The Signs of Clifton
Where to Buy Food in the Gaslight District
Coronavirus has had a huge impact on small businesses, including restaurants. In the Gaslight District we’re fortunate to have more than a dozen restaurants and other food sources open for business on a carryout and delivery basis on Ludlow Avenue and nearby side streets. Some hours have stayed the same. Others have decreased, but only marginally, due to the current carryout environment, as things start to slow down around 8pm or 9pm. Hours and details are sure to remain fluid over the next few weeks. Some hours may expand, and some may contract, and it’s also likely that delivery options will expand.
This article includes what are referred to as “staples”—popular items that are mainstays in the restaurant menus. If you’ve never eaten at that restaurant, that serves as a suggestion; that food item is popular for a reason.
Links to Menus, Websites, and Facebook Pages. Each entry in this article contains a link to the menu as it appears on each restaurant’s website. Click the name of the restaurant at the top of each entry and it will send you to that page. If no menu appears on the website, you’ll still get a link to the restaurant’s website or Facebook page.
How far do they deliver? If you use DoorDash, UberEats, DoorDash, or GrubHub, the drivers will deliver anywhere, but the farther you drive the more it costs. Calling the restaurant directly and having them deliver the food directly saves money, and this article tells how far each restaurant delivers.
Clifton Market
319 Ludlow Avenue – 513.861.3000
Hours: Monday through Friday: 8am to 10pm
Saturday and Sunday: 8am to 11pm
On a recent Facebook post, Clifton Market posted this: “As mentioned in our last email, we have set aside Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8 am to 10 am as shopping times for customers who are considered more vulnerable to the virus. During these time periods only customers who are seniors or have an underlying health condition can shop in the Market.”
Delivery Options: Clifton Market is also offering delivery service to those same at-risk customers. There’s enough detail to this situation that I created this link to this information; click this link to read more.
Gaslight Bar & Grill
345 Ludlow Avenue – 513.861.3663
Hours: Monday through Saturday 3pm to 8pm
Staples Include: Hamburgers, fish and chips, wings Greek spaghetti.
Delivery Options: Along with taking carryout orders over the phone, Gaslight informed us, “We use Uber Eats, and they have waived the Delivery Fee for independent, non-franchised restaurants across the US and Canada.”
They are happy to deliver curbside.
They deliver to both Clifton and Northside.
Sitwell’s Act II
324 Ludlow Avenue – 513.281.7487
Hours: Tuesday through Sunday 10am–8:30pm.
Their kitchen opens at 11am every day.
Staples Include: A popular vegetarian item is the Greek Gyro. A popular meat item is pork belly buns. (And don’t forget, Sitwell’s still serves coffee drinks, including lattes and cappuccinos.)
Delivery Options: Along with carryout and curbside delivery, Sitwell’s uses Uber Eats, DoorDash, and GrubHub. If you call Sitwell’s, they can also deliver, AND that’s cheaper. They’ve been delivering in Clifton, Northside, Camp Washington, and OTR.
Ambar India
350 Ludlow Avenue – 513.281.7000
Hours: Ambar is open seven days a week. They open at 11am and stay open until 9pm.
Staples Include: Chicken Curry.
Delivery Options: Ambar India does not deliver.
Grill of India
354 Ludlow Avenue – 513.961.3600
Hours: They’re open seven days a week, from 11am to 10:00pm.
Delivery Options: Uber Eats, Grubhub
Biagio’s Bistro
308 Ludlow Avenue – 513.861.4777
Hours: They’re open Monday through Saturday. Hours are 11am to 8 or 9, depending on how busy they are.
Staples Include: Fettucini Alredo, Chicken Alfredo, Veggie Pasta
Delivery: Biagio’s is carryout only.
Dewey’s
265 Hosea Avenue – 221.0400
Hours: Monday through Friday 11am to 9pm
Saturday 11am to 9:30
Sunday 4pm to 9pm
Staples Include: The Bronx Bomber is their best-selling pizza.
Delivery Options: Along with carryout, Dewey’s is offering drive up service for carry out. No need to go in, just give them a call and they will bring it to your car.
