Hard work, long hours worth it for restaurateurs
A look at the survival rates for restaurants nationwide might be enough to convince would-be restaurateurs to consider pouring their hearts and souls — and money — into another line of business.
But more than a few Butler County restaurants have beaten those odds, and several of them are either about to celebrate, or have celebrated, milestone anniversaries this year.
At the top of the list is Natili North, which has been serving generations of area residents — and plenty of those passing through — at its North Main Street location in Butler since 1973.
Others marking noteworthy anniversaries this year are W. Rick’s Taproom and Grill, and North Country Brewing, both of which are in their 25th year of operation. Relative newcomers ShuBrew, Della Terra Italian Bistro and the Harmony Inn all have reached the 10-year mark under current ownership.
Vince Tavolario, owner of Natili North, has been in the restaurant business since 1968, when he got involved at Natili Restaurant and Lounge in Butler, a restaurant that his father-in-law, John Natili, opened in 1939. Tavolario and his wife, Jeannie, opened Natili North in 1973.
The original Natili location, which seated about 200 people, served up meals and entertained the masses for 75 years before closing in the fall of 2014, a closure that saddened many area diners.
Tavolario said it was simply a business decision to close the original spot. “It was time,” he said. “Toward the end, it wasn’t being supported enough. It got to be very expensive to operate. It was too big of a place in a smaller market.”
Tavolario said Natili North, which seats about 90 people, “seems more attuned to the local community. People seem to love it.”
At 78, Tavolario remains actively involved in the operation, reviewing the menus every day. He’s proud of what he and his staff have built over the years.
“We have lots of regulars,” he said. “Some people come in three or four times a week. People tell us they’ve never had a bad meal here — that we have the best food and the best service.”
Although Tavolario has been in the restaurant business for more than a half-century, he’s not sure when he’ll walk away. He has two children, but they aren’t involved in the operation.
“My daughter is an attorney, and she’s married to a doctor,” he said. “I don’t think they’d be interested in selling spaghetti, do you? My son has a great job and travels around, and his wife has a jewelry store in the Clark Building (in Pittsburgh).
“I’m trying to figure out an exit plan. I don’t know what I want to do.”
Whatever it is, he’ll no doubt miss the scene at Natili North.
“I love people — I love talking to everyone who comes in,” he said. “You make people feel good. It’s not about making money anymore. There’s a little bit of a legacy to leave behind.”
Tricia Christy hasn’t been in the restaurant business nearly as long as Tavolario, but she’s been working at W. Rick’s Taproom and Grill since her father, William Rick Reiber, launched it in 1998 in what once was a gas station that morphed into the Meridian Inn and later JD’s Pub.
The restaurant officially celebrated its 25th anniversary in March, breaking out some commemorative T-shirts and rolling back prices on a former staple at the bar — Genesee Cream Ale — to $1.10 for that week.
W. Rick’s Taproom and Grill wasn’t Reiber’s first foray into the restaurant business; he had ownership interest in a couple of other area establishments, including the Iron Bridge Inn. When a family friend learned the former JD’s Pub was for sale, she alerted Reiber.
“And it’s worked out just fine,” Christy said.
Christy, who serves as the restaurant’s operations manager, said her father is “pretty much retired. He comes down on Tuesdays and Fridays, but if he has something going on, he doesn’t need to come down. He’s 71 — he needs to enjoy his time.”
Christy said she regards reaching the 25-year mark as a significant accomplishment, given the nature of the business.
“A lot of people don’t understand what goes into running a restaurant,” she said. “It takes a lot: employee retention; the cost of food, beer; even down to the utility bills.”
The restaurant, which is open every day except Monday at 269 Meridian Road, seats about 100, and more can sit at the bar. The Monday closure is a holdover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The restaurant closed entirely as part of the mandatory statewide shutdown but began offering curbside pickup about five weeks later. The staff made good use of the downtime, Christy said, giving the place a thorough cleaning and painting.
“A lot of people got time off (during the closure), but I did not,” Christy said. “I was here working. But that’s the nature of the restaurant business. You do what you gotta do.”
For Bob and Jodi McCafferty, that means doing twice as much, since they own both North Country Brewing and Harmony Inn.
Bob McCafferty took a rather circuitous route to the brewery/restaurant business, as he earned an environmental geoscience degree and worked as an archaeologist for more than a decade before switching careers.
