The Dayton Art Institute will open its doors without charge on three weekends this year.

The first is happening this weekend from March 7–8. Other free weekends will be August 29–30, and November 14–15. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

On those days, visitors can access the permanent collection, all current special exhibitions and family activities. A 15% membership discount will also be available for new and renewing members.

Current exhibitions include Engaged: Rings from around the World (through April 19), Exploring Feminism (through January 2027) and Tony Foster, Exploring Time (through May 17).

Later in 2026, the museum will open shows covering William H. Johnson, folk art quilts, Japanese photography and alternative photographic processes, among others.

Regular admission is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and active military and $5 for students and youth. More information can be found on the Art Institute’s website.

The Dayton Art Institute was founded in 1919. The museum’s collection covers 5,000 years of art history and includes significant American, Ancient American, Asian, and European fine and decorative arts, totaling more than 27,000 objects.

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The largest wine festival in the Midwest returns to the Queen City this weekend, allowing you to sip wine from all over the globe right here in Cincinnati.

The Cincinnati International Wine Festival, which started in 1991, is celebrating 35 years of operation. Beginning this Thursday and running through Saturday, plenty of exotic wines will be on hand for sampling, with proceeds from the festival going to more than 30 local nonprofits.

New this year is a 20-minute introductory course on how to properly taste wine and a class on the three biggest wine trends right now, with samples included. The main event this year is The Slam on Saturday night, which puts sommeliers head-to-head in a live, timed challenge as the audience watches and sips the same wines they’ll be tested on.

To date, the festival has raised more than $8 million for local nonprofits.

Tickets are available now on the festival’s website by clicking here.

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For the first time since 1994, the United States will become the global capital of soccer — or football if you live anywhere other than America.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States, making it the first edition of the tournament to be organized by three countries together. The competition will expand to 48 teams, who will compete in 104 matches held in 16 cities across the three host nations between June 11 and July 19, 2026.

Footy fans in Cincinnati don’t have to look too hard for their watch party spot. Just head downtown to The Banks, which will transform into the 2026 FIFA World Cup Viewing Village this June and July—a free, fan-friendly destination packed with energy, a giant screen, food, beverage and supporters cheering together from kickoff through the final whistle.

Every moment of the world’s biggest tournament will be shown at the Viewing Village, like the most exciting matches featuring top national teams including the United States, Spain, England, France, Brazil and Argentina.

Fans can enjoy live match broadcasts on the giant outdoor screen, food and drinks from local favorites at The Banks, a football supporter-driven atmosphere, and evening and weekend watch parties for the most popular matches.

Whether you are cheering for Team USA or celebrating global soccer culture, the Viewing Village is the place to be. Bring your friends, your flags, your jerseys and your passion as Cincinnati joins the world in celebrating the 2026 FIFA World Cup. For some matches, there will be split-screen viewing with FIFA matches and Reds games.

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When Chef Casey Hopkins appeared on my laptop screen via FaceTime, she had just gotten home from a Thursday shift at Longfellow. She was wearing a popular merch item from the bar – a gray sweatshirt emblazoned with a four-eyed, winking red cocktail – and she had her two little dumplings running amok in the background.

Having seen Hopkins’ packed bag ahead of an upcoming trip, her pug, Pierogi, had spent the day sulking. Her mood hadn’t improved. Meanwhile, Momo the French bulldog intermittently popped into the bottom right corner of my screen, seemingly oblivious to Hopkins’ impending departure and just hankering for some attention.

“ I’ve always cooked,” Hopkins said, occasionally patting Momo’s head and minding Pierogi’s grump-fueled antics. “I’ve always loved food. And Longfellow was the first real place that I was a cook, I was a chef, I was in the kitchen. So all of my real culinary experience has been within the walls of Longfellow in the last 8 years.”

Working with people has pretty much been a focal point of any line of work Hopkins has found herself in. As a teenager, her gigs included a face painter at the Cincinnati Zoo, an assistant for studio dance classes, and a camp counselor. Her first restaurant job was at a Chipotle, but even before then, she was no stranger to culinary environments. 

