From left, sisters Tina Pitts and Holly Caplinger pose at the counter at the Crystal Cafe in downtown Parkersburg. Pitts, Caplinger and third sister Melissa White of Houston re-opened the restaurant in January. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

PARKERSBURG — Three sisters are the new owners of a landmark restaurant in downtown Parkersburg.

Tina Pitts, Holly Caplinger and Melissa White re-opened the Crystal Cafe on Market Street in January.

“We’re coming up on our second month now,” Tina said.

The sisters purchased the restaurant from J.R. Carpenter, a Parkersburg city councilman, and re-opened the restaurant at the beginning of January after looking at the place in December and decided it was for them.

“We think we can do this,” Pitts said.

Holly Caplinger serves Tom Scimia of Belpre a cup of coffee at the Crystal Cafe in downtown Parkersburg. Holly and her sisters, Tina Pitts and Melissa White, re-opened the restaurant in January. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

Pitts and Caplinger work in the restaurant. White lives in Houston.

“We kind of work together as a team,” Caplinger said.

White was excited to be part of the enterprise with her sisters.

“Absolutely,” White, a midwife, said. “It’s one of the coolest experiences I have ever done.”

Pitts and Caplinger and Holly have worked most of their lives in the restaurant industry.

Tina Pitts cooks an omelet at the Crystal Cafe in Parkersburg. She and her sisters Holly Caplinger and Melissa White bought the Crystal from J.R. Carpenter, a city councilman in Parkersburg. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

“I like serving and being out here with the customers,” Holly said.

The sisters learned much in the business through their many years of working at a variety of restaurants. They did everything, Caplinger said.

“Ownership kind of seemed like the next thing to do,” Pitts said.

With experience, the sisters have brought with them the recipes they learned from their mother.

“We have a lot of our family recipes,” Pitts said.

A mug rack at the Crystal where the personalized coffee cups were purchased by patrons. Sisters Tina Pitts, Holly Caplinger and Melissa White re-opened the downtown Parkersburg restaurant in January. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

The menu, which includes daily specials from Monday to Saturday, features items appealing for every taste, she said. The menu includes traditional breakfast and lunch meals, soups and salads and selections fitting the diner atmosphere.

“We consider ourselves to be an American-style grill,” Pitts said. “But we like our menus to appeal to everybody.”

Most of the ingredients, 90% Tina estimated, are fresh, she said. All items on the menu are made in the kitchen in the restaurant, she said.

“We make everything here,” Pitts said.

Among the popular breakfast items are the stuffed French toast and the pancake tacos, Caplinger said. The French toast has sweet cream while various fruits, nuts and other toppings can be added to the tacos.

Plans are to soon install a coffee bar so customers can make their own coffees and be off, Pitts said.

The Crystal is open from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Meals can be ordered online and can be delivered by Doordash and Grubhub, of which there is no additional charge, Pitts said.

For decades, movers and shakers in Parkersburg would meet in the morning at the Crystal at 402 Market St. A photo of Market Street looking north from Fourth Street taken in the early 1940s shows the Crystal Restaurant.

Tom Scimia of Belpre ate at the restaurant 30 years ago before moving, then returning, and remembers the crowd of officials and others seated near the front of the restaurant.

He recalls eating there on Sept. 11, 2001, the day the terrorists flew airliners into the towers at the World Trade Center in New York City, and the late Todd Baucher, a reporter for WTAP, seeking man-on-the-street interviews at the restaurant.

“I was eating back there at the counter at the time,” Scimia said.

Scimia enjoys the meals, the atmosphere, the service and the friendliness of Pitts, Caplinger and the other employees. The Crystal is quiet and peaceful, Scimia said.

“It’s real homey. It’s downtown,” he said. “And it’s historical.”

Jess Mancini is available at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.