CINCINNATI, Ohio — Donning star-framed, mirrored sunglasses, Molly Wellmann pulls up in her Fiat in front of her bar’s storefront. Rays of sunshine dance off the reflection of her tiny car's hood, glistening and highlighting her hot pink hair as she steps onto the sidewalk, sporting a beaming smile on her way to unlock the front door.


What You Need To Know

  • Japp’s is now open with limited hours

  • The owner has a long history with Cincinnati and cocktails with a side of rich storytelling

  • Patrons are welcome with new safety precautions in place throughout bar

Just under the stained-glass letters “Japp’s” on the door’s transom window, Wellmann stands inside the vestibule, between two front windows with prominent signs indicating the current pandemic. Two clear stickers in the shape of Ohio on each side state: “When we’re out, Masks On #MasksOn.”

Wearing a short-sleeved, V-neck, red dress with tattooed arms, chest and legs peeking out, she admits it contrasts with her pink locks and bright pink lipstick, but she is supporting the Reds, her hometown team’s baseball game tonight. Although her inked red roses do match her attire, down to her chunky-heeled, red shoes.

Walking inside the historic bar is like taking a step back in time, but the ornate, grandiose chandelier hanging from high above illuminates a different story—a new era.

Today, things are quiet and very different than just a few months ago.

Small, “majestic" draping palm trees have taken the place of bar stools. And cautionary measures are evident with every step, including hand-sanitizing stations, a foot door pedal in the bathroom and social distancing reminder signs.

Making her way to the back of the bar, the 47-year-old, self-described “goofy girl" sits down at one of the small round tables with a black mask wrapped around her face, and shares her secret to a long, youthful life.

“I drink good whiskey” Wellmann said with a lively giggle.

A Cincinnati west side native and Colerain High School grad, Wellmann considers herself a drink-maker and a storyteller. By combining the two, she has turned into one of the most well-known bar owners and mixologists around. A perfect pairing, since she loves history, a good story to serve up on the side of a cold cocktail and an audience.

"It should be an experience and not just be knocking something back,” she said with her freshly sanitized hands, donning mint-blue polished fingernails.

Wellmann started out as cocktail waitress and bartender while living in San Francisco for more than a decade.

But in 2008, she moved home for good to be closer to family. She decided to continue bartending and figure out her next steps once she re-acclimated herself to Cincinnati to see how things had changed and best determine where her talents fit these days within the city.

She snagged a gig making classic and craft cocktails at the now-closed Chalk Food + Wine, an American bistro just on the other side of the riverfront in Covington, Kentucky owned by renowned French chef, Jean Robert.

She remembered telling them a bit of a tall tale, "Oh, sure, I know how to do that!" But to herself, she knew that she actually had no idea how to make those types of drinks. She was used to making mojitos and margaritas.

But that was not going to stop her ambition or finding where she belonged.

"I just started studying. I like history and I like research, and I started just researching, finding out where everything came from, how to make everything, the stories behind them — and then I started doing them at Chalk and telling people and I started getting noticed for it.”

"Bartenders at that time were like, 'Nobody wants this. Everybody knows exactly what they want when they come to the bar. They don't want you give them anything new; there's no need for it. It's expensive.’"

She kept trying anyway.

She concocted homemade syrups at home, filled up emptied Bulleit bourbon bottles and toted them inside a milk crate with her into whatever bar she was working at, at the time.

As the newbie on staff, she remembered, she started out being put into a corner of the bar. Eventually, her corner was jam-packed with people wanting to try her drinks and hear her stories. Turned out, people did want that.

She not only found her place but has made her mark.

A masterful, now well-established mixologist was born. Soon, recruiters were seeking her out to bartend for their bars and restaurants, and to guest bartend for local events — giving them what she always knew they wanted: an innovative drink and a fascinating story.

One of her favorite stories to tell alongside making the airmail cocktail with Cuban rum, is rooted in Cincinnati.

"The history of our city is really, really cool and it's really unique. And it's really neat.”

From the 1930s, and created in Cuba, the airmail cocktail was created to commemorate the launch of airmail in Cuba, she said.

But her twist to the story is how airmail got its unofficial start in America — actually, in Cincinnati with Richard Clayton.

According to Wellmann, he was a Cincinnati silversmith, watchmaker and an aeronaut in the 1820s. He loved hot-air balloons. She begins painting a picture of the vastly German-settled city.

"You can imagine what Cincinnati would have been like then... no big skyscrapers, just a lot of brick houses, but small. There's riverboats and there's a lot of commerce — but you know, we're still not a humungo city."

