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American steakhouses are the last bastion of unabashed self-indulgence. Traditional chophouses, complete with white tablecloths and bow-tied waiters, can be identified easily by their menus, relics of gluttonous days gone past. There are gleaming towers of chilled crustaceans, slabs of red meat—black on the outside and blue on the inside—and copious sides of potatoes and vegetables, prepared the way god intended: puréed with butter and cream. The portions are big, yet no one is going to judge you for cleaning your plate, ordering an elaborate, blow-torched dessert, or polishing off a bottle of scotch with your meal. While plenty of these nostalgic establishments still exist and thrive around the country, the American steakhouse landscape is changing. Some of the classic, polished establishments have lost their sheen. And new steakhouses are stepping up to ta...

Cincinnati restaurateur Jeff Ruby is partnering with a local craft brewery for a signature beer to serve at his restaurants. Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment is partnering with Taft's Brewing Co. on Jeff Ruby's Smoked Amber Ale, a 6% ABV brew whose malts have been smoked using cherry wood, the same way barbecued meats would be. Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment corporate beverage director Keegan Corcoran said the relationship with Taft's Brewing came about because one of the brewery's owners, Todd Braff, is a regular diner at Ruby's restaurants. They discussed working together and pitched the idea to the restaurants' ownership. "Categorically, you want to put your best foot forward, no matter what," Corcoran told me. "I wouldn't want to have a world-class spirits collection and a world-class wine list and then just serve Bud Light. It's...

If our city were a circus — and let’s be honest, sometimes that doesn’t seem like much of a stretch — we’d like to think the Nashville Scene would be the carnival barker on the midway. That’s us, clad in black and red with a tophat and megaphone, shouting out the various artists, restaurants, bands, activists, podcasts and pet stores that make our city great. From chefs and bakers to ceramics makers, from Nashville Predators to magazine editors, this issue has it all. In the 31st iteration of our annual Best of Nashville issue, we bring you both our readers’ poll winners and our writers’ choices — scores of entries gathered up from every corner of town. What’s our writers’ choice for Best New Restaurant? Who did you, our dear readers, select as Nashville’s Best Place to Take Out-of-Towners? Best Doughnuts?...

The Cincinnati Business Courier has chosen the honorees for its 2019 Women Who Mean Business Awards. In its fourth year, the program recognizes women whose accomplishments in the past year have had a big impact. From organizations large and small, these women stood out in Greater Cincinnati's business community in 2019. This year's honorees are: Sarah Anderson, fund manager at Cintrifuse – Anderson spearheaded the investment of Cintrifuse's $57 million first fund, which resulted in multiple successful exits. She followed that this year by closing the startup catalyst’s second fund with $56 million, surpassing its $50 million target. Kelley Downing, president and CEO of Bartlett Wealth Management – Downtown-based Bartlett closed the biggest deal in its 121-year history this year when it bought Chicago investment firm Lodestar. The acquis...

By Nikki Kingery  – Projects Editor, Cincinnati Business Courier  May 15, 2019 Britney Ruby Miller, 36, is president of Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment Group. What was your first job? Hostess at El Coyote. Favorite vacation spot? Anywhere in the Caribbean. What’s your hidden talent? I’m a basketball balla shot calla. What’s the simplest thing you never learned to do? I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. Where would we find you on a typical Saturday? Being a soccer mom. What’s the most recent experience you’ve crossed off your bucket list? It sounds really cheesy but enrolling for my MBA. I’m a life-long learner. Best podcast, movie or TV show you’ve enjoyed recently? Any “Housewives.” At the end of the day, I need a good br...

LEXINGTON (WKYT) - After more than 11 years in the making, the first businesses in City Center officially opened Monday.  Starbucks and Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse are the first two businesses to open in the heart of downtown.  City Center coordinator Ralph Coldiron said Starbucks will be different than stores people are used to. It will feature a new menu, as well as different flooring and seating. Employees trained for a week ahead of the opening. Jeff Ruby's is a 10,000 sq. ft. steakhouse offering special rooms designed to give customers an unforgettable experience. In addition to those businesses, a massive underground parking garage also opened Monday.  Other businesses expected at City Center include a Keeneland store, Marriott and Residence Inn hotels, condos, a fitness center, and office buildings. Work on what was originally called "Center Pointe," sta...

Sure, it’s always a good idea to live within your means and save for the future. But every now and again, it’s important to treat yourself to something special, too. Be it a birthday, anniversary, promotion, or a hefty tax refund, splurging on a good meal every so often can be good for your soul. And thankfully, Yelp has parsed out 100 places around the country where those dining-related splurges should take place. “To determine Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Treat Yourself for 2019, we looked at the reviews received by three and four dollar sign businesses in the restaurant and food categories,” a Yelp representative explained. For the rankings, Yelp considered both the rating and the volume of the reviews, as well as accounted for the overall volume of reviews in each business's area so as not to “disadvantage businesses in areas with relatively low revi...

Restaurant writers are expected to have lists of "bests" at the ready, preferably ranked and ruthlessly rated. After a couple of decades of eating out in Cincinnati, reviewing and writing about restaurants, I do believe that some restaurants are better than others. But I don't think that means one is the best of all. But the urge to list persists, as does the urge to help people find somewhere they'll like to eat. So, what I've made here is my favorite 14 of the best Cincinnati restaurants.   I have selected this list from the local restaurants that hit the high-quality mark. These are not just options for home meal replacement. They are full service, offer a wine list and cocktails, take reservations and serve a varied menu. (We'll need another list for my favorite pizza joints, chili parlors, no-reservation hipster haunts, strip-mall Chinese and...

Best Of Cincinnati 2019   Have you ever sat around wishing there was a publication that would list all of the best things in Cincinnati, as determined by a group of your peers as well as a handful of select staffers at your local alt-weekly paper? Well, your wish has been granted. CityBeat has been in the business of curating the Best Of Cincinnati® for more than two decades, highlighting the city’s most outstanding selections in Eats, Arts & Culture, Shops & Services, Music & Nightlife, Sports & Recreation and City Life. And the responsibility of selecting these exceptional entities is divided between our readers and staff. This year, more than half a million votes were tallied to determine our Reader Picks. Readers logged on to the ballot site to vote for their favorites in broad categories like Best New Restaurant, Best Bar...

March 21, 2019 The restaurant business is no big thing. It’s thousands of little things, and all of those little things—each one of them—have to be addressed,” said restaurateur Jeff Ruby. “And then things change all the time—they get redesigned, or at least I do. I keep reinventing myself. I keep re-evaluating what I’ve done, and I say, ‘you know what, I think I’ve got a better idea than that other idea.’” Dressed in a Kentucky-blue sequined blazer decorated with symbols of the state, wearing a black fedora and smoking one of his signature cigars—his hand adorned with a diamond-encrusted University of Kentucky basketball championship ring—Ruby is seated on the patio of Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse in Cincinnati, discussing his namesake restaurant brand’s most-recent location in Lexington, whi...