MrsAWeeks

I am getting fat just hearing about all of these restaurants that are coming downtown! It seems like they announce a new one everyday. I have every intention of supporting them to make sure they stay in business. Yall have to help me out!

I love to hear about all of these new restaurant projects being implemented on Main Street. My ONLY concern is there better be some killer marketing involved because you can have the best food, a trendy atmosphere, but if the patrons aren't there, it will fold. A good example of marketing is Sully's. Since they have opened it has been "in your face" this is what we are doing. I get emails from them a few times a week, see advertisements for them in local publications, and read about them a lot in local emails by DRC, Citybeat, etc. I bet they have the numbers to prove how well they are doing because of these efforts. I think for these places to survive it is going to take more than just the downtowners visiting them. The suburbanites will have to hear enough about the new places and make an EFFORT to check them out.

Looks like a new restaurant is coming to Oakley called HUGO ...I didn't see it mentioned yet in this thread. Welcome to Hugo, where our southern sophisticated cuisine blends the traditions of the low country with metropolitan twists. We will be opening our doors May 12th, 2007." It looks like it is on the same level as Boca... http://www.hugo-restaurant.com/Home_Page.html

Jeff Ruby is already working on something with Bootsy Collins, right? Would this be it? Oh, i love the speculation of good things happening downtown.....

My husband and I go to the one at Clifton and Kenwood quite a bit....he is in love with those peppers they put on the sandwiches. I think they even sell them by the jar. Glad to hear that places in that price range are coming downtown......let's hope they stay open in the evenings.

After doing some digging on the project, I believe Huff Realty will be handing he listing. I am curious what the asking price is. On the auditor's website, it looks like the entire building was bought for $125,000....hopefully the price will be geared to young professionals aka $150K to 250K. Although my hubby and I both like UrbanOhio's Forum, we still talk to each other in person!

There is so little traffic downtown early in the morning, that I just do the "look both ways before you cross" rule, and I haven't gotten hit yet! If there is a pedestrian crossing I have to wait on, yes I am one of those people who take advantage of my lucky timing and stand there to catch my breath.

As far as my time goes, since this is my first marathon, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself with a time goal. I heard a quote that goes "I am a completer not a competer" That is my philosphy for the marathon. My husband and I just bought a condo downtown. Hence why we both like to run downtown!

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=587253 I am currently training for the flying pig marathon in May and this is what I do for my "recovery runs". I like the fact you run across the Purple People Bridge and the Taylor Southgate Bridge. I feel safe doing this by myself too. Nothing gets my day started off better than an early morning jog over the Ohio River.

Just trying to get some positive things about downtown in the Enquirer. I will sign autographs later though.....

SSSCincy, you should try to get on with the Enquirer ... you both do an excellent job of making shit up. One of my favorites.....If I didn't know Cincy-Rise, I might be afraid to post things! He promised he would never yell at me!

While visiting my parents who live in downtown Seattle ove the holidays, I got to see a vibrant active city with shopping, dining, entertainment, AND people living downtown. There is a shopping area called Pacific Place which is what the Tower Place Mall should strive to be. The building is 4 floors with only a Barnes and Nobles on the bottom floor and a movie theatre and a couple of restaurants on the top floor. The other two floors consist of shops such as JCrew, Victoria's Secret, Illuminations, etc. (The things you would find at Kenwood.) It is amazing how crowded it was before and after the holidays! My suggestion for Tower Place is to build slowly by first bringing a movie theatre to the top floor of the Tower Place mall. I bet if some statistics were done to see how many people drove to Newport to see a movie, it would justify putting one on this side of the river.

The only thing I hear living downtown are sirens and people on the streets postpartying after the Bengals game. Especially when we win! One night I heard the theme song to "Good Times" in three part harmony. The building I live has had no soundproofing so I know vast improvements have been made in the construction of new units such as space between the floors and concrete wall, floors, etc to block sound.

