At one time in history, downtown Mansfield’s Holiday Inn was considered “the place to be.” With a new menu and an invigorated new team, that vision may once again be true for the Holiday Inn and the rest of downtown.
As of Dec. 3, 2014, a new food operations staff took over at the Holiday Inn located at 116 Park Avenue West. Sales Manager Patrick McDonald said the new food and beverage director as well as the sales team has helped bring food operations at the Holiday Inn back from the brink.
“It was to the point where there was going to be no restaurant, no banquets, and if you wanted to have an event it would be catered from an outside company,” said McDonald. “They were going to shut down the food end.”
Now, Food and Beverage Director Brent Grimm has brought with him a whole new banquet menu as well as a new look for the Park 116 Restaurant and Bar located in the hotel’s lobby. McDonald said the new menu includes appetizers like flatbread pizza to entrees like rib-eye steak, with a new special every day of the week. The bar itself caters to local tastes with a few beers from the Phoenix Brewery as well as Palm, a Belgian beer that is only available in the area at the Holiday Inn.
“It follows classic American fare,” McDonald said of the new menu, noting it was most comparable to the style of Applebee’s. “I would say please come and try our new restaurant. Instead of going somewhere like Ontario, stop by here and give it a try. It’s something different to go to, and it’s not a chain.”
Going to a hotel for dinner and drinks may not be the first thought for most people, but McDonald said it was actually a common practice “back in the day.” The Holiday Inn was even the site of many local weddings, though in 2014 the hotel only hosted three weddings.
“If you go back to the days of when this hotel opened, it was the place to go. It was the place to hang out and come have cocktails,” he said. “If there were events going on, it was going to be here.”
McDonald hopes the Holiday Inn can integrate itself back into community events. He noted the hotel hopes to start participating in downtown’s First Friday shop hops by offering entertainment at the Park 116, and has plans in place to bring in local “celebrity” guest bartenders to help raise money for various charities. It’s all about bringing business downtown.
“Any business in the community, if you support us we’re putting money back into the county,” said McDonald. “The more people we have here, the more will come to your business to spend money, and keep it in the downtown area.”
Step by step, the Holiday Inn hopes to become once again a place to be in downtown Mansfield and in Richland County.
“We’re kind of taking it from just trying to get by to wanting to establish a place where not only can our guests eat but wants to attract an outside crowd,” said McDonald. “That’s what we’re most excited about.”
The Park 116 Restaurant and Bar’s hours are as follows:
Sunday thru Thursday: 5-9 p.m.
Friday and Saturday: 5-10 p.m.
