Published: July 01, 2009 09:01 am      

Elks Club to open restaurant

By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

The Tri-County Elks Lodge is taking on a unique fundraising venture —  they’re planning to open a restaurant on Corbin’s Main Street.

K.R. Deaton, a member of the lodge’s board of trustees, said the Elks are interested in opening a restaurant in the club’s remodeled building at 207 North Main Street.

Tri-County Mortgage, which had been leasing part of the building owned by the lodge, has moved out, Deaton said.

“The Elks Lodge bought that building a year and a half ago. We have been remodeling that building for the last year or so, and we are going to open a restaurant, which obviously will be available to the public,” he said.

Deaton said he wasn’t sure what the menu or hours would be, but it would be an “upscale” restaurant, and alcohol sales were a “strong possibility.”

Right now, the organization is in the process of putting in a kitchen and consulting with the health and building departments about restaurant requirements.

“I think it would probably be a little bit unique,” Deaton said of the lodge’s non-profit restaurant idea. “We had started discussion about it three weeks ago. What we have done at this point, we have met with the building inspector, Frank Burke, and we have met with the health department to find out exactly what we have to do in order to be able to put a restaurant in there.”

He said the club voted unanimously to pursue the venture.

The restaurant would be part of the non-profit organization, so revenues would help fund charitable lodge activities, including youth soccer and a program to provide seniors with medical alert systems so they can contact EMS in the event of an emergency.

Deaton said the restaurant could possibly be ready “within the next 90 to 120 days.”