Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment relocating HQ, closing Downtown event space

CINCINNATI (WXIX) – Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment is shutting down its private event space and relocating its downtown Cincinnati corporate office and catering operations.

Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment CEO, Britany Ruby Miller, released a statement Tuesday night citing an ongoing dispute with Towne Properties over “safety protocols.”

We have made the difficult decision to close Lempicka, our event space, and relocate our corporate offices, which share a building at 700 Walnut Street, due to a landlord dispute regarding safety protocols. While recent news has highlighted broader challenges downtown, including crime around Fountain Square, this decision is unrelated. It underscores how critical strong and collaborative relationships with building owners and landlords are during times like these.
Jeff Ruby’s Catering will continue to operate out of our existing restaurants, ensuring uninterrupted service for our clients. We are also actively seeking a new corporate office location — ideally downtown — to accommodate our 60 corporate employees.
We remain deeply committed to the city of Cincinnati and look forward to sharing updates soon.

Towne Properties, Miller said, “failed to meet the most basic security measures.”

The company wasn’t even amenable to doing something as basic as securing the front door of their office, she said.

Lempicka is expected to close at the end of the month.

Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment is working with all guests who have bookings there to relocate to a Jeff Ruby restaurant or a partner venue with Jeff Ruby Catering.

Neil Bortz, a founder of Towne Properties, sent a statement to FOX19 NOW about Ruby’s claims.

Towne Properties has been a partner and champion of Jeff Ruby and his restaurant ventures for more than 25 years. We were shocked to learn of the company’s hasty departure from its longtime headquarters and closure of its recently opened Lempicka event venue. We only learned of these decisions from the company last week.
We were especially disappointed that the Jeff Ruby team cited building safety as its motive for attempting to break its leases. Safety and security are top priorities at all Towne Properties locations, and we unequivocally refute any claims to the contrary. Broader community concerns are factors beyond the control of a building owner and not reflective of conditions or management of the premises. Towne has continually invested in property improvements and security measures at 700 Walnut to ensure that the tenant experience – and that of their guests – remains at the forefront.
Throughout Jeff Ruby’s Culinary Entertainment’s tenancy, building ownership has made every effort to work with the restaurant group in good faith and has provided support to enable its growth and pursuit of new opportunities. We value tenant relationships and always prefer to resolve disputes constructively but are now addressing these multiple breaches of contract through the appropriate legal channels.
As such, we cannot comment further at on this matter.

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