"Groove is in The Heart"....of Cincinnati

So what does it take exactly to start up a celebrity restaurant? Well, you obviously have to have the celebrity and a little bit of dough... and not just for baking the bread. Then there's the right location, but if you're thinking about Cincinnati.... you might want to think again.

Bootsy Collins (seen here), one of the funk genre's most recognizable icons and musician from Parliament Funkadelic and Dee-Lite, is teaming up to open a restaurant with Jeff Ruby, a restauranteur and probably more famously known to everyone as the 'man who kicked OJ out of his restaurant'. They want to open a joint venture known as Bootsy Ruby's in the heart of downtown Cincinnati smack dab across from the Aronoff Center for the Arts.


The building that they've selected is the former Uno's Pizzeria building, that was originally where the recording studio, King Records (as seen here in 1991), stood. Included in the building would be the restaurant that would be housed on the second level, a museum of Cincinnati's music history on the first floor, a balcony on the second floor that would extend over the sidewalk, and a replica 1930's glass elevator so that people could look down to the city on their way up.

Sounds really great and something that would attract people out of the suburb's to come to it, right? Well, evidentally Cincinnati's City Council isn't pushing quite as hard as they could be. Despite saying that they were backing this attraction that Cincinnati's downtown is lacking.... the city's architectural boards and building department are dragging their feet. Apparently, they feel that doing something great and bringing an entertainment district to Cincinnati, where there's so little to do in the first place, would 'jeopardize' the beauty of the building.

If you are from Cincinnati or have visited the downtown area, then you will agree with me when I say that there are some, but not so many buildings that I can say are so beautiful that something like this wouldn't greatly increase the beauty of the city. Not to mention the fact that an entertainment district would bring people to downtown and not a $42,000,000 renovation of a fountain that people can view on a webcam at home.

If you don't exactly get excited thinking about a Cincinnati Music Museum well here's a little history on the museum that Bootsy Ruby's want to house.... When you think of Cincinnati's music history most people can't get past Bootsy Collins or Nick Lachey, but they don't have any idea that James Brown was originally signed in 1956 to King Records where he went on to have a 29 year recording career. King Records, which started off wanting to record "hillbilly music" adopted the logo (seen here), and then later changed to recording with artists, such as, The Platters, Fats Domino, Ralph Bass and Syd Nathan who are Rock-n-Roll HOF inductees.

So, with all of the history, and more to be made you would think that the city couldn't wait to get started on this project. We should have been able to expect it soon, because it was projected to be finished in early 2008. However, with approvals not being signed off on yet, the downtown Cincinnati area, and 'somewhat empty of entertainment' area, will need to wait for something great like this to do.

Maybe in the meantime the city will build another $400,000 "art" piece that consists of yellow poles and lightbulbs for everyone to look at... like the already empty riverfront area waiting on some "approvals" itself. So, come on Cincinnati..... what are you waiting for?

Shannon & Matt Bridgeford
http://www.headlinerdiners.com/ - The Largest List of Athlete & Celebrity Owned Restaurants.