Clayton, she recounted, had a large hot-air balloon called, "Star of the West.”

With his balloon fired up and ready to float above the treetops, he set out to deliver a package to the East Coast within days, as opposed to months during that time period.

"He loaded his dog: he loaded his provisions, his equipment and the package into the balloon, and lifted off. And then he threw the dog over with a parachute and he landed OK,” Wellmann said.

However, she continued, after losing altitude in Chillicothe, Ohio, the trailblazer did not make it all the way to the East Coast. He regained some momentum but his floating journey landed him in a tree in the middle of the night in Kelly's Knob in West Virginia.

"I don't know what it must have been like in the 1820s to be stuck in a knob in West Virginia, but they ended up naming the post office after him, so there's that. Even though he didn't make it, he attempted it for the first time and I think that's pretty cool.”

Japp’s is yet another piece of history set in the early days of Cincinnati. And in one way or another, Japp’s has survived for 141 years and counting.

With large, original signs throughout the bar promoting wigs, braids and toupees, Wellmann pays homage to its roots when it first opened its doors in 1879 by German entrepreneur John G. Japp.

"He was kind of a renaissance man," Wellmann said of Japp, who lived in Chicago, St. Louis and Texas before opening a toiletry and perfume company — and eventually, an upscale wig and hair store called, Japp's Hair Store, in downtown Cincinnati's shopping district, where she sits today, just under a large toupee sign, telling this story.

"This was a very high-end store. This wasn't a cheap wig store," she said. "All of their wigs were hand-made; they were real-hair wigs… made toupees and braids. They would hand-sew them, dye them... fit people with wigs in the store. Pretty cool.”

(Read more about Japp's history with the Queen City here.)

Japp passed away in 1937; however, the store was passed down from generation to generation until 1985.

Bob Schneider bought the building, and as the story goes, he found boxes and boxes of wigs and hair. Wellmann said he told her he sold all of the leftover products to the Broadway show, "Cats," in New York City and with that was able to pay for the entire building.

"I love that story," she smiled. "I don't know if it's true, but it's a cool story."

In 1992, just as Over-the-Rhine's Main Street started rebranding itself as an entertainment district, Japp's reopened. This time, as a bar. In fact, the back of the bar's cabinetry was restored from the original hair shop, built 113 years earlier.

It wouldn't be long before Wellmann would find herself in the position to take on Japp's for herself and continue her tradition of cocktails with a side of history.

When Wellmann reopened the bar in 2010, she said, it had not been open for about 10 years, except for events or pop-up shops. And it was time to bring the bar, the history and Japp's back to life.

But it would be an undertaking.

"When we came in, there were raccoons living in here," she said. "It was a mess. We had to do a lot of work to the floor and patch up a big hole in the ceiling where the raccoons were getting in.”

She was determined to make her dream of opening a bar in the city she loved a reality.

"The community means everything to me,” she said. "This city, Cincinnati, means everything to me. It's my home. It's my heritage. It's everything.”

"When I'm thinking of things to do here in Japp's within my business, I'm really thinking also about how it will impact the community,” she said. "Before COVID, half of my job, half of my busyness was doing things for other organizations that make Cincinnati great.”

"I believe whole-heartedly in the success and the growth of our incredible city. That's why I'm a business owner here,” she said.

Over the years, she has been hired to bartend by local staples, like Film Cincinnati, Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Pure Romance Kroger, P&G and the Mercantile Library just to name a few.

"My idea is, if it is something that's going to be beneficial to the city, then I'm going to try to be a part of it, I'm going to try and help where I can with what I know.”

Besides cocktails and storytelling, what she knows is business — and business, on all fronts, was booming this year.

"We just did a remodel in the bar. I was really starting to build the business back up to where it needed to be. It was profitable again and it was fun. We were doing really well,” said Wellmann, who authored the book, "Handcrafted Cocktails: The Mixologist's Guide to Classic Drinks for Morning, Noon & Night.”

But then COVID-19 hit.

And it hit hard.

Wellmann had to close her doors for three months.

"It sucks. I mean, it really does. I've never..." she said, letting out a deep sigh of sheer frustration.

Everything, every ounce of momentum, had come to an abrupt and screeching halt.

"That was devastating, and then sitting around doing nothing and not knowing what's going on from one day to the next. So, you're stuck inside without any information and not knowing what's going on, and really worried if you're going to make it back to having a business again and if your employees are going to make it. And then what happens when you reopen and not knowing the future. It's really, really scary,” she said.

