Urban Chophouse changing its name amid deal with new investors

(COLUMBUS BUSINESS FIRST)-- Urban Meyer has been chopped from his eponymous Short North steakhouse.

Urban Chophouse, which hasn’t even been open a year, is bringing in new owners and dropping the Urban name in favor of Chophouse 614.

One Hospitality, entrepreneur Chris Corso’s restaurant group, will remain part of the restaurant’s ownership team, but the company said a new private investment group is coming in as well.

That group wasn’t named in the announcement but Corso, in an email, said it has ties to restaurant owners, celebrity chefs and DJs in Miami, Florida.

Ben Koo, the Columbus-based owner and editor of sports media website Awful Announcing, is reporting the group includes Shawn Shahnazi, a Florida-based bar and restaurant operator who previously owned the Monarch in the Short North.

Corso said he recently sold the Luxe 23 building, which houses the Chophouse and its sister concepts. According to Franklin County Auditor records, the property sold for $54 million in November.

“With me not owning the building anymore it made sense for the partnership to explore a similar opportunity for the restaurant,” Corso said in an email. “The experience that this group brings to the table will once again take Columbus to another level for food and upbeat vibe dining.”

The restaurant gained notoriety last fall when a video surfaced that appeared to show the former Ohio State football coach and then head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars sitting on a bar stool in the restaurant while a woman who was not his wife danced up against him. Meyer was fired from that job in December after a combination of off-field issues and a lack of on-field success.

While the Short North eatery is transforming, no changes are coming to the other Meyer-affiliated Central Ohio restaurant: Urban Meyer’s Pint House in Dublin.

Corso said that brand, which he called a “massive success,” may still be expanding.

“We currently have an investment team that is interested in expanding the Pint House concept to Florida and (creating) the ultimate Buckeye bars for the snow birds and massive amount of Buckeye nation in Florida,” he said in an email.

He mentioned Tampa, Sarasota, Naples, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach as potential target cities. Neither Jacksonville nor Gainesville, home of the University of Florida, where Meyer previously coached, appeared on the list.

For more business headlines, go to ColumbusBusinessFirst.com.