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January 31, 2007
How long before we can chant "We're No. 1"?
The news just keeps getting better and better for Dilly Deli owners Chuck and Robbie Warriner. It won't be long before they start handing out large foam hands with the pointing finger raised to the sky stating "We're No. 1!"
"Beer seems to attract the kind of folks who love to tell their friends about us, and we thank them for that," the Warriners said. That is because RateBeer.com has just released their newly generated list of the 100 Best Beer Retailers in the World -- and the Dilly Deli is ranked number 12. Over the past few years, the Dilly Deli has been slowly rising on the list. This recent ranking is their highest mark to date.
These ratings are user generated; that is, the people who have been to the Dilly get online and rate the establishment for selection, service, ambiance, etc.
The numbers go into the cruncher and the list is revealed. Ohio in particular, and the Midwest in general, is well represented on the list.
"We must enjoy our beer around here to support so many fine retailers," the owners said. Yet the list is worldwide in scope - the top three are in Florida, Denmark and Massachusetts.
What sets the Dilly Deli apart from the other fine, popular establishments located in the Tri-State?
" Well, there aren't many places where you can shop such a high quality selection while at the same time actually enjoying a cold tasty beer, and in some states, that is actually forbidden," according to the Warriners. "Not to mention the food, the patio, our lovely little Village of Mariemont and our in-house peeps that take care of you! We may not carry everything -- heck, we'd need ten times more room -- but what we do carry is chosen because we think it is excellent."
Posted by johnston at 01:35 PM
January 29, 2007
Last minute shoppers can still get great deals
This is your last chance to check out the stellar deals Sara Benjamin's has on her outgoing Falll and Winter attire.
Shoppers can save up to 50 to 70 percent off the original price on clothing.
Posted by johnston at 12:48 PM
Shop Around the Corner is definately growing
The Shop Around the Corner is expanding, both in size and inventory. By March 5, the home decor store will be ready to show off its new look, which will include bedding, tabletop and kitchen items, stationary, cards and giftwrap, to name a few.
The renovations will have no impact on the shop's hours and availability.
For those of you who have not visitied The Shop Around the Corner, you must take some time and take a good look around the store.
Upon first entering the store, your first reaction is, Wow, it looks very nice and comforting and homey in here.
And, well, that is to be expected because the store is filled with items meant to decorate the interior of your home.
The Shop Around The Corner located at 6816 Wooster Pike in The Strand, neighboring Eastern Hills Dry Cleaners.
For owner Tiffany Richardson, this home decor store is something she has long aspired to open.
“I possess an appreciation for nice things. Everything in this store is something I would put in my house or give as a gift,” Richardson said.
To begin to explain the eclectic variety and enormity of the home decor merchandise would be an exhausting read. But imagine a store redolent with the fragrance of aromatic candles, colorful upholstered furniture, ornate wall hangings, a variety of end tables, lamp stands and tables, an array of items to fill your China cabinet and a myriad of other enticing and inviting pieces of eye candy and fine, well-crafted pieces.
Customers will see a well-mannered Golden Retriever/Labrador dog named Banx curled up in its comfy bed beside the checkout counter. The one-year old comes to work with Richardson every day.
“I am from the south,” explains Richardson, “so the store also has a southern feel.”
The store is a place where people can garner new ideas for their homes, somewhere they can take a piece of fine decoration home with them that will brighten the mood.
In order to fill the store, she conducts a great deal of research, reads books and magazines and travels quite a bit to collect ideas for her customers.
The Shop Around The Corner opened March 31. Richardson chose Mariemont to open her shop because the village seemed a good fit for her and her personality. “My brother also lived here 10 years ago and I became familiar with the village. There is a lot of opportunity here for a retailer because this area offers more than one shopping destination.”
For more information, call the store at 271-5777 or e-mail trechardson@cinci.rr.com
Posted by johnston at 12:34 PM
January 22, 2007
Wine tasting at the Dilly Deli this weekend
Be sure to visit the Dilly Deli this Saturday, Jan. 27, for another one of their popular "wine tastings" from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Cutting Edge Selections, a premium wholesaler, is the featured guest, and there will be several cool wines, all from way south of here, including:
Crios de Susana Balbo 2006 Torrontes -- a highly aromatic and refreshing white wine that has become, like Malbec in red wines, an Argentine specialty. $15.99
Alpha Domus 2005 Viognier -- Viognier, when it's made well, is fabulous, and usually somewhat expensive because the vine is rather capricious and expensive to grow. This New Zealand version is outstanding, and far cheaper than anyone present at our Holiday tasting guessed. And it lasts for five days open. $21.99
Calcu 2005 Red Wine -- Some of you may have tried this Chilean red, it's an incredible wine for the money. A "Super-Chilean" blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Carmenere. $12.99
Posted by johnston at 03:48 PM
January 15, 2007
Frame by frame and never the same
It is always an interesting day for Pat Moores and Judy Runnels, owners of Framer’s Guild in Mariemont.