Wellmann is not one for sitting around doing nothing.

"I really, really like making drinks for people. One thing that I really miss is having people sit at my bar and being able to capture their attention — and I don't have T.V.s in here so I have to be the entertainment. So, you know, making a drink for them and then having them try it and then telling them a story is what everything is about.”

"When COVID hit, I took a few days and I'm like, 'Well, shoot, what am I gonna do now?' I mean, I hate being bored — it's like you're stuck. And I didn't want to be stuck.”

First, she took to GoFundMe, setting up a fundraising page for donations for her employees who could not work for her during COVID-19.

She jumped on Facebook to address her concerns.

“As many of you know, the Governor of Ohio has shut down bars and restaurants in Ohio for an indefinite amount of time. While we applaud and respect the decision and are doing our part to help to avoid any further spread of this pandemic, it has also unfortunately put our entire staff out of means of employment. With currently no financial relief insight at this time this has unexpectedly put the dedicated people of Japp's since 1879 in the face of what is an incredible financial hardship for some of them adding to the loss of seeing our regular customers, the thrill of meeting first-timers, and each other. This affects us all but if you are able to spare even a little bit at this time they would greatly appreciate it. In the meantime we will not be sitting on idle hands, while we can't talk with you over a cocktail, we will be finding ways to still share our passion and knowledge the world of cocktails and spirits!”

"I was really worried about my employees, and I felt if I was going to ask for money from people, I needed to give them something. I don't like to get things for free. I just think that's unfair. I hate asking people for money and I figured I would feel better about it if I gave them something."

She had an idea.

"I would give them cocktail recipes that they could enjoy at home and make for themselves — and then also get a little bit of the history, the story behind it. So, they can have that experience at home.”

She used to talk about cocktails on the radio for WNKU before it went off the air and the name of her show was called, "Five O'Clocktails.”

So, she brought that back to the airwaves. Only this time, it was the social media airwaves, creating a virtual cocktail experience — but instead of pulling up a barstool, you just needed to open your social media, sit back and join the conversation on Facebook.

Every day at 5 p.m., she kicked her husband out, turned on her webcam inside her kitchen at home and whipped up a historical creation, or one of her own, and told the story that goes right along with it, like the airmail cocktail.

"I also have these fabulous hats that, I'm not going to be able to wear them for I don't even know how long," she laughed. "So, I thought, maybe I can show off my hats and I can make drinks for people, and I can stay in practice, and I can raise money for my employees.”

Once she made up a batch of drinks for her Facebook videos, she would fill Mason jars with the cocktails and leave them on her neighbors' front porches.

Plus, she raised more than $10,000 for her employees.

The spunky mixologist, who has always been brimming with enthusiasm has lost some of her optimism due to the intense anxiety of reopening amid COVID-19.

To say Wellmann is a people person is an understatement. She considers herself to be in the people business. And the current state of the pandemic has hit her hard, not just professionally, but personally.

“I really miss hugging people,” she said.  

When she was allowed to reopen in May, Wellmann took a beat so that she could make a plan of attack and execute all necessary safety precautions for her employees and her customers.

"How in the heck am I going to have people in a bar that's created for people to gather and keep them away from each other?” she questioned reopening.

She started doing one of her favorite pastimes, researching.

Going online, she looked at how Europe handled it, how fellow Cincinnati-based bars reopened and what worked and more importantly what did not work, used her connections with regulars to ask them what they needed to feel comfortable enough to come back — and then she put herself in their position and what would give her a sense of comfort to return to Japp's to socialize, while ironically socially distant at the same time.

"And then still make it an enjoyable, pretty relaxing place," she said.

It was a challenge.

So, she made a plan of execution to reopen.

On June 14, she happily, but cautiously, reopened Japp’s, complete with a new, creative summer drink menu, including the Pisco Cutie, which Wellmann deemed is the most refreshing drink ever with fresh grapefruit, lime and Pisco, a Peruvian brandy.

But with that reopening also came several safety precautions in place.

She is not taking any chances inside Japp’s.

Barstools that once held patrons watching her mix drinks and listening to her stories, have now been replaced with small palm trees. Employees sanitize every touchable surface after each table leaves; hand sanitizer stations are placed throughout the bar; and there is a foot handle on each bathroom door so you do not have to touch the handle to exit.

Without bar seating, the number of people allowed inside has been slashed and limited to 40 — less than 50% of normal capacity, including staff, with only nine available tables for spacing purposes.

