From their own website, East Walnut Hills is ‘traditionally considered “Cincinnati’s first suburb.” Located on the near east side of Cincinnati, Ohio, lying just north of Eden Park and Mt. Adams, east of Walnut Hills, south of Evanston, and west of  O’Bryonville and Hyde Park. It is populated by several historic preservation districts, numerous grand and historic residences and a national historic landmark (St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church).

The origins of East Walnut Hills’ began with a German Catholic community and the adjoining rural estates of a number of Cincinnati businessmen, which co-existed in the area beginning in the mid-19th century. In 1873 it was annexed into the City of Cincinnati and today, as a whole, retains to a remarkable extent its early 20th century flavor. Aside from homes and businesses, green spaces Annwood, Owls Nest and Eden Parks are all nearby, as well as the Walnut Hills Cemetery (opened 1843 under the name “The Second German Protestant Cemetery”) which sits on more than 70 acres, and its grounds are a designated Monarch Waystation.’

First Stop: Drinks
This gorgeous sunny October Friday, John and I take the long way around, and go in to EWH via Columbia Parkway and up William Howard Taft to Woodburn. Some beautiful, historic architecture along the way mixed in with modern apartment buildings, all angling for a view of the mighty Ohio river and the Cincinnati skyline.

I have couple of options for us, but as we find a lot with app-based parking, we are very close to one of my picks… and it’s super cool looking. Done. First stop: Anjou.

Yup, there we are, soaking in the cool, crisp beauty of Anjou’s decor a modern nod to classical with a hint of the airy kitchen-au-courant. John feels almost immediately out of place and I feel gratefully in place, the small, clean space is somehow so feminine – a nice contrast to all the man-cave bars out there. Anjou, created and launched during the business-daunting Covid19 pandemic, is named after Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI (Anjou is housed in a building called The Henry) who took over his reign when the King went mad. Atta girl.

I order the She-Wolf (ridiculously drinkable – not too sweet or too anything, just right) and John regains his footing as an incredibly knowledgable bartender guides him to the delicious Bill Murray – a smooth, slightly spicy balanced take on a margarita. The She-Wolf comes with a giant ice cube shaped like a rose and, like Angelina Jolie, is gone in 60 seconds. Time for another drink! We have another Bill Murray and try the Ghost of Time – which I am hesitant about because to me, mezcal tastes like band-aids, but it is deliciously smoky and tangy (nary a band-aid in sight). We better get out of here, no food on the menu to keep us upright! We’ll be back!

Next Stop: Dinner
We stroll up Woodburn toward Madison Road and the landmark gothic, limestone church (home of the bell, “Big Joe”) and hang a left where Branch, a former 1920’s art-deco bank (get it?) occupies the corner. It is worth noting that OpenTable’s link from Branch’s website said no tables were available (a common theme we are finding) so we didn’t know if we’d get a table when we walked in. (Spoiler alert – we did! The place was nearly empty).

With austere, deco institutional roots, it’s updated with a cute twist on ‘bank branch’ to tree branch – with the owl as it’s new front man (see image of chandelier), the old bank’s new theme is clean and classic old Cincinnati with a hint of the wise old ornithological. It is a narrow structure so a long bar takes up the left, a long green velvet banquette takes the right, facing a row of tables and chairs… it feels a bit like a train car. The old vault takes up the rear – which is now, cleverly, the kitchen. Beyond the vault is an outside patio which was full so we never saw it, and downstairs (lest you can’t get in to the one main floor bathroom stall) has a cool basement bar called the Night Drop (get it?) and more privies.

Branch serves water in clean gin bottles (love) and has it’s own selection of clever libations – I had the Clara Bixby (smooth, botanical, slightly kicky) and John had a classic Mule (in a cool blue & brass mug). We shared mussels and eggplant polpette and brown butter gnocchi and somehow got talked into a bottle of wine. Satisfied and ready to vacate before banker’s hours ended, I sure was hoping O Pie O was open next door for a sweet last stop of this FNFT but alas, they had moved to OTR. Our dessert had to be the gorgeously night-lit eye-candy of St. Francis DeSales Church.

Until next Friday… Cheers!

Places we visited during this FNFT:
Anjou: Anjoucinci.com, 2804 Woodburn Ave
Branch: eatatbranch.com 1535 Madison Rd