Anything that is open late.  Maybe even a late night food place for after the bars close.  Or even a City BBQ.  I love their food.

Or even a City BBQ.  I love their food.

 

I've never tried City BBQ, but wouldn't it be nice if a place with the word "City" in it would actually be located downtown?

The Blue Wisp's new management could relocate there. That would be a great spot to catch the business/covention crowds.

Man, I hate city bbq.  A dily deli, Coffee Emporium, or such would be a nice addition.  Something local...no more chains.

If the space is big enough, I'd love to see an upscale pool hall go in.  The few pool halls I can think of in the Cincinnati area are really seedy, and I get tired of the coin-op "bar boxes" that a lot of bars have.  I still miss Westminster's in OTR.  :cry:

^I would second a pool hall as well.  A nice place to chill and shoot some pool, maybe throw some darts, etc...That's what I thought Cue was going to be, but I guess I was wrong.

I really liked Fox and Hound in Charlotte. Now before i get crucified i don't like chain restaurants, but they really had something nice there -- darts, pool tables by the hour, numerous large flat screens, good pub food, upscale clean atmosphere, a basement where they had live bands, and additional  seating up stairs for more of a restaurant area during the day and then bar at night .

I hated the fox and hound in charlotte

^

Anything in particular?

 

Because when i was there they had a lot of hot girls, lively crowd, and a band starting to warm up downstairs. Much better than the one we have in mason

i didn't even know we had one in mason.  It was your standard strip mall, get a dui because you couldn't walk across the two six lane roads that border it corporate chain, suburban bar.  Like an applebees with Guinness. 

 

Also osu was playing michigan at the time and the attire of those in the bar looked more like we were in toledo than it north carolina.

the one i went to in charlotte was right downtown

might make a difference, and now back to the square. 

 

I drove buy tonight, seems busy, even with the rain.  Nada looks really cool from the outside and everyone I have talked to loved the food

I hated the fox and hound in charlotte

 

HA...  Well I am not a fan of the Fox & Hound in Deerfield Township (not Mason) & Beavercreek. I have been to both.

 

I've never tried City BBQ, but wouldn't it be nice if a place with the word "City" in it would actually be located downtown?

 

City BBQ is a Columbus based chain but it is some of the best BBQ I have had in this country.  Montgomery BBQ has mastered ribs but they make a terrible pulled pork sandwich.  City BBQ does it right, they provide you with the meat without the sauce already applied.  You then put on the sauce and the portion you desire yourself.  I have eaten BBQ from all over the country to include, Corky's Memphis, Jim Neely's Memphis, Sonny Bryant's Dallas & many local mom and pop's throughout the south to include Carolina BBQ and City BBQ has some of the best pulled pork I have ever eaten and they do it consistently.  The closest one to downtown is the one in Oakley.

Monte, Have you tried "Pit to Plate" in Mt. Healthy?  I really like it, but have little to compare it to as real barbeque (other than Montgomery Inn etc).  Good selection including chicken, turkey, wings, and ribs.  It's on Compton, just east of Hamilton, but they are moving to a new location on Hamilton, north of Compton.  I'll buy the pulled pork if you don't like it!  Looking forward to your assessment!

 

 

I have not been to Pit to Plate.  I heard they had good BBQ.  Maybe I can convince Grasscat to meet up with me for dinner one evening since he lives in around that area.

pit to plate is byob

best ribs in the Cincy area are from walts Hitching Post in Northern Kentucky.

^ Those are great ribs!

best ribs in the Cincy area are from walts Hitching Post in Northern Kentucky.

 

Good choice.

LMAO.

 

David is a legend.

I can't wait for the weather to get nice, so I can get a big slab of ribs from Pit to Plate and take them down to Fountain Square and enjoy them while I watch the big screen!

 

What are your favorite barbeque dishes to enjoy on the square?

Speaking of the weather...I've been waiting for it to dry up a bit (and possibly cool down) to go ice skating.  I'm hoping that will work out for me soon, because I don't want to be slopping around on a wet ice rink.

