For my birthday my amazing husband J took me out for a little daytime date in Over-the-Rhine. We’ve lived in the Cincinnati suburbs for 5 years now (and I am from Cincinnati) but we rarely get a chance to go strolling along the streets with just the two of us, so this was a really special time. I thought I would give a brief overview of what we did in case anyone is in the Cincinnati area looking for stuff to do.

 

The first thing we did was pay for parking. It’s not hard to find a place to park and after that you are set because everything is within walking distance.

 

We don’t do hardly anything without fueling up with coffee, so our first treat was iced latés from Coffee Emporium.

Coffee Emporium is one of our favorite coffee shops in Cincinnati. Their menu has tons of options and the old historic building has plenty of space with comfy furniture if you want to hang out. My top three drinks are

  1. Bumble Bee with a Buzz
  2.  Java Jive
  3. Peanut butter Mocha Blended

From there we went walking without too much of an agenda. There are some really neat murals and fascinating shops all around.

 

When we found a place called The Rook we headed inside to discover what this “board game parlor” was all about. We had appetizers and Ale-8-Ones (a local soda that I’ve been drinking since I was a little girl) and searched for what games we wanted to play.

The walls are lined with board games all perfectly categorized by type. Some of them were just fun to look at, like the “Clarissa Explains it All” board game in the novelty section. We mostly stuck to the classics. We played a giant version of connect four, an old school memory game, and a dice game. J gets bragging rights since he beat me two out of three times. It was such a unique and entertaining experience. I would definitely love to go back sometime.

 

 

Afterwards, we did some more walking and shopping. We found an adorable little boutique called Mica 12/v where they have local and regional art along with handcrafted gifts.

J got me a mug with Charley Harper artwork on it. I love Charley Harper. He was a Cincinnati artist and I first discovered his work at the library four years ago. Since then I keep learning more about him and his work. I love my new mug.

 

Last stop was Quán Hapa an open-air restaurant serving Asian street food, namely RAMEN!

They had anime playing on screens in the bar area and a chilled glass bottle of water on the table along with a jar of chopsticks. I got the Chicken Katsu and J went with the Kalbi Loco Moco. This was definitely our kind of place.

 

Graeter’s was right next door and I do love their ice cream, but I was stuffed and we were ready to head back and relieve the babysitter.

 

So how did I feel about our little escape to Over-The-Rhine?

Let’s just say I was over the moon.

 

For more date night ideas check out “Epic Shows You Need to Catch in Cincinnati” There are some really awesome suggestions, one of which I plan to check out for our next date! I will keep you posted.

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