Author: By Andy Brownfield – Managing editor, Cincinnati Business Courier
A new cocktail bar has opened inside of the Walnut Hills space that once housed a sister concept to Over-the-Rhine’s Sundry and Vice.
Son & Garden opened March 7 at 793 E. McMillan St. The bar was opened by Joey Cromwell, founder of the BLK Foundation, a nonprofit that supports children from low-income and marginalized communities as they pursue college and career success.
Son & Garden bills itself as a botanical cocktail lounge, serving drinks featuring earthy ingredients like ginger, passionfruit, lemongrass, cucumber and seasonal berries. The bar was inspired in part by Cromwell’s uncle, Arthur Sherman Jr., who operated Sherman’s Flower Shop on Gilbert Avenue for 79 years.
“This neighborhood raised me,” Cromwell said in a news release. “Son & Garden is about honoring where we come from while creating something beautiful for where Walnut Hills is going.”
The bar space most recently housed Comfort Station, opened by Sundry and Vice co-founder Stuart King in 2019. Comfort Station quietly closed its doors in 2024. The landlord, the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation, was represented by Kristina Skurow, Michael Bergman and Gueorgui Chikov of Astonish Commercial Real Estate Services. The tenant was represented by Gabriela Costantini of 3CRE.
“Our leasing strategy is intentionally focused on recruiting independent, local entrepreneurs that reflect the values and culture of the neighborhood,” Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation Executive Director Samantha Miller said in the release.
Son & Garden is kitty-corner from Model Group’s Paramount Square development in the former Paramount Theater building at Peebles Corner at the intersection of East McMillan Street and Gilbert Avenue, which also includes the site of a former Kroger store Model Group bought for $2.65 million in 2019.
Model Group has invested more than $100 million in redevelopment in the Walnut Hills neighborhood.
