The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Campana’s Cafe gets closer to opening downtown
The recipes are ready. The kitchen is stocked. It’s almost time get cooking on West Eighth Street in Lorain. Lorain businessman Scotti C. Campana has transformed the former Catholic Charities Family Center into Campana’s Authentic International Cafe. The final building inspections and needed tweaks are taking place at 203 W. 8th St. Campana’s Authentic already has a strong online business. Pending final inspections, the cafe will open this spring, Campana said. “We put our hearts into it,” he said as he walked amid the family photos and heirlooms set among tables and chairs. The combination restaurant and market is a tribute to good food, family and the city of Lorain, said Campana. The building has been painted outside and inside. There is a new awning and colored lights above the entrance. As of April 17, crews were completing the final setups and minor alterations needed to open to the public. For example, the sauce room was in process; exhaust hoods were being tested; electricians were adding outlets; the parking lot needed striping necessary to create handicapaccess parking spaces. Otherwise, the interior is ready to go — including pizza crust, sauce, cheese and ovens to heat the ingredients into a meal. There are shelves stacked with Campana’s Authentic sauces and other specialty foods for sale. The goal is to resurrect the family formulas developed by Thomas and Maria Nicole Campana, the family grandparents who started Campanas Cafe at the corner of West 19th Street and Washington Avenue. “It was a market and cafe, and then a bar,” Campana said. “I’m doing all three of those elements here: market, cafe and bar. “And I want a place for my family and the city of Lorain ... to come here and enjoy.” Apart from good meals, there is another goal: to feed Lorain’s entrepreneurial spirit. Thomas and Maria Nicole Campana moved to Lorain and started their business. Their cafe-market, and the value system laid out by the family, “inspired the rest of us to do cool things,” Campana said. “To take a chance and invest in our community and be different and step outside the box and be entrepreneurial — that’s it, that’s why I’m here,” he said. “There’s lots of entrepreneurial things happening here.” Campana’s father, Patsie Campana, was the son of Thomas and Maria Nicole Campana. Patsie Campana began working at American Ship Building Co. before becoming a Navy diver fighting in World War II. He returned to Lorain and later started P.C. Campana Industrial Supply Business. Patsie Campana and his wife, Jenee, were local philanthropists and Lorain County Community College has named its Engineering and Development Center for him. For anyone who wants to sample Campana’s Authentic products, the company will have an in-store tasting from noon to 3 p.m., April 20, at the Oberlin IGA, 331 E. Lorain St. in Oberlin. Campana praised the efforts of grocery store owner Leo Braido for remaining an independent entrepreneur.