When a business entrepreneur submitted an application for the development of a district, the idea began to unfold. Linda SwaneyBurton has a wonderful small neighborhood feel to it. It has become a destination point. Craig Bendarick
A restaurant with a history dating back to the 1950s is likely to be the first business to benefit from the Burton Village Council’s project to establish a revitalization district.
The ordinance council approved in September started the wheels moving on a liquor-licensing program that will permit more businesses to sell alcohol in the 71-acre district, said village Fiscal Officer Chris Paquette.
The paperwork has to be approved in Columbus, he said Monday, adding the program will make as many as 14 affordable liquor licenses available this year.
Paquette was quick to note the additional licenses, which cost less than $2,500 a year, will not create an abundance of bars in the one-mile-square village.
To qualify for one, the establishment must show 75 percent of its income is from non-alcohol sales, he said.
“These licenses are specially designed for restaurants with a full bar,” Paquette said, adding the program doesn’t trump village zoning.
The revitalization district is not something council dreamed up.
“In order to create a revitalization district, we had to have someone request it,” he said, adding two Newbury residents with restaurant and business experience stepped right up.
Warren’s Spirited Kitchen owners Craig Bednarek and Lana Volk are in the early stages of revitalizing a long-time restaurant on the east side of the square, planning to offer diners a different experience.
“We’re trying to create a sophisticated, adult atmosphere,” Bednarek told village council Sept. 14. “It’s been the dream of my wife and I and our family to have a restaurant for a long time.”
Having worked for Gamekeepers Inc., which previously owned Bass lake Inn in Chardon and the Welshfield Inn in Troy Township, he said he understands what attracts diners in Geauga County, including beer, a glass of chardonnay or a martini in a socially responsible venue.
Bednarek said they started looking for the right place seven or eight years ago and discounted Burton Village at the time.
However, times have changed and so has the village, so it went to the top of the list for the entrepreneurs, he said, particularly when it became clear council was willing to create a revitalization district.
The old structure is undergoing extensive renovation and the partners hope to have it open in time for diners to toast the holidays with executive Chef Vince Thomascick in the kitchen.
Liquor sales require a liquor license under the Ohio Revised Code and those have been difficult and expensive to acquire. They were limited to large, full-service restaurants with only a set number allowed by the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Liquor Control for each township or municipality, depending on population.
Since 2012, when the Ohio legislature passed a bill allowing municipalities to create revitalization districts, many communities, including the City of Chardon, have made use of this improved economic development tool to encourage business.
The Burton Historic District Association had already researched what it takes to set up a district, but didn’t have the necessary request from a business to kick start the process, said village Councilwoman Linda Swaney.
“When a business entrepreneur submitted an application for the development of a district, the idea began to unfold,” she said.
A committee including council members Skip Boehlein, Jennell Dahlhausen and Swaney, Paquette and BHDA President Linda Stone was directed to investigate and establish property boundaries, Swaney said. But the motivator was provided by the entrepreneurs’ request.
Warren’s Spirited Kitchen, which has been a pizza parlor in its latest incarnation, will be open for dinners Tuesday through Sunday and for lunch Saturday and Sunday, Bednarek said.
The menu will include American cuisine with some cutting edge creativity using as much local produce as possible, he said.
While children are permitted, the seating is limited to 70 diners and he said it is more of a place for adults to gather and share a meal.
“It’s not going to be a family-oriented restaurant. It’s a small building,” he said, adding much of the seating will be at bar-height, with a fox-hunting theme put in place by Volk’s expertise as a stable owner.
Bednarek pointed to his neighboring businesses on the square — LuLu Tru spa, Quintealias Tea Parlor and Coffee Corners Antiques & Coffee House — as well as the Burton Public Library, the log cabin and the village’s beautification program for the square and surrounding area as good reasons to open a new restaurant there.
“Burton has a wonderful small neighborhood feel to it,” he said. “They are turning it into an upscale area. It has become a destination point.”
