I attended a cooking demonstration and dinner on Saturday night at a business called Garnish Catering in Blue Ash, Ohio. Garnish caters to a unique niche market by providing not only catering services, but cooking demonstrations and classes for adults and children, as well as gourmet carry out meal preparation.

Kim Baretta owner of Garnish publishes the prepared meal menus on a weekly basis and will email them to people who opt in to her mailing list. The facility is an ideal location for shower events, small parties, and other events.

REMINDER….all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing
companies tomorrow and you will start to receive sales calls.

….YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:

888-382-1222

It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different
phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.

It takes about 20 seconds.

Although it is a cold
and snowy mid-February day, there is plenty to do in the Greater Cincinnati
Area. This community is very spirited about holidays and Valentine’s Day will
be great in Cincinnati
regardless of your relationship status or what you like to do. Some communities
are having daytime events targeted to families with children while others are
focused more on couples and singles who would prefer to celebrate in the
evening. Please read below for the ways that different communities in the city
are celebrating.

Many of the
neighborhoods hosting events can be found here.

The Downtown
Gift Card, a multi merchant prepaid credit card valid at more
than 120 participating downtown merchants. The Downtown Gift Card is available
in any denomination up to a $500 value at the Downtown Cincinnati Inc Website.
Downtown also has a few events to offer for the eve of Valentine’s Day Havana Martini, Boi Na Braza, Jeff Ruby’s, Lodge Bar, The Ensemble
Theater has a special production as well. The other options
available downtown are the Fountain Square Ice Skating Rink, a Carriage ride
through downtown.

Newport on the Levee’s merchants have all
teamed up and have plenty of Valentine’s
Day packages for those of you looking to spend your evening in
Kentucky.

Mt Lookout will be having events at Million’s Cafe as well as local
restaurants will sure to be booked up. Some of those restaurants are Nectar
and Betta’s Italian Cuisine.

Downtown Cincinnati has once again come alive. With plenty of new restaurants opening up and a thriving nightlife, it has once again become a thriving place to be. In the past year, we have seen new restaurants open on or near fountain square such as Boi Na Braza (Brazilian Food), Nada (Contemporary Mexican Food), and Vie Vite (Italian). Mortons reopened in the Carew Tower and Fountain Square welcomed their new tenants Greaters Famous Ice Cream and Potbelly Sandwich Shop. The nightlife has revived with The Lodge Bar on 7th Street, Havana Martini, Sully’s reopening, and Cadillac Ranch the Country Bar with a mechanical bull for endless entertainment. Although McFaddens closed there will be a new restaurant/bar opening soon in the same location.

Since a lot of the 20, 30, and 40 somethings that are re-locating to Cincinnati from larger cities like I did such as Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami one of the concerns about moving to Cincinnati is losing the culture and excitement of living in a large city which includes the fine dining that is available there. The restaurants listed above as well as Jeff Ruby’s (steakhouse), McCormick and Schmicks (steak and seafood), Palomino (American), Pigall’s (French),Oceanaire (a new seafood restaurant opening soon), and Nicholsons (Irish pub food) are only adding to the excitement of the new downtown. These are all trendy restaurants that have excellent food and service and have a contemporary decor and ambiance that was not found in Cincinnati a few years ago. Many of these restaurants have hip bar areas where guests can enjoy happy hour as well.

Fountain Square has been reconfigured and currently has an ice skating rink with rental equipment available for visitors to enjoy. There were many events over the holidays and as the weather warms up the lunchtime events during the week will return. All Cincinnati residents should come see for themselves the changes that have occurred and support the businesses who have taken the leap of faith that things have changed and will continue to improve.

Downtown has returned as the hot place to be. You should feel safe coming downtown to work, eat, and party! Crime rates have decreased in the double digit percentages over the past 7 years and the crowds have returned. I look forward to enjoying the places that are there now and to see the new restaurants and bars that will open soon. You will not be disappointed!

In the real estate transaction process it is commonplace to see a home buyer inspecting a home. It makes sense to see the issues that will need repair up front for piece of mind and bargaining. However it is not uncommon for agents to be recommending, or even paying for pre-listing inspections. If you are working with a top Cincinnati Real Estate Agent they should be encouraging you to have a pre-listing inspection to give the seller the opportunity to fix problems before a seller finds them and asks to discount the selling price.

The American Society of Home Inspectors has a good national website with important information on it. In fact ASHI has a virtual home inspection on its website that you can do with your perspective clients for education purposes. We will have links to local Cincinnati Home Inspectors in our links section that is coming soon so please check back soon.

One of the great things about living in Cincinnati is taking the opportunities to volunteer and give back the community. Over the weekend we went and helped to sort food at the Freestore Food Bank in conjunction with the Act Out program.

The Food Bank services dozens of local agencies providing provisions for soup kitchens, emergency shelters, and even in school programs for children. Freestore relies on food donations as much as it relies on volunteer labor hours and monetary donations to pay for transportation of the creates of food and the administrative staff. The operation is so well run that 94% of all financial donations go straight to helping the hungry. Be a good Cincinnati neighbor and volunteer at the Freestore Food Bank.