At the top of a the store's back wall is a framed authentic front page of a newspaper that reads “War Over”, dated 1945. I once saw a framed piece of art from an artist who studied under Pablo Picasso; I have also laid eyes on a mat with numerous minute hand-made models of WWII airplanes waiting to be framed.
“We are really happy with our jobs,” Runnels said.
“You never get bored.”
Nor would anybody with an interest in history, art, rare artifacts and the occasional odd - or outright bizarre - memorabilia.
For 25 years the two women have been partners of the village’s framing shop. The idea to open a framing business was developed when the two Anderson Township residents, who were neighbors and walking buddies, were discussing ways each would plan their future after their children graduated high school.
“We knew we wanted to do something. We didn’t want to develop empty-nester syndrom,” Moores said with a laugh. “I was working part-time at a frame shop and I really enjoyed it.”
Opportunity presented itself when a vacancy was available at the 6880 Wooster Pike location.
Moores and Runnels said their husbands warned them that they would soon grow tired of being business owners, but 25 years later the women are still framing their creative touch to people’s valuable possessions and heirlooms.
The majority of items the women frame are posters, photographs and artwork; but they are always amazed at what people own - or find - and want matted and framed.
They have framed signed photos of various presidents and first ladies, turkey tails, snake skins, an Olympic torch, sailors’ shirts, wedding dresses, Scrabble boards and a quilt that squeezed through the front door by less than an inch.
“The quilt was made from satin linings of coffins and needed to be carried out of the store by three men,” Moores said.
One client dropped off a box that contained four tiny bones she wanted framed.
“We looked at them and thought they were cute. They looked like they were made of ivory,” Runnels said, explaining that their client afterwards informed them that the contents in the box were actually human earbones. “She told us they were from her first autopsy.”
The women have also worked with numerous Civil War artifacts, ranging from backpacks to diaries. One of the most intriguing items they have framed were a pair of gold epaulettes worn on the shoulders of President Abraham Lincoln.
They have framed Roman coins dating back to 600 B.C., Cincinnati sports memorabilia, and even a creative cane with a wheel at the bottom for a man who once sprained his ankle.
“It always surprises me. And people come here from all over,” Runnels said.
The owners also work with the Mariemont School District, offering 10 percent off for students in the art department.
“We get a lot of pieces from students from the art department,” Runnels said. “Many of those students are really talented.”
During the week, you can find the two owners cutting, chiseling, fitting, measuring and painting an assortment of frames. What they are framing, though, could be just about anything.
For more information on how you can have a valuable possession framed, call the owners at 561-6003.
Posted by johnston at 08:46 PM
Through the Camera Eye of Robert Flischel
During the early 1980s Robert Flischel received a phone call from TIME magazine asking him to shoot some photographs of a 100-year old woman who just completed a novel that had taken her 50 years to write.
The woman was only allowing one press conference - in Xenia, Ohio - so there wouldn’t be a second opportunity. Flischel was contemplating whether or not he wanted to accept the job since it was so spontaneous.
“If you are a photographer, then you to do photography,” Flischel said, “you just have to keep plugging away.”
So he made the trip. The piece ran in TIME magazine and was subsequently picked up by LIFE magazine. LIFE added Flischel’s photos to its “Pictures of the Year” edition.
He said that particular shoot resulted in one of the most intriguing he has ever done.
That, and the time he had the opportunity to photograph boxing middle-weight world champion Aaron Prior. He was given five minutes to get whatever photos he needed - with the champ’s bodyguard aiming a gun at him and holding back a Doberman Pincer.
Flischel said it was then he learned the valued ability of shooting photographs fast and capturing the moment.
Flischel is the proprietor of Robert Flischel Photography, located at 6820 Wooster Pike in Mariemont on the second story of The Strand.
He was the second tenant to locate to the new building shortly after it was renovated nearly 10 years ago.
