The Queen City, better known as Cincinnati, is the third largest city in Ohio. Despite its size, Cincinnati is really just a big small town. After living in Cincinnati, I can honestly say that somehow or another everyone knows each other or is connected in some way. ‘Cincinnatians’ are knit together by some very strong commonalities. You know you’re from the Queen City if you can relate to the following top 15 things about Cincinnati.
1.) You know chili goes best on top of noodles or hot dogs. No matter which chili shop you choose, Cincinnati is known for its style of chili and you can’t go wrong. There’s Skyline and Gold Star for starters but then you also have Pleasant Ridge Chili, Price Hill Chili, Camp Washington Chili and Empress Chili.
2.) You’re a fan of the Reds. There is a serious epidemic that rolls through Cincinnati on Opening Day. It happens to be Reds Fever. Everyone calls off work or skips school on Opening Day to see the Reds play at Great American Ballpark and line the streets of downtown to see the parade. We love our Reds not only because they play good baseball but also because they were the first professional baseball team in U.S. history. (St. Louis Cardinals…..who?)
3.) You know that our beer is one of the best around. At the end of the 1800s, Cincinnati was the third largest beer producer in the country. There are historic breweries being revived even today. Samuel Adams is brewed at the former Hudepohl-Schoenling brewery in Over-the-Rhine and Moerlein opened a new restaurant/brewery, the Moerlein Lager House. Mad Tree, Rhinegeist and Great Lakes Brewery are also some other well-known breweries here in town.
4.) You have been to Oktoberfest “Zinzinnati.” Cincinnati has a strong German heritage. In celebration, the city hosts the second largest Oktoberfest celebration in the world every year.
5.) You have a strong distaste for St. Louis and Pittsburgh. Cincinnati is a city of die-hard sports fans. We always band together in support for our Reds and our Bengals every year.
6.) You know Who Dey is a sentence all on it’s own. Win or lose, if you live in Cincinnati you have Bengals pride.
7.) You know if you’re red or blue and I don’t mean politics. The Crosstown Shootout is a big favorite for sports fans. The sports rivalry between the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University has spanned generations. We even wrote on why UC is better than Xavier. (Check it out!)
8.) You know if you’re an East-Sider or a West-Sider. We may be a tight knit group here in Cincinnati but we still have our differences. Yes…Eastside versus Westside is an serious argument.
9.) You actually know the seven hills of Cincinnati. Mount Adams, Mount Auburn, Walnut Hills, Fairmount, Fairview Heights, Clifton Heights and Mount Harrison.
10.) You know that the Cincinnati airport is actually in Northern Kentucky. The Greater Cincinnati Airport is actually named the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and is located in Hebron, Kentucky.
11.) You know how to pronounce Reading Road. You can always see who is from Cincinnati and who is not just from the way they pronounce Reading Road. For all of you not from Cincinnati, it’s pronounced “RED-ing” not “READ-ing.”
12.) You know that where you went to high school matters. Whenever you meet someone for the first time here in Cincinnati, the first thing you ask after learning their name is where they went to school. It’s not the college you went to that people care about though. High school rivalries are WAY more important here than college rivalries.
13.) You know Cincinnati only has three seasons. We have winter and summer of course, sometimes in the same week. We don’t really get a proper fall or spring though. So what’s our third season you ask, construction. When you have more orange cones in your city than people, it’s a problem.
14.) You say “please” instead of “what did you say?” This is just a Cincinnati quirk but it is rare that you will here someone actually ask the question “what did you say?”
15.) You know what pop is. Any carbonated beverage is called pop not soda. This debate will cause an argument so be warned.