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Taste of Cincinnati highlights Findlay Market's BIPOC food entrepreneurs this year

Owner of Miley Pooh Sweets Bri'ana Heard will sell her "cake babies" at Taste of Cincinnati.
Ann Thompson
/
WVXU
Owner of Miley Pooh Sweets Bri'ana Heard will sell her "cake babies" at Taste of Cincinnati.

Among the 300 dishes you'll find at this weekend's Taste of Cincinnati are Bri'ana Heard's "cake babies," or mini upside-down pound cakes. The founder of Miley Pooh Sweets started her business at Findlay Kitchen in memory of her brother who died in 2020.

Eighty-nine percent of the 18 Findlay Market-related businesses participating in Taste of Cincinnati this year are BIPOC-owned. Heard is one of them. These food entrepreneurs, who are Black, Indigenous and people of color, are part of the market, Findlay Launch and Findlay Kitchen.

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Findlay Market Director of Food Innovation Marianne Hamilton says positive change is happening in our community in real time. "Many of these food entrepreneurs would not have been able to participate without the intentional lowering of barriers that our team, with Chamber support, would not have been able to provide."

What kind of food?

Don't watch your waistline. USA Regional Chamber CEO Brendon Cull has a solution to try as many of the 300 dishes as you can.

"My recommendation for you is to get those sweatpants that you bought during COVID, get them back out and wear them down to Taste of Cincinnati. We'll all be OK with it, and eat all 300 (dishes)," says Cull.

Those dishes include a smoked lamb taco, a walking gyro, and caramel beignet. The 80 vendors are the most in Taste's history. Taste is also one of the area's largest musical events, with 39 acts.

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There's more of a footprint according to VP of Events and Experiences for the Chamber Chelsea York. "Look down Broadway. Look down Sycamore. Look down Sentinel Street. Don't miss anything to the left or right of Fifth Street," she says. "Seating, there's more seating. Plenty of places to sit down and enjoy your food."

This year beer stands also will sell water and soda and take credit cards.

Taste of Cincinnati is open Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Monday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m..

Ann Thompson has decades of journalism experience in the Greater Cincinnati market and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting.