After a short closure, Westside Local refines its look and its flavors

When a restaurant calls a century-old building home, everyone expects a little wear and tear. But at the successful bistro at 1663 Summit — the six-year-old Westside Local — the leaks and creaks can start to add up.

“We’ve been getting busier and busier every year,” says general manager and co-owner Brandon Strick. “The building had issues that were leading to nonstop maintenance. It was time to get things in shape before the patio season.”

So Strick closed the Local for a couple of weeks’ worth of renovations, including refinished floors in the dining room, new flooring in the kitchen and the walk-in, and a new range with two ovens. It reopened March 5.

The kitchen already feels bigger to Justin Voldan, the chef Strick hired last October to replace Sam Jones, who left to concentrate on his music career.

Voldan, winner of The Pitch’s 2014 Golden Fork competition, has serious culinary credentials; on his three-year watch, 12 Baltimore — the Hotel Phillips’ combination saloon and dining room — became really, really good. And the chef had gotten used to the elaborate facilities of a first-class hotel.

“It’s not the smallest kitchen I’ve ever worked in,” Voldan says of the Local’s, “but definitely one of them.”

Compact work space or no, however, Voldan says he’s “10 times happier” here. “No more banquets, no room service and much better hours,” he explains.

Voldan is fine-tuning the Westside Local’s menu to go with Strick’s revamp of the space. For now, he’s focusing on the entrées and leaving some of the big sellers alone. “There are several things on our menu that we just can’t change or our regular customers would revolt,” Strick says. He names the Summit and Windhaven burgers, the grilled cheese, and the kale salad. The new chef’s imprint is already noticeable, though, on a citrus-brined pork chop, a porchetta stuffed with ham and sofrito, and lamb-chorizo tacos made with fresh lamb from the Hi Ho Sheep Farm in Oak Grove, Missouri.

The restaurant’s upgrades are mostly subtle, too. The restrooms, for instance. “We upgraded them completely with new toilets, tiling and sinks,” Strick says.

More striking, if not immediately apparent, is the new finish on the rose-oak floors, which date back to the early days of the last century, when this building was a private home, then a drugstore and, in the 1970s, Lefty’s Tavern. (The last tenant to lease the building before Westside Local was a Mexican restaurant called Porge & Brina’s.)

“We’ve replaced some wood flooring in the bar,” Strick says, “and we’re replacing the wooden benches in the dining room with new benches created by one of our partners, Derick Shackelford, who does custom woodwork. They’ll be made from locally sourced American elm, but more raw and rustic than the benches we had.”

Strick ballparks the total cost at around $30,000, a figure kept modest because some salaried employees contributed labor. “The kitchen crew came in during the work and helped move things,” he says. While most of the waitstaff took a two-week break, server Kate Burke made new curtains and reupholstered the bar stools.

“We were all itching to get the place open again,” Strick says. “It was painful to see our regular customers come to the door and not be able to let them in. Luckily, there are now a lot of other dining options in the neighborhood. You can always find someplace to eat at 17th and Summit.”