Diana Bosse’s take from her adventures around the Tri-State area

By Diana Bosse for Loveland Beacon

LOVELAND, OH and beyond (October 19, 2023) – First, a little background on the author of these adventure stories. Diana Bosse, in her own words:

Diana Bosse has jotted notes in her diary, written thousands of grocery lists, hundreds of Facebook posts, a few articles in company newsletters as well as The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Island Packet, Ladies Home Journal and Women’s Day. In 2019 she published her first New York Times Best Seller (well, that’s a stretch, but she’s still hoping), The Perks of Having Cancer.

Diana grew up on the west side of Cincinnati and did what few West-siders ever do – she crossed Vine Street and moved to Loveland in 1990, where she lived for 31 glorious years.  (Editor’s Note: Also where Diana fought and survived cancer.)

Her plan in retirement is to move to South Carolina.  One morning, about a year prior to THE.BIG.MOVE.SOUTH, she had a panic attack when she realized there were many places in Tri-State area she had yet to explore.  Thus, her gastronomical and intriguing adventures began.

Travel along with Diana on her journey through diners, drive-ins, dives, quirky museums and off-the-beaten path destinations in our beautiful town and beyond. Buckle up your seat belt, undo your trouser belt, and enjoy Destinations2Di4!   

And now, here is the first edition of this new Loveland Beacon feature by Diana Bosse: 

I’m No Dummy

Peter Piper may have picked a peck of pickled peppers, but who cares? I picked the Pepper Pod with my birth father, aka: Big Poppa and it was pleasantly palatable!

Yesterday’s B-list adventure once again took us across the mighty Ohio River into Northern Kentucky, specifically Monmouth Street in Newport. A few months ago when I mentioned Pepper Pod to my Northern Kentucky friend, Laura , her response was, “Where?!?!?” The way she said it was less than favorable so I asked if she’d ever been there. She had, about 40 years ago, after a late night of binge drinking. It may have been why she cancelled our lunch date with me that day.

Earlier this week, when I mentioned to my husband, Steve, I was headed to Monmouth Street, he jokingly asked if the restaurant had a stripper pole. But Monmouth Street has changed since those days! There are bistros, boutiques and bakeries. I didn’t spy one brothel or strip club.

 And the Pepper Pod was as clean as Monmouth Street’s history was dirty. Open since 1956 (according to the tatted and pierced waitresses’ T-shirt) but no longer open 24 hours a day, the landmark restaurant has stood the test of time.

Pepper Pod serves up typical diner food – plenty of breakfast items leaning toward the unhealthy- and lunch options galore. I could have had another burger or double decker, but it was the Eddie’s Special Sandwich that caught my eye – grilled ham and Swiss on a long bun with lettuce, tomato and tartar sauce. Big Poppa’s eyes grew big when he zeroed in on the Big Eddie Sandwich – two ground beef patties on a double deck bun. There were several other Eddies on the menu so Big Poppa just had to take a photo to send to his oldest son, Eddie.

I have no idea who Eddie is or was, but we assumed at one point in his life prior to opening his restaurant, he worked at Frisch’s. My Eddie was remarkably similar to the Buddy Boy and Big Poppa’s Eddie was remarkable similar to the Big Boy. The main difference is the buns at Pepper Pod are fresh, the portions are larger and the price is significantly less (like about half). Added bonus: tater tots on the menu! The only downside was the ice in my ice-cold Coca-Cola was not the crunchy ice, just normal cubes, but because the fountain drink was served up in a Styrofoam cup, I was still able to give the Pepper Pod a five-star review!

After lunch, our day went south. Can I just vent a little? Seriously, we headed south on I75 to exit 188 for our 1 o’clock tour at Vent Haven Museum in Park Hills. What’s Vent Haven, you ask? It’s just like the name sounds, a haven for ventriloquist dummies.

Whaaat?!?!?

Yeah, that was the response from everyone I mentioned it to, other than Tom, another Northern Kentucky friend of mine. Unfortunately, Tom was having hand surgery on Wednesday so I asked another Tom I knew (Big Poppa) to go with me. Little did I know, he knew everything about the exhibit. He had stumbled across Vent Haven back in the mid-1970’s when it was just a series of storage sheds in someone’s backyard. He was so impressed, he worked to bring part of the collection to a temporary exhibit at the Contemporary Art Center. He also knew the sheds were gone, replaced by one new ADA accessible building in 2018.

As we pulled up, the curator met the group outside on the porch. It was a sellout crowd that included a couple of teachers, the vice-mayor of Lexington, and a gal from as far away as Colorado. We were led into the beautifully appointed building where Lisa the Curator schooled us on the history of the museum as well as her own (she had been a math teacher until 23 years ago). She then ushered us into the “odditorium” to view a film about museums founder, W.S. Berger and some of the famous ventriloquists through the years.

I took a deep breath as Lisa escorted us into the first gallery. My fear of dummies does not rival my fear of clowns of heights, but my pulse rate did kick it up a notch or two. Honestly the tour was so interesting and the dummies, puppets, props and posters so intriguing, I forgot to have a panic attack.

I think I learned more in the 90+ minute tour than I did in my first 90 days of high school. Did you know ventriloquist Paul Winchell also invented the artificial heart? He was a genius that had more than 90 patents, one being the disposable razor which he sold to Gillette for $100 (OK, so maybe he wasn’t that smart). Did you know some of the older dummies had real human teeth?

Did you know Mae West got banned from Charlie McCarthy & Edgar Bergen’s radio show when she said to the dummy, “Why don’t you come up and play in my wood pile?” Did you know more recent dummies made from latex will disintegrate in another 50 years, but the dummies made back in 1880 will still be around to freak us out?

Anywho, I’m not going to give away all of the secrets of the world’s only ventriloquist museum, but I will say you’d be a real dummy if you don’t experience this little gem that’s right in our own backyard…well not really our backyard…it’s still W.S. Berger’s backyard.