it.


Because Bock is sweeter and calorically dense, it's not for everyone or for all the time.  Personally I love the flavor, and I dislike the hoppier beers.  Not surprisingly, I'm one of a pretty populous fanbase for bock beers here in Cincy.  We were on-hand at Arnolds as they tapped a 1/4 barrel of Triple Digit Bourbon Barrel Gravitator Doppelbock at exactly 2pm on Saturday.  9 minutes later, they were sold out.  D got one of the last ones to be poured.  (It was surprisingly fruity and extremely amazing)

The King of Hudy.  Goat Man.  That hat.  That Friar.  The ex-pontiff was walking around too, and a man with tree branches strapped to his head like a headdress.  Good times, all to the music of Jake Speed, a truly entertaining bluegrass musician.  (He went on an hour late though, we were beginning to think he might not show at all, but he played an enjoyable show, so all is forgiven.)

Jake Speed and the Freddies

The great thing about Bockfest, is it feels like you are enjoying quality brews with your neighbors.  Mostly neighbors that you don't know, especially in our case.  But still, it never feels like a frat party or a hipster bar.  It's people who enjoy good beer and good times.  And amazing waffles.  Amazing.  Bockfest is a good time, and it gets better every year.  

Nectar: Dinner Club

We had a different sort of dining experience recently at Nectar, in Mt. Lookout.  A piece was recently done on this restaurant in the eating-local-mag EDIBLE), and an acquaintance of ours talked them up.    

We happened upon to visit Nectar during one of their periodic Dinner Club events.  On these nights dinner is a single event with a set menu, designed around a certain theme, the menu is prepared with seasonal, locally farmed ingredients.  We happened upon them for "Products of the Hive," a dinner event designed around the central theme of honey.  

I don't know that I would have sought out goat cheese beignets in my life before this experience, but I now know that I should have.  By god, I should have.  I can't remember being more pleasantly surprised by some unassuming looking dish.  I shamed myself by not allowing the waiter to take away the table's shared plate until I'd eaten no less than three.  I blame the steroids (allergic reaction, long story).  The salad was no great shakes for me, and the dessert wasn't my thing (D loved them both though), but truly a delight was the "local poisson, " which has got to be "poissin" misspelled because I was expecting, no, dreading a honeyed-fish and instead I got this awesome, moist and flavorful wee chicken.  

Eh, french stuff.  Who can be expected to spell correctly, am I right?  

they sent us off with a comb to enjoy at home

They announced that their next theme event will be garlic.  I love me some garlic, so I'm tempted to try the next Dinner Club event.  It was a long evening, much longer than your normal dining experience would be, so you have to expect that that, that is, the eating,  is your entire evening.  And the price is steep, or seems so to me.  Then again, we eat in a lot.  And pricey is pretty much what one might expect from a touted "culinary event."  

 I can say I'd be interested in trying the normal fare.  I'm not one to be impressed or put off by decor, but I can say that in matters of decor, as well as in matters of general enjoyableness of the food and experience, it was the opposite of the experience we had at Cumin.  The decor at Cumin accosts the eye with its trendiness and the food made me yak in the parking lot of the nearby police station on our way home (*I was not cited for illegal dumping).  The decor at Nectar was... goats and stuff.  Yeah.  But I kept my meal, thanks, which is the way I prefer it.  

I enjoyed that the local farmer/apiarist spoke about his (newly learned) trade before the dinner.  How the bees sieve off the pollen from their catch-pouches, how many flower-visits go into making pollen.  Bees made the news in the big mysterious population die-offs a few years ago that were never thoroughly explained by science.  The apiarist told us that there have been several historical die-offs of bees in the past, not so many as to be cyclical, not so few as to be entirely shocking.  Bees are pretty special.  They got some press with that Bee movie a few years ago, but don't get their due often enough.  

I learned from that movie that bees are so un-aerodynamic that science can't fully explain how they are able to fly in the first place.  Not a great film, but I learned something.

Personally, I think its sugar-power.  After dinner I was humming on honey-energy myself.  I was so buzzed I half-expected to fly home.  

Mainstrasse Antiques and an Edible Adventure : Otto's

With all we have on our plate this week, it was a bad time to catch a cold.  So I just said no.  I refused to have it. 

And it went away. 

True story. 

This past Sunday D agreed to go with me to 4th Sunday Antiques on Mainstrasse. 


Mainstrasse on a blue-skied Sunday



I always enjoy the graffiti.  Support local artists!



