Best Of Cincinnati Arts & Culture (Reader Picks): Cincinnati's best arts and culture as selected by CityBeat readers

CityBeat has been in the business of curating the Best Of Cincinnati® for 25 years, highlighting the city’s most outstanding selections in Arts & Culture, Eats, Shops & Services, Music & Nightlife, City Life and Sports & Recreation.

And the responsibility of selecting these exceptional entities is divided between our readers and staff. Readers logged on to the ballot site to vote for their favorites in broad categories like Best New Bar, Best Carry-Out and Best Sushi, with more niche topics including Best Place to Throw Darts, Best Chicken Sandwich and Best Haunted House. You might not need to know who the Best Birthing Center is right now, or the Best Lawyer, but when you do, we’ve got you covered.

For the Staff Picks — selected by a slightly smaller number of humans — we curated an assemblage of and wrote about our favorite Cincinnati people, places and things (and sunflower fields and tiny fairy doors and free fridges and pumpkin spice seltzer), stuff we like, appreciate and want other people to know about.

Of course, not everything we want to highlight about the city could fit into this issue, but we tried to cram as much in here as we could. So if your favorite brewery or zoo animal or chili parlor isn’t featured, there’s always next year.

Best (Only) Way to Attend the Bengals 2020 Season Opener: Who Dey Cutouts

Banning living, breathing human fans from stadiums across the country (because of COVID-19) continued into football season, as did the cardboard avatar trend. For the Bengals’ home opener in September, Who Dey Cutouts were available for purchase, with net proceeds benefiting six of the team’s community partners: The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati, Freestore Foodbank, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Salvation Army Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky, Good Samaritan Foundation and the United Way of Greater Cincinnati. There were strict guidelines on what to wear (or not to wear — no political/offensive/lewd statements, hashtags, social media handles, phone numbers or random branding) in your photo, how high you could hold your arms, how large the photo could be and more. The resulting figures were then placed in random seats in the North and South End Zones. The team also warned that buying a cutout didn’t mean your flat face was guaranteed to appear on TV, just that it could attend the game. bengals.com.

Best 150-Year-Old Birthday Cake: Graeter’s

For its 150th anniversary, Graeter’s released a special birthday cake-flavored ice cream. Described as a “blend of cake pieces and sprinkles in cake batter ice cream,” it’s like Funfetti in a cone. Or cup. Or pint. graeters.com.

Best Acupuncture Practice: Tiny Needle

1. Tiny Needle

2. Caldwell Family Wellness

3. Hamilton Health Associates

Best Addition to the Fountain Square Ice Rink: Socially-distant bumper cars on ice

Socially-distant bumper cars on ice. Here’s hoping they become an annual attraction. myfountainsquare.com.

Best Adorable Pup-litical News of 2020: Rabbit Hash, Kentucky has been electing dogs as mayors

Since 1998, Rabbit Hash, Kentucky has been electing dogs as mayors of the unincorporated hamlet instead of humans. And on Nov. 3, 2020, a six-month-old French bulldog named Wilbur caused a national stir when he was declared the new ruler, unseating the former mayor: a pitbull named Brynneth Pawltro. Adding to the attraction, Rabbit Hash’s election system is openly corrupt — voters can cast their ballot more than once, and each vote equals a monetary donation to help with the town’s historical upkeep. And while previous elections have attracted news coverage (and even a one-hour TV special on Animal Planet), the 2020 election seemed to be just what people wanted to read while the country tore its collective hair out waiting for the presidential election results. Thankfully, Mayor Wilbur is anything but divisive. And he’s ready to take charge of Rabbit Hash. “The duties of the mayor,” says his owner Amy Noland, “are to show up in town and gnaw on a bone.” rabbithash.com.

Best Adult Happy Meal: Dunlap Cafe

Over-the-Rhine’s Dunlap Cafe started making their own grown-up “happy meals” for carry-out during the pandemic. The perfect lil’ combo pack included an entree with a side of fries, Twizzlers, a Dunlap Koozie as a prize and an adult beverage — a beer, hard seltzer or a cocktail. Entree options included cheeseburgers, chicken tenders or a fried chicken sandwich. And the meals came wrapped and organized in a cute branded box, ready to devour in the car, or at home — if you could wait that long. dunlapcafe.com.

Best Adult Toy Store: HUSTLER Hollywood

1. HUSTLER Hollywood

2. Dusty Flynt Sexy Gifts

3. High on the Hill