When John Riccilli and his mother Natalie bought a Corner Coffee Shoppe 5 years ago, they were tender by a Johnstown institution’s low roots.
“We feel like we bought a place of Johnstown history,” Riccilli said.
Now, they’re in a midst of an endless restoration plan that will renovate a Richland Township grill to resemble what it competence have looked like on a day it non-stop for a initial time.
“We wanted to go old-school caf� – 1960s-style,” Riccilli said. “When it’s all pronounced and done, all from a front windows to a behind exit doorway in a kitchen will be new to roughly code new. Lots of grays, reds, blacks; mottled building tiles, lots of chrome. We’re looking for a jukebox now.”
Once famous as a “All Come On Inn,” a grill non-stop in a Geistown Cloverleaf in a 1960s, Riccilli said. At some indicate in a history, a former owners renamed a grill a Corner Coffee Shoppe, and in 1997, he changed it to a stream plcae in a Bel Air Plaza.
“We thought, given it’s such a square of Johnstown history, let’s go nuts,” Riccilli said.
Handmade vintage-style signs featuring a names and logos of princely Johnstown businesses benefaction and past, combined by Johnstown-based Big City Signs, will shortly accoutre a walls of a Corner Coffee Shoppe.
“We unequivocally put a heart and essence into it,” Riccilli said.
“We wouldn’t work so tough … if we didn’t trust in a story of it and in gripping 33 people employed.”
Workers contend they’ll be finished with interior renovations by Valentine’s Day, Riccilli said.
“We’re only about finished with a pursuit already,” he said.
Then they’ll start remodeling a kitchen and a restaurant’s exterior. Through it all, Riccilli said, “we have not stopped serving.”
“Our business have been wonderful,” he added.
The Corner Coffee Shoppe is compliance a menu, too.
They’ve brought in cook Patrick Hussey, who Riccilli pronounced is “well-known in a area” and is “part of a reason we’re putting all this work in.” The grill will continue charity old-style comfort food, Riccilli said, though will shortly supplement several new specials.
Riccilli is also exploring a probable enlargement into a catering business, he said.
Riccilli complimented a restaurant’s landlord, Zamias Services, and a bank, Ameri-Serv Financial, for “going above and beyond” with their assistance during a renovation. Contractor Johnstown Construction “has been smashing operative … around a schedule,” he added.
The Corner Coffee Shoppe is located during 810 Scalp Ave., in a Bel Air Plaza.
For some-more information, including a full menu, revisit www.johnstowneats.com/corner-coffee.