Local businesses have made some big moves, including opening in new locations or unveiling new looks thanks to renovations and remodels.
Here’s a recap of what businesses opened, closed or moved in November.
Hoffman’s Music and Comics debuts new location
Hoffman’s Music and Comics, a Wilkes-Barre area store known for its extensive vinyl selection, comics, CDs and guitars since its opening in 2000, has moved to a new location at 360 Kidder St., Wilkes-Barre, from its previous site near Wegmans Market.
“This move is a big step forward for us,” owner Bill Hoffman said. “We’ve loved every minute in our current location, but it’s time to expand so we can better serve our customers. The new space gives us room to grow and allows us to offer even more of what people love about Hoffman’s — great music, good vibes and a place for music lovers and comic fans to connect.”
The larger space will allow for expanded inventory, rooms for private lessons and a stage area for in-store events.
Elvis DiBlasi of Two Italian Guy Pizzeria in Hazleton removes a Stromboli from the oven on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. The pizzeria is moving to Freeland and will be called Nonno Cicci’s. (John Haeger / Staff Photographer)
Two Italian Guys Pizzeria on the move
Two Italian Guys Pizzeria is on the move to Freeland. The popular Hazleton restaurant, known for its pizza and stromboli, opened Nov. 11 at 625 Ridge St. in Freeland. The new location has a new name, Nonno Cicci’s, but will keep the same recipes customers have enjoyed for 47 years.
Owner Elvis DiBlasi and manager Albert Friendy will expand the menu at the new location. Along with pizza, stromboli and pasta with red sauce served now, they’ll make white sauce and add shrimp and clam dishes. Nonno Cicci’s also will have a bar, which Two Guys doesn’t.
DiBlasi named the new restaurant after his father, Frank DiBlasi, one of the “two guys,” who, along with Natale Tambasco, opened the Hazleton restaurant. Nonno means grandfather in Italian and Cic is Frank’s nickname.
Since 2000, Elvis DiBlasi been running the business with Tambasco’s widow, Lidia, who is ready to retire and sell the business.
The original Two Italian Guys restaurant at 3 W. Diamond Ave., Hazleton, will remain open until a buyer is found for the location. The building also has four apartments above the restaurant.
A family affair at Ritter’s Cider Mill
Ritter’s Cider Mill is on its third owners but remains a family business — under the same family, in fact.
Sally Brinkman, 51, and her husband Earl took over ownership this year nearly five decades after her parents, Gary and Debra Ritter, and her father’s parents, Irving and Arlene Ritter, started making cider in 1978.
Brinkman stressed the ownership transition has been seamless.
“Nothing has really changed because we pretty much do everything as it always was,” she said. “We worked hand-in-hand with my mom and dad, and they’re still involved here a little bit. We make sure everything is clean and sell quality products that we ourselves would want to eat.”
The mill, at 107 Wimmers Road, Jefferson Twp., sells about 20 varieties of apples and is open from September through late December. On a busy October weekend, the business sells as much as 600 to 700 gallons of cider, along with its popular apple cider donuts. Ritter’s Cider Mill also offers outdoor attractions for families throughout September and October, including hay rides, pony rides, farm animals, a corn maze and a slingshot for shooting apples.
GAR Building getting grand new restaurant
The former GAR Building on Penn Avenue in Scranton is getting new life with work being done to transform the building’s basement and first floor into a fine-dinning restaurant.
Restaurateur Rob Friedman said renovations should be complete in spring. Brian Davis, who designed the Mohegan Pennsylvania casino, is the architect for the project, which will keep the building’s classic stone and brick interior while adding deep green windows that provide a metropolitan look to the building. Bars also are being custom built to fit the restaurant’s space and style.
Building owner Don Mammano said the new restaurant will be a perfect addition to the city. He said that area of downtown is a great setting for night life, with the whole block encompassing the energy and excitement that defines the downtown. Parking also will be readily available on the lot at the former J.G. Plotkin & Son Shoe Co. at Penn Avenue and Linden Street.
