BY TEYA VITU
Idaho Business Review

Rex Chandler is renovating his Chandlers Steakhouse because he says the 38-year-old structure needs it. But while he’s at it, Chandler plans to create a late-night jazz club/supper club in the lounge area with supper service from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Chandlers at downtown Boise’s Hotel 43 shut down at the end of the year for a near $1 million renovation that fully remodels the bar, lounge, entrance and kitchen and “subtly” improves the dining area. Chandler expects to reopen in the first week of February.

“We started demo on New Year’s Day,” Chandler said. “We’ve been working double time ever since.”

CSHQA was the architect and EKC Construction is the general contractor.

Chandler is raising the roof of the lounge area and also expanding the lounge’s interior area by enclosing the small, four-table patio area outside the lounge.

The restaurant had long existed within the skeleton of a 1979 coffee shop with an inadequate plumbing system, Chandler said. The plumbing was replaced in the renovation.

New barstools, new high-top tables and chairs and new lighting and sound systems for the bandstand are going into the lounge and bar area.

“I want to introduce a jazz club/supper club serving dinner from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the lounge,” Chandler said. “I think there’s something of a market to support a later night jazz concept.”

The booths will remain in the restaurant but new chairs, tables and lamps will be installed.

Chandler is reconfiguring the kitchen to add a second hot line specifically to serve larger parties without having an impact on the main dining room.

New to the kitchen will be a Montague infrared broiler able to cook 40 steaks medium rare at one time, Chandler said.

“We’re not changing the concept of the restaurant,” Chandler said. “We are continuing with the same philosophy of making seasonal changes.”

Read more here: http://idahobusinessreview.com/2017/01/25/chandler-steakhouse-renovations-will-create-late-night-jazz-club/