Los Potrillos
316 Ludlow Avenue – 513.221.0313
Hours: Their hours have remained the same, and they are:
Monday – Thurs 11am – 10pm
Friday-Saturday 11am – 11pm
Sunday 11am – 9:30pm
Delivery Options: Grubhub and DoorDash
Habanero
358 Ludlow Avenue – 961.6800
Hours: Open every day from 11am to 10pm.
Delivery Options: Along with carryout, Habanero offers curbside delivery, and you can also order food through Ubereats. Habanero’s Facebook page states, “Ubereats has suspended delivery fees for us and others!”
Proud Rooster
345 Ludlow Avenue – 513.281.4965
Staples Include: Omelets, Fried Chicken
Hours: Tuesday through Sunday 8 to 2
Delivery Options: They deliver if it’s close and if they’re not real busy.
Skyline Chili
290 Ludlow Avenue – 513.221.2142
Hours: Hours are currently 11am to 10pm every day of the week; they stop taking delivery phone calls at 10:40pm.
Delivery Options: Along with pickup, they do they curbside pickup, I was told.
Marakech Morrocan Cafe & Grill
341 Ludlow Avenue – 513.442.2233
Hours: Noon to 8pm every day.
Delivery Options: If you call them directly, they can deliver IF you live in Clifton. Another option is
UberEats.
Ardor Bakeshop
272 Ludlow Avenue – 513.221.2452
Hours: Ardor is new, and they’re still setting their hours, but they let me know that they will at least be open these hours:
Saturday and Sunday: 9am to 1pm
Thursday and Friday: 11 to 4
Bruegger’s Bagels
3317 Clifton Avenue – 513.221.2243
Hours: 6am to 4pm every day
Delivery Options: Bruegger’s recently added Door Dash
Hunan Bistro
321 Ludlow Avenue – 513.221.5333
To order online, click THIS LINK.
i was told over the phone that they deliver anywhere, but it affects the delivery fee.
Baladi Restaurant & Bakery
3307 Clifton Avenue – 513.221.7222
Hours: Tuesday through Thursday: 11am to 8pm
Friday: 11pm to 9pm
Saturday: 10am to 9pm
Sunday: 10am to 3pm
Delivery Options: GrubHub
The Whole Bowl
364 Ludlow Avenue – 513.751.2695
Hours: 11am to 9pm every day
Staples Include: The Big Bowl
Delivery Options: DoorDash, UberEats
Note also that customers are still able to purchase food at the walk-up window
Jagdeep’s Indian Grocery
356 Ludlow Avenue – 513.961.2699
Hours: 11:30am to 9pm every day
Don’t forget about Jagdeep’s! Some of the staples there include vegetables, yogurt, beans, lentils, and rice.
Kasim Sulton Plays the Ludlow Garage March 14th
Kasim Sulton’s Utopia will perform at the Ludlow Garage on Saturday, March 14.
The music that evening will have a strong Todd Rundgren connection. Along with recording dozens of solo albums, Todd Rundgen was a member of two important bands. One group, the Nazz, recorded three albums between 1968 and 1971.
The other band, Utopia, released its first album in 1974, and continued to reconvene for the next few decades. There has been some shifting personnel in Utopia, but some of the musicians have remained band members for long periods of time, including Kasim Sulton, who joined Utopia in 1976. By then Utopia had become a four-piece where all four band members wrote, sang, produced, and engineered material.
It was Sulton who wrote and sang lead on Utopia’s biggest hit, “Set Me Free,” from Adventures in Utopia (1980). During its career Utopia played many different styles of music. Some songs were short, concise, and catchy but quirky pop confections while others reflected a progressive rock style.
Sulton will be performing music from all the different phases of Utopia when he comes to the Ludlow Garage. If you like Todd Rundgren, you’ll hear a lot of Todd that evening. If you like smart, quirky pop music, you’ll hear that too. And if you like progressive rock, you’ll hear that as well. Click this link to find out more about this show and order tickets.
