Ohio

Join local food writer Teri Horsley as she explores the history of Butler County's most beloved eateries and the stories behind them.

Butler County has concocted fine food and finer memories for generations. Isgro's dished out succulent Italian to locals and celebrities alike, including Frank Sinatra and numerous Cincinnati Reds players. Starting off as a Prohibition speakeasy, Nitchtings later evolved into a high-end supper club where many prominent politicians debated the issues of the day. Hickory Hut made its name serving delicious American casual food to fiercely loyal regulars, some of whom ate there three times a day. For decades, fans of Milillo's and Chester's have argued which is the best pizza in town, a debate that continues today.

Whether it's homemade chicken pot pie, a steak from Baker's Café or a frozen custard at Meyer's Lake, the food of Stark County has made mouths water for generations.

The region's unique soil nurtured a boom in agriculture, and growers like K.W. Zellers & Son Farms still make a living off the land today. Mom-and-pop grocery stores such as Flory's and Lemmon's served their neighborhoods. Long-gone restaurants like Mergus and Topp's Chalet created delicious dishes and cherished memories. Families like the Millers and Swaldos have created nationally recognized destinations out of simple starts. Join authors Kim Kenney and Barb Abbott as they trace Stark County's food history.

Explore the stories of the wine pioneers of the Midwest

Wine and Cincinnati were once a perfect pairing. So much so that the "Queen City'? nickname was inspired by Sparkling Catawba Wine, the delectable libation that sparked the Catawba Craze of the mid-1800s. Longworth's Golden Wedding Sparkling Catawba was most celebrated, but Werk's Golden Eagle and Red Cross, Corneau's Cornucopia, Thompson's Hillside, Bogen's Diamond, Mottier's National Premium, and Schumann's Queen Victoria bolstered the city's reputation as the American Rhineland. These winemakers passed their knowledge onto Lake Erie, the New York Finger Lakes, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and California. Today, that knowledge has returned home, as Henke, Skeleton Root, Meier, and Vinoklet hope to make the city a wine haven again.

Food historian Dann Woellert leads a tour through Cincy's storied past and promising future with the grape and the vine.

Cincinnati is the home to food inventions, rivalries and restaurants that stand the test of time.

The Queen City boasts the invention of both Cincinnati chili and goetta. Mecklenburg Gardens, Arnold's, Izzy's and Scotti's have all operated for over a century. The French restaurant Maisonette was the epitome of fine dining, and Wong Yie's Famous Restaurant took Chinese cuisine from street fare to an exotic experience. Busken Bakery and Frisch's vied for Cincinnati pumpkin pie supremacy by taking digs at each other through billboards and redecorating a Big Boy statue in Busken attire. Author Dann Woellert explores the most iconic eateries, the German influence on Queen City food and what makes dining so unique in Cincinnati.

A history of bygone eateries in downtown Cleveland featuring everything from diners to fine dining

From humble and hungry beginnings, the city of Cleveland grew over centuries until it boasted a dizzying array of gustatory choices. City dwellers and travelers alike flocked to the eateries at Public Square and Terminal Tower, including the Fred Harvey restaurants with their famous Harvey Girls. A single block-long street, Short Vincent featured the Theatrical Grille, the longest-running jazz joint in the area. The walls of Otto Moser's were a veritable Hollywood roll call, and the New York Spaghetti House offered a complete dining and aesthetic experience.

Fill your cup with the libation of your choice, grab a snack, and join author Bette Lou Higgins on a historical tour of the restaurants that kept Clevelanders fed.

It was a different time. Ladies wore gloves, hats and nice attire to luncheons at the Woman's Exchange.

Shillito's provided a cosmopolitan environment for its patrons, while Mullane's was the perfect place to sip and socialize. The popular Good Morning Show radio program hosted by charming Bob Braun, and later Nick Clooney, was broadcast from McAlpin's Tea Room. Women gathered at Pogue's and Mabley & Carew tea rooms to celebrate birthdays, as well as wedding and baby showers, over dainty tea sandwiches. Author Cynthia Kuhn Beischel brings the Queen City's bygone downtown tea rooms back to life and shares more than one hundred beloved recipes.

Grab a seat and a handful of napkins and join author Ron Koltnow as he recounts the mouthwatering story of an Ohio original.

