City View Tavern
Our Story
Over 150 years in the same location in Mount Adams.
The Best Seat in the City
Perched above downtown Cincinnati, City View Tavern has been a neighborhood fixture for locals and visitors who climb the hill for one thing: the best seat in the city.
150+ Years in Mount Adams
The History of City View Tavern
1875
A three-story building rises on the site. German immigrants — alongside a substantial Italian and Irish population — are already building Mount Adams' own churches, businesses, schools, and social institutions.
1891
Coppersmith and Celestial Street resident Thomas Spain opens a grocery and mercantile operation on the site.
1901
Spain adds a saloon in the front of the building alongside the grocery — a grocery-and-tavern pairing common in German-American communities of the time.
1906
Bernard Reckingloh — who immigrated from Bremen, Germany in 1886 — purchases the business from Spain.
1917
George Lagemann — a 45-year-old butcher born in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, Germany, who'd worked for Reckingloh — buys the business, beginning 68 years of family ownership. He and his wife raise their children upstairs on the second floor; his youngest son, Ted, later takes over when George can no longer run it.
1920–1933
A speakeasy runs in the cellar through Prohibition, while the sale of alcohol is banned nationwide.
1946
The Lagemanns' annual Christmas-tree burn — a family tradition for unsold trees — catches too close to the building. The "Christmas Tree Fire" destroys the upper two floors, including the family's living quarters.
1947
Ted Lagemann rebuilds with a porch overlooking greater Cincinnati, earning the tavern its current name (it had previously been The 400 Bar, Ozark Bar #2, and Mousie's Bar). He moves the tavern to the rear of the building and the grocery to the front, and opens a basement "Party Room" for poker nights — later the tavern's office.
Circa 1965
Lagemann bans tequila. Local lore says it followed an injury a regular named Charles Manson — a Cincinnati native who lived on Oregon Street and favored tequila — suffered off the back deck. Manson later moved to California, where he was convicted for ordering the 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders; his death sentence was commuted to life, and he died in 2017.
Circa 1970
Lagemann bans foul language on the premises — penalty: eviction.
1985
Bartender and server Deb Henning buys the tavern from the Lagemanns and restores its façade to its 1917 look, treasuring the old photos and memorabilia Ted passed down to her.
1999
Henning takes on Silas Evans — who starts as a bartender — as business partner.
2026
On August 29, Henning retires to Florida and sells the tavern — a new Freking era begins. Tequila is back on the menu, though foul language is still not welcome.
Notable Patrons