I'm with you URBANPIONEER. It does have a warm and cozy feel to it like it is trying to have a 'been there forever' vibe. Also strangely reminds me of the diner from Pulp Fiction.

No one has mentioned the theme of this restuarant which has been kind of sort of described as an italian place but with other european influences.

 

I'm not sure how the design fits the theme here.  Kaze at least has an increadible "Japan cool" aesthetic making it look like something out of a post-modern art gallery in Tokyo - its theme is consistent and impressive showing a deep understanding of the aesthetic it pulls from. 

 

This place is a mess, even good designers have their duds, though this isn't completely ready yet and perhaps we should reserve judgement until opening day.

I'll just point out that this restaurant has more people talking about the design than any other restaurant I've seen on this board.

 

It does look ridiculous, but I don't find it particularly offensive as a whole. The whole is certainly greater than the sum of its (sometimes offensive, always ridiculous) parts.

Actually it appears to have taken influence in the Red Barn that it replaced. 

I hate the noise of sitting in wicker chairs lol, it makes me cringe like scratching a chalk board....

ADHD School of Design???

I'm curious to see what the staff will be forced to wear.

I'm curious to see what the staff will be forced to wear.

 

So much flair.

OMFG! The walls have the same wood paneling on them! Hahahaha...ridiculous.

 

 

 

I'm with you URBANPIONEER. It does have a warm and cozy feel to it like it is trying to have a 'been there forever' vibe. Also strangely reminds me of the diner from Pulp Fiction.

 

I was all excited to make a pulp fiction reference and then I scrolled up to see IT HAD BEEN STOLEN FROM ME.

There is wooden paneling in Bakersfield & Eagle.  I agree that this place is going for some sort of ambiguously retro feel. Should be interesting.

 

 

Press release:

 

The Mercer, Over-the-Rhine’s newest restaurant, is pleased to announce its opening at the corner of Vine and Mercer Streets. Opening on Thursday, November 4, 2014, The Mercer will span 3,200 square feet and seat 60 in the main dining room, and 40 in the full-service formal bar.

 

"This restaurant was inspired by the sophistication and Mod sensibilities of 60’s cinema which idealized and often parodied 'The Sweet Life' a la 'La Dolce Vita'," said Jon Zipperstein, owner of The Mercer. "There is a vibrant lifestyle here in OTR that we want to echo. I want people to think of The Mercer as a living room for the neighborhood."

 

Serving cuisine by Chef Dan Stoltz, the menu will feature bistro staples with a European influence. Each dish has been interpreted in a modern way that is at once contemporary, approachable and satisfying. All pasta will be made in-house for menu staples such as the garganelli and other specialty dishes. Main courses at The Mercer include the porterhouse (for two), duck leg cassoulet, short ribs, risotto and chicken saltimbocca.

Press release:

 

The Mercer, Over-the-Rhine’s newest restaurant, is pleased to announce its opening at the corner of Vine and Mercer Streets. Opening on Thursday, November 4, 2014, The Mercer will span 3,200 square feet and seat 60 in the main dining room, and 40 in the full-service formal bar.

 

"This restaurant was inspired by the sophistication and Mod sensibilities of 60’s cinema which idealized and often parodied 'The Sweet Life' a la 'La Dolce Vita'," said Jon Zipperstein, owner of The Mercer. "There is a vibrant lifestyle here in OTR that we want to echo. I want people to think of The Mercer as a living room for the neighborhood."

 

Serving cuisine by Chef Dan Stoltz, the menu will feature bistro staples with a European influence. Each dish has been interpreted in a modern way that is at once contemporary, approachable and satisfying. All pasta will be made in-house for menu staples such as the garganelli and other specialty dishes. Main courses at The Mercer include the porterhouse (for two), duck leg cassoulet, short ribs, risotto and chicken saltimbocca.

 

Do they mean Tuesday the 4th, or Thursday the 6th?

I want people to think of The Mercer as a living room for the neighborhood.

 

And by living room, do they mean the one from Alf?

'The Sweet Life' a la 'La Dolce Vita'

 

This phrase makes zero sense to me.  Are there three languages in there?

 

I'm glad they thought about the interior, but I'm still completely lost on it.  I'm excited to finally have a living room though. I can't wait to bring popcorn, wear my Snuggie and sit at one of those booths browsing Buzzfeed on my laptop all night. 

'The Sweet Life' a la 'La Dolce Vita'

 

This phrase makes zero sense to me.  Are there three languages in there?

 

I'm glad they thought about the interior, but I'm still completely lost on it.  I'm excited to finally have a living room though. I can't wait to bring popcorn, wear my Snuggie and sit at one of those booths browsing Buzzfeed on my laptop all night. 

