Smitty’s Restaurant plans to open later this year at the East Market Street Extension building that formerly housed Spencer’s Restaurant.
LaVere Smith purchased the 359 E. Market St. site in November 2024 for $115,000, and he and his sons, Shane and Tailith Smith, have been working to upgrade the long-vacant building ever since then to prepare it for opening.
After much hard work, that dream is inching closer to becoming a reality. While the to-do list still has plenty of items, the group is hoping to debut the restaurant sometime this summer.
“We’ve been working on the building part by part since (the purchase),” said Tailith Smith. “This will be comfort food for breakfast and lunch when we open. We plan to open 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday through Monday to start, and to expand the hours from there.”
Tailith Smith said Smitty’s Restaurant will feature eggs, waffles, pancakes, country fried steak, homemade gravy, potatoes, hash browns, a Friday fish fry and so much more.
“We are aiming to bring in a lot of local customers looking for good, a little bit cheaper food in a great location,” Shane Smith said.
Once Smitty’s Restaurant opens and gets settled in, Tailith Smith said he is hoping to expand with a dinner menu and have a weekly rotation of more exotic specials, such as dishes from Hawaii one week and menu items from the Philippines the next week.
Will Dollen, Smitty’s Restaurant general manager, said he is hopeful the restaurant will open sometime this summer.
Upgrades have been made throughout the long-vacant building, including a new roof, deck, and parking lot area while interior work continues.
The group has been doing much of the work itself, putting a personal touch on the venture.
“For the most part the only upgrades the owners and general manager haven’t done is the roof and the parking lot,” Tailith Smith said. “In the kitchen and the eating areas we have been rebuilding everything pretty much by hand and that’s why it’s taking so long.
“It has become a labor of love at this point.”
Dollen said the restaurant will have an initial staff of four to six people once the restaurant opens. The restaurant will not have a full bar but will offer both wine and beer.
This article originally appeared on The Leader: ‘Labor of love’ transforming former Spencer’s Restaurant into Smitty’s
Reporting by Jeff Smith, Corning Leader / The Leader
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
