Located at 119 N. Main Street, One19 is set to open in early April, according to Bill McKay, the owner of One19.
According to McKay, there will be a soft opening in April and a grand opening in May.
“I plan to open early April, first a couple of soft openings for a lot of our friends and family who have been very supportive of this endeavor,” he said. “The grand opening will come a month later.”
According to Maureen Walls-McKay, Longwood's director of counseling and psychological services (CAPS) and McKay’s wife, the hours of the restaurant are still to be determined.
The restaurant bar will serve Tex-Mex inspired food and beer, based around "southwestern flavors," McKay said. The menu will have a wide variety of price points.
“You can come in and have a $3 taco or a $20 steak,” he said. The co-owners plan to have 10-12 employees; McKay said most of the applications have been Longwood students.
The goal of the restaurant is to be something different for Farmville, according to McKay.
“Growing up in Farmville until my late teens … I’ve noticed one thing Farmville is lacking in is different restaurants,” he said. “Definitely something different in every aspect, be it décor, building, beer, food. Every aspect.”
According to McKay, the restaurant will seat about 60 people and as much as possible, the food will be locally sourced.
“Fresh is the main idea here,” McKay said.

The new Tex-Mex restaurant in town, One19, prides itself on using refurbished materials from the former tenant to create their furniture and their decorations.
He also explained that most of the recent work on the building was done by himself or close friends. According to McKay, the building was built in 1896 and had previously been a barber shop, a florist and a pharmacy before he purchased it.
According to McKay, he also plans to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
“All of the wood that you see in here came from here … It’s reclaimed, repurposed,” McKay said. “I don’t plan, at this point, to use Styrofoam cups, paper plates, anything like that. Everything will be low-footprint.”
According to Maureen Walls-McKay, the name was chosen because of the building’s location at 119 main street. According to Walls-McKay, they tried to find another name but found themselves referring to it as “going down to one nineteen” and the name fit.
The logo on the door of the building, which says “One19” on one line and “Tastefully off-center” below that was designed by the Longwood design lab, according to Walls-McKay.
“Longwood students in the design lab created the logo for us and really did a fantastic job,” Walls-McKay said.
According to McKay, the logo is representative of the restaurant’s approach.
“The tastefully off-center is my approach to flavor, and the building,” McKay said.
The new Tex-Mex restaurant in town, One19, prides itself on using refurbished materials from the former tenant to create their furniture and their decorations.
The new Tex-Mex restaurant in town, One19, prides itself on using refurbished materials from the former tenant to create their furniture and their decorations.