“I  was very close with my neighbors growing up,” Hopkins said. “They had a restaurant on the West Side, so I was always in a restaurant, and I was always at their house, in their kitchen learning how to cook.”

At that point, Hopkins was “just part of the family,” as opposed to staff, looking after the family’s children every night at the restaurant. Over time, she’s worked serving jobs, and picked up some kitchen work during her time at Chicago Gyros and Northside Yacht Club. 

It was during her time at the yacht club that Casey met future Longfellow owner (and recent second-time James Beard nominee) Mike Stankovich. Stankovich opened his nationally-ranked bar in February 2017, with Chef Evan Wallis at the helm of the kitchen. Wanting to involve Wallis in more of the kitchen management side, Stankovich began seeking additional members for the kitchen staff – with a few qualifications in mind. 

“Longfellow’s kind of a unique kitchen in the sense that it’s visible to the public, and a lot of people that work in kitchens don’t wanna have to talk to people,” Stankovich said. “Whenever we’ve had to hire for that position, we’ve had to try to find the right kind of personality that wants to talk to people, but also make food under people watching them. And Casey has that personality and does well at it.”

Hopkins ultimately joined in March 2018. 

“She had a long history of working in bars and restaurants, and just was a good worker, and learned quickly, and was willing to take advice,” Wallis said of Hopkins. 

Longfellow was an all-hands-on-deck operation, with team members picking up different responsibilities to keep the busy bar running. According to Wallis, as he got busier assisting with the bartending side of Longfellow, Hopkins took on more of the food service side.

When Wallis ultimately moved on from Longfellow, Hopkins was selected to take his position. Stankovich cited her preexisting tenure with Longfellow, her culinary ability, and her love for the work as reasons.

“She had to learn some stuff,” Stankovich said. “But any job anyone takes, you have to learn some stuff. So that’s not a deterrent, at least for me, to hire somebody. I’d rather teach someone to do the right thing than have them think they know everything.”

And not three days after transitioning into the position, the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns began. What followed was a pivot to an all-takeout operation for Longfellow’s loyal base of customers – and a need to churn out a whole lot of egg salad. 

“ We did have a couple regulars in that time who were buying, like, two pints a week of Longfellow egg salad, which is amazing egg salad,” Hopkins remembered with a laugh. “I love the egg salad! But also, who’s eating a quart of egg salad in a week?” 

For any challenges, the trial by fire ended up being an unintentional masterclass for the rising chef.

“When we opened back up inside, however long that was after, it was like, ‘Cool, alright, I know how to work this space, and make it work in a large scale. Now I can refine it,’” Hopkins said. 

Wallis, who now owns College Hill bar Big Chill with his wife, Hannah Wheatley, also saw some serendipity in the circumstances. 

“ I think it was a nice time, because it was a natural time to reset and let her do her own thing, and kind of see how things went from there,” Wallis said.

While she had to learn what Stankovich called the “medial” aspects of operating a kitchen – like getting acquainted with sources for ingredients and ordering them in the right quantity – Stankovich witnessed key growth in her confidence in skills she already possessed. 

“She has whatever it takes to just make food taste good, but I think her kind of realizing that, or accepting that, was a big step,” Stankovich said.

Longfellow’s ever-evolving menu has steady items – the charcuterie board, the Scrap Sandwich, the egg salad (figures) – but Hopkins and her team still get plenty of freedom to conceptualize and experiment. Menu comings-and-goings have been born of trial-and-error, nostalgia and everyday cravings. Case in point: the bestselling mushroom melt. 

“Our mushroom melt just happened one day because I wanted pizza, but I didn’t wanna buy pizza,” Hopkins said. “So I was like, ‘What do we have in here that can make me something that tastes reminiscent of pizza?’ And it worked out perfectly.”

