Mad Tree Fundraiser

On Tuesday, Mad Tree Brewery had a fundraiser to benefit the Philippines typhoon via the Red Cross. From 5-9ish or whenever people decided it was time to go, food was served by Maribelle’s and all proceeds from the beer was donated to the Red Cross.

This isn’t the only fund raising they’re doing. They’ve also got a Toys for Tots donation area set up, albeit a little unconventional, but awesome none the less

Through out the night, the amount on the giant check above the beer board was changed out to cheers and applause. It was a great night of good beer, good friends, and good food for a great cause! A total of $3100 was raised!! Well don’t beer drinkers of Cincinnati! Feel free to stop by, off Kennedy Ave in Pleasant Ridge during the week, or the weekend, and don’t forget to throw a donation for Toys for Tots above the bar while you’re at it!

Dent SchoolHouse – GIVEAWAY!!

This will be a quick flash, one day giveaway. Dent SchoolHouse has given me 2 BOGO ticket offers for their lights out nights this Friday and Saturday (Nov 1st & 2nd). This is one of my favorite haunted things. If you went through Dent earlier this Fall, let me just tell you that it is completely transformed for these 2 nights! Ok so nothing really changes except that there are absolutely NO lights on in the place (except for the stairs, safety first!)

You go in groups of 10 or so, and the first person in the line is given 1 single glowstick. That is the only light you have period. So if you’re in the back of the group, you’re going to be completely in the dark once the head person takes a turn, totally upping the creep factor. But it’s so worth it!!

So, I will have 2 BOGO free codes to order your tickets online tonight or tomorrow. So the tickets normally at $15, will be $7.50 if you split it up between you and a friend! They are open 7:30-12pm tonight and tomorrow! Hope to see you there!

Contest Entries,
please comment below for each one. I will choose a winner from the below comments and a winner from sharing this post on facebook

1. Like SmallTownBigCincy on Facebook

2. Like The Dent SchooHouse on Facebook

3. Comment below to what your favorite haunted house to go to is!

And remember, I’ll be doing a 2nd giveaway from facebook just buy sharing this post! Giveaway will end at 6pm today! (Friday Nov 1st!) Good luck!

Cincinnati Chocolate Festival – GIVEAWAY!!

The Cincinnati Chocolate Festival is this Sunday October 13th, from 12-5pm at Xavier Universities Cintas Center! Enjoy tempting chocolate tastings from delicious local vendors, celebrity chef demonstrations, LIVE vendor competition judging, contests, raffle baskets, children’s activities and more!

Believe it or not, the Chocolate Festival is actually a giant fundraiser! Proceeds support the Isaac M. Wise Temple Sisterhood. They work on projects such as the Interfaith Hospitality Network, Over-the-Rhine Soup Kitchen, Freestore Foodbank, The Assistance League, The Lincoln Heights Health Center, ProKids, YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter, Dress For Success, and many more.

NEW this year is the Cheers to Chocolate Lounge featuring wine tasting paired with chocolate-inspired savory lite bites! I believe it is an extra $10 but for 4 glasses of wine with chocolate inspired food paired with it?! I think you’ll find me here all day!  Admission in the event is $10 at the door, $7 in advance at Kroger (beginning Oct 1), children 12 and under free with paid adult. Parking is also free. Bring a canned good donation for the Freestore Foodbank and receive an extra tasting ticket!! (limit 1 per paid admission) There is also a kids zone area free of charge this year, so bring the whole family!

GIVEAWAY!!

The Chocolate Festival was awesome enough to give me 2 tickets to give away to one lucky reader! Unfortunately due to WordPress restrictions, I can’t get the Rafflecopter widget to post. So you can click here to enter the giveaway on Facebook or click below to go straight to the Rafflecopter page. Winner will be drawn Friday October 11th at Noon!! Good luck and go out and enjoy this delicious event! 🙂

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/Mzk2MDQ1Y2ZkNmFkMTVmNDE2MGE3Y2MyODdjMDA5OjA=/

Museum Day Live

Smithsonian Magazine is presenting Museum Day Live this Saturday September 28th, 2013. What is Museum Day Live?

In the spirit of Smithsonian Museums, who offer free admission everyday, Museum Day Live! is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country open their doors to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket… for free.

All you have to do is go here and request a ticket good for 2 people per household. If you have more than two people they will have to pay for admission. This is a great way to maybe go see a place you’ve wanted to before, but didn’t want to spend the money. Me? I’ll be headed up to Dayton to check out the Boonshoft Museum, and then head over to the Art Institute of Dayton for their Octoberfest (in which the museum is also open and free to the public but separate admission to Octoberfest is required.)

If you’re going to be traveling or want to head out farther to Louisville or Columbus, check out the entire venue list here.

