Restaurateurs bank on city’s redevelopment

More remodeling of the
former Woolworth building is planned.

By DON SHILLING

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

YOUNGSTOWN — Owners of a new restaurant are entering the food industry for the first time because they see a business opportunity in the redevelopment downtown.

“This city has reached a point where it’s going to turn around,” said Greg Sop of Hubbard, one of the owners of Rosetta Stone, 110 Federal Plaza West. “I definitely believe that.”

The restaurant is to open in a few weeks in the ground floor of the former Woolworth building, which in more recent years had been home to a drugstore and office supply store.

The other partner, George Lenahan of Canfield, said the restaurant is designed to draw young professionals and people who are attending downtown events.

The restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, and it also will have coffee and pastry shops. For dinner, customers will be able to choose a more casual bistro setting or fine dining on linen tablecloths.

Lenahan, 36, is an information technology specialist and an Air Force Reserve pilot at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna. Sop, 35, is a tool and die maker at Delphi Packard Electric and has a degree in finance from Youngstown State University.

They have hired two chefs to oversee the menu. The executive chef is Barry Karrh, 31, who had been a personal chef in the Cleveland area for the past five years. The sous chef is Charles Wolfcale, 45, who has worked at several area restaurants, including The Manor in Austintown and the Youngstown Crab Co.

Karrh said the menu will feature European dishes but will have a rotating cycle of selections from cultures throughout the world.

Work will begin soon on turning the basement of the building into a banquet center, he said. Operators also plan to remodel the upper three floors with conference and meeting rooms.

Lenahan has been working on the project since buying the building in 2004 for $180,000 from Lawrence Blevins Inc. That company acquired the building from Rite Aid in 1999 for $51,000. The city has provided the restaurant owners with two grants totaling $57,500 to aid with the renovation.

shilling@vindy.com