Diner owners believe move to Bentleyville will serve them well
Courtesy of Joe Mendola
Slop is a popular menu item at the Carlton Diner.
Rick Shrum/Observer-Reporter
Joe Mendola, middle, and Matt and Jennifer Cario, owners of Carlton Diner, in a photo from December 2019, are filling lunch and dinner orders for takeout during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rick Shrum/Observer-Reporter
Carlton Diner will close Dec. 29 at its current location in Somerset Township, yards from Interstate 70.
Rick Shrum/Observer-Reporter
The former Boomtown Grill building is now the home of Carlton Diner.
It’s called Slop – right there on the menu, with a capital “S.” And on a plate, the name seems to fit.
But if you stroll into Carlton Diner and bravely partake of this featured entrée for the first time, you will be gratified and satisfied by this flavorful mix: ham, sausage, onions, peppers, home fries, egg and cheese, served with Texas toast.
Full and half-orders are available for sit down, and there is Slop on the Run – inside a flour tortilla – for those on the move.
“A lot of high school kids call in for that, pick it up and take it back to school,” said Joe Mendola, owner of the Somerset Township dining destination.
Soon, however, Slop and every other item on the menu will be on the move as well. Carlton Diner, a Steelers quarterback Devlin Hodges pass from Interstate 70, will close its current operation Dec. 29 and reopen in early January at 704 Main St. in Bentleyville. The restaurant, launched by the Carlton family in the 1950s, will relocate three miles to the east, to a building that previously housed Boomtown Grill, which closed in February.
As for the current location, a wrecking ball is in the not-too-distant future. That was the fate of the Carlton Motel, which stood adjacent to the diner before being razed in September. Judy Lohr owned both buildings.
Venue – and an interior renovation thereof – aren’t the only changes associated with the popular local diner. Spouses Jennifer and Matt Cario have joined Mendola as part-owners, with Mendola remaining majority owner. And they plan to serve dinner multiple evenings at the new location.
A seven-day-a-week operation, Carlton Diner has essentially been a breakfast/lunch spot, with a menu featuring lots of omelets, pancakes and waffles. The restaurant is open 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. most days, but on occasional evenings.
“I’m leaning toward five (nights), but we might start with three,” Mendola said of dinner, adding that it may be served “till eight or nine.”
Carlton Diner does have a following, according to Jennifer, a Columbus area native who runs the Bentworth Blessings nonprofit. She said a social media post of the impending move got 545 shares, 550 likes and more than 200 comments.
“People said they were so worried we weren’t going to stay open,” Jennifer said. “The community is connected to this place.”
Matt recognizes that connection.
“There are lots of regulars,” he said. “I love the culture. There are old-timers who love the coffee, eggs and talk.”
“A few people come in every day,” Jennifer added. “There is definitely a culture of regulars.”
Mendola, a genial man with a quick sense of humor, shares that impression. He said even though the diner is a short hop off the Kammerer exit of I-70, with signage visible from the highway, it doesn’t attract an appreciable number of commuters from outside the area. That’s why he and the Carios, while scouting other locations, were hoping to find a nearby spot.
The Boomtown site will enable them to keep many of their patrons, while potentially attracting new ones from the more populated borough.
Although he grew up in Kennedy Township, in the west suburbs of Pittsburgh, Matt is a longtime Carlton Diner regular of sorts. Now in his early 40s, he warmly remembers childhood visits to his grandmother in the Bentleyville area, which included treks to the diner. This has evolved into a family tradition for him, his wife and their four children.
“Jen and I want to spend time with our kids, so we bring them here. There will be a lot of family memories for us,” said Matt, a project manager for UPMC in Pittsburgh.
Carlton Diner has been creating memories since the Eisenhower administration. The place was previously known as Carlton Kitchen, and was family owned until 1979, when Lohr purchased it. In 2016, she leased the diner to Mendola.
The majority owner, on occasion, is the sole cook. Asked the size of his staff, Mendola deadpans, “one.” Then, following a slight pause, he said, “I actually have a good staff (of 12).” The owners plan to expand the workforce at the new, larger location.
By relocating the diner to Bentleyville, Mendola and the Carios also hope to enhance the borough’s business district. Jennifer said three other merchants also will be moving there, including Wild Buffalo Trading Co., a boutique with a Western flair, which shares the doomed building Carlton Diner is abandoning. Wild Buffalo will be across from the diner, in a structure where Matt’s great uncle once was a pharmacist.
An ice cream shop, Scoops on Main, and a bakery are planned as well, according to Jennifer.
Mendola, of Belle Vernon, is pleased not only is the diner surviving, it will do so in a familiar environment.
“I’m excited that we’ll be nearby. I’ve made a lot of friends, and when you find a community like this, you like to work together. It’s a great place.”