2024 Dance With Your Heart Celebrity
Frank Eversole
Real Estate Investor and Restaurateur; President EP Investment group, LLC
Charity:Westwood Town Hall Business District Association
Pro Partner: NeTanya Turner
Frank Eversole
was born and raised in Fairfield Ohio, Frank spent his younger years learning entrepreneurial skills as a purveyor of items his family would make available at roadside stands. From truckloads of watermelons purchased wholesale and hauled into town, to pelts and dressed carcasses he obtained on hunting trips, the interactions and knowledge gained from selling would become the foundational skills for his future endeavors.
After holding entry level positions in fast food and retail during his teen years, Frank quickly advanced into management. The arrival of his son almost certainly provided additional motivation to keep working towards ever more important titles! While working his full-time management jobs, Frank sought out additional opportunities as a home staging specialist for a luxury home builder. This extra work provided the satisfaction of self-determination he had learned as a young person selling his wares.
While working for a local grocer/retailer, Franks outstanding work was noticed by a major food supplier, and he was eventually offered his first corporate sales position. His abilities led to increasingly larger sales territories, culminating as a National Sales Director for the world’s largest pork producer.
After moving to the Westwood neighborhood of Cincinnati in the early 2000’s, Frank used his corporate roles to start incorporating local neighborhood organizations and events into his company directed community engagement calendars. Over the next 8 years Frank used his company and personal resources to help local organizations raise funds for all kinds of uses. The ability to provide corporate sponsorships allowed him to assist local neighborhood groups to boost their visibility and ignite community engagement.
His profile in local circles grew as others sought his guidance and leadership.This opened a whole world of possibilities as Frank began to understand the opportunities that lay in front of him right there in Westwood. He and his husband began attending local civic meetings and in 2010, started investing in local real estate as a way to improve the neighborhood, and three and a half dozen properties have been renovated as a result.
Later, in 2019 when the opportunity to enter the commercial real estate market presented itself, he dove in and moved forward towards acting on neighborhood desired places to access more services. His participation in several Westwood Neighborhood plenary sessions regarding Town Hall Park and Westwood Square, as well as an in-depth retail study done by Yard and Company, prepared him for the big impacts he was about to make on his neighborhood.
After acquiring the commercial building in 2019, Frank brought a much needed childhood learning center to a portion of the building. The following year, he opened the critically acclaimed Ivory House restaurant. Yep, he opened a high-end steak and seafood restaurant in the middle of a pandemic and did so in a neighborhood few would have ever considered. He’s proven the naysayers wrong, and his restaurant has been a Cincinnati Magazine “Top Ten” since its opening when it was named “Best New Restaurant” in the city by City Beat magazine. Building on the momentum, Frank opened W Bar + Bistro, a more casual restaurant, in late 2022 and is operated by his son. In mid-2023, he expanded this location to also include Aubrey & Zach’s, a small ice cream parlor named after his grandchildren.
In mid-2023, after winning an RFP bid for community engagement oriented operators, Frank partnered with Westwood’s own Westside Brewing to open a new brewery restaurant in the city of Wyoming, Ohio named Gilligan’s on The Green. It has quickly become a focal point of that neighborhood and is celebrated for it’s one-place-fits-all vibe and the thirty delicious beers on tap! More importantly, it’s become a hub of community activity thru events that are presented by both the city and Gilligan’s On The Green in the brand new Village Green Park.
This path to becoming a recognized community member has been built over time, and began when Frank started attending civic oriented meetings and becoming involved with event organizing in Westwood almost 15 years ago. To that end, Frank has been a member or held positions in many of Westwood’s civic organizations. His most recent accomplishment is the formation of the Westwood Townhall Business Association
It means so much to witness growth significant enough to warrant the need for such an organization. He’s excited as the business association continues to work with city leadership and neighborhood groups to measure past accomplishments, assess current issues, and establish new goals for the area he calls home.
Westwood Civic Association- Member
Westwood Coalition- Member
Westwood Historic Association- Member, Home Tour Organizer (2-Years)
Westwood Works- Member, Board Advisor
Westwood Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (WestCURC)- Development Partner
Westwood Townhall Business Association- Founding Member