The best thing about the Lumberyard reboot? Looks and feels a lot like the old Lumberyard. A funky labyrinthian site with charming bar, live music, retail and event spaces.

The reboot’s by tvg hospitality (yep, all lowercase). That’s the same company that runs Huntsville’s city-owned Orion Amphitheater.

Tvg cofounder Ben Lovett tells AL.com, “A lot of the work has gone into kind of re-establishing the soul and the identity of what makes the Lumberyard such a unique space.”

But two central components of tvg’s four-years-in-the-making project still aren’t ready: a new small-capacity music venue aimed at up-and-coming touring bands and top-drawing local acts; and a new restaurant.

“Maybe our dreams were a bit big for our stomachs initially,” says Lovett, who’s also a multi-instrumentalist with Grammy-winning British folk-pop band Mumford & Sons. “But we’re gonna get there.”

The restaurant, whose concept is to be determined, will be “phase two” of the new Lumberyard. Phase three will be the new touring bands venue, currently named Meridian Arts Club. Given the reboot’s long gestation, tvg isn’t sharing target dates for phases two or three yet.

Phase one of the reboot began this week, though. Tvg is offering free coffee, from Onward Coffee Company and food truck Sparrow Coffee, and free Wi-Fi to entice visitors to Lumberyard, address 108 NW Cleveland Ave., just off Meridian Street on downtown’s outskirts. For now, Lumberyard’s only open weekday mornings, 8 – 11 a.m.

“We’re kind of slow rolling the introduction,” says tvg’s Ryan Murphy, who steered the company’s 2021 Orion Amphitheater launch. “Like, come check out the Lumberyard, grab a coffee, walk around. Instead of reestablishing the Lumberyard as this big, massive thing that has these multiple movable parts, I feel like we’ve given ourselves and the community some time to build towards something really special again.”

For now, Lumberyard’s cozy interior bar called the Kiln and once a local music hotspot, isn’t back with regular nighttime hours. But tvg is activating the Kiln around certain Orion Amphitheater events.

Ahead of folk-pop band Avett Brothers’ Orion concert Saturday, the Kiln will host a Friday listening-room performance by singer/songwriter Jim Avett, father of Avett Brothers musicians Scott and Seth Avett. Jim Avett’s Kiln show is 7 p.m. and tickets are $35 plus fees via etix.com.

Friday at the Kiln after Jim Avett’s show, Red Flags, an alt-rock band comprised of local mainstays like singer/guitarist Bill Fowler, will play a 9 p.m. set. Tickets for Red Flag’s show are $10 plus fees via etix. Those who purchase Jim Avett tickets can stay for Red Flags for free. Red Flags are also the opening act for Avett Brothers’ Orion concert Saturday, which is a Huntsville Hospital fundraiser. Local promoter Hendley Group is behind all three shows.

Other upcoming Lumberyard events include a May 31 interactive murder mystery, “Scandal at the Strawberry Festival.” This summer, they’ll host a Huntsville Food & Farm Hub market on 4–7 p.m. Tuesdays.

Also on the way: a weekly songwriters series, food pop-ups, cocktail classes, floral workshops and more pre/post Orion concert events. Murphy says, “There’s some cool events we’re starting to line up and really stack, that aren’t just like a private rental.”

Other familiar facets of Lumberyard open in phase one include the courtyard that hosted the first Microwave Dave Day concert, which celebrates Huntsville’s signature musician, Alabama blues icon Dave Gallaher. Also out back, a refurbished vintage railroad car oozing Roaring Twenties cool.

The Lumberyard’s also been zhuzhed up in places, as you’d expect from tvg, given the state-of-the-art Orion Amphitheater and the $12-million or so tvg allocated for Lumberyard and Orion’s Apollo Park.

Lumberyard’s back bar is now open-air like something from a vacation resort. Over behind the courtyard stage, a space where a forklift used to be parked was transformed into a boho-chic covered patio. Further back, there’s now a groovy room with glow-in-the-dark ping-pong.

The night of May 1, the Lumberyard eased back into public consumption. An open-bar open-house event was held for invited local media, musicians, organization leaders and business community. Inside the Kiln, Huntsville native Rob Aldridge performed an acoustic set.

Previously called A.M. Booth’s Lumberyard, the site was opened in the mid-aughts by Doug Smith. Smith also owns the studio next door, Sound Cell Recording, whose clients have ranged from country god Willie Nelson to rap star Killer Mike.

