Plan the Perfect Gathering With Hoste Shop in Cincinnati

Megan Strasser is no stranger to the art of hosting. Growing up in Cincinnati, her mother treated every meal like a special event, with certain weeknights dedicated to elaborate and well-planned feasts. These early gatherings had a heavy influence on Strasser, eventually leading her to create Hoste in May 2024, but her entrepreneurial story begins before that.

In 2014, Strasser opened Fern — a minimalist plant store — out of a former gas station in Cincinnati’s College Hill neighborhood, but she could never quite shake her instinct for helping create memorable moments among friends and family.

After opening a second Fern location in 2021, Strasser saw an opportunity to do something different with the space. She transformed the Walnut Hills Fern location to Hoste, a whimsical shop packed with a wealth of beautiful party-planning essentials that marked a return to her maximalist roots.

“Where Fern has always been very minimal, Hoste is just the opposite,” Strasser says, “It’s really embracing maximalism.” 

Stocked with vibrant linen napkins, greeting cards and artisanal candles, as well as pantry items like chili crisp hot sauce, pistachio spread and Belgian chocolate, Hoste is equipped with everything you need to, well, host.

Strasser points to the family dinners she shares with her group of friends on Sundays as the inspiration for her shop’s inventory. Sometimes, their get-togethers are defined by a full, homemade spread, while others are celebrated with a lot of candles and boxes of takeout. Hoste is filled with a large lineup of cookbooks, and Strasser won’t put one on the shop’s shelves unless she has personally used it and enjoyed the recipes in it.

“My cookbook collection has been one of my greatest prides and joys,” she says. “I read them like they’re novels at night and bring them to my couch and plan imaginary meals in my head.”

Strasser’s passion project as of late has been bringing potlucks and cookbook clubs into the shop. She recalls a time when she and her friends made selections from Molly Baz’s More Is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen. Strasser says her favorite dish from the night was one she had always previously flipped past, but she’s now made it at home several times since. 

“Hoste is, like, my whole heart in a store,” Strasser says. “There is nothing I value more or love more than preparing meals for the people I love and just sharing space and a table.”

737 E. McMillan St., Cincinnati 45206, hosteshoppe.com

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