Rose’s Bar & Grill poured its first drinks in 33 years on Oct. 17, bringing a slice of Greigsville history back to life after the tavern sat dark since 1993. Owners Frank and Andrea Rose spent more than four years rebuilding the property from the foundation up, determined to reopen a bar whose roots in the small Livingston County hamlet stretch back to 1903.
The milestone reopening was reported in a story that originally appeared in New York Focus and was later published by the Livingston County News, which detailed how the business traces back to Carmino D’Angelo, an Italian immigrant who came to the United States from Italy at age 12 and later worked for the Retsof Mining Company. D’Angelo purchased the land from the Foster family in 1901 and, two years later, opened a bar, general store, barber shop and upstairs boarding house on the property, according to the same report.
A Name Change and a Family Legacy
D’Angelo eventually changed his name to Frank Rose. D’Angelo’s grandson ran the bar until the grandson’s death at age 92, the Livingston County News reported. Frank Rose’s grandfather and father ran the business together until the early 1990s, and his grandfather ran it until 1993—a gap of almost 33 years before it reopened. Current owner Frank Rose, D’Angelo’s descendant, called the reopening part of a long-held dream. Rose inherited the business from his grandfather and father, the outlet reported, and said the return had been something he’d wanted for a long time.
The property itself sits on ground shaped by the people who built the surrounding hamlet — farmers, railroad workers and salt mine workers, per the Livingston County News. That mining connection runs deep in the region’s history: around 1890, a settlement known as Little Italy sprang up near Greigsville to house immigrant workers employed by the nearby salt mine, according to openvalley.org. The company housing there eventually grew to 35 homes and a single boarding house, and most residents, many of them Italian, had come specifically for mine work, the same source notes. The mining company moved its employees out and sold the Little Italy property in 1923, according to openvalley.org.
Rebuilding From the Ground Up
Reopening Rose’s took real construction muscle, not just sentiment. The building needed an entirely new foundation underneath it, and renovations took four and a half years to complete, Frank Rose told the Livingston County News. The couple broke ground on the improvement work in 2021, the same year they received a grant from Livingston County and completed business courses through the Livingston County IDA and GROW-LIVCO, according to the outlet’s reporting.
Despite the overhaul, the Roses made a point of preserving pieces of the original 1903 tavern. The original bar, a player piano, a moose head and silver dollars embedded in the floor — placed there by D’Angelo himself back in 1903 — all remain, though some of the coins were buffed right off, the Livingston County News reported.
Barbecue, Local Beer and a Family Future
The new menu will lean into barbecue, with Frank Rose and his son having attended barbecue school together two years ago, according to the outlet. Rose said he wants the drink list to prioritize regional alcohol, featuring local breweries alongside major names like Yuengling and beers tied to family tradition.
Frank Rose said his children have already been hands-on in the business and invested in learning its history, and he and Andrea hope the next generation will carry the Rose family tradition forward. The goal, as described in the Livingston County News report, is for the reopened bar to become a true community gathering place for both Greigsville locals and travelers passing through.
