Behind Scott Enterprise's 11th-hour move to replace sports bar with Italian restaurant

The roof of the former IHOP at 2933 W. 12th St. had already been painted a trademark green as Scott Enterprises prepared to open a new Quaker Steak & Lube.

Then, leaders of the family-owned business sat down for one final meeting to discuss plans for the restaurant.

And they changed their minds. The roof was going to need a different paint job.

Earlier this week, more than 31 months after the IHOP on West 12th Street closed its doors in 2021, Scott Enterprises announced a new plan for the building — a restaurant called Roma's Italian Kitchen that's expected to open in February.

But coming to that conclusion took time.

A change of course

Nick Scott Sr., president of the company, said his family had been talking for several years about opening an original-concept Italian restaurant. And for a matter of months that was the plan for the former IHOP, which struggled to survive even as state laws allowed restaurants to reopen after the early days of the pandemic.

But in September, Scott confirmed that the company was moving in a different direction and would open a second Quaker Steak & Lube location in addition to its existing location at 8071 Peach St.

That was the plan until just a few weeks ago, he said. The roof of the building had been painted Quaker Steak & Lube green and Scott Enterprises was about to place an order for big-screen televisions and other items needed to outfit the planned sports bar and chicken wing restaurant with an automotive motif.

"We were about to push the button," he said.

That's when the company's leadership sat down for one more discussion, Scott said.

"We analyze this stuff and try to figure it out," he said. "We realized that there are a lot of sports bars around."

And the company's management team realized something else. Conversations with local folks indicated a high demand for some sort of Italian restaurant.

“We were given an opportunity to have a second Quaker Steak & Lube location, but at the end of the day we really wanted to venture into a new cuisine,” Nick Scott Jr, vice president of Scott Enterprises, said in a statement. “We are confident that Roma’s Italian Kitchen will be an amazing addition to the community.”

Much of the work already had been done to the building. Julie Maggio, assistant zoning and development officer for Millcreek Township, said in September that Scott Enterprises had obtained building permits in March 2022 for a 700-square-foot expansion and the addition of a deck area for outdoor dining. Total cost of the project was estimated at $486,000, she said.

Filling a void

It wasn't lost on anyone at Scott Enterprises that the Erie dining public continues to mourn the absence of Serafini's, a staple in Erie dining for more than 80 years before it closed in March 2020. Owners of the Italian restaurant at 2642 W. 12th St., half a mile east of Roma's location, have talked in the past about reopening, but it hasn't happened.

The void left by Serafini's "was a factor, but it wasn't the determining factor that we considered," Scott said.

Scott acknowledges that the road to this decision was punctuated by changes of direction.

"I should have given the Flip-Flop Award to our team," he said.

Plans for the restaurant

Scott said he's been laying the groundwork for this restaurant for a long time.

It began with a growing collection of Italian cookbooks and visits to between 30 and 40 restaurants across the country as the company searched for ideas and inspiration.

Whatever ideas Scott Enterprises has collected will have to be translated into action over the next two or three months. Scott said the company has hired a veteran chef from Pittsburgh and will deploy its restaurant team that opened Oliver's Rooftop restaurant on Erie's bayfront in 2020.

"This is the same team that brought the award-winning Oliver’s Rooftop to our market," Chris N. Scott, a vice president of Scott Enterprises, said in a statement. "Our head chef will be bringing over 10 years of experience with Italian cuisine. Everyone is on board to make this Erie’s next great Italian restaurant."

Aiming to be the best

Nick Scott Sr. said the team will be doing a lot of research as it works to develop and refine dishes.

"We want the best meatballs, the best sauce," he said. "We are after 'wows.' "

Roma's Italian Kitchen will also feature a number of Greek dishes, a nod to the Scott family's heritage.

Scott said prices at the new restaurant will be lower than those at Oliver's but could be higher than those at some chain Italian restaurants.

"We want it to be a very special experience, whether it be date night or family night," Scott said. "I think our company is in the best position it's been in since its inception to pull something off like this."

Scott, whose family operates Applebee's locations, Quaker Steak & Lube, IHOP and a number of other chain restaurants over the years, said opening any new restaurant is a lot of work.

Launching a new one-of-a-kind concept is particularly challenging, he said.

"It's sort of an adventure," Scott said. "You get to use your creative juices and scour the country for great concepts. It's fun and it's rewarding."

Scott laughed at his company's back-and-forth decision making process and explained the painting company had to be called to-repaint the building's green roof.

"We try some different things," he said. "We don't always get them 100% right immediately, but if you don't take some risks you don't reap the rewards."

Contact Jim Martin at jmartin@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie PA IHOP location to become Italian restaurant in place of Lube