It was another beautiful day, and we kicked the day off with brunch at nearby Otto's.  (I would link directly to the restaurant, but their website is having trouble)

Benedict Otto's (foreground) & Brekkie Casserole (background)

Otto's is right in Mainstrasse.  It has seating outside in front and in back (and inside), and we elected the back patio. The brunch menu is quite enticing, but I chose the Benedict Otto's and potato cake.  Poached eggs are often done poorly and taste like snot.  Otto's does the poached egg proud.  It was served on a hard, herby, crispy thing which became more and more delicious as it soaked up the goo.  D had the Breakfast Casserole (also good) and the goetta (because D always has the goetta, you'd think he was born in Cincinnati he is the most staunch supporter of goetta). 

Sunlit yet shady patio

I really liked our experience here.  The back patio is nice, a bit loud, yes, because of the air conditioning unit, but I only noticed that at first.  The weather was lovely, the waiter was a nice guy who gave us some advice on where else we could look for "previously owned" stuff, and the wait for our food was appropriate.  I'd like to go back soon.  Of course, with the labor day event at the house and the dog adoption, and my birthday and the upcoming renovation projects... I think it won't be soon.  Though if we wait until the end of September for the next 4th Sunday, we'll get to try eating indoors.  Actually, I'm excited to go back, I've got my eye on a few things on the menu.  I didn't order the strawberry cheesecake french toast, but I assure you, I will soon.  On the dinner menu they have something that sounds equally fantastic, "shrimp grits."  My mouth waters with anticipation. 

I've had a lot of mediocre food since we've moved.  It's great to enjoy my food again. 

With full bellies we walked over to the antiques market.  It was lively without being overcrowded. 

4th Sunday Antiques Market

Who wants a monk salt shaker?  Well we all do, obviously. 

I LOVE THESE CHAIRS.  I should have bought these chairs. 

The vendors seemed nice.  I only bought one thing, one thing which I am (quite evilly) contemplating keeping, even though I actually bought it as a gift for a friend. There was old jewelry and clothing, vinyl, furniture, toys (including *the* evil monkey), stained glass windows, just all sorts of things.  I love to peruse the old-style jewelry, knickknacks, and books. Not necessarily to buy. 

My husband forbade me from buying this parrot.



Well gosh, the cats could use a giant carousel...

 

Please, somebody, give an elephant a home. 


I just like old stuff.  And handmade stuff.  And stuff that doesn't look like everyone else's stuff. 

 

I also think looking at these things just naturally makes me look backward in time, something I do on occasion as a swing dancer, but it also makes me look back in life.  All of the elder relations in my family passed away too young, quite a long time ago.  I miss them, and wonder what conversations we might have had if only they had stuck around a few more years.  Certain objects or visuals are indelibly tied to my memories of them.  I always think of Irene when looking at old jewelry and roosters, because of all the roosters made of seashells that roosted in her kitchen.  I think of my Busia when I see old religious art work, or ceramic knicknacks, especially birds.  I feel the same when I sit down to watch Have Gun Will Travel with D.  I think of my dziadzia, a lover of all cowboy serials, and wonder how my grandfather and my husband would have gotten along.  Or maybe they're on my mind lately because of the recent scare with D's grandmother. 

Anyway!  Back on topic.  I had a good time at the antiques market.  I think I'll go in September as well.  We didn't go to the Cleopatra exhibit (yet) because D wanted to attend Aikido practice instead.  So while he was at practice I went to Duck Creek Antiques, something I've wanted to do for ages, but their hours make it impossible to go unless its on a Saturday or Sunday. 

Here it is

"Who da Pole?"  "I am, I am the Polish one." "No, it's a beer... nevermind." 

This place is totally worth a visit.  Even if you don't buy a thing, or if you don't like knicknacks.  It's good for a browse because they have godawfully expensive things that are still fun to look at, like Rookwood Pottery, giant chinese lions, and things that you could conceivably afford, like old Japanese obi fabric from the Showa era, mod furniture, old vintage advertisements, old beer steins, and more.  Some antique places are real junkholes, but this place has some nice stuff. 

I bought some Christmas presents (starting early! mwahahaa!), and I bought a purse for myself for six bucks.  This in itself is almost beyond belief.  I am a nightmare to shop for, as anyone who has tried might attest.  I almost always hate the clothes, shoes, and especially the purses that I'm willing to pay for). 

Have been working around the house, and more to do on the trench and yard before the guests descend en masse for Labor Day.  Even so, I hope to make time for the Cleopatra Exhibit, in this its final days.  And, not to shirk my responsibilities too much, but this Saturday is the City Flea, in downtown Cincy.  It's the last flea for 2011, 10am to 4pm. 

 

This elephant lamp is at Julie's Inspiration Consignment Shoppe in Mainstrasse, the shop the waiter introduced to us. 

Here is some press for the City Flea.