 

And twirling your finger around in the phone chord while chatting it up with your bestie. 

 

 

'The Sweet Life' a la 'La Dolce Vita'

 

This phrase makes zero sense to me.  Are there three languages in there?

 

I'm glad they thought about the interior, but I'm still completely lost on it.  I'm excited to finally have a living room though. I can't wait to bring popcorn, wear my Snuggie and sit at one of those booths browsing Buzzfeed on my laptop all night. 

 

And twirling your finger around in the phone chord while chatting it up with your bestie. 

 

 

 

OMG!  Is there a payphone?  There's gotta be a payphone.  Where is it?

'The Sweet Life' a la 'La Dolce Vita'

 

This phrase makes zero sense to me.  Are there three languages in there?

 

I'm glad they thought about the interior, but I'm still completely lost on it.  I'm excited to finally have a living room though. I can't wait to bring popcorn, wear my Snuggie and sit at one of those booths browsing Buzzfeed on my laptop all night. 

 

And twirling your finger around in the phone chord while chatting it up with your bestie. 

 

 

 

OMG!  Is there a payphone?  There's gotta be a payphone.  Where is it?

 

Right by the gumball machine.

'The Sweet Life' a la 'La Dolce Vita'

 

This phrase makes zero sense to me.  Are there three languages in there?

 

I'm glad they thought about the interior, but I'm still completely lost on it.  I'm excited to finally have a living room though. I can't wait to bring popcorn, wear my Snuggie and sit at one of those booths browsing Buzzfeed on my laptop all night. 

 

Okay do you or do you not actually own a Snuggie?

'The Sweet Life' a la 'La Dolce Vita'

 

This phrase makes zero sense to me.  Are there three languages in there?

 

I'm glad they thought about the interior, but I'm still completely lost on it.  I'm excited to finally have a living room though. I can't wait to bring popcorn, wear my Snuggie and sit at one of those booths browsing Buzzfeed on my laptop all night. 

 

Okay do you or do you not actually own a Snuggie?

 

I have a Bearcats Snuggie. ProkNo5 is welcome to borrow it!

'The Sweet Life' a la 'La Dolce Vita'

 

This phrase makes zero sense to me.  Are there three languages in there?

 

I'm glad they thought about the interior, but I'm still completely lost on it.  I'm excited to finally have a living room though. I can't wait to bring popcorn, wear my Snuggie and sit at one of those booths browsing Buzzfeed on my laptop all night. 

 

Okay do you or do you not actually own a Snuggie?

 

Oh, no I dont. I guess I'm not all posh like you Columbus people.

Clearly, Wisconsin.

Clearly, Wisconsin.

 

Whatever, Springboro.

^Miami Township, you mean.

^Thank you.  We have nice Kohl's.  Wisconsin just has...90's Snuggies Kohl's.

^Thank you.  We have nice Kohl's.  Wisconsin just has...90's Snuggies Kohl's.

 

Umm...Wisconsin invented Kohl's. You're enjoying the chicken scraps of Kohl's stores.

Thank you, Cheese Castle.

You're welcome...for everything. And it's called the Mars Cheese Castle. Thank you.

'The Sweet Life' a la 'La Dolce Vita'

 

This phrase makes zero sense to me.  Are there three languages in there?

 

I'm glad they thought about the interior, but I'm still completely lost on it.  I'm excited to finally have a living room though. I can't wait to bring popcorn, wear my Snuggie and sit at one of those booths browsing Buzzfeed on my laptop all night. 

 

Okay do you or do you not actually own a Snuggie?

 

Oh, no I dont. I guess I'm not all posh like you Columbus people.

 

I live in Cincinnati lol.

Coming soon...

 

 

 

 

Has anyone heard anything about Phase 3?

That's a really cool picture with the building reflections.

Yesssssss

That's a really cool picture with the building reflections.

 

Plus Travis is a vampire.  Or are we vampires because we can't see his reflection?

^ #mindblown

 

It looks like Phase 3 town homes are underway on Mercer Street.  Not sure what the rest of Phase 3 is?  Would that be the south side of 14th Street?  What was originally planned there?

 

http://www.3cdc.org/our-projects/current-projects/mercer-iii-townhomes/

That's a really cool picture with the building reflections.

 

Plus Travis is a vampire.  Or are we vampires because we can't see his reflection?

 

Or, I positioned myself perfectly between the windows so that you couldn't see my reflection.

 

But I'm probably a vampire.

The south side of 14th is an office building, or at least was in the most recent schemes. That's supposedly part of phase 3 but starting at a later date now due to 3CDC not receiving the New Market tax credits they were seeking if I'm recalling correctly.

