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At the Airport, Wings Means Food: New Restaurant/Bar is Opened By Leo Vergnetti, Previously Owner of Coffee Shop at Region's Airport.

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Jerry Lynott, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

Jun. 7--PITTSTON TWP. -- The hot food was hot and cold food cold as Wings restaurant and bar opened in the new airport terminal. The real test might come today when breakfast is served, fretted owner Leo Vergnetti.

"It went off without a lot of glitches in it," he said after the official ribbon-cutting with officials at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.

The restaurant and bar and adjoining gift shop were up and running Tuesday, nearly two weeks after the new $41.5 million Joseph M. McDade terminal opened on May 25.

The stove got hooked up just in time for lunch and the liquor license finally arrived, Vergnetti said. Customers seemed to be excited, he added.

With financial help from the airport he made the move from the old terminal, where he operated the coffee shop for 34 years, to a prime location on the second floor near the main passenger entrance to the boarding gates. Windows offer an expansive view of the green hills to the east of the airport. There is seating for more than 100 patrons who can watch planes take off and land and choose from soups, salads, wraps and sandwiches.

The airport asked Lackawanna and Luzerne counties to contribute $1.2 million to build out the space for Vergnetti. The county commissioners that make up the airport board dealt exclusively with his company LPV Enterprises Inc. of Scranton. A lot of people were interested in the concession, but when they looked at the passenger numbers they backed out, he said. "I made the best offer."

He has invested a quarter of a million dollars in equipment, and employs approximately 20 people, including his mother, Angie, Vergnetti said. His company's five-year lease guarantees the airport $60,000 a year, or $5,000 a month. The new restaurant/bar and gift shop occupies 5,150 square feet, compared with 3,527 for the old space. "I'm taking a big gamble," he said.

In all his years operating in the old terminal he never missed a rent payment, Vergnetti said. He's stuck with the airport in good and bad times through two wars, the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and even had a plane crash through the old restaurant, he said.

ON THE WEB

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Do you like the new restaurant's name or do you have a better idea for it? Tell us at com

Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7237.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

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