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What's the latest word on the sale of the Jug?
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gemneye70 View Drop Down
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Points: 83 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gemneye70 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: What's the latest word on the sale of the Jug?
    Posted: Aug 20 2010 at 9:42am
I drove by the other day and saw the owner talking to a couple and doing a lot of pointing...anyone heard anything?  Any idea how much they are asking for it.
 
I wish I had the money to purchase it...the next owner should look at keeping it open longer or running it year round.
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John Beagle View Drop Down
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Points: 1855 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote John Beagle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Aug 20 2010 at 10:21am
Agreed, the Jug could certainly have a longer season. Maybe close Dec to March.

I hope someone wants to buy it, not sure how well it does.
John Beagle

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spiderjohn View Drop Down
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Points: 2749 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote spiderjohn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Aug 20 2010 at 10:45am
I really believe that there is a misconception here.
To my knowledge, the Jug is NOT for sale.
As to who might operate the business in the future is probably the real ?.
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Hermes View Drop Down
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Points: 1637 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hermes Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Aug 20 2010 at 11:08am
Ah...the city will probably demo it cause it doesn't fit into their economic stabilization plan or some other crap label they can put on things they don't deem necessary.
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VietVet View Drop Down
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Points: 7008 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote VietVet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Aug 20 2010 at 11:39am
Not a business man and have never owned nor run a business, but I do know that if you don't set aside money for advertising and you don't keep your business name in the public eye, constantly reminding the diners you are here and open for business, you a probably doomed to fail as people will forget you with all the other dining options out there. For awhile, the Jug had some coupons offering doubles/fries, etc. and that is when we got a bag full of the burgers. Otherwise, their hamburgers have begun to outprice themselves in recent years. Haven't seen one coupon advertising specials in a long time.

As for the city eliminating the Jug as Hermes has posted? The city would probably get some actual opposition there as anyone who is familiar with the Jug, knows the burgers have a distinct taste and would object to it being gone. I for one know that it would frost my monkey.
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Hermes View Drop Down
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Points: 1637 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hermes Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Aug 20 2010 at 1:01pm
Burgers at the Jug are to die for ! Luv'em !! Good service too !
 
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randy View Drop Down
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Points: 1586 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote randy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Aug 20 2010 at 1:11pm
Spider, there was an article in the paper a month ago or  so saying that the Jug is up for sale.
Call me for a www.CameraSecurityNow.com quote 513-422-1907 x357
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Bill View Drop Down
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Points: 710 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Bill Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Aug 20 2010 at 2:10pm
Randy, I'm not sure it's officially on the market but that certainly was implied.  The tone was "if anyone would like to come along and run this as an owner-operator I'd be happy to sell it to them".
 
I went in there this summer and saw 3 teenage boys standing around the grill and realized they have it overstaffed.  Jerry Meehan never would have done that.
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angelababy View Drop Down
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Points: 103 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote angelababy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Aug 30 2010 at 1:36am
To my knowledge, the Jug is NOT for sale.For awhile, the Jug had some coupons offering doubles/fries, etc. and that is when we got a bag full of the burgers.
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gemneye70 View Drop Down
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Points: 83 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gemneye70 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep 06 2010 at 11:16am

If it is for sale, how much do you think it would cost just to buy it?
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Pacman View Drop Down
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Points: 2612 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Pacman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep 06 2010 at 12:07pm

From the Sept. 2010 issue of MiddletownNow.com:

 
Burgers are out for John Ridge Print
 By: Fred Sennet

He is still looking for new horizons

John Ridge admired the hamburgers at The Jug. He also wanted a good cup of coffee which he had trouble finding in Middletown.
Ridge, always on the lookout for a new project, bought The Jug and then opened his own coffee shop, Java Johnny’s Midtowne Cafe at the Highview Center.
Now, he is leaving the burger business after eight years when he can find someone to keep up the 70-year-old Middletown icon called The Jug.
Food, however, was not his specialty. The Internet is.
Ridge, a Middletown High School graduate who learned about business at The Ohio State University and by starting his own businesses, had an earlier passion and that was the cello, and while in high school performed with the Middletown Symphony Orchestra while honing skills on the piano.
At first, he thought about a career in music. “But I heard enough about bands and decided computers were my future,” he said. At Ohio State he studied economics, did some scuba diving and opened his first business, a landscaping operation that developed customers in upscale Upper Arlington.
He then went to work for a small computer outfit, where he was one of 20 employees, then started another business with a friend and partner which provided Internet services, then sold it in 1999.
While in Columbus, he met his wife, Jennifer, who worked at restaurant and she studied dermatology at the OSU School of Medicine before attending the medical school at Wright State University. When Jennifer took over the practice of Dr. Alvin Neimer here, they moved to Middletown.
It was on a visit to Middletown earlier that they went on a garden tour, which included the Gardner House on Gardner Place off Tytus Avenue, which became their home after buying it from owner Perry Thatcher.
“Until then, we had thought about moving to North Carolina,” Ridge said, “but Middletown is a good community and safe place to raise kids and we wanted a big family.” It’s a place where he plans to keep as his home base.
The Ridges got what they wanted not only in the house, where they have attempted to restore it over the past few years, but a large family since they have five children.
“We consider ourselves stewards since it is such a beautiful property,” he said of the Gardner House. “Anything we have done is in a restoration mode and we have tried to replace it with exactly what is there. And with a family of seven we use every square foot of it.”
His memories of the Gardner House go back to the days when he played the cello in high school and competed for a Valda Wilkerson String Scholarship when the competition was held there. “I remember thinking that it would be a neat place to live,” he said.
When Ridge sold his company to Voyager, he was 39 years old and he wasn’t ready to retire, so he formed a new company here which sells hardware and software to people who want to do their own e-line commerce.
It began when associates in New York City, who were working with arts groups there, asked if he could develop a system for ticket sales. He did all the ticketing for the Film Society of Lincoln Center which stages the New York Film Festival as well as groups in Cincinnati.
Both the DotCom crash and 9/11 hurt his business in New York and Ridge redeveloped things, concentrating on point of sale equipment which he also uses to track sales at both The Jug and Johnny Java’s, allowing him to know hourly sales at both businesses no matter where he is.
He also works with local groups like Lyric Theater and Rising Phoenix which he said couldn’t afford to be online fulltime with Ticketmaster. Instead, his company can handle ticket sales for them. He also works with Middfest and the Convention and Visitors Bureau, which occasionally helps book events.
Ridge sees opportunity in many places. Although he knew nothing about the food business, his acquisition of The Jug, a city institution for nearly 75 years, points out how his mind works.
“ One day I drove in and ordered a frosty mug of root beer and it was brought to me in a Styrofoam cup with the explanation that there wasn’t a mug for me,” he said. “It just wasn’t fulfilling my memory of The Jug and I thought it might need some help or that the owner was thinking about retiring.”
As luck would have it, Ridge said, owner Dick Henderson was thinking about retiring so he bought it. “I thought I could bring it back to the way I remembered it,” he said.
Ridge had the building gutted, put in a new kitchen, hooked it up to his computer systems and standardized the quality of the meat. “I saw something that could be fixed,” he said. And, of course, he bought 400 beer mugs to bring the tradition he recalled.
If and when he sells The Jug to someone who wants to keep up the tradition, he hopes to turn to other projects
“I see so many opportunities, so many things I’d like to do and I don’t want to be a spectator,” Ridge said.
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angelababy View Drop Down
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Points: 103 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote angelababy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov 16 2010 at 12:51am

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wannaknow View Drop Down
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Is angelababy a robot?
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