Jeff Ruby’s Waterfront has been secured back on shore at a Hebron marina early Friday afternoon after it broke away yesterday and drifted down the river until it came to a stop under the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge.

Duke Energy workers had to disconnect the electricity Friday morning before the massive boat could be moved.

Geoff Albe, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard, which monitored the effort, said the main power line was the only physical tether left that was attached to the restaurant and to the shore this morning.

After the power line was taken down, two towboats owned by C&B Marine of Covington, William B and Wayne C, began pushing the Waterfront downstream at 9 a.m.

"It was a safe transit," Albe said. "The coast guard set up a safety zone, which limited traffic while the restaurant was moving down there."

The restaurant arrived in Herbon around noon Friday.

"It is really just a floating dock, which was designed to sit there and not made to travel down the river," Albe said. "There were two towboats, which pushed an empty barge against one side of the restaurant. It was a bit of ingenuity on the part of C&B Marine."

He said Jeff Ruby is paying for the job and contracted C&B Marine.

The Covington restaurant came to rest against a trestle of the bridge late Thursday morning with maintenance worker Steve Poe on board.

"He was on the ramp to the restaurant when it snapped," Ruby said. "He is really lucky because he had enough time to get back on the boat before the ramp went into the river.

"He could have hit his head on the steel ramp and fell into the river, which is all ice. He is lucky to be alive."

Poe said he was frightened after the ramp plunged into the river.

In addition to the ramp, electrical cables and gas lines also snapped, leaving the Waterfront attached to land by only one mooring cable.

Poe stayed on board the restaurant for roughly two hours before he was able to exit onto a towboat.

"I was watching the ice and a big chunk hit it (the restaurant). I thought a barge hit me," Poe said. "The ice was so big that it shook the whole boat."

Poe said he was very close to falling into the river. He estimated that it only took 10 seconds when he boarded the restaurant to when the ramp fell into the river.

When the restaurant detached, it floated downstream roughly 200 yards and came to rest to the opposite side of the bridge.

"My biggest fear was going down the river (in the restaurant) and riding it out," Poe said. "It was a wild ride for about four or five minutes as it was."

A second maintenance worker, Bob Fogle, was on the other end of the ramp walking up to his van when he said he heard a loud snap.

“That’s when I saw the barge moving,” Fogle said. “The ramps started turning and twisting and the gas and electrical lines snapped.”

Fogle was able to get to shore before the ramp collapsed.

"Our main concern was for the one employee, who was still on the boat when it detached," Covington Fire Chief Dan Mathew said. "The other big concern, is that it didn’t break free from its current mooring and actually hit the Brent Spence Bridge."

Mathew confirmed that the restaurant has been stabilized. He also said two tugboats with Carlisle & Bray Enterprises will guard the floating restaurant overnight until it is hooked up to a barge and moved Friday morning.

He said that it was up to the boat owner of where it will be moved.

"The estimation is that the ice got between the boat and the shore and caused it to break free," Mathew said.

The bridge was closed for about two hours while crews responded shortly after 11 a.m.

In March 2011, the floating restaurant broke free from its dock and drifted about 100 feet downriver. The restaurant has been closed ever since and Ruby was hoping to reopen the restaurant in 2014.

In the spring of 2013, Ruby was able to reach a deal with the City of Covington to move The Waterfront about half a mile upriver to the foot of Madison Avenue, the site once occupied by the Covington Landing dining and entertainment complex.

The city agreed to spend $1.5 million on the move, a sum that will be repaid with proceeds from the lease.

"The new Waterfront – there'll be nothing in America like it," Ruby promised last April.

The restaurant was in the process of $1.5 million renovation when it came loose and traveled a few hundred yards in the opposite direction of its future location.

To make matters worse for the restaurant owner, Ruby tweeted that he got into a car accident while on his way:

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