By MIKE FAHER
The Tribune-Democrat
May 01, 2009 12:22 am
—
An iconic downtown Johnstown eatery soon will serve its last meal.
Johnnie’s Restaurant and Lounge, which has occupied the same Main Street storefront for 40 years, will close on Wednesday.
Owner Tim Corcoran, who took over the business last year, said he simply could not make ends meet and had been struggling badly for months.
“It breaks my heart to do it,” he said. “But if you can’t make a go of it, you can’t make a go of it.”
The usual wooden “Restaurant Open Today” sign stood prominently on the Main Street sidewalk outside Johnnie’s on Thursday.
But those who approached the establishment’s double white doors were greeted with this notice: “Johnnie’s Restaurant will be going out of business Wednesday May 6th. Thank you for your patronage.”
Inside, Johnnie’s looks the same as it did a decade or more ago. It is a remnant from Johnstown’s bustling past, with a long, rectangular bar and a spacious, high-ceilinged dining room lit by chandeliers.
It is the same dining room where original owner M. John Mavrodis sat in March 2008, when he had decided to get out of the restaurant business.
“I’m really going to miss the people,” he said at the time.
And “the people” apparently missed Mavrodis, too. The beloved businessman, who was born on a Greek island and came to America in 1947 at age 14, was a longtime community booster who knew many of his customers personally.
That loyalty remains, more than a year after Mavrodis departed.
“I went there for over 30 years every day,” said Denny Grenell of Westmont. “Johnnie brought a lot of people in for his personality.”
Ron Stephenson, a Westmont resident who is well-known as a former newsman at WJAC, estimates that he patronized Johnnie’s two or three times a week for decades.
But that changed recently.
“I quit going because it just wasn’t the same,” Stephenson said.
“The thing that made it very special was John Mavrodis,” he added. “He was a great guy and a fantastic supporter of Johnstown.”
Both Stephenson and Grenell noted the business’ hours of operation had changed. Grenell, in particular, missed eating early morning breakfasts there.
Corcoran said he was forced to cut his hours and staff due to economic challenges.
He acknowledges that some customers may have left when Mavrodis did. But Corcoran said he also took pains to retain the restaurant’s name, ambience and menu.
“People rave about my food, and I think my prices are more than reasonable,” he said.
However, the Southmont resident said he was hit hard by the economic recession and by last year’s statewide ban on smoking in most bars and restaurants.
Corcoran said he lost 75 percent of his bar business when the smoking ban took effect.
Before the ban, “no matter what, that bar was full all day long with people drinking, smoking and scratching lottery tickets,” he said.
Corcoran also said a lack of downtown foot traffic after 5 p.m. hurt his business. More-frequent events at Point Stadium and Cambria County War Memorial Arena would have provided a big boost for the bottom line at Johnnie’s, he said.
Corcoran said he now will try to sell the building and the business, including the liquor license.
“Maybe somebody else has an answer I don’t,” he said.
Mavrodis, contacted Thursday at his home, declined to comment. But he also said he is not interested in returning to the restaurant business.
Jim White, Johnstown’s economic development coordinator, said he believes the restaurant can be successful under new ownership.
“I think (the closure) is a shame,” White said.
“I think somebody could go in there and take that restaurant over and make it work.”
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