‘We’re not leaving the community’: Manor Bar & Grille to close doors, reopen in Irwin

Derek and Megan Gutkowski’s three children grew up at Manor Bar & Grille.

Howie, 14, cleaned dishes, and Julia, 17, and Madison, 19, helped serve customers. The family’s lives were dedicated to the Manor restaurant, Derek said.

“At Manor Grille, if you go in there in our dining room, we take a picture of our family every year sitting on the front steps,” he said. “There (are) a couple pictures where kids aren’t even born yet.”

Derek and Megan opened Manor Bar & Grille in January 2007. For 10 years, they lived in a home right behind the restaurant.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, the Penn Township family will close the doors of its restaurant on Manor-Harrison City Road for the last time and prepare to move Manor Bar & Grille to a new building.

Loyal customers will not have to travel far to continue supporting the restaurant. Manor Bar & Grille will open Monday morning on Main Street in Irwin, less than 3 miles from the original location.

The Irwin building formerly housed the restaurant-tavern Brandy’s On Main. The building is significantly bigger than the Manor location, Gutkowski said, which will allow Manor Bar & Grille to seat about 20 more customers and expand its in-house catering services.

The Gutkowskis initially planned to operate the restaurant out of both locations but soon realized the time commitment would stretch them too thin.

“We’re hands on. We have to be here (at the restaurant),” Gutkowski said. “We care about every meal that we put out.”

Manor Mayor Ed Malinoski said Manor Bar & Grille was the borough’s only sit-down restaurant apart from a nearby pizza place, An Extra Slice of New York.

“Manor Grille was the glue of the community,” said Malinoski, who has lived in the borough for more than a decade. “They were in a central location where it brought together the old town and the new town.”

A part-time bus driver, Malinoski said local bus drivers often went to the restaurant for coffee and breakfast after running their morning routes. It was a meeting place for borough officials and residents from neighboring townships.

“It’s sad, because no matter what direction you’re coming through Manor, you’re most likely going to go past the Manor Grille,” Malinoski said. “Starting on Monday, when people pass that, it’s just going to have a ‘for sale’ sign in front of it.”

Gutkowski has no intention of abandoning the borough. Manor Bar & Grille will continue its tradition of serving free turkey dinners to local families on Thanksgiving.

The restaurant teamed up with St. Barbara Catholic Church in Penn Township for the meal distribution, which supported 300 families last year. Gutkowski plans to continue the partnership with St. Barbara’s and invite Irwin churches to join in.

“We’re sad about leaving that building. There’s a lot of memories in that building, a lot of memories in that property,” Gutkowski said. “We’re moving 2.6 miles away. We’re not leaving the community.”