LAKE PLACID – The Smoke Signals barbecue restaurant, bar and music venue plans to open a lakefront deck late this summer as part of its current renovations, co-owner Jason Stoltz said Monday.

The plans for the 1,500-square-foot deck features table-style seating for 72 guests and a glass rail system along Mirror Lake to preserve the view for guests on the deck and inside the restaurant at 2489 Main St. Stoltz said Monday the plan is to complete construction by August.

The Lake Placid-North Elba Joint Review Board originally approved the project in February 2013. Stoltz said the current project is “extraordinarily similar” to the plans from three years ago, the biggest difference including the addition of a staircase at the end of the deck that serves as a second means of egress to the ground.

“There is not anything else exactly like it,” Stoltz said of the lakefront deck. “(If) you combine that with our level of service and quality of cuisine, I think it’s going to be a pretty mind-blowing experience.

“It’s great for people sitting outside, but it’s as great for people sitting inside.”

Stoltz picked up the project’s building permit Monday, and he said current construction at the Smoke Signals site also includes two other projects: the initial stages of deck construction, the final phases of flood repair and restoration, and the expansion and renovation of the restaurant’s existing space, including the former Ben & Jerry’s next to the restaurant.

Stoltz said the restaurant has been closed the past three weeks to complete the final phases of repair and restoration following a February flood where the explosion of two water heaters due to subzero temperatures severely damaged the restaurant. The area most effected was the dining room, which Stoltz said will be fully restored and reopened this Friday, when the restaurant will open back up.

The restaurant reopened about a week after the flood, serving its barbecue buffet style.

The plan to construct the deck this summer was put into place before the February flood, as Stoltz said the summer “seemed like the right time to take on the deck.” He added that the new deck will increase the number of employment opportunities at Smoke Signals as well.

“First and foremost, it’s allowing us to have an even larger staff. We already employed 40 to 50 people, and this summer that will balloon up to the 60s,” he said.

In January, the town of North Elba Building Department ruled that Smoke Signals is within the Joint Review Board’s duration of approval time frame since the February 2013 approval. The department decided Smoke Signals had “substantially commenced” construction on the project, thanks to the submission of a building permit application in November 2015 and Smoke Signals’ work to finalize engineered plans for the deck.

With the current construction, Smoke Signals also plans to open up a carry-out food service dubbed Smokes To Go. Stoltz said there was no planned opening of that service as of yet, and he anticipates it will open after the lakefront deck. A substantial expansion of the restaurant’s Main Street-level kitchen is also in the works, he said.