Hopkins categorizes the mixed menu into “plates” and “snacks,” striving to make the latter “elevated comfort food.”

“The snack side in my brain is just like, ‘What are you eating in your cool aunt’s basement when she’s hosting a house party,” Hopkins said. “Like, what is your awesome Aunt Kathy putting out on her table to feed you snack-wise?’”

Enter hanky pankies, a Midwestern staple that Hopkins considers “an homage” to her own (presumably awesome) Great Aunt Jenny. A blend of ground meat, spices, and logs of glorious Velveeta cheese piled on bread, they’re not your everyday printed menu item, but one that catches eyes and elicits joy nonetheless. 

 ”It’s a fun thing to have on the menu,” Hopkins said of this family dish she’s long enjoyed annually on Christmas Eve. “People see them and they get excited.”

Many of Longfellow’s ingredients are sourced locally. Hopkins also taps into resources a stone’s throw (or streetcar ride) away, from Avril Bleh to Findlay Market. And she cultivates a small spice garden right outside the bar near its outdoor seating area. If you opt to sip your signature Shiso Painkiller outside, you might just be sitting near the namesake plant involved in its creation. 

Food is Hopkins’ passion, yet her recipes aren’t something she seems to agonize over. 

“At the end of the day, it’s just food,” Hopkins said. “I mean, ‘It’s just food’ is such an understatement, but it’s gotta be good food. We wanna make good food, and it’s not the end of the world if we gotta change something.”

For any menu leeway, however, there are some challenges literally inherent to the establishment’s architecture. According to Stankovich, due to preservation requirements in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, Longfellow wasn’t permitted to install a kitchen hood within the historic building.

As a workaround, Stankovich drew inspiration from his work in the industry in New York City, where chefs built perfectly efficient kitchens without the need to install pricey hoods. Stankovich also explains the pivot was inherent to Longfellow’s design – its character channels that of a Japanese izakaya, casual, sometimes compact bars with kitchens that serve up small plates and bar snacks alongside drinks. And the Longfellow kitchen team has made it all work from the outset. 

“Part of how we developed our menu was what we were able to do,” Wallis said. “And that was something that I think me, Mike, and Casey all enjoyed – having limited resources and still seeing what you were able to do.”

These days, during busy times, Hopkins operates in what she approximates to be a three-foot by two-foot space, not to mention the other bartenders in motion around her (she’ll also bartend, when needed). Hopkins and her team work with an intentional set of tools that includes a hand crank meat slicer, hot plate, toaster oven and steam table.

“ I think it is a testament to that you don’t need a big, fancy kitchen or all the crazy hullabaloo to create good, comforting food,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins and her colleagues, Chef Mike Lizama and Chef Thearvy Long, continue to do their work in full view of patrons – which, while sometimes stressful, isn’t necessarily a negative for Hopkins. 

“ A lot of cooks and a lot of chefs love being behind their closed door,” Hopkins said. “They love the fact that they don’t have to interact. I personally love it, ’cause I’m just a schmoozer. I love talking. I’ve made so many great friends and met so many awesome people by just being at my meat slicer and someone being like, ‘Is that this?’ And me being like, ‘No, it’s actually this.’”

Evidence of these connections can be found in a lineup of tcotchkes near that same meat slicer. What started as a photograph of one of Hopkins’ dogs and a shot glass emblazoned with aliens has grown into a collection of small offerings from patrons. Everything from baby photos to an E.T. figurine keep Hopkins company at her station.

Hopkins said the broader Cincinnati culinary scene Longfellow operates in is robust, yet not necessarily cutthroat. 

 ”We do have this huge booming culinary scene, but nothing feels insanely competitive against each other,” Hopkins said. “Like, we’re all doing it together. We’re all there for one another. If one of our buddies up the street needs an extra bag of towels for the night, guess what? We got you.”

While an establishment of her own someday isn’t totally off the table, Hopkins deems herself “a short term goal girl,” and keeps herself grounded in the present as she considers her future.

