A new restaurant is making its way into downtown Rock Hill. Developers JD Yearwood and Justin Mueller will kick-start renovations at the historic McCrory’s Building in downtown this month and have signed a lease for a restaurant and event space operated by Chef Rob Masone of Kre8 Xperiences.
Rob Masone plans to open a 2,600-square-foot restaurant called “Kounter” and a 6,000-square-foot event space this fall. The restaurant’s name, logo and design are a nod to the historic building’s role in the 1961 Friendship Nine sit-in and will incorporate the historic lunch counter and stools where African-American students from Friendship College, known as the Friendship Nine, were denied service and arrested after staging their sit-in at McCrory’s Five and Dime.