Newark craft beer hub opening at Mojo Main site

More than a year after it closed, cryptic signs of life have recently been found at the former home of Newark rock club Mojo Main.

Messages have been appearing on the bar's marquee since March hinting that something's afoot, including "Nothin to see yet," "It will be worth the wait" and "Rhymes with froming froon."

Considering what will be opening at 270 E. Main St. in a little more than two months, one of the messages should have been, "The days of dingy college bars on Main Street are over."

A pair of first-time restaurateurs will soon open Grain Craft Bar+Kitchen, a craft beer-themed restaurant seeking to become a community gathering spot with live acoustic music and sharable plates of comfort foods.

After more than 25 years as the East End Cafe and Mojo Main servicing a mix of locals and college students with a wild mix of original music and touring national acts, the rough-around-the-edges spot is turning a page.

In doing so, Main Street is losing its final grungy hangout after years of welcoming a long line of more spiffy (and parent-friendly) restaurants and bars like Stone Balloon Ale House, Del Pez, Taverna and Santa Fe. Even the legendary beer-stained Deer Park Tavern was spruced up in 2001 thanks to six months of renovations when Bob Ashby bought the watering hole.

If you want more signs that Main Street is growing up, keep your attention on the ongoing renovations and construction at the Newark Shopping Center, Grain's neighbor on Main Street's east end.

The shopping center is getting a much-needed $10 million renovation that will leave it with a new modern look and refurbished store fronts.

At the same time, Brunswick Blue Hen Lanes was demolished in the fall and a new 220-unit apartment building named Bainbridge Delaware is currently going up in its place. Also, Newark Cinema Center 3 is undergoing its own renovations, switching from 35mm projection to digital, and a new Brazilian steakhouse, Churrascaria Saudades, will be open by the end of the summer.

Throw in Grain, which is capitalizing on the craft beer boom that has spawned successful bars like Newark's Two Stones Pub and Wilmington's Trolley Tap House, and a somewhat forgotten part of Main Street is prime for a rebirth.

"Main Street is a one-way street obviously, so all of this is going to really cement that first impression," says Ricky Nietubicz, the city's community affairs officer and administrator of Downtown Newark Partnership, a public/private partnership that promotes and enhances the downtown area.

Grain, co-owned by North Star neighbors and University of Delaware graduates Lee Mikles and Jim O'Donoghue, plans to open in time for July 25's Downtown Newark Food & Brew Festival. Expect a menu that turns away from some of the fancier fare that other gastropubs have leaned toward.

Extensive renovations are beginning in days with Yorklyn-based interior designer and fellow UD graduate Katie O'Hara guiding the restaurant's trendy look. A website for the restaurant recently appeared online at grainonmain.com.

Along the front sidewalk, Grain will have a lounging area with seating made out of cords of wood that will lead to the front patio. The porch will feature an exposed and curved wood grain wall covering over the brick that divides the restaurant from a neighboring property. Some of the tables will be German beer garden-inspired with a built-in center area that can house ice and beers.

Once inside, the front bar will have a large, see-through walk-in cooler they joking refer to as the "medicine cabinet." Further back, the rear bar will be a more relaxed space. The old Mojo Main stage will remain in the same spot, but will be reduced in size. The doorway linking the two bar areas will be widened and four large windows will be installed transforming the longtime dank, dark bar into a sunny saloon.

And on the walls, the restaurant's real theme will come together in a nod to American inventor Oliver Evans. A collection of antique tools will cover the walls throughout and a suspended steam-themed structure will even hang above diners in the front bar.

Evans was a Newport-born engineer and a pioneer at the turn of the 19th century, building the first automated flour mill and America's first high-pressure steam engine.

"We wanted to link up with the innovation and excitement that is happening at the university. That's the sort of stuff we want to celebrate," says Mikles, who previously worked at Wilmington digital design agency The Archer Group, which he co-founded.

Mikles sold his final interest in Archer last summer and is now marketing a new software company for a Pennsylvania-based investor group. O'Donoghue works in marketing for a Wilmington bank, but put in his time serving at and managing restaurants during his younger days, including now-closed Newark bar Down Under and The Rusty Rudder in Dewey Beach.

Grain's biggest draw just might be its large parking lot in the rear, which will get improved lighting and a good cleaning to remove the graffiti on the walls and the broken glass on the ground.

Both Mikles and O'Donoghue spent part of their college years seeing bands at the old East End Cafe and view music as a big part of their new restaurant, eyeing solo and duo acoustic acts for their stage. The restaurant plans to stream the performances online or record and post them on its website.

"We want to create reasons for people to get together and music is one of those reasons," Mikles says. "Main Street has such a heritage of music. Everyone we talk to has a story of an artist they saw here before they got real big, so music is a big part of this."

As for the beer, Grain will have at least 100 different varieties to choose from with plans to establish a "beer council" of customers and beer fans to help curate the rotating selection. And unlike some of the other craft brew pubs that have popped up in recent years, Grain will also carry non-craft beers, so Budweiser, Miller Lite and Pabst Blue Ribbon drinkers will still be able to call the location home.we talk to has a story of an artist they saw here before they got real big, so music is a big part of this."

Mikles and O'Donoghue, both in their 40s, plan on expanding and opening other Grain Craft Bar+Kitchen restaurants across Delaware in the coming years.

The property that Grain is located on is being managed by Ernie Laletas and Christine Frangakis, the son and daughter of Elaine Papantinas, who owned it with her husband, Stephen. Elaine Papantinas died in December at the age of 86. Stephen Papantinas is 91 and unable to manage the property so his step-children worked on the deal to bring in Grain.

Laletas says the family was dedicated to keeping the property home to a restaurant. When the Papantinas family first bought the property in 1976, they owned and operated the Hidden Hearth restaurant before the pair retired and East End Cafe took over the location in 1987.

"We really wanted it to be another restaurant because it was [Stephen Papantinas'] wish to always have a restaurant," says Laletas, 58. "I think these guys really want to do it right. We're behind them all the way."

-- Ryan Cormier, The News Journal. Facebook: @ryancormier. Twitter: @ryancormier. Instagram: @ryancormier.