Surf and Turf teardown: Longtime restaurant demolished, future use of site undetermined
Feb. 23—It's the end of an era for a longtime Valley Pike restaurant and banquet hall.
Excavators were on site Wednesday leveling what's left of the Surf and Turf Inn, a steakhouse that was once a private home on a development created for prominent 19th century Johnstown families.
The property's new owners say they are in discussion with several groups about plans for the property's future — perhaps medical buildings or another commercial use.
Surf & Turf was renowned for its hand-cut steaks, lobster and crab cakes for decades before owner and chef Jim Loveridge passed away in 2019.
Christy Dowdell, the property development spokesperson for Alletram LLC, said the group purchased Loveridge's property in early 2020 with the intent of renovating the structures.
Two well-known "Pittsburgh chains" had plans to put a new restaurant and banquet room there — but by early this year rescinded their plans due to the uncertain COVID-19 environment, she said.
Locally operated Alletram LLC previously redeveloped the former Ponderosa in Richland Township into Kabuki Japanese Cuisine.
Recent codes inspections showed the structural integrity of the former Surf and Turf had continued to decline, she said.
In addition to outdated electrical and mechanical system issues, the roof and many windows were leaking, she said.
"Unfortunately, it just had a lot of problems," Dowdell said.
Dowdell said Alletram is now razing the property while working with a Pittsburgh broker to redevelop the site.
"The goal is to be part of ongoing improvements and revitalization of the 8th Ward area," she said.
The property lies within a designated commercial zone and at least two developers have shown interest in the site. Several "medical facilities" have also expressed interest, she said.
Alletram plans to retain ownership of the property, Dowdell said.
Valley Pike predates the automobile — and its possible that the former homes being razed there did, too — built long before they were modified for a restaurant.
Like Ferndale Bridge and Cramer Pike, Valley Pike was a toll road before formal petitions were filed to end the practice in 1906, The Johnstown Tribune reported at the time.
According to the Cambria County Recorder of Deeds Office, 100 Valley Pike — the Surf and Turf property — traces back to the Suppes family in the 1880s.
Conrad Suppes, an early member of the Valley Turnpike Company, Electric Light Company and Johnstown Savings Bank, developed an extensive tract along Valley Pike into what would become eventually become part of the upscale development dubbed "The Rocks" after the 1889 flood, Johnstown Area Heritage Association Director Richard Burkert said.
The neighborhood offered more picturesque surroundings close to Moxham workplaces.
Inside homes designed by well-known architects area of the day, Suppes' son — merchant and land speculator Charles Suppes — and others resided.
That Suppes home has since been demolished. Other prominent residents and businessmen such as National Radiator founder John H. Waters lived in the area, Burkert said.
But it wasn't the home's surroundings that earned the neighborhood's nickname, he said.
It was the style of Waters' elegant home, he said.
