A newly expanded version of Augusta Restaurant opened Oct. 9 with plans to bring back live music.

This time around, though, bands are scheduled to play indoors to avoid noise complaints that led to the end of performances on Augusta's outdoor patio in 2008.

“We made most of our money in the restaurant with the music,” said owner Denise Roberge. “When we lost the music, it really hurt the restaurant.”

Roberge said she has submitted the paperwork required to host indoor entertainment, which she said was less contentious than seeking an outdoor-music permit.

Lauri Aylaian, Palm Desert's director of community development, said Roberge's application was submitted Oct. 8, and is being reviewed.

After Augusta's permit for live entertainment was revoked in 2008, Roberge created the In Sanity clothing boutique indoors and only served food on the patio during the 2008-09 season.

But this summer, Roberge took pedestals that were built into the space for clothing displays and transformed them into a stage for indoor performances.

“I feel like it's back to normal,” said Melissa Becket, the restaurant's general manager. “It's back to Augusta instead of a little boutique with a restaurant on the side.”

The changes caught Allen Meyer, one of Augusta's first lunch customers on its opening day, by surprise.

Meyer, a Dallas resident who has a second home at Bighorn Golf Club, said he remembers being shocked by last year's changes.

“I was totally floored because what used to be the restaurant had turned into a fabulous women's boutique,” he said. “Then today, I walked in (and) it was like, ‘Oh my God.' The clothes were all gone.”

Meyer said he was surprised to find the indoor dining room had returned and to the redecorated space.

“She's like Madonna,” he said. “She just keeps reinventing this place. Like Madonna reinvents Madonna, Denise reinvents Augusta.”

Next door, In Sanity has moved into a renovated space that had previously been used for Roberge's art gallery. A smaller version of the gallery is still in the former bank building on El Paseo and Portola Avenue, and Roberge's jewelry shop still takes up the same space in the building that it occupied last year.

Outside that building, there's a “for sale” sign on the corner, but Roberge said she's only hoping to sell the property she owns, not shuttering her businesses.

In Sanity and the jewelry shop reopened Oct. 1.

Roselyn Viramontes, who runs the clothing store, said business has been good so far.

Viramontes said customers and employees are excited about the return of live music to the restaurant next door.

“I think every weekend's going to be a party here,” she said.