Tire technicians Noah Brandt (foreground) and Foster Cole-Wetmore replace tires on a Subaru at the new Flynn's Tire & Auto along East Pittsburgh Street in Hempfield.
Jeannette resident Jim Bosco knew when he was in college he wanted to open a restaurant someday.
That's why his partner was shocked when Bosco, 55, decided to turn over the Greensburg building that housed his Major Stokes restaurant to neighboring Stone Bridge Brewing Co. after seven years in business.
"I really had no intention of leaving the restaurant," he said. "It just was one of those opportunities that presented itself that was a win-win for both the ownership of Major Stokes and also the ownership of Stone Bridge Brewery."
Pittsburgh Street, stretching from Greensburg to Hempfield, has seen more than one business development in recent months. Corsi's Indoor Golf, which opened at Hempfield's 929 E. Pittsburgh St. in 1996, was replaced Monday by a Flynn's Tire & Auto.
Major Stokes makes way for Stone Bridge Brewing
Bosco started his career as an educator, teaching at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Seton Hill for about two decades. He purchased a building at 108 W. Pittsburgh St. in 2016 while working as an assistant professor of hospitality and tourism.
Bosco opened Major Stokes to the community in 2018 after two years of renovations to the historic building -- which housed Greensburg's first hospital and the family of 1854 U.S. Sen. Edgar Cowan.
"I'm a huge history nerd and I didn't want to see the building torn down," he said. "It had sat empty after a fire for six years."
Bosco balanced teaching and entrepreneurship for two years before leaving Seton Hill to staff Major Stokes' kitchen.
"The biggest challenge you have as a restaurant operator is staffing," he said. "In 2020, during covid, I couldn't find anybody to cook, so it was either close my restaurant or come down and take over the kitchen.
"And I chose the latter."
Bosco considers the cooking burn scars on his arms a nostalgic reminder of pursuing his decades-long dream -- preparing upscale bar food, steak and seafood for his customers.
But Bosco's most cherished memory of Major Stokes is the month of free meals the restaurant cooked and distributed to community members in need during the covid-19 pandemic.
Four staffers worked four weeks unpaid, preparing three meals each day to use up the last of the restaurant's food supply before the pandemic shutdown, Bosco said.
The initiative was only supposed to last a week. Community members, inspired by Major Stokes' efforts, donated money to help the restaurant buy more food and keep the effort going, he said.
Bosco estimates the restaurant supplied 700 to 1,000 free meals, partnering with nonprofits such as Greensburg-based Feeding the Spirit to distribute the food throughout the community.
Bosco got the itch to return to teaching -- and to have more flexibility to visit his grandchildren in Seattle. Learning that nearby Stone Bridge Brewing was looking for a smaller, more affordable space, Bosco decided to lease his West Pittsburgh Street building to brewery owner Jeremy Shearer.
"The side of town that we were on tends to be almost like a freeway on that end of Pittsburgh Street," Shearer said of the 239 E. Pittsburgh St. location. "People don't really slow down and look around."
Shearer opened Stone Bridge Brewing in Johnstown in 2018. But it wasn't until 2021 that he and his wife, Jennifer, expanded the brewery into a full-time business, moving their decade-old restaurant into the brewery.
The couple opened their location along Greensburg's East Pittsburgh Street about two years ago.
"We identified that we were getting a lot of regular customers that were coming from Greensburg, Unity Township, in general that entire section of Westmoreland County," said Shearer, 50, of Johnstown. "It made sense to us to capture that market locally and have them in visiting us a little more often than once every couple of months that they would drive out to Johnstown."
The brewery opened at its West Pittsburgh Street location in mid-June, Shearer said.
Stone Bridge annually brews about 25,000 gallons of hard seltzers and beer -- ranging from light beer to IPAs and stouts, he said. Their burgers, made with beef from a Bedford County farm, and ramen dishes are some of their most popular food items.
Bosco could not think of a better candidate to move into the space.
"They've really done some amazing renovations that I'm very excited about," he said. "We also had a very similar customer base, so I do stop in there from time to time and I still get to see some of my Stokes folks."
Flynn's Tire takes over Corsi's building
Flynn's Tire & Auto already had a presence in the Greensburg area, at 600 E. Pittsburgh St. But President Joe Flynn was drawn to the Corsi's Indoor Golf building in Hempfield -- specifically its larger size and visibility from Route 30.
The company's real estate agent negotiated a lease-to-own agreement with the building owner -- Robert J. Tutoki, according to the Westmoreland County tax map.
Flynn's opened Monday, returning to the building's roots as an auto service center before Corsi's Indoor Golf moved in.
"We'll be able to stock more tires at this new location than we did at the one at 600 Pittsburgh (St.)," said Flynn, of Hermitage, "and the services that we offer ... include Pennsylvania state inspections, alignments, brakes, steering and suspension, oil changes.
"So (it will be) full service, whereas (at) our older location, we only offered tires."
The transition is bittersweet for Joe Corsi, who operated Corsi's Indoor Golf for nearly three decades.
"Business was doing very well, very popular, profitable," said Corsi, 70, of Greensburg. "I would've stayed open."
There was a provision in Corsi's lease that allowed the building owner to cancel the agreement with a 90-day notice, Corsi said. He was notified in February that his lease was being canceled, he said.
"Flynn's Tire was very cooperative, letting me stay longer in the building so I could have more time to move my things out," he said.
Corsi opened the indoor golf center to fill a gap he noticed in the Greensburg business scene -- indoor swinging practice and golf club fittings and repairs. An avid golfer who still competes in local, statewide and out-of-state tournaments, Corsi enjoyed helping others improve in his beloved sport.
"I really, really liked it and looked forward to going in," he said. "That's the one thing that doing something that you love provides for you."
Corsi does not plan to reopen the indoor golf center, given his age and the cost of renovating a new building. He estimates it could cost $250,000 to $300,000 to rent and renovate a new building and install new golf simulators -- which typically cost $35,000 to $85,000 each.
He hopes to train someone else to take over his business.
"I do have somebody that's interested in purchasing the business and he is currently looking for space," Corsi said. "He wants me to train his son ... to be able to continue the business, but at my age, I don't want to be the one to invest the financial commitment of a five-year lease and also buy new simulators."