Just four months after moving from Pendleton to Hermiston, business is booming so much for Stetsons Steakhouse that the restaurant is expanding into the lunch business and adding a dance hall.

“Hermiston has been very good to me,” owner Frank Perkins said.

The dance hall and lunch area will be separate from the restaurant’s current dining area, replacing the bumper cars and arcade games in the section of the building that previously housed Fun Time Entertainment.

Perkins said the area, which is being remodeled to seat close to 100 people, will also be able to be rented out for events.

He plans to serve lunch from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and, if he gets enough interest, eventually add a Sunday brunch. In addition to the seating area, the menu for lunch will also be separate from the Stetsons Steakhouse dinner experience. It will include burgers, salads, sandwiches, fried chicken and “eight to 10 different flavors of ice cream.”

Perkins is also adding Hermiston’s only dance hall to the space, with live music in a variety of genres on Friday and Saturday nights.

“People want to go dancing but they have no place to go,” he said.

Perkins said his tentative opening day for the expansion is March 10, with the first live music event on March 13. He said he never expected to expand so fast after moving his business from Pendleton to Hermiston in October, but many of his Pendleton customers have continued to frequent the steakhouse in its new location and he has discovered that many of the regulars he always assumed lived in Pendleton were actually driving in from Hermiston for dinner.

“I’ve got a lot of loyal, loyal customers,” he said.

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Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4536.