Yunhui Bui, the restaurant’s fourth owner, purchased it in January. Young Kim, the restaurant’s previous owner, closed it Sept. 25, 2018, posting a sign to the door that said, “Look for our Return.”
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Bui’s renovations to Kostas started in late March and include a revamped kitchen with all-new equipment, a remodeled dining room with new tables and booths and a fresh coat of paint throughout the interior.
A majority of the restaurant’s employees will be back working there this week, Bui said. Kim, who owned the business for a quarter of a century, has agreed to teach her Kostas’ recipes, including her breakfast gravy, and also will help with some of the initial cooking, she said.
Bui, a Butler County Clerk of Courts accountant since 2004, previously told this news outlet that owning the diner will allow her to combine her love of cooking and food with her sociable, outgoing personality in a city that has been her home for 34 years.
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