Latitudes Cafe Anderson Towne Center 827-9146

Sundays Open at Noon
Mondays - Open at 7pm. $10 buckets, $5 food menu & Late Night Adult Plasma Pictionary
Sunday- Trivia Night
Tuesday- Open Jam with Joe Wolf
Wednesday- Karaoke
Thursday- DJ & $1 wells

Open Mic Night with Joe Wolf Video Tangled Up In Blue

Open Mic Night with Joe Wolf Video Under The Bridge

More Pics

Upcoming Events

Fridays
5- DJ
12- Amnesia Lane
19- Tad Casters 6-9pm
Johnny Elvis (Elvis Cover Band) 10-2am
26- Noisewater

Saturdays
6- Fathead Davis band
13- DJ Bernard
20- Leadfoot Johnny
27- Looseshoes

Eastside Vibe Review 1

Blues & BBQ

The Food Network is missing out on the Eastside Cincinnati culinary scene I’ll tell you that. Here soon, I’m buying a pro camera and producing my own Eastside restaurant shows, we’ll load them up on our website and show the world just what awesome restaurants we have here on the Eastside! The first place we’ll be filming is Latitudes Cafe. They have been upping the ante and raised the bar on quality culinary creations since they first opened. Everything they do is quality, the food, the bar, the music and everything in between.
I sit and watch hundreds of food shows and still I see little to compare to the quality and freshness that Latitudes has to offer. The word freshness doesn’t just mean fish that don’t stink either. I’m talking about ideas, ambience, decor, personality, quality and entertainment.

The fresh ideas in chef Danny Starkins mind spill out onto the plates daily, nightly and probably even in-between. Musical juices are always flowing on stage, the martinis are perfect and the service staff actually hangs out at Latitudes after work. Go figure.
When we saw that Latitudes was putting on a Blues & Barbecue rib roast my ears perked up. Now, I love ribs. I think slow simmered barbecued pig meat is a delight I dare not pass up. Until now, Latitudes has never delved into the Southern Barbecue scene. You could always get perfection on a plate but ribs were never a menu item. For that matter they still aren’t, however on Wednesdays Latitudes is stackin’ the grill with savory slabs of pork perfection and life has never been better. If you think Montgomery Inn has good ribs, bring your pen so you can get this cat’s autograph. Now, I know the ribs will disappear soon. The Blues & Barbecue will come to an end and something new and exciting will take it’s place... but for now you better take advantage and pig out on these ribs people.

What’s a great Barbecue without the blues? Memphis claims fame to the Barbecue King and they’d laugh at the thought of a good shin dig without a good blues band to go hand in hand with the pig. Enter Fat Head Davis.
Fat Head is on the stage for each and every Latitudes Barbecue. He sets the mood for Danny’s food just like they do it down South. Fat Head is from the South so I think he’s been to a Barbecue here and there before, so you know he knows what’s up.
Bottom line... real Southern ribs, fat sound track and Sammy mixin’ the martinis. A damn fine time by anybody’s standards. On a no pig diet? Don’t fret. Just take a look at this scallop (top center), this Ahi Tuna (center), these shrimp (bottom left) or the mussels (bottom right) and tell me your going to miss out on the feast of flavors Danny’s dishing out. I think Jerry Garcia said it best, “She’s got everything delightful, she’s got everything I need” Latitudes, I thank you, you bring a new standard to Cincinnati bars, in fact you’ve raised the bar. Thank god you chose to open right here on the Eastside. Now the residents from other sides of Cincinnati have to come to Eastside to get a taste of perfection. I love it.

