Legacy Lanes adding Crafthouse Stage & Grill
Charles Stage and Kirk Radziukinas are adding live music, craft beer, food options and a cigar bar to Legacy Lanes in Baldwin.
Legacy Lanes in Baldwin will now share space with Crafthouse Stage & Grill.
The reasoning behind the decision to purchase Legacy Lanes in Baldwin made sense to longtime friends Charles Stage and Kirk Radziukinas.
The two Upper St. Clair men were looking for a location in the South Hills that they could transform into a live music destination venue where area residents could also enjoy good food and craft beer. They found what they were looking for in October – Legacy Lanes, a 33,000-square-foot bowling alley, arcade and laser tag center on Curry Road.
“It already had 24 lanes, a children’s arcade and laser tag center,” said Stage, adding the bowling alley, updated in 2009, also has a steady customer base. “We’re going to enhance it.”
“We had been thinking about this for 10 years and have done a lot of homework,” said Stage, who is in sales for R.R. Donnelley.
While keeping the bowling alley, laser tag center and the arcade, which has a dozen games, open during construction, Stage and Radziukinas, along with third partner, Sofranko Advisory Group, a business planning, consulting and hospitality company with offices in Wexford and Downtown, are indeed enhancing the site, which was built in the 1960s. Changes include the addition of a 16-foot by 20-foot sound stage and dance floor, a 50-foot bar and dining area complete with an executive chef. They have dubbed this portion of their joint venture the Crafthouse Stage & Grill. It is slated to open in early March. Both businesses, when fully staffed, are expected to employ 80-full and part-time workers.
Crafthouse will feature casual American-style dining snacks and entrees. Much of the food will be handmade and come from local sources, Stage said. Plans also call for an enclosed cigar bar in the dining area where patrons can enjoy a cigar and high-end liquor.
“That’s the fastest growing area of the bar business,” said Stage, adding that a high-end ventilation system will be installed so non-smoking patrons will not be disturbed by smoke emanating from the cigars.
Stage said both he and Radziukinas, a retired federal air marshal, are fans of live music, and had been frustrated for years by not having easy access to such a destination venue in the South Hills.
“They have some in the North Hills,” Radziukinas said.
Crafthouse, when it opens in March, will have live music Wednesday through Saturday. Bands already scheduled for the first week include the Evan Dean Band, March 2; Gina Rendina, March 3; Ruff Creek, March. 4; and Wild Geese, March 5, Radziukinas said.
“We will have all genres of music, rock, country,” said Radziukinas, who now runs the day-to-day operations.
“We want the ordinary to be extraordinary,” Stage added.