QUESTION: More than a year has passed since the Fountain Square reopening (Oct. 14, 2006).

Do you find that the square's renovations have positively impacted downtown Cincinnati?

January 11, 2008 | CINCINNATI BUSINESS COURIER

 

Terry Ohnmeis

Leasing specialist Phillips Edison and Co.

A: Definitely. The square was alive and vibrant during this last holiday season, even on weeknights. Via Vite and other nearby restaurants have made Fountain Square the hub of downtown again. I'm looking forward to playing broomball on the square this month and hope to see other events and activities.

 

Amanda Pratt

Corporate communication manager Rumpke Consolidated Cos. Inc.

A: It's a positive step toward progress within the city of Cincinnati. It's a better venue for events. It encourages the downtown work force, downtown dwellers and suburban guests to visit and enjoy the city's attractions.

 

Jack Cameron

Administrative assistant to the mayor village of Evendale

A: Absolutely. I find myself going downtown more often because of the change, especially parking at Fountain Square Garage. It's easier to congregate on the square before or after a Reds/Bengals game, and the restaurants are fantastic.

 

Shawn Baker

Legislative director office of Councilmember Jeff Berding, city of Cincinnati

A: Fountain Square's redesign, special and daily events, free wifi, its friendly look and feel, the surrounding shops and restaurants are all part of downtown's fantastic momentum. I can see Fountain Square's redesign and master plan being a national model for U.S. cities whose downtowns need a booster shot.

^Good to hear!!!  Just image what people are going to be saying many years down the road after the street car and the banks are finished....they'll be saying how the renevation of FS kick started everything.

Bankers Club renews service, membership

BY STEPFANIE ROMINE | CINCINNATI ENQUIRER

January 31, 2008

 

DOWNTOWN - Just as Fountain Square renovations were winding down outside the Fifth Third Building, way up on the 30th floor, the Bankers Club was undergoing some behind-the-scenes reconstruction of its own.

 

"It's definitely a new chapter for the club," said membership director Jessica Nagel.

 

The Bankers Club, a private club that requires an invitation from a current member to join, has replaced five of its six department heads in six months.

 

The turnover was a necessary freshener, said Nagel and others, but it came at an interesting time in the club's 62-year history.

 

While lunch - the club's bread and butter, making up 48 percent of private events - continued to flourish, the lack of parking around Fountain Square had cut into the club's dinner business.

 

Now the view - one of the club's draws since 1970, when it moved from the Gibson Hotel at the corner of Fourth and Vine streets - is clear of bulldozers and barricades. New general manager Mark Norman and his team are adding a three-day-a-week happy hour; the club hopes to keep members downtown after work.

 

Member Derek Hassenpflug said that for him, the club will be a great place to grab a drink with his wife, Libby, before a concert or show downtown. They're already there for breakfast or lunch four or five times a week.

 

The happy hour, which begins Feb. 6 and will be every Wednesday through Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., will also help the club with another project of Nagel's: continuing to boost young-professional business.

 

Since 2005, the club has doubled the number of members who are younger than 40 - now 25 percent of more than 1,500 total members.

 

Membership had dropped in 2006. But by mid-2007, membership picked up and had exceeded the club's goals for the last five months, Nagel said, without being specific.

 

The Hassenpflugs are part of that influx. They switched from another club three months ago after hearing about the Bankers Club from friends.

 

For the couple, who live on Hidden Valley Lake in Dearborn County, the club is more than an exclusive restaurant with a great view.

 

Derek, 35, a financial planner for Morgan Stanley downtown, praises Nagel and the club's attention to detail. He said the club provides him with "a semiprivate place to meet with clients."

 

"It helps make my clients feel special," said the Pleasant Run native.

 

More important than that, said longtime member J. Stephen Dobbins, the senior director of communications and public relations for the Brown Mackie College system, is the attention to customer service and diversity.

 

"You talk about customer service," said Dobbins, a member since the early 1990s. "This (treatment) is a way to keep folks downtown."

