Just a short drive down from the busy intersection of Hillsdale Street and College Street, a small, now empty building stands a bit south of the McIntyre Residence.
Just a few years ago it housed a fledgling restaurant called “LT & CJ’s Place.” The building still wears this name, as well as a promise to provide “Pizza and More!”
The restaurant appeared in The Collegian when it had its grand opening in April 2006. Collegian freelancer Andrew Dodson profiled it in an article titled “New Eats on Hillsdale Restaurant Scene.”
According to Dodson, the restaurant was named after Louise and Ted Harrington, the husband-and-wife team who founded it, as well as Louise’s sister and brother-in-law John and Cindy Litwin. It had replaced a Mexican restaurant called “Sammy’s.”
The Harringtons had modestly hopeful goals for the restaurant, whose specialty was daily-prepared pizza that took until 4 p.m. each day to make.
“We wanted to give the college and the community something different, but also something that they would enjoy,” said Louise.
Ted had a similar goal.
“We just wanted to give Hillsdale and the College something to enjoy, and we hoped this restaurant will do just that,” he said.
According to LT and CJ’s file on Manta, a small business website, the pizza place had “annual revenues of less than $500,000” and a staff of one to four people before it closed.
While it was still open, Louise Harrington said that the restaurant was doing all right.
“We were building up. The college students had started to come in, and they liked our pizza.”
Two obstacles, however, proved insurmountable.
“The recession hit, and then the College finished building the new student union,” she said. As a result, the Harringtons were forced to shutter the restaurant in 2009.
Still, Louise is confident that she and her business partners did everything they could have done.
“If I got the chance to do it over, I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Really I would have done everything about the same.”
Louise and Ted have not engaged in any other small business ventures since the restaurant closed.