Blackie’s By the Sea, the Beach Ball and Mutt Lynch’s — all decades old iconic bars on West Oceanfront in Newport Beach. So when one of these old timers gets a nip and tuck, locals and tourists will take note.

Owners have announced that Mutt Lynch — the baby of the bunch at 45 years old —  will reopen at 8 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 4 with a fresh look. It’s been shuttered for renovations since November and it cost $500,000, but that’s OK because it’s a labor of love for the family business; the new design is by Meghan Murray, daughter of Mutt’s owners, Gail and Dan Lynch.

“I do home staging and interior design and I did the Mutt’s location as well,” she said, referring to Mutt Lynch’s sister restaurant, Mutt’s, at Eastbluff Village Center, which she co-owns with husband Alex Murray. For this project, she teamed up with Jaime Flores. “He is a contractor and he went to architecture school. And what’s interesting about him is he actually started working at Mutt Lynch’s as a dishwasher about 25 years ago.”

The bar was named for Dan Lynch’s father, Emmett Lynch, who served in the army during WWI and was given the nickname “Mutt.”  It originally stood next to the Fun Zone but moved in the ’80s to its present location. Situated in a 100-year-old building, the 3,000-square-foot space with 200 seats needed its plumbing and electrical refurbished.

Murray said they didn’t knock down a lot of walls but they created more storage and they wanted to make the space feel more open to the Pacific. She added roll up garage door-style front windows and extended the ocean front bar, which now has about 25 seats.

“We wanted to really take advantage of the ocean front here and have that ocean breeze and because of COVID, too, it was like, well, let’s just get the air circulating here,” she said. “But then we ended up basically resurfacing everything. So it got a full face-lift.”

She upgraded the seating, refinishing it with durable fabric, enhanced the lighting and popped in splashes of primary colors. She’s adding a mural by local artists that’s a beach scene with a graffiti vibe. There are a couple communal tables, and light fixtures that incorporate the schooner glasses typical of beach bars up and down the coast.

“It’s a heavy glass chalice and we started using that 45 years ago just so we could get more beer out. It quickly became the signature item,” she said.

The menu is filled with favorite dishes like the pizza and the Pterodactyl Wings. New items will be added, chosen from among chef Juan Martinez’s most popular specials, such as chicken pot pie, a Monte Cristo sandwich and an avocado breakfast bowl with quinoa, corn and beans. Entrees average around $16. Appetizers range from $10 to $19. Kids meals are $8.

Don’t be late for breakfast. There are nine breakfast burritos ($14-$16), five eggs Benedicts ($15-$17) and five kinds of pancakes ($11-$12) along with an omelet menu that includes a build-your-own option.

The bar serves beer and wine and is planning to add cocktails this summer. But don’t worry that there will be too many changes at once.

Murray  said she’s ready to show off the new Mutt Lynch’s, but she also wants to assure the regulars, who have always loved the old place, that it hasn’t changed too much.

“We have all the comfort and familiarity of the old restaurant,” she said. “But we also have some new updated features to keep everyone engaged.”

Find it: 2300 W. Oceanfront, Newport Beach, 949-675-1556, muttlynchs.com.

Open: 8 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.

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