While I understand that Braxton Brewery is the one sponsoring this event, and the Mainstrauss…read moresociety association has shut its doors, I feel like this festival fell flat. It was only on one street really and in the park. Growing up I remember there being rides, games, more vendors, and more German Beer. Where was the German Beer??? The whole reason why I come to these events is for the delicious beer like Hefweizen, Weiss Beer, and Dunkels. It was all lame Braxton beers and a handful of overpriced cocktail vendors. They also had country music playing which REALLY didn't make it feel German at all. Cmon Braxton! Get it together, you call this a German Festival?? It felt rushed, and Hodgepodge. Also, why is it only on one street! Mainstrauss is huge and used to have vendors and shops and food all the way down to the fountain. I give it 2 stars. Maybe it'll grow, but this should be a way bigger event with rides and more games and activities for families and kids, like it used to be in the 90s and 2000s. I recommend expanding into more than just a few shops selling the same candle, jewelry, and incense merch as well.

Kicking off the Greater Cincinnati's festival season, Covington's Maifest celebrates the area's…read moreGermanic tradition of heralding the arrival of spring wines. However, I think Maifest is little more about beer and brats, but fun nonetheless. The 2008 event kicks off Friday, May 16th and runs until Sunday, May 18th. If the weather is nice, Maifest will be packed as tightly as Northern German sardines. Good luck trying to navigate with a stroller or wheelchair. Yet, given Cincinnati's unpredictable spring weather, chances are pretty good that there will at least be scattered showers, scaring away half of the crowd to a number that's manageable. Drinkers, your best bet is to purchase a collectors mug, which can be refilled at vendors' booths for a discount over individual beer price. And you're making Mother Nature proud. The beer selection is mostly domestic (unfortunately), but Warsteiner's there to keep things semi-authentic. For families, there are tons of food booths and artisans selling their wares, even "gypsies" reading your palms or tarot cards. Kiddies will love the carnival rides and games set up in the 5th street parking lot. Oompa bands and men in Lederhosen rock the crowd Bavarian style, but if that's not your style you can pop into any of the MainStrasse bars for more contemporary jams. There will invariably be someone who can't hold their liquor and will embarrass themselves terribly in front of a crowd of 150,000. But you'll walk away with a renewed sense of Schadenfreude. Prost!

It wasn't a huge area but the exhibit was nice. We didn't feel rushed. Aample amount of butterflies…read moreand chance for photos

The Krohn's Conservatory Butterfly Show today didn't disappoint!! I expected to see a few…read morebutterflies around, maybe in the bushes. But I didn't expect to be immersed in the midst of so many varieties of butterflies: feeding together on oranges, fluttering by me, perched on the floor, clustered on leaves of plants, perching on my own clothes (interestingly, I felt them land and knew the moment they left). I was ushered in to this protected enclosed space with a group for a 45-minute experience, with a few instructions: don't touch the butterflies, except with the provided paper perch, don't bring any drinks in besides bottled water, etc., all provided to keep the butterflies safe. Also unexpected was how friendly an experience it was. Yes, the best way to meet everyone was to have a butterfly perched on your back, so that each person walked up to tell you that. But as we all experienced this together, we laughed and enjoyed the experience together!!

Yesterday I was treated to a special tour of Graeter's state of the art manufacturing facility…read morethanks to Yelp. This plant is four years old and has been optimized for nationwide distribution of the finest ice cream around. Before taking our tour, we were given hair nets and beard nets when appropriate. I was excited to wear a beard net for only the second time! You may recall my first beard net from my tour of the Frisch's commissary. Those who are familiar with Graeter's ice cream already know that one of the best parts of the ice cream are the massive chunks of chocolate in many varieties. These chunks of chocolate start out as ten pound blocks of the finest chocolate available. I believe that retail price of this chocolate is $19.95 per pound. Nothing like staring at a $200 piece of chocolate! The chocolate is melted and mixed with non-GMO soybean oil to achieve a better consistency for use in ice cream. The vats containing this rich chocolate mixture smelled heavenly. Graeter's still a small-batch french pot process slowly creating just two gallons at a time. This creates an irresistible creaminess that cannot be achieved through modern commercial products. There are four pods of eight french pots. Each pod is staffed by three employees, two who work the french pots and the other who hand-packs the ice cream into containers. The flavor of the day during our visit was double chocolate chip. Yum! As I just mentioned, all the ice cream is hand-packed into the packaging, nearly 20,000 pints per day. One employee was kind enough to hand pack samples for our entire tour group right off the assembly line. This ice cream was almost of a soft serve consistency and was simply perfect. The new manufacturing facility does make use of machines to automate the bookends of the manufacturing process, while still allowing the ice cream to be made by hand in small batches. After viewing the entire production line, we took a quick tour of the warehouse, which can reach temperatures of negative forty! It literally took minutes for my body to recover from just a quick visit to this massive storage room. After our tour was over we were treated for a few more samples, including two varieties of the new gelato line, the most authentically made gelato in North America. I really enjoyed the caramel truffle variety and will have to check for that in stores.

