Everything You Need to Know for Three Days in Cincinnati
Plus: Our favorite drink in the Queen City.
Cincinnati Music Hall / Photograph courtesy of Visit Cincy
Because of its location right on the Ohio-Kentucky border, the Queen City provides visitors with a wealth of options both in town and just a quick walk away.
Day One in Cincinnati
Drop your bags at the 21c Museum Hotel (rooms from $199) and you won’t need to think about a car again. (Ask for the Nightwatch suite: After dark, the walls become an interactive art installation.) For lunch we like Dixie Chili, just over the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Covington, Kentucky. Order the five-way: chili, spaghetti, beans, onions, and cheese. After the sun sets head to Ghost Baby; four stories underground, this cocktail lounge is housed in an old beer-cooling tunnel.
Day Two in Cincinnati
Over-the-Rhine / Photograph by Ian Dagnall/Alamy Stock Photo
Stroll to Over-the-Rhine, one of Cincy’s premier neighborhoods. Highlights include the Cincinnati Music Hall, overlooking Washington Park, and the largest collection of Italianate architecture in the nation. Rest your feet at foodie paradise Findlay Market for breakfast; no stop is complete without trying goetta, the pork and oat sausage that’s perfect in the egg and cheese sandwich at Eckerlin Meats. The Cincinnati Art Museum is both free and stunning; don’t miss the massive Alexander Calder mobile. For dinner snag a bar seat at Sudova — a modern Ukrainian spot.
The Cincinnati Art Museum / Photograph by William Manning/Alamy Stock Photo
Day Three in Cincinnati
Graeter’s Ice Cream is famous for a reason, and their black raspberry chocolate chip is unforgettable. While you’re eating your cone, meander back over to Covington; the downtown area is packed with boutiques for shoppers of all stripes. Revival Vintage Bottle Shop and Bar owners Brad Bonds and Shannon Smith buy old bottles of liquor — 1960s Jim Beam, ’80s cherry spirits from Bermuda — and then sell pours for as little as two bucks a pop. See something you like? Everything’s for sale, including spirits from former Philly mayor Frank Rizzo’s basement bar. But you’ll have to let Bonds tell you that story.
Dinner at Sudova / Photograph by Jon Medina
Bar Order
The best drink we tried in Cincy was from Longfellow, a bar helmed by James Beard Award nominee Mike Stankovich. The Spruce Goose is a potent hit of gin and lime, with a frankly shocking amount of Angostura bitters. And now you can make it at home:
Illustration by Leticia R. Albano
Shake ingredients with cracked ice, then strain into an 11-ounce glass. Top with tonic.
Published as “Escaping to Cincinnati” in the July 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