Marc Cohn Plays the Ludlow Garage March 25
An intimate venue like the Ludlow Garage is an ideal setting for a singer-songwriter, and it’s hosted some of the best, including Judy Collins, Michael Martin Murphey, and Rickie Lee Jones. At larger venues you tend to lose some of the subtleties and nuances of singer-songwriters, but the Ludlow Garage offers both immediacy and superb sound.
So Marc Cohn’s performance on March 25 promises to be a special one. His hit “Walking in Memphis” was nominated for a Grammy for best song and best male vocal performance in 1991, and it reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Since then Cohn has written songs for himself and for other artists, including David Crosby, William Bell, and the Blind Boys of Alabama.
If you’re wondering how Marc Cohn became such an in-demand songwriter, part of the answer might lie in his album Listening Booth: 1970. The album is devoted to cover version of pop songs that were originally released in 1970, a year that served as Cohn’s musical awakening and year that inspired him to write music. You’ll hear songs by Van Morrison, CCR, Simon & Garfunkel, the Grateful Dead, and others. His rendition of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” is one of the highlights of the album:
To find out more about the show and order tickets, click this link to the Ludlow Garage’s website.
Sunday Brunch at the Ludlow Garage
Today I got together with a group of friends for Sunday brunch at the Ludlow Garage, which takes place every Sunday from 11am to 3pm. It was the first time for all of us, so everyone got something different and we did a lot of sharing. Turns out we picked a beautiful day to hang out there: the temperature got up to the high 50s – rare for the first day of March – and the sun was shining as bright as ever. Soon the Ludlow Garage will be opening the garage doors, adding that much more character to the establishment and to Ludlow Avenue. While we were sitting there today, it was easy to imagine the doors lifting and the sun warming the room.
We started our meal out with mimosas, Bloody Maries, and coffee…
…and then explored as many different options as we could on the menu. The menu for Sunday brunch alludes to the Ludlow Garage’s storied musical history, with such delicacies as Iggy Pop Tart Pancake and Humble Egg Pie on tap. The price was reasonable, the portions were generous, and – to cut to the chase – we’ll be back, for brunch, for concerts, for cocktails, and for the opportunity to sit upstairs while the doors are open on a beautiful spring day.
A Complete List of Concerts at the Ludlow Garage 1969 – 1971
The first incarnation of the Ludlow Garage music venue hosted concerts from September 1969 to January 1971. Artists who performed there included the Allman Brothers, the Kinks, BB King, Alice Cooper, and the Stooges.
Some of the artists – including Santana, Mountain, the Incredible String Band, and Johnny Winter – played Woodstock just one month before the Ludlow Garage started presenting live music.
Some local acts also performed at the Ludlow Garage, which is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Those groups included Blacklight Braille, whose macabre and colorful stage show bore some resemblance to Alice Cooper. Sound Museum, who opened for Santana, included band members who worked with James Brown.
The Concerts
1969
September 19-20, 1969 Grand Funk Railroad, Lonnie Mack, Balderdash (opening night)
September 26-27, 1969 Spirit, Sound Museum, Sandy Nassen
October 3-4, 1969 Holy Modal Rounders, Stone Fox
October 7-9, 1969 Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Holy Modal Rounders
October 10-11, 1969 Mother Earth, Lighthouse, East Orange Express (10/10), Lemon Pipers (10/11)
October 14-16, 1969 Mountain, Devil’s Kitchen
October 17-18, 1969 Barry Goldberg Reunion, Devil’s Kitchen
October 21-22, 1969 Santana, Sons of Champlin, Sound Museum, Justice
