Nostalgia OTR Wine & Jazz Lounge Celebrates Women, Minorities and One Year in Business

If anyone out there is looking for an incredibly cool, unlike no other experience in Cincinnati, you have to head down to Nostalgia Wine & Jazz Lounge in OTR. I have to admit I am not a jazz enthusiast so I didn’t know what to expect but as soon as I walked through the door the vibe was instantly infectious.

Lucky me got to sit down with the owner, Tammie Scott, and hear about her inspiration for the space, the deep roots of her family that are intertwined, her passion for supporting women and minorities and her hopes for the future.

Let’s take a step back and learn about Tammie. We started off with these great stories of her and her brothers sitting in her grandmother's living room, covered in wall to wall green carpet that we all can imagine, hearing tales of her grandmother and her friends nights out on the town going to jazz clubs. After college Tammie moved to Washington DC for Sports Broadcasting and spent plenty of nights on the jazz club scene with friends, just as her grandmother did. She couldn't shake the feeling that Cincinnati needed something like this, and Nostalgia was born.

Nostalgia is a wine bar and jazz lounge located towards the corner of Vine and 15th. Its decor is about as cool as it gets. It has a chic mix of a black and white color palette that is balanced with deep maroon textiles and these amazing banana leaf green walls (inspired by her Grandmother’s carpet of course). It's the perfect mix of an upscale jazz lounge with the coziness of feeling like you’re listening to jazz in your living room. Not only does it look cool, but so is the vibe. It was so unique how seamlessly the feel transitioned from a place to grab a drink after a long day at work to a hopping party scene. At 8:00 it was chill, chic, and serene. Once that house band came on though, forget it. People couldn’t stay in their seats. The music was just too good! I was so bummed I didn’t know every word of every song. It was that kind of a night.

So not only is it gorgeous, cool an fun, but my favorite part of Nostalgia is that it fully supports women and minority owned businesses. This is not as easy as it seems. Tammie not only had to find and source these brands, but she had to get her distributors on board to carry them. Now the distributors are coming to her with new women or minority owned brands. They’re completely on board in support. She also carried women owned light bites, cheese, cookies. When I asked Tammie what she was most proud of, she said it was definitely the diversity of product that she carries as well as the diversity in customers that walk through Nostalia’s doors.

There is a huge group of age race economic diversity. Let’s also not forget that Tammie opened this spot just over a year ago, amidst the covid uncertainty. Let’s let this be a lesson to all to keep going and never give up on your passion.

It was an absolute pleasure speaking with Tammie. She’s so smart, creative, determined and such a supporter of other women. It doesn’t get much better than that and I wish her nothing but continued success. If you are a strong woman who believes in supporting other strong women doing amazing things in our community, head on down to Nostalgia. Be prepared to love it. Oh and don’t forget to check out the gallery wall by the bar to spot the inspiration behind it all, Tammie’s grandmother.

Betsy Leonidas is a 15 year marketing strategist turned stationery designer, proud owner of Elizabeth In Kind, and mother of 4, who is obsessed with empowering women and inspiring them to be kinder to one another. She is the ultimate girls girl who uses her platform to inspire women on any and all topics we’d chat about over a glass of wine.