James Lockwood
The twin gabled, eight story Scranton Electric Building on Linden Ave., built in 1896, will serve as Fidelity Bank’s headquarters upon completion of its renovation.
Construction at ChurchHill Mall on Friday June 5, 2026.(John Haeger / Staff Photographer)
The inside of US Biosciences in Jessup on Friday, May 29, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Heights Terrace Pharmacy John Keegan fills a prescription at the pharmacy on Friday June 26, 2026.(John Haeger / Staff Photographer)
Damenti’s Restaurant in Sugarloaf Twp. will close after being run by two families at two locations for 80 years. (File Photo)
Several restaurants opened in the region recently where you can get everything from sandwiches, to eggs, to international fare.
Adelina’s reopens after fire and temporary relocation
Adelina’s Restaurant and Pizzeria reopened in Wright Twp. on July 1, a little over a year after a May 2025 fire destroyed the restaurant at 166 S. Mountain Blvd.
The new Adelina’s has the same footprint as the old restaurant but is laid out differently, according to husband and wife owners Bernard Ceaser and Lisa Cummings.
“It’s a lot different. The bar is bigger. The banquet room is more privatized,” Cummings said. “It’s brand new. It’s gorgeous.”
The outdoor patio area remains the same, as it was unaffected by the blaze.
During the rebuilding process, Adelina’s opened a temporary location at the Genetti’s complex in downtown Wilkes-Barre and fulfilled catering orders from the kitchen at St. Jude’s School in Wright Twp., where Adelina’s prepares lunch for students.
New meat market opening at former Trovato’s
A family-owned business with roots in Monroe County expanded operations into the Abingtons.
Mark Citera purchased the former Gary’s Meat Market in Stroud Twp. five years ago and established Citera Family Meat Market.
Now, Citera and his nephew, Joseph Sancimo, will operate a second location at the former Trovato’s Meat Market property at 1085 Lackawanna Trail, providing customers with fresh meats again.
“We had a vendor who knew the area and used to serve Trovato’s,” Cicera said. “He said it was a good location and the gentleman who was here previously just didn’t want to do it anymore. We came up here, talked to Brian (Schirg), and here we are.”
Schirg operated the shop for eight years before closing it in December.
The business specializes in Black Angus prime beef and a variety of smoked meats, including ring bologna, kielbasa, bacon, ribs, and turkeys during the holiday, Citera said. In addition to imported goods from Italy and items from New York, Citera noted he strives to source many products from throughout the region.
“Anything that is local, we try to get it,” he said. “We use everybody that surrounds the area. We’re all about supporting small businesses.”
Jimmy John’s coming to Scranton and Moosic
Jimmy John’s, a national sandwich shop chain, plans to open two new locations, including one opening late summer/early fall at The Marketplace at Steamtown.
In the marketplace, the shop will open in a newly configured street-level retail space a short distance west of the main entrance, next to the area where the Ground Round restaurant used to be.
In Moosic, a Jimmy John’s is planned at 3500 Birney Ave., at the Birney Mall plaza entrance, next to Starbucks. Various zoning variances have been sought for work and no opening date has been announced.
Lackawanna County’s first and only other Jimmy John’s franchise opened in 2022 in South Abington Twp. at 920 Northern Blvd.
Founded in 1983 by Jimmy John Liautaud in Charleston, Illinois, Jimmy John’s has grown to over 2,600 locations in 45 states, according to the company website. The chain has 25 shops throughout Pennsylvania, including another one in NEPA, in the Pocono Summit section of Tobyhanna Twp. in Monroe County.
Metz Group opens Eggs Up Grill in Monroe County, eyes Lackawanna, Luzerne locations
A regional restaurant group opened an Eggs Up Grill location in Stroud Twp. in June with plans to establish additional franchises across Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.
Rick Sell, vice president of operations for Metz Group, based in Dallas, noted the company had been eyeing Eggs Up as it looks to continue its expansion in the breakfast restaurant industry.
“We’ve been studying and looking at this brand for quite some time,” he said. “We believe Eggs Up Grill offered something unique in the daytime dining space. It’s not trying to be a diner or compete with some of the legacy breakfast chains. I think that creates a clear opportunity for us and the daytime only model, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., along with the strong culture and support system the franchise offers made it a natural fit.”
Sell anticipates opening at least three more restaurants across Northeast Pennsylvania throughout the next couple of years, including another one or two within the next 12 to 18 months.
