Up on the roof…at Top of the Park, the Downtown Marriott Resident Inn

September 9, 2015 By

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One of the hottest – and in fact, the coolest – spots in Downtown Cincinnati is the Top of the Park, a roof-top bar at the Downtown Marriott Residence Inn. So much more than just your regular, run-of-the-mill gathering place, the Top of the Park offers up the best views of the city on two different levels, either of which is available for private functions.

With nearly 360-degree views of the Ohio River, Mount Adams, Lytle Park and of course, downtown Cincinnati, this happening spot is the ideal place to gather with friends relax, enjoy a drink and revel in the spectacular view; in the summer, you can even see Fireworks Fridays at the Great American Ball Park right from your seat!

Hand-crafted cocktails and a full wine and beer list await you, and appetizers and small plates are available; the Top of the Park chef likes to stay current with the latest food trends, so you’re bound to find many delicious nibbles to pair perfectly with your choice of libation. Only one level is usually rented out at a time, so even if there’s a private event you are sure to find a seat to relax after a busy day or hectic weekend. And if the Cincinnati weather doesn’t cooperate…well, they’ve got plenty of great inside space to accommodate the crowd.

Top of the Park can be rented out for everything from weddings, rehearsal dinners and holiday parties to corporate events and awards ceremonies. Come and see them Tuesday through Thursday from 5pm-10pm, Friday and Saturday from 5pm-11pm and Sundays 1pm-8pm. Be sure to check on-line first at www.topoftheparkcincinnati.com to see which levels are open and then come down, have a drink while drinking in the best views of Cincinnati!

Filed Under: Hot Spot Of The Month

Season’s 52

April 16, 2015 By

Seasons 52There are many happening places to go in Cincinnati, but few that can offer you great atmosphere plus fresh seasonal dining options. Seasons 52 is all that, and more….just minutes north of Downtown, at the Rookwood Exchange.

Created to be a celebration of what’s fresh and ready now, Seasons 52 offers up rustic cooking that brings out the natural flavors of the food. With a constantly changing selection of global wines and a sophisticated yet casual atmosphere, Seasons 52 makes for a fun and tasty night out. There are so many options to enjoy here: start your meal with a delectable flatbread or perhaps a plate of warm roasted olives, then continue exciting your palate with a fresh salad and a filet or some grilled sea scallops. And best of all? Each item on the menu is 475 calories or less! Alternative menus are available as well, including vegan, gluten-sensitive and dairy-sensitive.   And don’t skip the dessert; mini selections of an ever-changing variety are the perfect post-meal “sweet nibble”.

Sunset at Seasons 52 is considered their “happiest” hour, and select cocktails, wine and beer are available as well as $5 small plates of food, Monday through Friday from 4:00pm to 6:30pm. With live music seven nights a week from 5pm to 10 pm, the oversized bar is absolutely one of the best hangouts around town.

The atmosphere of Seasons 52 is warm and inviting, casually up-scale, and with the plentiful selection of wines and cocktails, the energy that flows through the restaurant makes for the perfect night out with friends and loved ones. Seasons 52 serves lunch as well, so don’t pass up the opportunity to visit them in the daytime too. They also have several private rooms for group dining, or business gatherings.

If it’s good now, it’s at Seasons 52.

Filed Under: Hot Spot Of The Month

EnterTrainment Junction is for Everyone!

March 3, 2015 By

ET Hot early period with guests

Neither your age nor your gender will stop you from having a great time at EnterTrainment Junction.

Trains—ninety of them in all! The building houses the world’s largest train display: 25,000 square feet (1/2 of a football field!) done in eye-popping intricacy to detail. A funhouse or fantasyland is also at EnterTrainment Junction, not just trains. “What we are focused on is a family entertainment center and museum, where everybody of all ages will find things to excite and interest them,” said Don Oeters, president and creative inspiration behind EnterTrainment Junction.

This place is seriously incredible. A Clown College, a Tilt Room, where balls roll uphill and people feel the disorientation of a world on a slant; the Curtain Cove, where slatted curtains divide chambers and you become lost in the maze and left to find the way out. Take a trip through the universe, where a spiral tunnel with lights will have you holding on to railings for fear of falling into deep space, and the claustrophobia “squeeze” that is a badge of honor to go through, and great fun too.

