Boardman Chad Anthony’s closes amid competition

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Competition in the area led the owners of Chad Anthony’s Italian Grille and Pub to close the U.S. Route 224 location.

“Boardman is a tough place,” said Tim Merlin, co-owner of Chad Anthony’s. “There’s a lot of great restaurants. Since we opened, we just really never made money. We had decent business, but we just couldn’t get to that level.”

Merlin said the focus will be on the other Chad Anthony’s locations in Liberty, Salem and Austintown. The Austintown location will soon be remodeled, and a banquet room at the Liberty location will receive a facelift. The Salem location will soon have a new menu.

“It just made sense for us financially to close [Boardman] and focus on other ones and make those better,” Merlin said.

The Boardman Chad Anthony’s was open for about three years, Merlin said.

“We took as many employees as we could to the other three restaurants,” Merlin said. “We would have loved to stay open. We just couldn’t make the money to stay open there.”

The restaurant’s legacy started with Anthony Scianna, who brought “exceptional” Italian dining to the area, according to the company’s website. His grandson, Chad Anthony Scianna, built upon that legacy with the Chad Anthony’s restaurant, the website says. However, Chad Anthony Scianna is no longer involved with the business and said he hasn’t been since January.

Chad Anthony is the son of Ross Scianna, owner of the now-shuttered Antone’s Banquet Centre in Boardman.

“I really like Chad and I wish him well,” Merlin said. “We hope he has successes in the future.”

Merlin said right now there’s no plan to change the name of the restaurant.