Bar maven got her start stealing olives at cocktail parties
The first thing you’ll likely notice about the vivacious Molly Wellmann is that she loves cocktails and bars and mixing drinks and people socializing over spirits, preferably concocted from her rich imagination.
In Greater Cincinnati, Molly Wellmann is bar tender/owner par excellence. She owns several bars where the focus is entirely on adult beverages. In fact, she has turned the BYOB standard on its head, encouraging BYOF (bring your own food) in some of her drinking establishments.
She got her start in the bar biz at a tender age, she laughs. “As kids, my cousins and I used to go around at our family’s adult parties and steal the olives out of the martinis, so that’s where I got my start.
Now, more than a decade later, her favorite cocktail is a slightly dirty Beefeater martini on the rocks, made with two bar spoons of vermouth, two bar spoons of olive juice, and three olives. “It’s my family’s drink, for generations, and it’s just an excellent martini,” she stated.
Her love of those gin-soaked olives led to a career as a “mixologist,” studying spirits and cocktails and flavors that meld well in making mixed drinks.
Today, Wellmann owns, or has a stake, in four locations where the focus is adult beverages. Neon’s in Over the Rhine is known as OTR’s back patio. A huge courtyard with umbrella tables and chairs, grills and the like, where even your dog is welcome, as long as the pooch is a sociable type. Along with the bar, you’ll find an extensive selection of craft beers on tap, many of them local and of excellent quality.
Also in OTR is Japp’s since 1879, on Main at 12th Street. “Japp’s since 1879 is a great place to meet and socialize and just have fun,” she said.
Another of Wellmann’s establishments is the Old Kentucky Bourbon Bar, at 629 Main Street in Mainstrasse Village, in Covington (three minutes from downtown Cincinnati’s Fountain Square). As one might imagine, this bar celebrates whiskey, offering more than 350 varieties of American whiskey products, including rye whiskey, white dog whiskey and moonshine-type spirits.
Soon, Wellmann will open Myrtle’s Pub House, her newest bar, located at Woodburn and Myrtle in East Walnut Hills. “Myrtle’s is going to be a place where people in this area can gather and socialize—a neighborhood bar where everybody’s welcome. We’re looking forward to being a gathering place and Myrtle’s is just the perfect location,” she said.
All Wellmann’s bars have a friendly atmosphere, in part because of the personnel.