Holy smokes! This Elite event was out of this world awesome!! What a way to celebrate National…read moreIce Cream month Behind the scenes at the Graeter's Ice Cream Factory! This is not open to the public, so I felt very special to be part of this event! Checked in and was greeted by Cindy. Btw, loved the complimentary smores jar! Graeters factory was on Reading road but moved to a bigger location off Paddock Rd. Jeff and Nick started off the tour discussing the history, the process of making the ice cream, the workers and equipment. Even Bob Graeter (4th generation) was there to support and answer questions!!! Holy flypaper batman!!! How cool was that??!!! For sanitary reasons and safety, we had to wear a long smock and hair net (I needed two of them. I have long thick hair). We must be covered before entering the factory. This is how clean the factory is-there is soapy foam on the floor so when we walk, it cleans and sanitizes our shoes. As we entered the factory, we are up close with the workers and pictures are allowed. They encourage we post and share to the world their hard work and how they take pride in making ice cream. Graeter's ice cream is made using the French Pot method. This is a slow, small batch process making only two gallons at a time. It creates ice cream that is rich, creamy and dense. Graeter's also uses this method to create chocolate chips completely different from other brands. The French Pot process begins with the mix being placed into a chilled, spinning French Pot. Each batch of ice cream is only about two gallons and is thus very labor-intensive. The ice cream is so thick that it must be hand-packed into pints. I have mass respect for the workers and how hard they work to create the best ice cream in the world! (In my opionion). We were able to taste the chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream right off the assembly line!!! That is as fresh as it will get!! Pure heaven!! I also love the chunky chocolate chips! After the tour, we were able to sample their latest creations- Gelato and other Graeters flavored ice cream. It was hard to choose my favorite. As a courtesy, Yelp offered us a bagged lunch from Silverglades Deli. I got the Turkey Sandwich on marble rye bread with Potatoe Salad and fruit. Thank you Miss Cincy Cindy for an awesome event and most of all Graeters for letting us tour your facility. I will always be a fan and support your business!! WORD!!!!

Taking time to explore my new area, yesterday it was Bellevue's turn. It's like going back 50 years…read morein time when "downtown" was the place to be...you know, when you're alone is life is making you lonely... Very walkable and plenty of parking. Lots of cute little restaurants and bars. But Monday isn't the best time to go because many little places were closed. I'll go back on First Friday, which is supposed to be a blast. I walked all the way to Dayton...Kentucky that is. That's a story for another day. People are friendly in this town - at least in the stores that are open on Monday. I did kinda laugh when I saw the sign for the Beach Park. Just the thought of a beach on this river. Don't get me wrong...I love the river and the river traffic. But I wouldn't put my little toe in that water. Next time I head down think I'll take the levy...love walking on the levy. At least the Newport levy. I'll report back on Bellevue levy.

FACT: Bellevue is super underrated. There are so many great charming NKY neighborhoods and Bellevue…read moreis definitely towards the top of that list. There are so many small businesses that make this part of town such a great place to visit. Among the coffee shops and restaurants, visiting Bellevue Beach park is also a great time to be had. It's peaceful and serene with lots of great river views. If you're looking for a spot to grab coffee or lunch, make it a point to start checking out some of these businesses. Besides, who can pass up a chance to stop by The Party Source (enormous booze outlet) while you're in this neck of the woods. If you haven't taken the time to visit and explore Bellevue, make sure you do - it's such a charming part of greater Cincy.

What an absolutely fun activity! I've never been to JCC before and never done zumba, either. Got…read moreto meet Cindy's new intern who was helpful and friendly. She offered us all a Hoist drink, delicious Kind Almond & coconut bars, zippy red water container & info on Green Bean Delivery Service. Thank you to Yelp for those goodies. The Kind bar was perfect for after the workout and the water bottle helped rehydrated me during the class. There was no lack of space to do the workout and there were lots of people who showed up! Because they were on stage, it was easy to see Rita and Beth leading us. Man, they whipped my butt with their energetic moves; it was fun and an intense workout!! It was a beautiful, well-maintained facility. A big thank you to all who put this on.

