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Jeff Ruby owns upscale steakhouses in Cincinnati, Louisville, and Belterra, Ind.

It was May 4, 2007, and O.J. Simpson had a problem. In Louisville, on the eve of the Kentucky Derby, the former NFL star – who was acquitted in 1995 for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman – walked into Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse for dinner. And Ruby was none too happy about this development.

“I didn’t want to serve him because of my convictions of what he’s done to those families,” Ruby later told CNN. Other customers were not immediately struck with the same conviction; some were excited to see a celebrity such as Simpson. Noting the attention Simpson received, Ruby said he thought to himself, “I don’t want that experience in my restaurant.”

Simply and calmly, the self-assured restaurateur walked over to Simpson’s table and said, “I’m not serving you.” Ruby said Simpson was dumbstruck by his refusal to serve him, but ultimately left quietly. It was, Ruby claimed, “the first time since 1994 that he [Simpson] has ever shown any class.” Upon seeing the man of the house essentially kick Simpson to the curb, the 50 or so customers seated in the room “stood up and applauded,” as reported by Louisville’s Courier-Journal.

On that night, it appears some were excited to see Simpson and others were excited to see him go. Opinion about Ruby’s decision to refuse Simpson service was somewhat divided, according to an informal online survey by the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Eileen Kelley, but most felt Ruby was within his rights to show Simpson the door.

Yet even Ruby appears indecisive in his opinion about Simpson. After the 1994 murders of Simpson’s wife and her friend, Ruby took down photos of himself and Simpson from all his restaurants’ walls. Yet four years ago Simpson ate at another of Ruby’s restaurants, The Waterfront in Cincinnati, and though Ruby may have had the conviction to remove Simpson’s photos, he had nothing to say then about removing Simpson.

The difference, Ruby told the Cincinnati Enquirer, was Simpson’s attempt to publish the book, If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened, which was never released because of negative publicity. “If he tries to profit off the murder of the mother of his children, that’s enough for me,” Ruby said.

Before the dust even settled on the Derby Day event, Simpson’s lawyer, Yale Galanter, threatened to sue Ruby, claiming the issue was about race, though that appears unlikely, considering Ruby served basketball legend Michael Jordan not five minutes after the Simpson incident. Later, however, the Associated Press reported Simpson decided not to take any legal action against Ruby, and Galanter changed his tone, saying, “If we had our druthers, this would have died that night and been over. We are not pushing it.”

Actually, a court case might have helped answer the question of where one draws the line on such matters. Federal law protects people from discrimination in restaurants based on gender, age, religion, race and national origin, but little is said beyond that. According to Cincinnati lawyer Al Gerhardstein, who has handled several civil-rights cases in the past, Ruby did not break any laws in refusing Simpson service based on civil convictions for the murders and Simpson’s unreleased book. “There is no law against that,” Gerhardstein told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “A private company can choose to not serve a person on that basis. That’s a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason.”

Most restaurateurs avoid such controversy, even if they are within their rights, because they may still face a lawsuit from an angry consumer. But caution has never really been Ruby’s style, and taking risks is how he built a successful restaurant chain in the first place.

When Ruby was growing up in New Jersey, the fledgling food entrepreneur went up against his school principal, too. It seems young Jeff, then in seventh grade, had developed a booming lunch business selling Italian subs to his classmates at nearly twice the price of a regular school lunch.

When the principal told him he was putting too much of a dent into the school’s lunch program, Ruby said, “The way I see it, I’m just giving the kids what they want, which is a better product than you’re offering. And, hey, they still have to come to you to buy their milk and desserts. If you want to get funny about it, I’ll start bringing in cheesecake and drinks, too.”

Jeff Ruby has been forging a pathway to success ever since. At 15, he moved out, living alone in his own apartment, finishing school while spending his spare time working in restaurants to support himself. He also was a star athlete, and graduated from Cornell University thanks to a football scholarship.

After college, as an athlete, it wasn’t long until Ruby became friends with Pete Rose and Johnny Bench, two of Cincinnati’s favorite sports legends. They invested in his first restaurant, The Precinct, when he decided to strike out on his own in 1981. He bought a crumbling but picturesque old police station in one of Cincinnati’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods, and opened an upscale restaurant serving fine steaks and other classic American fare.

“Everyone tried to tell me that no one would drive to that part of town, where there is nothing around it, and put themselves at risk just to have a fancy dinner,” Ruby said. At first, they appeared to be right. For the first few weeks, customers were getting the engines stolen out of their cars and the restaurant was robbed.

“But after a while, the reputation of the restaurant spread, and I was able to do a lot of advertising and get celebrities to come to eat there, too. It wasn’t long before the whole neighborhood started turning around. Developers started putting in more stores and nightlife, and The Precinct was the anchor for that,” Ruby said.

Following the success of The Precinct, Ruby launched several other restaurants in the Cincinnati area, then branched out geographically as well, opening steakhouses in Louisville and Belterra, Ind. Now a Cincinnati celebrity, Ruby’s knack for making a seemingly chaotic situation a profitable one has not only helped him build his restaurant business but his reputation, and the Simpson incident is a perfect example of both.

Restaurateurs often worry about what such an action might do to business, especially when the owner makes such bold statements as the one Ruby issued to CNN, but Ruby says he received a lot of support for his actions. People flooded his businesses’ inbox with more than 5,000 e-mails, mostly positive, and his Web site received 20,000 hits. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, in the first few weeks after Derby Day the Louisville restaurant alone received more than 600 phone calls, many from people looking to make reservations, and his Cincinnati restaurants got a boost as well. Reservations at The Precinct went up 60 percent, while The Waterfront upped its reservations by about 80 percent.

Ruby claims the publicity might be worth millions, and since much of it is positive, it should be good for business. Still, Ruby insists he refused Simpson service on principle, not for publicity. Regardless, Ruby and his restaurants look to emerge from this chaotic incident more successful than ever.

Susan Gosselin and Nick Browning  are writers  for The Lane Report (editorial@lanereport.com).

This article was originally published in Prep, The Lane Report’s quarterly
food industry magazine.