Mom ’n ’em

Photos by Michael Wilson

Cincinnati, Ohio — You can hardly be a local food fan or coffee aficionado without knowing about Mom ’n ’em, the shop founded in 2019 by brothers Austin and Tony Ferrari. The spot helped spark a remote corner of Camp Washington and picked up accolades from national food and travel media. The brothers’ mid-day bistro at the Contemporary Arts Center, Fausto, was similarly buzzy for its menu of simple, elegant, locally sourced dishes (unfortunately closed in at the end of 2022).

So it was rather a feat that they managed to keep word of Mom ’n ’em’s second location mostly under wraps until a few weeks before it opened in Madisonville in early June 2022. Like the original, Mom ’n ’em 2.0 occupies a remote corner of the neighborhood, about a half mile from the strip of brand-new apartment buildings and businesses that constitute Madisonville’s core. That’s intentional. “We like the underdeveloped, underserved communities,” Austin says. “It’s less valuable to us to open directly on Madison Road or on Vine Street in OTR. We’re not a drive-by coffee shop; it’s a destination where you can come and be yourself inside these walls.”

The brothers purchased and gutted the old dive bar, 15 years vacant, bringing it back to life with massive front windows, varnished original flooring, and custom-built cabinetry. Art Deco-inspired curves meet mid-century modern furniture and smooth Italian pastels.

Mom ’n ’em occupies a European-ish place in its customers’ lives: They can drop in for a coffee in the morning, a bite from the locally sourced menu at lunch, and again for a glass of wine in early evening. On their travels, Tony says, “we always find ourselves at the corner café having a glass of wine. It’s approachable and fun, something you can do every day.”

Tony, holding 3-week-old Vincenzo over his shoulder for a post-bottle burp, envisions his son hanging out at Mom ’n ’em with his papa, uncle, and grandmother as he grows—just as Tony and Austin spent time in their grandfather’s Downtown barber shop. The brothers have created these places as comfortable gathering spots. “The coffee shop is an anchor of the neighborhood no matter what,” Tony says. “It’s the place you go between work and home, a place where you go to be yourself, you don’t have any pressure to deal with anything. You can drink coffee, people watch, and zone out. It’s a place that welcomes everyone.”

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Mom ’n ’em
4310 Whetsel Ave.
Momnemcoffee.com / 513.302.6197