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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Jim Tarbell
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Jim Tarbell is known to many of us as the champion of the Ball Park That Never Was -- Broadway Commons -- and as the top-hat-and-tails member of Cincinnati City Council with a fierce dedication to the rebirth of downtown Cincinnati, including his beloved Over-the-Rhine neighborhood where he and his wife, Brenda, moved over 30 years ago to raise their three children. Before his dive into the pool of city politics, Jim was best known as the proprietor of two prominent downtown restaurants, Arnold's Bar & Grill and Grammer's. Jim sold Arnold's several years ago as his energies turned toward Broadway Commons, but he still owns Grammer's in anticipation of the surrounding neighborhood revitalization. I sat down to lunch with Jim at Aioli Bistro.
CB: Tell me how your childhood experience shaped your interest in food.
JT: I grew up in Hyde Park when it was a more economically diverse neighborhood. At that time Hyde Park Square was the epitome of the neighborhood service center -- three butchers, three bakers, three dime stores, three hardware stores -- three of everything. The penultimate candy store, Erie Ave. Fruit Market, F&F; Market, a neighborhood Kroger's where the manager knew everyone's name and carried the groceries to your car for you. Saturday mornings I would go to Busken's for a loaf of Buttercrust bread and sneak a slice out of the middle on the way home. They always gave you a cookie. On the way home you could get an apple shined up for you at the fruit market. Then over to Lippert Bakery, where Mrs. Lippert would give you something warm out of the oven, and then over to the back door of Kroger's to turn in my pop bottles.
CB: What are some of your fondest memories of the family meal?
JT: My father and I would frequently grill on Saturday nights together. We would get a sirloin from Mairose Meats, which my dad would rub with fresh garlic, salt and pepper. My mother would do barley with bouillon and lettuce with bleu cheese, walnuts and Italian dressing made from scratch. One sirloin that today feeds one or two fed six of us: We each got two small pieces but savored each bite.
CB: Who were your earliest culinary influences?
JT: Pete Palazollo was the Buddy LaRosa of that era. He owned Delmonico Foods, Petrie Wines. He lived with his daughter and son-in-law next door, Rose and Dino. When I was 14 my father died, and my mother went to work, so I was forced to cook for myself, which I had fun with. Rose was a great cook who introduced me to fine olive oils and spectacular Italian food. I mean, the food that came out of her kitchen was phenomenal: She was a big influence in how my cooking style took shape.
CB: What were some of your food-related jobs?
JT: A bus boy at Hyde Park Country Club, where I dropped a huge tray of water glasses on a table of ladies in strapless evening gowns. I can still hear them screaming. I was fired. I moved to Boston to go to medical school, worked as a waiter at a summer resort restaurant -- a lot of fresh fish dishes, homemade pies and cold blueberry soup. Then to Rhode Island where I was a cook on a commercial fishing boat.
CB: What was the progression to being a restaurant owner?
JT: I came back here and took a job as the director of the Hyde Park Teen Center, which led to the Ludlow Garage. After the Garage closed in '71, I moved downtown and became the breakfast cook at the Over-the-Rhine Senior Center. From there a bunch of us urban guerillas decided we needed a place to convene for vegetarian food, good coffee, Guinness Stout and live music. I sold everything and bought Arnold's in 1976. Arnold's enjoyed a glorious period of creative cooks and became a venue for acoustic music. I was having this love affair with downtown, wrapped up in the history, the antiquity. Arnold's was paid for and doing well when I decided to buy Grammer's in 1984. I didn't have quite the same golden touch with Grammer's for several reasons, including dividing my time and energy between two restaurants.
CB: What do you chow down on at a Reds game?
JT: I gotta have a brat with ballpark mustard and a Hudepohl -- well, that was Crosley Field -- and peanuts.
CB: What's your most important food ritual?
JT: Without a doubt, shopping at Findlay Market every Saturday.
CB: What are some of your favorite Cincinnati area restaurants?
JT: Aioli, Wildflour in Covington, Detroit Joe's in Newport, The Loyal Cafe in Bellevue, Stenger's, Pacific Moon Cafe and Shanghai Mama's, Walt's Hitching Post.
CB: Besides crow, what do City Council members eat at meetings?
JT: Coca-Cola, Power bars and aspirin.
CONTACT DONNA COVRETT: dcovrett@citybeat.com
