March 23, 2022

An expansion for Parker’s Bistro that’s underway will add a full bar and an additional seating area in an old industrial space with large windows.

Parker’s Restaurant Group bought the building to the north on Main Avenue in 2020 and started renovation work at the end of last year. It’s the former home of Vision Care Associates and years ago served as a dry-cleaning shop and housed Frye’s Furs, which included a basement vault for storing furs in the summertime.

“Because they were connected at one time, it’s kind of neat to get them connected again,” owner Stacy Newcomb said of the two narrow buildings that run almost to the alley between Main and Phillips avenues.

“The thing that the Frye Building will gives us, the first half will give us a bar area that’s a walk-in. You can wait for a table, or you can just come in and have a drink and appetizer or whatever. And then the back half of the building will give us a whole new event room. It’ll be both just regular dining, but there’ll be some options for parties or groups.”

That space includes the large windows on the north side of the building closer to the alley. Newcomb, a preservationist, is excited about returning the 8-foot ceiling to its original 16-foot height.

“It’s just nice to get it back to looking like it did,” she said.

The Frye Building includes two additions, but the front section was built in 1934. The current facade is white stucco and might not be that different from the original look, Newcomb said.

“We’ll have to carefully peel it back and see if we can get to the layer that was original. It’s just hard to say, but it was a very simple, modern building, built in 1934, and it was very much like it is – a little different doorway, and the window we think is original. It’s kind of a modest little building, but you get inside and it’s quite a bit more interesting than the outside.”

The light facade of Frye’s Furs stands out below the flower shop sign on the Ballard Building, which houses Parker’s Bistro.

On the original Parker’s side, the kitchen will expand, and the back dining area will be closed.

Newcomb restored the 1901 Ballard Building at 210 S. Main Ave. that houses Parker’s before it opened in 2009. The restaurant features a farm-to-table menu, craft and nonalcoholic cocktails and an in-house pastry chef.

Newcomb said a new HVAC system for the project won’t arrive for four months, so the remodeling work will take at least that long. She’s not putting a time table on the opening of the new area but expects it to be this year.