The café at EnterTrainment Junction has subs, pizzas, hot dogs, snacks, drinks and more. There’s also a gift shop and toy store, where the toys and gifts are in a class by themselves.

More about the trains: the layout has attracted kids and adults who love trains from all over. Kids (and adults) can also take part in six different scavenger hunts. Almost every detail of the layout is hand-made, with more than 100,000 hours in construction and journey from the 1860s to the 1950s.

You’ll see a Union army encampment of the American Civil War with historical detail, including a trestle bridge burned by rebels, and rebuilt by Union troops in nine days. All this while trains of the era chug along, supported by sound effects that take you back in time.

There’s a replica of the very first “lift” bridge in the US, built in New York City more than a century ago. You’ll see villages and towns with the stores and services of bygone generations; a logging camp, a coal-mining operation in the Appalachian mountains; the Bates Motel and the Psycho house on the hill; trolleys serving more modern cities of the 1940s and 1950s; and a historically accurate replication of Cincinnati’s Coney Island.

Add to this the train museum for those who want to know more about how the advent of trains changed America and its culture, and you get a sense of what you’ll find at EnterTrainment Junction.

Filed Under: Hot Spot Of The Month

Montgomery Inn… The crowd! The ribs! The view!

January 31, 2015 By

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When visiting Cincinnati, it’s tradition to dine at Montgomery Inn. When you choose The Boathouse location, no doubt you’ll be greeted by Dean Gregory himself, the man in charge, always with a gracious smile and a warm handshake. Dean IS The Montgomery Inn Boathouse…and for visitors to Greater Cincinnati who may not know, Montgomery Inn is THE place for BBQ ribs. Bob Hope was so fond of ribs from Montgomery Inn, he made free TV commercials for the ribs, promoting them far and wide. No surprise that celebrities, dignitaries, sports figures and teams, and even presidents of the United States have made Montgomery Inn a must-visit in order to enjoy the famous ribs whenever they came to Cincinnati. The first Montgomery Inn opened in 1951, and has since grown to include locations in downtown Cincinnati, Fort Mitchell, KY, Dublin, OH, and the original in Montgomery, OH. It has been named one of the top 10 BBQ restaurants in the United States. A long list of celebs have stopped in over the years, including Eric Clapton, Bill Cosby, Tommy LaSorda, James Brown, Britney Spears, Cameron Diaz, Andre Agassi, and every U.S. president since Gerald Ford.

A new sauce has been “invented” by the Montgomery Inn family, a chipotle version….and it’s spicey goodness! The original sauce was the personal creation of Matula Gregory, matriarch of Montgomery Inn’s fantastic success. Husband Ted, later known as The Ribs King, ran a bar back in 1951, and asked his wife to cook up some ribs for him and a few of his buddies one night. That’s how things started—everybody loved them, and that sauce! “That sauce is great!” was the consensus of all who tried it.

In the family tradition, Tom Gregory, son of Matula and Ted, created the new version in the kitchens of Montgomery Inn. He did it the hard way, through trial and error, using only quality, natural ingredients. The new sauce is billed as a perfect marriage of the original’s sweet and spicy flavor, combined with the warm heat of smoked jalapeno peppers.

You can enjoy the new chipotle sauce at any of the Montgomery Inn locations, on ribs, chicken and more. Also, the sauce is bottled for purchase and use at home. Ask at the restaurant, or find Montgomery Inn sauces in regional Kroger stores, and other grocers. The sauce is available for shipment worldwide at www.cincyfavorites.com. In 2013, Montgomery Inn sauce was recognized as one of the top mail order items ever, topping 30 million bottles shipped worldwide.

Filed Under: Business Of The Month, Hot Spot Of The Month

Pompilios Old World Italian in Newport

January 1, 2015 By

hotspotofthemonth1-2015Quite the gem awaits you at Pompilios in Newport, Kentucky (a few minutes from Fountain Square). The famous toothpick scene in the movie Rainman, with Dustin Hoffman, was filmed in the bar at Pompilios….and has kept visitors and locals pouring in for years!

