MOUNT PLEASANT - It has only been open for six years, but it has grown from seating 24 customers at tables and 12 customers at the bar to seating approximately 250 customers all together.
So what is it that has made Leo's Pub and Grille in Mount Pleasant so popular that you have to have a reservation if you want to get in on the weekend?
Maybe it's the atmosphere and the neat decorations, or maybe it's the friendly workers or the free entertainment, or maybe, just maybe, it's the food.
"I think the food is the start (of our success)," said owner Leo Wisniewski. "I want to give my kitchen staff a quality product to start with. I buy the best."
One of the popular items on the menu at Leo's is baby back ribs, but Leo admits that they don't do much to them.
"I have people asking me, 'what do you do to those ribs,' but we don't do much to them," said Wisniewski. "We just start out by buying the best ribs on the market."
Although we buy the best food, the price is still reasonable for the customer, he added.
"Most restaurants run on the philosophy that their food costs are 20 to 30 percent," said Wisniewski.
"That means for every dollar they make, 20 to 30 cents goes back into the cost of the food."
"Our food costs are 40 to 50 percent, but because of the amount of business we do, we can still keep the prices down," he added.
The other thing that makes Leo's stand out is the variety of items it serves.
"In the evenings a lot of restaurants frown on serving sandwiches, but we're very diversified," said Wisniewski. "We serve steak, appetizers, salads or sandwiches at any time, so if a couple comes in and one wants a sandwich and the other wants a steak dinner, that's OK.
"We try to have something for everyone," he continued.
Wisniewski also listed the staff as being a big key to the restaurant's success.
"I was in the restaurant business for about 25 years, and when we opened here, people from the restaurant business came to us and wanted to work for us," he said.
Right now the restaurant has more than 50 employees.
According to Wisniewski, the restaurant came about after he suffered a broken neck from an automobile accident in 1994 and was in rehabilitation for two years.
"I knew I couldn't go back into a big kitchen type operation like I had been in, so my family got behind me and this transpired," he said.
Mike and Debbie Nutter are Wisniewski's partners. Mike Nutter also runs his own construction company.
When they decided to expand and remodel, Nutter did all the renovations. "He's had a big part in the restaurant's growth," said Wisniewski.
When the original restaurant was bought, the house that was attached to it was owned by someone else.
About a year later, they bought the house and started renovating. When they were finished, the facility seated about 100 people, but they had to build a new kitchen to accommodate the business.
In 2000, the owners decided to add on to the facilities because they were having a few problems they needed to address, such as a bigger bar area.
The new facility gave them the opportunity and the space to have Sunday brunch as well as a lunch buffet, and the bar is stocked with 36 different drafts.
Their newest addition was a six-pack shop that opened in March. But Wisniewski has one more thing he's working on before he's satisfied.
"The next stage is being able to accommodate to-go customers and selling things in bulk," he said. "If someone wants to buy a pan of cabbage rolls or fried chicken, we want to be able to accommodate them."
The owners are currently in the process of putting in a whole new, second kitchen. "Right now, on Fridays and Saturdays, we can't do any to-go orders at all," Wisniewski added.
They've also been in the catering business since the restaurant opened. They originally started out catering only at the Falcon's Hall in Mount Pleasant. Now they cater to many different halls and churches.
"The catering business has really grown, but at first we didn't want to bite off more than we could chew," said Wisniewski. "We didn't want to take off until we had the personnel to back it up."
Wisniewski has people tell him all the time that his establishment should be in Pittsburgh. But, "we're here because I'm from Mount Pleasant, and this is where I wanted to be," he said.
The restaurant's hours of operation are from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. The lunch buffet is open from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and costs $6.95. To make dinner reservations, call (724) 547-2006.
