John Ruch
The Robinwood Café and Grill, a new diner-style restaurant, may open as soon as next week at 536 Centre St. at the corner of Robinwood Avenue.
“We’re trying to make it like home,” manager Angelo Gardias told the Gazette this week during a visit to the restaurant. “I think everybody needs to go back to their roots.”
For Gardias, that means a full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu with “a little Italy, a little Greece” and American classics like burgers.
The Robinwood Café will replace the former Planet Pizza and Green Elm Market, which closed about two months ago. Pizza will still be on the menu, but so will such items as panini sandwiches. Pastries, freshly squeezed juices and organic, Fair Trade coffee will be coming soon, Gardias said.
Gardias, who is from New York, said he noticed that many JP restaurants cater to higher-end evening dining or limited-menu lunch items. “I saw most things are pizza, pizza, pizza,” he said of the immediate area.
He aims for Robinwood Café to be an old-fashioned diner, open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, with moderate prices.
“We [will be] open all day long for all the people,” Gardias said. “If you have five dollars, you can eat something.”
The restaurant will seat about 50 people in booths and at tables. The look is contemporary but comfortable. The décor includes Old World street scenes and a gigantic antique cash register that came from the old Kiley’s hardware store on Blue Hill Avenue, according to landlord Christ Stamatos.
The restaurant is not seeking any beer, liquor or entertainment licenses at this point, Gardias and Stamatos said.