Hotel fills vacant restaurant and lounge space with established Italian restaurant

Tim Harty, The Business Times

Looking for a new location for its restaurant, sandwich shop and coffee shop, Citrolas decided to get a room at the inn. In this case, that’s the Clarion Inn, 755 Horizon Drive.

And the room is, well, sizable, because the hotel’s restaurant and bar are meant to accommodate about 200 people, according to Kristy Citrola, who owns Citrolas with her husband, John.

The Clarion Inn traditionally had a restaurant in the space, which Kristy Citrola said is about double the size of what Citrolas occupied previously at 759 Horizon Drive, but it’s been vacant since Ristorante Pantuso relocated to the Redlands nearly three years ago.

Clarion Inn General Manager SJ Christ said the hotel was looking at creating its own restaurant to inhabit the space, but when John and Kristy Citrola inquired about its availability, those thoughts perished. The Clarion made the easy decision to welcome in its neighbor from a couple doors down as Christ called Citrolas “an awesome fit for it.”

She added, “John and Kristy are wonderful, awesome people, and we look forward to working with them for a long time to come.”

Kristy Citrola said Citrolas already had a relationship with the Clarion Inn through catering some events, and then “we just happened to walk in at the right time.” Once the lease was signed, the Citrolas moved in quickly.

“We did it as fast as we could. Get it open,” said Kristy, adding they started serving customers with a soft opening June 18. She said a grand opening is coming soon, “probably the end of July.”

The larger space came with or allowed Citrolas to add a few things it never had at its former location.

For starters, the Clarion Inn setup had a lounge with a full bar. So, Citrolas now has a lounge and bar, which has a separate menu from the restaurant, providing what Kristy Citrola called “upscale bar food.” She added, “We’re doing Italian nachos, charcuterie boards, just more appetizers, pizzas, flatbreads in here.”

Between the lounge and the restaurant seating area, Citrolas put in a small wine bar.

And Citrolas will now take on providing room service for the hotel’s guests, plus banquets that are hosted at the hotel.

All of that is in addition to Citrolas continuing to do everything else it did at 759 Horizon Drive.

The Italian restaurant kept the same menu.

The sandwich shop, Kristy said, “It’s going to be just like it was before. Just order at the counter and sit down.”

Citrolas’ coffee shop is much smaller now and still getting established in its new surroundings. Kristy Citrola said eventually it will have a baker on board, making pastries to fill a case that currently sits empty.

“Little by little we’re getting it going,” she added.

One thing Citrolas won’t be doing is traditional breakfast. The Clarion Inn has that covered.

“We actually have a full breakfast, not a continental breakfast,” Christ said, adding the inn has its own kitchen, separate from Citrolas.

Being in a hotel now, a logical presumption is Citrolas will pick up business in addition to the regulars who won’t have any problem finding Citrolas’ new home. To what extent hotel patrons boost business remains to be seen, as John Citrola said early July is not a good time to gauge it.

“This is not a busy time,” he said. “You got Fourth of July weekend, and everybody’s gone, so history-wise it’s always a really slow week anyway. I couldn’t really judge it on that right now. But a lot of people have come here, just knowing that we’re open. But this is like, let’s get into next month, I think, and then we’ll really be able to see the difference.”