22-05-2025
High Street craft cocktail eatery, parkside ice cream shop get BZA nod
MORGANTOWN — An upscale restaurant with a craft cocktail bar downtown and an ice cream shop next to 1st Ward's Jack Roberts Park each got the all-clear from the Morgantown Board of Zoning Appeals on Wednesday.
The owners of Von Blaze, located at 1 Wall St., were granted a 'restaurant, private club' designation for 341 High St., which is the former UniversiTEES location and sits directly in front of the space Von Blaze is located in.
The 'restaurant, private club' conditional use designation from the city is required before a downtown business can seek a liquor license from the state.
'We plan to put in a kind of upscale craft cocktail bar and finer dining restaurant in that space, trying to kind of fill a gap for more adult-oriented restaurants and options downtown,' applicant Chris McDonald said, adding, 'We consider Von Blaze kind of upscale casual, but this will be more of a kind of fine dining area … We're going to be doing small plates, shareables and things like that.'
McDonald, a chef, said the idea is to use the momentum generated by Von Blaze to launch this new venture.
'Von Blaze has worked very well for us, so we have a jump start in kind of getting this rolling,' he said. 'It is going to be a kind of classier place. The food is definitely going to be more elevated than what Von Blaze sells, but it's still going to be the same quality.'
Meanwhile, Adelheid Schaupp is thinking less about hot food and more about hot fudge.
The Greenmont-based entrepreneur received a 'restaurant, fast food' approval as well as variance relief from off-street parking requirements for an ice cream shop to be located at the corner of Leonard Street and West Virginia Avenue – directly across from Jack Roberts Park.
The project will begin with the rehabilitation of an approximately 500 square-foot structure on the property.
Schaupp said seating will be primarily outdoors at Eisgarten Morgantown.
'It's a very European-style based setup, where it's right next to the park, which is convenient, but also we have enough greenspace there where everyone can be on site eating ice cream outside,' Schaupp said. 'This would be a seasonal type of business. This would not be open year-round.'
The idea, she continued, is that a majority of the business's patrons would arrive on foot, either from the neighboring park or the surrounding neighborhood.
The BZA approved the off-street parking relief under the condition that Schaupp apply to the city to get an on-street space adjacent to the business designated as an ADA-accessible parking spot.
