New business/bar/restaurant next to the Blarney???

Italian restaurant. Should be open soon

I don't know what's going in there, but I believe the Marco's Pizza family owns the building. I was told it's going to be a restaurant, but that information isn't current.

I was told a joint venture between Marco's and Nino's (Monroe, Mi)...Italian/Pizza

Great! I love Italian food.

How many restaurants do we need in Toledo? Most of them are barely eking out an existence as it is. This town is loaded with them. How often do you guys eat out anyway and go back to the same place twice in one year? Most restaurants will be gone in a year or two. Toledo isn't big or prosperous enough to support all these eateries.

I was told by the workers it is to be another place to eat.

P.s., I'll bet there are forty eating place downtown right now.

Can't wait, always love trying a new place! Especially downtown.

This is fantastic news for the downtown area. The more options, the better.

Especially since it's run by people experienced in the restaurant industry (and thankfully not a nightclub).

Downtown can handle it. Really happy about the development!

A few decades ago, Toledo was known for having more restaurants per capita than any other city. Must just be how we roll :-)

Agreed that it's great news for downtown. Hope it's a good one.

If it's another "swanky" 25 dollar a plate restaurant than I wish them luck. The Toledo economy just can't continue to support these places, the market is pretty packed with established places in that price range.

How often do you guys eat out anyway and go back to the same place twice in one year?

Can't speak for anyone else, but we go to dinner about once a week. (Sometimes twice, sometimes not at all...averages to about once a week.)

I usually get lunch from a downtown place at least once or twice a week. Wonder if this new place will be open to serve the downtown lunch crowd?

We're a twice-a-week couple ;-)

Same

Downtown can handle it. posted by upso on Dec 05, 2011 at 08:38:05 am

Toledo isn't growing -quite the opposite. And the pieces of pie just keep getting smaller as new businesses cannibalize from existing shops.

That's what a free market does. Gets rid of the unwanted and brings in the wanted.

Agreed, Aqua. And a good Indian place downtown as well.

Mmmm, sushi downtown. That would be enough to make me go out 3-4 times per week instead of 2!

Good bless you people who good out to eat multiple times a week, somebody has to keep the doors open at these places.

I'm far too cheap!

Correct, Pat Giamarco (Marco of Marco's Pizza) is opening it. And I couldn't agree more that downtown can more than support way more eateries than it has. And I also love the fact that downtown is (and I hope stays) chain-free. Leave that to the suburbs, and let downtown be culinary hub of Toledo.

And I agree about a good sushi place in downtown. Asian places in general. I know it's a pipe-dream, but I would love for there to be that New York City kind of feel, where you can just walk down any sidewalk in downtown and be surrounded by a world of different cuisine options.

I'm with you dbw...toledo talk has the best group of restaurant regulars I've ever known.

I do appreciate the restaurant reviews here though.

Johio, Oliver House has bounced around the idea of sushi. If you eat at OH regularly, let it be known you would be a consistent patron, and it would be one step closer to happening.

I love what the Oliver House has done. That sense of community between all the spots there is fantastic. I hope that spills over to the buildings on Swan Creek someday soon, that could go a long way toward creating a "village" atmosphere in that section of downtown.

News of people, even a legitimate group with huge amounts of wherewithal and experience, investing money into a building downtown and the only think a few people on here can say is "it won't work."

What the hell is wrong with you people, mentally speaking? Masochistic Personality Disorder?

"No, no! It's call being realistic! Toledo sucks and always will! BLAH BLAH BLAH."

Some of you people are absolute jokes.

"I love what the Oliver House has done. That sense of community between all the spots there is fantastic. I hope that spills over to the buildings on Swan Creek someday soon, that could go a long way toward creating a "village" atmosphere in that section of downtown."

Agreed, and I really wish that either OH was is Uptown, or the people and feeling of Uptown were closer to the OH. A neighborhood is greater than the some of all of its parts, and hopefully places like this new investment on Monroe will help push the snowball along.

Buster's right. When we go to other cities, we like to walk their downtowns and museum districts (uptowns, midtowns, whatever). It's great to be able to visit an artistic gift shop, hit a museum, maybe walk through an interesting green space, have a fancy coffee and pastry somewhere, and stop by either a cool retro thrift shop or a bookstore -- all without constantly getting back into the car.

I really look forward to more synergy between downtown enterprises. We've got a good start; just need to fill in some of the blanks.

agreed!

lol, posts from me at 4:00am leave a bit to be desired from a grammar/spelling aspect. my MV education shining brightly haha

As for Toledo's downtown, I did a project on it for an Urban Design class here at OSU's Knowlton School of Arch and did well enough to present to the head of the department. From my amateur analysis 2.5 hours away, Toledo looks like it has some good things going for it downtown. But the pessimism around town was already ridiculous. Toledo needs a PR boost big time.

What's going on with the Hannon's Block building? Is the renovation completed? Wasn't there plans for something to open up on the first floor with rental units above?