Water-damaged Maxwell’s in Tacoma to reopen in October

The good news is that Beti Tarantino is getting new carpet at Maxwell’s Speakeasy and Lounge.

“This is definitely not the way I wanted to get it, though” said Tarantino, who bought the St. Helens neighborhood restaurant in April.

A water line backup in August flooded the entire restaurant and forced the closure. What’s ensued has been a tangle of insurance adjustors, carpet decisions, new paint, new molding and myriad other details that have to be tended after a restaurant flood.

“It’s just been a nightmare,” Tarantino said. “The flood went all the way to the bar. It flooded the dining room.”

She expects to reopen in early October, so long as carpet installation and other restoration continues as planned.

She’ll also open with a new chef. Longtime chef Hudson Slater left in July for Marrow, which left the top toque position open at Maxwell’s.

Tarantino has hired Andre “Dre” Neeley to take the position. Neeley joined the staff of Seattle’s Cafe Presse, a French cafe near Seattle University, in 2010 as a sous chef and was named chef de cuisine in 2013. Read this blog post about Neeley from Cafe Presse (and Le Pichet) owner Jim Drohman here.

Tarantino said Neeley will continue Maxwell’s tradition of comfort cuisine, with the addition of regional and international comfort food dishes. Expect to see a menu that’s similar in structure to what Tarantino calls “Classic Maxwell’s.”

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 9:41 AM with the headline "Water-damaged Maxwell’s in Tacoma to reopen in October."