At McAllister’s on York, the two-top table in the corner is the best seat in the house, says co-owner Andrew D’Agenais.
“You get to see outside,” he says. “You get to see the staircase and the bar.”
All the tables and bar seats, really, offer immersion into elegant comfort and a meticulously detailed rehab completed in downtown Hanover. Served here are carefully selected wines, an array of beers, enticing cocktails, and dishes crafted from the freshest ingredients available.
D’Agenais and co-owner Robert Godfrey already had a following from their popular Handsome Cab restaurant in York. Then, regular customer Jordan Ilyes, a property redeveloper and manager, approached them about taking their upscale casual concept to Hanover, the busy southern York County borough having its own revival.
The space needed some TLC. A small corner had once housed a bar for the adjoining McAllister Hotel, with its apartments recently renovated by Ilyes. The history of the circa-1928 building, built as a mini-me of the Yorktowne Hotel in York, inspired the restaurant’s Art Deco touches, such as the curving, corrugated glass fronting the host station, like a department store perfume counter.
The space retains many original features, including tile floors artfully patched to repair the damage of years without erasing the footprints of time.
“It adds provenance,” says D’Agenais.
The contributions of York County artisans Patrick Sells, of Salvaging Creativity, and Peter Danko are prominent. Danko designed the barstools, web chairs, and compact padded wingback chairs that accommodate diners in ergonomic comfort.
Sells’ contributions include the two lighting focal points. His dining room chandelier glimmers in dangling shards selected from the Rudy Art Glass archives. Over the bar, his light installation, inspired by an idea from D’Agenais, teams an array of hanging steel tubes, cut at angles and powder coated in multiple colors.
Everything from the Danko-designed bench on the far wall to the restrooms’ granite countertops seem to float. In the upstairs Bar E11ven, window panels accordion open for the feeling of an aerie above the street. On the cantilevered staircase, charred wood planks seem suspended in air, as if held only by the line of rods fastened to the ceiling.
Curated artwork punctuates the space. Paintings by Buenos Aires-based Jorge Alio present lively scenes in the dining room. The fun abstract piece that greets diners as they enter ties together all the colors of the restaurant–and that’s no coincidence. It was created after dinner with a group of York County artists, when paints and paintbrushes emerged and everyone added their touches to the canvas.
“I did the dark blue, with a spoon,” says Godfrey.
A quieter but effective feature is a pair of arches dividing the bar and dining room. A stucco covering hides the red of the brick while revealing the pattern beneath.
The overall look is “elegant but also industrial,” says D’Agenais. “It’s filled with artwork. It fulfills many senses. It gives you that edge of modernism. It’s also an ode to the past, with Art Deco touches.”
The menu elevates familiar plates with culinary touches. Dishes of seafood, steak, or poultry are inspired by French, Italian, Asian, and American cuisines. Handhelds include the French Onion Slider and its burger that is “not just a burger” but a tantalizing mix of short rib, brisket, and chuck, says Godfrey. Sunday brunch specialties include the Banana Split Bowl, with vanilla yogurt, granola, banana, dried pineapple, chocolate sauce, and of course, cherries on top.
“We play around with things,” Godfrey says. “Instead of a regular taco, we did a duck taco.
We wanted to make some interesting things you wouldn’t typically make at home.”
All the food is procured from top purveyors, such as the renowned, Maryland-based Mattes Seafood.
“We like to buy the freshest, nicest, highest-quality product,” says Godfrey.
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The playful cocktail menu includes the Stormy Night, a dreamy mix of cherry vodka, watermelon liqueur, blue curacao, and sour mix, and the Tolkien Trilogy of gin, sauvignon blanc, and elderflower liqueur. How did the name originate for the Movie Star, featuring vodka, ginger simple, vermouth, and lemon juice? Godfrey sings a line from a classic TV theme song, crooning, “’The moo-vie star, the professor and Mary Ann.’”
Ginger, here on “Gilligan’s Isle”! Worth ordering just for the name–that is, if you can pass up the “slightly sweetened” Betty White.
Diners can choose from 30 wines by the glass and 100 bottles. Amid the local, domestic, and imported beers, D’Agenais says that the South County brews, from the York County town of Fawn Grove, are “exceptional.”
D’Agenais remembers the bitterly cold day before the November 2021 opening, when they hung a prototype of the bar lighting and stepped outside to view the results through the plate-glass window. The effect was magical.
Today, that same magic halts diners in their tracks. They step in and marvel at a look that might be new for Hanover but is steeped in York County’s artistic traditions.
“At nighttime, it is absolutely beautiful,” D’Agenais says. Adds Godfrey, “Everybody deserves nice places to go.”
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McAllister’s on York
11 York St, Hanover, PA 17331
717-698-3634
