Real and regular life really got in the way here, which is why I am just now getting to share with you all the night my girlfriends and I had out on the town a few weekends ago (as seen on Instagram). It was so fun and so exciting because we decided to do something really wonderful, that again, I am so mad I am just now getting around to sharing with you all. But here I am and now here we go!
First, a bit of context.
Meet Morgan, Brittany, and Brittany (left to right). This little girl gang got organized and decided to have a night out on the Cincinnati town a few Fridays ago. And during the flurry of group texting and gif-emoting, we ultimately came up with a brilliant idea – we went on an only female-owned (or co-owned or executive chef’d) establishments bar crawl. So our GNO to just G-ruled places made for one heckuva night of GRL PWR.
We kicked off our night at Aster, owned by Sandra Gross and Dr. John Hutton, and partnered with Frances Kroner (of Sleepy Bee fame and acclaim). Here a few of us started with the Martini of the Moment – the Malfy (London dry style) blended with juniper, cucumber, sage, lemon, and lavender – while others went classic with a glass of pinot noir. Either way, we kicked back with our respective glasses and soothed our way into the evening. Only bummer was that we ultimately moved on right as the band set up in the corner got going for the evening.
After Aster, we zipped to the other side of town for The Rhined.
The Rhined is owned by cheese connoisseur Stephanie Webster, and this specialty cut-to-order cheese and wine shop is a definite favorite of ours and one of the first we thought of when we started mapping out our crawl. Here we split a bottle of Il Pestifero pet nat and told the gal in charge we were down for a charcuterie board of her curating. We also told her what we were up to for the evening, and in the fun and spirit of the theme, she made sure to give us cheeses from only female-owned creameries. So fun and so good.
After the round at The Rhined, we bounced only a block over for dinner at Social OTR.
Social OTR is a Findlay Market owned and operated non-profit restaurant executive chef’d by Jennifer Kempin. Social OTR serves as an internship / incubator of sorts to help facilitate students in the Findlay Culinary Training Program to prepare for a career in the industry. Besides getting behind that mission, we made this our main course pit stop due to who is at the helm in the kitchen. And with that, we ordered all the things – the pickle board, the deviled eggs, the frites, the stuffed poblano mole, the pappardelle, and the scallops. There was also the favored drink – the Gin It To Win It – which came one after another because it was too good. Another good spot and another good time.
After we had our dinner and conversation fill at Social OTR, we moved on to our last and final stop – the much anticipated – Homemaker’s Bar.
Homemaker’s Bar is co-owned by TWO women – Catherine Manabat and Julia Petiprin – and was the perfect grand finale for our female-only flamingling through town. Here our nightcaps included specialty cocktails like the It’s Toasted (bourbon barrel gin, ginger, coffee, lavender, lime, coconut La Croix) and the Fresh Up (vodka, apertif wine, lime, nectarine, celery, egg white, orange bitters). Here we cozied up at a table in the corner and continued doing what gals do when they get together – gab and gab and gab and gab. So good and so necessary.
So if you’ve got a babe squad in serious need of getting together, do so and make it a babe night through and through by supporting the queens of the Queen City here – Aster, The Rhined, Social OTR, and Homemaker’s Bar – all wonderfully woman’d all the way around!