“ The goal right now is to just keep ripping, and keep learning, and just keep having fun, because that’s the coolest thing I think about my job is that I have a lot of fun doing it,” Hopkins said. 

“She’s a crucial part of Longfellow,” Stankovich said of Hopkins. “But if she ever needed to move on or grow her career or something, I would support it, too. So I’m supportive of her outside of just her standing in the kitchen.”

For all of the industry experience she’s amassed over time, Hopkins still acknowledges that she never imagined being in her role today. 

“ It is really cool to just be floating around with serving tables, working in random bars. And then now, you know what I do? I’m a chef now, and I run a kitchen side of a bar that’s very successful, because I work with great people, we have great guests, and I have the openness to learn and soak in new skills.”

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The 65th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Cavalcade of Customs will return to the First Financial Center in downtown Cincinnati, March 13 to 15.

There will be hundreds of custom cars, classics, hot rods, trucks, motorcycles and race cars on display. For tickets and a list of events and featured guests, click here.

The First Financial Center was previously known as the Duke Energy Convention Center, which reopened in February after an 18-month renovation project costing more than $260 million.

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Cincinnati Public Schools will host the fourth annual “The Cincy Experience,” a two-day recruitment event designed to connect prospective educators with teaching opportunities across the district.

On March 6, school tours will be given from noon to 1 p.m. at Dater Montessori School, South Avondale Middle School and Spencer Center for Gifted and Exceptional Students.

On March 7, there will be a district-wide job fair, including on-the-spot interviews with recruiters, at the Woodward Career Technical High School on Reading Road in Bond Hill.

The district is searching for educators to fill high-need areas: middle and high school English, science and math, Spanish, intervention specialists, preschool disability and teachers with Montessori credentials. The district is also in need of educators licensed to teach middle childhood education, which is typically defined as grades four through nine.

Cincinnati Public Schools is the Tri-State’s largest public school district with more than 35,000 students across 66 schools.

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Two local business organizations are hosting their fifth annual business expo next week, bringing together dozens of area vendors under one roof.

The Little Miami River Chamber Alliance and the Milford Miami Township Chamber of Commerce will hold the Eastside Business Bash on March 11 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Oasis Conference Center, 902 Loveland-Miamiville Rd, in Loveland. Admission is free.

The event draws businesses from across Cincinnati’s east side, with this year’s lineup topping 30 vendors in sectors ranging from financial services and healthcare to marketing, technology, and food.

Participating businesses include Activate Brain & Body, All American Gutter Protection, Athletico Physical Therapy, Balance in Motion, By Golly’s, CertaPro Painters and Carpentry, Charmed Life Creative, Cincy SEO, COHatch Cincinnati, Evolution Creative Solutions, First Financial Bank, For Always Photos & Memories, Horter Financial, IntelliPoint Technologies, Kingsbury Productions, Linden Grove Agency, Loveland LIFE Food Pantry, Peoples Bank, Quintin Fleeing Insurance & Finance, Raptor INC, RDI, Ron Chambers Group, Seasons, Sharefax Credit Union, Signal Digital Marketing, SpeedPro Cincinnati East, TeamLogic IT, The Dennedy Home Group/Keller Williams, The Skin Clinic, The Works Pizza Co., Union Savings Bank, Valley View Nature Preserve, and Willow Marketing & Design.

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If you asked creative director and Newport resident Josh Jacob what he does in his free time, he might wryly explain his talent for making “fake watches.” But his watches are very real—and way more interesting than most of what you’d find in a jewelry store.

Faux Wrist, the timepiece brand Jacob created for his project, can make you the watch of your dreams. Everything about his watches—from obvious components like the bracelet or the hands of the clock to tiny details like the indices, the dial, and the crystal—is fully customizable to your liking.

He sources his watch components from the same manufacturers that major brands do, but without the hefty price tag that comes with a brand name. It’s part of his goal to make affordable watches that are “just as good, if not better” than the ones crafted by well-known names, but fully customized to fit anyone’s look.

