Historians believe the building at 125 W. Fourth St. (between Race and Elm streets) was built around 1825 as a residence and is a remnant of the Greek Revival architecture popular during the period. It may have served both as a residence and grocery from 1845 until the mid 1870s. The space later housed a pharmacy and an interior decorating firm.

        David Sinton, a founder of the Cincinnati Art Museum, purchased the building as an investment property in 1893. After Mr. Sinton's death in 1900, ownership transferred to his daughter, Anna Sinton Taft, wife of Charles Phelps Taft. The Taft family continued to own the property until 1943. The building changed hands several times after that.

        A former Maisonette chef, Maurice Gorodetsky, opened the original Pigall's, named after a red light district in Paris, in 1956 at Fifth and Pike streets, downtown. He moved Pigall's, which served classic French cuisine, to Fourth Street in 1963. Mr. Gorodetsky died in 1972 and his wife, Nannette, sold the restaurant the next year to Don Whittle, a former Maisonette maitre d'.

        Mobil awarded Pigall's a five-star rating seven times during the 1960s and '70s. Then, during the golden age of dining in Cincinnati, it shared the five-star distinction with two other downtown restaurants - Maisonette and the Gourmet Room in the Terrace Hilton (now the Crowne Plaza). All three restaurants won five stars in 1970, and in 1976, Cincinnati was the only city in the United States with two Mobil five-stars - Pigall's and Maisonette.

        In 1977, Pigall's was demoted to four stars, which it retained until Mr. Whittle closed the restaurant in 1990.

        The restaurant was reopened as the casual, trendy Pigall's Cafe in 1991 by Jimmy Gherardi and Paul Sturkey. In the fall of 1999, the restaurant was transformed again, this time into Pig Al's, a barbecue joint that lasted only six months.

        The building sat empty until Jean-Robert de Cavel and his partners began renovations in summer 2001.

        Pigall's building dates from city's early days

PART 1: Restaurant's opening bittersweet Can new restaurant succeed downtown? Pigall's building dates from city's early days