Eastside Vibe Review 2

Eastside Entrepreneur

Latitudes Cafe Chris Hamm

Back in 1987 when Chris Hamm graduated New Richmond high school he took off straight for O.U. He believed a degree would be the key to his future. Majoring in event marketing and management he found 4 years later his education led him to the Riverfront Coliseum.
The pay was meager; the job was, “filling in the gaps.” Chris soon realized he would be working every weekend and every night for next to nothing. “My boss had been there for ten years, and he was making less than many of my friends who have just graduated. ” After three months Chris left.
Chris had a friend who was working for Honda, he had called Chris to tell him about a position opening at the Honda trading center in Marysville, Ohio. Chris asked, “what’s the job?” he was told, “importing aluminum for Honda.”
Chris’s reaction was simple, “Ok, I don’t know anything about importing and the only thing I know about aluminum is I hold it in my hand when I drink beer”. Nevertheless Chris attended the interview and got the job.
Helping Honda to create an importing company to supply all Honda’s North American companies was a great learning experience for Chris. Not to mention a great paycheck as well. In two years Chris had helped grow a company from nothing to over $100 million.
Enter Ford. Ford Motor Co. contacted Chris, told him they were impressed and wanted Chris to help with Ford’s global aluminum operations, “I said that’s great!...they threw this big number at me and I went for it and moved to Detroit”. “I went up there 26-27 years old...running around making deals...investing Ford in a $1.5 billion aluminum plant in Australia...it was fun." ”Fun” as it may have been, Chris’s dislike for Detroit eventually led him back to Cincinnati. Chris had an offer to start a metals trading company here with a 40% share. In six months he bought out the other 60% and entered his first real entrepreneurial endeavor.
With the metals trading company doing well and secured with long term contracts Chris brought in brother Ryan to oversee the day-to-day management. “I had time on my hands...I had always had an idea about opening up a restaurant...I liked the whole idea of figuring out something that made sense.” Chris spent 10-12+ hours at work every day over the past several years. That schedule gave him little opportunity to cook at home. ”I ate out at least 5-6 days a week..I would go out with my girlfriend...I would always sit at the bar, you get the best service at the bar...I would order like three or more appetizers and one entree and split it all up. So I thought what a great concept...instead of having to commit to only one meal you could order 4 or 5 things and sample more of a variety.” Chris began research into the idea and in fact found it was a very old concept, the Spanish had been doing it for ages. It was called Tapas, meaning “top”. The Spanish say it was created when pubs started serving toast as a “top” for your glass to keep the flies out. The toast was gradually replaced by other, more appetizing treats. The Tapas style of smaller portioned inexpensive pub food has since flourished in Spain and Europe.
The hunt begins. Searching for a suitable location Chris looked at existing restaurants for sale. ”I talked to a lot of people who owned restaurants...I learned that when you buy an existing place it’s hard to get the chance to make up for what you paid for it so you’ve got to buy it right. I tried to buy several places, all fell through, it came down to price...they just wanted more than I was willing to pay.” Two months later (after the businesses declined badly) the locations Chris had originally put a offer on called back to say they would meet his price, “by that time I had already moved on.” Chris had decided to buy a building and build a restaurant from scratch. When asked if it was a good decision Chris said, “It’s a lot of back and forth...you don’t really know which way to go...if you buy it in place, everything is already there and you open up a lot faster...from a cash flow standpoint you’ll spend less money.” “There’s a part of me that says if your going to do this the way you’ve dreamed about for years do you really want to try to fix someone else’s problems and end up with equipment that may or may not work from day to day, so I thought let’s do this from scratch and do it right...buy new equipment with warranties...design the space to meet our standards and our concept.”
Chris’s mother called to tell him there was a great location currently housing a coffee shop in downtown Milford. It was doing poorly and was up for sale. Chris stopped by, took a look at the building and decided it would work. The only problem was it needed a lot of work to get it in functional form. “I made plans to remodel the space...knock this wall out...put a bar over here..and so on.”
When asked if it went as planned Chris said, “We bumped our heads on a lot of things...it’s a learning curve...you get through it...you make mistakes...hopefully they’re not big ones.”
As the building came to completion it was time to refine and finalize the menu. “I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but a concept is hit from all sides by other factors”. “We achieved what we set out to do...it’s easy to let your concept get torn down.” Tapas menu concept intact and a martini bar stocked to the brim, Chris opened the doors. Milford Latitudes was now in business. Chris was now an entrepreneur times two.
The business was fairly slow (but sure) at first, however Chris remained confident in it’s success “A lot of people make the mistake of not being patient enough to make it last...maybe the sales are not quite what you expected or maybe they drop a bit...the next thing you know your getting pool tables and a Golden Tee machine because 5 or so people say they’ll be there everyday if you do, but you can’t be everything to everyone.” “We’re creating a concept that people wouldn’t just say If you open one of these I’ll go to it...we’re bringing them something that maybe they like that they didn’t know they like.”
The paint at the Milford location was barely dry yet Chris was already putting together the plans to open a second location in the Anderson Towne Center. “It all comes down to an ultimate strategy...I want to evolve from my vocation (metal trading) to being something else.”
The grand opening at the new location was miserable, two severe thunderstorm fronts passed by complete with torrential rains and lightning “we had six people at the bar...you almost had to laugh.” Since that turbulent opening night Latitudes has quickly grown. Maybe it’s the live music six nights a week, or perhaps the superb menu, or maybe it’s the wine list that rivals anyone in the city. No, I think it’s the great combination of everything. The Eastside has been hungry for an upscale adult restaurant for some time now. So far we’ve been stuck with sports bars and chicken wings or pretentious posers, (not to mention the conglomerate corporate cowards). Chris put his finger to the pulse and diagnosed the cure correctly.
“ It all comes down to creating a place people like to go to”. Sounds simple right? The truth is restaurants come and go, they are considered high-risk businesses by banks and investors. Regardless of how much money you throw into them if the public does not embrace your concept you will be looking for a realtor.
Eastsiders have embraced Chris’s concept wholly, Latitudes is now home to affluent adults as well as blue-collar patrons. It all comes down to a matter of taste, not class. Anyone who appreciates quality without compromise will appreciate the Latitudes experience. I can’t wait to see what Chris has up his other sleeve.

