Alice’s Champagne Palace, a longtime Homer landmark on Pioneer Avenue, will reopen in the near future. Tiny Nolan has been hired by English Bay Corporation to manage Alice’s, Nolan said Tuesday.

“Alice’s is going to open. There will be food, alcohol and entertainment,” Nolan said.

Although it keeps its name, expect one change at the 30-year-old downtown building: Alice’s will be a nonsmoking bar and restaurant.

Alice’s closed in November 2004 and was purchased by the English Bay Corporation in April 2005 from previous owners Dave and Trudy Ritchie. English Bay also owns the Heritage Hotel and the old Sterling Café building next to Alice’s.

Alice’s was remodeled last year and rented out for special events, such as KBBI’s Jazzmania. Except for about a month last fall when it had to sell liquor for English Bay to keep its liquor license, it has mostly been closed.

Previously known as the Club Bar, Alice’s was named for the late Alice Cochrane, who died at age 68 in 2001. Cochrane owned the bar before the Ritchies. The first Club Bar building burned down in mid-1976 and was rebuilt as the current structure, opening on New Year’s Eve 1976.

Workers have been cleaning Alice’s over the past few weeks, causing people to speculate about its return.

“I know there are a lot of people whose youth is locked into that building, and they want to get it back,” Nolan said. “I want to get it back for them.”

Tiny Nolan and his wife Lisa Nolan have a history of renovating — and reinvigorating — Homer restaurants. They previously owned the Homestead Restaurant in Fritz Creek and Café Cups on Pioneer Avenue. They now own Fat Olive’s on the Sterling Highway, a remodeled school bus barn.

Managing Alice’s brings Tiny Nolan back to his Homer start in the restaurant business: he first started cooking in Homer at Alice’s 24 years ago, when his daughter Austin was born.

“The fun part for me is I built the original kitchen,” he said.

Beyond being nonsmoking, Nolan said he didn’t want to talk yet about other aspects of the reopening.

“I’m very happy that people are excited,” he said. “I think they’re going to be happy with what I’m going to do.”

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.