New restaurant coming to Gray's Mill

MONTGOMERY -- Two years after a gourmet steakhouse closed, the historic former grist mill in downtown Montgomery will again house a riverside restaurant.

Final inspections are under way on Gray's Mill on the Fox, a new Italian restaurant to open at the downtown mill, which dates back to the 1850s.

"We're having two big inspections this afternoon, in fact," building manager Virginia Potter said on Friday. "We're hoping they can have their grand opening between the 5th and 15th of November."

Potter led the renovation to convert the mill into commercial space in the 1990s. From 2003 to 2007, the mill housed a popular riverside restaurant called Jason's Steakhouse.

Jason's closed in November 2007. There hasn't been a restaurant in that space since.

"I think probably the economy has played an important part in not finding people to move in," Potter said.

Gray's Mill on the Fox will focus on Italian cuisine and have a prominent bar area, already nicknamed "The Foxhole."

"They'll have a little bit of Puerto Rican food and a little Hispanic food mixed in, but primarily Italian," Potter said.

Come spring, the restaurant should set up tents for the riverside dining that was a feature of Jason's.

"Of course, we play up very much the historic background of the building because it is 155 years old right now and it is so important to the community," Potter said.

When Jason's closed, it owed Montgomery roughly $223,000 of the $309,000 it borrowed from the village through a state economic development program when it opened four years earlier.

That loan is still outstanding, but won't affect the new restaurant coming in, said Montgomery Finance Director Jeff Zoephel.

"The loan actually related to the tenants, so it does not carry over to the new tenants," he said.