When Prairie City residents want a place to drink and eat, they have a new option with Prairie Saloon, thanks to Terry and Tammy Jones.

The Joneses recently moved to Grant County to run the business after having spent the past 20 years visiting Eastern Oregon from the community of Svensen, near Astoria on the coast.

The Prairie Saloon opened last August at 226 Front St., the former Prairie Pub space.

“When we bought it, it was called the Prairie Pub,” Terry said. “The Maddens built it into a pub and then we renamed it the Prairie Saloon. Before that it was a newspaper office, it was a salon, it was a lot of things over the years. But when we got here, it was put together as a bar. We just came, cleaned up and changed a few things.”

Something that the pub had but the saloon does not are lottery machines, but the Joneses hope to add those soon.

The couple said the saloon has been busiest during the summer wildfire season, when firefighters packed the establishment.

“There’s a lot of part-time seasonal work that comes through this town during the summer, so we’re really busy during the summer,” Terry Jones said.

Terry, who had been in the manufacturing industry, said “the opportunity came along” to open a restaurant and bar.

“We’ve been to Prairie several times and we hunt in the area,” he said. “When it came up, we came and looked at it, and it was what we were looking for, so we jumped in with both feet.”

Hours are currently Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., but they’re flexible.

“If there’s people in here, we don’t close at 8. We’ll stay open,” Terry Jones said. “It just depends. During the summer we have the firefighters here, so I think our hours in the summer are 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. or 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. But that’s just a number we put on the sign. People will come in and we’ll be here until 12:30 a.m. or 1 a.m. in the morning sometimes.”

Tammy Jones said the bar has seven beers on tap.

“We try to keep a variety of the beer. … We try to get in what our customers ask us for,” she said.

Among the food choices are smoked tri-tip sandwiches, crispy chicken wraps as well as other sandwiches and wraps, salads and bar favorites such as mozzarella sticks, chicken strips, buffalo wings and sweet barbecue wings.

“We do toasted sub sandwiches and hand-pressed burgers,” Terry said.

Tammy said the couple needed grazing land for their horses and llama, but the only suitable home they could find at the time they opened their business last year was in Mt. Vernon. They hope to move to Prairie City soon.

“The people in this town are amazing,” Tammy said. “They’re the nicest and most welcoming people. They’re very supportive.”

“Even the motel sends people over here,” Terry added. “We’re getting people from Long Creek, Unity, and we’re getting more people from John Day.”