On Thursday March 15, Cincinnati based LaRosa’s and Skyline broke ground on their newest location on Richmond Road across from Krispy Kreme.
This will be the first LaRosa’s and Skyline in Lexington. This location will feature the first dual lane drive through at a Skyline as well as a 200 person dining area in LaRosa’s and 132 person dining area in Skyline. LaRosa’s and Skyline are scheduled to open during the summer of 2018.
“The timing is perfect for us. We’re overwhelmed by the excitement we’ve been getting on social media from all of the people in Lexington that are huge fans,” said One Holland Corporation CEO Gary Holland. “When we built the Dry Ridge Outlet Center and put Skyline’s Chili and LaRosa’s in there and started consistently getting people from Lexington saying,’ You need to come to Lexington. We want Skyline and LaRosa’s in Lexington’ so we started making plans.”
According to Holland, getting LaRosa’s and Skyline to Lexington has been in the works for years but the company was in the midst of launching the First Watch organization and wanted to get it stabilized before going to the next concept as well as finding an ideal property in the city, which can be difficult.
LaRosa’s is a Italian style family pizzeria. In 1954 Buddy LaRosa opened his first family pizzeria on Cincinnati’s West Side. His Sicilian-born father told him he was crazy. Who could argue with him? After all, back then many Americans hadn’t even heard of pizza. Now LaRosa’s is Cincinnati’s number 1 pizza.
In 1949, Nicholas Lambrinides opened his first restaurant overlooking the skyline of Cincinnati, Ohio and began serving his secret recipes to appreciative customers. Since then, Skyline Chili’s Coneys, Ways and table-side service have been enjoyed by generations. Skyline Chili continues to be made from Nicholas’s original recipe, using a secret blend of spices.
For Holland, he’s very proud of the success and the reputation the brand holds far and wide but understands they will have to make an impression on the Lexingtonians unfamiliar with the Cincinnati chain.
“I think there’s a lot of people in Lexington who might not be that familiar with us too so it’s going to be fun introducing them to Skyline and LaRosa’s and create new fans,” Holland said. “We want to take care of the community that we operate in so we plan to do a lot of fun things that will help Lexington be a better place to live.”
This article also appears on page 10 of the April 2018 print edition of Hamburg Journal.
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