Here’s what the new bar in Milton will be like. It’s opening where the Milton Tavern was

A recent paint job prompted a flurry of inquiries about the Milton Tavern, which closed in 2016.

Here’s what’s happening:

Owner Shawna Bell plans to open her Milton Lodge Bar and Grill within the next week. The 21-and-older-only restaurant and bar will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, she said.

Her family previously owned the Bull Pen Pub Bar & Grill, a SeaTac tavern run by her grandparents for 37 years. Her mother and daughter worked there. So did Bell, for 17 years, until the tavern closed after a fire.

She changed the look of the old Milton Tavern inside and out.

“It was dated and carpeted. It was a mess,” she said.

She tore out that old carpet. She also freshened the dining room with shiplap-clad walls painted with a white wash.

The kitchen also was significantly rehabilitated.

“I took (out) every bit of equipment. It’s gone,” she said. “Everything in here is new.”

The main dining room and upstairs will be ready when the restaurant opens, but coming later will be a remodel to the basement level of the bar. Bell plans to turn that bottom-floor space into a game room.

She promises a bar list with cocktails made properly by career bartenders.

“When I first started bartending, I learned from the old-school people,” she said. “If you didn’t know the drink, there was no cell phone to look it up on. You had recipe cards.”

It’s safe to say her bartenders have those recipe cards memorized. One has been a bartender for 18 years. Another for 14.

Upstairs will host spillover crowds when the bar gets busy. That’s also where private parties will be hosted. Children are allowed only in the private event space and not elsewhere in the bar.

Bell described a classic breakfast menu with bacon or sausage with eggs, omelets and her specialty of stuffed hash browns with bacon and sausage inside and topped with gravy and eggs.

For lunch and dinner, the menu will gravitate toward classic pub fare with 14-inch pizzas, sandwiches made from fresh-sliced, whole-roasted meats, burgers made from hand-formed patties and a choice of a ribeye or New York steak.

Milton Lodge Bar and Grill

Where: 7320 Pacific Highway E., Milton

Info: 253-922-4277

This story was originally published July 30, 2018 at 12:00 PM.