Photo Diego Abeloos/Town Crier

James Maltby, left, recently upgraded the decor of Maltby’s Restaurant &amp Tavern at 101 Plaza North to create a more publike atmosphere for customers. Maltby’s opened in Los Altos 16 years ago.

If longtime customers of Maltby’s Restaurant & Tavern have noticed a change in the downtown destination recently, there’s a good reason behind it.

Maltby’s owners James Maltby and his wife, Katy, decided to give the bar area of the downtown staple a minor facelift. Maltby told the Town Crier he recently redecorated his restaurant, located at 101 Plaza North, in an effort to provide a more “pub-style atmosphere” for of his evening customers.

Among other amenities, Maltby installed new high bar-style tabletops and a 55-inch HD television for sports lovers and created a separate bar menu for customers who want to stop in to enjoy a drink and a quick bite to eat during happy hour. Maltby added that he’s also considering hosting live music acts on Friday and Saturday evenings starting at 8 p.m. in the near future.

“Someone told me they always considered us a pub,” he said. “That made me think we just needed to be a better pub.”

Working in a publike atmosphere is nothing new to Maltby, a native of Devonshire, England, who cut his teeth in the restaurant business as manager for the original Hard Rock Cafe in London during the mid-1980s. Maltby later found himself in California in January 1985 after a friend convinced him to travel overseas and lend a hand at Menlo Park’s British Bankers Club during Super Bowl XIX, held at Stanford Stadium.

The rest, he noted, is history. Maltby latched on with the since-closed British Bankers Club, serving as general manager for more than a decade before venturing out on his own and opening Maltby’s 16 years ago in downtown Los Altos.

Although the bar at Maltby’s may have a few new decorative elements, little else will change, Maltby noted. Maltby’s regular lunch and dinner menus, he said, will stay largely the same, offering the sandwiches, burgers, salads and other fare his customers have grown accustomed to over the past several years.

“I’ve always considered us to be the local neighborhood tavern,” said Maltby, recalling his time in downtown Los Altos. “Now we’re just a better one.”

For more information, visit www.maltbys.com.

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