Photo Credit: Instagram KounterDining
ROCK HILL, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) The Kounter Dining, the new restaurant coming to the historic “McCrory’s building in downtown Rock Hill posting this photo on Instagram, saying they couldn’t be more excited right now with all of the progress and they can’t wait to invite you to their new space in the fall!
As we reported in May, developers J.D. Yearwood and Justin Mueller will kick-start renovations at the historic McCrory’s Building in downtown this month and have signed a lease for a restaurant and event space operated by Chef Rob Masone of Kre8 Xperiences.
Rob Masone plans to open a 2,600-square-foot restaurant called “Kounter” and a 6,000-square-foot event space this fall. The restaurant’s name, logo and design are a nod to the historic building’s role in the 1961 Friendship Nine sit-in and will incorporate the historic lunch counter and stools where African-American students from Friendship College, known as the Friendship Nine, were denied service and arrested after staging their sit-in at McCrory’s Five and Dime.
A Rock Hill native, Masone owns Kre8, a full-service catering and events company, as well as the Kre8 Twisted Eats beer-inspired food trucks and gastropub located inside Wooden Robot Brewery in South End.
J.D. Yearwood, a senior vice president with Park Commercial Real Estate, and Justin Mueller, recently acquired the property and are planning improvements to the building’s exterior façade.
All renovations at the building were approved by Rock Hill’s historic review board.
