The Wooden Match

Well after we broke the news last Thursday on our Twitter about Bethlehem-based cigar retailer Cigars International taking over the Main Street Depot project, we’ve gained a few details. 

A Cigars International employee identified the name of the project to now be The Wooden Match.  Obviously this will be a cigar-smoking establishment which will compete with the under-construction CigarWorks by Famous Smoke which we wrote about in an Op-Ed here.  The restaurant redesign is being undertaken by Donovan Associates of Bethlehem, whose office happens to be in an old freight depot right next to the Main Street Depot building.  Considering the renovation job they did on that (check out some pics here) and that they renovated the old train depot in Quakertown, they’re more than suited for the job and will hopefully come up with something equally impressive. 

This project has been stalled for quite some time.  The train depot shut down abruptly and owners cited the economic downturn as a cause.  It was then picked up by the crew that was them running Tap & Table and The Bookstore.  Well, a lot of things went down (read here if you don’t know the story) and the project was put on hold indefinitely.  Now it looks like it has new life and the architects, money, and businessmen behind it to finally renovate the place.  We’ll hopefully have more information soon and look forward to lighting one up at the depot in the future.