McLaughlin's comfort in food cheers new brand of regulars.

PIONEER

Pete McLaughlin

Born: Novi, Mich., 1959

Position: Owner, Pete's Cafe & Bar

Accomplishments: Developed neighborhood restaurant in ground floor space of San Fernando Building at Fourth and Main streets.

Quote: "We've only been here a little more than a year and it already makes you feel like it's a part of your life."

DOWNTOWN'S expense account restaurants and greasy spoons, different as they might be, used to have one thing in common: diners didn't hang around much after they ate.

That started to change when Pete McLaughlin opened Pete's Cafe & Bar at Fourth and Main streets in 2002.

When McLaughlin decided to set up shop, the neighborhood lacked what might be called "middle-class" restaurants that serve as the sort of casual, neighborhood-oriented eateries that signify community.

At one end were places like the Water Grill, at the other a smattering of sandwich shops and pizza joints. McLaughlin, who had moved downtown to be with his girlfriend (whom he later married) knew better than most how great the need was.

Through his wife, Jerri Perrone, who works at Gilmore Associates, McLaughlin heard that the pioneering downtown apartment developer was having difficulty signing a restaurant to the two-year-old San Fernando Building.

"He said there was nothing wrong with the neighborhood," McLaughlin said of Tom Gilmore. "It was simply perceptions of Main Street. You know, 'What lies east of Grand Avenue?'"

Indeed, Fourth and Main was still a gritty place with more than its share of open-air drug trading. McLaughlin immersed himself in researching what it took to launch a successful urban restaurant, visiting Traxx Restaurant at Union Station and other eateries. Then he took a trip with Perrone and Gilmore to New York to review the work of Keith McNally, whose restaurants include Balthazar and Pastis.

What he saw was simple enough: a consistent and appropriate menu, bar napkins instead of fine linen at the tables, and most of all, maintaining the spirit and character of the building and neighborhood.

"Here, in a 1906 building, the last thing I was going to do was tear up this floor," he said. "I brought in warm woods and earth tones, which make women comfortable."

The place has a familiar feel, like it's been there for some time. And McLaughlin likes to spend a lot of time at the restaurant so his customers know him.

"It's not considered a special treat to eat at Pete's. We've become a neighborhood cafe," McLaughlin said over a plate of signature bleu cheese fries. "We're here for the neighborhood. We're not a destination restaurant."