There are a number of Greater Cincinnati area Museums that are participating:

Taft Museum of Art

Cincinnati

The Betts House

Cincinnati

Xavier University Art Gallery

Cincinnati

Boonshoft Museum of Discovery

Dayton

Carillon Historical Park

Dayton

SunWatch Indian Village & Archaeological Park

Dayton

Springfield Museum of Art

Springfield

Fort Ancient

Oregonia

Glendower Historic Mansion

Lebanon

Warren County History Center

Lebanon

Behringer-Crawford Museum

Covington, KY

Kentucky Gateway Museum Center

Maysville, KY

Life on the Ohio River History Museum

Vevay, IN

Switzerland County Historical Museum

Vevay, IN

So make a day of it, take in a couple sites by using your email and your significant others/friends. You can easily hit the Taft Downtown and then head across the river to Covington, or up to Music Hall for the Betts House. Or heck all 3!

FotoFocus – Betts House

So what exactly is this FotoFcus you’ve been hearing about? From their website:

The FotoFocus biennial presents an unprecedented opportunity to learn about and experience the diverse currents of photography. FOTOFOCUS brings together museums, galleries, and universities showcasing world-renowned artists and national and regional standouts. Pop-up venues, community art centers, and other grass roots organizations explore current trends in photography with exhibitions featuring the work of emerging talents and students.

I also found this video to be helpful in explaining just what it’s about

I got to stop by the Betts House before the Pops show last weekend and check it out Urban Landscapes

The Betts House is one of the oldest standing buildings in Cincinnati, Built in 1804, and survived the big earthquake of 1912. It is open Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. and the
second and fourth Saturdays of each month, 12:30 – 5 p.m. Other days and times are available by
appointment. Admission is $2 per person.

Ronny of Queen City Discovery was there to give some more information about his work. Check out more about the exhibit on his page

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

PS. 11,000?!?!? Goodness guys!! Although, I’m not gonna lie… it’s mainly all you crazy Yelp people looking for your badges 😉 Don’t forget this is the first, original Yelp Badge spot 🙂 ❤

Best. Christmas. Present. Ever.

We got the key to our new house tonight! Officially homeowners #GrownUp

– Posted using MobyPicture.com

Yelps Iron Chef Cook Off!

This week starts the first Cincinnati Yelp Eats week! If any of you participated in Yelp Drinks, well… you might remember it was an awesome time. Starting the 11th though Yelp Eats will take on a ton of restaurants offering half price appetizers, entrees, and desserts. It’s recommended you make reservations and tell them its part of Yelp Eats, even if you’re not a member (although you seriously should be by now!)

So last night, there were 5 chefs squaring off to declare the best chef under pressure in Cincinnati! (At least that was my take 😛 )

Chef Mark from Parkers Blue Ash Tavern

Chef Steven from the former Maribelle's Tavern

Chef Bella from Roxy's

Chef Matt from Virgil's

And Chef Josh from Mayberry

Now mind you if anyone has a twitter account, Weds night there was a heated discussion/war of words, going on between Virgil’s and Mayberry, that was quite entertaining. They were definitely the two to watch… which was easy as they were pitted right next to each other.

While everyone was enjoying their beer and watching the chefs, there was food from other local vendors to be had as well! Bella Luna, Blinkers Tavern, FB’s, and Keystone with their mac’n’cheese were just a few of the vendors there!

At this point in time, me and Kristen got pulled down the kitchen to assist in restocking since people were eating the food faster than they could get it set on the table!

 

 

I’m pretty sure this is my all time favorite photo of the night! Alex (left) is waiting on David Glier (right) of Glier’s Goetta to finish a tray of Goetta Dogs to being upstairs, while Mac’s Pizza Pub, is doing what he does best in the background 🙂 This was pretty much the fly around crazy atmosphere in the kitchen trying to keep the hungry masses fed upstairs… mind you there were only 3 cooks when I was in there. This was also the same time the fire marshal came (Sorry Alex) which pretty much means we were having one hell of a party!! But there were no worries as we were still well under capacity (I know it didn’t seem that way)

Finally after all this ruckus it was time for the judges to judge the chefs! we had 3 Cincinnati Celebrity Judges and one awesome Yelp Elite Judge! from left to right their were Celeste, Yelp Elite. Bridgett, from 365 Cincinnati. Julie from Wine Me, Dine Me. And Carla, Cincinnati State Professor and behind Hoperatives.

It looked to be a tough decision, but the winner coming out ahead ended up being Mayberry! I’ll tell you what though it all looked amazing! Ilast night was a hint at what this week full of Yelp Eats will be like, I so can not wait!!

Awesome tune spinnage from Queen City Crates

Nom. Vodka and watermelon

 

So. much. Goetta!! ❤

 

Photo booths are always awesome!

Hoxworth reppin with free stuff! woot!

Success! 🙂