Sky Galley restaurant at Cincinnati's Lunken Airport may stay open after all

Erin Glynn | Cincinnati Enquirer

The Sky Galley restaurant at Cincinnati's Lunken Airport may yet be saved.

Cincinnati City Council member Chris Seelbach tweeted Sunday that the city plans to reopen negotiation with restaurant owner Kirby Brakvill.

Restaurant patrons were dismayed to hear of the restaurant's possible closing. An online petition to save the Sky Galley posted last week has gathered over 11,000 signatures and a few fans of the restaurant tweeted at city council members, denouncing the decision.

In response to a tweet asking what the city was doing to save the restaurant, Councilman Jeff Pastor said he was "optimistic" that negotiations between Sky Galley and the city would "come to a positive resolution."

The City Administration has reinitiated negotiations on terms of a new lease with Brakvill Inc., the current operator of the Sky Galley restaurant at Lunken Airport. — Chris Seelbach (@ChrisSeelbach) December 15, 2019

After a Cincinnati Health Department consultation discovered potential food safety risks, city officials met with Brakvill to discuss upgrades to the restaurant's location.

Brakvill said he was reluctant to invest in improvements to the space on his own, as his lease agreement with the city has been month to month since the actual lease expired in August 2016.

Brakvill said that he was still in the midst of a discussion with city officials how much each party would be responsible for paying, when he received an email from the city on Dec. 12 about their decision to cancel the lease agreement.

"After speaking with the city manager, I know the city is more than willing to pay for their portion of the improvements," Pastor said. "The city's more concerned with the outstanding citations the owner has from the health department."

The last standard food service inspection Sky Galley underwent was in August when the Cincinnati Health Department found that the facilities were not "smooth, durable and easily cleanable" and that the premises had not yet been rid of "flying insects."