'A new energy': Legendary downtown Cincinnati hat shop has new location

Sydney Franklin, Cincinnati Enquirer
Updated ·4 min read
Gus Miller, 91, owner of Batsakes Hat Shop, recently relocated to his store into Downtown Cincinnati’s At580 building.
Gus Miller, 91, owner of Batsakes Hat Shop, recently relocated to his store into Downtown Cincinnati’s At580 building.

One of Downtown Cincinnati's longest-running businesses has a new home.

After 22 years on the ground floor of the former Terrace Plaza Hotel, Batsakes Hat Shop moved out last week ahead of the building's upcoming renovation. The 116-year-old retailer now operates out of a storefront in the AT580 building at 197 E. 6th St.

The AT580 building and the old Terrace Plaza Hotel are owned by the same developer and manager, Birkla Investment Group. In 2016, the company renovated and converted AT580, a 1973 office building that spans the length of East Sixth Street from Walnut to Main Street, into 179 apartments with street-level retail. (Prime Cincinnati, Starbucks and Mr. Sushi all have space there.) Batsakes Hat Shop will take over the 1,875-square-foot unit formerly occupied by the Taco Bell Cantina, which closed at the end of 2020.

Batsakes Hat Shop was founded in 1907 by Greek immigrants Pete and George Batsakes. Gus Miller, uncle of Pete's son, the late George P. Batsakes, took over in 1973.

Batsakes Bros. Hat Shop and the Batsakes Dry Cleaning at Sixth and Vine streets, Cincinnati, in 1968.
Batsakes Bros. Hat Shop and the Batsakes Dry Cleaning at Sixth and Vine streets, Cincinnati, in 1968.

'You belong Downtown'

This is the shop's third move in Downtown Cincinnati. Before relocating into the corner unit at the Terrace Plaza Hotel in 2001, the family owned a spot at the corner of Sixth and Walnut streets where the Contemporary Arts Center now sits. They rented from the multiple owners of the old Terrace Plaza Hotel until Anthony Birkla, owner of Birkla Investment Group, bought it last September.

Birkla worked out a deal with Miller to move into the AT580 building at reduced rent.

Gus Miller, 91, owner of Batsakes Hat Shop, at Batsakes Hat Shop’s new location in Cincinnati.
Gus Miller, 91, owner of Batsakes Hat Shop, at Batsakes Hat Shop’s new location in Cincinnati.

"When I met Tony [Anthony Birkla], he said to me, 'You belong Downtown. I'll find you a place,'" Miller said.

Steve Goodin, Birkla's longtime representative, told The Enquirer that staying in the old space at the Terrace Plaza was untenable. "It really is an institution down there and we hated to see that location go, but he just wasn't safe there anymore, particularly now that the real work of renovating the building is about to commence," he said.

The midcentury-modernist structure, built in 1948, was deteriorating by the time Birkla purchased it. The city repeatedly fined its previous owner, Cincinnati Terrace Associates LLC, an affiliate of JNY Capital, and deemed the Terrace Plaza Hotel a public nuisance. Batsakes' business took a hit from the neglect: in 2019, a water main burst, damaging the ceiling and carpet and 175 Kangol-brand hats.

Goodin said it may be two-and-a-half years before the retail spaces are full at the new Terraces. Interior demolition work is set to begin this fall.

Several ownership changes and years of disrepair at the old Terrace Plaza Hotel made operating a retail store at its base a frustrating situation for proprieters like Batsakes Hat Shop. Over the last year, new owner Birkla Investment Group has worked with the city to stabilize the building and prepare it for interior demolition and renovation.
Several ownership changes and years of disrepair at the old Terrace Plaza Hotel made operating a retail store at its base a frustrating situation for proprieters like Batsakes Hat Shop. Over the last year, new owner Birkla Investment Group has worked with the city to stabilize the building and prepare it for interior demolition and renovation.

'It feels like we're a high-class place'

Batsakes' new location is in a pocket of Downtown that's home to some higher-end retailers and restaurants, including the popular Italian spot Sotto. It will serve similar clientele, said Goodin. A new outpost for Middletown restaurant Bourbon's Craft Kitchen & Bar will soon open in the adjacent unit formerly occupied by Wahlburgers.

"We think the synergy between Batsakes, Richter & Phillips, and the bourbon bar will be a better fit," Goodin said. "[Gus] was on an island where he was ... around restaurants that aren't even open during the day by and large. No one is coming over from Chipotle to buy a hat."

Miller's wife, Rita, called the move a new beginning. "It's like we moved into another city," she said. "Coming over here and seeing all these young people around, it gives you a new energy. I think our hat shop has just a beautiful atmosphere, too. It feels like we're in a high-class place."

The new location for Batsakes Hat Shop is at the base of the AT580 building on Walnut and Sixth Street, an apartment complex that was an office building in a previous life.
The new location for Batsakes Hat Shop is at the base of the AT580 building on Walnut and Sixth Street, an apartment complex that was an office building in a previous life.

Since he started learning to make hats in the 1950s, Miller's work has attracted locals, out-of-town visitors and celebrities over his decades of service, including Presidents George and George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, and American musical artists Tony Bennett, Bob Dylan and Snoop Dogg.

"I think I'm a very lucky person," Miller said. "The people I see here every week, they are like family."

During the interview for this article, a customer stopped by to say hello to Miller, offering praise for his tenure and legacy in Downtown Cincinnati.

Batsakes Hat Shop is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Batsakes: Downtown hat shop leaves former Terrace Plaza Hotel