COVINGTON — A neighborhood pub “with a name that's familiar to Tristate residents” will open in the former Howl at the Moon Saloon space in early June, as part of a $1 million renovation of Covington Landing, city officials announced Thursday.

        “It's going to be kind of a big neighborhood pub,” said John Fraser, CEO of Yucatan Development, which owns the new business. “It'll cater to anyone that's at a convention or anyone coming back from a Reds or Bengals game or anyone who lives in the condos next door. They'll be able to come down and get a beer and watch the game.”

        Mr. Fraser and Tom Steidel, Covington's assistant city manager, said the name of the new 8,240-square-foot establishment would be announced soon, pending resolution of some final details.

        “All I can say now is that it's a name that a lot of people around here will recognize,” Mr. Steidel said Thursday.

        Most of the $1 million in renovations will go toward furnishing and equipping the new pub and making minor improvements to the Yucatan Liquor Stand, which has been part of the Landing for seven years, Mr. Steidel said. Included in that $1 million is $218,500 the city is spending on infrastructure improvements, including separate entrances to all locations in the lower level, air-conditioning work and separate restrooms for Covington Landing tenants.

        Mr. Steidel said Thursday that Covington, which bought the Landing in bankruptcy court in 1997, also has agreed to retain the Yucatan Liquor Stand, which caters mostly to a 21- to 30-year-old crowd, for five more years.

        The new pub will be just to the west of the Yucatan Liquor Stand, Mr. Steidel said. The complex also includes Applebee's and T.G.I. Friday's, and the city is advertising 58,000 square feet for rent on the east side of the Landing.

        In recent years, the number of restaurants and bars along and near Northern Kentucky's riverfront has mushroomed, with the opening of more than a dozen establishments in Covington's MainStrasse Village and the Park Place area around the Kenton County administration building.

        In the past year, new restaurants and bars also have opened on Bellevue's riverfront and at the $210 million Newport on the Levee, which opened last fall promising a mix of movies, games, food and shopping. The Levee — featuring restaurants such as Brio Tuscan Grille, a family-owned Italian eatery; Mitchell's Fish Market; Dewey's Pizza; Claddagh Irish Pub; and Empire Night Club — piggybacked on the success of the Newport Aquarium on the Ohio riverfront.

        “In a way, competition can be really good,” said Mr. Steidel, who said business has been booming at many restaurants and bars near Covington's riverfront. “Look at MainStrasse. It seems the more bars that open, the more crowded they get.”
       Tommy Behle, owner of the Behle Street Cafe next to Covington Landing, agreed.

        “If someone else goes in there, that'll just create more traffic for us,” Mr. Behle said.

        Since becoming principal manager of the Landing in 1997, the city of Covington has made more than $500,000 worth of improvements to the complex, which opened in August 1990. Those included re-paving the valet parking lot, adding new ramps to move up and down with the changing river levels, and erecting barriers at the end of the complex to keep debris from getting trapped between the landing's barges and the shore.

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