Long-delayed plans for a new restaurant and dance club are finally moving forward in the Downtown building that used to house the Ho Toy Chinese eatery.
The soon-to-come removal of Ho Toy’s pagoda-shaped neon sign is the most visible sign of progress toward owner Tora Bonnier’s plans to bring the 52-year-old building at 11 W. State St. back to life. Inside, a new elevator has been installed, fire safety systems have been modernized and both the cause and effects of water that flooded through the roof have been repaired.
As other renovations continue toward a targeted early July opening of Bonnier’s new restaurant, The State House, she has lovingly begun using the name “Murphy” to refer to the property she bought with big plans in 2023.
Murphy, as in Murphy’s Law.
“Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong,” she said. “It’s being totally modernized.”
A heftier-than-expected price tag for repairs has forced Bonnier to scale back her original idea for separate restaurant and nightclub ventures on each of the building’s three levels.
Gone, for the foreseeable future, is a retro-futuristic space-themed fine-dining restaurant that had been slated for the mezzanine. Delayed until 2027 is an LGBTQ+-centered dance club and drag bar in the basement of the building.
But Bonnier said executive chef Trudy King is on board and developing the menu for The State House, which will occupy the first floor. King, who owned the Moody Trudy food truck and later operated her business out of BrewDog’s now-closed Short North taproom, is creating dishes that showcase Ohio-grown and Ohio-produced foods
It will be a seasonal menu of classic Ohio fare, Bonnier said. She has been collecting church cookbooks and other recipe collections from around the state and hopes to create some sort of online database for people to share all types of family recipes.
Bonnier said she wants The State House to serve all sorts of Downtown crowds, including office workers, Statehouse visitors, pre- and post-show theatergoers, and her fellow neighborhood residents. The State House will open early in the morning to sell coffee and pastries from local bakeries, she said, and it will stay open late for dinner, cocktails and entertainment.
“There’s times I finish dinner, and everyone’s locked up and closed, and I’d like one more cocktail,” she said. “I want a place that I can go.”
Bonnier said she plans to open The State House during the first week of July. The mezzanine space will be available for private events, she said.
What about the Ho Toy sign?
Workers attempted to remove the classic Ho Toy sign – with its pagoda-like top and neon letters in a Chinese-style font – on April 28, but hit a complication with cranes not being able to move the sign. Removal is expected to happen within a week, once more equipment comes.
Ho Toy opened in 1959 on East Town Street and moved to the State Street building, built as a location for Burger King, in 1980. The restaurant closed in January 2023.
Bonnier said the sign will be donated to Cincinnati’s American Sign Museum.
Follow Dispatch dining reporter Bob Vitale on Instagram at @dispatchdining. You can reach him directly at rvitale@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Former Ho Toy building Downtown could house new restaurant by July
Reporting by Bob Vitale, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
