CINCINNATI — A long-time Over-the-Rhine eatery is returning to the neighborhood after it left in 2021 — and this time it's within its sister-bar.
Daniel Wright's Senate is bringing its gourmet hot dogs back to OTR within Holiday Spirits' food window. The hot dog joint, which has a location in Blue Ash as well, is taking the place of Wright's Forty Thieves, a Mediterranean spot known for its falafel.
Senate originally opened in OTR in 2009, making it one of the first restaurants to help with OTR's restaurant resurgance. Over the years, Wright and his Queen City Hospitality Group have spurred two other restaurants in OTR — Abigail Street and Pontiac — and then he developed Holiday and Forty Thieves in March 2019. As the initial impact of the pandemic began to wane, Wright realized Abigail Street, his more upscale Mediterranean restaurant, was skyrocketing in business, which led him to expand it into Senate's previous spot on Vine Street.
Wright looked at his master plan and idea for his restaurants and imagined something greater for Forty Thieves, which aligned with his want to bring Senate back to its home in OTR.
"Eventually we want to turn [Forty Thieves] into a fast-casual concept," Wright said. "Where you walk in and there's a wall of rotisserie chickens, and you go down the line and can have falafel or shawarma, salads, all this other stuff. But it just needs to fit somewhere else."
Currently, Wright is imagining this concept in the suburbs instead of a more downtown location. He's looking at locations like Hyde Park, Norwood, Madeira, Deerfield Township and other neighborhoods.
He believes Senate not only moving back to OTR, but it moving in with Holiday is a match made in heaven.
"A lot of people mourn the absence of Senate. Their own personal love of the food and stuff," Wright said.
In Wright's opinion crushing late-night hot dogs, burgers and fries makes more sense for the bar atmosphere rather than the shawarma and other offerings from Forty Thieves. On top of that, he thinks the menu will be more attractive to the influx of people out and about doing things in the neighborhood.
"It seems like the right kind of food not only to offer the families that come in during FC games, but to offer anybody who's out late night and intoxicated and having fun," Wright said.
With both a food window inside Holiday, as well as an outdoor pick-up window, Senate's menu was officially available Friday. The menu is a smaller, "best-of-the-best" version of Senate Blue Ash's full menu.
It features classics like the Trailer Park Dog (beef hotdog, applewood bacon, cheese, coleslaw and crushed grippos) and the Chicago Dog (beef hotdog, tomato, mustard, onion, neon relish, sport peppers, pickle and celery salt), but it also has a specialty FC Dawg (beef hotdog, chili, cheese, fritos and house pickled peppers) in honor of the bar's close location to FC Cincinnati's TQL Stadium.
Other than the hotdogs, customers can enjoy burgers, gyros, Senate's famous truffle fries, poutine and you can even still enjoy Forty Thieves' falafel. On the weekends, the food window will also offer Senate's mussels charmoula for those that dine-in. Wright also promised that different menu items would appear from time-to-time as specialties.
"As much as it's your upscale pub food, it's fun," Wright said.
Other than Wright, Holiday's General Manager Cody Page is also excited about the addition of Senate's food.
"I think the two concepts are just very similar," Page said. "Holiday is trying to bring a more elevated aesthetic to a dive bar atmosphere, and I feel like Senate sort of does the same thing with food."
Page said coming to Holiday isn't just enjoying a drink — though you can enjoy classic cocktails, a wide variety of domestic and craft beers and more — and some food, it's more of an experience.
"I think the reason we have so many regulars is because people realize it's not just a bar or it's not just a restaurant," Page said. "It's a place where people can go and have fun and relax. Everybody knows it's a safe space for everyone, as well."
Some may say the opportunities for fun at the bar are endless. Other than its wooden bar that practically stretches the length of the building, there's plenty of options for seating, A Zoltar fortune teller, two pool tables, Skee-ball and a pop-a-shot basketball hoop. In terms of decor, Holiday's sleek concrete floors and leather couches are juxtaposed by a letter board featuring witty phrases, tons of oddities and knick-knacks decorating various spots in the bar, as well as a full concrete wall of chalk drawings provided by customers.
Where else can you sip on a craft beer while a framed photo of Cher or a monkey with cymbals stares back at you? We certainly can't think of many places.
Senate's aesthetics and atmosphere at Holiday play into that same fun the bar has. The outside food window is accompanied by a decked-out hotdog mascot, which was designed by Jason Snell and painted by Javarri Lewis.
"Nothing we do is about taking itself too seriously," Wright said. "It's supposed to be, you're here, you have fun, grab a beer, grab a drink and get a couple hot dogs."
Senate will be serving up glizzies, burgers and more all five days that Holiday is open.
Here are Senate OTR's hours:
- Wednesday — 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
- Thursday — 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
- Friday — 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.
- Saturday — 12 p.m. to 11 p.m.
- Sunday — 12 p.m. to 9 p.m.
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