He worked in the mill for Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel for 30 years, and she was a deputy court clerk in Belmont County.
For some reason, Greg and Diane Myers thought it would be a good idea to delve into the restaurant industry even though they knew only how to go to an eatery, sit down, and order their food.
That was it.
“Yeah, but during our first 30 years of marriage, that’s all I heard about,” Diane said. “When I saw that the place that was here had closed, I probably looked into the windows for at least five months thinking about it. I thought it was small enough that we could manage it well, so that is when I called the owner so we could look at the inside.
“The owner even gave us the keys so we could bring our family and friends in so we could get their opinions,” she said. “He wanted us to get a feel for it, and we did. But I let two weeks go by without calling him back, so he called me and asked, and that’s when I told him we would do it. And here we are, 10 years later.”
April Fools!
Greg and Diane arrived to Centre Market the day before their grand opening so they could clean and stock the coolers and the freezers and get ready for that big first day. Greg went to the kitchen area, and Diane wanted to wipe down the tables and the bar, but she was soon surprised.
“When I went to turn the water on, there was no water,” Diane explained. “So, I called the building owner and told him that we had to have water to open a restaurant, and he told me that the water bill was just paid and that everything should be fine. He was as surprised as we were.
“So that’s when Greg went to the basement and immediately figured out the problem,” she recalled. “Someone had chiseled a hole into the wall beneath the deck in the back, and they came in and stole every piece of copper tubing in that basement. What was weird was that they were kind enough to shut the water off before taking all of the pipes.”
Miraculously, Market Wines still opened.
The thief’s passage was patched, the pipes were replaced, and somehow the Myers duo sorted the situation and opened their doors.
“The people the owner sent to the building worked all night long and most of the next day to install new water pipes so we could open up at 4 p.m.,” Diane said. “That was a crazy experience, and at first I didn’t know if it was a bad omen or what. I didn’t know if that was a sign.
“At first I would have someone working during the days, and I would come here at 4 p.m. each day, but that only lasted a little more than a month before I gave my notice and started doing this full-time,” she said. “At first, I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but we figured out the food and the rest of what goes into operating a place like this one.”
Open, Closed, Open Again
The public was introduced to COVID-19 in January, and in the United States it started in the state of Washington, then New York, and by the end of March, every state had reported a positive case.
Although West Virginia was the final state to record a coronavirus case, the impact has been economically devastating in the city of Wheeling and throughout the state. Millions of federal CARES Act dollars have been distributed to businesses, municipalities, and counties, but at Market Vines, concern for their employees led to a complete closure.
“We shut down for a while because our employees have kids and parents they care for, and we didn’t want anything to do with getting anyone sick,” Greg said. “We were closed for about seven weeks and opened again in the very beginning of June. At first, we just did take-out orders for about two weeks, and then we started to allow people to come inside.
“We just wanted to be as safe as possible because of the numbers and the ways the virus can be spread,” he said. “We had to hire some new servers, and once we had enough to cover all of the shifts, we opened with all the precautions in place, and things have been going very well.”
A Little Wine with Dinner?
Casa de Vino was the first business started by the Myers family when the shop opened at Centre Market in 2009, but when Diane would come to assist her husband after her day job, she couldn’t help but notice a vacant storefront after a limited video lottery establishment closed its doors.
Day after day for months, Diane would peer through the windows to imagine Greg’s dream coming true.
“I just kept running all of the scenarios through my head,” she said. “I was pretty sure we could pull it off.”
That’s why she called the owner and pulled the trigger.
“Listen! My husband worked his butt off all of his life, and he wanted a restaurant, so that’s why we are here today,” Diane said. “When the last mill he worked at closed and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel was no more, he found something he enjoyed with the wine shop. But I also knew that his first love was food.
“I was more interested in the people because I’ve always been a people person,” she said. “That’s why I do a lot of the work in the front of the house, and Greg takes care of our employees in the kitchen. I’ve met so many people here, and I have reconnected with so many that I hadn’t seen for years. That’s been the best part for me.”
The Myers sold Casa de Vino to Corey Manning, then purchased the Market Street structure in 2018, removed the LVL machines for additional dining room seating, and now enjoy brisk lunch and dinner services.
“When I thought about opening a restaurant, I wasn’t thinking of this type of place. I thought about a small Italian place,” Greg admitted. “But after we got into here and got the help that we received with the menu and ordering the food from Tyler (Stidd), we realized it would be best to give the people what they want. In this area, we like our meat and potatoes.
“You really have to watch what you serve in this area because people like what they like,” he continued. “People like to sit down to a steak, a baked potato, and a salad, and they like their burgers and their wraps, and that’s why those items are on our menu and why we’ve done pretty well.”
