When Joshua Crownover and his late friend and business partner Mike Heiser purchased the former Lanahu Ales building on Kirby Avenue in Fairview Township in April of 2022 their vision was to bring something very different to Mountain Top – a restaurant with the atmosphere of a cozy corner bar while serving authentic Asian cuisine.
Heiser, of Drums, died unexpectedly on July 31, 2022, but Crownover never gave up on the dream he and his mentor shared. He is moving forward with plans to open a Japanese hibachi/sushi restaurant in the former micro-brewery and one-time medical office at 12 Kirby Ave.
Crownover, who operates Myst Japanese Restaurant in Jim Thorpe, hopes to open Myst Mountain Top by early summer.
A native of Hughesville, Crownover met Heiser when they were both working at Pearl Sushi in Mohegan Sun Pocono. When Heiser left Pearl to open his own restaurant, he took Crownover along.
“This is probably the most important thing I’ve ever done in my adult life,” said Crownover, who lives just a short distance from the Kirby Avenue location.
“I really miss Mike. He was like an older brother to me in a way. It’s important for me to do things the way he would be proud of.”
The building has pretty much been gutted in preparation for its transformation into the Japanese sushi/hibachi restaurant.
“Right now, it’s an empty shell,” the restauranter related. “But we have big plans.”
Those plans include five eight-person hibachi tables, including a private party hibachi room, additional tables and a patio. Crownover is very excited about the plans for the bar. He described it as “sort of a double horseshoe.” Half the bar, he explained, will be indoors with the rest outside on a patio that will be accessed through a garage-door type opening.
“The bar will have a personal approach,” he related. “We’re going to try to give our customers the atmosphere of an American corner bar.”
He plans to feature a menu similar to that at Myst, Jim Thorpe. While the hibachi tables certainly are popular at the Myst location at 34 Susquehanna St., Crownover noted that the restaurant’s sushi is its staple.
“Our sushi is as fresh as possible,” he explained. “It’s the highest quality.”
Much of the fish comes in daily from New York City, he noted. Crownover’s goal is to replicate that at his new location in Mountain Top.
“We’re going to try to knock it out of the park,” he said of the offerings he plans at Myst Mountain Top.
Crownover noted the Mountain Top venture will be his first without his dear friend Heiser.
“This is my team. I want to do it the way Mike would want to do it,” he offered. “I really want to do it for him.”
