The aroma of fried chicken once again wafts out the doors of Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner restaurant, which has reopened at Knott’s Berrry Farm with a new look.

Tuesday was a “soft opening” to give staff time to get used to working in the new set up, which can hold nearly 800 diners at a time, said Russ Knibbs, the vice president of food and beverage for the theme park. The restaurant closed in January for the overhaul. The park is also renovating the Ghostrider roller coaster and nearby Ghost Town.

“We knew it was time to redo the restaurant, but a lot of people have been coming here a long time,” Knibbs said. “We needed to improve the flow from the kitchen to the dining rooms, and upgrade the kitchen. Yet we wanted to still feel like it was the original.”

Knibbs said the menu and recipes are mostly the same, but there have been some additions, such as a new fruit salad with a boysenberry sauce and chicken sliders.

One big change is the addition of a bar, replacing what was referred to as the restaurant’s Garden Room. It will serve boysenberry-flavored cocktails, beer and wine, along with standard alcoholic offerings.

The lobby has a bigger layout that will allow more people to wait inside.

“It needed upgrading, it was starting to look a little shabby, old. Now it has a clean, open look,” said Carol Oldengarm of Chino, who was dining with her husband, John. Both have sat down for meals at the restaurant since they were children in the ‘50s.

The restaurant opened as a five-table tea room, a place to rest on long travels down Highway 39. In 1934, the first pieces of Mrs. Knott’s fried chicken appeared on the menu – now the restaurant serves more than 1 million pounds of chicken in a year.

The refurbished restaurant’s decor keeps to the themes of the original concept, said Lara Hanneman, Knott’s creative director. “It’s about keeping the heritage of the farm-like atmosphere, and making it more inviting.”

The rear dining areas and banquet rooms of the restaurant have been designed to look like a working barn, along with the new exterior patio, which will seat 52 people.

In the barn area, the lights have been designed to look like equipment for hoisting bales of hay. Others were made with wooden ladders and mason jars. In the pantry dining area, the lighting fixtures are made from cooking equipment such as pasta strainers and cheese graters. There were 203 lighting fixtures specially made for the restaurant.

Though Tuesday’s soft opening was not publicized, there were people waiting to get in when the doors opened at 11 a.m. Jan Hann, 70, of Huntington Beach, was with her family. She ordered her usual: the chicken pot pie.

“I’ve been coming here since I was a child,” she said. “I like when you walk in, it’s so open and inviting. The ugly water smell is gone.”

The restaurant will add back its breakfast menu in a few weeks, Knibbs said. For now it will be open for lunch and dinner daily. The official grand opening celebration is planned for June 9.

Contact the writer: meades@ocregister.com