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Downtown Youngstown Eatery gets OK to make exterior upgrade
YOUNGSTOWN
City officials halted work on a downtown Italian restaurant because the owners didn’t have the required building permits.
Roberto’s Italian Ristorante got approval Tuesday from the city’s Design Review Committee at a special meeting for the exterior improvements, which include moving the front doors about 21/2 feet from the front of the building.
The approval from the committee will make it easier for the restaurant to receive an exterior building permit, said Charles Shasho, a DRC member and deputy director of the city’s public works department.
The owners — Roberto Faraglio and John Naples — must provide archi- tectural drawings of interior plans to obtain a permit for that work, he said.
Work at the location, 103 and 105 W. Federal St., probably started about a month before the city stopped it Aug. 12, Shasho said.
“You can’t do work without a permit,” he said. “There are no exceptions. It’s a matter of safety. There are electric, plumbing, ingress and egress issues.”
The internal work includes taking down a portion of the wall separating 103 and 105 W. Federal St., said Shasho and Phil Kidd, a DRC member who lives across the street from the restaurant.
Attempts by The Vindicator on Tuesday to reach the restaurant’s owners were unsuccessful.
The restaurant has a sign outside stating it will open in October.
The restaurant is opening at the location of the former Tomasino’s Pizza at 103 W. Federal St. and the building next door, which used to house an insurance agency.
Tomasino’s closed about a year ago and the insurance business location has been vacant for a couple of years.
The two locations are 2,375 square feet in total space, according to the Mahoning County auditor’s website.