But his work as an archaeologist indirectly played a major role in his launching of North Country Brewing, as he spent plenty of time on the road.
“I saw a lot of little towns — what worked for Main Street and what didn’t, and what I liked about a particular town,” he said.
For several years, McCafferty — who put himself through college working as a bartender and server — used his weekends to renovate a former furniture/antiques store in Slippery Rock with the idea of turning it into a brew pub.
There was a catch; Slippery Rock was a “dry” town at the time. When the town turned “wet,” the McCaffertys wrote a business plan and prepared to open North Country Brewing, with Bob giving up his archaeology gig.
While waiting for licensing issues to be resolved, both McCaffertys ended up working at Harmony Inn, as the owners hired Bob to tend bar and Jodi served as manager. “We couldn’t have opened our pub without the Harmony Inn,” McCafferty said.
Fast forward to 2013, and when the McCaffertys learned that the Harmony Inn was up for sale, “we just had to jump in,” McCafferty said.
The connection between the two McCafferty establishments runs beyond just the McCaffertys having worked at Harmony Inn before ultimately purchasing it. The son and grandson of former inn co-owner Gary Barnes now serves as the McCaffertys’ lead brewer, and research and development brewer.
“We couldn’t have opened the pub without their family hiring Jodi and me,” McCafferty said. “And years later, we wouldn’t have our best beers without their family being around. When I think about this pathway, it’s pretty cool.”
McCafferty said there are obvious differences between their two establishments beyond the fact that the inn is reputed to be haunted by several spirits.
“One is a brick 1856 Italian Victorian, and the pub is definitely logs,” said McCafferty, who noted that some of those logs were dragged off highway project sites while he was on archaeology assignments and then milled locally. “I told Jodi once: We have a place out of sticks and one out of bricks. The next one should be a thatched place on a beach somewhere.”
Like the McCaffertys, Zach and Erika Shumaker operate a pair of restaurants, having launched General Shu’s to go with ShuBrew in August 2020.
Zach Shumaker got the idea for ShuBrew while living in San Diego in the early 2000s. There, he frequented the many craft breweries and even worked part time in the kitchen of a Stone Brewery restaurant. When he moved home to Butler County, he decided to launch his own endeavor, drawing, in part, on inspiration he received from those California brew pubs.
“Stone preached the importance of local ingredients, quality ingredients, not cutting corners and other things we tried to build into our business plan,” he said.
When the Shumakers decided to move forward with plans for ShuBrew, they sought advice from Bob McCafferty, given his experience with North Country Brewing, and he didn’t hesitate to share his thoughts.
“He was very gracious with his time, and he shared the wisdom of what he had gained,” Zach Shumaker said of McCafferty. “He was very transparent with us regarding best practices, good sources of food and brewery knowledge. I think that’s what made the brewing industry very special back about 10 years ago. To a certain point it’s still that way. Breweries still operate very collaboratively and in a very accepting-of-other-people’s-success sort of way.”
Shumaker said he and his wife had one overarching goal when they decided to launch ShuBrew. “We wanted it to be representative of ourselves — the type of food we want to eat and the type of beer we want to drink,” he said. “It is supposed to be an extension of ourselves and an extension of the things our community finds important.”
Michelle Moletz, who oversees Della Terra in Zelienople while her husband, Fiore, focuses on their other restaurant endeavor — Burgh’ers — said being a part of the community and truly getting to know their customers is a key part of their success.
“I call most of my customers friends,” she said. “I can tell you 75% of the people’s names. I can tell you about their kids — their entire lives. I feel like that contributes 1,000% to why we have survived. We connect with people. We want to know you and know what you want, so we can make you happy.”
Moletz said that approach particularly served them well during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, which arrived just four months after Della Terra had moved from its original location in a strip mall to what was the third Mellon Bank building ever erected, on Zelienople’s Main Street.
“Everyone was going through an extraordinarily trying time,” she said. “I think we helped with that, and they helped us get through it. I have nothing less than complete gratitude for our customers and our employees. The majority of the staff is the same as when we started. That’s a big deal to me.”
Although Zelienople has its share of restaurant options, Moletz doesn’t see those establishments as a threat to Della Terra or Burgh’ers.
“It’s never felt like competition in any way, shape or form,” she said. “Everybody is different. New places are popping up, and we love that. That’s the reason we opened: We want places we enjoy, that we can go to. There’s room for everybody.”
This article was originally published in Butler County Business Matters.