Among potential locations, Sell noted the company has explored opportunities in areas like Carbondale, Scranton, Pittston and Kingston.
Based in South Carolina, Eggs Up Grill’s menu of breakfast, brunch and lunch favorites includes omelets, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, burgers, bowls and mimosas.
Acacia Nay’s Catering returns to Hazleton Kitchen Incubator
Acacia Nay’s Catering has returned to the Hazleton Kitchen Incubator where the business started in 2023.
Owner Dominique Pane said she is back to rebrand and refocus the business with a specialization in “global comfort food,” blending traditional recipes with modern twists inspired by cuisines from around the world.
Everything from mushroom toast and chicken franchise to seafood boils and empanadas, her menu reflects her passion for creating dishes that feel both familiar and inventive.
“Every style of cooking is important in my eyes,” she said. “I feel like to be a great chef you have to be versatile in every aspect of cooking whether it be corporate batch cooking, bar food or fine dining.”
Pane, who was born and raised in Hazleton, has a vast culinary background having worked in fine dining restaurants, country clubs and bistros throughout Luzerne and Lackawanna counties. Her training began with cooking classes at the Hazleton Area Career Center and she then went on to Luzerne County Community College where she earned associate degrees in hospitality business management, culinary arts and pastry arts.
Looking toward the future, she plans to expand her customer base through catering, community events and monthly food offerings prepared in the Kitchen Incubator. Her goal is to grow her business into a food truck operation that can serve festivals and private parties.
Guari family opens Concetta Farm event space in Lackawanna County
After making family memories at their farm in Scott Twp., the Guari family has opened Concetta Farm, an event space where other families can make memories of their own at weddings, showers, reunions and other events.
Albert and Joan Guari purchased the land along Justus Boulevard in 2021 and started a family hobby farm on the 35-acre property. The couple, along with their daughters Nicole and Danielle, enjoyed much time and many events there, and in 2025 began building a 4,000-square-foot event center for Nicole’s wedding.
“We learned a lot about what it takes to actually create such a big event,” Nicole said. “Every single person in our family, and our friends, came together to create this space. I think it’s much more special because of the meaning of how it was built and what we put into it.”
After hosting a graduation party for a neighbor this spring, the Guaris decided to offer the venue for weddings, showers and large-scale events. Nicole described the facility as “a blank space with great bones that allows each person to turn the space into their own vision.”
The Hobbiest skills club teaches lessons for life
Inspired by her own experience, Ashley Fitzgerald strives to help others find the same balance, peace and connection from unplugging and unwinding.
A health issue earlier this year led the Clarks Summit native to step away from technology and into the water.
“For two hours a day, my husband and I were swimming, and obviously you’re not taking your phone in the pool,” Fitzgerald said. “I realized, by unplugging, how much more balanced I felt, how much more peaceful I felt, and how much more connected I felt.”
Fitzgerald’s new business — The Hobbiest, an adult, phone-free skills club set to open at 129 N. Main St. in mid-July — will help people find more purpose by gaining new skills in a variety of topics, including knitting, calligraphy, meditation and home repair.
“You can go and learn all the things our grandparents used to know, and we don’t really know anymore, and develop new passions you can do in your spare time instead of scrolling on TikTok,” she said.
Each course runs four sessions, once a week, for two hours each time. The costs for the initial six courses range from $99 to $150.
The curriculum will change each month as it’s designed to grow with the community, Fitzgerald said. Some of the classes include nutrition, personal finance, basic home repair, modern calligraphy and meditation. Visit thehobbiestskillsclub.com for details.
Fidelity opens new headquarters
Fidelity Bank has completed its $26 million transformation of the iconic Scranton Electric Building at 507 Linden St. into the bank’s corporate headquarters, as well as a related major upgrade of a nearby parking lot between the 300 blocks of North Washington Avenue and Dix Court.
As part of the renovation project and move, Fidelity Bank in October bought the former Mattes & Mattes attorneys’ building at 324 N. Washington Ave. to raze it to make way for parking there for bank employees relocating to the Scranton Electric Building.
The Fidelity parking lot, which is accessed via Dix Court, sits between a building at 312 N. Washington Ave. and Abe’s Deli at 326 N. Washington Ave. Fidelity acquired the lot a few years ago when it purchased the Scranton Electric Building. The bank also owns a parking area behind Abe’s Deli.
