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Dustin Culver and Michaela Nicpon, who closed on the popular downtown restaurant Thursday, reopened it that afternoon as Parker's 129. The number comes from its Genesee Street address.

"Everyone's still gonna call it Parker's," Nicpon told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½». 

She and Culver needed to rename the restaurant as a condition of buying it from Pete Mitchell, founder of Parker's Grille & Tap House and its five locations in the Finger Lakes. He four of them this year, along with 84 Fall in Seneca Falls and Halsey's in Geneva. Culver and Nicpon, who's managed the Auburn location for four years and worked there for seven, decided to buy it last year.

The new owners have fielded anxious questions about the future of the restaurant from staff and customers alike, they said. But Parker's itself will change about as much as its name has.

"We want to continue to be the Parker's that people know and love," Nicpon said.

"We still want it to be someplace people want to bring their families, people want to meet their friends and have a good time. We want to keep it very true to what it is, because we love what it is."

The Parker's recipes came with the restaurant, Culver and Nicpon said, so beloved staples like taco soup and spicy zucchini soup are going nowhere. The wing sauces will also stay the same, and the new owners hope to add more. The 20-tap bar will continue to feature local breweries like Prison City and Owasco Lake, but Nicpon, who used to bartend there, might add a new cocktail or two. 

Featuring local breweries will be part of a broader focus on community. Culver is from Auburn and worked at Curley's while he was in high school, before joining the Marines. Nicpon comes from Port Byron, and her first job was serving ice cream at Green Shutters. Both have gone to Parker's since it opened in 2000. For her, it was a lunch spot as a student at Cayuga Community College.

The new owners believe their roots in the area can only benefit the restaurant. Culver noted that when he and Nicpon were teenagers, most places to eat Auburn were Chinese and pizza.

"Now, 75% of the places you can eat in Auburn are local," he said.

"We're really happy to be a part of that locally owned feel for downtown," Nicpon added. "It's really special."

Some of the modest changes Culver and Nicpon hope to make at Parker's include bringing Thursday live music back for the first time since COVID-19. They've already returned to opening on Tuesdays, which was an off day for the last three years as a result of low staffing. Nicpon said the restaurant once again has about 20 to 25 employees, some who've been there several years.

Those employees are part of a rapport with customers that Culver and Nicpon treasure. The restaurant feels homey, which is why they're going to be careful about some color changes they want to make there. They also want to develop the two floors above Parker's, and to reestablish it as a destination to watch football and other sports. That's how you meet your community, Culver said.

Nicpon, who was uncertain about buying the restaurant until he suggested looking into it, said she's watched children grow up while serving their families over the years. She can anticipate the arrival of the Friday evening regulars down to the minute. She knows Parker's and Parker's knows her, so she and Culver look forward to continuing to make it part of the community for years to come.

"The connections that you make with people are the most rewarding part of this business," she said. "We want to keep being that comfort spot for people."