 

During the years of Fountain Square construction, that was a problem, the staff said.

 

Wedding bookings - 14 percent of event business - dropped by 40 percent, said private events manager Stacey Densler, but this year have rebounded.

 

Densler credits the holiday season - and a bird's eye view of rappelling Santas, ice skaters and all those twinkling lights down below - for drawing brides-to-be.

 

"Our summer and our fall are booking up with last-minute brides, and we're starting to fill up into 2009 right now," said Densler, who came to the Bankers Club four months ago.

 

The slowdown, she said, had a silver lining.

 

Before, the venue was booked well in advance. Scheduling a summer wedding in January?

 

"That just wasn't possible," Densler said.

Here is a picture of the building now known as "The Lofts on Fountain Square", right next to Jean-Ro Bistrot on Vine Street. The building looks so much better without the awful awning and fire escape, and the old store name (Dunlap Clothes Store) is now visible. Anyone remembers that store? As far as I know, Jean-Robert is going to expand his bistrot into this space.

 

I agree.  I heard that too about Jean-Ro.  Anyone know anything about the progress on the lofts?  It seems as though they've been at it for awhile.

 

I saw it on the downtown tour of living, and it's tough to tell how far they've come.

For what it's worth, here's my outsider's opinion on Fountain Square:

 

My wife and I are relocating to Cincinnati later this year. I was extremely depressed because I had heard awful things about the city. However, I was absolutely floored when we came to visit and we stayed at the Westin by Fountain Square. I think that part of Downtown is fantastic, and it has made me a whole lot more opitmistic about our move.

 

I was also really surprised to read that all this stuff around Fountain Square is so new. Most of it felt very well established.

 

So anyway, there's my two cents. Fountain Square played a role in attracting at least two young professionals to the area. ;)

Guys I moved from NY a month ago.  I have traveled to a ton of American cities in my career.  Cincy is a GREAT downtown and has a lot of asvantages to it. As I have said for a while, the problem w/ Cincy are a certain portion of Cincinnatians.

So both of you are getting a place downtown, right?  :-) I hope so... Welcome to Cincinnati!

As I have said for a while, the problem w/ Cincy are a certain portion of Cincinnatians.

 

I'd say the problem with Cincinnati is the past 50 years of federal transportation and land use policy.  And Mike Brown.  And Phil Heimlich.  And John Cranley, Leslie Ghiz, Alicia Reese, those guys from COAST, Buddy Grey, that president of Summit Country Day that tore down that house, Chris Monzel, Mercer Reynolds & Bill DeWitt Jr., Bill DeWitt Sr., the Luken family, Damon Lynch III, Christopher Smitherman, Pat DeWine, Bob Bedinghaus, Jeff Berding, Reggie Sanders (I'll never forgive that motherfucker for just disappearing during the 1995 postseason.  I hate Ray Knight too), Ken Blackwell, Bill Seitz, Steve Chabot...

^Good to hear!!!  Just image what people are going to be saying many years down the road after the street car and the banks are finished....they'll be saying how the renevation of FS kick started everything.

 

Funny, that's exactly what was being said when I first came to Cincinnati in 1970.  The new Fountain Square was going to change everything.  And it did!!!!  Downtown Cincinnati was alive!!

the 1970s were a tough decade for urban american, new york lost 10.4% 1970-1980, chicago dropped around nine percent

^^^That is a pretty comprehensive list  LK. I'm sure glad I'm not on it.

^^Yup...what was thought to be good/right for Downtown revitalization in the 70s/80s was in all reality terrible mistakes.  The things that are being done now our efforts to return urban centers to their respectable past (i.e. removal of 1-way streets, building of streetcar lines, return of street-level retail, pedestrian orientation, mixed use with residential atop commercial uses, etc).

Some of it was actually bad and some of it just had a shorter lifespan than those in the 80s thought it would (see festival marketplaces). However, the biggest redevelopment effort in downtown in the 1980s is argueably even more important than those of the 90s and even the 00s. The construction of Bicentennial Commons/Sawyer Point. The creation of a front lawn for Cincinnati was one the best things to happen to the city and it was classic 80s in its vibe.

