Owners Michael Partash, left, and Christian Switzer are opening a restaurant and bar at City Market on Memorial Highway in Dallas Township.
                                 Aimee Dilger | Times Leader

Owners Michael Partash, left, and Christian Switzer are opening a restaurant and bar at City Market on Memorial Highway in Dallas Township.

Aimee Dilger | Times Leader

City Market and Cafe in Dallas Twp. eyes mid-March debut for Prime restaurant and bar

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<p>Garage doors at the City Market and Cafe’s new restaurant in Dallas Township will allow for open-air dining in the warmer months.</p>
                                 <p>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader</p>

Garage doors at the City Market and Cafe’s new restaurant in Dallas Township will allow for open-air dining in the warmer months.

Aimee Dilger | Times Leader

<p>The bar area at City Market and Cafe in Dallas Township is seen on Friday as finishing touches continue. A mid-March opening is anticipated.</p>
                                 <p>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader</p>

The bar area at City Market and Cafe in Dallas Township is seen on Friday as finishing touches continue. A mid-March opening is anticipated.

Aimee Dilger | Times Leader

DALLAS TWP. — City Market and Cafe on will soon be ready for prime time in the Back Mountain.

Co-owners Christian Switzer and Michael Partash and their team are putting the final touches on Prime at City Market, a 48-seat restaurant and bar attached to the store that is scheduled to open in mid-March.

“We did all this work over here so we felt it deserved its own identity,” Switzer said of the restaurant’s name.

The business also plans to hire 30 to 40 people for the restaurant, which is aiming to offer a little something for all tastes — including breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week, Switzer said.

Breakfast offerings will include build-your-own omelettes, breakfast sandwiches, and crepes, a popular item which Switzer sees as lacking in the area.

Lunch will run the gamut from boneless bites to a signature shaved prime rib sandwich, while dinners will include steaks, premium pork chops, pastas, classic Italian and American fusion.

The operation will be under the skilled eye of veteran chef Bernardo O’Brien, who currently operates the market’s kitchen, which will serve deli and restaurant.

For those who enjoy the market’s deli fare, never fear — that part of the business isn’t slated to change, Switzer said.

“The market side, which has a really strong business, will stay the same with the grab-and-go dinners, hoagies and desserts that everyone has come to love,” he added.

This move comes as City Market also has found success with its Public Square location in Wilkes-Barre. Last summer Switzer and his team converted an area at the back of the downtown market into a sushi bar.

“The sushi is doing well down there,” Switzer said. “We looked at the Dallas location and said, we have this space, let’s add on a restaurant and have the best of both worlds.’”

He and Partash hope to capture that feeling not just in the offerings, but in the clientele they hope to attract.

“I think there really was a call for something like this in the Back Mountain — a little bit upscale but affordable,” Switzer explained. “We want to have the Miller Light drinker and the martini drinker.”

The space, too, will be designed to take advantage of the region’s climate year-round.

Instead of creating a patio, the restaurant will have large garage doors, so that “we can have that indoor-outdoor feel for the three months of the year but still be good for indoor service the other nine months,” Switzer said.

Decor for the eatery will be a mix of metropolitan scenes and local images, as “we want people to get a big city kind of feel in a small town,” he added.

Details of the grand opening will be posted on City Market’s website and social media once the date is set, Switzer said.

“We’re very excited to bring something new to the Back Mountain,” he said.

“This is an up-and-coming area and this is where people want to be,” Switzer added. “We hope everybody will be happy with what we’ve done.”