Emporians looking for a nightspot will have one more choice when Natasha’s reopens its doors at 5 p.m. Friday.
The bar at 627 Commercial St. has been closed since late last summer and will open under new ownership.
James A. Roberts Jr., who also owns Wings & Things at 409 Commercial St., bought Natasha’s and its inventory at an auction in February.
Roberts says there have been a few changes to Natasha’s, and more are planned for the future. One change is the addition of a DJ booth upstairs.
“We’ve repainted and redid the floors and just basically cleaned everything,” Roberts said. “Basically, it will be the same except we will be offering dancing upstairs on Fridays and Saturdays.”
Roberts said he hopes to have a kitchen up and running in late July or early August, and is already working with a chef.
“He’s got a basic menu laid out, and we’ll have a few different things,” Roberts said. “We’ll have three or four different steaks and different pastas. We’ll have sandwiches, a soup of the day, and then for our specials we’ll put out things we’re thinking of putting on the menu.”
He said the specials that will be offered will be upscale dishes.
“It seems that’s something people are interested in seeing on the menu,” he said.
Natasha’s will open every day at 5 p.m., so once the kitchen is running there will be no lunch offered.
“I didn’t want to compete with myself down at Wings during lunchtime,” he said.
Natasha’s originally was opened in September 2005 by Becky Church and Eric Johnson. The property and its inventory went up for auction because of back taxes owed, which resulted in the property’s lien-holders seeking reimbursement.
Roberts said that in addition to running the new Natasha’s, he will continue to operate Wings & Things.
Comments
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history_nerd (anonymous) says...
I'm looking forward to checking out the new place. I'm glad it won't be sitting empty anymore!
May 4, 2009 at 4:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lovelyp0is0n (anonymous) says...
i hope its fun. i like being able to dance when i go out so hopefully they have a good dj
May 4, 2009 at 4:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
chiefsfan (anonymous) says...
Wow, no surprise here about who's negative right at the start.
May 4, 2009 at 6:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eatasheep69 (anonymous) says...
I'm excited for it as well. I'm also looking forward to an interesting new place to eat. I would rather dance around people than pool tables. Best wishes, James! It sounds like you'll have a great place.
May 5, 2009 at 6:46 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gemini (anonymous) says...
Upscale dishes? Sounds awfully similar to 4th Ave Dining. And they didn't survive.
At least the college bar atmosphere it will be turned into can keep it afloat for a few months out of the year.
May 5, 2009 at 11:28 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
Let's bump this up!
May 7, 2009 at 3:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
bump
May 8, 2009 at 9:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
Getting close to 5!
de-bump.
May 8, 2009 at 3:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
rbovv (anonymous) says...
May 8, 2009 at 4:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )