What’s Brewin’ in Hyner?
Good Neighbor Craft House to open Thursday, Jan. 6
By Christopher Miller
HYNER, PA – “Vinnie is a great cook, he’s always been around food and doesn’t do well when he has spare time on his hands,” is how Kate Kishbaugh described why her husband, Vinnie, co-owner of the new Good Neighbor Craft House, wanted to open a restaurant and craft brewery. “He is a teacher, so he is mostly free on the weekends and wanted something to fill that void and during the summer months.”
There has been a lot of hype on social media platforms recently about a new restaurant and craft brewery in the works in the western part of the county. The Record sat down with owners Kate and Vinnie Kishbaugh to speak about this new venture and to create excitement for their new restaurant opening Thursday, January 6 at the former Carmella Room at the base of Hyner Mountain.
“We noticed very quickly during the early days of the pandemic that our hobby of driving to breweries and wineries was coming to a screeching halt when things were getting shut down and that we needed something to do,” said Vinnie. “We were running Wetsu Catering and once we were doing that we had a lot of people asking when we would open our own place.”
Kate and Vinnie began to look around for properties that met their fancy and spoke to people who have similar interests.
“I was taken aback by the scenery at the base of Hyner Mountain and with my experience as Executive Chef at Clinton Country Club and the Days Inn in Danville and my background in catering and food, I thought of the types of indoor and outdoor events that we could hold at this location,” Vinnie explained. “We thought of the challenges, like being able to draw people in and we spent time driving to remote places, so it dawned on us that people will indeed drive to us if we have something different to offer them.”
With all of the downtime created recently by the pandemic, people have had more time to explore other interests and for Kate and Vinnie, craft beers fit the mold.
“We are craft beer lovers…it is easy for us to drive 2 or 3 hours on a weekend to experience breweries around us so we want to expose Clinton County to the tastes and flavors of the rest of the state,” said Vinnie. “We also want to increase tourism to the area by sharing unique aspects of where we live, and draw others into the county while being good neighbors, and hoping that those visiting us are good neighbors back.”
Tourism in Clinton County is certainly something that is not lacking. One can easily observe herds of boats, campers, and out-of-state license plates rolling through Lock Haven and barreling down the Renovo Road from April through November. “We want to eventually partner with the race series that take place this way, the Flaming Foliage Festival, and others just to help expose our area to the world, to get them to want to take a drive out this way, to see the beauty of the area…and hopefully to partake in our food and drink,” said Vinnie.
Vinnie, who has worked exclusively as a chef-turned-culinary arts teacher, is very excited for the soft opening Thursday. “We will first be focusing on take-out only for now until the liquor license has been fully transferred which should be sometime around April or earlier,” said Vinnie. “After that time we will be open as a “craft house,” with 20 taps, 16 of which will be a variety of beers from breweries around the state, and I will also be applying for a brewer’s license in the very near future.”
In addition to craft beers, Kate and Vinnie will be serving a variety of seltzers, ciders, wines, and distilled products all of which will be primarily from around the region and state. “We will focus on craft beers,” Vinnie explained, “but we will have beers for the every-day beer drinker such as ales, pilsners, lagers, and all styles of beers.”
The main focus of the restaurant will not only be on the future alcohol offerings, but the food stylings as well. A quick investigation of the up-to-date menu online included things such as soft pretzels, buffalo chicken dip, fries, soups, homemade pizzas including their renowned “Dilly Dilly” made with ranch, dill pickles, and mozzarella, BBQ Chicken and Bacon Cheeseburger to name a few, subs with fries such as the Porcheta which marries shredded pork with italian herbs & spices, sauteed spinach, mozzarella and whole grained mustard, the Cajun Chicken BLT, a Beef Dip, and the Shrimp Po Boy to name a few.
“We aim to create a family atmosphere while providing the community with something they can do such as attending live music on a Friday or Saturday night, coming to future Trivia Nights, having board games available to play, or just relaxing within the shadow of Hyner Mountain,” Vinnie explained.
“We are indeed still hiring kitchen staff,” said Vinnie, “which could be a full-time position for the right person.”
“We are super excited to serve the area,” Kate and Vinnie exclaimed. “We would like to thank a number of people who have helped us throughout the business planning phases such as Farwell resident Margaret Riggle, Bob Maguire for this amazing opportunity, Tom Keiffer and Tim Keohane at the local Small Business Development Center to help us get up and running, Rich Kuczawa at Woodlands Bank, and Clinton County Economic Partnership Tourism/Chamber Director Julie Brennan.”
Good Neighbor Craft House
9650 Renovo Road
Hyner, PA 17760
570-923-7191
www.goodneighborcrafthouse.com
goodneighborcrafthouse@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodneighborcrafthouse
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodneighborcraft/
Hours of operation:
Take-out only, to start, between January and March/April (or sooner)
Thursday and Friday, 4:30pm to 8:30pm
Saturday 12pm to 6pm
Special notes:
*The banquet room can be rented immediately for private parties or dinners without alcohol
*Catering options are available and information can be found on the website
*Days and hours could expand throughout the first couple of months and eat-in service could be ready prior to April – please look out on social media for future announcements, email, or call the restaurant directly
*At this time there is no firm date for alcohol service
