RETAIL WATCH: FOOD AND FUN RETURN TO MOUNTAIN VIEW DRIVE-IN
Food and fun return to beloved Bushkill Township drive-in
Decades ago, Lanie Yaswinski spent summers riding her bike with friends to enjoy ice cream and miniature golf at Mountain View DriveIn in Bushkill Township.
Now the Bushkill Township resident, along with her husband, John Yaswinski, has revived her childhood hangout, which closed in 2004 after nearly 50 years of business.
The reimagined Mountain View, featuring a 3,000square-foot restau- rant, on Tuesday held a soft opening for just food and beverage sales at the 602 Jacobsburg Road property.
Weather delayed work on an 18-hole miniature golf course, but the outdoor facility should be in full swing around Labor Day, Lanie said.
The roughly three-week wait for putting pales in comparison with the more than two years the Yaswinskis spent going through the zoning and permitting process. The couple closed on the property in May 2018.
“This has been 3½ years in the making,” Lanie said Tuesday. “Today feels really good.”
The restaurant, with indoor and outdoor seating for more than 100 people, kept many of the original menu items, including burgers, hot dogs, pierogies and raspberry softserve ice cream.
Other highlights include cheesesteaks; salmon and veggie burgers; and sandwiches such as free-range chicken, crispy cod and pulled pork. Breakfast, beginning Monday, will include bagels, breakfast bowls, egg sandwiches and stuffed French toast and waffles.
A chalkboard lists 20 of the business’ partnering local vendors, including Calandra’s Cheese in Upper Nazareth Township and Cattle Creek Farms in Lower Nazareth Township.
For people looking for a cool treat, the business offers 16 flavors of hard ice cream, including regional favorite teaberry, from Easton’s Bank Street Creamery, along with four soft-serve varieties.
You can choose from a multitude of floats, milkshakes, traditional sundaes such as CMP and Dusty Road, and signature sundaes such as Pineapple Paradise, featuring Pineapple Dole Whip.
No items are more than $9, except for the $15 “Bushkill Belly Buster,” which includes a “Beaver Tail” funnel cake and your choice of six scoops of ice cream and six toppings, topped with funnel cake fries, whipped cream and cherries.
The Yaswinskis paid homage to the business’ first iteration by incorporating the original Formica tables; benches, shelves and countertops made from maple trees chopped down on the property; and framed photos of the original Mountain View’s owners, the late Miklos and Beatrice Krasznavolgyi.
On the golf course, the Yaswinskis are further paying homage to the site by incorporating original features such as the covered bridge, wishing well and windmill, alongside new Bushkill Townshipthemed holes such as Henry’s Woods, featuring cascading water and native trees, and Schoeneck Moravian Church, featuring a miniature church replica.
Mountain View Drive-In, which features a small arcade, on Monday will start its regular hours, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Info: 610-365-2186.
More foodie finds
About 7 miles south of Mountain View, another foodie destination is preparing to open at the former Ravello Restaurant & Brick Oven Pizza site in Forks Township.
Gambino’s, an Italian restaurant, is expected to open in the next few weeks at 1210 Knox Ave., co-owner Ronnie Laz said.
“My mother’s maiden name is Gambino, so I’m half Gambino and half Laz,” said Laz, who will operate the restaurant with his fiancee, Tiffany Ayers, and sister, Tina Laz. “I always wanted to have a restaurant and so did my mother, so it just made sense to call it Gambino’s.”
The BYOB restaurant, with seating for about 70 people, will offer brick oven pizzas along with chicken wings, subs, strombolis, calzones, pasta dishes and a wide array of steak, chicken, pork and seafood dishes.
Ronnie and Tina’s mother, Rosemarie Gambino, will be the restaurant’s head chef.
“Our meatballs are going to hopefully become famous in Forks Township, along with our gravy, which many people just call red sauce,” Ronnie said. Info: 610-438-0599.
If your taste buds crave Asian over Italian, the Lehigh Valley’s restaurant roster is growing even further with Pho Viet Royal, a Vietnamese eatery expected to open in “about a month and a half ” at 2126 W. Union Blvd. in Bethlehem, coowner Joe Wang said.
Pho Viet Royal, serving lettuce wraps, summer rolls, vermicelli noodle dishes and other specialties of the southeast Asian country, will occupy a renovated Lehigh Shopping Center space that previously housed Red Hot I Chinese Restaurant, which closed in the winter after four years of business.
Wang, who lives in Bethlehem, will operate the restaurant with his wife’s aunt, who also runs a Vietnamese restaurant in Toms River, New Jersey.
Nearby pho spots include Pho #1 at 1500 Union Blvd. in Allentown and Pho Bowl at 524 W. Broad St. in Bethlehem.
Odds and ends
A chain of BYOB art studios offering easy-to-follow painting classes has expanded in the Lehigh Valley.
Painting with a Twist, with more than 300 locations in 39 states, on July 19 began offering public classes at its second area location, 1515 Lehigh St. in Allentown, according to a news release.
The 76-person studio, next to IHOP in the Parkway Center, offers public and private classes, suitable for birthday parties, date nights and more. Each guest leaves with a oneof-a-kind creation on canvas, wood or a wine glass.
Franchise owner Christopher Hatten opened the area’s first Painting with a Twist studio in 2015 at 3650 Nazareth Pike in Bethlehem Township. Info: 610-351-3266.
Another business aiming to let the creative juices flow is Dan’s Camera City in South Whitehall Township.
The photography business, founded in 1977, in a few weeks will debut the first phase of its Urban Photo Park, an outdoor venue designed for photo opportunities, product testing and more behind the 1439
Fairmont St. store.
“We have seen our customers wanting to interact and experience their hobby in a more hands-on environment,” a company announcement reads.
Management compiled an array of ideas for the outdoor space, including life-size cutouts of athletes and wildlife to see how equipment options will meet expectations; landscaped features for portraits; and birdhouses and feeders to draw in feathered subjects.
The Urban Photo Park, encompassing more than 45,000 square feet, also will enhance teaching techniques for the company’s Photo University instructors. Info: danscamera.com.
In neighboring Whitehall Township, Macy’s department store at Lehigh Valley Mall on Saturday will celebrate the opening of Macy’s Backstage, providing a “store-withinstore shopping experience featuring significant savings on fabulous finds,” according to a news release.
Macy’s has expanded its off-price business to more than 200 stores and the new Whitehall store will occupy 13,700 square feet on Macy’s second level.
Shoppers can expect “great savings” on apparel for men, women and children, as well as shoes and accessories, housewares and more.
Saturday’s grand opening will feature giveaways for the first 200 customers, with one shopper receiving a $200 shopping spree. Info: macysbackstage.com.
Closing notes
I’ll finish with a couple of closures: First, Hot Plate Southern Kitchen, which opened in December 2017 at 201 E. Third St. in south Bethlehem, held its last day of business Wednesday, according to a now-deleted video on the business’ Facebook page.
The restaurant “hit a roof” in the Lehigh Valley and is set to move to Montclair, New Jersey, this month, co-owner T.R. Burns said in the video.
“We can’t grow no more,” Burns said. “… It has to be a certain dynamic between the property you’re in and the place you are doing business in. And some of them dynamics changed drastically.”
Second, Bangor’s Main Street Market, which opened at 90 N. Main St. in 1995, announced in a social post Monday that it has no choice but to close due to “terms of negotiations” with its lease. A closing date has not yet been determined.
Retail Watch, appearing every weekend, keeps track of retail and restaurant news in the Lehigh Valley. Contact Ryan Kneller at 610-820-6597 or retailwatch@mcall.com.