“In my opinion, it’s cooler than wearing a Rolex, because you’re not just flexing that you own an expensive timepiece,” he said. “I like to think the person who wears the watches I make is more interested in curating their own personal aesthetic, not just choosing what someone else thinks is cool.”

It all started when a friend of his won an Instagram giveaway for an Omega Speedmaster, a watch that normally retails for close to $8,000. Jacob became enamored with the mechanical construction of the watch, citing a prior love for analog technology in an age where everything is digital.

Eventually, he started learning “as much as I possibly could about watches and watch culture,” found a DIY watch kit online, and decided to try his hand at making his own timepiece. The box said it could be built in an hour, but it actually took him closer to four or five.

“Setting the [watch] hands requires a really steady wrist. You’re operating off feel. Unless you’ve got a really good magnifying lens, you can’t see what you’re doing,” he said.

Over the course of his research, he discovered that his favorite watch brand, Seiko, sells its movements (the engine inside a watch that powers the clock) wholesale, and realized with time and effort that he could make his own retail-quality watches from the same parts.

Finding the hobby came at exactly the right time for Jacob. Over the previous seven years, his mother was dealing with Alzheimer’s but it affected her differently than most. His mother initially suffered from aphasia, a disorder that removes the ability to speak, write or communicate, although it does not affect intelligence.

“You could see her eyes get wide during conversations like she wanted to participate, but she literally couldn’t talk… I like to think it’s similar to when something’s on the tip of your tongue, but you’re like that forever,” he said. “Her voice was taken away from her, but her mind was very much still there. It was heartbreaking.”

Over the “soul-crushing” period where his mother was at the end of her life, he got to a mental state where he “didn’t do anything but work and drink, constantly.” It reached a breaking point where he realized if he didn’t make some drastic changes, and fast, he wouldn’t “have anything to live for.”

He went sober, started making watches to occupy his time, and then got hit with a triple whammy: the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of his dog, King—who he’d owned for 14 years—and the death of his mother all in a few short months. Watchmaking became a “vehicle for grief” for Jacob and a distraction to keep his mental health in check.

“It was extremely important to have something to do when I was—what is the term now, crashing out? You have to give your brain something to focus on so you’re not just thinking about how everything sucks,” he said. “I literally made like seven watches based just off my dog, and called it the King series. The black dials on the watches reflected how I felt, like when people wear a black armband to acknowledge tragedy. It almost felt like I was paying homage to him.”

But then people started noticing his work. They’d find him online and send over pictures of their dad’s old watches, or a style of watch they like but couldn’t afford, or even just send over some art they like and ask for a watch based on it.

“It’s evolved into this cool thing now where I have a client base of family and friends and people I’ve never met who reach out and go, ‘Hey, can you make me a watch?'” he said. “It’s extremely rewarding, because I never even cared if it became that. I just needed it to be a distraction, right?”

Realizing that he’d have to “put some kind of brand” on this if he was going to turn watchmaking into a real hobby, he combined his B.A. in graphic design and dry sense of humor to come up with the logo for Faux, a tongue-in-cheek name that he knew “absolutely nobody would copy.”

“It was almost like, what is the worst possible name you could give a watch brand, and how can you take ownership of it to make it so cool and interesting that the name wouldn’t be a factor?” he said.

Jacob’s biggest goal for the future is to create parts himself instead of sourcing them from other countries so he can fabricate a watch entirely from scratch—a goal he’s made headway on, as he’s already in talks with manufacturers. It’ll be a higher-end version of what he does now, and these watches will tout the name of his “insanely amazing” new dog, Scout.

He knows that your average Rolex or Omega-obsessed watch fiend probably won’t care for his products, but that’s okay, as “there’s a really big gap in the market” for people who are interested in well-crafted timepieces but don’t want to drop thousands of dollars on one. For him, it’s all about making watches that reflect their owner.

