LANSING - The conversation had turned to shoopers.

Nick Sinicropi, the owner of Good Truckin’ Diner, was sitting in a booth inside the REO Town restaurant along with a business partner, Donn Thomas.

They were talking about Art’s Bar & Grill. Or, rather, the bar formerly known as Art’s Bar & Grill.

It will be Art’s Pub soon.

Sinicropi and his business partners Thomas, Greg Sinicropi (Nick’s brother) and Sedric Audas, are the new owners.

And the story gets better.

They have also purchased the Barn Tavern in Grand Ledge.

Both bars will get total buildouts and new menus. Both with serve breakfast, lunch or dinner any time of the day.

"We’re pretty solid on what we’re going to name it - Art’s Pub," Sinicropi said. "But we want to separate away from what had happened to it. It is no longer the place that any of us remembered 10 years before it closed."

But they still want to have a few of the things that Art's Bar fans do remember.

Art's Bar started pouring drinks in the 1940s across the street from its current location, near the railroad tracks intersecting East Kalamazoo Street. A fire demolished the original building.

It was known for its cheese-draped pizza and its shooper, a 32-ounce goblet filled with draft beer.

They're also going to "keep the mural, and preserve it somehow, we just don’t know how yet," Sinicropi said. "We want to lighten up Art's."

And there will be plenty of new things, too. Like garage doors and a patio.

Related:Extreme dive bar makeover to transform Old Town’s Unicorn Tavern

East Lansing OKs Center City high rise project

Lansing grandmother's cherry vodka for sale in Michigan

“The first little parking lot will be a patio," Sinicropi said. "I’m super excited about the patio. And we want to do garage doors on the front. And, I'm excited about the fact that we’ll be bringing third shifters our food every morning."

It will still have an Art's feel, Thomas said.

"Hopefully we'll raise the ceiling up a little bit as opposed to having that drop ceiling," he said. "We want to modernize the place, get some light in there."

The same goes for the Barn Tavern, he said, a bar that dated back to the 1930s.

"Grand Ledge is really working with us on some façade money to redo the front of the Barn Tavern," Thomas said. "We'll get some windows in.

"That’s how bars used to be. They used to be closed and dark, and people didn’t want to see in there. Now it’s the opposite of that. Now everybody wants to see in, see whether there’s people in there, get an idea of what it looks like before they go in."

There is also a patio planned for the Barn.

There are some ideas floating around for a name, but no decision yet.

Thomas said they have put approximately $300,000 into each business.

Sinicropi said he has a "really neat" breakfast menu already for Art's and rough menus for both locations.

"I think you’ll see a lot of crossover between the diner, the Barn and then Art's," he said. "None between the diner and Art's, I don’t think, but you’ll see the Barn’s menu will have diner items and Art's items on it."

They're going to try to keep the same hours at both bars, maybe 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, then maybe a little later on Friday and Saturday.

He really wants to get back to catering to the third shifters at Art's.

"Art’s was always the cream of the crop for third shifters," Sinicropi said. "They had all the BWL employees, GM, then they still got all the downtown people at lunch.

"We’re not trying to get away from it being a bar, but it can be food first and still be a bar."

There is a big breakfast opportunity at the Barn, especially since A & W stopped serving breakfast, Thomas said.

"I think there you’ll get a little different crowd," he said. You’ll get some of the older guys who are going to sit around for awhile. They all meet there in the morning. So it’ll be a different crowd. There's a real niche for both of these places out there."

They plan to hire from 28 to 32 employees for each bar.

None of the partners are new to the business. Sinicropi opened Good Truckin' food truck in 2014, then the diner a few months later.

His brother, Greg, has owned Crossroads Grill and Bar in Leslie for more than a dozen years. Thomas is a contractor and owner of RKD Investments. Audas is a financial professional with AXA Advisors.

The big question on everyone's mind is when will they be open?

“In no way will this be rushed," Sinicropi said. "It’s going to be done right, from the construction, to the employees, to the menus.”

It will happen as soon as everything is ready.

“We’d love to be open by late summer or early fall,” Thomas said.

Contact Vickki Dozier at (517) 267-1342 or vdozier@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @vickkiD.