October 24, 1969 Jam Session
October 25, 1969 The Flock
October 31-November 2, 1969 Elvin Bishop, Humble Pie, Devil’s Kitchen, Catfish
November 7-8, 1969 Devil’s Kitchen
November 14-15, 1969 Kinks, Humble Pie, Glass Harp
November 21-22, 1969 Sons of Champlin, Ricky Nelson, Lemon Pipers
November 28-29, 1969 Incredible String Band
December 19-20, 1969 The Frost, Glass Wall, Allman Brothers Band
December 26-27, 1969 BB King, Zephyr
December 28-29, 1969 Raven, All The Lonely People, Uncle Dirty
December 30, 1969 Raven, Balderdash, Uncle Dirty
December 31, 1969 James Gang, Raven, Uncle Dirty, Eli Radish, Balderdash
1970
January 1-3 1970 James Gang, Eli Radish, Atlantis (1/1), Savage Grace (1/2 & 1/3)
January 9-10, 1970 Flamin’ Groovies, Iggy & The Stooges, Golden Earring
January 16-17, 1970 MC5, Sunday Funnies
January 23-24, 1970 The Flock, NRBQ
January 25, 1970 Renaissance, NRBQ, Lemon Pipers, Ed Chicken & the French Fries
January 30-31, 1970 Amboy Dukes, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
February 6-7, 1970 Mother Earth, Eric Mercury, Glass Harp
February 13-14, 1970 Herbie Mann, James Cotton Blues Band
February 20-21, 1970 Grand Funk Railroad, Lemon Pipers
February 22, 1970 Savoy Brown, Balderdash and Raintree
February 25, 1970 (moved to Music Hall) Neil Young, Renaissance
February 27-28, 1970 Taj Mahal, Cold Blood
March 3, 1970 Lemon Pipers, SLSN
March 6-7, 1970 Bo Diddley, Brownsville Station and Glass Harp
March 13-14, 1970 MC5, Stone the Crow, Elizabeth (Friday early show only), Stooges
March 20-21, 1970 Albert King, NRBQ
March 27, 1970 New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, Alice Cooper, Mad Lydia
March 28, 1970 Ten Years After, New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, Alice Cooper, Mad Lydia
April 4-5, 1970 Allman Brothers Band, Devil’s Kitchen (thanks to Brett Champlin for this correction)
April 10-11, 1970 Zephyr, Argent
April 17-18, 1970 (rescheduled to June 5 & 6) Pink Floyd
April 17-18, 1970 Staple Singers, The Silvertones, Biff Rose
April 25, 1970 Brute Force, Lemon Pipers
April 30, 1970 Allman Brothers, Hampton Grease Band
May 1-2, 1970 Tony Williams Lifetime, Hampton Grease Band
May 8-9, 1970 Incredible String Band, Stone Monkey
May 10, 1970 Phil Ochs, Jerry Rubin
May 15-16, 1970 Mother Earth
May 22-23, 1970 James Cotton Blues Band
May 29-30, 1970 Fairport Convention
June 5-6, 1970 (cancelled) Pink Floyd
July 10-11, 1970 Beechwood Farm
August 15-16, 1970 Balderdash, Screaming Gypsy Bandits
August 28-29, 1970 Dr. John the Night Tripper, Bitter Blood Street Theater
September 11, 1970 NRBQ, Rock City, The Farm
September 19, 1970 Bob Seger System
September 26, 1970 Iggy & The Stooges, Whalefeathers
October 2, 1970 The Farm
October 3, 1970 MC5
October 21, 1970 (Music Hall) Frank Zappa & The Mothers, Sandy Nassan, Balderdash
November 20-21, 1970 Captain Beefheart, Hampton Grease Band, Screaming Gypsy Bandits, Avenue of Happiness and Balderdash
November 22, 1970 Johnny Winter
December 10, 1970 Savoy Brown, Beechwood Farms
December 11-12, 1970 Roland Kirk, Vibration Society
December 13, 1970 Incredible String Band
December 23-24, 1970 The Flock
1971
January 19-20, 1971 Captain Beefheart, Ry Cooder, Pure Prairie League (last concert at the Ludlow Garage)
The Marx Brothers Are Coming to the Esquire
Every night the Esquire Theatre host special event movies that stylistically run the gamut.
They’ve been showing their share of art films – classics by Bergman, Eisenstein, and Orson Welles, for example – that are profound masterpieces of cinematic art.
But the Esquire also shows movies that deliver pure zaniness, like some classic films by the Marx Brothers. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo made 12 films together, and all of them are worth seeing.
The three mid-career gems that will be showing on the big screen, however, present the Marx Brothers at the top of their game.
