YSU gobbles up former eating, drinking haunts near campus

By Harold Gwin

YOUNGSTOWN — Mighty Moe’s, a restaurant at 315 Elm St. just across from the Youngstown State University campus, has been closed all year, but it could soon reopen as an extension of the university.

The YSU Board of Trustees has voted to purchase the restaurant as well as The Rayen, a nearby building at 158 W. Rayen Ave. The purchase prices are $530,000 for the restaurant and $90,000 for The Rayen.

Those were the appraised values on each, Atty. Greg Morgione, YSU associate general counsel, told the trustees.

The money will come out of a $1 million property purchase fund created when the university borrowed $21 million in March to help fund the construction of a new Williamson College of Business Administration building and make other campus improvements. The purchase must still be approved by the Ohio State Controlling Board, a process that generally takes several months.

The properties are owned by Mohammad Fard.

The restaurant has been closed since about the first of this year, but Morgione said it remains in operating condition.

It is at Lincoln Avenue and Elm Street, across Lincoln Avenue from the YSU campus.

It could be maintained and perhaps operated as a restaurant through Sodexho, the university’s food service company, Morgione said.

Representatives of Sodexho have toured the building and have indicated it is operational, he said.

The Rayen, on the other hand, will be razed, Morgione said. That brick structure is at the northeast corner of Elm Street and Rayen Avenue, just across Rayen Avenue from the site of the new Williamson building.

Vacant for a number of years, it is in an advanced state of disrepair, with bricks frequently falling off the Elm Street side onto the sidewalk.

It also has a leaky roof which allows water to enter the building and damage a common wall with the Youngstown Plant and Flower Co. next door.

A representative of that company told The Vindicator of the leakage problem more than two years ago.

Morgione said an examination of the building done by the city a couple of years ago shows there is some asbestos that will have to be removed before it can be razed.

He said the city has expressed an interest in assisting the university with applying for Clean Ohio Fund assistance to help with the demolition.

That fund focuses on brownfield cleanups.

The Rayen, built in 1916, became the home for a variety of bars and nightclubs through the past 50 years.

They included the Bavarian House, Tony’s Hideaway and Pogo’s Pub.

John Gocala, YSU police chief, said YSU worked with the city and state liquor agents to close the last bar at the location — Ernie McDougal’s— around 2004. The bar lost its liquor license, Gocala said.

THE RAYEN: Home to many bars

Here’s a list of some of the many bars, nightclubs and other establishments that occupied The Rayen building at the corner of Rayen Avenue and Elm Street since the mid-1960s. How many do you remember?

Mid-1960s: University Billiards and Campus Snack and Restaurant.

1967-68: The Tomb and The Pizza Pub.

1969-70: The Bavarian House and Tony’s Hideaway.

1975: Pogo’s Pub and Tony’s Hideaway.

1984-85: New Music Station, Pogo’s Pub.

1989-1990s: New Music Station.

2000: The Downtown.

2001 -2004: Ernie McDougal’s.

Source: Polk City Directories-Youngstown

gwin@vindy.com