By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Though Ralphie’s Sports Eateries is just getting a start on moving to Galion, the city already feels like home for the Perrysburg-based company.
Wednesday marked the first day of open interviews being held at the Galion-Crestline Area Chamber of Commerce this month. Mark Wallace, Director of Operations, was already seeing interested parties walk through the door shortly after the hiring event began.
“Small community, not a lot of chains,” Wallace said of the reason they decided to set down in Galion. “They (the city) reached out to us and told us about the availability of this building.”
Wallace was also impressed with the homey feeling they have gotten since coming to town.
“I can’t believe the welcome we’ve gotten from Joe (Kleinknecht, president of the local chamber of commerce), the mayor, the police department. It’s just been wonderful,” Wallace said. “The previous owners have just been so helpful with us.”
Wallace said his company purchased the Varsity Grille and finalized the purchase two weeks ago. Right now, the building has been gutted in preparation for the renovations to come.
“It’ll look totally different,” Wallace confirmed. “It’s a lot of fun to take an empty shell and then think about what you want the finished product to be and how it impacts the customer’s perception and their convenience and how we can serve it better.”
Wallace even joked about the proximity to the football stadium.
“It’s like you can throw the football across our building,” said Wallace. “It’s awesome. That was one of the big deciders, too: the location. You can’t go wrong with it.”
Ralphie’s classifies itself as a sports eatery and pub. It is family-oriented and, though some may pigeonhole it as simply a bar, Wallace said they are 80 percent food and 20 percent bar. Typical sports bar food such as wings, burgers, jumbo salads, and wraps can be found on a Ralphie’s menu. Plus, there are always a lot of appetizers offered.
Ralphie’s will hire between 50 and 60 people to start, Wallace estimated. The plan is to open in early March, but training will begin long before then. Of the early hires, 6-10 will be servers and 4-8 will be cooks that will be trained at the Marion location. Those people will then return to Galion once the restaurant is completed in February to act as the local training team.
Applications will be taken during hiring events at the Galion-Crestline Area Chamber of Commerce, 138 Harding Way W, Galion. The hiring events will occur from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Dec. 14 and 21.
Ralphie’s is owned by Bennett Enterprises, which operates six additional Ralphie’s restaurants in northwest Ohio, including one in Marion, along with 14 Frisch’s Big Boy restaurants, four hotel operations, and commercial real estate.