Lake Wylie’s Cafe 49 site will reopen as restaurant

There’s plenty of interest in the former Cafe 49 restaurant location, the property owner says, but so far, plans remain uncertain.

“I’m still trying to figure it out,” said Fred Kanos, who owns the property at 4516 Charlotte Highway. “I haven’t finalized anything.”

Kanos hoped he would have a new restaurant signed by spring, and is still fielding inquiries.

“It’ll be late summer at the earliest,” he said of a possible opening. “It’ll open as a restaurant. It’s just a matter of what.”

Kanos said work for a new restaurant could begin by late June.

“I should have it in concrete by then,” Kanos said.

Cafe 49 closed Sept. 25 after six years. In March 2014, a fire damaged the building and closed the restaurant for more than a month. In the fall, owner Jimmy Roupas cited rising food costs, rent, taxes and a lack of customer traffic during the work week for the final closing.

“It’s done, and it hurts,” he said then.

Since the closing, Kanos brought in contractors to fix and freshen up the restaurant in anticipation of a new tenant. Kanos stops short of calling it a remodel.

“It’s cosmetics, fixing and repairing – general stuff,” he said. “We’re waiting on doing much with the dining room until we know what type of restaurant it will be.”

This story was originally published April 15, 2015 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Lake Wylie’s Cafe 49 site will reopen as restaurant."