Lunar first to open in new bar and restaurant complex downtown

The creative team behind popular bar FB’s will unveil their next project, a two-story space-themed lounge and nightclub called Lunar, at 435 Elm St. on December 10.They plan to add a restaurant and outdoor concert pavilion to the complex by next summer, one of the owners Bill Foster said.Foster’s first foray into the bar industry was with FB’s, the richly-decorated downtown Cincinnati lounge that also hosts a basement dance club called “The Rabbit Hole.” To open the establishment, he partnered with Cincinnati nightclub veteran Scott Sheridan. Sheridan had developed the concept after years managing local nightclubs including Club Clau and Purgatory. Foster, who has built a national warehousing business from Cincinnati in the last decade, provided the drive to put it into action, he said.  “We started out small just to get the kinks worked out, and now we’re ready for a larger project like this,” Foster said. “We’re going to have a whole campus on this block.”The men partnered with Ryan Goldschmidt and Ron Goldschmidt, the building’s owners, to create the complex. Their fifth partner is Jimmy Gibson, who worked for a decade as a chef for Jeff Ruby. He will design the menu for Lunar Lounge and direct the upcoming restaurant. Lunar’s lounge and nightclub will maintain a futuristic, space-travel theme. Foster said bare concrete walls and an expansive lighting system with a liberal dose of LED’s and chandeliers will be the defining decorative elements.”We’re bringing a lot of new technology to the area,” he said. Lunar will also blur the lines between social networking and real-live-partying as an employee will scan twitter feeds of Lunar’s guests and display them on monitors throughout the bar. The men also have plans for a rooftop bar that would open in about two years, Foster said.The downstairs portion of the bar, called Lunar Lounge, will be open seven days a week, with the larger upstairs portion open Thursday, Friday and Saturday as well as for special events.Writer: Henry SweetsPhotography by Scott Beseler.