You’ll never guess what’s next for closed Crescent Bar. ‘Go big or go home.’

Matt Goodwin has been busy in Boise the past few months.

He and fellow Spokane developer Jordan Tampien purchased the old Dutch Goose on State Street. They will reopen it as a gastropub, The Backyard Public House. With their brothers, the men also bought property in Garden City that will be developed into Brick West Brewing Co.

And this week, Goodwin and Tampien are buying the former Crescent “No Lawyers” Bar and Grill at 5500 W. Franklin Road.

“Go big or go home,” Goodwin says good-naturedly.

That philosophy definitely applies to their plans for the Crescent Bar property, which is about 2 ½ acres.

Two restaurants are coming. And two three-story apartment buildings — a total of 48 units — behind the former sports bar. “Hopefully more,” Goodwin said Tuesday.

The 8,600-square-foot Crescent will be remodeled and transformed into two new food-and-drink establishments, sharing the bar’s liquor license.

One half will be a still-unnamed breakfast and brunch destination. The other half will be a gastropub like the Backyard Public House. “We’re debating whether we want to do a Backyard 2 or a different name and concept,” Goodwin said. “But the concept would be something similar.”

Part of the reason they are planning for a brunch spot connected to a gastropub is to accommodate parking, he said.

“The issue is going to be with putting the apartments in there, we don’t think we’ll have enough parking to have two places busy on a Friday and Saturday night. So we’ll have one that focuses on breakfast and lunch and will be open until 2 p.m. or something, and then the gastropub will be open at 11 a.m. for lunch. ... When the lunch place closes, the gastropub opens and the parking lot is free and clear.”

Goodwin said the building will get a “significant remodel,” so he expects it to be four to six months before the restaurants open. “The apartments, that’s probably 18 months until we’re renting,” he added.

The Crescent Bar closed about a week and a half ago after decades on Franklin Road. Owners Butch and Jody Morrison have decided to retire, Jody Morrison told the Statesman on Monday.

Ending the Crescent’s long run is “very bittersweet,” she said. “You don’t meet as many nice people over the years as we have — and you become family and good, good, good, good friends.”

The Crescent opened in 1965 at 413 N. Orchard St. — now Campos Market, she said. Jody Morrison’s parents, Ray and Hazel Ballard, bought the bar in 1970 and ran it for a decade before selling it to her and Butch. They built a larger new bar on Franklin Road and moved the Crescent in 2003.

The “No Lawyers” theme started in 1984 after the Morrisons got into a legal fight with a neighbor — who was an attorney — over a swimming pool they wanted to build at their home. The tiff generated unexpected attention — and lucrative publicity for the bar. Soon, the Crescent began selling “No lawyers” shirts, hats and menu items.

Decades later, Jody Morrison thinks that the Crescent Bar being sold to new owners is a good thing.

“Because Butch and I are too tired at our ages,” she said with a laugh. “It’s time to restore life to the Crescent that we can’t give it.”

This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 10:38 AM.