The Mt Ephraim Bar & Grill opens Wednesday December 27th. This is an all new construction bar and grill, sized to be a popular stop for locals. The location is on the Black Horse Pike directly next to the Mt Ephraim McDonald’s.
The Mt Ephraim Bar & Grill offers 10 beers on tap, a selection of additional beers in bottles and cans, as well as a full offering of spirits and wine. The also have a “to-go” refrigerator.
With the bar area positioned to the front of the building, the back is where the all new kitchen was developed. The owners tell me they want the local spot to be known as much for its delicious food as they are for their cold beers and amazing cocktails.
I stopped in last week for a friends and family preview visit and met with the ownership, manager, chef and one of the lead bartenders.
The ownership family lives in Camden County and operate several successful businesses in the area. To ensure success with this new business effort, they have hired talented people for the bar, kitchen and overall management of the Mt Ephraim Bar & Grill.
The Mt Ephraim Bar & Grill building was most recently used as a Little Caesar’s Pizza take-out business, and before that it was a Subway.
So let’s get this out right up front.
The Mount Ephraim Bar & Grill is a really nicely designed all new construction offering a great beer selection, an extensive menu, and an attractive interior design with cool mood-setting lighting and the perfect amount of televisions to catch the latest game on…
… but it’s not a large space! The entire bar and dining area is about 875 square feet, and the maximum allowed capacity is 50 customers.
If you’ve been to Amato Brothers in Oaklyn, I’d say they customer space is comparable in size although the Mt Ephraim Bar & Grill features a larger center bar.
So keep that in mind as thousands of people on 42Freeway and the South Jersey Food Scene group are reading this and getting excited about a new place to try…well we all can’t show up on the opening day, ha!
The parking lot for the property has been refinished and lined and has enough parking to accommodate the current seating. That being said, the full property extends further back into the unfinished lot, which in the future should provide ownership with options to expand the bar offerings.
Mount Ephraim Bar & Grill
The exterior of the Mount Ephraim Bar & Grill retains the same configuration than it had previously, but everything has been freshened up including painting, windows and stylistic exterior lighting.
Customers enter on the side entrance foyer of the building and then turn in, to enter the bar area.
The core bar space is a rectangular, almost square room with a center rectangular bar in the middle.
Table seating is also placed around the outer perimeter of the room. The tables on the front side where the space is wider, support full four seat tables.
In its prior life the building’s front windows were completely glass across from side to side, but in the remodel they have change things up a bit and have three spaced out windows in the front. It’s enough to let in some natural light while also keeping some privacy within the bar. It’s a bit of an optical illusion as from the outside it looks like glass windows all the way across.
Several brand new televisions are placed along the walls around the room, with two 85-inch televisions side-by-side on the one side wall. Ownership tells me they will be replacing one of the smaller TV’s on the opposite wall, with another larger 85 inch model
The room and bar area was outfitted with a variety of color changing lights so that management can quickly and easily adjust the mood within the room!
As mentioned earlier in the article, the draft system features 10 different draft taps, and of course they have other beers available in cans and bottles.
With the rectangular shaped configuration of the bar, as you would expect there is a center island for bartender use including liquor bottles and glasses.
In my visit last week I had a chance to meet and chat with lead bartender Deja Joy, who was instrumental in picking out the beer, liquor, and wine choices.
Deja Joy also crafted the specialty cocktail/mocktail menu. Of course you can order whatever you like but they have some signature offerings such as a; Remy Old Fashioned, Pineapple Jalapeno Margarita, the Mt Ephraim Long Island Iced tea, Espresso Martini, and a Cucumber Mojito.
Mocktails include Virgin Pina Coladas, Mojito Berry, Shirley Temple and a Pineapple Refresher!
Mt Ephraim Bar & Grill will also be offering a happy hour from 5:00 to 7:00 every day, details of which will be shared at their Facebook page. After they move past the initial opening weeks they plan on adding a variety of specials throughout the week.
In the back portion of the building is the kitchen area which has enough space for food storage and refrigeration, a large prep area as well as the kitchen cooking equipment which includes; fryers, burners, grill, and a large pizza oven!
And its all new, fresh and super-clean!
I met with the chef who said one of the staff members makes an excellent pizza and they hope it to be one of the key items that draws customers back to the Mount Ephraim Bar & Grill time and time again.
For my visit last week I had a delicious classic double cheeseburger with fries. The burger was tender and juicy, and cooked perfectly. I was happy to see that the fries were the classic “not coated” fries. ha!
So as you would expect, being a local Tavern the menu offers all of the pub classics with a variety of appetizers, nachos, burgers and steak sandwiches, salads and more.
Options range from delicious mozzarella sticks, deep fried pickles, and of course amazing wings… to a variety of burgers, chicken sandwiches, veggie burger and steak sandwiches.
The entree menu is where the Mt Ephraim Bar & Grill really kicks things up several notches, with nine different main course entrees including; grilled chicken, grilled salmon, grilled chicken pasta… all the way up to a seasoned grilled T-bone steak cooked with garlic butter and rosemary, served with homemade grilled potatoes!
I look forward to stopping back and trying out one of their signature entrees!
And I’ll close with.. as you would expect the bathrooms are all new construction also, and sized appropriately for the size of the venue.
The Mount Ephraim Bar & Grill opens on Wednesday for lunch, then there is a bartender shift change at dinner time when Deja Joy takes over until close.
Management expects to be in soft opening phase for the next few weeks so some aspects may change over time. Initially during the week they expect to be open until midnight, and Thurs-Saturday until 1.
Keep up with the Facebook page for latest.
Links and Locations
Mt Ephraim Bar & Grill
267 S Black Horse Pike
Mt Ephraim NJ 08059
- Website