As the premier dining experience in Harrison, Market Street Grille remains a staple on the west side for over 17 years. Since February of 2000, Market Street Grille has played a critical role in the revitalization of downtown Harrison, earning the restaurant a preservation award.
Watch Brenda Leonard from Market Street Grille talk
at the Harrison City Council Meeting.
This hometown restaurant maintains a vintage atmosphere, as each dish is made from scratch. Market Street Grille has competed with the top restaurants in the Taste of Cincinnati for 11 years, receiving various awards in nine of those competitions. Recently, Market Street Grille made OpenTable’s 100 Best Brunch Restaurants in America for 2017. The restaurant has doubled in size since it’s inception. Now, the restaurant pulls in over one $1 million in sales. Market Street Grille and its owners, Paula Eggleston and Brenda Leonard, consistently represent Harrison on the local and national level.
Brenda Leonard, owner, and Chuck Huckleby, chef, from Market Street Grille in Harrison (Photo: The Enquirer/Polly Campbell)
Maintaining Tradition
The building where Market Street Grill is located was built sometime around 1850. The first floor (now the restaurant) was originally a hardware store and coal shop. There are remnants of an elevator in the back of the building that was used to get buggies on the second floor, where they were sold. The building has a basement and a sub-basement, where a brewery may have been located. The sub-basement is part of the underground tunnels that connect some buildings in Harrison and end at the river. It was used to bring in supplies from the Whitewater River. The tunnels may have been used as part of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War.
In 1893, the Independent Order of Oddfellows (l.O.O.F.) purchased the building and owned it for about 75 years. The Oddfellows are a civil group formed to quietly help the community. They completed a major renovation of the building, creating a ballroom and recreational spaces. The Masons used a meeting space there.
The restaurant space has been used as a home, insurance office, several bars and restaurants, craft shops. Many renovations were made to create the space we know today as Market Street Grille, where you can see several local artifacts. In the brick room is a 100-year old mirror that once hung in Harrison’s old Central Hotel.
The bar in the main dining room was reclaimed from a Price Hill establishment. Even the name has historical value. When Harrison was founded, its main thoroughfare was named Market Street.
Contact Market Street Grille
(513) 202-0200
http://www.marketstreetgrille.com/