August 22, 2025
Where To Find Our Coffee Around Cincinnati/NKY: Restaurant Edition
Craving Carabello Coffee on a Sunday when our café is closed? Or maybe on a weekend post-8pm? There are a ton of options in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area where you can find our coffee on the menu and stop by for a cup, a cocktail, a dessert—or even to follow up an amazing meal!
We work with three restaurant groups and one independent restaurant in the greater Cincinnati area. Read on to meet them!
Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse, The Precinct, Carlo & Johnny, The Lempicka
Our first wholesale restaurant partner in the Cincinnati area was Jeff Ruby’s—we've been working with them for 11 years! Back in 2012-2013, Justin and Emily Carabello could be found selling their coffee at farmer's markets, including the Anderson Township Farmer's Market. One day, a regular customer of theirs revealed that she was Jeff Ruby's daughter, Britney Ruby Miller, and said that if there was any way she could help the Carabellos' business to let her know. Justin told her that while he loved the Jeff Ruby restaurants, he felt their coffee program didn't quite match the high quality of their steaks.
Our relationship with One Holland came from their owner having our coffee while dining at Jeff Ruby’s. He snapped a pictured of our logo on their menu and sent it to his beverage guy. It's crazy how many restaurant relationships have come from that one original connection! One Holland operates The Merrick Inn in Lexington and Greyhound Tavern in Fort Mitchell (see our last Wholesale email!), Spear Ridge in Florence, which is elevated fast casual, and they have an upscale dining concept planned to open soon in Independence.
Billy Price was the General Manager of Boomtown Biscuits & Whiskey in Cincinnati. He later started coming to our cafe and became a Carabello fan. At the time, he was working for Thunderdome Restaurant Group helping them open restaurants. A few years later a guy name Mitch opens Beards & Bellies, a bbq place. He also started coming to our shop and needed coffee for a bbq rub as he had started doing catering. He and Billy became industry friends and decided to form a partnership, out of which the idea for Carmelo's was born. Billy’s family is an Italian family and Carmelo, his great grandfather had a restaurant—so the concept is rooted in family history.
As a result, Jeff Ruby's was willing to put in brand new state of the art equipment in all three Cincinnati restaurants in order to improve the coffee—because to truly improve the coffee, it couldn't just be better beans brewed on subpar equipment. The equipment had to match the coffee quality.
The Carabellos did a tasting with the Jeff Ruby's team and at first they landed on some coffees that didn’t quite fit with where the customer would be at when ready for a cup of coffee—a fruity, bright coffee just doesn’t work with a piece of chocolate cake after dessert. So the Carabellos went on a journey of figuring out what the Jeff Ruby's customer needed and ultimately landed on a darker roast profile. Again, it wasn't because it was Justin's favorite coffee or roast profile, but because it went best with dessert after a really rich meal.
The beverage directors on the Jeff Ruby's team really gave the Carabellos the space to figure out how to get the coffee right. This allowed them to expand to other restaurants with what they had learned. Currently, all the restaurants we work with are brewing a quality darker roasted coffee, either a proprietary blend or something like Addicting Liquid.
As we've worked with restaurants, we've discovered that they may want to introduce new menu items that may require the ability to innovate in order to capture those opportunities. At one point, Jeff Ruby's decided to roll out a nitro espresso martini at all the restaurants. They started out by buying a cold brew online from La Colombe. As they were testing it, the beverage director asked Justin if he could make something similar. In typical Justin fashion he said, "No, I can make you something better."
So we were able to leverage new tech in brewing to create a batched espresso that we could sell by the half gallon for espresso martinis. This was a great opportunity for us to serve Jeff Ruby's by being willing to create a new product that we had not previously been selling. Once we saw the success of our espresso concentrate in their program, we realized it was something other restaurants would probably be interested in. Today, all our Cincinnati area restaurants are using this product in their lineup.
Crown Restaurant Group:
In 2018, Chef Anthony Sitek and his wife Haley Nutter-Sitek opened Crown Republic. They opened it with a walk up window that was serving Fat Ben’s donuts and coffee. The coffee they served was roasted by some folks in Cleveland. The walk up window ultimately closed, but the restaurant succeeded and early on Justin and Emily Carabello became regulars. They got to know Anthony and Haley just because they loved eating at Crown Republic.
So when the Crown Group went to open Losanti, their steakhouse and third restaurant concept, they asked if Carabello could help them do coffee well like they help Jeff Ruby's. Relationships are a big thing for us at Carabello, so it's significant that Emily and Justin were food industry friends with the Siteks—seeing them as friends first—before adding anything related to business.
After getting coffee going at Losanti, we worked backwards to Rosie’s, Crown Republic, and then worked forward to Five on Vine and Marigold. Like at Jeff Ruby's, Crown also started using espresso concentrate for a coffee martini. Now at Marigold their newest restaurant they use our product to make a chai espresso martini that fits well within the restaurant's concept.
"It's been very rewarding to be able to work with people who give us opportunities to explore what it looks like to work with coffee in different restaurant concepts." —Justin Carabello
The Crown Group's remaining restaurant, Cantina, is elevated Mexican food. Crown said that they didn't see coffee as part of that menu and Justin agreed because he got their concept. Something that has made Carabello a good partner with these restaurants is that as people who love food, we aren't showing up with a cookie cutter approach. In some restaurants, it might not make sense to even have coffee, so we aren't going to push it if it doesn't make sense. In order to have a simple coffee offering, Crown decided to go with a zero waste french press service at Cantina. They’ll bring it right to the table instead of brewing huge batches
“We love asking, 'What’s the best restaurant program for this particular restaurant concept and what works best for the owners?' vs us just trying to make a certain profit by forcing coffee into each concept." —Justin Carabello
“We love asking, 'What’s the best restaurant program for this particular restaurant concept and what works best for the owners?' vs us just trying to make a certain profit by forcing coffee into each concept." —Justin Carabello
One Holland Restaurant Group
Our relationship with One Holland came from their owner having our coffee while dining at Jeff Ruby’s. He snapped a pictured of our logo on their menu and sent it to his beverage guy. It's crazy how many restaurant relationships have come from that one original connection! One Holland operates The Merrick Inn in Lexington and Greyhound Tavern in Fort Mitchell (see our last Wholesale email!), Spear Ridge in Florence, which is elevated fast casual, and they have an upscale dining concept planned to open soon in Independence.
Carmelo’s (independently owned)
Billy Price was the General Manager of Boomtown Biscuits & Whiskey in Cincinnati. He later started coming to our cafe and became a Carabello fan. At the time, he was working for Thunderdome Restaurant Group helping them open restaurants. A few years later a guy name Mitch opens Beards & Bellies, a bbq place. He also started coming to our shop and needed coffee for a bbq rub as he had started doing catering. He and Billy became industry friends and decided to form a partnership, out of which the idea for Carmelo's was born. Billy’s family is an Italian family and Carmelo, his great grandfather had a restaurant—so the concept is rooted in family history.
As Carabello was now 7 years into a friendship with Billy, it felt natural for Billy and Mitch to work with us. In their mind they didn’t even think about another coffee partner as our relationship was already established. We love that they not only use our espresso concentrate in their espresso martini, but their much-loved tiramisu!