“We could have gotten a vanilla box, or a Turnkey restaurant,” says partner and executive chef Jessa Hanberry. “But we didn’t want to break history. We wanted to breathe new life into it. I love that we did it here.”
Nods to the building’s roots are sprinkled throughout the restaurant: wooden banquettes styled like train station-style benches and cushions made of blue-and-white striped fabric that evoke vintage train conductor hats. What was once a luggage room has been converted into a kitchen and the former waiting area is now part of the bar, where visitors queue for margaritas instead of train tickets.
Best of all, visitors can explore most of these new incarnations for free – or at least for the small price of a drink or a museum ticket, as in the case of Cincinnati’s Union Terminal, a spectacular The Art Deco landmark is now its home. Cincinnati History Museum And Museum of Natural History and Science.
But most importantly, developing these historic sites is about looking at present-day needs, and uplifting the building with what it has to offer, say experts. A train station waiting room can be adapted into a unique cultural space – but only if you have a train station available to adopt.
“We like to say you can’t make history,” Blair said.
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