An Italian restaurant is coming downtown.
Royce Hudspeth, property manager and leasing agent with Rhett Real Estate, said all the requirements on the lease were met last week after several months of negotiations, and renovations are underway for the new eatery at 509 Main St., former home of Main Street Thai.
Royce Hudspeth
“The reality of it is that Columbus, at long last, is going to have a sit-down … Italian restaurant,” Hudspeth said. “I think people will love (it). I really do.”
Kelly Frady, owner of Coldwell Banker Frady and Associates and owner of the building, said she started polling different friends, family and coworkers earlier this year.
Kelly Frady
“(I) asked them, if there was any restaurant we could bring to Columbus, what would it be?” Frady told The Dispatch on Wednesday. “And without exception, it was Italian.”
Around the same time, Frady was visiting Oxford to see her niece, a University of Mississippi student who suggested they eat lunch at one of her favorite restaurants.
“So while we were there eating, I just asked the owner if he would be interested in opening a restaurant in Columbus,” Frady said. “That’s how it started.”
Ronnie Gashi confirmed he and his cousin Florian Imeri will operate the Columbus eatery. They operate Amore in Oxford and Brandon, Roma in Clinton and Casa D’Italia in Tupelo.
Gashi told The Dispatch the pair felt Columbus is a strong location for another of their restaurants for several reasons.
“We checked the area and everything. It does seem like a good area, including the location,” Gashi said. “And then we also saw that there wasn’t really a good Italian place at all.”
Frady said the hope is to open the restaurant this year, depending on how long renovations take.
“Realistically, it’s probably going to be the first of the year,” Mark Frady, husband to Kelly and owner of Mark Frady Construction LLC, told The Dispatch.
While there are still a lot of details – including a name – to nail down, Kelly Frady said she and Chase Hazard, interior decorator with Uncommon Living, have worked “numerous hours” trying to establish the “eclectic European” style they’re aiming for.
One aspect the Fradys are particularly excited about is a bank vault inside that restaurant that will serve as a space for private parties. Built in the 1800s, the once six-story building that housed Columbus National Bank was partially destroyed in a fire in 1919, leaving it with the four stories that stand today.
The bottom floor of 509 Main St. has been home to many restaurants, including Brown’s Downtown, Tapas 509, Station 7 Bar and Grill and most recently Main Street Thai, which closed last year.
Kelly said she has already heard positive feedback from community members about the restaurant.
“Everybody that knows that the restaurant is coming, they’ve asked me every day, ‘When is it open? We’re super excited. We’re ready for it to be open,’” she said. “People downtown, just the different stores, they’re constantly asking me because there’s not a whole lot of areas for them to go eat in the downtown area. They can just walk to it, so I think it’s going to be great.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
Posted in Columbus & Lowndes County
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Dining and Cooking