NEWPORT — Jeff Ruby, who has brought New York and South Beach to the Cincinnati market with his upscale restaurants, is bringing a bit of Newport's shady past back to life with the Tropicana at Newport on the Levee.

        Named after Newport's old Tropicana Club, which was in turn named for the famous Las Vegas hotel and casino, the new Tropicana will be the first of his non-steakhouse concepts, according to Mr. Ruby.

        Set to open this summer on the river side of Newport on the Levee, the restaurant will seat 300 inside and another 100 outside with a view of downtown Cincinnati and Mount Adams.

        Mr. Ruby said he is taking a new approach in designing the menu for Tropicana — first building a musical library for the restaurant and then using the music themes to guide his menu choices.

        Jimmy Gibson, corporate chef for Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment, and executive chef Robert Reash, formerly of the award-winning Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, will assist Mr. Ruby in developing the menu.

        It is said to be “a mix of New York and South Beach,” taking a cue from two of Mr. Ruby's most successful restaurants, South Beach at The Waterfront in Covington and Jeff Ruby's Steak House in downtown Cincinnati.

        “This is my contribution to the "new' city of Newport,” Mr. Ruby said Thursday.

        He said he wants Tropicana to take people “from the norms of Cincinnati and drop you into Newport's vivid past.”

        From the 1940s through the early 1960s, downtown Newport was a mini-Las Vegas of illegal gambling and other illicit trades, controlled primarily by the crime families of New York and Cleveland.

        The old Tropicana, located at 10th and Monmouth streets (now the site of the Newport city government building), was one of the best-known of the gambling joints, which also offered music and strip shows.

        Newport, which in recent years has worked hard to shed its “Sin City” image with developments like the Newport Aquarium and Newport on the Levee, will now have two restaurants with themes that harken back to the gambling heyday.

        The Syndicate on Fifth Street, near the World Peace Bell, opened about five years ago and features decorations to remind visitors of an earlier time in Newport, including two old cars parked in front and an imitation submachine gun in the lobby.

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