Joe Tucker, who – along with his wife, Carla – ran Tucker’s Restaurant in Over-the-Rhine, died Sunday night at the age of 66.
According to family spokesperson Chris Heckman, Tucker died of natural causes.
Tucker’s Restaurant was a mainstay institution in Over-the-Rhine for nearly 80 years. It was opened in 1946 by Joe Tucker’s parents, Escom Garth (“E.G.”) and Maynie Tucker, and originally served neighborhood residents, many of them of Appalachian descent, who worked in the neighborhood’s factories. The family opened other Tucker’s locations in Downtown and Over-the-Rhine in subsequent years, but the last location, at 1637 Vine St., closed soon after the pandemic…