Matt and Jana Poirier, the owners of The Hound, are "excited" and "honored" to bring the community back into the fold at the historic Auburn Train Depot, where they plan to open a restaurant this fall.
Crews have already started demolition work on the inside office partitions, and the process of replacing the roof with a silver standing seam roof should begin soon.
The Poiriers have selected PSG Construction out of Atlanta, which is staffed by Auburn alums and has extensive experience restoring historic buildings into restaurants, as the contractor.
"It's exciting," Matt Poirier said. "It's also like 'now, the clock is ticking,' so all the items that have to be done — the furniture, the plates and glass and silverware — there's a lot to be done. So now the clock is ticking — let's get on it, let's get those to-do lists going and start focusing on what we need to do to get it ready."
The Poiriers are taking partners for the new restaurant, including Richard Tomasello, a former owner of 17-16, who will serve as the general manager of the new restaurant.
An offer was extended to a chef last week, although an announcement isn't expected until about two months before the restaurant opens. Poirier said he's looking at making the chef a partner as well.
The benefit of having partners running the front and the back of the house will free up the Poiriers to also turn their focus elsewhere.
"That will also allow us to act as consultants and still focus on The Hound and not take our eye off the prize here," Poirier said.
He's leaning toward a reservation-type system for the restaurant and opening only for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, although those plans could change.
"We’re going to focus on, ‘OK, let’s get dinner rocking and rolling,' " he said. "We could do that through the end of the year.
"And then, at the beginning of the year, look at expanding service, whether that’s doing an additional brunch or doing lunch. That will be something we’ll make a decision as partners together."
The current time line has construction being completed by the end of July, with the opening pegged for the end of August after training is complete.
As far as the plans for the building, Poirier says the idea is to do "as little as possible."
"We’re going to get some lead paint off. We want to see what it looks like underneath," he said. "Nobody’s seen the brick for years, so we don’t know. We’re going to look at that. That’s kind of going to determine what some of the outside is like."
The inside will be a lighter color, with dark wood and metal accents. There will also be a railroad motif, although nothing "over the top," Poirier said.
The kitchen will be located on the west side of the building by College Street, with the reception and 10-seat bar area in the center and the dining area on the east side.
In all, the current designs for the restaurant allow for about 100 seats, which includes the bar seating and a chef's table that will hold eight to 10 people and offer a window where patrons can see down the line in the kitchen.
Current plans call for 34 parking spaces on-site and two handicap spaces, with entrances from both College Street and Mitcham Avenue.
The City Council is expected to vote on the financial arrangements of the deal at its meeting on Tuesday.
The city also has plans to spruce up Mitcham Avenue with a new curb and gutter, new sidewalks on the south side of the street, new pedestrian lighting and some landscape features, among other things.
The total cost of the streetscape project is estimated at $250,000.
For the Poiriers, the opening of a restaurant at The Depot is just the next root tying them to the Auburn area.
Matt's wife, Jana, and her family have long ties to Auburn — she graduated from Auburn, as did her parents, who live about 30 minutes away west of Lafayette.
Matt and Jana, who struck up a relationship after meeting on a commuter train when they were both working in San Fransisco, got married in 2010 on her parents' property.
They made the move to Auburn on the July 4th weekend of 2011, driving cross-country.
After arriving, they almost immediately started looking for locations in the Southeast — Jana's hometown of Tullahoma, Tennessee, Destin — before looking at places in Auburn.
That's when they first toured The Depot, attracted to the site's history and the character of the building. They landed in the location of the Olde Auburn Ale House next to City Hall, though, opening The Hound a day before St. Patrick's Day in 2012.
The Poiriers have more plans beyond the new restaurant at the train depot.
Poirier says he has ideas for two or three other restaurant concepts in the Auburn-Opelika area and that he'd like The Hound to serve as a kind of incubator or feeder system for his other ventures.
Matt and Jana are also planning on building a family in Auburn and are expecting their first child in October.
With both a baby and a new restaurant on the horizon, the Poiriers will have a lot on their plate in 2015.
"It's going to be a crazy year," Matt said. "We're excited."
Auburn Train Depot
Matt and Jana Poirier, the owners of The Hound, are "excited" and "honored" to bring the community back into the fold at the historic Auburn Train Depot, where they plan to open a restaurant this fall.
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