Week 4: Cafe Gala and Art After Dark

We managed to nail down two free events this week: The grand opening of V's Cafe on 7th on Wednesday, and Art After Dark at the Cincinnati Art Museum on Friday.

A month or so ago Steve brought home a take-out menu for a new cafe in the Aronoff Center for the Arts at the corner of Walnut and 7th, operated by long-time Cincinnati catering company Vonderhaar's. I was familiar with the caterer, the menu listed a few vegetarian options and prices were reasonable, so we mentally added it to the list of places we planned to try. Then last week I received an email from V's Cafe regarding its official grand opening/ribbon cutting ceremony, asking if the calendar team would list it in the dining events at Cincinnati.com.

We decided to attend. I mean, really, who doesn't like free food?

V's Cafe on 7th - Gourmet Deviled Eggs

V's Cafe on 7th - Savory Pasties

V's Cafe on 7th - Selection of sweet treats

V's Cafe on 7th - Selection of gourmet sandwiches

We arrived just after the gala began and were given name tags and free drink tickets. The bar station was inside the Aronoff concourse by the Weston Art Gallery. We started there and got a glass of white wine each before venturing into the cafe itself. There was a grand spread of food - but unfortunately for me the only vegetarian option on offer was cubed cheese with assorted Carr's biscuit/crackers and the desserts. So Steve enjoyed roast beef sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, deviled eggs, goetta empanadas and more, and I watched him enjoy it. We left shortly afterward and walked a block north to Taqueria Mercado, where I got a vegetarian burrito. Sadly, this "free" night ended up not being free for me.

On Friday night, Steve and I met up with calendar teammate Rasputin, his lovely wife Jena and their next-door neighbors for an evening of fun at the Cincinnati Art Museum's Art After Dark, a monthly event where the museum stays open late and visitors have full access to the galleries, live entertainment and docent-led tours. This month's theme was Winter Wilderness, where guests were encouraged to wear black and white in honor of current photography exhibit Field Guide: Photographs by Jochem Lempert.

Cincinnati Art Museum - Jim Dine's Pinocchio greets guests

Wilder performs in the rotunda

We enjoyed Northern Kentucky band Wilder's set in the rotunda while sipping wine, and ended up not seeing much of anything besides the cafe, where we commandeered a table and sat talking and laughing for much of the evening. I also learned that I can no longer safely drink three glasses of wine in a single evening now that I am 20 lb. lighter. Oops.

After 3 glasses of Chardonnay, I wanted to climb into this bed from the Rutherford B. Hayes collection

Detailed inset from a most comfy looking beddie-bye basket

We had a fun night and aside from the cost of the wine and parking, a free night as well.


Art After Dark happens the last Friday of each month from 5-9 p.m. at the Cincinnati Art Museum in Mount Adams. Parking can be tough - not only at the museum but all of Mount Adams - if arriving after 6 p.m., so plan to arrive early or Uber it.

Week 3: The Harvard Din & Tonics

The bitter cold couldn't keep away a capacity crowd on Sunday afternoon for the Harvard Din & Tonics a Capella men's chorus performance at Christ Church Cathedral downtown.

We were slightly apprehensive about going to this show, mainly because we were concerned my atheist husband would spontaneously combust upon entry - but our worries were unfounded. Church and husband both survived.

Christ Church Cathedral - still standing!

The show, brought to Cincinnati with the help of the Harvard Club of Cincinnati, highlights jazz and pop standards from the 1920s to the present. The chorus features 12 phenomenally talented guys currently attending Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of whom, Will Jaroszewicz, is a local Cincinnati boy. His presence is most likely the reason the choir morphed into a tongue-in-cheek homage to Cincinnati's beloved chili with the jingle "Skyline Time" (to the tune of  "Twilight Time" by The Platters) in the middle of "Life Could Be A Dream" at the opening of the show, eliciting cheers and chuckles from the audience. Well, most of the audience anyway. An old dear sitting behind me declared it "corny."

Harvard Din & Tonics perform

The choir offered fresh arrangements of classics like "It Had To Be You," "That Old Black Magic" and "I Got Rhythm" as well as beautiful renditions of the Scottish ballad "The Water Runs Wide" and the black spiritual "My Lord What A Morning."

