Vinoklet Winery

Summer is here, and what better way to spend summer afternoons or nights than at a winery drinking local wine?! Wine made right at the winery! Not to mention, June is also Ohio Wine Month. This is certainly a win, win! If you haven’t began celebrating, you can start now! It’s never too early or late for a good glass of wine. Pursuit of Delights has partnered with Ohio Wines for the second year in a row, to visit one of their official wineries. This means that the wine is made in Ohio as well as the grapes are grown in Ohio. This year Tiff Squared decided to visit Vinoklet Winery located in Hamilton County. We welcomed our summer with the perfect pours of crisp white and red wines, made from fresh grapes grown right on their property, on the perfect breezy afternoon. The flowers were blossomed and vibrant in color and the waterfalls were rolling. HEEELLLOOOO SUMMMMEEERRR!!

Vinoklet Winery is the only working winery in Hamilton County Ohio. It is located in Colerain Township in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is home to 12 award-winning wines and is proud to represent the Greater Cincinnati area in local and regional wine competitions. Vinoklet Winery has been established since 1986. It all started when the founder, Kreso Mikulic, planted its first vines. In its 34 years of business, it has expanded to now over 12,000 vines across 30+ acres of rolling hills and ponds. At 86 years old, Mr. Mukulic still gets up and works at the winery every day.

What Tiff Squared found interesting is they plant their own vines, harvest their own grapes by hand in 5-gallon buckets, hall them down to the winery, and produces wine. Ohhh, did we mention the size is quite huge. You enter through the restaurant and the vineyards and winery are out back. It is gorgeous. It also over looks a huge pond. Its location and scenery is perfect for weddings or other celebratory events. They have a nice selection of dry and sweet wines to choose from. If you are unsure of what to get, we recommend starting with a tasting. That is what we did. The tasting we did consisted of 12 different wines, white and red, starting with dry and progressing to sweet. We always have fun at tastings because Tiff D. likes more of a dry wine whereas Tiff B. likes sweeter wines. We always share a good laugh as the tasting starts and finishes. You will receive an entire flight of award-winning wines consisting of 12, 1 -oz cups & a souvenir glass for $12.15 plus tax. Don’t let the 1-oz fool you. Lol! Tiff D.’s favorite was the Tears of Joy, a dry wine made similar to a Chardonnay. Crisp and full of flavor, yet soft to the palate. Tiff B.’s favorite was the Strawberry wine, a sweet wine popping with the taste and aroma of fresh strawberries.

Now we can’t come to a winery and not talk about the food! Let’s take a moment to explore their food options. This winery totally gave me country club vibes with a beautiful view. Their food is American and has a variety of appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, and desserts. They even offer what they call Grilled to Perfection offered only on Fridays & Saturdays. Grill to Perfection is where guests can come in and select certain menu items and grill their food themselves with a Grill Master; all while enjoying the ambiance of the unique dining room and vineyard while staff caters to their needs. How cool is that?! They also offer different dinner specials on different days of the week. We began with a cheese and charcuterie board. This is always a good choice paired with wine. You can’t go wrong with this. For entrees, we did the Baby Back Ribs (Thursday special) and the Grilled Norwegian Salmon. They were served with Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes, and a Dinner Roll. Both meals were really good and cooked perfect.

This was a super cute winery and we were happy to visit! We were pleasantly pleased with their different wines and how beautiful their property is. Although there is only one weekend left in June, we hope that you will visit one of the 300 wineries to celebrate Ohio Wine month. We highly recommend Vinoklet Winery for its charm, great wines, and beautiful views. It could certainly make the perfect date night or night out with the girls. Let the good times roll and give summer the perfect greeting. Cheers to a wonderful summer and Happy Wine Month!

You can find more details of Vinoklet Winery and a full wine list here.

Supporting Black Owned Businesses

Everyone is aware of the protests currently happening around the world, organized to continue the fight
for Black Lives. For far too long, Blacks have been fighting this fight primarily alone, in more ways than
one. The world now appears to really be opening their eyes to the injustice and are joining in the fight
(THANK YOU!) If you follow our Instagram, you may have seen a post where we also talked about the
importance of supporting black businesses.

If you missed it, here is an excerpt from it:

“When this account/blog was created, it was to have fun and to point people in the direction of new and
hip restaurants. Many of these restaurants have grown tremendously, based off the love and support of
the community. But do you know which owners/entrepreneurs often get left in the dust? Black owned
businesses. It is often much harder for them to receive the support to even open a brick and mortar
location as well as let their voices be heard. Some of it is political and some is due to systematic oppression.”

