Downtown restaurateur Nick Flouras looks with approval at the swiftly rising convention center on Penn Square.
"I'm really happy to see the direction it's going," he said.
Up.
In counterpoint, his venerable family business has been branching out.
The Red Rose Luncheonette & Confectionery reopened Monday as what Flouras calls an "upscale casual" eatery.
The Red Rose, 101 E. King St., had been closed since March 10 for a makeover by Diamond Painting. It has discontinued breakfast — except for Saturday mornings — and is now open for lunch and dinner.
In addition to its extended hours and new Tuscan ambience, the corner restaurant is selling wine, liquor and beer, including Lancaster Brewing Co. selections.
Alfresco dining will soon be available along King and Duke streets.
"We're trying to join the downtown revitalization," explained Flouras, who started working at the business 41 years ago, when he was still in high school.
During that time, he said, the Red Rose has undergone three renovations.
But this is the most extensive.
Flouras and his wife, Tina, said they were grateful to other downtown restaurateurs for offering advice during the redesign.
On their debut night Tuesday, the couple added, Characters Pub sent some overflow customers their way.
Nick Flouras said he's looking forward to First Friday traffic, and to next year's influx of conventioneers.
He's also welcoming back Red Rose regulars and families.
"You come here in jeans," Flouras said, "you come here in a suit. Our goal is to serve the people we've been serving all these years and to try to bring in the people who didn't know us."
Window peekingPlans for the facelift developed last year after the Red Rose obtained a liquor license.
Guidance came from nearby Annie Bailey's Irish Pub and Characters Pub.
George Centini, a Characters co-owner and a friend of the Flourases, said he gave the couple pointers on how to stock alcoholic beverages and track consumption.
"We know they'll do well because they're great people," Centini said.
James Street Improvement District Deputy Director Marshall Snively said cooperation befits a burgeoning restaurant destination.
"Most of the restaurants downtown realize that having a critical mass of great places to go is important and will ultimately get more people out on the streets," Snively said.
In recent months, folks have been eager to get back in the Red Rose.
Nick Flouras said he's fielded hundreds of inquiries about the project. "People were peeking in the windows."
Now, they can see the changes for themselves.
There are new floors, ceilings, lights and furniture. High-top tables line the west side of the room.
The walls, which were once off-white and decorated with pictures of roses and city architecture, are now warmed by mustard and pumpkin tones.
A granite-topped bar made by Hawk Industries in Littlestown has succeeded the old lunch counter. The bar has a second level to accommodate people who use wheelchairs.
The handicapped accessible entrance on the Duke Street side of the building also is new.
The floor staff has doubled to six waitresses and expanded to include two bartenders and a new dinner chef, Joe Moutaabbid, and new pastry chef, Eric Moshier.
The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Monday hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Red Rose is closed Sundays.
It seats 80, about the same number as before, but outdoors dining will add at least 25 more spaces.
Salads, sandwiches, wraps and burgers, priced from $7.25 to $10.95, are available for lunch and dinner.
The half-dozen dinner entrees range from chicken fettuccine alfredo, at $14.95, to crab cakes, $21.95.
"I realize the prices went up," Nick Flouras said, but the Red Rose will continue its tradition of affordable meals.
He said he expects to bring back lunch specials, such as meat loaf and the ever-popular chicken pot pie.
Also back by popular demand is Greek menu night on the last Friday of each month. Look for the next installment this week.
The restaurant went smokeless in 2003 and will remain so.
A few other traditions will live on at the brick eatery that has been a Flouras family enterprise since the mid-1920s.
Pete Mylonas, Nick Flouras' cousin, will continue to do morning prep work, Flouras said.
The Flourases' daughter Christina, a college student, also will work there as usual. Christina's older sisters, Dana and Angela, who are attorneys based across the street in the Lancaster County Courthouse, will fill in over lunch and in the evenings.
The restaurant's name, which reflects the confectionery that the family once operated on King Street, is staying.
So is the E.K. Forney electric clock over the door.
The piece was a gift from the former East King Street jeweler, and it was on the wall when Nick Flouras arrived in 1967.
"It hasn't lost a minute in all this time," Tina Flouras said.
In one respect, she and her husband hope to turn the Red Rose clock back — to a time when the restaurant did a bustling dinner trade.
The restaurant hasn't served dinner in some 20 years, but Nick Flouras said he remembers when "a big percentage of the police force took a break here."
The couple is gearing up in hopes that the downtown Lancaster nights will come alive again.
"It's a big adjustment, said Tina Flouras, who noted that the restaurant is accepting credit cards for the first time.
Food orders, too, will be conveyed by computer rather than called out to the kitchen staff.
"We have to go forward," Tina Flouras said. "We can't go back."
Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is jrutter@lnpnews.com.
