A Franklin County judge has ordered Czars Restaurant and Lounge in northeast Columbus boarded up after more than 30 police reports of shootings, fights and assaults piled up at the property over the past year. The emergency closure came just days after an August 1 shooting inside the bar injured one person, damaged multiple vehicles, and touched off a police chase that reportedly topped 100 mph.
Franklin County Environmental Court Judge Stephanie Mingo signed the order shutting down the bar at 6857 Flags Center Dr., near Schrock Road and Cleveland Avenue, according to The Columbus Dispatch. City Attorney Zach Klein's office said Columbus police took more than 30 reports at the bar during a 12-month span, with calls ranging from shootings to fights and other assaults. Klein said in a statement that “nightlife is important to our city, but so is safety,” adding that the city will intervene when a bar or restaurant becomes a magnet for crime and violence.
A Year of Escalating Violence
Court filings tied to the case lay out a grim timeline. Police responded to the bar on Christmas Eve 2025 after reports of gunfire on the premises, according to court filings cited in a Reddit post detailing the case. The same filings describe an April 2026 incident in which a female patron was struck in the face, knocked down, and repeatedly kicked by multiple assailants while she was on the floor, forcing security to deploy mace to break up the attack.
Police recorded 11 reports of violent incidents at the bar after April 4, per the city attorney's office. The following month, a fight inside the lounge spilled into the parking lot, where a victim was followed and pistol-whipped, according to the same court filings. The pattern culminated on August 1, when a fight inside the bar led to shots being fired and one person injured; people outside also fired weapons following a reported assault, and one suspect led police on a chase involving speeds over 100 mph.
Emergency Order Timed to Weekend Event
The city attorney's office took legal action against Czars after the bar advertised an event for August 8 that officials said made an emergency order necessary to shut the property down before that weekend. A youth camp was reportedly happening at an adjacent property on the day of the August 1 shooting, according to the Dispatch's reporting. Czars had operated as a global fusion venue serving African cuisine and hookah, and hosted weekly nightlife events including “First Fridays,” according to the bar's own Facebook page.
A member of the property-owning company said in late July that the company would work to evict the bar, per the Dispatch. It remains unclear whether that eviction process has been completed or whether Czars' operator will attempt to contest the court's closure order at future civil hearings.
Part of a Broader Columbus Crackdown
The Czars closure is the latest in a string of emergency nuisance actions Klein's office has pursued against North Side venues tied to violence. Less than two months earlier, the city secured a similar order to board up Kulture Lounge on Mediterranean Avenue following 10 police calls for violence and illegal alcohol sales, as Hoodline previously reported. In April, city officials also obtained a temporary restraining order shuttering an illegal after-hours club on Lockbourne Road after a fatal March shooting and 31 police calls over a year, according to WBNS 10TV.
These closures are handled by the city attorney's Property Action Team, which assigns dedicated attorneys to each of Columbus's six police zones; Deputy Chief Heidy Carr oversees Zone 1, covering the northeast district where Czars operated. Between 2018 and early 2024, the city attorney's office initiated nearly 250 nuisance abatement cases against crime-ridden properties citywide, including 30 bars and illegal after-hours clubs and 136 drug houses, WBNS 10TV reported. The Franklin County Municipal Court's Environmental Division, created by the Ohio General Assembly in 1991, holds exclusive jurisdiction over these civil nuisance and safety code abatement cases across the county.
