The restaurant known as Scanlon’s at the Athletic Club of Bend is no more.

Craftsmen are turning the space into a new establishment called Bistro 28, a creation of Cheri and Steve Helt, the owners of Zydeco Kitchen and Cocktails in downtown Bend.

Steve Helt said Bistro 28 may open in December, provided the renovation, staff training and installation of a 2,500-pound mesquite-and-hickory-burning charbroiler with chicken rotisserie go as planned.

The new bistro will incorporate the formerly inconspicuous, massive stone fireplace from the Pilot Butte Inn, the landmark Bend hotel demolished in 1973, as the centerpiece of a corner lounge.

Bistro 28 is a confluence of ideas that worked well in the Helts’ other endeavors — Zydeco, the restaurant 28, which closed in 2010, and The Loft, a private club on the floor above Zydeco, for which the Helts manage the food and beverage service.

“Scanlon’s was a great restaurant,” said Kip Heilman, the club general manager. But “it never garnered the support it really needed. It was struggling.”

Heilman said he turned to the Helts, who are athletic club members, to reinvent the place after he lost Scanlon’s chef and restaurant manager at the same time. The restaurant served its last order Oct. 10.

“It completely made sense for me. They get the club,” Heilman said. “Without question they get food and restaurants. If we were going to do anything with anybody, we’d do it with these two.”

Cheri Helt said she borrowed from The Loft the idea of a warm, welcoming lounge with couches and wing-backed chairs clustered around the fireplace. In Scanlon’s, the lava-rock fireplace sat unappreciated in a small room off the main dining area. Demolishing a wall brought it into the expanded Bistro 28.

The bar will focus on whiskey and other brown liquors as well as local beers. The menu will feature small, medium and large plates like those from 28 and Zydeco. Cuisine will encompass several formats, in bistro style, Steve Helt said. And the food will be healthy if not as calorie conscious as Scanlon’s menu tried to be. The Helts source their food in the Pacific Northwest, they said.

“Steve and I view healthy food in a different way than most people do,” Cheri Helt said. “Our food is always healthy because of the ingredients we use. Everything is from a from-scratch kitchen. We use a lot of fresh vegetables, healthy meats that are antibiotic-free and grass-fed. But it won’t be a health-food menu.”

The bistro may employ 30-to-50 people, Steve Helt said.

“It depends on how busy we are,” he said.

Cheri Helt said she hopes the new bistro becomes a favorite for Bend residents who compete in summer with tourists for tables at downtown restaurants such as Zydeco. Not that there’s anything wrong with tourists, she said.

“We want to make sure we take care of our local clientele,” she said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815,

jditzler@bendbulletin.com