Rivertown Brewery Tour

Thanks to Yelp, we had a chance to tour a local brewery, Rivertown (in Lockland). Here are a handful of my iPhone shots from that morning (in our excitement, we left the real camera in the car!):

The tour was so much fun. We were able to see just about every step of the brewing process, because there was a local group of homebrewers mixing a batch that day and so the brewery was hoppin'. (Hoppin'? Beer pun?) We smelled different types of hops, tasted various grains, sampled ales (if you're into that kind of thing), and even visited the bottling machine (just one! for their entire distribution!!).

A great learning experience and a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon-- thanks Alex, Yelp and Rivertown!

Rivertown Brewery: http://www.rivertownbrewery.com/

Yelp's Totally Bazaar at the American Sign Museum

The holiday season of 2010 has taken shop local to a new level for Cincinnati. There have been numerous event throughout downtown, OTR and the surrounding community nearly ever weekend since Thanksgiving. These events in OTR as well as Clifton hosting Crafty Supermarket all help embrace the shop local spirit and Saturday saw Yelp's Totally Bazaar event take over of the American Sign Museum to bring even more people out to meet all our favorite local shops and businesses.

The man behind all this was OTR's very own Alex Shebar, and he did a killer job of pulling this all together. There was a huge turn out and it was a lot of fun for everyone there, and hopefully beneficial for everyone involved.

The biggest exposure of the night was for the American Sign Museum, which was kind enough to host the event. They have a beautiful and extensive collection of American signs, sign making equipment, and just about everything else you could imagine that relates to signs and their impact on American culture.

The museum opened in the spring of 2005 and their collection of 3,800 cataloged objects quickly outgrew the current location in Walnut Hills. They are in the process of funding a move to a new building they have purchased in Camp Washington, which will eventually provide them with a total of 42,000 sq. ft. of floorspace to permanently house their collection. They own about half the space already and are in the process of funding the final phases of the build-out and relocation.

Something that struck me about the museum is that it's a bit off the beaten path. It seems unlikely you'd find it unless you're specifically looking for it. Their new location is very much the same in terms of location. Perhaps a nicer spot, more space, but it's still in a rather low visibility location.

Something Erica and I felt, and also something that I discussed with 5chw4r7z, is that this place would really thrive if it were located downtown, specifically in Over-The-Rhine. It's an incredible space, both due to the collection of interesting objects, but also because of the atmosphere all these signs create. Imagine a space like this being in OTR and being part of Final Friday or Second Sunday. I also think the museum would get a lot more exposure if it were in a higher traffic area. The OTR tours draw hundreds of people every weekend and a museum such as the American Sign Museum would benefit greatly from that, especially since the tour guys are so great a plugging all the merchants, restaurants and happenings OTR has to offer. There are tons of open spots in OTR, of varying size, and I'd think 3CDC would jump at the chance to bring such an attraction into our growing neighborhood.

I realize this may not ever happen, since the museum is already vested in their new location, but it's an idea I had to put out there.

If you've not checked out the museum it's definitely worth a trip. Visit their site for details and hours.

American Sign Museum Website: http://www.signmuseum.net/

the Yelp Totally Bazaar event page: http://www.yelp.com/events/cincinnati-yelps-totally-bazaar

Yelp Cincinnati

If you've seen this guy lately, he's been talking about Yelp.

This is Alex Shebar, and he's been a friend of ours for quite some time... bloggers tend to run in the same circles, and Alex (and his lovely gf Allison) run the project Watch This, which Dan and I have attended in the past.

Alex is the newly-minted community manager for Yelp Cincinnati, and he took some time to meet with Dan and myself to discuss Yelp's activity in the city. (We had to meet at Starbucks, because Tazza Mia closes at 5:30pm and Coffee Emporium at 6. How horrible is that?)

Yelp is a free service... sort of an Urbanspoon meets Angie's List with a focus on local, local, local. And that's exactly why they want Alex on the payroll... Yelp is global, and in order to truly do a local community justice they need someone on the street, living and experiencing and adding to the community.

Yelp is an interesting tool and fits pretty well with our blog's agenda: to explore the city at a deeper level. Cincinnati is ten times larger than you think it is (or than I thought it was!). Most nights I have to choose between several events I'd like to attend, for instance. Yelp helps the community stay aware of dining, shopping, and event options in the city. Even with the best intentions, our blog only covers 4-5 items a week... because Yelp uses the community as the engine, it's much more robust and up-to-date than any single blog.

Free to sign up, free to use, free to rate and comment and do all the social media-y things you love to do. Free to have a voice about what you love and hate about Cincinnati. Check it out, if only so your next conversation with Alex is that much less awkward. ;)

Yelp Cincinnati: http://www.yelp.com/cincinnati-oh