On East Genesee Street in Fayetteville, two restaurants three street numbers apart have had very different Septembers. At 408 E. Genesee St., Apizza Alimentari began full dinner service on Wednesday, Sept. 30, which finished the café, bakery, market and trattoria that opened in the former Kirby's Grill & Taphouse on July 8, as syracuse.com reported. At 411 E. Genesee St., Bull & Bear Roadhouse closed unexpectedly on Sunday, Aug. 30. Owner Mark Bullis told the paper a contractor's mistake had caused damage and the restaurant would be closed "a few weeks" for repairs.
As of Oct. 8, local coverage has not reported a reopening date for Bull & Bear.
That closed dining room belongs to the same group behind this fall's biggest Fayetteville-area opening, and behind the restaurant at Green Lakes State Park too. So whether a given October night out happens depends partly on one company's repair and construction schedule.
Three Dinner Rooms, One Ownership Group
Bullis and his partner Nathan Fullmer run Bull & Bear, Daily Diner and Yards Grille at Green Lakes State Park under Belly Brands Hospitality Group, according to a LocalSYR report from Oct. 1. They are also turning the former Arad Evans Inn into a steakhouse called Dear Dad.
Here is where each of those rooms stood in early October, next to the restaurant that just added dinner:
| Restaurant | Address | Status as of Oct. 8, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Apizza Alimentari | 408 E. Genesee St. | Dinner Wed–Thu and Sun 4–9 p.m., Fri–Sat 4–10 p.m.; lunch Wed–Sun 11 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Bull & Bear Roadhouse | 411 E. Genesee St. | Closed since Aug. 30 for repairs; no reopening date reported |
| Dear Dad | 7206 E. Genesee St. | Not open; owner hopes for early November |
| Yards Grille | Green Lakes State Park | Open; closes for winter, 2026 date not given |
Of the four, only Apizza Alimentari's hours are posted and fixed this month. Every other line in the table carries a pending date. That has a direct practical effect. The opening that was supposed to arrive in early October has moved, and the closure that was supposed to last a few weeks is now past five.
What Apizza Alimentari Added on Sept. 30
The owners took almost three months between breakfast and dinner. "We didn't want to rush into dinner," partner Paul Messina told syracuse.com the day before the launch. The restaurant is a collaboration among Apizza Regionale partners Messina and John Stage, pastry chef and partner Amy Chrisogonou, and executive chef Padriac Adolfi. Messina said they set out to give Fayetteville something different from their downtown Syracuse restaurant.
The dinner menu is built around a Pasta Della Casa section grouped by region of Italy. It mixes housemade pasta with bronze-die pasta imported from Italy, and the pastas run $20 to $25 before additions. At the top of that range are pappardelle Bolognese and fusilli with slow-cooked mushroom ragù at $25. At the bottom is spaghetti alla rucola with local cherry tomato sauce, arugula and pecorino at $20. Larger plates include a 14-ounce bone-in Duroc pork chop at $36 and a peppercorn-crusted prime zabuton steak at $52.
The cheaper way in is the Roman-style pizza that built the lunch crowd. It stays on the dinner menu at $12 or $13, cut in four for sharing. A $6 cast-iron focaccia comes with a Parmigiano-Reggiano and herb crust and tomato jam butter. The bar has a "Negroni Family" section at $13 and a martini service in mini ($8) and classic ($15) sizes, plus Italian wines, beer and nonalcoholic cocktails. Chrisogonou said the menus will change with the seasons, so the October menu may not last into winter.
Reservations go through Toast, according to the paper, and the restaurant's phone number is (315) 552-5992. The dining room is dark Monday and Tuesday. Dear Dad's planned schedule fills part of that gap, which matters once the steakhouse opens.
Dear Dad Moved From October to November
When syracuse.com toured the former Arad Evans Inn in mid-August, the restaurant was set to open in early October, initially serving dinner Tuesday through Saturday. By Oct. 1, Bullis told LocalSYR he was hoping to open in early November. As of today, the Dear Dad website still says "Coming Soon" and "Full Menu Coming Soon."
