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Ed Lewis: A lifetime of memories on the Sans Souci

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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The Senunas family can&#8217;t be sure of the exact date &#8212; that&#8217;s been lost to time &#8212; but what they do know is that their family opened the bar bearing their name sometime in April 1959.</p><p>That means, at some point this month, Senunas&#8217; Bar and Grill will see its 60th birthday.</p><p>And since no one can remember the exact day, the bar is celebrating for the whole month.</p><p>Opened by John Senunas II and his wife, Helen, the bar actually predates its current owners &#8212; these days, the bar is owned by John III, 57, and his wife, Rose, 58.</p><p>When asked about what&#8217;s kept the business running for so long, the couple&#8217;s son, John IV, answered it simply: &#8220;Location.&#8221;</p><p>His father, joking about the one-word answer and calling him &#8220;Mr. Analytical,&#8221; agreed.</p><p>&#8220;My dad said, &#8216;Don&#8217;t ever lose the corner,&#8217;&#8221; the older Senunas said.</p><p>The corner he&#8217;s referring to is North Main and Jackson streets in Wilkes-Barre, right in the heart of the campus of King&#8217;s College.</p><p>And, so far, the bar hasn&#8217;t &#8220;lost the corner.&#8221;</p><p>While the bar originally sat on the opposite side of Jackson Street in the building that now serves as King&#8217;s College&#8217;s Alumni Hall, the bar relocated to its current location on the other side of the street &#8212; 133 N. Main St. &#8212; in 2001.</p><p>While Rose highlighted a number of other reasons why she thinks the bar has done well &#8212; she mentioned friendly service staff and talented kitchen staff, along with affordable prices &#8212; the family seems to be in agreement that it&#8217;s all about the location.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve had a constant stream of business,&#8221; Rose said.</p><p>A large part of that steady stream, of course, comes from King&#8217;s College students. The family said the bar seems entrenched in the culture of the campus, with students even giving the bar the nickname &#8220;Helen&#8217;s&#8221; while Helen Senunas ran the bar until her death in 1996.</p><p>&#8220;She was always there,&#8221; the elder Senunas said of his late mother.</p><p>But when the bar moved to the new location, Rose said, things needed to change to make the business more &#8220;progressive.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We couldn&#8217;t be just a &#8216;shot and a beer&#8217; bar,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Since then, the bar has done more to attract more customers, including the installation of multiple TVs tuned to sporting events, an expanded beer list and a focus on live events.</p><p>&#8220;We needed to really upgrade everything in here that everybody wants when they come to a local bar,&#8221; Rose said.</p><p>For the rest of the month, there will be numerous chances to celebrate the bar&#8217;s 60th birthday. Numerous giveaways have gone on throughout the month, and during happy hour each day, you can get a Miller Lite draft for only 60 cents.</p><p>Other than that, though, there&#8217;s only one thing left to do.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to just keep doing what we&#8217;re doing,&#8221; the younger Senunas said.</p><p>Ideally for another 60 years.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_senunas1_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">John Senunas III and Rose Senunas, with their children John IV and Katie, are seen inside their establishment on North Main Street in Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_senunas1_faa.jpg</photo0><caption0>John Senunas III and Rose Senunas, with their children John IV and Katie, are seen inside their establishment on North Main Street in Wilkes-Barre. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_senunas3_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">John Senunas III looks at historic photos hung on the wall at Senunas&#8217; in Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_senunas3_faa.jpg</photo1><caption1>John Senunas III looks at historic photos hung on the wall at Senunas&#8217; in Wilkes-Barre. </caption1><photoCredit1>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_senunas2_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The Senunas family &#8212; John III, Katie, Rose and John IV &#8212; in front of their family bar on North Main Street in Wilkes-Barre. The business is celebrating 60 years of operation in 2019. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_senunas2_faa.jpg</photo2><caption2>The Senunas family &#8212; John III, Katie, Rose and John IV &#8212; in front of their family bar on North Main Street in Wilkes-Barre. The business is celebrating 60 years of operation in 2019. </caption2><photoCredit2>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Senunas&#8217; bar celebrates 60th year at corner of Main and Jackson in Wilkes-Barre</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Patrick Kernan</p><p>pkernan@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Patrick Kernan at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan</p></shirttailMeta></div>