Tuesday, March 13, 2012GIRARD, Ohio – Count Richard Racick among business owners here who expect good things from the $650 million V&M Star mill when it begins operations later this year – not just for this city, but for the Mahoning Valley -- and his plan is to get in on the ground floor.
“That is a huge thing for the area,” he said. “A lot of good things are going to happen here.”
His optimism about the impact of the new pipe mill is among the factors that influenced Racick, co-owner of Blue Wolf Tavern in Boardman, to open a sister restaurant, Wolves Den Bar & Grille, just up U.S. Route 422 in the Creekside Golf Dome.
“We’ve always wanted a satellite location,” Racick said and Trumbull County was a logical extension.
About eight months ago, while Blue Wolf owners Racick and Joe Rzonsa looked in Girard and Niles for a second location “and nothing really interested us,” the owners of Creekside approached them about opening in the restaurant space there. “It seemed to make sense, we investigated a little bit and that’s how we got in here,” he said.
For years “people here have traveled out to our part of town” in Boardman, said Stacey Rzonsa, director of promotions. “So when we got the opportunity to open up here we gladly did that,” she said. Trumbull County was the “first place that we thought of because people here have supported us so much,” she said.
Racick, from Girard, said it’s also nice “to come to your hometown and put something in.” Wolves Den opened a month ago yesterday and things have gone well so far.
“Things have been hectic but in a really good way,” said Jessyca Shuttleworth, Wolves Den general manager who was at the Blue Wolf three years. “Opening up a new restaurant is not easy, but it’s been really exciting.”
The space inside Creekside offers both challenges and opportunities. For Racick, one challenge is changing his way of thinking. In Boardman, Blue Wolf is operating a restaurant. “Here we’re a sports bar/nightclub and we’re in the entertainment business,” he said.
The new space, with the golf dome just outside, will allow them to do everything from large St. Patrick’s Day parties to weddings. “It’s a unique building, so we think we can utilize it to its full potential,” he predicted.
“It’s such a wide-open space. Our place in Boardman is a little bit more cozy,” Rzonsa added. The Creekside restaurant gives “us the opportunity to do something different,” she continued. “We have the big dance floor that we can bring bands in and it still has a lot of the cozy feeling, the ‘taverny’ feeling that you get in Boardman.”
Promoters have approached the owners about wrestling and concerts. “There’s so much that you can do,” she said.
So far Wolves Den has performed “above and beyond what people expected,” Shuttleworth said. “Blue Wolf has such a good reputation and I think that it’s just been exciting for everyone that we’re over here,” she remarked.
Despite the distance, Blue Wolf “brought a crowd from Girard because of how popular we are and how popular it is, and I think they’re absolutely excited that we moved here,” she said.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.