Fine Wine & Good Spirits reopens
The Fine Wine & Good Spirits in the Abingtons reopened in November after a six-month renovation.
The store, at 222 Northern Blvd., South Abington Twp., had been closed since April for the redesign. This is the second major renovation of the store over the last few years. The location sustained extensive damage from flash flooding in September 2023, forcing the retailer to close for two months.
Tamaqua Walmart refurbishment
The Walmart at 35 Plaza Drive, on Route 309, Tomaqua, held a ribbon-cutting Nov. 7 to show off its recent improvements.
Changes include a reconfigured layout with space for more inventory and expanded aisles with more room for shoppers. The pharmacy has a new consultation room and a new employee lounge was added. Improvements also include new paint, fixtures and LED lighting, new interior and exterior signage, new landscaping and an expanded parking area.
Jo-Dan Motors expanding in Moosic
Jo-Dan Buick GMC is expanding its business and crossing the street to encompass the former Trotters Motel on Birney Avenue.
Dealership owner Danny Limongelli said the motel, a long-time problem property, will be torn down next year to make room for more inventory.
“We’re expanding and keep getting bigger year-after-year,” Limongelli said.
Extra vehicles will be stored on the new property immediately while plans to demolish and clean up the site move forward.
New life for former Pasqualichio Bros. building
Wylam & Georgetti law firm moved back into its downtown Scranton location in the former Pasqualichio Bros. building this fall after being forced from its offices when fire heavily damaged the building in May 2024. The law firm had been operating out of temporary offices in the Southern Union building since the fire.
The building at 115 Franklin Ave., which had its roof and first floor badly damaged in the fire, spans the length of the alley from Franklin to Mifflin avenues and includes an original structure and additions. Damage from the fire was so extensive that initial thoughts were to tear down the building, but owner John Basalyga wanted to save the structure. Ultimately the majority of the building was saved, with the middle section being demolished and the front and rear portions renovated.
“I was kind of proud we were able to save it. It was a good win for our company and it was a good win for the city,” said Basalyga, who purchased the building for $450,000 in June 2021.
Former Rite Aid in Mountain Top becomes Dollar General
The former Rite Aid pharmacy building at 2 Kirby Ave., Mountain Top, has a new tenant.
DOLGENCORP LLC, headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, the parent company of Dollar General stores, recently signed a 10-year lease for the property owned by SADG-4 of Dickson City. An opening date for the new Dollar General store hasn’t been finalized.
A spokesperson for the company said it also plans to keep open its Dollar General store at 364 S. Mountain Blvd., Mountain Top, which opened in 2013.
New businesses
A sign for Queen City Vendors being installed on the building at 210 Lackawanna Ave. in Olyphant. The new business opened Nov. 15. (ROBERT TOMKAVAGE/STAFF PHOTO)
Queen City Vendors
Queen City Vendors opened Nov. 15 at 210 W. Lackawanna Ave., Olyphant, in the former Happy Days building.
The retail store offers a little bit of everything, including antiques, electronics, tools and sports memorabilia. Handcrafted products also will be among the featured items with repurposed denim, all-natural dog treats, old-fashioned candy and soda pop, made-to-order graphic T-shirts and hand-spun crystals.
Owners Caitlin and Lisandro Hernandez were inspired by the Bucktown Market in Dunmore and store manager Leeann Melley said the location in downtown Olyphant is ideal.
“That street really seems to be building itself up a lot,” Melley said. “It seems like a busy street — busy enough, anyway, to get the word out. We just think it’s a nice community, and (the store) would be something that I hope everyone would enjoy.”
Customers can check the Queen City Vendors Facebook page for special holiday hours.
The Carver’s Reserve, 695 S. Poplar St. in Hazleton on Friday Nov. 7, 2025. (John Haeger / Staff Photographer)
The Carver’s Reserve
Hazleton is bring back some of its great restaurant history in the form of a “modern speakeasy” with The Carver’s Reserve, a high-end steakhouse and bar that opened Nov. 12 in a renovated beverage distributor at 695 S. Poplar St.