“I would say it’s for people more my speed, who like the music I’m into, or the style of design I’m into, or things that are just interesting and cool… what would that look like if a watch brand did that?,” he said. “Overall, my goal is to continue to share this with people because they genuinely want to be a part of it.”

You can learn more about Faux Wrist by visiting the website.

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New polling shows Ohio voters see library services as “everyday necessities,” among the highest rated services offered at the local level.

Polling conducted by Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of the Ohio Library Council and the Ohio Township Association showed 90% of participating voters found public libraries “important to the community.”

Voters praised the access to programs for Ohioans of all kinds, along with low-income resident assistance, learning, technology, and engagement. This time of year in particular, libraries also serve as resources for tax services.

“Ohioans don’t just appreciate their libraries, they rely on them on a daily basis,” said Michelle Francis, executive director of the Ohio Library Council, in a statement on the study. “They are locally supported, widely used, and deeply embedded in their communities.”

Of those interviewed for the survey, 44% said they or a family member have utilized public library services in the past month, and nearly 70% said they received help from the public library. This number included a majority of Republican, Democrat, and independent voters, according to the report.
“Nearly 9 out of 10 Ohio voters believe they get their money’s worth in services from their local libraries for the taxes they pay, including 83% of Republicans, 85% of independents, and 93% of Democrats,” researchers stated

Data from the Ohio Library Council said Ohioans visit state libraries more than 48 million times per year, and more than 7 million Ohioans have library cards.

Ohio libraries receive much of their funding from the state’s Public Library Fund, which comes out of the General Revenue Fund. In the most recent state budget, lawmakers changed the funding mechanism from a percentage of the General Revenue Fund’s tax revenue to a lump sum. For fiscal year 2026, that amounted to $490 million in state funding, and $500 million in 2027. Library advocates including the council opposed the move to a lump sum, expressing concern that the line-item could be more at risk for total elimination at any time now that it’s not a percentage of the budget.

The State Library of Ohio also took a cut in the state budget, according to State Librarian Mandy Knapp. The SLO isn’t a public library, but works as a resource-sharing partner with other libraries in the state, along with providing grant funding. The fate of that grant funding was unclear last year as the Trump administration attempted to slash funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, through which the State Library of Ohio receives the funding for local grants.

Knapp previously told the Capital Journal that the grant funds are used for summer reading programs, cultural conservation efforts, and implementation of the Science of Reading in library programs.

In November, a federal court blocked the dismantling to the institute, averting a funding cut that Knapp said would “totally and utterly devastate” the library.

The polling also analyzed public opinion of township services across the state, and found that less than half of participants knew the funding model for townships, which is primarily funded through property taxes. They also receive some state funding through the Local Government Fund, though that fund has dwindled over the years.

“Township governments exist to provide the services residents count on most,” said Heidi M. Fought, executive director of the Ohio Township Association, in a statement. “Local funding allows communities to decide what works best for them.”

According to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, after the Local Government Fund was frozen from 2001 to 2008, it was returned to the state budget, set to receive 3.68% of the tax revenue from the General Revenue Fund. The fund took a major hit during the Great Recession because of lower tax revenue, and lawmakers reduced the fund by 50% in the 2012-2013 budget.

In the 2014-2015 fiscal year, the fund saw 1.66% of tax revenue, far below the 3.68% of 2008. The fund saw marginal increases in the years that followed, and eventually went up to 1.7% starting in 2023.

The most recent budget boosted that fund to 1.75% of the GRF, despite advocates like the County Commissioners Association of Ohio requesting that the legislature return the fund to past levels with a boost to 3.68%.

A vast majority of voters polled in the recent study said local voters “should be responsible for deciding how to allocate township services.”

Voters said first responder services like the fire department and ambulances were among the top priorities for funding, along with maintenance of roads and bridges, and police departments.

In both the library and township services, more than half of voters said the two areas “provide many of the basic services people rely on today,” according to the study.

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

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