I have seen some of the initial drawings of the units in The Lofts. They were named "A" "B" "C" and "D". The only kind of drawback to the layout of the units was how narrow the building is. The units themselves seemed to resemble a hallway instead of a living space. I saw these during the Downtown Tour of Living so modifications could have been made since then.

I decided to walk down to Fountain Square yesterday at about 4:45 PM to see everyone out and about shopping, taking carriage rides, and ice skating. I was very please with the number of people downtown on a Sunday evening. I then went to Carew Tower to do some Christmas shopping and was disappointed to find most of the stores close at 5PM on Sunday evening. The ONLY store I could find open was Macy's that had extended its Sunday hours to 7PM for the holiday season. There were tons of families pushing kids in strollers "window shopping" because nothing was open. I bet if there were places open the families would have shopped for another hour then found a place to eat and made an evening of downtown. Instead they were forced to drive back to the suburbs where things don't close at 5PM. It seems when we take two steps forward sometimes in making progress in the downtown area, something like this gives people things to gripe about. EVERYONE has to be onboard to see a change in the city.

Ingredients is the new dining option in the Westin. They are open 7 days a week from 6AM-6PM. I go there at least once a week to build my own salad as mentioned in a previous post. They also have grilled sandwiches, pizzas, etc. Kind of like a Panera without the chain-like atmosphere. The coffee they carry is Starbucks.

I heard on the news today that Crate and Barrel has also committed to Kenwood Towne Center. They will demolish the Kroger near the Macy's parking lot and build it there. I didn't hear a time frame though. What is next you think?

I keep checking to see if any of the local hotels are having a New Years Eve bash but haven't found much. I did see that Jeff Ruby's was having a special dinner with a champagne toast at midnight. I also think there might be an event at Music Hall. Anything else going on downtown for New Years?

McCormick's and Schimdt are taking reservations now. There is a group of 9 of us going before the BNL concert next Friday night. One perk to the restaurant is their $1.95 happy hour on food. :clap: I know this place will be a success on the Square.

I personally am not upset about Parisians leaving. For many reasons I find the mere ambiance of the store (poor lighting, crowded racks, etc) to be a reason not to shop there. In fact the best thing about Parisians in my opinion is it is right next to the Panera Bread! I would love to see a Bloomingdale's go in that location.

So my hubby and I who live downtown were in the mood for a milkshake last night and couldn't think of a single place downtown that has them in the evening. Any other places you can think of besides the Graeter's in Cafe Martin where we can get our dessert fix?.....Happy Halloween by the way :evil:

JUST FYI...Cincinnati magazine's November Issue is called "The New Downtown" and is focusing on all of the great things that are ongoing and people making the choice to live downtown. They are having a kickoff celebration for the issue at Universal Grille on October 27th. I received an advertisement for the event at the DRC meeting last night with RSVP info on it. I will try to pass it along if anyone is interested in attending.

I think with the Fountain Square activities downtown on Saturday night that I will take her to The Universal Grille. I have not been since it changed from Hamburger Mary's. Thanks for the suggestions though. I haven't been to a lot of the places mentioned so I will definitely have to check them out.

Does anyone know if SouthFood the "Urban Soul Food" restaurant is open at the Levee? I have a friend coming in town this weekend from Atlanta, AKA the Dirty South and I was trying to think of a trendy place to take her. I would like to stick to the Ohio side of the River but I need some suggestions. She works at a restaurant so she is a tough person to impress. I don't want to take her to a chain or anything. Also, it needs to be pretty reasonable in price so Jeff Ruby's, Jean Roberts, etc are out. Has anyone been to Honey or the Sturkey's restaurants? I have been to Vinyl and thought it was ok. Any help would be appreciated.

Speaking of rails what is everyone's thought on Cincinnati installing a light rail that would connect downtown to the UC area? There was an article in the Business Courier about KY taking some initial steps and putting a light rail in their 5 year plan. At the Discover Cincy event last week at Music Hall some forerunners of the idea of putting one in Cincinnati had a booth set up. Their presentation was pretty impressive. This topic might be in another area on the site, so forgive me because I am still getting used to the setup.