Editorial update: This restaurant is closed.

We’ve never been shy about our abiding love for German café Katharina’s Café-Konditorei, despite the fact that this is one local spot we’d like to keep all to ourselves. But in service to our readers—and because we want people to patronize this place so it can stay open forever—we’ll update you on Katharina’s latest comings and goings.

By Jim Bush and Mark Ramler of Mansion Hill Properties; courtesy Katharina’s Café-Konditorei

Last summer, Katharina’s announced that they’d be moving their operations from Overton Street in Newport to a historic building on Washington Avenue, which used to house neighborhood favorite Mary Lou’s Bar & Grille. The original re-opening was slated for Fall 2016, but anyone who’s ever renovated a home knows that these things always take like twice as long as planned.

The new projected opening date is March 2017.

Photograph courtesy Katharina’s Café-Konditorei

If you’ve visited Mary Lou’s, you won’t recognize the place once Elena and company have finished their renovations. “We pretty much gutted it and put in everything new,” she says. “I’m there every day renovating, knocking out walls.”

Photograph courtesy courtesy Katharina’s Café-Konditorei

Expect three separate dining spaces: A 100-seat main room, an all-season beer garden that will seat about 35 people, and a private dining space on the second floor that will seat about 30 people. And the new location comes with a liquor license, so Katharina’s will finally have a full bar, complete with specialty cocktails and draft beer.

As for the food? The new spot will be everything you love about Katharina’s (including that spectacular bakery case), but bigger and better.

Look for an expanded dinner menu and daily German specials like sauerkraut goulash with potato dumplings and smoked roasted pork with sauerkraut mashed potatoes, white beans, and horseradish.

And as always with Katharina’s, it’s all in the family. Elena runs the business from the front-of-house (along with new staffer Dexter Hoelle), and her mom and sister, Christine and Theresa Hambuch, do the cooking. And dad Herbert Hambuch is handling the renovation through his contracting company, HPH Contractors.