Christmas tree, several stories high, lighted with white lights at Newport on the Levee in Kentucky

What’s your favorite local restaurant? Do you have a nearby craft brewery that makes your neighborhood a better place to live? Maybe you enjoy a weekly outing for a refreshing coffee drink at a local gem. Or you’ve enhanced your home with local crafts, décor, and unique treasures. All of the small businesses you enjoy in NKY need our help.

We’ve all been hit hard by COVID-19. There’s good news on the horizon—promising vaccines that will begin to put this pandemic behind us next year. But our local gems, the places that make Florence, Covington, Newport and all the other cities of our Northern Kentucky region such a special place to live and visit need our help surviving this winter and making it to 2021.

Operation Winter is Coming

meetNKY has created a campaign, in collaboration with the OneNKY Alliance, which includes the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, called “Winter is Coming” to help those unique, local favorites make it through to the better days that lie ahead.  “Winter is Coming” calls on all of us to give the gift of our favorite things to do, places to eat, unique shopping opportunities and more for the holidays.

Save Your Favorite Northern Kentucky Local Gems by Giving Gift Cards

The Roebling Suspension bridge connecting Northern Kentucky to Cincinnati, with the Ohio river looking pink and blue in the sunset and a BB Riverboat sailing under the bridge

Put a BB Riverboats Dixieland Jazz Brunch Cruise under the tree for someone this year. Or a membership for the whole family to the Newport Aquarium. Did you know we have five Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour® distilleries here in NKY and they all offer tours that include tastings? They are all part of our local bourbon trail, The B-Line. One of our most unique attractions, the Ark Encounter, draws visitors from all over the world—have your friends seen it yet? Give someone the best fried chicken in Kentucky, or the best Hot Brown, bourbon cocktail, dozen doughnuts, mac ‘n cheese, potstickers, bagels, Chicago-style pizza, tortas, sushi, IPA…we have too many unique bests to list them all! So many awesome stocking stuffers.

A collage of biscuits, mac and cheese, lime pie, korean food, a burger, a hot brown, eggs benedict made with goetta, and lemon blueberry pancakes from restaurants in Covington, Newport and Florence Kentucky

NKY Shop Local

We’ve created a web page, nkyshoplocal.com, that lists inspiring ideas for your gift lists. It’s comprised of categories to get your gift planning wheels rolling: gift cards for coffee lovers, foodies, bourbon sippers, craft beer buds, pizza cravers, girls who need a girls’ night out, family fun, and more. This list is just a start! Buy a gift card from any local spot you love and help them make it to 2021.

From all of us here at meetNKY, thanks and Happy Holidays!