(Image: Charlie’s)

After nearly 40 years of service on Broadway, Charlie’s is finally ready to return to work after taking a short sabbatical, of sorts.

The revamped Broadway hangout now part of a large Puget Sound area restaurant family celebrates a grand opening Thursday:

It’s finally time! Our doors are opening at 3pm this Thursday. Come stop in and say hello for a friendly drink and a hearty meal after work. In Charlie’s fashion, we will be celebrating by featuring happy hour for the entire day. Starting Friday December 11th, we will be open as normal, 9am – 2am daily. See you then!

You might get lucky stopping by a little earlier, too.

In November, the new ownership from the Lodge Sports Grille family of restaurants told CHS it needed a few more weeks to get the rehabilitation and upgrades of the old Capitol Hill restaurant complete and make sure service is up to the necessary Charlie’s standards.

When it reopens this week, the space will have many of the old space’s attributes but cleaned-up, we’re told. Here’s a little inside intel from a Charlie’s Refugees Facebook group where members have been eagerly anticipating the reopening with quite a few moments of nostalgia — and updates on the overhaul:

 I was walking by and noticed that they had already repainted the flower pots and I was invited in to take a look around! The bar mostly appears to be the same (besides the dividing wall missing). There are ten beer taps but no booze on the shelves yet. The tables and chairs are in place. There’s a jukebox near the entrance to the bathroom. Big news, there’s a bar in the front now with twenty beer taps. And they got the lights under the table working again. I’d never seen the table lit-up before. I thought it was an old backgammon game or something under the glass. I didn’t look in but I asked about the bathroom (and told the guy I usually just went home) and he said the original tile is there but it’s all new fixtures and vanities. They tried to keep as much as they could from the original bits and pieces. The booths up front have been mostly re-built but the table tops are the originals that have been re-finished.

Ken Bauer helped open Charlie’s in 1976, taking it over in 2000 after the restaurant’s namesake owner passed away. As the end of the lease agreement approached five years ago, Bauer started looking to sell but found no buyers. CHS broke the bittersweet news of Bauer’s long-awaited retirement and Charlie’s closing in June. The Lodge Sports Grille deal to lease the space followed.

Along with the sprucing up, the menu will be pared back and overhauled — new co-owner Kelli Kreiter told CHS part of the reason for the changes is they couldn’t get some of the old recipes but Bauer and management came to an agreement over continuing the Charlie’s name. Kreiter said the new ownership loved the quirkiness of the longtime Broadway watering hole and wanted to bring “new light” to the space without changing the nature of the restaurant. She also said she and the new owners hope to keep Charlie’s an affordable, “fair” place to hang out and enjoy a meal or a drink.

You can learn more at charliesonbroadway.com.