A select group from Cincinnati Boychoir opened the show.

This was a special, one-off performance, but Christ Church Cathedral also hosts a free music series called "Music Live at Lunch" every Tuesday from noon-1 p.m.

Week 2: MOTR Mouth Stand-Up Comedy

For our second week of free, we braved the sub-zero temperatures on Tuesday evening and walked over to MOTR Pub on Main Street to catch the "Sick of Stupid: A Southern Comedy Experience" comedy tour, featuring three comedians from south of the Mason-Dixon.

MOTR Mouth Comedy Presents: Sick of Stupid - A Southern Comedy Experience

The tour features North Carolina comedians Cliff Cash and Stewart Huff and Atlanta comic Tom Simmons. Most venues hosting this show charge a cover to get in, but MOTR Pub is brilliantly fee-free. Their motto is "7 Nights. Always Free. Always 21+"

MOTR Pub

MOTR Pub

While on the topic of cover charges and comedy clubs, can I just say that most American comedy clubs get it very, very wrong. They seem to be less about the comedian on the stage and more about trying to ply guests with food and beverage, going as far as to send servers around to the tables during the act, which in our opinion ruins the momentum of the show because invariably someone misses out on a killer line or joke.

MOTR Mouth Stand-Up Comedy poster

 Which makes the MOTR Mouth Stand-Up Comedy shows all the more huggable. Guests can stop at the bar upstairs and grab a pint and/or something to eat, then make their way downstairs to the small annex where the comedy shows are held. If you feel the need for more food or drink while the show is going on, you hoist yourself from your seat and go get it. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

All three comedians brought their game and made it a fantastic show. It was great to see them in such an intimate setting - the MOTR basement annex holds around 50 people - and you might get a chance to see it too, as the show was being filmed for future release on DVD.

MOTR Mouth Stand-Up Comedy happens every second Tuesday of the month. Always Free. Always 21+.

Week 1: Kenner Toys Exhibit

For our first week of free, the hubs and I visited the Main Branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County to view the current exhibit "Just in Time for the Holidays: Kenner Toys," celebrating Cincinnati-based Kenner Toys and its contemporaries. 

The exhibit is spread out over the library's three floors, with display cases celebrating the origins of Star Wars toys, toy designers Mark Boudreaux and Jim Swearingen, toy photographer Kim Simmons, toys that originated in Cincinnati and smaller displays of three toy companies based in Cincinnati during the same time as Kenner.

Bub-L-Rocket was one of the first toys Kenner produced

The exhibit spans the 1940s to the 1990s and is curated by local collectors Dan Flarida and Josh Blake of Kenner Collector.

I was a tween when the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977, and like so many other kids, couldn't get enough of it. I saw it in the cinema 11 times during its first run and am not embarrassed to admit that all my other toys - including Barbie - went untouched and unplayed-with after I received my first Star Wars toys. I had no idea at the time that those toys were conceived, designed and produced just down I-75 in Cincinnati. 

The first 12 Star Wars figures designed by Kenner

Jim Swearingen was the first at Kenner to read the Star Wars script and led the team in development of the toys. The exhibit shares images from his collection of the early days of Star Wars toys, including photos of Swearingen with George Lucas and letters and memos between the two.

These aren't the droids you are looking for

Steve and I already knew Pound Puppies were invented here (actually in Franklin, about an hour north of Cincinnati) but were surprised to learn that the card game Uno was invented in Cincinnati and even more surprised to learn that the Magic 8-Ball originated here.

Mighty Tiny - the World's Smallest Record Player

The exhibit also highlights other Cincinnati-based toy companies, including Doepke Toys, creator of the Jag Sports Car model, Stuart Toys, maker of the Bronco Buster, and Poynter Products, maker of the Mighty Tiny Record Player (seen above). It also celebrates product invention company Bang Zoom Toys, a company that has designed for many toy lines, including Elmo, Monsters University and Dora the Explorer.

Just in Time for the Holidays continues at the Main Branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County through January. 16, 2016.