A bartender, a chef and an aspiring restaurateur have come together with their financial backer to fill a gap in Covington’s restaurant scene with the impending opening of 2seven2 Grill and Bar.

Tao Kane, the bartender, has been in the restaurant business since he was 18. Now 35, he first met business partner Chris Rodwell, the aspiring restaurateur, while he was mixing drinks.

“Chris had always been interested in the restaurant business,” Kane said. “We started out with a small Mexican bar in Auburn.”

After a year, the other partner in that business bought them out, so Kane went back to bartending and working as a general manager of an Italian restaurant in Federal Way while Rodwell got a job tending bar at Gonzo’s in Kent.

“We knew we wanted to get back into (the restaurant business),” Kane said. “We were just waiting for the right place the right time.”

More than two years passed then one day while driving through Covington after a round of golf, they spied the perfect spot on Southeast 272nd Street, the Godfather’s pizza.

“We said, ‘We need that Godfather’s building,'” Kane said. “It was about six or nine months later we saw the ‘For Sale’ sign up there on the reader board.”

After walking away from the first venture in Auburn, they had developed a business plan and presented it to Tom Dubrul, their financial backer. Dubrul was on board and waited with Rodwell and Kane for the right opportunity.

That business plan came in handy when they approached the owner of the building who “liked us because we were hometown boys, because we were actually going to be involved in the restaurant.”

“He looked at our business plan and thought it would be the best fit for the place,” Kane said. “There was a lot of interest in this building from all kinds of other restaurants.”

Four months ago, work began on the conversion from aging pizza parlor to hip, upscale bistro.

“We’re doing 95 percent of the work ourselves to keep costs down,” Kane said. “Almost everything you see when you walk through here, we’ve done, from drywall to tile to all of the woodwork to painting. It’s been a very exhausting task.”

Their goal is to open by the end of March.

Once they do, head chef Patrick Brzuchalski will have the chance to showcase his menu of fresh seafood, steak, pastas and more.

Brzuchalski has a degree in culinary sciences from the Seattle Art Institute and a resume chock full of 18 years of experience, including a number of times serving as executive chef at prominent area restaurants.

Kane met Brzuchalski at Cutter’s nearly a decade ago. The chef has worked at the Metropolitan Grill, Stanley and Seaforts, among others and most recently was at McCormick and Schmicks.

“Patrick is all back of the house. That is his domain,” Kane said. “We told him, ‘You wanted your kingdom, so here it is.'”

Brzuchalski has a sample menu whipped up that includes U.S. Department of Agriculture prime steak cuts dry aged for 28 days, all kinds of fresh local salmon, plus he’s friends with the folks who own the crab boat Time Bandit which is featured on Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch.”

That means they’ll be getting 2,000 pounds of fresh Alaska king and snow crab set aside just for 2seven2.

“We’re going to cross promote with them,” Kane said. “We’re going to promote their Bloody Mary mix and whenever they go up (to Alaska) they will set aside 2,000 pounds of crab for us.”

Brzuchalski will also be cooking up breakfast and lunch.

“Everybody we’ve talked to in the area seems to be really excited about breakfast,” Kane said. “This is an opportunity. Every time we talk to anybody in town, everybody is so excited about a new place coming into town, and the fact it’s not a corporate chain.”

In addition to the dining room, there will be a bar and lounge area, as well as “huge walk-in wine room.”

Rodwell and Kane will be running the front of the house. There will be between 40 and 50 employees altogether.

The restaurant really started coming together on Wednesday when all the furniture arrived — tables, chairs, booths and more.

Kane believes that he and his partners have the chance to offer something Covington doesn’t have: a locally owned, upscale sit down restaurant.

“We want families, just the people in the area, the demographics in the area, this is one of the highest income areas around south of Bellevue,” he said. “We want to fill that niche for those people so they don’t have to drive to Seattle or downtown Bellevue or anyplace far away to get good food.”