Here’s a review of this week’s questions:

  1. What is the name of the iconic downtown Cincinnati diner that has been serving the city since 1956?
  2. In Newport, KY, just across the river from Cincinnati, there is a mansion built in 1814 that later became an infamous live music venue. What was it called?
  3. 1960’s era radical and social activist Jerry Rubin attended this Cincinnati high school, as did jazz musician Fred Hersch and football greats Darren Anderson and Dick Gordon. What high school is it?

And here are the answers:

  1. Hathaway’s. Hathaway’s Diner moved in 2021, from its longtime location at the Carew Tower (tallest building in Cincinnati in 1956, when the diner opened), to a new space just around the corner, at Fifth and Vine Streets. Customers of the restaurant, long a staple for breakfasts and lunches in downtown Cincinnati, now enjoy dinner service on Fridays and Saturdays as well. Lloyd and Vera Hathaway opened their namesake diner in 1956, and it has gained a larger-than-life reputation by feeding generations of locals, as well as a long list of famous folks, including Elvis Presley and President Eisenhower. Hathaway’s was named one of the 50 best diners in America, and is famous for its biscuits and gravy, hand-dipped milkshakes and Goetta omelets.
  2. Southgate/Thompson House. “Indie” rockers such as Arcade Fire, the Hold Steady and the Black Keys, have long shared sordid tales with their fans and colleagues of wild performances at Newport’s Southgate House in the early 2000’s. However, long before that, the building served a multitude of purposes since its earliest days. It was built by Richard Southgate in 1814, allegedly using British prisoners of war from the War of 1812, held at neighboring Newport Barracks. The property originally encompassed nearly a city block, but over time was parceled off. Army colonel and firearms inventor John Thompson purchased the house in the late 1800’s, and its name was changed in his honor. Musical acts started performing there in the 1940’s, but it was not until 1984 that it became a required stop for up-and-coming bands travelling through the area. Southgate House left the original site in 2011 and the name was changed back to Thompson House. Southgate House Revival now carries the musical torch at its current location, inside an 1860’s era church just a few doors down from its old location.
  3. Walnut Hills High School. Viewers of the 2020 movie, “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” may think of Jerry Rubin, played by Jeremy Strong, as the wild-eyed sidekick to Sascha Baron Cohen’s Abbie Hoffman. Rubin and Hoffman were central players in the late-1960’s anti-war movement known as “the Yippies.” However, long before his days as a radical, Rubin was just another student at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, built in 1895. The school evolved to become focused on college preparedness, selecting students with an interest in furthering their academic pursuits at institutions of higher learning, such as Ohio’s Oberlin College, where Jerry Rubin arrived as a college freshman in 1956. Walnut Hills is nationally recognized as one of America’s top public high schools, and 87% of its graduates begin their college career with advanced standing.