New sit-down restaurant coming to city

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Rod Hardesty has spent more than two decades managing other people’s restaurants and bars, but now he’s nearly ready to open his own restaurant in the heart of Van Wert.

Hardesty’s new restaurant, Black Swamp Bistro, will be located in what used to be the Stagecoach restaurant and later, the Good Tymes bar.

While the last business in the building, located at the corner of Main and Walnut streets, was a bar, Hardesty wants local residents to know that food is the Black Swamp Bistro’s main business.

“We are a restaurant that serves alcohol, not a bar that serves food,” Hardesty stressed, noting that the full-service menu he developed for the restaurant includes a variety of appetizers, certified Angus beefsteaks, ribs, pasta, seafood, chicken, sandwiches and pizzas. Entrée prices will likely range from $9.95 to approximately $20 for a full rack of ribs ($25 for steak for two).

All entrees include a choice of potato, salad and bread.

There will also be lunch specials every day and a brunch on Sunday, Hardesty noted. Hours to start will be 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Tuesday-Saturday, with likely shortened hours on Sunday. The restaurant will be closed on Monday.

The main dining room will seat 117 people, Hardesty said, and includes a wine bar and a stage, which Hardesty plans to use for live entertainment, and possibly dinner theater, down the road.

There is also an Irish-themed pub that seats 53 people and a banquet area that will seat from 80 to 100 people, which Hardesty plans to provide free to those who buy a majority of food and drink from the restaurant for their events.

He noted that the restaurant can’t currently sell alcohol on Sunday, but hopes voters will approve Sunday liquor sales when the issue is placed on the ballot, likely in November.

Hardesty and his partner, concrete contractor Ty Cook, also purchased the former Jalapenos/Juan Recuerdos restaurant building and plan to demolish that building to increase parking for their restaurant. Cook also will be creating a stamped concrete patio, Hardesty said, for an outside eating area on the west side of the building.

Hardesty said he would be using experience learned over decades of managing restaurants in the area, including Al’s Barbecue Pit in Kalida and the Econoline Lodge restaurant in Lima, to bring a quality dining experience to Van Wert.

“We want to make this restaurant the rock that helps Van Wert downtown development grow,” Hardesty said, adding that having a quality restaurant in downtown Van Wert could bring more people to the area, while also providing a good place to eat for those who attend performances and concerts at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio.

“We’ve had Susan Munroe and Mark Schumm from the Chamber and Adam Ries from Main Street Van Wert in and they’re all excited about what we’re doing here,” Hardesty said.

Hardesty also noted that the restaurant is creating jobs, with 35 people already hired for the business, not including kitchen help, which should add another 12-15 people. A number of those jobs are full-time, he added, although others will work part-time.

Meanwhile, Hardesty and Cook just want to get their new restaurant, on which they’ve been working since last August, open.

“It’s been a labor of love, but it’s also been a lot of frustration,” Hardesty said of getting people in to work on the totally modern kitchen and dining areas.

At this point, it appears the restaurant will be open to the public sometime this month, although two parties have already been booked for mid-February, Hardesty said. Cook noted his hope that the Black Swamp Bistro will be open in a week, but neither owner is making any bets on that right now.