A great cardio start for Sunday morning at the Mayerson JCC! My first time ever doing Zumba and I…read moreabsolutely loved it. At first I was alittle off, but as you start to get used to the moves, you get right into it. The instructors Beth and Rita were very energetic and threw an intense workout. This Zumba class was a mixture of Latina and a twist of hip hop moves. My heart rate was definately pumping. We had a huge class and everyone was getting into the music. It felt like it was alittle over an hour with the last 5 minutes of stretching. The room itself was spacious and you didn't have to worry about bumping into someone. The time went by so fast because I was having a lot of fun. I burned a total of 562 calories. Definately drenched with sweat! Very intesnse and had a great experience. I may even consider going back in the future because I really loved the workout and the instructors. Loved the Kind bars, Yelp water bottle, and hoise drink. Greatly appreciated. Thank you instructors, JCC, yelp and of course Cindy for throwing a great class. You guys rock!

Holtmans continues to be yummy perfection! I've been a fan since the day I moved here November 1,…read more2014. My request was for the most talked about donuts in town. Katie, Danny and Maggie were so gracious to open their doors to Yelp community for this event. Love that this is a family thing, that their popularity has grown, and they are still creating new. I hope that it just keeps getting bigger and better! The views behind the scenes was so cool. The smells...definitely delicious. I was amazed at how much they have packed into that little space. Sprinkles galore that would make any child giddy. Clean? Oh wow it was so amazingly clean. I don't think my kitchen floor is that clean...and I don't serve 10000 donuts a day. Tastes...the best. We got to dress our own donut and enjoy. After the tour Danny brought out the newest baby...marshmallows that are created by him. Roasted the marshmallows there and we got to enjoy that bourbon vanilla goodness. I could have eaten the whole tray and gone into a sugar rush and lived happily ever after. Afterwards I ordered up to take home to the rest of the family. Thanks Yelp for bringing us an awesome event! Thanks Holtman's gang for sharing your time, space and talent with us.

This experience was just hands-down amazing. Holtman's Wake and Bake deserves all five stars in my…read morebook for two reasons: One, they threw an awesome event. Fresh coffee for arriving Yelpers? Check. Hot donuts complete with all the fixings? Check. A storefront that smells like heaven?! CHECK. At the beginning of the 4 a.m. tour we got a history lesson from Katie. I was impressed to learn that Holtman's has been around since 1960 using their family recipe to make amazing donuts. The donuts and glazes are all made from scratch. The regular donuts are made using real yeast and doing all the kneading, rising and proofing that goes along with that. One of the other things that makes Holtman's unique is that they do not use wax in their glaze. This means the bowl will start to set and form a skin so you have to stir before dipping, but makes the donuts that much more delicious! I sampled the yeasted donut I made at the event plus part of the red velvet cake donut I purchased at the end of the event. Holtman's toppings are wonderful, but they are only building on the solid foundation of the donuts. As others have said, the donut itself is not super sweet. The regular donut is fluffy and full of yeasty flavor. The cake donut, surprisingly, is dense and moist without being in your face sugary as most are. That said, this is a good thing as the toppings can be super rich (I'm looking at you, cream cheese frosting). One of the best Yelp events I have ever attended, and I was so happy to have the chance to buy donuts at the end! And now, reason two: After the event I went back to Mercer Garage to retrieve my car and the pay stations wouldn't accept my ticket. It being 5 a.m. on a Saturday, there was no attendant and the posted phone numbers went unanswered. Unsure of what else to do, I returned to Holtman's and explained what had happened. Katie so graciously walked me back to the garage and scanned me out with her own parking pass. I cannot say thank you enough for helping me out! In summary, Holtman's is the real deal, with awesome donuts and family-owned vibe. I will be back!

Shoutout to what's left of the Skywalk (Fifth Third HQ at Fountain Square to the Atriums) for a…read moreclimate controlled, clean, safe method of getting in some movement during the work day. It's about a mile round trip that also takes you through the First Financial building, Columbia Center, and Federal Building. There's a Subway and the at580 Market within the Skywalk and also a Bibibop lunch pop-up on Tuesdays from 11am-2pm.

My favorite thing about Yelp events is getting to go to places that I would've never known existed…read moreotherwise. This was the perfect example. Tucked away off Race St in OTR, the Cincinnati Recreation Commission is a great facility that also holds a boxing area, pool table, basketball, and more. I had a blast skating to some great tunes. I was really proud of myself for not falling at all, and everyone else seemed to get the hang of it too. I wasn't brave enough to try any tricks but enjoyed watching those who did. Thanks Cindy for the pizza and another great event, and to all the sponsors for providing much-needed bevs and snacks!

Lets see how many 70's slang terms I can squeeze into this review…read more I managed to stay alive and not fall on my booty so that was far out. The food was dope and the snacks were dy-no-mite. I was stoked to skate as it had been years since I last laced up and ventured onto the rink. You dig? The tunes were rad and had everyone boogieing in their skates. I really dug those that dressed in 70's garb, shout out to Kara and Stephen and others. The photos from this event are slammin' and hilarious. Right on! Thanks to Cincy Cindy for the groovy event. Now where did I put my disco ball.....?