Page 162 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL EATING IBERIA

“Cincinnati chili, surely the best-known
dish in this “Chili Capital of America.”

Today, Cincinnati’s Over The Rhine neighbor- vorites making Cincinnati chili, surely the best-
hood is the largest historic intact urban district in known dish in this “Chili Capital of America.”
the U.S. It counts 943 historic buildings over 360 Camp Washington (campwashingtonchili.com)
acres. In the early 2000s, the then-neglected neigh- is just such a spot. Still family-owned, the classic
borhood saw the city buy many buildings to rede- diner serves up gigantic portions of this iconic dish
velop and save them instead of destroying them. of spaghetti noodles covered with spicy meat chili,
Todaythecitycounts50breweries, cheese, diced onion and/or
including the flagship for Samuel beans. “My dad’s uncle opened
Adams. this shop in 1940, and my dad,
And you thought that brew Johnny Johnson, took it over in
was from Boston? 1951,” Maria Papakirk told us
Samuel Adams was actually over plates of the delectable
founded by Jim Koch in Cincinnati, dish. “Most chili parlors here
though it opened its Boston Brew- have Greek roots from Greek
ery in 1989. Koch brewed his first immigrants.” Indeed, her dad,
batch of Boston Lager in his Cincin- Johnny, came from Greece in
nati kitchen in the early 1980s, us- 1951 when he was 15. “This is
ing a recipe from his great great my American dream,” he told us.
grandfather — an early brewer — His advice on how to attack
he found in his father’s attic. this bowl of beefy bounty: Don’t
The Underground Tour took us twirl it; cut it like a pie.
some 30 feet below ground to view Our visit to the American
cavernous tunnels that once Sign Museum (americansignmu-
housed beer in the 1800s to keep it cold. “Around seum.org) was another surprise. This is eye candy in
1860, It took three years to build this by hand,” said neon lights. Founder Tod Swormstedt
Maness. The tunnels became unnecessary with re- hadbeeneditorofasignindustrymag-
frigeration and were boarded up for 90 years be- azine for 26 years, a publication his
fore anyone knew they were there. They were family had founded in 1906. “He
rediscovered in the early 1990s. wanted to preserve and began collect-
OverTheRhinetoday—injustadozenyearsor ing in 1999,” our guide, Jesse Sandman,
so — has become a foodie Mecca, too. told us. In 14 years, Swormstedt has
amassed 900 signs dating from 1890 to
“OurfoodscenecomparestoSanFranciscoand
the mid-1980s.
New York at a fraction of the prices,” Maness told
us. “It is very hard to stay in a bad mood
walking through here,” noted Sandman.
Before we sampled any of those cutting-edge
eateries, though, we had to visit one of the local fa- Atthenewlyrestored1933UnionTermi-

162 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2020