For Rodano’s, it’s hip to be on the Square

WILKES-BARRE – There will be a lot of new places on Public Square in the near future and one familiar one – Rodano’s Pizza.

Frank Rodano, a fixture of the Wilkes-Barre restaurant scene, will relocate his successful shop from North Main Street to the downtown.

The new bar and restaurant at 39 Public Square, the site of the former Campus Billiards, will include a 2,000-square-foot game room with pool tables, shuffleboard, table tennis and possibly bocce ball. There will be a large horseshoe-shaped bar and a private dining room for parties, meetings and luncheons, as well as booths and tables and a 2,000-square-foot kitchen.

“I’m banking my future down here,” Rodano, 49, said of his new venture. “I really believe great things are happening downtown and will continue to happen.”

Rodano said his current location on North Main Street will close in mid-July, but the new place won’t open until mid-August.

The new restaurant will be huge -- 10,300 square feet of space -- more than double the size of the current Rodano’s at 155 N. Main St. That property, it was announced earlier this year, has been purchased by Kinship Square and Radnor Property Group, and will become part of a $4 million building project to develop a privately owned student housing and retail center across the street from the King’s College Scanlon Gymnasium.

Rodano said he will employ 25 to 30 people in the new place that will feature his trademark pizza, strombolis and calzones. He said the menu will feature several healthy salads, sandwiches and unique breads. The bar will be made of natural wood and stainless steel and will seat 28.

“We will feature what we refer to as a grazing menu for our late-night customers,” Rodano said. “It will be a place where people can have a conversation, enjoy some good food and drinks and have fun.”

Rodano said his new restaurant will be a place where families can come to eat and enjoy the game room.

“It will be a place to have a great meal before and after shopping or a trip to the downtown Movies 14 or the Kirby Center,” Rodano said.

Local artist Kathleen Godwin, director of Arts YOUniverse, is helping with the d�cor. The interior will feature a lot of colors, Rodano said, hinting that he may name the place “Rodano’s Graffiti Bar.”

A stage for artists and groups has been installed to provide entertainment. Rodano also plans to use the courtyard space adjacent to the fountain in front of the Wilkes-Barre Center Building for outdoor seating during the summer.

A Coughlin High School graduate, Rodano says his first job was selling men’s clothing and suits for Richman Brothers. Thanks to the encouragement of Joe Nardone Sr., his first venture into the food industry happened when he purchased the Orange Bowl franchise in the Wyoming Valley Mall in 1980. Three years later, he opened Rodano’s Pizza on Northampton Street, just down the street from the YMCA, and then purchased the former Pappas Pizza, on North Main Street, in 1989.

“This is what I love about the business -- the transformation of a plan. I am so excited to see the new concept come together,” Rodano said. “At night, I walk around the city and there are people out and about; there is a new energy downtown and some new great restaurants. It is the perfect opportunity for us to be a part of the center city resurgence.”

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