Pompilios features that bar, Colonel Pomp’s Tavern, at the front, a bocci bar out back (complete with bocci-ball court), and an Italian “red-sauce” restaurant in between.
The bar area is the hot spot for satisfying a thirst. You will see one of the best tied-house back bars in the Midwest, built the year FDR entered the Whitehouse—1933, when Pompilios opened for business. Colonel Pomp’s Tavern features period photos of the 1930s, but the bar area itself is that old, and a step back in time. The scene from Rainman was filmed in that very place, for an even richer taste of history. Colonel Pomp’s features a good number of Greater Cincinnati’s very best craft beers on tap, which visitors love to try.

The tavern also on Thursday or Friday features live music from an assortment of talents featuring boogie woogie, acoustic Americana rock, jazz, blues and more.
We, at Key magazine, suggest you go there and experience Colonel Pomp’s and grab a table and have a meal too, lunch or dinner. We mentioned red sauce because Pompilios features some of the best red-sauce dishes around. Pompilios has a slew of Taste of Cincinnati winners on their menu, so ask your server about the “Blue Ribbon” dishes. Also, the place has been voted into the Italian Restaurant Hall of Fame.

Pompilios makes EVERYTHING from scratch. The ravioli is hand-made, either meat or cheese. There are six sauce choices for ravioli, Bolognese meat sauce, along with marinara, regular meat sauce, meatballs, Alfredo, puttanesca, and you can also add Italian sausage.

The Italian sampler, a favorite of the Rainman crew, is a Taste of Italy, with lasagna, meat and cheese ravioli, eggplant parmigiana and Italian sausage and meatball (both made in-house, as well). The sampler runs neck and neck with the meat-sauce lasagna as the best seller on the menu. It’s been a house specialty for decades.

Those wanting veal, steak or seafood will find a number of dishes, including veal parmigiana, filet mignon, shrimp scampi, linguini with clams, salmon gorgonzola, and more. One of Key’s favorite dishes is, the brasciuole, tender round steak seasoned with Italian spices, rolled and baked with marinara sauce and served with spaghetti.

Filed Under: Hot Spot Of The Month

EnterTrainment Junction attracts all ages

December 1, 2014 By

entertainmentjunction-storyNeither your age nor your gender will stop you from having a great time at EnterTrainment Junction. From small girls, ‘tweens, teens, moms and grandmas and, from little lads to dads, uncles and grandpas too.

Trains? Yes, trains—ninety of them in all! The building houses the world’s largest train display: 25,000 square feet (1/2 of a football field!) done in eye-popping intricacy to detail. A funhouse or fantasyland is also at EnterTrainment Junction, not just trains. “What we are focused on is a family entertainment center and museum, where everybody of all ages will find things to excite and interest them,” said Don Oeters, president and creative inspiration behind EnterTrainment Junction.

That is what Key magazine found, with features that will tickle even socially-absorbed teenagers mesmerized by smart-phones and tweets and selfies. It’s like Coney Island when you were a kid—non-stop fun stuff to do!

This place is seriously incredible. There is a Clown College, a Tilt Room, where balls roll uphill and people feel the disorientation of a world on a slant; the Curtain Cove, where slatted curtains divide chambers and you become lost in the maze and left to find the way out. Take a trip through the universe, where a spiral tunnel with lights will have you holding on to railings for fear of falling into deep space, and the claustrophobia “squeeze” that is a badge of honor to go through, and great fun too.

This time of year, there’s also a trip to see Santa. The trip takes you through Mrs. Claus’ kitchen, and a fresh-baked cookie for each child, and send them on to the elves toyshop, past the reindeer and into Santa. Also, the largest holiday season train display is available to the public free of charge. It’s spectacular!

Hungry? The café at EnterTrainment Junction has subs, pizzas, hot dogs, snacks, drinks and more. There’s also a gift shop and toy store, where the toys and gifts are in a class by themselves, not to be found at the giant big-box retailers.

More about the trains: the layout has attracted kids and adults who love trains from allover, including all 50 states and 37 countries. Kids (and adults) can also take part in six different scavenger hunts. Almost every detail of the layout is hand-made, with more than 100,000 hours in construction and journey from the 1860s to the 1950s.

Through the layout, you’ll see a Union army encampment of the American Civil War with historical detail, including a trestle bridge burned by rebels, and rebuilt by Union troops in nine days. All this while trains of the era chug along, supported by sound effects that take you back in time.

Filed Under: Hot Spot Of The Month
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