That's a really cool picture with the building reflections.

 

Plus Travis is a vampire.  Or are we vampires because we can't see his reflection?

 

Or, I positioned myself perfectly between the windows so that you couldn't see my reflection.

 

But I'm probably a vampire.

 

Both are plausible. I live across the street from Travis and never see him in the daytime.

That's a really cool picture with the building reflections.

 

Plus Travis is a vampire.  Or are we vampires because we can't see his reflection?

 

Or, I positioned myself perfectly between the windows so that you couldn't see my reflection.

 

But I'm probably a vampire.

 

Both are plausible. I live across the street from Travis and never see him in the daytime.

 

Kind of like how you never see Mia Carruthers and Shadow Hare at the same time. 

 

 

Kind of like how you never see Mia Carruthers and Shadow Hare at the same time. 

 

 

This wins everything.

Yes!

I am glad to see that the east side of Walnut is being streetscaped as well (across from Mercer Commons Phase 2), but what's the logic behind removing the existing street trees? Also, it's not clear whether the utilities are being buried (unless that's what the white line is indicating.)

 

 

Update:

 

 

So I'm assuming based on that one utility pole that's clearly in a spot earmarked for a tree that the utility poles will indeed be removed? Otherwise this seems pointless as it looks like a trainwreck at the moment.

 

I get that it's extremely cost prohibitive, but I'd so much rather the city slow their streetscaping projects until they can fully fund them. Meaning full burying of utilities. They shouldn't be above ground to begin with and these are prime opportunities to bury them and we should be taking advantage of that.

 

We also need to get someone in a position of power who doesn't hate mature trees. I'm kind of growing tired of every streetscaping project requiring the removal of mature trees and being left with newly planted twigs that either die or take several years before they really take and start growing.

I worked for about 9 months doing underground utility infrastructure installation.  Typically it is a tale of two or three companies working together.  Looking at that box in the ground, that would be an underground "substation" connect.  It is very possible that they put conduit running from those underground boxes to the buildings on that side of the block.  They have already buried utilities for the light poles, this would be done with running conduit from existing power source underground, which would be the old wires.

 

On this, they also would have buried large conduit for the main power system that runs into these substation connects.  Long story short, probably now waiting on the other companies to pull the wire through the conduit, aka Duke Energy, Cincinnati Bell, etc.  I think they have to wait for Duke Energy so the power cords are on.  They will turn the power on first, then at some point remove the existing poles.  I think it's all good in the hood.

 

Just for kicks, here is an example of what we did.  Note google didn't have an updated streetview but it shows work in progress when we were actually putting in the underground conduit on the south side of the street.  You can see the large transformer boxes.  Those will carry all the wire power for that whole stretch.  Then we ran conduits from those boxes to the buildings across the street, typically with one large conduit to the other side, install a small utility box, then run a parallel running conduit that branches off at certain buildings (did a hole, pull out the one line, then keep the other lines moving.)  You can see the poles are still up on the right, but if you looked now, no power poles exist on that street anymore.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.974581,-91.662643,3a,75y,313.15h,90.63t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sgSCSiihe2CUzdJoiOD9RTQ!2e0

I get nervous with Duke though. Aren't they the ones we're waiting on to remove some of the utility poles in Pendleton? And the ones we're waiting on to finish the Short Vine streetscaping? There are so many places where they replaced utility poles around the city and we're still waiting for them to remove the old ones. They're not exactly a company concerned with getting things done.

^When you're a monopoly, why G.A.F.?  A utility pole replacement in my neighborhood took 16 or 18 months from digging the new poles to removing the old.  They were maybe active on my part of the street for three or four days during that time. 

I get nervous with Duke though. Aren't they the ones we're waiting on to remove some of the utility poles in Pendleton? And the ones we're waiting on to finish the Short Vine streetscaping? There are so many places where they replaced utility poles around the city and we're still waiting for them to remove the old ones. They're not exactly a company concerned with getting things done.

 

In Pendleton, Duke finally came back around and removed the utility poles last summer. They will probably still be around on Walnut for awhile but will eventually be removed.

I hadn't even realized the poles were gone in Pendleton. That's good to hear. I guess when I've been over there their nonexistent presence wasn't obvious which is good.

 

I imagine that unless someone pushes them we won't see Walnut's poles gone until Fall at the earliest.

13th Street was rehabbed in 2013 and those haven't come down yet.  They put everything underground, but they haven't removed the top ones yet (may also not have activated the underground yet)

^ OK, I hadn't been on 13th recently. I was talking about 12th where the poles came down last summer.