AUBURN - After spending a year and a half looking at more than 30 locations for their new restaurant, Marc and Dawn Schulz had less than two weeks to turn 1 E. Genesee St. into Bistro One.

“What's really unique about this is that we're doing this in about six to eight weeks. We're really time crunched,” said Marc, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Dawn.

In that two months, the couple had to design the dining room, layout the kitchen, set the menu, hire a staff and face an unusual challenge in seating.

Finding the perfect chairs to fill their American bistro style restaurant wasn't easy, Dawn said. After days of searching, they found chairs that they thought would work perfectly in Albany through Craigslist.

“It was a middle of the night deal where they were coming off their truck and going on our truck in the dark,” she said. “We paid them, but when we looked at the chairs the next morning, they were put together with duct tape and broken.”

So much of running a restaurant focuses on all the little details, Marc said. That's why we are such sticklers about everything that goes into the restaurant.

“This is the most exciting part of opening a restaurant, actually getting it open, because it's so involved,” he explained. “The wine tastings are certainly a perk too.”

The restaurant's menu features an eclectic mix of gourmet appetizers, soups, salads and entrees. Some items include: the lamb lollipop appetizer, a baked onion and apple appetizer and osso bucco, which is braised veal shanks, vegetables, aromatics and a red wine reduction sprinkled with gremolata over mashed potatoes.

The menu will change throughout the year to offer fresh ingredients and features organic and local products when they are available, Dawn said.

“What we're trying to do is deliver fine dining in a really casual, laid back atmosphere,” Marc said.

“We want people to feel like they can come in here after a long day and get a great meal, relax and have a good time.”

The Auburn area needs something different like this, believes Stan Kolonko, the restaurant's executive chef.

“If someone wants something different from the same old prime rib and potatoes that everyone else in Auburn serves, they are going to leave the city,” he continued. “This restaurant will fill that void.”

It sounds like the new menu is different from what they offer at the Cascade Grill, Sandy Hatfield, a regular customer at the grill said.

The new restaurant will draw from that crowd while providing something that is a little higher end.

“It sounds like the new restaurant will be more of a bistro than the other restaurants in Auburn and something that will be a bit nicer too,” Hatfield said.

“It really is a nice place to live,” Marc added. “We're excited about doing something that we had experienced in other towns and in areas like Boston or Manhattan and deliver it to downtown Auburn.”