I had a friend visit me in Cincinnati this last week and I pulled out all the stops for the coziest, most autumnal trip! The leaves were in full force and the weather was perfectly crisp.
My friend said he liked cocktail bars, wanted to see the leaves, and to go to Renfaire, so I planned our long weekend around those parameters!
Some ideas that I had were:
- Visit an orchard
- Renfaire
- Spooky season activities
- Cocktail bars (e.g. Ghost Baby & Somerset)
- Go for a hike (Mt Airy or out of town in Yellow Springs or Red River Gorge)
- See a concert
- Brunch at Cedar or Maplewood
- Breweries (Rhinegeist, Madtree, Taft’s, Braxton)
- Walk around Covington (breweries, Lil’s Bagels, Mama’s Mornings, Hierophany & Hedge)
- Findlay Market
- Go roller skating
- Go to a drive-in movie theater, like Starlite
- See what events are happening in Washington Park
- Cincinnati Zoo
- Kentucky Bourbon Trail
- Catch a hockey game (but the season started after his trip)
Day 0, Thursday: A Quiet Workday
Thursday didn’t really count since we worked from home but we did have a nice breakfast of fancy oatmeal and broke into my Costco beef stew and french bread for lunch (which he said was actually one of his favorite things he ate on the trip).
In the evening, we headed over to Rhinegeist Brewery for game night with some friends! Rhinegeist didn’t have any exciting autumnal beers but it was a good time and we got some soft pretzels as a snack.
Day 1, Friday: OTR Exploring & A Short Hike
We both took off Friday, so we had a nice slow day in OTR!
In the morning, we headed to Maplewood downtown to grab breakfast (I had their amazing chocolate chip cornflake cookie) and then wandered around Washington Park, Vine Street, and Main Street in OTR, which are the main cute areas in the neighborhood.
In the afternoon, we grabbed a small lunch and the much-coveted Pumpkin Spice Latte Beer at Alcove by Mad Tree Brewing in OTR and then drove to Mt Airy for a mini hike around Everybody’s Treehouse, which had some fantastic leaves!
In the evening, we got BBQ at Lucius Q in Pendleton (just a short walk), which I hadn’t been to before but was fantastic. Then, full of BBQ, we hit up my three favorite cocktail bars in OTR: Ghost Baby, Somerset, and Homemakers Bar / Fifty Fifty Gin Club. My friend said that he thought Ghost Baby had the best cocktails and Somerset had the best ambiance — which is undeniable!
Day 2, Saturday: Renfaire
We kicked off Saturday with breakfast at Taste of Belgium, where my friend tried his first ever Liege waffle. American “Belgian waffles,” while delicious, are not the least bit authentic and the two real types of Belgium waffles are Brussels (basically just Eggos, I don’t like them) and Liege (circular with more of a cake donut consistency and often with pockets of sugar crystals).
In the afternoon, we headed over to the Ohio Renaissance Festival in Waynesville, which was on its second to last weekend. It was packed but still super fun with lots of games and prolific quantities of cheap alcohol.
For dinner, back in OTR, we got some fried chicken sandwiches from The Eagle, which is well known around Cincinnati for having the best fried chicken. We then spent our evening with a little “amuse-bouche” of spooky TV shows and watched one-off episodes of: Werewolf by Night (our favorite of the evening), Little Demon, Hit Monkey, Over the Garden Wall, Devil is a Part Timer, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle.
Day 3, Sunday: Covington & Hidden Valley Orchard
We started off our Sunday with some pastries from Brown Bear Bakery in OTR, which had a lot of new treats for the fall. I got a squash croissant, lemon poppy seed brioche, and a “chips and dip” croissant, which was amazing. They had a lot of other pumpkin treats as well, so now is a good time to hit them up!
After our morning treat, we walked through downtown to Covington, which is a 30 minute walk from OTR, across the Ohio River. In Covington, we hit up Lil’s Bagels for a bigger breakfast, Bircus Brewing for our first beer of the day, and then Hierophany & Hedge, which is my favorite store in the area. Hierophany & Hedge is this killer dark academia magic shop with lots of spell books, candles, and spell components in jars on the wall. It’s definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area but you need to check the website because they don’t keep regular hours.
In the afternoon, we picked up another friend and drove 40 minutes to Hidden Valley Orchard in Lebanon (very close to the Renfaire we were at on Saturday) for some prime autumnal vibes and treats. It was hopping with lots of people, live music, a well-stocked farm store, autumnal cocktails (e.g. caramel apple moscow mule), and seasonal soft serve (including pumpkin, caramel, and apple cider slushie floats). I really loved it and it’s going to the top of my fall activity list!
For our last evening together, we grabbed food from Aladdin’s Eatery (great Lebanese food) and popped on a few seasonal movies (Leprechaun 3, Addams Family Values, Hit Monkey Episode 2) for a nice night in.
Bonus Day 4, Monday: Departure
My friend was leaving on Monday and I was working so we didn’t do much, but did grab breakfast at Sugar & Spice Diner, a 1940s diner on the border of OTR and Pendleton.
All-in-all, it was a great trip and I loved having someone coming to visit! My friend had low expectations for Cincinnati but was really positively surprised by the city and said he had a great time. Autumn is definitely an awesome season to visit Cincy!
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