Here’s the new restaurant coming this fall to an historic downtown Rock Hill site
One of Rock Hill’s more historic properties will get new life this fall.
Kounter will be a new restaurant by Chef Rob Masone of Kre8 Xperiences. The 2,600-square-foot restaurant and a 6,000-square-foot event space will be at 135 E. Main St. in downtown Rock Hill.
The building is the site of the historic 1961 Friendship Nine sit-in.
The lunch counter where African-American students from Friendship College sat six decades ago (after they were denied service, they refused to leave and were arrested) became a focal point along the city’s journey toward racial equality.
The lunch counter has remained as restaurants or other uses changed around it. Most recently it was the Five & Dine restaurant, which closed in late 2018. The lunch counter remains and has a historical property designation to ensure its place.
A Rock Hill native, Masone owns Kre8, a full-service catering and events company, as well as the Kre8 Twisted Eats beer-inspired food trucks and gastropub inside Wooden Robot Brewery in Charlotte’s South End.
“Charlotte has been and will continue to be very important to Kre8, but I’m looking forward to being able to give back to the community that I grew up in and see familiar faces every day,” Masone said.
“Having grown up here, I couldn’t be more excited to enter the culinary scene ... This is the perfect opportunity to pair our Kre8 Events style with an on-site venue and a brick-and-mortar restaurant — a home to showcase what we do on all fronts every day.”
Renovation will begin this month.
The 1901 construction started as Rock Hill Supply Company. It since was a series of restaurants, retail, offices, even part of a mall at one point. For 60 years it was McCrory’s Five and Dime, including at the time of the Friendship Nine sit-in.
Upgrades at the site also include facade and common area improvements for office tenants. About half of the almost 23,000-square-foot building is leased office space. Piedmont Regional Association of Realtors and Edward Jones are there. Developers JD Yearwood and Justin Mueller recently acquired the property.
“With its historical significance and the important role the Friendship Nine played in the civil rights movement,” the pair said in a statement, “this is a very special project, and we could not have found a better partner to bring it back to life than Chef Rob.”
According to the Kre8 Experiences website, Masone caters a variety of foods for crowds up to 2,000 people. The Twisted Eats menu includes beer-infused items like Mac & Cheese Eggrolls. Masone previously worked as executive chef at the Mash House in Fayetteville, N.C. and opened his own restaurant in downtown Fayetteville, The Braz-N-Rabbit. He also has culinary connections in Florida, Las Vegas and other locales.
This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 12:05 PM with the headline "Here’s the new restaurant coming this fall to an historic downtown Rock Hill site."