Eastside Vibe Review 3

Dinner With 'Dieu at Latitudes Cafe`

The Madieu Williams Foundation, a fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, is proud to present "Dinner With 'Dieu". Each month during the 2006 NFL football season a local restaurant will team up with Madieu to raise money for the Foundation by donating half of the evening's proceeds to The Madieu Williams Foundation.
Last month, Madieu and some of his friends hosted a dinner on Monday, October 23 at Latitude's Café in Anderson, Ohio. Madieu was in attendance from 7-8 p.m. to mingle with guests and raise money for the great cause. A donation of $10 was suggested for each autograph and Latitudes raised over $1000 to help the Foundation.
Because his mother recently passed away from a stroke, Madieu understands first-hand the severity of minority health issues. The Madieu Williams Foundation, a fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, focuses on health, wellness, nutrition, fitness and education. Through his foundation, Madieu reaches out to youth and teaches them at an early age the importance of a healthy lifestyle.
Each summer, Madieu hosts a free football clinic for kids in the Cincinnati area. This free clinic provides youth the opportunity to work on their football skills, sportsmanship, and teamwork skills, while building self-esteem both on and off the field.
The Madieu Williams Foundation is now looking to build a playground in the Cincinnati area to get kids outside and active. KaBoom! will serve as the partner for this initiative. KaBOOM! is a national nonprofit organization that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Celebrating ten years of service in 2006, they rally communities to achieve better public policy, funding and public awareness for increased play opportunities nationwide; provide resources, including trainings, challenge grants, and publications for communities that wish to plan a new playspace on their own; and bring together children, business and community interests for a select number of community playspace builds each year. In addition, the Madieu Williams Foundation is working with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Cincinnati to create and implement an incentive program that rewards children for making positive decisions that lead to a healthier lifestyle. Members will have the opportunity to receive incentive items based on their personal successes in school, at home, and at the community center.
Latitudes has certainly shown their support by hosting the charity fundraiser. It’s certainly nice to see a local business giving their time and money to help a charity as important as this one. To learn more information on the Madieu Williams Foundation visit them on the web at madieuwilliams.org
To see more information about Latitudes Cafe` visit them on the web at latitudescafe.net or at eastsidevibe.com.