Downtown Allentown restaurant to open above arena entrance

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City Center wants to open The Dime, a restaurant and lounge above the entrance to PPL Center at Seventh and Hamilton streets, early next year.

The Dime will be above the curved entrance to PPL Center on the second level and feature two-story ceilings, open kitchen and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Seventh and Hamilton streets. The bar and lounge will include a large glass-keg cooler.

The restaurant will seat about 220 for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night and include two private dining rooms. The Dime will connect directly to the Renaissance Allentown Hotel, which will also open in January, and to PPL Center, the new ice hockey arena.

Once it opens, The Dime will create about 50 jobs, said Jason Viscount, executive chef.

The restaurant, named in honor of the historic Dime Bank Building that is being incorporated into the restaurant, will offer upscale American cuisine and an onsite bakery.

“We are still working on the menu,” Viscount, a native of York, said Wednesday. “Short ribs translate very well with American cuisine; pierogies are popular.”

He wants to take popular items and enhance them with upscale touches, including a new recipe for short rib pierogies with mushrooms from Kennett Square. He said his grandmother’s pierogie dough is the dough he uses. Other creations will feature produce, meats and seafood from Lancaster County, the Greater Philadelphia area and New Jersey.

The Dime’s full-service bar will highlight Pennsylvania beers, wines and liquors among its list of craft beers, 150 wines and craft cocktails. Viscount said he plans to take a different approach to the presentation of food, including steak served on a wooden butcher block and covered with a glass dome to trap the smoke.

Viscount was executive chef and general manager of Bricco, a fine-dining restaurant that he helped to open in 2006 in downtown Harrisburg. A resident of Macungie, he attended the Restaurant School of Philadelphia and worked in the kitchens of Yorktowne Hotel in York, Hotel Hershey’s Circular Dining Room and The Golden Sheaf at the Hilton Harrisburg.

The recent economic development projects in downtown Allentown drew Viscount to move to the region from central Pennsylvania and lead a new restaurant at the center of the action.

“I’ve never lived outside of central Pennsylvania,” Viscount said, noting that Allentown’s rebirth is similar to what occurred with Harrisburg’s downtown about 16 years ago.

“It reminded me of what they were doing in Harrisburg, trying to revamp it, but with a whole lot more money behind it,” he said. “When I started 16 years ago in Harrisburg, no one went out to eat.”

Even with the events at PPL Center, it’s been easy to park and get in and out, Viscount said, which is important for his restaurant.

Nearby restaurants such as Roar Social House and The Hamilton Kitchen & Bar, two other restaurants developed by City Center Lehigh Valley, all appear to be filled with customers at peak times, he added.

“All of the restaurants seem to be busy; they seem to be doing really well,” Viscount said.