Old Mill may welcome new tenant
This is no bum steer: LongHorn Steakhouse may be moving into Old Mill.
RARE Hospitality International Inc, Atlanta-based owner/operator of LongHorn, applied for an intermunicipal transfer of a restaurant liquor license from outside South Strabane Township for a location in the retail project that is being built.
Old Mill is the successor to The Foundry, a retail endeavor that was mostly scuttled because of land subsidence in 2008.
The township supervisors will have a public hearing on the liquor license application at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 14 at the municipal building, 550 Washington Road.
Details about the hearing appeared in a legal notice in Tuesday’s edition of the Observer-Reporter.
Andy Boyd, senior asset manager for The Staenberg Group, a shopping center developer in charge of the 104-acre project, declined to comment about any possible suitors. He did say, “We have numerous restaurants interested in the site and are working with several to get leases signed.”
The media relations department for Darden Restaurants could not be reached Tuesday. RARE is a subsidiary of Darden.
Township Manager John Stickle said if LongHorn does locate to the Old Mill, it would be in one of two outparcels being constructed to the right of Max & Erma’s restaurant – as viewed from Route 19.
Steak, chicken and seafood dominate the entree selections at LongHorn, which has more than 400 restaurants in the United States. Five are in Southwestern Pennsylvania: Robinson Township, The Waterfront in West Homestead, Village at Pittsburgh Mills in the Allegheny Valley, Cranberry and Greensburg.
J.C. Penney was the first business to move into The Foundry in March 2007. Max & Erma’s, Bed Bath & Beyond and Ross Dress-for-Less followed. But by mid-2008, only the restaurant continued to operate there. Penney’s returned to its Washington Mall site, where it remains today.
Olive Garden opened next to Max & Erma’s December 2012. They are the only existing businesses on the site, near the front of the property, an area unaffected by shifting ground.