Pleasant Ridge

Don't let the Ward-And-June-Cleaver-like name throw you. Pleasant Ridge is a funky and diverse little community on the Northeast outskirts of Cincinnati. It's large enough to have great local amenities like hangouts, restaurants and collectible shops, but small enough that everybody knows everybody.

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You'd have to guess that the name Pleasant Ridge would come from an obscure pioneer story. Somewhere back around 1800, Samuel Pierson was looking for a peaceful spot to help a friend bury family members. As he stood at the top of a rise in the old Indian trail that would become Montgomery Road, overlooking the Mill Creek Valley, he remarked, "This is a pleasant ridge." From those absolutely boring beginnings was born a community that's as warm and homey as it is multicultural.

The town was originally called Crossroads. In 1818, the area's first Presbyterian church, which had earlier been reconstructed log-by-log from its location in the nearby Duck Creek Valley, took the name Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church. Crossroads adopted the church's name around 1850. By this time the town was already diverse with the Wood family (the original owners from Scotland), German immigrants and a handful of freed African American slaves.

For today's commuter, Pleasant Ridge has been a stable real estate investment with an abundance of reasonably-priced houses, both tiny to huge, built from the 1850s through the 1920s. Successful business folk seeking a Bohemian suburban living flock here, as do first-time home buyers hunting an investment. With quick access to I-71 at the southern border, Pleasant Ridge is only 10 minutes from both Downtown as well as Blue Ash and the northern business corridor. But the proximity to fast-lane living doesn't infringe on the atmosphere here; you can grab a hot morning perk at a non-chain café as well as a cold brew on Pop Quiz Night at the local watering hole.

Pleasant Ridge is known as one of Cincinnati's more desirable spots to raise a family, and also one of the racially integrated. Though it is better known as a place to find a nice, affordable house than a place to head after-hours, Pleasant Ridge still has several independent points of interest to explore, such as a great record shop, the city's only Ethiopian restaurant and a vegetarian deli.

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Dining

Without being large enough to reveal a culinary trend, Pleasant Ridge offers a festive hodgepodge of places to grab a bite. Emanu East African restaurant is a trendy-but-unpretentious spot to laugh with friends around a spread of Ethiopian Injera flatbread covered with delicious East African dishes. A thousand years of tradition involves sharing the meal with your companions by ripping off a piece of the crepe-like bread and using it to scoop from the communal spread. This can be wonderfully bonding – or comical, depending on who you invite to dinner.
At the other end of the dining spectrum is Pleasant Ridge Chili, which some connoisseurs consider the best Cincinnati-style chili in existence, but where the specialty of the house is fries with cheese and gravy, which defy both description and the intensity of contentment they deliver. Rocky's Barbecue Hut smolders away with hot ribs, and The Loving Café specializes in vegetarian fare. As you head down Ridge Rd. towards the expressway there is also a competent variety of fast food places to snag a quick bite.
Nightlife

There's an ample supply of libation and live music in Pleasant Ridge. Molly Malone's is the place to catch lively Celtic reel with your Guinness and grub. On Saturday nights the Pleasant Perk jitters with rock. If you like your music a little more to your personal taste, whatever it may be, it's hard to stump the jukebox at the Gas Light for a popular song to eat a burger by or throw darts to. And if you just want to catch your breath with your brew, The Pleasant Hour is noted as offering the most laid back happy hour in town.
Arts & Entertainment

A true local spectacle is Molly Malone's Pop Quiz Night. It's an Ivy-League-Class competition that pits the city's best minds in some heated team battles. These cranium calisthenics are also a popular spectator sport. It must pay off to have one of Cincinnati's finest public library branches in the community. Molly Malone's also has live music, and every now and then Everybody’s Records has an in-store concert as well.
Recreation

Pleasant Ridge is a city of sidewalks, where it's a short walk to wherever you're headed. Even in the cooler months, there are strollers, joggers and families out for a walk down the old-growth, tree-lined streets. The Pleasant Ridge Recreation Center offers many big programs for a tiny annual fee, and there are plenty of exercise and craft classes to keep the whole family fit, entertained and educated. For those looking to find a convenient private country club to join, the community is home to the Losantiville Course at The Ridge Club. It's a classic old-line golf club opened in 1906. This 18-hole course has a rating of 71.6 and a 12-tee driving range. It's a well kept secret. You hardly know it's there and members like it that way.
Special Interest

The niche on Montgomery Road is collectibles, with all these shops an easy walk from each other. Collectors gravitate to: Everybody's Records (THE premier spot in the city for used vinyl), Queen City Comics (including character collectibles), Earth Collectible Toy Mall (a huge array of vintage toys and games) and Brass Eagle Antiques (specializing in fine glass and table wear with some Rookwood pottery gently placed in the mix).
Shopping

Pleasant Ridge has the wonderful distinction of two business districts, the classic one that spans Montgomery Road and the convenient one on Ridge at I-71. You'll find your basic needs met at Pleasant Ridge Hardware, the extremely helpful Mullaney's Pharmacy, three banks and a variety of little shops along Montgomery. The expressway collection includes Value City (for incredible clothing deals) and Bigg's (groceries with one of the city's best Kosher food sections), as well as a good representation of standard expressway exit ventures like Target, Meijer, Lowe's, Home Depot, Office Depot, Sam's Club and Walmart.
Personal Care

Gil's Barber Shop - Since 1947

Hair styling needs in Pleasant Ridge are as diverse as this community. You Are So Beautiful specializes in hair for the African American woman, A Salon Named Desire trendsets with a holistic and eco-friendly aura, Acute Hair Salon offers high-speed styling for the extremely busy and Gil's Barber Shop still thrives after a half century in the area. Keeping the rest of the body looking good is no problem in Pleasant Ridge either. The Pleasant Ridge Recreation Center has a fitness center and weight room along with five tennis courts, an outdoor pool, plus plenty of exercise classes. For the serious lifter there's Das Gym, which promotes itself as a family friendly ironworks spot that will get you in enough shape to warrant speaking with a terminator-style accent.

Without being large enough to reveal a culinary trend, Pleasant Ridge offers a festive hodgepodge of places to grab a bite. Emanu East African restaurant is a trendy-but-unpretentious spot to laugh with friends around a spread of Ethiopian Injera flatbread covered with delicious East African dishes. A thousand years of tradition involves sharing the meal with your companions by ripping off a piece of the crepe-like bread and using it to scoop from the communal spread. This can be wonderfully bonding – or comical, depending on who you invite to dinner.

At the other end of the dining spectrum is Pleasant Ridge Chili, which some connoisseurs consider the best Cincinnati-style chili in existence, but where the specialty of the house is fries with cheese and gravy, which defy both description and the intensity of contentment they deliver. Rocky's Barbecue Hut smolders away with hot ribs, and The Loving Café specializes in vegetarian fare. As you head down Ridge Rd. towards the expressway there is also a competent variety of fast food places to snag a quick bite.

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Official Home Page of Pleasant Ridge:
www.pleasantridge.org/

With a combination of niche shops and restaurants as well as strong community roots and a solid housing stock, Pleasant Ridge has come into its own over the past few years as more and more people realize the benefits this diverse gem of a neighborhood can provide.

Pleasant Ridge

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