Page 161 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL EATING IBERIA

Flying pigs and blue horses… “Everyone in this city is either German or Irish,”
Biscuits and bourbon… quipped Craig Maness, our guide on the Queen City
Surprises and secrets… Underground Tour (americanlegacytours.com) in the
newly restored historic district, Over the Rhine.
The city was also known as Porkopolis for its
destination duo in our nation’s heartland had pork-producing pinnacle: “That’s why you see pigs all
me agape amid a current explosion of dining over town,” said Maness. “If a hog going to the slaugh-
Adelights, historic immersions and magnificent terhouse got loose, they would call it a flying pig,”
steeds. Farm-to-table food and beverage scenes, re- Look for those flying pigs atop major bridges over the
markable cultural wonders and warm and happy peo- Ohio River, in front of parks and restaurants, and on
plewerefinerewardsonthisexplorationoftwocities T-shirts and hats — you could make a fun mission just
that lie just about an to find all the flying pigs
hour apart. all over town.
Cincinnati, Ohio, Those Germans also
and Lexington, Ken- brought their love of
tucky, make for an ex- beer. They settled to-
ploration that I bet gether in a neighbor-
will impress you, too. hood that stood on the
Cincinnati, some- south side of what was
times known as The then the Miami-Erie
Queen City, lies on Canal — “It was a hand-
the north side of the dug canal to Lake Erie,”
Ohio River from Ken- Maness told us. The
tucky. Henry area, because of its Ger-
Wadsworth Longfel- man immigrants, was
low immortalized the known as Over The
town in his 1854 Rhine. The canal was
poem calling it “The Queen of the West.” At that time, filled in by 1850, but the name stuck.
Cincinnati was the largest city in the U.S. not located “There were 36 breweries in the city before Pro-
on the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico. hibition, and half were in this neighborhood,” said
Also in the 1850s, The Queen City was the No. 1 Maness. “There were more breweries here per capita
pork-producing city in the country. Germans were than any other American city.” And remember in
those days, it was safer and healthier to drink beer
among the earliest newcomers, bringing with them a
love of sausage and beer. than water, he noted.

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