The owners of Dowagiac’s Round Oak Revisited will be offering their own “Tales from the Crypt” — and unsealing the doors to its long-closed basement — for the Halloween season, beginning this week.

The downtown restaurant, at located at 137 S. Front St., will be hosting a series of spook-tacular evenings beginning Tuesday in the restaurant’s basement bar. The events will run from Oct. 24-26 and Oct. 30-31.

The bar will open at 6 p.m. each evening, and will have a selection of specialty drinks for sale. At 7:30 p.m., a local storyteller will recount old local ghost stories, based off popular urban legends and tales donated to the restaurant by Dowagiac residents.

Tickets for the events cost $10, and may be purchased in advance or at the door. Seating is limited to 50 people per evening.

Guests must be 18 years old or older to attend.

The Halloween-themed events will mark the first time in many years that the Round Oak’s basement will open its doors to the public. The underground bar was formerly known as Philo’s Pub (named after Round Oak Stove Company creator Philo D. Beckwith), and was owned and operated by Doug McKay, the founder of Round Oak Restaurant.

With its ornate furnishings (including an old-fashioned metal cash register), hearty wooden fixtures and a dazzling dance floor, Philo’s was once a popular gathering place for many in Dowagiac, said Cindy Brosnan, current owner of the downtown establishment.

“I remember coming here when I was in my 20s,” Brosnan said. “It was absolutely beautiful down here.”

In recent years, however, the pub was closed to the public and was used as storage space.

When Brosnan and her husband, Bob, purchased the then-closed Round Oak Restaurant from McKay in 2015, the couple focused their efforts on restoring the main level of the business. Ever since reopening the restaurant last year under the name Round Oak Revisited, one of the most frequent questions the couple receives is “when you are reopening the basement?”

Wanting to give the community something fun to do for Halloween, the owners recently decided to kill two birds with one stone and start cleaning up the old basement to have it serve as a venue for the event, Brosnan said.

In just a few weeks of work, the owners and several volunteers have made tremendous progess in restoring Philo’s to its former glory, moving out all the old items once stored in the pub, reinstalling the old light fixtures in the bar area and fixing up damage to the walls.

“I think it will be really cool when it’s finished,” Brosnan said.

After the series Halloween events, Brosnan said she will consider turning the basement into a place for other special events, as well possibly a place that people may book for private functions.

For more information, people may contact Round Oak Revisited at (269) 782-8882 or at roundoakrestaurant.com.