Blogs

Jeremy Neff, Post 1

Gemütlichkeit.

Before moving to Cincinnati five years ago this word was as foreign to me as "goetta," "who dey?" "cornhole," and alternate uses of the word please.

I still have a hard time defining gemütlichkeit, but I know it when I’m experiencing it.  Meeting up with friends for burritos and bluegrass at the Comet.  Having a snowball fight walking home from Bockfest during the blizzard.  Discussing recipes with the folks at Madison's or Herbs and Spice at Findlay Market.  Playing Apples to Apples at Grammer’s.  Singing a few bars from Aida with downtown barber Fausto Ferrari while he cuts my hair.  Spending a warm Oktoberfest afternoon in the Spaten tent.  Spending a cold February night at a City Cellars wine tasting when a heavy coat of ice shut down all but foot traffic.

I never thought I would call Cincinnati home.  I was going to be here for three years of school.  If everything went just right I would get an offer from the firm that inspired me to be a lawyer, I’d move back north to Columbus, and all would be good.  Regardless, I certainly wouldn’t stay in a city that my northern Ohio upbringing taught me was hardly even worth mentioning unless the Browns were playing the Bengals.  I worked hard, things went just right, and I did get that dream job offer.  And like a lot of people my age I chose a city first, job second.  By the time that offer came I had chosen my city: Cincinnati.

I don’t know exactly when it happened.  Gemütlichkeit is like that.  That sense of comfort and belonging becomes so ingrained in your psyche that it is hard to remember when it wasn’t there.  Maybe it was the first time I entered Music Hall and had my breath taken away – not just by the remarkable beauty of the structure and the sound of the symphony, but by the fact that I was part of a city that so values the arts that it built and maintains such a monumental temple of the arts.

It might have been at one of the festivals and celebrations that fill the calendar here.  Maybe while I toasted the haggis with a glass of scotch at Nicholson’s for Burns Night.  Perhaps when I looked over and saw Bootsy Collins nodding along to the same music I was enjoying at Know Theatre during Midpoint Music Festival.  It could have been while I was sipping contraband bourbon from a flask at Tall Stacks while getting a lesson in Cincinnati’s musical heritage from none other than Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys.

Whenever it was, I am sure of one thing: it was at a local business or local event.  Gemütlichkeit does not lend itself well to mass replication.  It requires a degree of identity – of soul – that can’t be put in a box and shipped from place to place.  While comfort and leisure are hallmarks of gemütlichkeit it doesn’t happen without some effort.  Local businesses, events, and organizations require a commitment from the community to sustain them.

With that in mind, I approached the people at www.buycincy.com about putting together a holiday shopping guide that featured guest contributors from throughout the city writing about their experiences making a conscious effort to spend at least some of their holiday shopping dollars at locally owned businesses.  BuyCincy already profiles local shops and restaurants, so the Holiday Guide is sort of a reality-tv take on the good work they do throughout the year.

Check out BuyCincy’s Holiday Guide, and head to a local business in your neighborhood for a little gemütlichkeit of your own.