Paint Nite at the Tin Roof Bar

Fun with friends at Paint Nite

Last month we did something very different for my friend's birthday. We did a Paint Nite event at the  Tin Roof Bar located at the Banks in downtown Cincinnati at 160 Freedom Way Suite 150 Cincinnati, OH 45202. We painted cherry blossoms in a bar while enjoying cocktails and lots of laughs. And since it was my friend's birthday our partners were "forced" to join us. If you want to "culturize" your man this is the perfect date.

As you can see there were many different interpretations.

What is Paint Nite? Who better to explain than the company itself. From their website: "Paint Nite® is a new concept of blending two timeless pastimes, artistic painting and drinking cocktails, as a way to draw patrons into local pubs on a slow night with a unique opportunity to socialize and be creative. The 2-hour Paint Nite painting parties are held daily with 25 people in attendance who follow the step-by-step instructions of one master local artist from blank canvas to masterpiece."

Nothing better than beer, a blank canvas and acrylic paints. We are all creative beings. Whether you creatively solve problems at home or at the office or create art, it all requires some right-brain ingenuity. Unfortunately our innate creativity is diminished as soon as we enter middle school here in the USA. Paint Nite allows you to relax in a none-judgmental environment and just have fun with a paint brush.

My Masterpiece.

Annie Back was our Paint Nite host. She and her assistant were delightful and funny. They painted mustaches on patrons who were game. They took lots of pictures and added them to Paint Nite Cincinnati's growing gallery on Facebook. You can find a list of upcoming Paint Nite events in Cincinnati and buy tickets here.

Best Pizza in Cincinnati

I'm going to date myself here. When I was a young girl growing up in Mt Carmel, east of Cincinnati, pizza joints were rare. We had one pizza place named Papa Gino's. Skyline was a little-known chili joint on the west side. The Hearth was the fancy restaurant in Mt. Carmel, which later became the strip joint, Deja Vu and is now gone altogether. And we jumped for joy when a Frisch's Restaurant was built on St. Rt. 32 complete with a dozen drive-in spots where you ordered and were served in your car.

Now we have pizza everywhere and there are Skylines in Kentucky and Indiana, as well as all over Ohio. Hail to fast food!

From the god-awful, cardboard crust of the Papa John's franchise to our own local La Rosa's, we have an abundance of choices when it comes to pizza in Cincinnati. On those days when my husband doesn't feel like cooking, we can get delivery from Snappy Tomato in New Richmond. If we want to step it up a bit, we'll drive the twenty miles to the Mt. Washington Mio's where they have a low-carb menu as well as great pizza.

Festive beer tap handles decorate the half-wall at Adriatico's

BUT if we really want to go pizza-palooza we head to Clifton for Adriatico's New York Style Pizza on McMillan Avenue. I LOVE Adriatico's pizza. I even loved it  when it was just a carry-out and delivery restaurant. Now they have a sit-down restaurant/sports bar. The venue is small and parking is iffy. Do not park in Pomadori's lot next door (which was empty last night) or your car will get towed (who needs burnt pizza crust anyway.) Although the inside is tight, it is well laid out with a front dining area that can be turned into an outside patio on a nice day. There are flat screen TVs in every corner and if you are a beer lover this is heaven. They have nearly fifty beers on tap.The patio and dining area are separated by a half wall decorated with a variety of festive beer tap handles.  And the pizza? Absolutely the best pizza in Cincinnati.

Last Dance With Klipsch Music Center

I love Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. His music is fun and takes me back to the days of my youth when I rode around in my red Vega hatchback listening to rock and roll on my eight-track tape player. Yep, I was cool.

We attended the Heartbreaker's concert a couple weekends ago at the Klipsch Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. Petty and his band put on a solid performance that night. They played many of their hits and we knew most of the words. Petty never missed a note and his back up was spot-on, a little grey in the beard, but spot-on nonetheless.

Unfortunately the superb performance by the band was over-shadowed by the poor performance of the Live Nation-owned Klipsch Music Center.

First there was no order to the lines entering the center. The crowd was dangerously crushed together conjuring nightmares from the Who concert tragedy years ago here in Cincinnati. And we stood in "line" for over 45 minutes. Then we were FRISKED at the gate. And I don't mean with metal detector wands. This was a hands-on frisk. I'm pretty sure it is illegal for a male to frisk a woman. Just saying.

After being crushed in line for nearly an hour and going through the embarrassing frisking we were parched for a cold beverage. We were shocked to have to pay $11 for a 24 oz. can of beer. Good grief you can buy a twelve-pak for that much money! Of course we could have spent $4 for a 99-cent bottle of water. Yeah, that's real festive.

Here in Cincinnati we are blessed to have the Riverbend Music Center run by local sponsors. We are looking forward to seeing Ian Anderson there next month. But beware of venues owned by Live Nation. Their concessions, including the $60 t-shirts, the dangerous crowds at the entrance and the embarrassing frisking did a real disservice to Tom Petty and his band. We will never attend another concert there again.