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A Fall Weekend in Cinci
By Lisa Schultz1. Check into the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza Hotel; don’t leave the historic landmark right away, since the Bar at Palm Court has live jazz and French Art Deco design that landed the hotel on the national historic register.
2. Saturday a.m.: Orient yourself using Fountain Square, famous for the Tyler Davidson Fountain and infamous for KKK Christmastime displays in the 1990s. A bit of shopping in the Carew Tower is immediately west; the Contemporary Art Center, designed by Zaha Hadid, is just north; Sawyer Point is east; and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is south toward the Ohio River.
3. Lunch at one of three downtown locations of Skyline Chili. Request a three-way, and the waitress won’t be offended; she’ll bring a dish of spaghetti topped with chili (chocolate is the rumored secret ingredient) and cheese.
4. If you don’t make reservations for dinner at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse, you can just hang out at the upstairs sports bar until your table is ready. Start with Saratoga chips and onion straws before ordering barbecued ribs from Ted the Ribs King. From the dessert menu, order Graeter’s Black Raspberry Chip Ice Cream. It started in Cincinnati, and the chocolate chips require four bites.
5. Head back toward central downtown to shake off that hard-knock life for a showing of Annie (October 23–28) at the Aranoff Center. If your mood isn’t musical, hike toward the lights of Mt. Adams to see one of Shakespeare’s darkest plays, Othello, at Playhouse in the Park.
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6. It’s Sunday. Learn a bit of local history at Porkopolis in Mt. Adams. Now named after the city’s slaughterhouse days, the building was originally the home of Rookwood Pottery, which explains why people reserve tables inside giant kilns.
7. See masterpieces created in those kilns down the street at the Cincinnati Art Museum as part of “Vanishing Frontier: Rookwood, Farny and the American Indian.” Another fall exhibit features the 1940–1960 realist works of Charley and Edie Harper, who met as students at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, which is adjacent to the museum.
8. On your way out of town, lap Eden Park for a drive-by of Krohn Conservatory and Mirror Lake, which you’ll spot by its 60-foot fountain. Grab some change, toss it in and drive on home.
