"Nestled high above downtown Cincinnati and the beautiful Ohio River, for more than 200 years, historic Mt. Adams has shared a rich and fascinating history with the City of Cincinnati. Named after President John Quincy Adams, who in 1843 delivered the dedication address for what was then known as the world’s most powerful observatory (now site of the Monastery), the Hill has long enjoyed a tradition of fine wine, art and entertainment.
During the early 1800’s, Nicholas Longworth, who owned all of Mt. Adams, met with great success cultivating the Catawba grapes used in making his famous champagne known as Golden Wedding. For a brief period in history, Mt. Adams was at the center of wine making in America!"
Doing a little research for this post, I found out that Cincinnati was given the nickname "The Queen City" after a poem written about Cincinnati's wine, especially Longworth's Golden Wedding champagne. The last stanza of the poem reads:
"And this Song of the Vine,This greeting of mine,
The winds and the birds shall deliver,
To the Queen of the West,
In her garlands dressed,
On the banks of the Beautiful River."
Pretty cool. Cincinnati was long known as a beer brewing town, but I never realized that it was a center for winemaking in the US in its early history. Anyway, back to the article from Mt Adam's website:
"Art came to Mt. Adams in 1892 when Maria Longworth Stroer moved her pottery factory to the Hill. The grand-daughter of Nicholas Longworth, Maria created a unique style of ceramic finishes and tints which she named Rookwood Pottery. Quickly, it became internationally proclaimed for its jewel-like porcelain finishes and still treasured by collectors today."
We'll get back to Rookwood Pottery in a minute, but first we'll talk about Mt Adams as it is today. Today Mt Adams is an upscale neighborhood with historic architecture, trendy restaurants, and a lively night scene with various bars and nightclubs (One of our favorites is The Blind Lemon. Cool outdoor patio, check it out sometime). Apparently this wasn't always the case though. Soapbox Cincinnati's website writes that,
"prior to the 1960s, it was strictly a working-class neighborhood, dotted with small, inexpensive homes and blue-collar employers such as an iron foundry, wooden shoe and fireworks factories, a pottery manufacturer, a vineyard and limestone quarries. In fact, as high as Mt. Adams sits above the city today, it sat up to 100 feet higher before mining changed its topography."
Again, pretty cool if you ask me. The "working class" neighborhood characteristics are part of the draw that makes Mt. Adams' businesses and culture what they are today. Unique, fresh, and trendy. So in searching for something to do in Mt. Adams, we decided to go to one of these unique businesses, The Rookwood, which is a restaurant in the old Rookwood Pottery building that overlooks downtown Cincinnati. We had heard a lot about it from numerous friends, so we checked out the menu before we went and decided to just go for desserts and pack a picnic lunch since it would be such a beautiful day. Also weighing into the decision: one of the items on the menu was a Beer Float, which is just as it sounds. I (Kevin) had to check this one out...
(For all the pictures from the date, check out the slideshow below...)
We decided on making Curry Chicken Salad for lunch that afternoon, which we had been talking about making for quite some time. Check out the recipe here. We wanted to eat on Mt. Adams at a park or plaza, and our friend Aaron suggested a small park that overlooks the Ohio River (actually where he proposed to his fiancee Emily), just down the street from The Rookwood.
So off we went after church, with our picnic lunch in hand. As you can see from the picture slideshow, it was a beautiful day and the Curry Chicken Salad sandwiches were great. After we were finished, we walked up the hill, stopping along the way to get some photos of the city below, and got to The Rookwood for our dessert. We hadn't realized that they do a Sunday brunch or we might have done that. But we stuck with our plan for dessert.
The Rookwood is like no other restaurant you've ever been in. Fairly unassuming on the outside, the interior is unbelievably cool. At the center of the restaurant is one of the old kilns used to fire pottery during its original use. The bar wraps around the brick kiln, and high vaulted ceilings with steel beams and columns surrounded by the exposed brick interior give the restaurant an edgy, industrial feel to it. The remainder of the surrounding kilns are now used as private dining rooms. You and your dining party can literally enjoy your dinner inside one of the kilns. What an awesome adaptation/preservation of a unique building! The Rookwood also has some unique details that play along with its historical yet edgy persona, such as serving water to each table from vintage bourbon bottles and bring checks on an old block of wood with a rubber band around it. These little details really tie the whole experience together, making the restaurant about more than just the food. (Check out more pictures of The Rookwood at their website here)
So we got our table (not one in a kiln, I think they only use them when they are busy) and ordered our dessert. Paige ordered an ice cream sampler from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, an ice cream shop actually based out of Columbus, which we had never had. She got a sampling of 4 flavors: Salty Caramel, Peach Buttercream, Zuchini Bread, and Raspberry Sorbet. They we absolutely outstanding and super rich. And their website has so many more flavors that look amazing. Definitely gonna have to try out Jeni's the next time we pass through Columbus.
As I stated before, I stuck with the Beer Float, which is one bottle of Breckenridge Brewing Company's Vanilla Porter with a couple scoops of Jeni's Salty Carmel ice cream. Sounds weird, but if you are a fan of beer and root beer floats, you have got to check this out, or make one yourself. Any other beer would probably taste bad, but the Vanilla Porter just works (and has been one of my favorite brews for a while too).
After finishing up, we checked the place out a little more and walked around Mt. Adams for a bit before we decided to head back home. Overall, a relatively cheap and simple way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. And once again, you can't beat the company! :)
Thanks for reading along (even through all the boring history stuff that only I may find interesting)! And be sure to leave any feedback on other cool/fun places or activities that are available in Mt. Adams, or let us know where we should go to next!
