Cincinnati Food by Polly Campbell

Author:Polly Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2020-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Workers at Graeter’s making ice cream with the cedar French pots in 1981. Courtesy of the Cincinnati Enquirer and Allan Kain.

It seems that the United States, starting in the 1960s, settled into a long period of food mediocrity, when efficiency and technology took over everything from farming corn to fast food and orange juice. (Remember Tang?) The widespread motto regarding old ways of doing things seemed to be “Why bother when the future is here, and it’s cheaper, faster and good enough?” This was not Graeter’s motto. Though the shop sometimes made more money with its bakery goods than its ice cream, it kept it up. When high milkfat was regarded as a frozen heart attack, it kept it up.

So, in the 1980s, when Häagen-Dazs introduced its high-fat ice cream and Ben and Jerry’s invented flavors that were chock-full of extra add-ins, when foodies started using words like super premium and “low overrun,” stubbornness kept Graeter’s there to be discovered. Now, Graeter’s wasn’t just a favorite among people who were proud of their hometown; it was gourmet and a favorite of foodies. People loved discovering it in—of all places—Cincinnati. And, by the way, it bore the name of an actual family, not a random assortment of letters and umlauts made to seem Scandinavian, like Häagen-Dazs. It has a genuine heritage behind it.

The shop’s current owners, Regina’s great-grandsons, Bob, Dick and Chip Graeter, have taken the company a huge step forward based on this authenticity. They built a new plant and invested in new branding and distribution. The main area of growth has been selling pints through Kroger. But at their plant on Regina Graeter Way in Bond Hill, where the company has thirty-six batch freezers—thirty-two more than the previous plant—I have seen men with long paddles, pushing the frozen ice cream down into the freezers, and chocolate being poured into the top to freeze into those signature jackpot chips.

I like to take visitors to the Museum Center in the former Union Terminal building, west of downtown, for a Graeter’s cone. There is a delightful little café off the huge imposing rotunda with its murals of Cincinnati history and industry. Once a tearoom, then a lounge for the USO, it is completely covered in spring-green tiles and decorated with flowers. They’re all from Rookwood, the great art pottery company that made tiles and pottery in Mount Adams (founded and run by Maria Longworth, the granddaughter of winemaker Nicholas Longworth). Graeter’s serves a limited menu of its ice creams there.

Graeter’s has been around for 160 years or so. Aglamesis Brothers is somewhat younger, at 110 years. But while Graeter’s stores are modern, the Aglamesis Ice Cream Parlor in Oakley has the look and experience of a different era. This parlor has been in its current spot for a long time. It used to buy its milk and cream from a dairy farm across the street. The shop’s Charlie Chaplin candy was first sold when its namesake was in a new movie that was showing at a nearby theater.

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