HERMISTON — With a shock of teal and brick, Delish Bistro reopens at its new location at 1619 N. First St. in Hermiston in just a few short weeks. The move launches the restaurant from a cramped 600-square-foot interior to an expansive 6,000 square feet where diners can expect to find an array of dishes from around the world.

Mother-daughter duo Carol and La Nae Hull run the restaurant, which offers food ranging from American burgers to Italian gelato to Vietnamese dishes. The professionally-trained chefs are hoping to open their doors to diners by the time the Farm-City Pro Rodeo rolls around on Aug. 11.

“We’re getting excited,” said La Nae, the head chef. She said they cook and serve their favorite foods from around the world and the menu will change depending on the seasons.

“We have a good menu,” Carol said. “We just love what we’re doing — cooking for people and making people happy so hopefully that’ll continue.”

With bright colors, spacious ceilings and vintage posters lining the walls, the new location is a departure from previous restaurants in the building. What used to be a Fuddruckers, then Mavericks Entertainment and finally Stet’s Steak House with dark wood and interiors now is light and shiny.

“We want people to feel happy in here, and so we want bright colors,” Carol said. “We just wanted it to be a happy place to come to.”

The Hull family also lacked space in the previous location and were thinking about moving around three years ago. Construction on the site began in earnest in 2019 but stalled for a while with the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, they are close to completion and are hoping to open the week of the rodeo.

According to Herman Hull, Carol’s husband, the kitchen at the old location was so narrow “you had to turn sideways to walk past each other.” The new kitchen, in contrast, has plenty of space for the range of food they cook with dedicated line, prep and baking areas.

“We just have more room to do more stuff,” Carol said, “and we added another double-decker oven so we can get more things done every time.”

The cramped conditions were so bad that Carol was coming into the kitchen at 3 a.m. to start baking before the kitchen would get too packed with staff. She wouldn’t get home until after the restaurant closed in the evening.

The new site, which is right in front of the Hermiston Home Depot, also will be host to more than just food. With a private event room for guests, named the Hibiscus Room, a stage for live music and microphones to host a radio show for Hermiston’s KOHU station every Tuesday, Delish Bistro has the opportunity to be a bigger fixture of the Hermiston community.

The family hopes to host musicians during the weekend and is interested in featuring people from the local area, those traveling around or startup artists.

The restaurant is split up between a breakfast area and lunch and dinner areas. In their last location, the Hulls had to take out the bar because they didn’t have enough space. With the expansion, they will be seeing a return to full alcohol service with beer, wine and mixed drinks they can sell to-go.

Starting at 7 a.m., eaters can find homemade pastries and coffee. There is lunch in the afternoons, a happy hour 4-6 p.m. while dinner runs from 5-9 p.m. Some of their dinner options include Hawaiian poke, pork spare ribs and whole rainbow trout.

Delish Bistro is hiring bartenders, cooks, bakers, servers and dishwashers. For more information, email info@delishbistro.com.