Deja Vu all over again - Downtown Moline restaurant is no more

After a little more than a year in business, the Blue Ribbon Steakhouse, 1601 River Drive, has closed. Its last night in operation was Saturday, Renew Moline executive director Jim Bowman said Tuesday.

"It's our understanding that the business was succeeding, and was exceeding its sales forecast. This is a business issue," he said. "There was an issue between the business itself and the landlord. I'm confident that it had nothing to do with the success of the operation."

This is reminiscent of the flashy opening and rather spectacular crash and burn of "FIVE", the ill-conceived attempt at offering seriously over-priced food in tiny portions in an atmosphere reminiscent of a autopsy theatre.

Once, it was the hang-out of at least one local politician, but, as luck would have it, shortly after FIVE was shuttered, the nearly as over-priced Blue Ribbon opened downtown, thus providing a suitable replacement.

Now even this place, where players and wanna-bes could pay nearly $30 for a certainly not out of the ordinary steak alone, and more for sides, has itself gone dark.

This is a very bizarre turn of events, as Moline only recently opened it's very expensive slab of concrete dubbed "Bass St. Landing" which is to be used for outdoor summer events directly behind and adjoining The Blue Ribbon. The newly completed Stoney Creek Inn (and a monument to former Mayor Leach) are both within sight of the now defunct restaurant as well.

It must have been one hell of a "business issue" between the building's owners and the restaurant to cause them to pull up stakes like this. The building is only a couple years old and other than the restaurant, I'm not sure if it even had any other tenants.

So much for that piece of "synergy". But eternal optimist Jim Bowman is full of good news.

More than $40 million in public and private dollars are being invested to redevelop Bass Street Landing, the area at the base of 17th Street and the Mississippi riverfront, which includes RiverStation and the 140-room Stoney Creek Inn and Conference Center.

Chuck Ruhl, co-owner of Kaizen Company of America and developer of RiverStation, could not be reached Tuesday for comment on the status of the development.

"The development is working," Mr. Bowman said of the three-story RiverStation. "It is a prime location, obviously a brand new development. The building is getting more and more interest from tenants, especially with Stoney Creek Inn being open. I think the ground floor will fill up quickly with additional retail, food and beverage."

"There's a lot of activity on it right now," he said of retail interest. "This building is going to work. The restaurant closing is a small hiccup. The interest in offices on the second floor continues to be very brisk. We will have announcements on tenants soon."

Stoney Creek Inn -- a $10 million, four-story hotel with conference center space for up to 500 -- opened last November. Mr. Bowman said it is doing very well.

35 people employed by the Blue Ribbon will be hitting the streets.

Let's hope the newly opened Brown Bottle, a place which now occupies FIVE's former location with an excellent and varied menu specializing in Italian cuisine who've done a good job trying to warm up the sterility of the FIVE decor, and La Flama, featuring great Mexican dishes can avoid the long time kiss of death for restaurants trying to make a go of it in downtown Moline.