Everything changes — except the Pub, which has reopened after a summertime renovation

Let’s get this out of the way first: Nothing has really changed at the Pub in Pennsauken, which reopened Friday after being closed all summer for renovations.

At 4 p.m. sharp, a throng walked through the doors and right back into the era of the Kennedy administration, lining up at the host’s stand to get a table in the familiar, brick-lined Tolkienesque banquet room decorated with war flags, swords, knights, and outsized taxidermy.

The Pub’s 1,200 seats are spread among three dining rooms and bar, making it one of the region’s largest restaurants. Two 20-foot salad bars, which some people eat from as an entire meal, anchor the main room, where steaks are cooked over six open hearths. About 120 people — cooks, waiters, dishwashers, managers, workers in the onsite laundry room — work there on a peak night.

On a typical Saturday, when 700 to 1,000 customers cycle through, the restaurant will roast 10 to 15 prime ribs, the best seller, each weighing 12 to 15 pounds, said David Gelman, whose family owns the Pub. Following prime rib in popularity is a dish called the Carpet Bagger, which places a jumbo crab cake atop a 9-ounce filet mignon; it’s served with potatoes, vegetable, and hollandaise sauce.

First through the door were Marty and Mary Ann Monteleone, who drove up from Franklinville, Gloucester County, for an early dinner, not realizing that Friday would be the Pub’s first day back. “I just love this atmosphere,” Marty Monteleone said. “There is nothing like it around anymore.” He was there for the steaks, she was there for the salad bar, they said.

The Pub opened in 1951 on what was then known as Airport Circle at Route 130 and Kaighn Avenue and was rebuilt in the early 1960s after a fire. In the olden days, it served lunch and dinner. Hours were shortened during the pandemic and it now opens at 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m. Sunday, not listing a closing time besides “late.”

Like many employees, Stevie Logothetis, the general manager, said she took a vacation before coming back several weeks ago to set up for the reopening.

Linda Hollinger, who has waited tables for 49 years (“I started when I was 1”), said she went to Iceland for her hobby, art photography. “But I’m really happy to be back because it’s hard to stay sharp and not get stagnant,” Hollinger said. She works a station of three tables, which turn over multiple times during a typical shift.

Skepticism had greeted the Pub’s announcement in June that the closing would be temporary after Binswanger, a real estate brokerage, posted an apparent sales flyer for the property.

Gelman said he understood the reaction, “probably because there’s been a lot of other restaurants that have closed down over the years.” He said chuckled over Facebook comments — “people saying, ‘Oh, it’s closing,’ or ‘I spoke to somebody who said that it’s for sale and all.’”

Gelman said he could not explain the sales flyer, but his family never signed a listing agreement. The associates listed on the sales flyer did not return messages from The Inquirer seeking comment. Gelman said he had reached out early in the summer, advising them to remove the flyer.

“I always tell people: ‘Don’t believe everything you read,’” Gelman said.