Aunt Maude’s will temporarily be closing its doors next month.

Starting July 1, the 31-year-old restaurant Aunt Maude’s, 547 Main St., will close for one month to renovate its kitchen and do some work on the front of the building.

Pat Breen, owner of Aunt Maude’s, said the closure would last until Aug. 1.

“We plan on laying a new floor drain, air conditioner and floor,” Breen said. “We are also doing some to the front of the place. It’s in need of a good facelift.”

There will not be any increase in the size of the seating nor will there be any major change to the restaurant’s menu.

“The menu changes on a regular basis and we will keep it like that even after the renovation,” Breen said.

Breen has applied for a grant to help pay for the renovation

“The city has a grant to downtown businesses; I have applied for it,” Breen said.

All of this comes at a time when Aunt Maude’s almost left Ames for good.

For 16 years, Pat Breen was involved in a business partnership with Bob Cummings on the restaurant, and for the past couple years, there were rumors it may leave the city.

Breen said there were three possibilities for them: leave Ames, move to another location in Ames, or renovate.

“We began to look at other facilities in the area, but it didn’t work out. We did look at the possibility of leaving town,” Cummings said.

“We really thought about leaving [but] a lot of businesses and people and city officials wanted us to stay,” Breen said. “They really let us know how much they hoped for our staying in downtown.”

Cummings said Breen offered to buy him out, so he accepted the offer.

On May 1, Breen completed a buyout to have full control of Maude’s, and he also bought the building.

The two are still work together in the Ames eateries The Caf‚, 2616 Northridge Parkway, and O’Malley & McGees, 716 S. Duff Ave., as well as one business in Jacksonville, Fla.