New Downtown Dining

06.22.2010

Daily News (Bowling Green, KY)

Downtown Dining
Another option expected to open later this month on College Street
Jenna Mink, The Daily News
Published: June 8, 2010
It’s been empty for the past couple of years, but a downtown spot is coming back to life as an Allen County man revives his passion.

Craig Bloom, of Adolphus, is turning the former Cellar building on College Street into a restaurant. The College Street Diner will be a 2,885-square-foot eatery that should be open for business by June 21, serving a variety of menu items for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“The concept of the restaurant is a little unusual,” Bloom said. “Most places that give you a nice, elegant atmosphere also give you a high-priced menu. I want to give you the elegance, but I want it to be affordable.”

Bloom decided to open the diner after stepping away from the restaurant business for the past five years. Bloom’s restaurant career started about 40 years ago when he was a teenager living in Ohio. His older sister worked at a local restaurant and, when he became old enough to work, Bloom started as a dishwasher.

After serving in the military, Bloom returned to Ohio and got a job managing a local nightclub that doubled as a restaurant.

He says he did the cooking, the bartending, waited tables and sometimes served as the disc jockey. “I was a jack-of-all-trades,” he said.

Throughout his career, Bloom has managed about 20 different restaurants. After attending Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Texas, he took over ownership of The Last Resort and Bar in Defiance, Ohio, and then become owner of two other locations in Ohio.

After selling two of his restaurants, Bloom was planning to run the third restaurant in Deshler, Ohio, until he retired. Then the recession hit, and the biggest employer in the small town closed.

“People put their houses up for sale and moved out,” Bloom said. “We lost our customer base due to that, and, of course, we had our life’s savings at the time invested in it.”

Bloom was broke and was forced to close the restaurant and search for employment elsewhere. That’s when he found a job at the J.M. Smucker plant in Scottsville five years ago. Bloom enjoyed his job and liked his co-workers, but something was missing.

“I thought about it every day. I had a wonderful job at Smucker’s,” he said as he fought back tears. “But I had to follow my passion. The urge to get back in the restaurant business got so overwhelming I couldn’t take it anymore.”

When he began scoping for a location, the tiny space on College Street near 10th Avenue was not his first choice. He initially wanted to open his restaurant in the former Santa Fe Cattle Co. building on Three Springs Road, but that building cost more than he wanted to pay.

That’s when his real estate broker brought him downtown. At first, Bloom was concerned about a lack of parking spaces near the restaurant. So, he continued to look at other places, but the downtown spot had piqued his interest.

“It started to grow on me. Slowly, but surely, I fell in love with it,” he said. “I walked in, and my knees buckled. I was home. From that point on, I was at home.”

Inside, dining tables and chairs are scattered throughout the restaurant. A long, dark red booth seat stretches along an exposed brick wall with a painted mural. A bar sits near the back of the restaurant, although Bloom said he does not plan to serve alcohol.

Bloom has pumped up to $25,000 into renovations and is now finished painting and cleaning the back of the restaurant. He’s been working around the clock, often spending the night at the restaurant, he said.

“Until I’m totally, 100 percent satisfied that we’re clean from the back to the front of the house, we’re not going to open,” he said.

Bloom will hire up to 30 employees and have a total of three chefs, including himself. People should apply at the restaurant, he said.

College Street Diner is part of a changing restaurant and bar scene downtown. Recently, two downtown bars, Froggy’s and The Brewing Company, closed. Froggy’s was recently purchased by Brian and Missy Simmons, the owners of Overtime Sports Bar and Grill, and will reopen in August with a new name – Hilligans.

Over the past two years, new spots, such as Entourage Tapas Bar and Lounge, Fluid Nightclub and Imagine Cakes and Candies, opened in Fountain Square.

Bloom said he expects to attract downtown businesspeople for breakfast and lunch, and he anticipates a big college student crowd to wander down the hill from Western Kentucky University. He also hopes to generate customers from various downtown events, such as Concerts in the Park, Bowling Green Hot Rods games and Christmas events, he said.

“I’ve never been in business to be a big-shot,” he said. “I’m in business because it’s my passion.”