This keepsake of John Heaphy’s reminds him of his first restaurant ownership, John’s Tower Cafe, located in the Cook Tower lobby. He was just 21 when he opened six days a week in 1981.
John Grindrod/The Lima News
While this year’s Olympics in Paris dubbed Noah Lyles as the world’s fastest man, the American sprinter might get some competition from John Heaphy, if it comes down to getting him to sit down and answer some interview questions about his dual mission to give back to the city that raised him and to grow his company, Good Foods Restaurants. Now, to clarify, it wasn’t that John, who I’ve known for years, is uncooperative with the media. It’s just that he’s indeed far more than a figurehead to the more than 1,200 employees who call him “Boss” in 22 restaurants across Ohio and Indiana.
In addition to keeping informed about all his restaurants, which a full-time-and-a-half task in itself, Heaphy has been particularly visible in the building that houses his three latest restaurants, Casa Lu Al, Corner Pins and Vista Taco, collectively known as Spring and Main, following a four-year renovation of the historic buildings at 147 South Main and 113 East Spring.
I was there the first week of the opening in late June, and I will tell you, if you haven’t been yet, the place has a true big-city vibe. While the wait was understandably a bit long for a much-anticipated opening, the evening spent there with my sister and brother-in-law was so enjoyable. As for the food, there were absolutely no complaints from us. As one of the leading connoisseurs of breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches, I can now say without equivocation that I had the best while seated at the bar on the main floor of the beautifully appointed Cas.
As a lifelong Lima resident, 1978 LCC graduate and valedictorian following his T-Bird days of The School of Hard Knocks, Heaphy knows of the history of Lima, the seven-decade run of prosperity and increasing population following the discovery of oil in the late 19th century. While he is too young to have witnessed the boom, he is old enough to recall the last vestiges of a successful downtown in the 1960s before the late-decade migration of long established downtown businesses to the two new malls, the closing of some of the city’s largest employers and the precipitous drop in Lima’s population by any many as 30,000 people.
While Heaphy’s entrepreneurial portfolio is certainly geographically diverse, there’s no question he’s passionate about restoring luster to what was once a thriving downtown area. When it occurred to Heaphy over a decade ago Lima needed a high-end steakhouse that also featured quality regional entertainment in an upstairs night-club atmosphere, Old City Prime opened downtown just a few hundred feet of what is now Spring and Main.
As for where Heaphy’s passion for food began, like most enduring stories, it has roots deeply embedded in his childhood.
“I guess you might say I grew up appreciating great food. My Italian immigrant grandparents came to Lima in the early 1920s in search of their own American dream. The Shortino and Cardone side of my family produced wonderful Italian cuisine from scratch, growing their own vegetables and making their own pasta. As my grandmother used to say, ‘Food beautifully prepared with love.’”
Heaphy began his career journey while still in his teens, selling sandwiches to construction workers in the summer and selling homemade meatball sandwiches at county fairs.
“When I realized that my profits were doubling what I was spending at the grocery, I was hooked. Later, through my good friend Phil Guagenti, I began cooking at the fabulous Milano Club, off Market Street downtown. Both Phil’s dad, Joe, and Phil’s Uncle Donnie were wonderful to me, and you might say, my education really began. Watching them greet customers and work the tables making sure everyone was enjoying themselves was captivating.”
Following Heaphy’s Milano experience, he also experienced another of Lima’s premier Italian restaurants, Charlie’s, on South Main, and the education continued under Charlie Venturella. From food preparation and on to so many other aspects of running a successful restaurant, Charlie allowed Heaphy to see how it all came together, idiomatically speaking, ‘From soup to nuts.’”
“Really Joe, Donnie and Charlie were such wonderful mentors, giving me my earliest lessons in restaurant operation.”
Now, as far as his first plunge into actually owning a restaurant, rewind to 1981 when, at just 21 years old, Heaphy used some small savings and a loan of $21,000, which he still recalls came at a hefty 21 percent interest, and opened John’s Tower Café in the lobby of Cook Tower.
“Working with my good friend Tim Johns, the deli was open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and we really did well. Additionally, so many I met in those early 1980s there who started as customers eventually became great supporters and friends.”
While the career rollercoaster in its earliest stages continued to ascend, as all of us know, life is rarely merely an ascension, especially when it begins coming at you fast. I’ll save that part of John’s story for next week.
John Grindrod is a regular columnist for The Lima News, a freelance writer and editor and the author of two books. Reach him at [email protected].
