By MICHELLE BEAHM | Staff Writer

MoonDogs, Too is expanding its kitchen to make room for staff and customers.

After purchasing the building in December 2012, the owner of MoonDogs, Too, Darryl Baldwin started plans for the renovation because the kitchen they have now is too small.

“The kitchen has always been small for the amount of food that goes through it,” Baldwin said.

He decided three years ago he wanted to expand the kitchen, but he didn’t own the building until recently, so couldn’t before now.

The renovations will add around 325 square feet to the building, and will enable the coolers and freezers outside to be moved inside. It also will create more counter space for cooks and provide more dry storage room.

“It basically frees up a lot of space in the regular kitchen,” Baldwin said.

In the second phase of construction, Baldwin says the stage outside the bar will be moved further back into currently unused space, clearing up more room for customer seating. There also will be landscaping done in that area, and a garden.

The main benefit of the expansion, however, will be the added space in the kitchen. During the Fathoms o’ Fun festivities, MoonDogs had four cooks working to accommodate extra customers, but their kitchen is so small that Baldwin said there was little room to move.

“We’re running five right now,” said Baldwin, referring to the number of cooks employed at MoonDogs, Too. “The way our sales have been growing on our food sales, we’ll have to go to six by a year from now.”

With the expansion, there will now be room for another cook.

The expansion already is well underway. The concrete walls are finished and now, according to Baldwin, they’re working on the floor, and then will it mainly just be interior construction.

He expects it to be completed by the end of July.