City of Youngstown approves Yosteria’s plans for new winery, event pavilion
After their meeting in early November, the city of Youngstown’s Design Review Committee approved a local Italian eatery’s plans to add their own winery and event pavilion to the property.
Alex Zordich co-owns Yosteria with Frank Tuscano, located in the city’s Smoky Hollow neighborhood.
“This has been a long-term goal, so we’re happy to finally make it happen,” Zordich said. “It’s good to continue to invest in Youngstown, and this approval will allow us to keep doing that.
The approved design of the new Yosteria winery includes black metal siding to match the original structure and a garage door, according to Zordich.
“The starting concept of our place is an osteria, traditional wineries in Italy that would make their own wine for their patrons and then serve local specialties and local dishes, so that is what we want to do,” he said. “Being able to have a facility on our site that we can make our own wine, host events in and still honor old traditions in our original building will be a really fun way to continue all those traditions going forward.”
He’s also adding an event pavilion to the property, adjacent to the existing building.
“The winery and the event pavilion are both going to be adjacent to the building, free-standing. It’s all on one property that we own,” he said. “We do a lot of events right now, but we’re limited as to how many people we can hold. Now we’ll be able to host a lot more people. We get a lot of requests for weddings. In the past, we couldn’t really take them on, but now we’ll be able to.”
Inside the winery, Zordich is planning on hosting tasting sessions, bringing in barrels and equipment that’ll evoke a nostalgic feeling for visitors.
“We want to keep it simple. I think that’s what people like most about our place- it takes you back to another time, so we’re going to try to do that as best as possible,” Zordich said. “We’re keeping the same bocce court that we have right now. It’s a very casual, leisurely court that whoever wants to play can come play.”
Learn more about Yosteria online, call (234) 228-9590 or visit the restaurant from 4 - 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and 4 - 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 252 Valley St. in Youngstown.
Owners are planning on remaining open to serve customers once the construction gets started on the new additions.
Zordich also released a guide to winemaking for beginners and a southern Italian food recipe collection called Tradizione Cookbook perfect for upcoming holidays.
His cookbook is $20, full of recipes inspired by his family’s roots in the Italian neighborhoods of Smoky Hollow in Youngstown and Larimer Avenue in Pittsburgh; both books are available for purchase online.
