Lancaster's Pressroom restaurant is coming into its own. Again.
Outdoor seating in Steinman Park always felt nice, if a little forlorn: a brick courtyard with spotlit trees and water roaring at the far end. But now diners have a real reason to wind down the ramp to the waterfall—alcohol!
Outdoor seating in Steinman Park always felt nice, if a little forlorn: a brick courtyard with spotlit trees and water roaring at the far end. But now diners have a real reason to wind down the ramp to the waterfall—alcohol!
The Park Bar, some two years in the making, opened this summer to nonstop business. Cut into a wall of one of the adjacent Steinman newspaper buildings, the industrial chic niche serves all the drinks and food of the restaurant inside.
Service is slow, but polite. Tables are self-serve, but often available. The food can be hit or miss, even for the same item (e.g. pork belly sliders).
Yet overall, with a few strategic ventures like the Park Bar, the Pressroom has pivoted from tired, overpriced Fine Dining to a lively, comfortable restaurant with tasty variety. Sunday brunch is served, with a dangerous DIY bloody mary bar. Dinner items like the mahi tacos have flavor that's easy to eat, even if the soupy contents make them structurally challenged. Live music pops up in the park as well as the front window.
Surrounded by Steinman newspaper buildings, the Pressroom was never a press room. But it was once the nation's oldest hardware store. With regular tune-ups of the sort we've enjoyed this summer, The Pressroom will keep running on King Street for years to come.
