POCATELLO — While thumbing an old postcard of the former Yellowstone Hotel’s first-floor lobby — which will soon be the new location of The Bridge restaurant — Bridge owner Lisa Willmore admired the same brass railings, tile flooring and front lobby desk now besieged by renovation crews.

But with construction coming to an end in the hotel on South Main Street, Willmore is hopeful her doors will officially reopen at the new location by Friday. The restaurant, formerly located at 815 S. First Ave., has been closed since late last month.

“It was a big week,” she said. “We got over a few really big humps to where we’re pretty much ready to go. The only thing we’re waiting on is the exhaust system in the kitchen. Once that gets installed, we can move everything in and get the line going.”

Though Willmore is optimistic that the restaurant will be open to customers by the end of this week, she said a grand reopening celebration is scheduled for Dec. 16. The celebration will feature a keynote musical performance by musician Steve Eaton.

In addition to playing at the Yellowstone Hotel, Eaton has written songs for The Carpenters, Art Garfunkel and Lee Greenwood. Some of those songs have climbed into Billboard Magazine's top 20, appeared on albums achieving gold and platinum status, and been re-released on multiple best-selling compilations.

The hotel inside the four-story maroon brick building, built in 1915 off South Main and West Bonneville streets, depended on the Oregon Short Line for its clientele and was known as one of Pocatello’s premier lodging destinations.

Constructed lavishly for its time, the hotel offered 120 rooms, a restaurant and cigar bar with large windows that allowed travelers to keep an eye out for their approaching bus or train.

“At the onset of the move, I looked around just about everywhere for a building that wasn’t occupied and I kept coming back to the Yellowstone Hotel,” Willmore said. “With all of its history and the fact it hadn’t been occupied in years, I felt like I’d just hate to see something like this sit here and waste away.”

Because of its central location to Historic Downtown, Willmore expects an uptick in volume. And with a 1,750 square-foot location, she’s confident her team can accommodate the extra bodies.

Initially planned for a 10-day turnaround, the challenges of renovating an old building to meet new codes provided a fair number of headaches for her. Nonetheless, she survived replacing an outdated ventilation shaft, building a new bar from essentially nothing and is now waiting with anticipation as workers finish the final touches.

“The enormity of walking in here and seeing all of my kitchen, my tables and my chairs stacked up against a wall was daunting,” she said. “Sometimes I felt like just turning around and running out of here, but I just kept going, nipping away at it.”

Willmore said the restaurant will now feature two full bars and the menu will be revamped as well.

“We have the full bar in the front for dining customers and the back section will feature a full bar that’s 21 and over,” she said. “We’re expanding our menu with more vegetarian, barbecue and bar-style foods. We do have more square feet for dining, so I’ll be expanding my employee base also.”

With a new location, Willmore said she is optimistic that a new clientele base will also follow.

“One thing that I would like differently is a mixture of blue-collar and white-collar customers,” she said. “No matter what we did we had the stigma, but I think being here in Old Town, being in the Yellowstone Hotel, and next to the railroad will open up our clientele base.”

Also fresh at the new location is an emphasis on sandwich and soup lunch items, killer happy hour deals and, when the weather warms up, outdoor seating overlooking the historic railroad that Pocatello is known for.

The hours will be the same with customers able to dine from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. The rear-bar area will remain open until around midnight.

“We’re banking on this being one of the coolest places to eat in Pocatello,” Willmore said.