Serving up success in the restaurant industry
In the restaurant industry, success doesn’t come easy. But that’s OK for Michael and Lori Coury, owners of The River House Café in Charleroi. After 10 years serving up homemade dishes and festive spirits, the Courys know exactly which “ingredients” transform a new restaurant into a community favorite.
Community preservation
As entrepreneurs, the Courys believe in leaving the community better than they found it — and that’s exactly what they did in Charleroi. River House Café transformed the old Miller’s Department Store from a lifeless shell into a beautiful gathering place and thriving business (and it smells pretty good, too).
The Courys reconstructed the building into a full-scale restaurant and bar, beautifying Charleroi’s historic district — with the help of community craftsmen.
“We are a family-owned business, and we understand the importance of helping your neighbors and the surrounding community, so it was important to us to hire local businesses and tradesmen,” Lori Coury explained. “Looking around the River House Café, you’ll notice the beautiful hand-carved woodwork throughout the restaurant. It’s warm, comfortable and very inviting.”
Real food, done right
If you don’t see something that looks tasty on the River House Café menu, well, try the other four pages of it. With its extensive five-page menu and rotating seasonal dishes, there’s something for everyone — and every occasion. What you’ll find on the menu isn’t as important as what you won’t: cheap, prepared foods.
“The large majority of our menu is homemade, from our sauces to our salad dressings, which we also sell by the bottle,” Coury said. “We want food with flavor, even if it costs us more.”
If you choose a steak (which Coury highly recommends), you can rest assured the beef was raised in the United States and aged over 30 days. Of course, if you need a recommendation, Coury is happy to provide a few.
“For the seafood lovers, we purchase ours fresh right off the boats in Erie,” she said. “Our chef then prepares the perfect blend of seasonings and sauces to bring out the best flavor for our weekend specials. Our crabcakes are amazing and made from scratch. You’ll taste the extra time spent simmering our homemade spaghetti meat sauce, marinara and pizza sauce.”
Festiveness — in a glass
Whether you’re celebrating a birthday, an anniversary or just the fact that it’s Tuesday, sometimes you want to go where everybody knows … your favorite drink. Chances are, River House has it. With a wine cabinet fit for a French chateau, you’ll want to order a bottle for the table — and maybe try a brew or two.
“For our beer drinkers, we have 20 taps on draft, and if you find your favorite, we encourage you to grab a growler of it,” said Coury. “We also provide a large selection of over 150 bottled micros for your choosing, and our bartenders are the best around, creating new seasonal drinks that keep you coming back.”
A place to call home
After 33 years of marriage and two kids, the Courys know a bit about building a home — and they’ve done the same for their restaurant. River House Café is the kind of place that brings families and communities together. Lori Coury credits this atmosphere to the restaurant’s 40 employees, who “know the importance of taking care of our customers and each other.”
River House Café is also frequently a gathering spot for charitable events and causes. From annual Christmas parties to scholarship dinners to fundraisers for local sports teams and hospitals, the restaurant is always ready to play host for a great cause.
The best customers
Coury credits River House Café’s success first to the grace of God, and second to the smiling faces that come through the restaurant’s doors every day.
“The people in this community are amazing,” she said. “We have made so many lifelong friends and I couldn’t imagine us anywhere else. We never take any of our customers for granted.”
A journalism graduate from Brigham Young University, Kristen has experience writing in a variety of fields, including art and culture, health and fitness and financial and real estate services. Kristen has written for USA Today, SFGate and the Knot.
This article is brought to you by River House Cafe.