If the Tuesday start holds, Tuesday is the one night Apizza Alimentari's dining room is closed and Dear Dad's would be open.
The building sits at 7206 E. Genesee St., just outside the village line. Its age depends on who you ask. Syracuse.com dates the original farmhouse to the 1840s. Bullis told LocalSYR it was built in 1859. Either way, it ran as Arad Evans Inn from 1995 until it closed last November, after a kitchen fire in 2020 and a reopening in 2021.
The August tour described a reworked room. Plans call for about 90 seats on the first floor around an 18-seat bar, a patio with its own outdoor bar, a second-floor deck and renovated private dining rooms upstairs. Andrew Giarrusso, formerly executive chef at the Sherwood Inn in Skaneateles, will run the kitchen. Samantha Bun, formerly general manager of TS Steakhouse at Turning Stone, will be GM. Chris DeVita, who closed Salt City Bread, will run a dedicated baking kitchen for the restaurant's breads and desserts. The owners also plan dueling pianos and Friday-night sets from Syracuse musician Joe Altier.
Residents can contribute to the walls before the doors open. Bullis is asking the public for vintage family photos and military service pictures to display, sent to [email protected].
Green Lakes Is the Group's Other Moving Date
The fourth room in the table runs on the park's season rather than a construction schedule. Yards Grille's own website lists 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and its menu page warns that hours change with the season. The Green Lakes State Park page lists it as open 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. With the two sources an hour or two apart on closing time, an evening plan there is worth confirming first. Syracuse.com's June review notes that Yards closes for the winter, but neither that review nor the park page gives a 2026 closing date.
The rest of the park is already shutting down. The state lists beach, swimming and boat rentals as closed for the season, and the 2026 camping and cabin season ends Oct. 11. What's left is daytime programming, and the October list fits a Saturday afternoon before a 4 p.m. dinner reservation on East Genesee Street:
- Oct. 10: Solar Viewing with Barefoot Bob, drop in between 1 and 3 p.m. to look at the sun through specialized telescopes.
- Oct. 17: History Hike on the Old Erie Canal, a guided walk of about 1.5 miles along the original towpath.
- Oct. 17: Minecraft Nature Walk, about 1.5 miles of trail and grass with an educator.
- Oct. 24: Spooky Fungi Self-Guided Walk, with signs posted along part of the lake trail.
The park's event listing shows nothing after Oct. 24.
Earlier Evenings at the Library
For families, the village's Halloween schedule this year is at the Fayetteville Free Library, not on Village Hall's calendar. The village's October calendar lists nothing on Oct. 31. The library's October calendar has Mini Pumpkin Painting for pre-K through grade 2 on Oct. 14 from 5:45 to 7:45 p.m. It has Club 456 Ghost Crafts for tweens on Oct. 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Not-So-Spooky Storytime and Trick-or-Treating runs Sunday, Oct. 18, from 2 to 4 p.m. An adult Halloween Resin craft follows on Oct. 23 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The Oct. 18 trick-or-treat ends at 4 p.m., the same hour Apizza Alimentari's Sunday dinner service begins.
One routing note for the drive between the library on Orchard Street and East Genesee: the village posted on June 26 that the Walnut Street bridge between Clinton and Orchard Streets is closed to vehicles "until further notice." No reopening has been posted since.
What Happens After Oct. 31
November is when the dinner table above could change. If Bullis's target holds, Dear Dad opens in early November with dinner Tuesday through Saturday. Yards Grille's winter closure will take another of the group's rooms offline at some point, on a date not yet given. Bull & Bear has a second location in East Syracuse, and the Fayetteville dining room has given no public date yet. The village's November calendar so far lists only board meetings, Veterans Day and hardfill pickup. Until those dates land, the one dinner schedule on East Genesee Street that has been posted and is running is at 408.
A restaurant opening a few blocks away changes how a street feels, and over time it can change what buyers will pay to live within walking distance of it. If you own in or near the village and want to know what your home is worth with this fall's East Genesee Street openings and closures factored in, Jeremy Allen can run the numbers with you. Get Your Instant Home Valuation, then let's talk about what it means.
