VINDY EXCLUSIVE | Restaurant could open next month near Youngstown's new amp

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The owner of two East Midlothian Boulevard bars said he’s spending about $300,000 to $400,000 to remodel the former St. Vincent DePaul Society dining hall and an adjoining closed cigar store, across the street from the city’s new amphitheater and park, into a restaurant.

Winner Group Holdings Ltd., headed by Earl Winner, purchased the hall at 208 Front St. in December 2017 for $79,000 and the former Daugherty-Davis Co. cigar store at 200 Front St. in January 2015 for $68,000. The two buildings, totaling about 6,000 square feet, share a common wall.

Tavern 208 Bar and Grill could open as soon as next month, he said.

“I wanted to open it because of the amphitheater,” Winner said. “I want it to compliment what the city is doing.”

Winner said he’s excited that the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre, which opened in June, is doing well and expects his business to attract those going there and to the Raymond John Wean Foundation Park. The 22-acre facility, along the Mahoning River, includes the amphitheater, park and a community alley under the Market Street Bridge.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “It’s awesome for the city to have something like this.”

Winner also owns the Utopia Video Nightclub and the Brickhouse Tavern, both on East Midlothian Boulevard.

The cigar store has been closed for several years.

The old dining hall, which St. Vincent operated since the mid-1980s, served its last meals June 30, 2017. The building was closed after the Mahoning County Building Inspection Department found it to be unsafe.

An employee complaint prompted a June 23, 2017, safety-hazard inspection that found a collapsed ceiling above a second-floor office, rotting floor under compartment sinks on the first floor and rotting floor joists in the basement.

The cost to fix the issues at the old building was too expensive for the society, and the dining hall was relocated in August 2017.

Winner said he’s replaced the roof and made the other structural improvements to the former dining hall.

He said he still needs to do interior work to the building, which will take about 30 days once a permit is granted.

Winner was seeking approval Tuesday from the city’s Design Review Committee to remove one man door and install another, put in four overhead glass doors and add more stones to the exterior. However, the committee didn’t have a quorum so the meeting was canceled.

The committee is scheduled to next meet Sept. 3 though there is a possibility of having a special meeting before that.

Winner wants to open Tavern 208 in September, but it could be pushed back another month.

Winner said he plans to eventually develop the second floor of the building, but is currently focused on opening the restaurant on the first floor.