The Landmark Restaurant reopened last week, after closing for the summer. The restaurant has experienced significant renovations that include a brand new outdoor dining area for the community to enjoy. Pati Centi, the owner of the restaurant business, expressed her desire to invest in Jamestown because of her commitment to the community. P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

The Landmark Restaurant is excited to welcome guests back as it finalize renovations to its outdoor dining space.

The restaurant, located at 516 W. 4th St., reopened Friday after being closed due to a staffing shortage during the summer months while the Watermark in Mayville operated.

Pati Centi, who owns the Landmark and Watermark businesses, said the COVID-19 pandemic caused restaurants to place an emphasis on outdoor dining space. Centi said the Landmark’s outdoor dining space was in need of renovation.

Joe Flikkema from Snowy Mountain Design was tasked with the design of the Landmark’s new outdoor dining space, after which, Pati Centi and her husband Steve Centi hired Sean Cobb as the general manager for the project.

“It was crumbling down,” Pati Centi said. “We took the time and hired Sean to create this beautiful space for us, which tripled the seating for outdoors.”

Steve Centi said the restaurant had been looking at potential liability issues due to bricks bulging onto the sidewalk and the alley next to the Landmark.

The former outdoor seating area had originally been part of a multi-story structure that served as the original building on the property in 1884. The area had been converted to an outside dining space after a previous fire in the building, but was left exposed to water and snow for many years.

“It was fully exposed to the elements,” Centi said. “The freeze-thaw was what really kind of broke everything down.”

Centi said the ceiling tile crumbled when contractors began working on removing the former outdoor dining space.

The new outdoor dining space at the Landmark now has a metal roof and was designed to withstand snow and rain.

The newly renovated outdoor dining space was also expanded.

The Landmark acquired part of the alley space behind the restaurant, allowing Cobb to create a larger outdoor dining space for guests to enjoy.

The scope of the project was massive in scale. Centi said 30 tons of stone were required to fill in space between the layers of cement for the flooring, each of the wooden timbers used to support the roof weighed between 1500 to 1800 pounds and the project required a variety of heavy machinery.

In addition to Cobb’s work, the Landmark hired Craig Lawergren as the mason for the project. Lawergren had to replace most of the brick for the outdoor dining area, because most of the brick was falling apart.

Pati Centi said the building has been an iconic part of the community for many years. While Centi and her husband did not want to have to remove part of the old building, she said it was necessary.

“This building, as the old Ironstone and now as the Landmark, has been a part of everybody’s lives forever,” she said. “This building has been a part of everybody’s history. It needed to come down. As much as we didn’t want it to, it needed to.”

While the old structure had to be torn down and renovated, Centi said the new outdoor dining space was designed to look as if “it’s always been like this.”

Steve Centi described the renovations as a “rebirth” for the restaurant’s outdoor dining area, which he said has “peaked the interest” of the community.

In addition to the renovations on the outdoor dining area, the Landmark also made renovations to the indoor hallway, which had experienced issues with leaking.

“It’s our responsibility pursuant to our lease, that we have to take care of all of that,” Centi said.

As a result, the restaurant remodeled part of the indoor hallway with new drywall, paint and vinyl.

Cobb expects the final renovations to be completed within the next three weeks; however, the Landmark is already discussing future improvements for the property. Centi said the restaurant plans on creating a “green space” landscape along the alley next to the outdoor dining space and creating a safer area behind the restaurant.

As the owner of the business, Pati Centi said she is willing to continue to make improvements to her restaurant for the benefit of the community.

“I am investing in this because I believe in downtown Jamestown,” she said. “I love this building. We were closed for 10 weeks, and it’s amazing the amount of people you miss from not seeing them. The guests that come here are like family. Jamestown is a great community, always very positive to see anybody doing something new.”

Centi said the total capacity of the Landmark is about 250 people with the addition of the enlarged outdoor seating. The restaurant features a bar and lounge room, a banquet room, a dining room, and the new outdoor seating section.

“Every room has a different feel,” she said.

Both Pati and Steve Centi expressed their satisfaction with Cobb’s renovation work. Pati Centi said the guests that came for the reopening of the restaurant last week were very pleased with the new changes and improvements.

Steve Centi said everyone who has seen the new outdoor dining space has been “amazed and blown away by it.”

While the Landmark Restaurant is expecting a bright future, the restaurant experienced the same challenges other restaurants faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Landmark shut down from mid-February of 2020 to October.

“A lot of restaurants closed down during COVID-19 and never came back,” Centi said. “In the second quarter of 2020, we had no revenue whatsoever. We actually were lucky, because we got two of the PPP loans. Those grant funds that came in were the only thing that really kind of saved us, or we wouldn’t be in business anymore. The business would have ended a long time ago.”

Pati Centi said the pandemic caused restaurant owners to “reinvent” their businesses. She said the business had to make many changes between learning how to do take-out orders, social distancing in the restaurant and providing more outdoor dining options.

With the restaurant’s renovations nearly complete, Centi said she is excited for the community to be able to experience the new outdoor dining space at the restaurant, while continuing to enjoy the restaurant’s other indoor dining options.

The Landmark’s current business hours are Tuesday through Saturday 4:30-8:30 p.m.