Zambistro planning $220K expansion in Medina

Village backs restaurant’s application for some state assistance

Photo by Tom Rivers: Zambistro is looking to expand to 410 Main St., next door to the current site. This photo was taken in August 2020.

MEDINA – The Medina Village Board on Monday voted to back an application for state assistance for an expansion of the Zambistro restaurant on Main Street.

Michael Zambito and his family are looking to expand the restaurant next door at 410 Main St. The state’s Office of Community Renewal has funding available through the Community Development Block Grant program.

Zambistro is estimating the expansion will be a $220,000 project for construction, refrigeration equipment, fixtures and furnishings. Michael Zambito is looking to create a small event space for about 50 people. He expects the project, which includes a small bar, will result in two more full-time employees and four part-timers, said Gabrielle Barone, vice president of business development for the Orleans Economic Development Agency.

She attended Monday’s Village Board meeting and asked the board to support the application. The CDBG program has assisted about 25 to 30 projects in the county in the past two decades.

The CDBG application is being finalized for Zambistro’s expansion. Barone said the business will likely be applying for $60,000 to $80,000 in assistance through the program, with half in a grant and other half a loan that will be paid back to a revolving loan fund managed by the Orleans Land Restoration Corp., which is part of the Orleans EDA. That repaid loan can then be loaned out to other businesses in the county, Barone said.

The Medina Village Board last August approved a certificate of appropriateness for the front façade at 410 Main St. The new-look façade will be very similar to the current look at Zambistro.

The columns and post will stay. Gooseneck lights will be added above the door.

“We want it to look like one solid building all the way across,” Michael Zambito told the Village Planning Board in August.

Zambistro in 2019 completed an addition to dining room.