One of Cincinnati’s oldest bars is closing — again.
The Bay Horse Cafe, which originally opened in 1817 and has had many different owners and periods of closure in the two hundred years since, is changing hands once again.
The bar, which is located at 625 Main Street downtown, announced its closure on social media Monday.
“To all our esteemed guests, the Bay Horse Cafe will be closing its doors on Sunday, Oct. 18. I want to thank our landlord, the local business owners and the patrons for letting me live my dream of opening a bar downtown for last three years. We ask you to treat the new owners with the same respect and give them the same love you’ve given myself and my staff,” the post said. “We look forward to announcing our next project in the coming weeks. It’ll be a little closer to home but will bring the same hospitality that we brought to this project. Stay tuned.”
This is the bar’s third closure this century, following a closure in 2004 — when the building sat empty until 2017 — and then another in 2022. The second-most recent closure was due to the sudden passing of co-owner Lori Meeker. Her partner, Fred Berger, kept the bar closed until 2024, when he passed on ownership to Kyle Smith.
There is currently no word on the reason for the Bay Horse’s most recent closure or who the next owner will be.