Due to the move into the new headquarters, Fidelity closed its bank branch at 334-336 N. Washington Ave. This branch was between Abe’s Deli and city hall at 340 N. Washington Ave.
The City of Scranton’s $1.88 million purchase of the former bank branch as an annex to city hall remains pending, with a closing set for this month.
Credit union opening shipping container branch at Church Hill Mall
Cross Valley Federal Credit Union is building a branch office at Church Hill Mall in Hazle Twp. The branch will be constructed with stacked shipping containers.
The shipping container location won’t take as long to build as other designs, and Cross Valley plans to open this summer to once again have a branch in the Hazleton area, Jill McGlynn, chief experience operator, said.
When the branch opens in the mall’s parking lot, customers will be able to walk in or use the drive-thru.
Previously, Cross Valley had a Hazleton area branch at the Laurel Mall, where an automatic teller machine remains through which people can access their accounts and conduct video chats with employees.
Biosciences lab opening in TekRidge Center in Jessup
After more than 15 years in the biosciences industry, Jeff Roma and Matt Ryan launched their own laboratory in Jessup to fill a void for physicians in the region.
Ryan believes Northeast Pennsylvania was an ideal spot to establish the business.
“I think we’re a forgotten area of the country, just because there’s a lot of elderly people,” he said. “But it’s also a great place to be in the sense that the testing we do is geared toward the Medicare population. We allow doctors to prescribe the medications that are going to best work for that patient rather than just kind of throwing a dart at an invisible dart board.”
The laboratory is powered by the PacBio Vega HiFi long-read sequencing system, a platform previously only accessible through large national labs that offers greater than 99.9% pre-read accuracy, US-Biosciences officials said. Ryan added pharmacogenomics — a test that looks at the medications the patient is taking and matches them against their individual, unique physiology based on their genetics — may be the most useful of the services offered through the lab.
“This basically allows the doctor to optimize everything specifically for that individual rather than just lump summing everybody into the same category,” he said.
The co-founders first established a smaller lab on the same road about six or seven years ago before deciding to expand and start US-Biosciences at TekRidge, Roma said.
The approximately 2,000-square-foot molecular diagnostic laboratory will eventually employ 10 to 15 people.
Heights Terrace Pharmacy closes in Hazleton
Heights Terrace Pharmacy in Hazleton closed June 29. The neighborhood pharmacy operated for more than 40 years.
“I’ve owned the store 44 years. I consider that a success,” owner John Keegan said.
After graduating from Hazleton High School and Temple University where his mother encouraged him to study pharmacy, Keegan purchased Albano’s Pharmacy. He sold penny candy in between filling prescriptions from the original store, which was across the street. In 1987 Heights Terrace Pharmacy moved to its current location.
Keegan cited expanded mail order prescription services and benefit managers favoring larger corporations as having impacted the profitability of pharmacies, especially smaller, independent ones.
Current inventory of medicines and patient records will transfer to CVS Pharmacy, 64 Locust St.
The always dapper Damenti’s Restaurant has closed its doors
After nearly 50 years, Damenti’s Restaurant in Sugarloaf Twp. has closed.
“We would have liked to make it 50 years, but It’s OK. We’re satisfied,” Helen McDonald said prior to the June 24 closing.
Helen operated the restaurant with her husband, Kevin, a chef and sculptor, who brought renown ice carvers to do wintertime exhibitions at Damenti’s for decades.
In a casual era, Damenti’s remained dapper. The restaurant’s logo showed a man in a top hat with a monocle and a woman in a high-collared coat and hat from a gilded past.
Diners to were tempted to try eggplant rollatini, pork schnitzel, chicken calabrese or veal saltimbocca when they appeared on the menu that the McDonalds refreshed often. Acoustic music occasionally accompanied the meals and Joe and Dot Sweet, a husband-and-wife who sing together as Two of Us, often performed.
Fine dining, however, wasn’t always the draw.
James “Jimmy” Damenti began the business in 1946 by selling barbecue from a shack next to a gas pump on Route 309 in Butler Twp. in the Mountain Top area that bridges Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre. He expanded and upgraded to a restaurant and bar. Later, the McDonalds operated the restaurant on the property. Then on March 18, 2014, fire destroyed their elegant enclave.
Four years passed before they reopened on Bowman’s Mill Road next to Candlewood Suites overlooking the intersection of Route 93, Tomhicken Road and the junction of Interstate 81.