1188 Brewing Co. owner Shannon Adair prepares to reopen her brewpub in downtown John Day.

After nearly three months of closure following a nearby fire that left it shuttered with smoke damage, 1188 Brewing Co. is ready to welcome back loyal customers and serve up some craft brews, cocktails and hearty pub food.

Employees were busy last week preparing to reopen on Friday, July 7, for the first time after the April 17 downtown commercial fire that gutted the building next door and left the brewpub closed for two months of restoration work.

A full staff of employees had their hands full restocking the kitchen and front of the house shelving, putting back the chairs and tables, placing the glasses, cleaning the menus and testing the brewery equipment. These items had been stored for months in a trailer in the parking lot behind the building.

A fresh scent hung in the air while the staff worked nonstop Wednesday, June 28 — testament to the restoration process that took place over the past few months to remove all traces of smoke damage.

Shannon Adair, owner of 1188 Brewing Co., said it was almost like opening a brand new business, though the brewpub will celebrate its 10th anniversary next month.

“We’re celebrating that we’re still here and we’ve been here for 10 years,” she said. “We’re grateful for our community support, our customers, and I’m grateful for my staff. We have an amazing staff, and several of those people have been with us for a long time — and the reason we’re still here is that we could not have done it without them and our local community.”

Adair plans a soft reopening on the 7th with a grand reopening the week of July 10-15.

“We’re doing a soft opening on the 7th and 8th (with a special) menu,” Adair said. “We have a 10 by 10 by 10 menu — for 10 years — 10 items for $10 each. … That is so we can get our feet under us and make sure we have everything, because it is like opening a brand new business.”

Adair said 1188 should have a full selection of beer and cocktails for the soft opening, with the limited food menu for the first two days.

“Then on Sunday we’ll close up, make sure we get everything put together, and we’ll have our regular menu on the 10th and we’ll go on from there.”

Sarah Ake, a front-of-store manager for 1188, was busy cleaning and putting glasses back on the shelves on June 28.

“I would say I’m even more nervous now than I was before the fire,” Ake said while helping others prepare for the reopening. “We’re gonna be way busy … and we have a lot of new employees. So we’re just learning everything all over again, just knowing we are going to be super-busy.”

Ken Clement, 1188 head chef and kitchen manager, said he’s glad to be back to work after nearly three months of waiting. He said he’s also experienced the anxiety of “getting everybody back on the same rhythm again.”

“It’s all about the momentum,” he added.

Clement said he was among the crowd of employees who watched behind the restaurant as firefighters battled the blaze in a neighboring building.

“It was a miracle that it didn’t burn up — even after being down here when it was burning and seeing it during the night and the flames were going up,” he said. “It stayed standing.”