Cindy’s Friendly Tavern

Loveland, Ohio

Field Note

Progress can be a tricky prospect for dive bars, sometimes threatening the existence of long-loved, low rent community staples. Cincinnati suburb Loveland has seen a burst of gentrification run through the small city’s downtown area, creating a walkable, attractive district that has no doubt revitalized the area. Thankfully, Cindy’s Friendly Tavern exists just on the fringes of that redevelopment, benefitting from the increased focus on the area without sacrificing the Cincinnati dive bar’s well-earned charm.

Cindy’s Friendly Tavern is basically a residential house with a better-than-average front porch that commands part of a small parking lot perched over the Little Miami River that runs through Loveland. The two-story structure includes a sun room-style addition that juts out toward the street, defining the borders of a picnic table-filled seating area that is really just a barricaded portion of parking lot. A small overhang covers a portion of the outdoor space, but most of it is left to the whims of Ohio weather.

Ample outdoor seating plays well with Loveland’s DORA district, short for Designated Outdoor Recreation Area. In the state of Ohio, DORA districts allow for outdoor drinking, giving Cindy’s Friendly Tavern patrons the ability to start a bar crawl at Cindy’s and carry a drink to the next bar provided they stay within DORA lines. This is a great benefit for Cindy’s Friendly Tavern given its just-off-the-beaten-path location, allowing for an affordable start to a meandering beer tour through the freshly updated downtown zone.

The Little Miami Scene Trail runs nearby Cindy’s Friendly Tavern as well, proving the point that eventually all paths, paved or not, eventually lead to a dive bar. Inside, low ceilings cover a classic dive bar interior, from the weathered bar that runs the length of the building to the vintage shelving behind the bar. The floors here have been left bare, the exposed surface adding to the rustic contrast of Cindy’s Friendly Tavern to some of Loveland’s more polished downtown drinking options.

During daylight hours, the best spot to drink a High Life is no doubt the alcove that emerges off of the main interior space, a rounded atrium of sorts that houses one of the bar’s pool tables. Seating and hightop tables rings this dive bar sun room, ample windows allowing for light in what otherwise almost feels like a subterranean experience. Occasional bits of dive bar neon can be found inside Cindy’s Friendly Tavern, but the vibe here is simplicity rather than decades of cluttered decorations. Refreshed walls include faux black bricks that run halfway up interior walls.

All told, Cindy’s Friendly Tavern offers the perfect juxtaposition to some of the fancier outposts just a few blocks away, the perfect place to set a foundation for an adventurous evening in Loveland. Put more simply, the drinks here are cheaper than those encountered closer to downtown, pairing affordability with the community-focused, locals-heavy feel that comes with dive bars like Cindy’s Friendly Tavern (a very good thing).