A cocktail bar six years in the making is finally opening its doors inside one of Over-the-Rhine's most ornate 19th-century buildings. The Muse, a new bar and future boutique hotel tucked into the historic Germania Building at 1127 Walnut Street, is set to open at the end of summer 2026, bringing a hand-painted ceiling fresco, custom French parquet flooring, and a brass sculpture of a star constellation to a space that took founder James Fisher and his team far longer to finish than anyone expected.
The bar comes from the team behind Somerset, the Over-the-Rhine bar on East McMicken Avenue, which purchased the Germania Building during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, according to CityBeat. The project has undergone more than half a decade of development, and when the bar finally opens, its planned kitchen space and 28 hotel rooms will not yet be ready, per the same report. Fisher operates The Muse through his Cincinnati-based company Lost Hospitality, which he founded in 2012 after arriving in the city through tech startup incubator The Brandery in 2011, following time spent living in Berlin, according to Soapbox.
A Building With a Complicated Past
The Germania Building opened in 1877, built for the German Mutual Insurance Company and designed by Cincinnati architect Johann Bast in Italian Renaissance and Eastlake styles for insurance executive Heinrich Arminius Rattermann, according to research from the University of Cincinnati. The structure is known for its limestone exterior and a prominent second-story sculpture of Germania herself, originally carved in 1877 by sculptor Karl Leopold Fettweis. That sculpture was altered during World War I amid anti-German sentiment, losing its original sword and gaining an American eagle along with the motto “E Pluribus Unum,” according to Digging Cincinnati History.
The building's uses shifted repeatedly over the following century. It served as the home of Inter Ocean Insurance Company in the 1950s before hosting private law offices and local newspaper production in the 1980s, according to the Cincinnati Past and Present Archive. The Muse draws directly on that European and neoclassical heritage, pairing it with what Fisher calls space-age modernist furnishings inside the finished bar, per CityBeat's reporting.
Handmade Details Behind the Delays
Fisher told CityBeat that the project's handmade craftsmanship caused the lengthy development, describing The Muse as a labor of love and, in his words, an art project meant to bring a little bit of the outside world into Cincinnati. The hand-painted ceiling fresco alone took nearly a year to complete, and the team stopped construction multiple times to regroup, retool and improve the project, according to the same report.
That pattern of delay is not new for Lost Hospitality. During previous Over-the-Rhine venue openings, the company faced global supply chain disruptions, including Sri Lankan bar-top stones held up by the 2021 Suez Canal blockage that arrived just two weeks before an opening, according to CityBeat's earlier coverage. A hotel industry outlet reported that Lost Hospitality had originally budgeted $7 million for the Germania Building conversion in July 2023, aiming for a winter 2024 launch before the timeline slipped into 2026, according to Hotel Project Leads.
Cocktails Now, Rooms and Kitchen Later
When the doors open, guests can expect several boundary-pushing cocktails alongside simpler classic drinks, a themed cocktail menu, and a small selection of hors d'oeuvres, per CityBeat. Fisher said he wants The Muse to feel quiet, refined and polished, aimed at people seeking a refined night out in Cincinnati, while still being ambitious, affordable, classy and, in his words, not pretentious. He added that the space is meant to be inclusive in all forms and ways, and intended to honor the building's history.
The Muse is only part of a bigger picture for Fisher's company. Prior to this project, Lost Hospitality built a regional portfolio of themed venues including Somerset Bar, event space Somerhaus on Republic Street, cocktail bar Alice on Main Street, and Second Story in Covington, Kentucky, according to reporting compiled by journalist Jessica Bozsan. Fisher told Soapbox in September 2024 that he views those bar concepts as a prelude to hotel development, with a second hotel already in the works as the company pivots toward lodging.
Operating in a Neighborhood Under Scrutiny
The Muse arrives in an Over-the-Rhine hospitality landscape that has faced real strain in recent months. A targeted shooting rattled Somerset Bar in May, hospitalizing one person and leading police to take a person of interest into custody. Cincinnati Council has since discussed a broader crackdown on bars following a string of shootings tied to Over-the-Rhine venues, a debate that continues to shape how the neighborhood's business owners operate.
Fisher's engagement with those safety concerns is not new. Back in May 2022, he joined other Over-the-Rhine business owners in signing an open letter to Cincinnati officials calling for stronger public safety interventions after a rise in violent and petty crime along Main Street. That history underscores the tension facing The Muse as it opens: a painstakingly handcrafted, internationally inspired art project landing in a neighborhood where commercial leaders have spent years pressing the city for stability.