Jessica Bolling is the project manager for Lumberyard’s reboot. She’s got deep and personal roots here. Bolling is Smith’s daughter, and she helped him get the previous Lumberyard together and going.

Now, Bolling says, “Seeing it back again and even better — going from the visualization and design to working through the permits to just seeing it and feeling it — is super cool.”

Aesthetics alone are empty, though, Bolling says. “It’s all about the people who come and enjoy it. To me, we’re like the dress and they’re the jewelry that makes it.” Over the years, the Lumberyard has also hosted hundreds of weddings, Bolling says.

Together, Lumberyard’s vibey spaces call to mind a mix of classic Birmingham watering hole The Garage and Spahn Ranch, the Los Angeles ’50s Westerns film set turned ‘60s Manson Family hideout.

Lovett says of Lumberyard, “Anyone who’s stepped foot in that space, people from London or Berlin or L.A. who’ve come to the Orion, just think it’s one of the coolest places on Earth.”

The names of Lumberyard and the themed areas it contains were inspired by a yesteryear Huntsville homebuilder named A.M. Booth. Booth used the site as an actual lumberyard. There was a kiln onsite to cure the lumber, which was brought in by train on the railroad tracks abutting the property.

Earlier in Smith’s Lumberyard tenure, the Kiln space was the original location of the service industry nightspot Lone Goose Saloon. One of Huntsville’s best restaurants, Domaine South, now on the downtown square, started as a wine shop on Lumberyard’s south side. Another storefront space was home to standout local chef Ruth Mercado’s since-shuttered Sandwich Farm.

Smith’s Lumberyard shut down mid-2021, and tvg began working on their reboot since late-2021 or so. Tvg is now Lumberyard’s operator and majority owner. Smith remains a minority owner but is no longer involved in operations, Murphy says.

In addition to Orion, tvg runs beloved Birmingham music venue Saturn, as well as multiple venues in London, where tvg is based. Other currently active businesses within Lumberyard’s footprint include guitar repairman Tom Shepard and floral designer Native Petals.

In early 2022, when tvg went public with their Lumberyard reboot, they targeted a summer opening that year. That was pushed to spring 2023. Then again, to 2024. Most recently, a grand opening for The Lumberyard was set for Oct. 13 last year, for the 10th anniversary edition of Microwave Dave Day.

But that grand opening wasn’t too, well, open. Instead of having the main stage inside Lumberyard’s courtyard, as for Microwave Dave Day’s 2015 debut, the stage was in the parking lot across the street. Second-stage performances took place inside The Kiln. But much of the Lumberyard, which during its prior run also served an excellent brunch, wasn’t used for the event.

Previously, tvg attributed Lumberyard’s opening delays to a lack of available construction subcontractors, due to Huntsville’s booming development in recent years and Lumberyard being a relatively small job. The deeper tvg got in, though, bringing Lumberyard up to 2025 building codes became the biggest challenge, Lovett says.

Since the 2022 closing of SideTracks Music Hall — which during its five-year run brought in acts like Greta Van Fleet, Shovels + Rope and Southern Culture on the Skids — Huntsville’s been without a full-time club-sized venue for touring-level bands. Lumberyard’s Meridian Arts Club was designed at filling that void.

St. Stephens Music Hall, which opened a year ago in west Huntsville, is a cool little room. But its 80-person capacity is too small for many acts. This fall, St. Stephens’ partners will close that space and have signed a lease to reboot Huntsville’s most storied music bar, Tip Top Cafe. Lowe Mill-founded gem Veloce Pizza will run Tip Top’s kitchen.

When/if Lumberyard’s Meridian Arts Club venue happens, rising bands would again have a way to build a Huntsville market following.

Ideally, some bands playing Meridian Arts Club would grow enough next tour they could play Mars Music Hall, Von Braun Center’s 1,600-ish capacity venue. Maybe a few acts someday even get big enough for Orion.

Now though, Lovett says, “We do need a few more bits to fall into place, including the rest of the non-venue part of this site, to work for it [Meridian Arts Club] to make sense. But we are very much committed. We have a plan to bring that small-cap venue — we really think it’s important and we think this is the location for it. It’s just not the first part of this particular journey.”

Still, “Huntsville’s backyard,” as the Smith-era Lumberyard tagline went, is back. At least partially.

Bolling says, “We want to just get people back in here, put a heartbeat back into this and let the place be loved and nurtured. Then we’re gonna start seeing where the future takes us as quickly as we can.”