“Hazleton is a city with a rich and diverse history of great area restaurants,” said Eric Wagner, director of hospitality at The Carver’s Reserve, “but it’s lost a little bit of that over the decades, which is where the idea of bringing some of the history back through this restaurant came from.”
The restaurant, owned and operated by the local DeAngelo family, centers around a large, well-stocked bar, with a dinning room equipped with tables, booths and a private dining area which can be closed off for special events. There also is an outdoor smoking lounge, where guests will be able to enjoy their pick of the restaurant’s cigars during the warmer months.
Head chef is Jourdan Azevedo, a self-taught chef who was inspired by his grandmother’s cooking. He has been working in the restaurant industry for over 15 years.
The Carver’s Reserve is open from 4 to 11 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
Crestwood Radon and Environmental
Two Mountain Top businessmen have joined together to form a new company, Crestwood Radon and Environmental, which will provide the area’s only local radon mitigation service.
Robert Button, of Button Real Estate, and Justin Weber, owner of Mountain to Valley Home Inspections, formed the new company to perform a service they said is greatly needed.
Weber explained that the federal Environmental Protection Agency recommends homes have radon levels below 4.0 picocuries per liter of air, but he said at least 50% of homes he inspects have radon levels that exceed that level. In their work, both men have had to go outside the area to find a company that would provide services to mitigate the radon when the dangerous gas is found in homes they were selling or inspecting.
“This is an exciting project,” Weber said. “It’s a good business to get into because we’re helping people.”
Button has obtained certification to perform radon mitigation and the company is licensed by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
For information about radon mitigation services, email contact@crestwoodradon.com.
Business closings
The Atrium
The Atrium restaurant in Kingston, located at the Friedman Jewish Community Center, served its last meal on Nov. 11.
Owner Matt Borwick said is was a difficult decision to close the restaurant, but the family decided to focus on their other two restaurants in the Wyoming Valley — Ollie’s in Edwardsville and Market Street Burgers in Kingston.
The Atrium opened in 2020 after the JCC approached the family, which, at the time, was looking to expand its restaurant business.
“Serving you has been one of the greatest joys of our lives. Every meal shared, every conversation, every celebration has meant the world to us,” the company wrote on Facebook. “You’ve become part of our story and our family. Though our doors are closing at this time, the memories we’ve made together will stay with us forever.”
Atrium customers’ favorite meals will still be available at Ollie’s on Route 11.
Woodlands Inn and Resort
The Woodlands Inn and Resort in Plains Twp. closed abruptly Nov. 24 after the township ordered the popular entertainment venue and hotel closed following an inspection after PPL Electric Utilities shut off power to the property for unpaid bills.
Power was restored the next day but numerous maintenance issues, including open junction boxes, other electrical issues and sprinkler heads in need of repair, must be addressed before the resort can be reinspected and ultimately reopened, said Jason Humenanski, owner of BHW Construction Consultation Services in Plains Twp., who inspected the property for the township.
The closure came during one of the hotel’s busiest weeks, forcing the cancelation of a Thanksgiving Eve party and Thanksgiving dinner buffet, along with private parties and events. Holiday travelers and others staying at the hotel were forced to evacuate. Shogun Japanese Restaurant, a tenant of the Woodlands, was forced to close. The business encourages customers to visit its sister location, Myst Mountain Top.
Nearby hotels and other venues have been offering their services to those whose events planned at The Woodlands may be cancelled due to the closure.
Mark and Gary Kornfeld first opened the hotel in 1969, adding the popular 25th Hour nightclub in 1979 and a multi-story tower in the 1980s. The property was sold to investment group Shree Neelkanth Realty LLC in 2022.
“They didn’t keep the building up for a long time and now they’re going to have to,” Humenanski said. He added The Woodlands would remain closed for the “foreseeable future.”