Flischel had been operating his studio on 6th Street in downtown Cincinnati.
“My wife and I would drive out (to Mariemont) a lot and I would see workers working on The Strand. There were these cows out front (sculpted pieces of work) and I thought ‘This would be a great place to relocate, an ideal place for me’.”
“And it has turned out that way.”
The interior of his studio is a vivid, vibrant introspective and retrospective look of Greater Cincinnati, his walls inundated with a myriad of photos ranging from architectural structures, parks, neighborhoods and faces of people which devise “... the fragile fabric of history” that gives the city its character.
He has published several books, including “Perspectives Cincinnati: The Towers Perrin Collection”, “Then and Now: Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky”, “New Bremen”, “An Expression of the Community: Cincinnati Public Schools Legacy of Art”, and “Cincinnati Illuminated: A Photographic Journey”.
Award-winning documentary film writer and director Ken Burns called “An Expression of the Community” “... right on target and just the kind of thing our distracted, diverse cities need.”
Flischel has been photographing since 1971 and bought his first camera from Barry Lefton of Provident Camera. It was a Mamiya Sekor DTL 500 on sale for $129.95. He persuaded his brother Leo to help load the film and went to photograph the Tyler Davidson Fountain, which at the time was celebrating its 100th birthday.
Prior to becoming a photographer, Flischel was doing social work. He didn’t want to pursue a career in social work any further and decided he would purchase a camera.
“I got a government grant to document other artists who were also receiving government grants. Thirty-two years later, two stops on my photographic journey remain constant ... Fountain Square and Provident Camera,” he said.
Flischel graduated from Xavier University in 1971. He studied photography under Kazik Pazovski and credits his “clean, direct style” to Pazovski’s influence.
For more information on Robert Flischel, call 271-3113 or e-mail rafphoto@fuse.net
To view some of his work, visit RobertFlischel.com
Posted by johnston at 08:42 PM
January 07, 2007
LaRosa's now offers catering ... 'case ya might not have heard
Mariemont LaRosa's owner Randy Lipps wants to deliver the news to as many people who will bend an ear: The pizza shop just isn't in the business of making pies and hogies.
It has now expanded to "catering" pies and hogies.
"We now cater. Parties. Meetings. Any type of gathering, we now offer our services," Lipps said.
Now people can order hoagies (Deli Royal, Turkey Club, Chicken Italiano), pasta meals (lasagna, Ziti Chicken Alfredo, Ziti Alfredo, Ravioli) wings, salads and, of course, pizza.
In fact, all you have to do is visit the village LaRosa's, located at 6950 Madisonville Road, and ask for a catering menu. There you will find everything that is available and an order form that can be called in or faxed. The pizza shop will also deliver it to your door with plates, napkins, cutlery packs and serving utensils.
The Mariemont LaRosa's once delivered over 200 pizzas to Children's Hospital, an unexpected treat for the young patients.
Lipps said he was asked if a job that size could be done and he replied "no problem."
Of course, making 200 pizzas is quite a tall order for any store of any size, so Lipps called a neighboring store and asked for assistance in making some of the pizzas.
"We enjoy making pizzas at a discount for schools and non-profit organization events," Lipps said. "All we need is a little notice. The larger the order, the more time for notice.
"But we will find a way to get the pizzas there," he said.
That LaRosa's location also has a pizza trailer for various festivals. The LaRosa's contributes to the Taste of Mariemont and every Friday the store delivers pizzas for lunch to the Queen of Angels Montessori.
"We are willing to do it for any school," Lipps, who has owned the Mariemont location for over a year, said.
Basically, LaRosa's - a Cincinnati-based franchise - was founded on community service and support.
"The founder instilled in all his workers to give back to community who supports us," Lipps said, adding that in the mid-1970s the founder's main location burnt to the ground.
The store didn't lay in ashes and ruin long, though; local high schools offered helping hands and assisted in re-building the store. The act of kindness resulted in an indebted relationship to the community.
The Mariemont store was supposed to be sold a couple years ago after suffering some hard times.
Lipps said he knew he could keep the store in the village and offered to buy and operate the store in December 2003.
"And I am very pleased with the response from the villagers," he said.
To inquire about LaRosa's helping with a school function or non-profit event, call 271-2133 and speak either to Lipps or a manager. Large one-item pizzas are available for the charitable events for $6.50.
Posted by johnston at 10:47 PM