Some of it was actually bad and some of it just had a shorter lifespan than those in the 80s thought it would (see festival marketplaces).

 

This is the key point.  It is unrealistic to assume that there is a form that is perfect and will exist for all eternity in its perfection.

 

I remember Downtown Cincinnati in the 1980s and early 90s to be a happening place.  Maybe it was just because I was a kid, but I don't remember Downtown suffering much until the mid-90s up until the present day (about 2006) and even then it was never as bad as the complainers have made it out to be.  I think turning Fountain Square from an esplanade into a square was a huge aesthetic improvement (not that I was ever around for the esplanade, but I've seen pictures).  It would be nice to think that the plans of individuals have the capacity to be incredibly transformative, that if we just did this, whatever this is, things would be alright, but that's not the way things work.

That is definitely true. We used to take the 'Tro downtown and there was lots of life and still quite a bit of retail around. The late '90s and early '00s were the ugly period (which is what dominates the memories of most of the folk here), but the 80s and early 90s were actually quite good.

^You know, I officially removed you from my "Problems with Cincinnati" List that day in the summer of '97, I believe, when I bumped into you downtown on 5th Street in front of the Carew Tower and I asked you, "What are you doing down here?" and you said, "Just walking around, hanging out."  That's when I thought, "I think this is someone I can do business with."  You might remember, they had that Indian cultural thing going on at the Convention Center?

I do recall. Downtown was a happening place back then.

Guys I moved from NY a month ago.  I have traveled to a ton of American cities in my career.  Cincy is a GREAT downtown and has a lot of asvantages to it. As I have said for a while, the problem w/ Cincy are a certain portion of Cincinnatians.

 

I have traveled to almost every major city in America.  Cincinnati is a great city and I was attracted to it five years ago.  For all of you that remember how miserable I was when I lived in St. Louis after five years you can see that Cincinnati past the test.  I usually tell people that my two issues with Cincinnati are the gloomy winters (most of the Midwest deals with this) and the cynical locals.  It is rare that I meet a transplant that doesn't like it here.

"Meet at the Square and go from there"

 

Fifth Third sets Fountain Square branch opening

March 27, 2008 | CINCINNATI BUSINESS COURIER

 

DOWNTOWN - Fifth Third Bank will open its new branch and City Living Mortgage Office on Fountain Square March 29.

 

The opening of the 6,000-square-foot branch and mortgage office will take place in conjunction with Fifth Third Fountain Day on the square. Fountain Day events include live music, fireworks and a ceremony to activate the Tyler Davidson Fountain.

 

A ribbon-cutting for the branch, including Bob Sullivan, CEO of Fifth Third's Greater Cincinnati operation, Mayor Mark Mallory and former Cincinnati Red Johnny Bench, will take place at 6:45 p.m.

 

The bank is relocating the branch from the skywalk level of its William S. Rowe building on the square. The branch and mortgage office will be open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., beginning March 31.

hurl.  well this doesnt really add anything to the square. 

hurl.  well this doesnt really add anything to the square. 

 

Eh, better than an empty storefront, I suppose.

 

What are they doing with their former space on the skywalk, I wonder?  That was a pretty large area.  But you couldn't really lease it out as there really aren't any windows - blocked by the screen.  Too bad, it would have been beautiful space overlooking the square.

hurl.  well this doesnt really add anything to the square. 

 

No, but it is an excellent sign that Cincy is taking steps in the right direction.  The fact that 5/3 thinks it will get more business/exposure on street level now is a clear indicator that the new square was a good investment.

^ Lots of foot traffic, too!

^From what I've read, banks tend to kill foot traffic.  But I don't think it is bad.

hurl.  well this doesnt really add anything to the square. 

 

Eh, better than an empty storefront, I suppose.

 

 

Fifth Third cut a check for $16.2 million for improvements to their buildings on the square.  I think they can put their bank center anywhere they want!