When the Imperial re-opens Friday, Jan. 11, patrons will find the wall that narrowed its open area near the bar to a small 5-foot corridor gone. The corridor often caused traffic jams as customers walked from the bar's entrance to the dance floor in the rear.

"We have been asked numerous times over the last few years to remove that wall, but we resisted because there was no financial gain in doing so," said Rob Daniels, the bar's current owner. "Business has been good, so we did it anyway. And the result really opens up the room nicely."

The shot bar also has been removed due to lack of use and there are no more tacos, but the kitchen still stands, Daniels said. He added that there are plans to reopen the kitchen in February.

Daniels also said, in addition to new carpet, the original wooden flooring has been sanded and refinished with better than expected results.

"I didn't think that the old floors would turn out as nicely as they have, but they look great," he said.

Upgrades to the century-old bar have created a space that is a mix of the old and the new. A 100-year-old bar sits right next to several large-screen televisions and a huge set of mounted audio speakers, and the ceiling over the bar is covered in pressed tin dating from the early 1900s.

The bar was first established in 1891 as the Missouri and has gone through a few name changes since then, briefly becoming the Louvre, before settling on the Imperial.