Sunflower’s last stand

The first of two federal dates is this week, and I want to make sure everybody understands what is actually happening, because the headlines are not doing a great job of it.

Thursday, November 12, covers only cannabinoids the plant itself cannot naturally produce, things like delta-8. That is not hemp-derived THC yet. That part of the ban is, in my opinion, mostly garbage product that should not have been out there anyway.

Friday, December 11, 2026, is the real deadline for the drinks. That is when the new rule makes it illegal to produce and sell outside of dispensaries any product with more than 0.4 milligrams of hemp-based THC per container. A Sunflower can is 5 milligrams. Five milligrams is my sweet spot, more than that and I melt into the couch, less than that and I do not really notice a whole lot. The cap is less than a tenth of one can.

I think that essentially kills the entire hemp-derived THC beverage market. You can still buy them in a dispensary legally, but there are only so many dispensaries, and the costs that get tacked on make it hard to see how a producer makes the math work just for dispensaries.

Fifty West founder Bobby Slattery has said Sunflower was, at one point, nearly 50 percent of Fifty West’s sales. Half the company. The company is already shutting its Chillicothe facility. The Party Source in Kentucky has said the cap would effectively wipe out their shelves, after Ohio’s ban already pushed the demand south once. What does Fifty West look like on December 12? I honestly have no idea. I do not know how you just eat that.

I am also not positive the legislature changing after the election is going to help THC in any reasonable time frame. Other people are more optimistic. I would not bet on it.

So here is the practical part: if you like THC beverages, buy them right now. They are still on shelves around town, people are selling through the inventory they have, and once it is gone, it is gone. Buy a bunch, stock up, the shelf life will carry them through your holiday celebrating.

Jimmie Lou’s is open, and Pendleton is back Jeff Harris spent years being the James Beard-nominated chef behind Nolia Kitchen. On Tuesday, November 3, he opened the restaurant he has been trying to bring back since 2021, and it smells like New Orleans.

Jimmie Lou’s is at 1201 Broadway St in Pendleton, in the former Razzo space. Hours are Tuesday through Thursday 5 to 9 PM, Friday and Saturday 5 to 10 PM, closed Sunday and Monday. Harris is a New Orleans native who relocated to Cincinnati after Hurricane Katrina, and a multiple-time James Beard finalist and nominee, which is a huge deal in a city that does not get a whole lot of mentions for things like that. We are lumped into a James Beard bubble with Chicago, and Chicago usually soaks up the attention. That has started to shift in the last couple years.

He first opened Jimmie Lou’s as a walk-up counter inside the Oakley Kitchen Food Hall in 2021. This is the full restaurant version, five years later, a place where you can actually sit down and eat the food instead of standing in a food hall with a bunch of other people eating different things.

And Pendleton itself is the bigger story. The neighborhood had a burst a few years ago, Braxton Cincinnati, BrewDog, Nation, Boomtown Biscuits, and then it lost all of them. Now it is coming back. Coco Moon, a Mexican Asian fusion restaurant by day and Latin dance club by night, is going into the old BrewDog space. Crown Cantina moved into the old Nation spot. The old Braxton building sold for about $1.5 million, and a high-end sushi restaurant was rumored for it, though I have not heard anything since. Lucius Q, Hart and Cru, Bar Saeso, Urbana, and Pendleton Parlor are still there.

Do not call it OTR, by the way. If you live or work or spend time in Pendleton and you call it OTR, people will get mad at you. It is Pendleton. It is its own spot.

I do not know a lot about what the bar program looks like yet. I assume they will have something that serves a good Sazerac, or something that carries on that personality. If they can make a proper Sazerac, I will be there. I have had about forty Sazeracs in the last twelve months, and Marco, who called in during this segment, has had none. We are fixing that soon.

The ticker, the Listermann question, and the tastings A few things from the night that deserve their own mention.

First, we have a new feature: a scrolling beer release ticker across the bottom of the screen, listing the week’s Cincinnati beer releases. This was the first version, and it had a bug Julia caught live, no space between November 14th and Northern Row. Fixed.

Second, Zack Holly called the Drunk Line early in the night with the question every Cincinnati beer drinker has argued about: if somebody who knew what they were doing brought Listermann back, would you want it revived? My answer is yes, if it were done the proper way, but I am not positive it could be, and it is probably best to look back fondly on what it was. The beer is not what we are missing, former Listermann people are still brewing around town, and neither are the people. It is the communal spirit, a taproom where homebrewers talked about beer from a different perspective. Gravel Road bringing in the homebrew store is great, but it will not be Listermann at its prime. Zack also found an old bottle of Listermann bourbon barrel-aged imperial dark ale at White Oak Marathon, still drinking well, just less carbonated, which is how this whole conversation started.

Third, the tastings. I opened the night with Voltage absinthe from March First, 120 proof, neat, which is not the proper way to drink it. It is an old bottle from when they were still distilling in Blue Ash, bright licorice, a light fruitiness, smells like summertime, like biting into black licorice, with an earthy bite at the end. It deserves to be talked about more.

The beer of the night was Braxton Vino de Naranja, a gift from Josh and Julia, a citrus ale aged in Vino de Naranja casks, 8.3% ABV, a collaboration with Castle & Key. The casks came from Spain, held aged orange wine, then matured Castle & Key’s three-year rye for 11 months, then held Braxton’s citrus ale for another 10 months. Light, refreshing, delicate, floral, definitely citrusy, like a citrusy whiskey cocktail. People give Braxton crap for being middle of the road, and the democratizing craft beer line, but they have always had it in them to make spectacular beer, and this is one of them.

And yes, per Julia’s instructions, I made a cuvee: Vino de Naranja plus a healthy dash of the absinthe. It smells like a lot of absinthe. If I could put too much absinthe in something, that would be it. But I can’t, so it’s not. Verdict at the end of the night: not bad, but too much absinthe.

What is coming Sonder released the Family Tradition variant list, including a Skyline Chili variant and a Cookies and Cream one, and I will go through all of them on a future episode, with a blog post too. The online bottle sale goes live Tuesday, November 24 at noon.

The reader poll is still open, and the results are coming in. Some categories are absolutely blowing my mind at what people are saying. Voting closes the first week of December, and the results run in Cincy Drinks Magazine Issue 1 in January. I will put a story out with the voting link.

And the last line of the night, which I am writing down here so somebody holds me to it: are there any Sazerac-inspired beers? I have had plenty of Old Fashioned-inspired beers. Somebody needs to make a Sazerale. Let’s do it.

Watch the episode The full episode, “Sunflower’s Last Stand And A Pendleton Comeback,” is up on YouTube now:

The Weekly Pint streams live Mondays at 9:30 PM ET. More Cincinnati drinking news at thegnarlygnome.com, and if you want to support the show, thegnarlygnome.com/support.

Sunflower’s last stand

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