Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment has planted its new corporate home at 3505 Columbia Parkway in Columbia Tusculum, directly across from The Precinct, the company's oldest restaurant. The 15,000-square-foot office is headed for a full-scale renovation designed to look and feel like one of Ruby's own dining rooms, complete with a walk-in cigar humidor.
The move, first detailed by the Cincinnati Enquirer, comes after the restaurant group's departure from its downtown headquarters amid a dispute with former landlord Towne Properties. The new building will house up to 50 employees once renovations are complete, according to the Enquirer's reporting.
Plans call for a restaurant-style gathering space and seating area near the entrance, a training center for new hires, and an office for Jeff Ruby featuring career memorabilia. CEO Britney Ruby Miller told the Enquirer that the interior will use ivory and red tones with art deco styling. She described the look as less bold, eclectic and colorful than some of the group's restaurants.
A Dispute Rooted in Security Concerns
The company's exit from its former downtown office wasn't a simple lease expiration. According to the Enquirer, Jeff Ruby alleged that Towne Properties failed to provide adequate building security after incidents threatened staff and property, and the company ended its lease at 700 Walnut St. early following those heightened safety concerns. The Cincinnati Business Courier similarly reported that the restaurant group left its former headquarters downtown in 2025 after what Ruby Miller called a landlord dispute regarding safety protocols, as detailed by the Cincinnati Business Courier.
That fallout also claimed Lempicka, the group's event space in the same downtown building, which the Business Courier reported was shuttering as the company sought a new corporate location back in October 2025. The space, a popular wedding destination tied up in the same legal dispute, formally closed the same month, per Local 12's account of the closure and subsequent legal battle. News reports say Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment and Towne Properties later mutually dismissed their lawsuits against each other over the early lease termination.
Settling Into Columbia Square
Local 12 reported that the company signed a 10-year lease through landlord Lee & Associates on Aug. 28 for its new office in Columbia Square, a mixed-use development along Columbia Parkway. The headquarters is in Columbia Tusculum, the east-side neighborhood along the Ohio River.
Ruby Miller framed the new space as more than just an office upgrade. She told the Enquirer the design will help with recruiting new talent and attracting developers and designers to the company, and said her father was speechless when he first saw the renderings for the project, later noting he liked what he saw.
The Precinct and its neighborhood
The Precinct’s official history says the restaurant opened in 1981 in the former Cincinnati Police Patrol House No. 6, an earlier chapter in the company’s history, separate from the headquarters project. The site is now the company’s oldest restaurant. The City of Cincinnati’s Columbia Tusculum neighborhood plan calls for prioritizing walkability and accessibility while integrating businesses and housing. That plan offers neighborhood context; it does not establish that the headquarters move advances those goals.
For now, the renovation remains in the planning stages, with the finished office yet to open its doors to the 50 employees it's meant to house. The symbolism of the location isn't lost on the company either — a new headquarters built to resemble a restaurant, sitting in the shadow of the restaurant where it all started.
