SAUGUS — Plans for a new restaurant at the Spud’s Restaurant property are still cooking.
Brothers Kevin Ye and Wan Xi Ye still plan to open a restaurant at the property, but hungry customers will have to wait a bit longer.
The pair plan to open a new restaurant called K Pub, a high-end sports bar and restaurant that serves American and Chinese cuisine, as well as sushi.
“It will be more like an Asian grill with sushi and burgers,” said Kevin Ye.
The Ye brothers originally estimated the new restaurant would open this summer, but have pushed back that date to October.
“We already did the demolition and framing,” said Kevin Ye. “We’re trying to update it as much as possible.”
Work on the building began in January. The layout of the restaurant will remain the same, he said. The ceiling height will increase from 10 feet to 15 feet and the decor will be more modern.
Kevin Ye is the owner of Oye’s Restaurant on Route 1 in Saugus, and Wan Xi Ye has been an assistant manager at Fusion House in Methuen for almost a decade. Kevin Ye also owns 2Twenty2, a restaurant in Boston, with a group of partners, he said.
The half-acre property, 7,296-square-foot building and liquor license hit the market last fall for $1.2 million after Spud’s Restaurant closed in June 2018.
Spud’s was open for 30 years and Heck Allens, a seafood restaurant, was there for 30 years before that.
Kevin Ye said he envisions the building’s next life to be a high end sports pub where people can stop for dinner on their way home from work.
“I think it’s a good neighborhood for a restaurant between Lynn and Saugus, and it will be pretty good there for people who are headed home,” he said. “Local people like to stay local.”
The new restaurant is expected to employ 25 to 35 people.
