New Castle restaurant damaged in fire will rise again, owner vows

By Jeanne Starmack

The eatery was handed down from Robert ‘Shad’ Hanna to his son.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Firefighters had been at his restaurant all day, but even so, Bob Hanna wasn’t prepared for what he saw when they let him back in.

The interior of Shad Hanna’s, a popular nightspot on Butler Street for 23 years, was a jumbled, charred mess after a fire broke out there early Wednesday morning.

“I was absolutely shocked and stunned,” he said, about the first look he got at the inside of the business his father, Robert “Shad” Hanna, had opened in 1987.

It was Shad Hanna’s East. Shad Hanna’s West on State Street had closed in 2000 after it sold its liquor license to Ruby Tuesday’s, and the East bar, restaurant and banquet center was big a part of Bob Jr.’s life — growing up, he often came in with his father and would hang around.

“He was proud of me,” Hanna said Thursday. “I was an only child. He was proud, showing me off to his friends. I was always around.”

“He had Super Bowl parties,” Hanna continued. “He’d let me and my friends come until halftime, then he’d say it was late.”

While Hanna, now 30, attended Slippery Rock University and studied business management, he worked at the restaurant on weekends. In the summer, his full-time job was there.

When his father died in 2002, he took over the business. He worked there, he said, from the time he was 17 until Wednesday morning.

“I was there with a couple of friends,” he explained. “I had gotten there late.

“We relaxed and had drinks,” he continued, adding that at one point, a friend mentioned smelling smoke.

“I had a bad sinus infection. I didn’t smell anything. But when we were ready to leave, my friend said he definitely smelled something. We turned on the dining room light and saw the smoke.”

Hanna said he went outside where he planned to call a friend, a city police officer.

His friends were inside with a fire extinguisher, trying to find the fire.

“They came running outside, and said, ‘you gotta call 9-1-1.’”

The fire department arrived after being alerted at 5:50 a.m.

The outside of the building doesn’t tell the tale of a major fire inside. Hanna said that at first, he thought there would be mostly smoke damage and he could be back in business in a week or a month.

“But obviously, that wasn’t the case.”

The cause of the fire is still undetermined. It started somewhere on the first floor, possibly in a bathroom, but investigators still aren’t sure, Hanna said.

It reached the second floor, which was used for storage, and the dining room ceiling collapsed, he said.

Hanna isn’t sure how long it’s going to take to restore the restaurant, saying a few months might be “wishful thinking.”

Cleanup and restoration will likely begin Monday, said Lou DiCaprio of DiCaprio’s Cleaning Services. While fire officials initially estimated damage at $400,000 to $600,000, DiCaprio said he believes it will be as high as $1.2 million.

DiCaprio’s and Hanna’s fathers were best friends. A firefighter brought out two pictures Wednesday to Hanna from his personal office — one was of his father, and the other was of his father with Ludwig DiCaprio when they were five years old, Hanna said.

He and Bob Hanna grew up “as brothers,” DiCaprio said. Shad Hanna also mentored DiCaprio as he started his business. Now, he’ll be the lead contractor on the restoration.

DiCaprio’s snow removal crew, which normally spends its time clearing snow from business parking lots, was clearing cases of beer out of coolers Thursday at a take-out entrance on the side of the restaurant. The beer was being hauled away in pickup trucks for storage at the police and fire stations.

DiCaprio said he expects that between one-third and two-thirds of the building will have to be demolished.

The rebuilding will progress as weather permits, he said, and then, Shad Hanna’s will be back in business.

“Lots of crowds, bands, DJs — like his father, Bob knows how to draw a crowd,” DiCaprio said.

starmack@vindy.com