No matter the reason why, the issues are certainly not new. We too have been inadvertently guilty of
this, as we typically keep up with the trends of who’s opening and want to ensure our audience is aware
of it. It can be tough for black owners to get the same size funding to provide them with the opportunity
to open and get attention- especially in the up and coming areas where most are spending a lot of their
time and dollars. That means, at times, we don’t hear about the openings because promotions led by
large media outlets are often not as prevalent. Another blogger mentioned they often feature black
owned restaurants but have not specifically stated they were black owned in the description. We have
also done the same, but we missed highlighting them as black owned. Why is it important to state this
fact? Because they often have to work extra hard, and sometimes on their own, to open and need the
support more than ever. We are dedicated to this change and will ensure they get the attention they
deserve (not to mention, the food is ALWAYS on point!)

Also mentioned in our post:

“We support everyone, but as PROUD BLACK WOMEN running this account (and blog), let us just say,
black owners, we will shine a light on you. As a priority. No matter how small you are.”

Our commitment is to not just be another blog that keeps up with the trends. But a blog that also
provides support and awareness for those who really need it- our kind. Going forward, expect much of
the same content, but also a shift in who all we feature. A few people have previously documented black
owned businesses to support which has been both amazing and eye opening! Since we all have different
audiences, we want as many people as possible to see these lists. At the bottom of the post, you will
find restaurants (because this is a food and travel blog- keeping with the theme) categorized by type. I bet you didn’t realize there were this many did you? Yeah, us either! If we missed any, let us know in the comments!

Just a few of the black owned restaurants that we’ve featured in the past:

If you’re wondering about other ways to support, here are a few suggestions:

  1. Stay Educated
    a. There are tons of books (including cookbooks for the home cooks out there), movies,
    and documentaries out there that detail our history and why we fight so hard.
  2. Have the Uncomfortable Conversations
    a. Know what you are supporting and why
  3. Donate!
    a. There are multiple organizations to donate to that will filter dollars to black businesses.
    A quick google search will pull up multiple by city, state, or country
  4. Spend at Black Owned Businesses
    a. As mentioned, there are restaurants listed below. However, there are multiple other
    businesses out there that also need support. Google them in your specific area
  5. Promote what you know!
    a. Hear about a great black owned business (restaurants, bookstores, designers,
    nonprofits, startups, wineries, etc.)? Share them with your audience!

Although different from most of our blog posts, we hope this has been educational. Enjoy the list! We hope to run into you at many of them :)

Also, shoutout to the following bloggers/influencers for putting in so much work in locating a lot of the
businesses below: @linsinnati @kaitskravings @drinkingdiningdione @heymichelle1 and
@cincy.cocoabloggers . Follow them all!

Soul Food
Rasheedah’s café
Burnett’s soul food
Soul Secrets LLC
Ike’s BBQ
Jewell’s soul food
Millie’s Place
Gigi’s Kitchen
Ollie’s Trolley
Aunt Flora’s

Pluto’s Café

Tacos
Patora Tacos

Winery
Revel OTR

Personal Chefs/Caterers/Independent
Chef Banbini
Kwality Eats
Soul Secrets LLC
Purposely Plated
Crown’s Kitchen
Soleil Kitchen
Emma’s all in one occasions

Coffee
Cream and sugar coffeehouse (Brand New!)
Sunny Blu Coffee House
Black Coffee
Sunny Blu Coffeehouse
Muse Café (also wine bar)

BBQ
Just Qin
Sweets and Meats BBQ
Triple J’s BBQ
Eddie’s Southern Style BBQ

Dada Smokes BBQ
Ike’s BBQ
Alabama Que
C&M BBQ Grill
Talis Southern Bar and Grill
Smokin Inferno BBQ
J&W BBQ

Sweets
Davis Cookie Collection
Sweet Petit
Sweets by Ladawn
Green Man Twist
Sugar
Honeychild Pops
Jazzy Sweeties Bakery
Keys Cheesecakes and Pies
Keys cheesecake
Lala’s Blissful Bites
Goodies

Healthy
Bol Acai Bowl Bar
Conscious Kitchen
Kombuchinnati
Pause Cincy

Africa/Caribbean/Latin
Teranga Restaurant

Darou Salam
Divine appetite café
Gee’s Caribbean style
Island Frydays
Maize

Pizza/Burgers/Wings/Cafe and the Like
Endzone pizza
Express Wings
AJ’s cheesesteaks
Burger world
Pluto’s Café
Agape Café
Boomtown biscuits and whiskey
Copa lounge

Asian
Boombox buns

Seafood
Mango’s Tropical Oasis (also drinks)
K&J Seafood