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July 26, 2009

Pair of restaurants open on the West Side

A pair of restaurants, Costello’s and Bistro on the Avenue, open their doors on the West Side.

By Ron Bartizek rbartizek@timesleader.com
Business & Consumer / City Editor

Not all business plans are carefully nurtured over mounds of spreadsheets and reams of marketing data. Sometimes they spring from life changes either planned or imposed by circumstance. That’s been the case for the owners of two new West Side restaurants that opened in recent weeks.

click image to enlarge

Owners Bob and Rich Costello and chef Jack Godwin stand in the dining room of the new Costello’s restaurant that opened July 20 in the Gateway Shopping Center in Edwardsville.

Aimee Dilger/the times leader

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Bistro on the Avenue owners Stephen Welles, Jennifer Giannuzzi, Rich Presto and Mike Galka in their restaurant at United Penn Plaza, Kingston.

Aimee Dilger

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When Bob Costello sold his Tunkhannock restaurant The Fireplace about four years ago, he figured it was time to slow down after a 20-year run. “I thought I was going to retire,” Costello, 59, said last week.

But his son Richard, 27, wanted to do something together with Dad. “He always liked the restaurant business,” Bob Costello said, so opening another one seemed the natural choice.

He just happened to have a place available. Costello owned a building along Wyoming Avenue in Edwardsville that was about the right size, had parking and was easy to reach. “I built it 25 years ago,” he said, and over the years it housed his Mr. B’s clothing store, Lewis and Duncan Sporting Goods and a Gallery of Sound location.

Now it’s home to Costello’s, the eponymous restaurant at the edge of the Gateway Shopping Center that opened last Monday.

“We’re partners right now,” Costello said, the father and son sharing management duties. But the plan is for Richard to hoist more of the responsibility and also help out chef Jack Godwin in the kitchen.

The 120-seat capacity is shared between a main dining room highlighted by stone pillars and a fireplace and a room separated by a glass wall that can accommodate about 45 diners. In addition to adding capacity for busy weekend nights, that space can be used for private parties. A small bar is tucked off the side of the main room.

Costello said the stylish design may give a misleading impression about the menu, which was constructed with today’s economic realities in mind. “We worked real hard to keep the prices moderate,” he said. He described the food as essentially Italian-American, including modestly priced options like pizza.

All told, nearly 50 people have been hired to cook and serve lunch and dinner seven days a week.

D�j� vu for Bistro

Not even a half mile to the east, three former employees of Bistro Bistro, which closed nearly a year ago, have reopened the popular spot as Bistro on the Avenue.

Mike Galka, 29, had been floor manager of Bistro Bistro; Stephen Welles, 34, had been bartender; and Rich Presto, 51, was in the kitchen. Presto’s wife, Jennifer Giannuzzi, 36, is keeping the books and also took charge of redecorating.

“We all got along; it just seemed like the right place at the right time,” Giannuzzi said. Most of the nine employees also are returnees and things are off to a good start.

“We’ve had a great response” from both old and new customers, Giannuzzi said.

She described the d�cor as “updated … but still comfortable, still casual.”

Her mother, Maryellen Giannuzzi, had been decorator for the original restaurant, and that added some intrigue to the job. “I figured she’d be there helping more,” Jennifer Giannuzzi said. But mom intentionally kept her distance, explaining that the finished product should be Jennifer’s own.

Like the d�cor, the menu is a blend of the familiar and new, keeping many past favorites while adding a selection of steaks and seafood. But, keeping the economy in mind, “we didn’t do anything crazy and over the top,” Giannuzzi said.

The lunch menu is now separate, with affordable choices such as sandwiches, salads, pasta and pizza.

Partnerships are notoriously difficult to manage, but Giannuzzi said theirs benefits because “everybody’s in charge of their own thing.

“We all have a role to play” and with everyone on site they get together once or twice weekly in formal meetings to keep things going in the right direction.

The partners don’t see Costello’s as competition; rather they believe that giving people two new dining options so close together will help them both, Giannuzzi said.