New restaurant will pay homage for historic bar. What they'll keep on the menu
Feeling that 50 years was long enough at the helm, Earl Trump retired a few weeks ago as owner of Demenel's, selling the landmark Aliquippa restaurant to a local native who will rebrand it as Demenel's Gastropub.
"It's time to hang it up," Trump said.
The Franklin Avenue restaurant did a booming business when the J&L Steel mill was operating, Trump said. Friday fish sales helped keep Demenel's busy decades later.
A tribute to Demenel's popularity came this past June, when the new Back 2 Barney's restaurant opened on Mill Street in Aliquippa, advertising its
Back 2 Barney's owners asked for permission to use those names, said Trump, who happily obliged.
The hot sausage and steak sandwiches always were customer favorites at Demenel's, he said.
Customer favorites Demenel's-style hot sausage sandwich and Demenel's-style steak sandwich will remain on the menu as Demenel's gets recast as Demenel's Gastropub, said new owner Edgar Jackson, an Aliquippa native and owner of the Hysyde Lounge on the North Side of Pittsburgh. Even in recent years, Jackson would return regularly to Aliquippa for Demenel's Friday fish.
Trump will work with Jackson on the transition.
"He's going to aid me, so I know the exact products to get," Jackson said.
New menu, renovations planned
Among the new menu items customers can expect are specialty egg rolls and chicken wings in 10-15 flavors, Jackson said,
Located at 730 Franklin Ave., Jackson plans to make significant renovations to the structure while also seeking historic landmark designation for Demenel's, which opened in the 1940s, a quarter century before Trump became an owner.
Demenel's had some famous patrons, life-long memories
Trump will cherish memories of the blue-collar lounge, like when the Demenel's men's and women's softball teams won championships, and when ESPN interviewed Demenel's diners for a special on Aliquippa native and football hall-of-famer Mike Ditka. High-ranking Central Intelligence Agency agent Gust Avrakotos, an Aliquippa native portrayed in an Academy Award-nominated performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman, would stop in when he was in town visiting family.
Longtime customer Fred Persi said it's bittersweet knowing Demenel's will get a new life, though it's also the end of an era for a local institution owned by the same person for half a century.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Aliquippa restaurant changes owners, but classic dishes will stay
