{"id":4347,"date":"2012-07-20T11:51:14","date_gmt":"2012-07-20T15:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=4347"},"modified":"2012-07-20T11:51:14","modified_gmt":"2012-07-20T15:51:14","slug":"la-verona-says-benvenuti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=4347","title":{"rendered":"La Verona says ‘benvenuti’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite stagnant economy, Kennett Square shows growth with new restaurant opening<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By P.J. D’Annunzio<\/strong>,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From left: Mary Hutchins, a member of Historic Kennett Square, Ginger Meadows, president of Historic Kennett Square,\u00a0 La Verona owner Ari Mavraj, owner Jack Mavraj, Kennett Square Borough Manager Brant Kucera, and Borough Council Member Leon Spencer celebrate the opening of the new eatery on State Street.<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 Though under the threat of rain, patrons still gathered to the newly opened La Verona restaurant on East State Street for its ribbon cutting.<\/p>\n

Among those gathered for the event were Borough Manager Brant Kucera, Borough Councilman Leon Spencer, Historic Kennett Square President Ginger Meadows, staff from the office of State Representative Chris Ross, and many others.<\/p>\n

La Verona, which serves a variety of cuisine from Northern and Southern Italy, is owned and managed by Ari Mavraj \u2014 along with brothers Sam and Jack. Ari is an experienced restaurateur who has been a part of other culinary ventures throughout the Northeast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised in Slovenia which is near Northern Italy, the population is very mixed there. I lived and worked in New York, owned two places in New Jersey with a few other partners, then decided to move to Pennsylvania where I knew I could stay for a long time, and finally found this place. We were glad to find this place,\u201d Ari Mavraj said.<\/p>\n

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Patrons enjoy the ambiance of the new La Verona restaurant in Kennett Square.<\/p><\/div>\n

Mavraj went on to describe the quaint nature of Kennett Square as one of the deciding factors for setting up shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we came to Kennett Square we found the typical nice, old town; the old neighborhood where people lived forever. We felt very comfortable with the atmosphere and the nice people of the town.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grand opening of La Verona illustrates that despite a less than accommodating economic climate, businesses in Kennett Square still have a chance to thrive in a small town community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of reason to celebrate,\u201d Borough Councilman Leon Spencer said. \u201cThe fact that this town is thriving, the fact that our storefronts are filled, the fact that people want to be here; people in the community want to work to make it what it is and to make it a thriving community. We\u2019re tickled pink\u2014we\u2019re in the right place, we\u2019re glad to live here, and we\u2019re glad to be a part of all that goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borough Manager Brant Kucera added to that sentiment, elaborating on the sustained growth of Kennett Square.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Borough Manager it\u2019s really a great experience to manage a town like this because it creates its own success. There are a lot of positives going for it. It makes my life and the staff\u2019s life that much easier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As with many in attendance, Historic Kennett Square President Ginger Meadows views La Verona as a victory for Kennett Square\u2019s commerce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is yet another success for the town,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel we\u2019re headed in the right direction and it\u2019s amazing, all the successes we have to celebrate. I think that this is a critical piece of business that was missing and we\u2019ll enjoy being a part of their future success. I\u2019m thrilled that it materialized and that we have it now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite stagnant economy, Kennett Square shows growth with new restaurant opening By P.J. D’Annunzio,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 Though under the threat of rain, patrons still gathered to the newly opened La Verona restaurant on East State Street for its ribbon cutting. Among those gathered for the event were Borough Manager Brant Kucera, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[921,16,919,920],"class_list":["post-4347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-historic-kennett-square","tag-kennett-square","tag-la-verona","tag-restaurant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}