There are no longer plush couches for slowly sipping on cocktails and mingling. Employees where masks and wash their hands before crafting every drink. And each day, employees’ temperatures are taken, and they are asked COVID-19-related questions and sign a document.

She wanted to be able to make two-hour table reservations so that she would not have a line out the door, like she saw many of her fellow bar owners troubled with and where she could not control or manage social distancing.

"One of the things was it has to be as touchless as possible," she said. "We take a lot of cash. We take a lot of credit cards — there's a lot of touching back and forth.”

With all of that in mind, she installed an app on the bar’s tablets called, Tango, which accepts reservations, as well as drink orders right from her customers' phones, ahead of time and at their table for drinks. Then they pay for their drinks through the app, therefore creating a completely touchless transaction.

Wellmann and her staff still serve up the cocktails in their own tradition brimming with style on a silver platter.

"I'm still a classy gal,” she said with a laugh.

While the there are strings of festive white lights wrapped around plants inside, there’s no happy hour, no DJ, no live music, no jam-packed events like prior to the pandemic.

"We can't do any of that. It really has to be this 'social-distant lounge.'"  

With that, she said, the business has suffered and only about half of her employees returned and far less patrons.  

"I really thought I was going to be full every-freaking-day, like people wanted to come in here and fill the seats.”

That wasn’t the case.

"The only thing that I'm really surprised about — and I don't know why I'm surprised because there's still a lot of people are really afraid to come out — is that, it's really hard to get people to come out and enjoy the space. Even going above and beyond every single safety measure that's asked... it's been very hard to get people to trust me that this is safe and to come out.”

"Business has not been great. I hope we make it," she said. "This isn't going away very soon. I think it's going to be a gradual thing.”

It all starts with, she said, complying with the safety mandates. When she witnesses those not adhering to those precautions, it’s hard for her not to take it personally.

"It's so disrespectful to everybody else. I can have 40 people sit in this place and it's controlled. People have to come in with a mask, they have to sit at the table unless they go to the restroom, there's no bar service — the space is controlled. But at a party, that space isn't controlled. It's very irresponsible for right now.”

"You can go out if you take these precautions. It's like, say it's winter and it's 10 degrees outside, you're not going to go out unless you put on a coat and a scarf and protect yourself, right? If it's 110 degrees outside, you're not going to go out without sunscreen, right? Something to protect yourself from the elements, right? Well, right now, we have another element that is a virus that's going around and this is a way to protect yourself. These simple things: distance, washing your hands and wear a mask.”

She wants the city to thrive and pick up where it left off pre-COVID. The local arts and small businesses, like Japp's, are what make Cincinnati so special, she said.

"If we don't have people coming out and supporting the community right now, we're not going to have a community anymore. You're not going to have these small businesses that really make the character of your city. And what kind of place is that to live?”

Wellmann opened Japp’s as a bar and cocktail lounge on June 23, 2010, however, the bar’s 10th anniversary was spent at home uncelebrated.

"I just ignored it,” she said.

Like many milestones in 2020, including her May 27 birthday, Wellmann skipped them and is holding out to celebrate bigger and better next year, when she is hopeful that the pandemic is a distant, tragic memory in her rearview mirror.

But before it is all said and done, another order was handed down to bars and restaurant owners last week.

After bars were permitted to reopen in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine halted alcohol sales at bars and restaurants after 10 p.m. Wellmann, however, was closing up shop by 10 p.m. with her new “COVID-19” hours.

"What I’m concerned about are my fellow bar owners. Also, this order makes it look like bars are the problem causing more folks to gather together at home with friends, family and neighbors,” Wellmann said. "At the bars we can control the space with social distancing, mask-wearing and sanitation. You don’t get that control at your friend's house."

Wellmann wants everyone to understand that with proper precautions, "you can still go out; you can still have a life during this pandemic and support your communities.”

"Being a business owner is really hard. It's a feeling I've never felt before. People, like myself, who are so used to trying to figure out things outside the box to make the experience so much better to offer people and I'm really at a loss of what more I can do to get people to come in. I really am,” she said.

But some things will never change for Wellmann. "I value my customers and my employees as if they were my own family. I really do. I care deeply for them. When somebody walks through the door, they're treated as if they're my family.”

Japp’s is located at 1134 Main St., in Cincinnati and its current hours are, Tuesday-Thursday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., however, those hours are subject to change.

Learn more about the bar and Wellmann, at their website and Facebook page