Founded by industrialist Ohio Columbus Barber, Barberton drew workers from around the globe, especially eastern Europe. Immigrants brought their traditions and their cuisine. In time, Barberton became home to five Serbian fried chicken restaurants, all within a two-mile radius. Belgrade Gardens, Hopocan Gardens, White House Chicken, Terrace Gardens and Milich's Village Inn (later Village Inn Chicken) were Serbian in origin yet consummately American. All served up the traditional dinner - chicken, fries, coleslaw and hot sauce. Against all challengers, Barberton proudly defends its title as "Fried Chicken Capital of the World."

Akron and Summit County's classic hot spots have satisfied palates since the early twentieth century. Akron alone could sit up to thirty thousand people at once during the golden age of the '50s and '60s.

Marcel's made a name for itself with its scampi, and Icaomini's became synonymous with lobster. Ladd's dished crowd-pleasing coney dogs, and Yanko's sliced up its mouthwatering shish kabobs. Digging up vintage images and recipes, author Sharon Myers leads readers on a delectable trip down memory lane to the area's most renowned and cherished eateries.

Despite a brewing pedigree richer than that of Milwaukee or St. Louis, Cincinnati's role in American beer history is quite often underappreciated.

Drawing on years of research, Michael D. Morgan, author of the award-winning Over-the-Rhine: When Beer Was King, tackles this subject with a fresh perspective. Complete with new findings, the true story of the city's first brewer comes to light, as do the oft-heralded deeds - and overlooked misdeeds - of the beer barons who built empires their progeny drove to ruins. From the story of the Scottish brewery that made Cincy famous for English ales, through forgotten Prohibition political scandals, to the birth and rise of the modern craft beer movement, Cincinnati Beer explores previously untold stories of our beer-soaked past.

The story of beer in Dayton and the Miami Valley is as old as the region's first settlers, who brought their brewing methods with them from Europe. From humble origins, the Schwind brothers founded a Dayton brewing dynasty.

Adam Schantz arrived penniless and amassed a fortune as one of the city's early brewers. Martha Vorce, one of the region's several unheralded woman brewers, was running the Springfield Brewery a decade before Eliza "Mother" Stewart gained fame there as a temperance leader. Although Prohibition swiftly destroyed this flourishing industry, today's local craft brewers promise to keep good beer and good times flowing for many years to come. Join local author Tim Gaffney as he explores the Valley's brewing heritage.

Once known as the Rubber Capital of the World, Akron can also justifiably style itself a beer mecca. More than a century ago, brewers like Renner, Burkhardt and others vied for local supremacy. Although these forerunners disappeared, a beer renaissance blossomed in recent years, with today's craft purveyors serving up some of the nation's finest brews. Several of Thirsty Dog Brewery's beers have won awards, and Hoppin' Frog consistently ranks as one of the top one hundred breweries in the world. Rob Musson presents a chronological look at Akron beer from its origins along the Ohio & Erie Canal in 1845 to the present day, featuring one hundred vintage and contemporary images.

From remote diners to downtown political havens, the restaurants of central Ohio satisfied palates for generations. In the era of Sunday drives before interstates, fabulous family-owned restaurants were the highlight of the trip. Sample the epicurean empires established by Greek, Italian, German and Chinese families. Recall the secrets of Surly Girl's chandelier, the delicious recipes handed down by chefs and the location of Flippo the Clown's former jazz hideaway. Following their previous book, Lost Restaurants of Columbus, authors Christine Hayes and Doug Motz deliver a second helping of unforgettable establishments that cemented central Ohio's reputation for good food and fun. That includes eighteen destination eateries in fifteen surrounding towns.

One of the first buildings in Central Ohio in the 1790s was a tavern and 200 years later--Columbus as a foodie" town shows renewed interest in discovering its historic "liquid assets." Once historic taverns in frontier Columbus featured live bears chained to giant wheels, pumping water for travelers in need of a shower and giving new meaning to the term "watering hole." Existing historic taverns in Columbus span from 1830s through the 1930s and still have little-known histories, stories, scandals, as well as, architectural fabric to explore. One is built on a still active graveyard; another is in the building of a former Pentecostal church. Several remain from the Irish and German migrations and survived Prohibition; one was the quintessential gentlemen's bar still with pool room that connected by underground tunnel to the Ohio Statehouse in a time of temperance. Another was both a tavern and a bordello for Union and Confederate officers (though on different nights). Set in the social and political historic context of a changing city, the taverns offer a chance to explore the city's history through its watering holes."