On Wednesday, February 19, Duck Soup (1933) will play at 7pm.
At 7pm on Wednesday, February 26, look for Night at the Opera (1935).
And at 7pm on Wednesday, March 4, the Esquire will present A Day at the Races (1936).
The movies by the Marx Brothers are so bizarre that their fans included such Absurdists and Surrealists as Antonin Artaud, Samuel Beckett, and Salvador Dali. Their movies were like a nonstop adrenaline rush except for that one scene, about two-thirds of the way through each film, where one or more of the Marx Brothers, often in the company of a couple seemingly failed to save from ruin, sit there looking dejected.
But things always turn out okay, in love and – in the case of Duck Soup – war:
See you at the show!
Academy Award Winner Parasite Is at the Esquire
No one had Parasite slated to win an Academy Award. For one thing the movie, which is showing at the Esquire Theatre on Ludlow Avenue in Clifton, is a foreign-language film, and until now not a single non-English film brought home a trophy for best film.
And we all know how the Academy Awards prefer huge, blockbuster movies with big stars and lots of special effects.
Yet it won Academy Awards for best film, best director, best screenplay, and best international feature.
The movie has been showing at the Esquire for a couple months, so obviously it’s found an audience. But winning the Academy Awards means it will continue to show there – in fact, the crowds will increase.
Parasite is one more reason to visit the Esquire Theatre – which, don’t forget, has classic “special event” films every night – and, while you’re in the neighborhood, roam around a bit; you’ll find plenty more to do.
Here’s a trailer for Parasite:
Eight Years and 412 Blog Entries Later, the Gaslight Property Blog Rolls On
This month – February of 2020 – marks the eight-year anniversary of the blog for Gaslight Property. The blog was conceived as a way to drive traffic to the rental company’s website by highlighting some things going on around the Gaslight District, which in turn might entice people to rent our apartments in that neighborhood.
If you want to convince people to move to a neighborhood, you should convince them that the neighborhood is vibrant and alive and still evolving. That’s easy to do when in an area where new things are happening. In the last three years our grocery store reopened, new owners took over and upgraded Ludlow Garage, an art gallery opened, the post office moved, a record store opened, the Gaslight Bar and Grill opened, a new coffee house (Sitwell’s Act II), a new Chinese restaurant opened, and the Esquire Theatre started showing special event films (classics and obscurities from the past) every night.
So we’ve had a lot to report. In fact, before starting this blog I checked how many blog entries I’ve written, and we’re now up to 412 blog entries – and 413 when this one is done.
We’ve covered everything from new stores to cocktails and food and Clifton history and movie reviews and music…for starters. Some of the blog entries have been short and sweet, and some of them have been long, rambling narratives recounting the misadventures of the person who writes these blogs, which leads to a questions that a few people have asked me:
“Who writes that thing, anyway?”
The answer is, me. But who is me? Unfortunately, I need to wrap this up for now – but that question will be the title of my next blog entry.
Transit App Is A Great Tool for Bus Riders
One of the chief advantages of living in the Gaslight District is its convenience, with so many services and attractions within walking distance of each other.
For those times when you want to wander a bit, there’s another convenience: public transportation. Because of its location, buses are constantly running in and out of Clifton.
Buses are very convenient, but there’s often been one hassle involved: even if you had a bus schedule, you never knew when was going to arrive. Various apps have tried to dial that in, but with limited success. Too often bus riders found themselves adjusting the image on their screen as they tried to find the red dot hidden between all those squiggly lines – it was almost like a Find Waldo game. And all the bus rider wanted to know was, “When is the bus going to get here?”
Recently Metro added the Transit App to its bag of tricks, and the app is everything bus riders have imagined on those wet, rainy days when they’d prefer to hide under the canopy but they’re afraid to because they might miss the bus.
Transit App simply tells you how many minutes it will be before your bus arrives. It’s easy to download the app on your phone, and once you’ve done that, tracking buses is very simple.
And Transit App isn’t limited to tracking buses. For example, you can also use the app to pay your bus fare in advance. And fortunately, it’s an easy-to-use App. Here’s a link to Transit App: