SHENANDOAH - After months of very limited operation, The Oyster Bar will return to its former schedule with the same owners, but a new manager.
Owners Michael and Carolyn Michaels opened the popular downtown Shenandoah establishment in 2006 at 113-115 S. Main St., the former home of AMVETS Walter H. Wardigo Post 7. After renovating the veterans' post, it opened with food and live music.
"I am so excited that so many people are saying that they're glad that we're reopening, that they really love The Oyster Bar, when are we going to have oysters again," said Carolyn Michaels, a Shenandoah resident and Shenandoah Heights native. Her husband is originally from Baltimore.
Last fall, Mike had an accident and broke his back, preventing him from taking on the day-to-day operations. With some help, the bar remained open on a limited basis without food and entertainment. At that point, the business was put up for sale.
"We did try to sell it but the market is not good right now. There's no commercial money for it," Carolyn Michaels said. "We're attached to this place. We fixed up every inch of this bar when we got it. I feel like this is my home. We've had a lot of good times here."
Carolyn said the food was a draw for a time, but it was hard to maintain the needed kitchen staff.
"We closed the restaurant because we really couldn't get a full-time cook," Carolyn said. "We didn't want to sacrifice the quality of our food. We had a really good reputation for really good food, but we lost our cook.
"We then went to the nightclub format for two years. We were going to close and retire, but then we opened it up again, but then Mike fell. We didn't really close it. We just couldn't do everything. I had my son here bartending on weekends. Very low key."
Carolyn said while her husband is recuperating, he still can't work in the bar at full speed. So, they hired Leo James as manager.
Formerly of Philadelphia, James moved to Shenandoah 12 years ago and was a patron. He managed two clubs in Philadelphia before moving to the borough.
"He (James) was asking us to do this for a while, and he got the job," Carolyn said.
"We hit it off on a personality basis," Mike said. "We were throttling down, but he (James) kept pushing us to open it up. He said he saw potential in here."
"We plan to cater to a variety of people - to everyone," James said. "Good music, good food. A real comfortable, casual atmosphere. We'll have banquets and parties."
"We're going to open it up and have a place where you can dance and have some food," Carolyn said. "Hopefully a nice place for the town."
Beyond the bar is a stage and what Carolyn calls a "tiki area."
"We are decorating it for parties," she said. "We'll have one of the best bands in the area coming in soon. They're called Ghost County. We'll have them here for the official grand reopening within a month."
Happy hours will be from 5 to 7 p.m. While the bar will be open this Friday, the official grand reopening will be in the near future with the band. Since the kitchen is going through a complete renovation, food will not be available at the beginning.
"We're only going to have bands once a month until our kitchen is ready," Carolyn said. "The whole kitchen is gutted. We will still have food, but small stuff like burgers and hot dogs. We hope to have oysters in the future from time to time."
"We have a beautiful room upstairs," Carolyn said.
"We can handle about 250 people," Mike said. This would allow catered events upstairs.
A new addition is an Internet jukebox, Carolyn said. This will provide an unlimited number of music selections.
"You can have any song you want," she said. "Most of the songs will be 50 cents, some a dollar. I never thought that I would see the day when a jukebox was going in The Oyster Bar. When I opened it up, it was no jukebox and no TV."