Restaurants Find More Competition on the Menu
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The Martini Brothers Burger Bar, as the anniversary of its move to downtown Youngstown approaches, is in an enviable position.
“Business is actually growing a little too fast for us,” acknowledges general manager Shawn Allen. The restaurant, which opened in the Knox Building a year ago Oct. 17, is in the middle of a transition, with re-staffing underway and the introduction of a new menu.
Still, “it’s going really well,” he affirms.
In its fifth year, Martini Brothers still has many of the regulars from its days in the Golf Dome on U.S. Route 422 in Girard, where it stayed until a “significant” increase in the rent led it to close there and scale back to a caterer, providing food to area night clubs, until returning as a full-service restaurant last October.
Dinners account for 60% of Martini Brothers’ business, Allen reports. “Of course, the downtown businesses really help a lot during lunch,” he adds. Its selection of specialty burgers, including the 2010 National Burger of the Year, the John Wayne, is a draw. Wednesday nights are the busiest nights at Martini’s when it reduces the price of its Signature Burger to $6 including fries.
Also popular is the 30-cent-wing special on Mondays to coincide with Monday Night Football games. “We’ve been selling out of wings every single week,” he says.
A few blocks away on East Federal Street, in the basement of City Centre One is Christopher’s Downtown, also in its first year of operation. The restaurant opened last December in the space the End of the Tunnel bar occupied for many years.
“The bulk of our business is lunch,” although the restaurant-bar does draw an after-work crowd as well, says head server Sammantha Bonacci. “With the weather breaking and getting chilly, more people in the building seem to be coming down [for lunch] rather than leaving the building to eat. So we’re really doing well.”
The clientele is mainly professionals – “definitely a lot of people from the courthouse and the law firms” – but Christopher’s Downtown draws growing numbers of students from Youngstown State University because of the discount extended to YSU students on Thursdays. Friday nights fill up with fans of the Artists of the Underground open mic night.
The restaurant, which recently launched a new menu, lists a toasted walnut and cranberry salad and the Italian panini. Both are among the more popular items. The chicken burger is a best seller as well. “A lot of people say they’ve never had one,” Bonacci says.
The growth of bars and restaurants in downtown Youngstown, as well as in Canfield, is a factor that has affected business at Caffe Capri in Boardman, reports owner Ron Quaranta.
“Business has been consistent, pretty steady,” over the past few years, he says. “A few years ago, it might have been a little bit better,” he acknowledges.
In downtown Youngstown, the new venues allow people taking in a show at the Covelli Centre or DeYor Performing Arts Center to eat or drink before and after the performances.
“There are just more options for people closer to home,” Quaranta adds. “With [driving under the influence] laws, people are staying a little closer to home.
Activity at Caffe Capri is driven by consistency and longevity, Quaranta says – the restaurant has been in business on Market Street 20 years and his family has been in the restaurant business more than 40.
While the Caffe menu has changed little over the years, he says he is looking to increase the number of banquets parties he serves. That segment accounts for a quarter of his sales. “We want to try to grow that a little bit more,” he says.
Another of the newer restaurants in the Valley is the StoneYard Grill & Tavern in downtown Niles. It has attracted an increasing numbers of patrons since it opened two years ago, says owner Brent Ross. “Word is getting out,” he says. “I don’t think it’s a thriving economy in Niles. It’s just more people are finding out about us.”
StoneYard sells many steaks, burgers and sausage sandwiches, and as the weather changes, so do the items on its menu. Its fall/winter menu, which lists pumpkin-type beers and soups, is popular, Ross reports. “Everybody wants a hot cup of soup,” he adds.
One of the Valley’s best-established restaurants, Springfield Grille in Boardman, is also seeing business consistent with recent past, says general manager Nick Mileto, also corporate chef for the Springfield Restaurant Group. The big draws are consistency in the food and service, he says. “If you can do those two things, people will come back,” he emphasizes.
The restaurant has seen success with its farm-to-table dinners served with wine. And it has been promoting the local sources of ingredients its cooks use as they prepare the selections on the menu, he reports.
“The response has been really good,” he says. “Customers want to support the local economy” and don’t mind paying more for that and for better quality, he adds.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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