Mt. Lebanon restaurant Fairlane to open in Dec.
When Lauren Zanardelli and Graham Foster took their first class at Johnson & Wales in 2010, they were already setting about to change the course of their lives. They just didn’t realize quite how much at the time.
Both were embarking on a second career. Ms. Zanardelli, a Bethel Park native, had graduated from Virginia Tech and taught first grade for several years in North Carolina before getting an itch to do something different. Mr. Foster was a personal trainer and cyclist, likewise looking to scratch a new professional yen.
Food and cooking was something they’d both been passionate about, and at ages 29 and 25, respectively, they took a leap of faith and enrolled at the Charlotte, N.C., campus of the famed school that specializes in all elements of the hospitality industry.
“It was ‘Stocks, Sauces & Soups,’ and the chef instructor was this very big and very serious former Marine,” she said of the class of 30 students — most of them still in their teens — seated at tables of four. “He sat kind of catty-corner from me at the same table.”
To paraphrase “Casablanca,” of all the tables at all the culinary schools in all the world …
They clicked almost instantly, and over the next few years, they’d travel to Europe, intern at Michelin-star restaurants in New York, start a food truck in Mr. Foster’s hometown of Greenville, S.C., and then take it out to
Portland, Ore., before returning to Pittsburgh two years ago.
“I lived away for 10 years, and my parents would send me things in the mail from newspapers and magazines about the food scene in Pittsburgh — it was their parental passive-aggressive way to tell me to move back,” she laughed.
Next month, the couple, now married and living in Brookline, will open Fairlane, a new restaurant on Beverly Road in Mt. Lebanon in the former Block 292 space, which before extensive renovation, was an auto body shop — hence the name, Fairlane, taken from the classic Ford sedan of the 1950s and ‘60s.
The menu will fall under that broad and somewhat amorphous category of “New American” cuisine, which is to say that it won’t be specific but rather will draw from their travels, their work experiences and culinary education from around the United States, and a little of Mr. Foster’s Southern background.
There also will be a wine and craft beer bottle shop with lunch and bar snacks attached to the dinner-only restaurant.
Ms. Zanardelli worked at Block 292, and since its closure last spring, he has worked at Dinette in East Liberty. Mr. Foster has worked at Bar Marco in the Strip District.
Brooks Broadhurst and his wife owned Block 292 and they still own the building, but sold the business to Ms. Zanardelli and Mr. Foster. — Brooks Broadhurst, Owner of Block 292
“We’ve known Lauren and Graham for a couple years now and are really excited about the concept and can’t wait to have some life back on that end of Beverly Road,” he said.
“When we opened our food truck in Greenville, it was so exciting because it was Graham’s hometown, and it was so fun to be a part of that, but the dream has always been to do the same things in Pittsburgh,” Ms. Zanardelli said.
“But the ultimate goal is to have a piece of the Pittsburgh food scene to call our own. To do it in my hometown — it sounds cliche, but it really is a dream come true.”
Fairlane, located at 292 Beverly Road, Mt. Lebanon, is expected to open in December.
“We’ve known Lauren and Graham for a couple years now and are really excited about the concept and can’t wait to have some life back on that end of Beverly Road.”