Summit Park Is Getting An Alcove: And That’s Not JUST Another MadTree Space.
Written By: The Gnarly Gnome
4/15/26
I know what you were thinking when you saw the news. MadTree is opening up a new taproom right on the other side of the park from their current Parks and Rec taproom space. This is nuts, right? Thinking like that is why we have to dig into this, folks. You’re missing a whole lot about this news if that’s where your mind is still at.
That’s probably getting ahead of things, though. We need to talk about a few things first.
Brown Dog Cafe
We can’t talk about this new Alcove space without talking about the business that they are replacing, Brown Dog Cafe. They might have called the cops on me once (that’s a story in itself…), but there’s no arguing that Brown Dog was a Blue Ash staple. The business opened on Pfieffer Road back in 1998 before moving into their new space in the park in 2015.
When they announced in December of 2025 that owner and chef Shawn McCoy would be retiring and closing the business, it wasn’t what I’d call “great news”. The loss of a staple restaurant like that really hurts when you have such a great little community like Summit Park. It’s a vacancy that wasn’t going to be easy to fill – and Summit Park went on the hunt immediately.
As it turns out, they didn’t have to look very far.
The Alcove… BY MadTree
Here’s what you really need to understand as we start unpacking this new location: MadTree’s Alcove is called ‘Alcove… By MadTree’ for a very good reason. If you haven’t been to the OTR bar and restaurant, I’ll forgive you for thinking that it’s just another MadTree taproom, but that’s far from it.
The space takes a lot of the staples of MadTree’s personality and carries them into a bright, relaxed, but distinctly more upscale presentation than their taprooms. Alcove is a restaurant first, which probably could be cited as the thing that gave MadTree the courage to take over the food operations in their other spaces, as well.
While, yeah – Alcove has MadTree beer on tap – this isn’t really the space you go to if you wanna crush some beers with your friends. This is the space you take your significant other on a date, where you gather for a brunch with your friends, and where you have appetizers and cocktails before heading out to your evening plans.
It’s also the reason that it makes sense sitting across the park from Parks and Rec.
Complaining About Parks And Rec, and Oakley
I try not to complain too much about things. I think that in a city like Cincinnati, we’ve got enough breweries that if one isn’t meeting my needs at any given moment, there is probably another one very close by that will.
With that said, to illustrate my thoughts about this news… I’m gonna let it loose a bit. Over the decade or so since MadTree first opened their taproom over on Kennedy. Things have definitely changed. I’m talking about the entire craft beverage industry (because, yes… that’s what we call it now). That’s tough for some folks to come to terms with when they find a place that quickly becomes their taproom.
MadTree’s taproom has changed what it looks like and what it feels like. Their new Parks and Rec taproom is also certainly not the same vibe and experience as their original taproom (lovingly called 1.0). The new space is a 50/50 mix between a restaurant and a traditional taproom, and that’s been hard for a lot of folks to wrap their heads around.
What I think a lot of folks aren’t seeing about MadTree’s growth is that each one of these concepts allows for different, well… concepts. MadTree’s Oakley taproom now leans more towards the traditional adult-focused taproom model, while Parks and Rec leans more towards a family-first taproom model. Alcove? Alcove is a restaurant and bar that just happens to be under the MadTree umbrella.
The Future Of MadTree
I’m just speaking from my own speculative hopes and dreams here, but I’m looking at this growth as something that might push the different sides of MadTree deeper into their respective buckets.
What I mean by that is when you look at Alcove expanding and existing literally next to the other MadTree concepts, it’s a sign to me that the things about Parks and Rec that overlapped with Alcove can stop overlapping as much. Parks and Rec can lean more heavily into being the family-first taproom that it’s destined to be. When we take a step back, that also means that Oakley can do the same with the adult-focused taproom that IT’S destined to be.
It also starts to open doors about new MadTree spots that can fit into those (or other) buckets. Maybe the next MadTree space in the future is a smaller, adult-focused taproom (MadTree Covington, anyone?)
The possibilities are literally endless.
The thing that gets me excited about this new Alcove location is that it shows a growth from MadTree that isn’t justunderstanding who their consumers are; it’s showing them growing and understanding that they have many different consumers. They are finding new ways to create different spaces for all of those consumers.
So, listen… yeah – MadTree is opening up a new MadTree location across the park from their last MadTree location – but that’s only scratching the surface of this headline. MadTree is, more importantly, opening a new ALCOVE across the park from a Parks and Rec. Understand that, and you’ll be as excited as I am.