JOSEPH — Outlaw is going legal as it takes up the Slack in Joseph. Former owners Scott and Becky Rushton have sold their longtime restaurant to Jon and Jaime Grant.

“Scott and Becky did a good job,” Jaime Grant said. “We’re lucky to be taking it over — having them pass the baton.”

She sat for an interview Monday, July 3, just the third day since it opened under new management. Jon was busy in the kitchen, while their daughters and other employees were busy around the place.

A family affair

That management includes the Grant family and their employees. Jaime’s mom, Barbara Parker, who was instrumental in drawing the Grants to Joseph, helps out, as do the couple’s three daughters, Bailey, 25; Bergan, 20; and Bentley, 17.

Bailey and her fiancé, Tyler, drive back and forth from Sandy to help on weekends. The other two are living here.

“They’re all involved,” Jaime Grant said. “They’re all here working.”

“We knew after the youngest graduated we’d probably head this way,” she said. “A few months ago, we were sitting over at Embers and I told my mom that if the Outlaw ever came up for sale, I’d want to buy it. This would be the spot I would want. It worked out that it wasn’t long after that, she heard that Todd and Becky were thinking about selling it and she got a hold of me.”

The Grants are no strangers to Wallowa County.

“We’ve been coming here all our lives because my mom lives here,” she said.

Changes?

Grant said they haven’t made many changes and don’t plan many, given the popularity of the place’s menu.

“We haven’t made a ton of changes other than we’re going to open up the whole restaurant,” she said. “We’ll have the dining room side, the bar side, the outdoor patio, the courtyard — people can go play cornhole and have beers and stuff out there — and then we’ll have the banquet room open again for parties and things like that.”

She’s not sure when such opening up will take place.

“This is our third day open,” she said.

Jaime noted that while the old name of “Outlaw” is steeped in Joseph history — coming from a legendary bank robbery in the 1890s — she and Jon wanted something different, more to go along with the rodeo lifestyle of Joseph. Slack is a rodeo term that refers to events scheduled at times other than the main rodeo because there is not enough time to squeeze everything in. A tack room, of course, is where livestock handlers keep their gear; the Tack Room is the new name for the restaurant’s coffee shop portion.

The future?

The Grants aren’t new to the restaurant business, Jaime said.

“This isn’t my first rodeo,” she said of their experience.

They had a restaurant in Northeastern Portland for six years and sold it seven years ago. It served mainly breakfast and lunch in a fast-paced industrial area. But they like it here.

“We like it. We like it crazy,” she said.

Jaime said the Outlaw’s menu is one thing that will largely remain intact.

“We only took a handful of things off,” she said. “Their Long Island stuff, it’s iconic here,”referring to the Long Island iced teas

“Their ahi tuna salad and their steak salad, we kept a lot of what they had,” she said of other items.

They’ll also capitalize on their own experience serving breakfast.

The Grants decided to remain open all the week except Wednesday since others close Monday and Tuesday.

“Right now, we’re evaluating our inventory and getting in our groove,” she said. “We’ll decide later if we’re going to add a seventh day.”

Jaime said they hope to not have to close for seasonal hours, like so many local businesses do.

“We don’t want to; we want to stay open in the summer and in the winter for anybody who’s going to come here,” she said. “We love our locals. They’re the ones who are going to keep us in business.”

They’re just glad to be here, she said.

“We’re pretty excited at the community having us,” she said.

What: Restaurant, bar and ice cream shop

Who: Jon and Jaime Grant and family

Where: 108 N. Main St., Joseph

Phone: 541-432-4321

Email: grant@slackdrinksanddining.com

Online: Facebook and Instagram; website coming

Hours: Open Thursday-Tuesday; 8 a.m.-midnight (minimum) (Tackroom 6 a.m.-10 p.m.)

An earlier version of this story misstated the name of Scott Rushton, one of the co-owners of the former Outlaw restaurant in Joseph. The story has been corrected.