Not Counting Tomorrow

Jeff Ruby. Mention the name in Greater Cincinnati and almost every adult will have something to say, even if they've never met the man. Most people will know that he owns the best restaurants in the area: The Precinct, Carlo & Johnny, and Jeff Ruby's Steakhouses in Downtown Cincinnati as well as Steakhouses located in Lexington, Louisville, Columbus, and Nashville. Others will remember his storied eateries of the past: Tropicana, Bootsy's, and The Waterfront. He became nationally famous for throwing O.J. Simpson out of the Louisville steakhouse in 2007.

But beyond that, Ruby is a highly visible philanthropist, a champion of fatherless teenage boys, and an advocate for justice for the disadvantaged. He did much to secure Drew Peterson's guilty verdict in the 2012 trial for his wife's murder. Jeff is a tireless promoter of high school football and other local sports at all levels of play, frequently found in the stands, or "coaching" from the sidelines. Some might recall that in 1987, he leaped out of a moving car after an argument with his wife, who was driving. He was declared brain dead, and not expected to live. He lost 20 percent of his brain permanently. That was only the most serious of six decades' worth of setbacks that have required Ruby to constantly reinvent himself, and to succeed in spite of whatever fate handed him. If a cat has nine lives, he's one lucky cat, at age sixty-five.

Those who were around in 1970 may remember when he came to town, straight out of Cornell's Hotel and Restaurant School, a brash New Jersey-born brawler who quickly reinvented Cincinnati's night life. But even those who have known him the longest, going back to grammar school, won't know everything about him-until now. Jeff has penned this lively and touching autobiography, with assistance from noted biographer Robert Windeler, who interviewed more than 70 of Ruby's friends and admirers from all decades of his life, to flesh out the story. Starting with his fatherless childhood on the Jersey Shore, running away from his problematic, alcoholic mother at age 15, and living on his own (for a while sleeping under the Asbury Park Boardwalk!), Jeff essentially raised himself and forged his own destiny. By the time this rootless runaway was a senior at Neptune High School, he was New Jersey all-state in football, had straight A's, and went to his dream university, Cornell, against all odds. He came to Cincinnati to be near his beloved Reds, and has stayed to become the man who some call The King of Cincinnati. Here is the whole story...not counting tomorrow.