Fifty West Brewing Company Heading to Innovation

The Canopied Entrance

      Fifty West Brewing Company had a couple of strikes against it from the start.  First of all, it's in the structure that originally housed one of CIncinnati's finest bygone restaurants, The Heritage.  It was a sad day at our house when it closed.  Not that we could afford to dine there often, but it did provide a lot of flavor memories and one-of-a-kind experiences.  Secondly, we're all about the food so while we

A Cosmic Community

      We've been reading the accounts online regarding the shooting at Cosmic Pizza early Saturday evening.  The owner, Richard Evans, was shot multiple times during an attempted robbery and died shortly after in his neighbor's yard.  It's the nightmare that none of us want to hear about one of our entrepreneurs that was trying to make our city a finer place for all of us to live.  We never had the opportunity to visit Cosmic Pizza, but from all accounts it was a welcoming environment meant for families to enjoy and much of that was because of Rich's personality.  

      He leaves a wife (who is Thai and speaks very little English) and 3 young children.  Our hearts go out to them.  We wish Dexter could rub up against them and work his magic to make them feel better.  That always helps everything! 

      Fortunately, a friend has started an online fund to help with expenses at http://www.gofundme.com/3ac52k.  Please consider a donation and share this site with all of you friends.

Frank Langella & Stephen Fry – Takes on the Celebrity Memoir

The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography

Stephen Fry in Jeeves & Wooster

     Stephen Fry is probably best known to PBS audiences for his performance as Jeeves with Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster in Jeeves & Wooster and rarefied roles in various movies like Peter’s Friends and V for Vendetta and as Oscar Wilde in Wilde.  He’s also

DICK

Even in 1999, Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams were going to be acting stars

     It’s been forty years since the Watergate hearings and there’s currently a self-congratulatory documentary by Robert Redford about All The President’s Men then and now to commemorate that anniversary, but Dick (1999) starring Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams says more perhaps about ‘the long national nightmare’ than the more serious works.  Dunst and Williams play teenagers who accidentally involve themselves in the Watergate break-in, while trying to mail a letter

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

A tightly coiled comic allegory about Pro Football, Hollywood maneuvering, and the Iraq War

Dexter Checks Out Ben Fountain's Books*

     Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award – the prize that spotlights excellent writers on the cusp of prominence, and was nominated for the National Book Award.  Such accolades don’t

Blue Gibbon Chinese

Traditional Cincinnati Chinese 
that's mostly full of familiar dishes

Blue Gibbon Dining Room

      When we were joining Ann and Woody for dinner we decided on the Blue Gibbon, all of us commenting that we had not been there for a few years. The restaurant dates back to 1983 in Paddock Hills, but the family business began years

Patti Smith and the Contemporary Arts Center

Inside the CAC

     Ten years ago the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) opened across from the Aronoff Center with a national splash.  It was one of Zaha Hadid’s first major constructed buildings.  Before that, she’d been more a theorist than a practitioner.  It was

Buona Terra: Gelateria & Creperie

French and Italian specialties 
meet for a modern rendezvous

Buona Terra's Sleek Modern Space

     Mount Lookout Square welcomed another eatery this past Friday in the crêperie and gelatería Buona Terra.  It’s a compact, sleek space that is the epitome of contemporary modern, though without the industrial undertones of the

The Angels' Share

Imagine The Full Monty without the performing or Trainspotting without the speed

     Ken Loach’s latest movie, The Angels’ Share, was awarded third place at Cannes last year.  It’s a comedy based on the desperation of a group of young unemployed people who form a bond through community service and the chance they’re given by their social worker.  It’s a shaggy dog tale that

Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell): The Child’s Child

     The Child’s Child has been rumored to be the last novel Ruth Rendell will write as Barbara Vine.  If so, it’s been a great run since 1987, during which Vine has won major mystery awards and probably should have been nominated for or won