LOCALadk Magazine

Owning a restaurant. It's every chef 's dream. From those early days of learning how to hold a knife, identify the best ingredients, understand classic methods of cooking, or make flavors sing on a plate, every cook wants to become a chef and then see his or her name on the awning out front. e road to ownership is a long one, a journey of skill development and a path requiring a deep understanding of business management, but a road that every chef thinks about day in and day out. A restaurant born of this dream will become an extension of the person who stands tall as owner, and when that person is a chef, the restaurant will carry his or her signature from the ambiance to the china selected, and from menu design to flavor profiles. Some may never get there, but all will still envision the day it could happen. "I am able to echo different themes throughout the décor of Salt of the Earth as well as with the food to create a cohesive identity because I am the only one responsible for it." - Chef Andrea e restaurant business is tough. ere are many reasons why some will fail, and only a handful of reasons they might succeed, yet thousands of people each year jump into the deep end of the pool trying to make their mark as the next great restaurateur. According to the National Restaurant Association, there are more than one million restaurants from coast to coast, 70 percent of which are single-unit, private entrepreneurships. Even though the pandemic has taken a bite out of this important industry, these restaurants still generate over $700 billion in sales each year. Competition is fierce, and when combined with the challenges of seasonal shis in business, the headaches and heartaches will flourish. In the Adirondacks, business success, to a significant degree, is driven by tourism, and tourism is very dependent on favorable weather. So, opening a restaurant is a gamble. At the same time, the small, quaint towns and villages that dot the Adirondack landscape are enticing locations for the unique, chef-driven operation. Since the early days of settlement in the Adirondack Park, restaurants have served an important role in building communities and attracting visitors. A high percentage of those restaurants have been owned and operated by chefs looking to place their signature on a concept that reflects their experiences and food philosophy. "In one of our dining rooms, we have pictures of my family and my husband's family. I wanted to have a reminder every single day I was at the restaurant that I did not get here on my own." - Chef Andrea ere are a number of names from the last generation of restaurateurs that are familiar to all who call the six-million-acre Park home. Chef Fred Richards from Holiday Harbor, and eventually Frederick's Restaurant on Signal Hill in Lake Placid, was one of those restaurateurs who built a connection with both locals and visitors. From his early days at the Lake Placid Club and the world-renowned Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, as well as the Mirror Lake Inn, Chef Fred helped to open the door of possibility for other chefs to come. Chef George Vespa opened the Villa Vespa Italian restaurant in Lake Placid in 1974 — a tribute to his family, who arrived from Italy in the early 1920s. e restaurant was iconic in the Olympic Village and a local favorite for decades. George's daughter Kim would carry his recipes forward aer the closing of Villa Vespa and open a production kitchen to keep his sauce alive and in the cupboards of locals and visitors alike. No one familiar with the area will ever forget Chef Jimmy Sileo's "Jimmy's 21" on Main Street, a place that reflected his experiences as a chef and resident of the Adirondacks. Chef Jimmy Hadjis could be found behind the range at his family operation, e Charcoal Pit, where his Greek mother and wife might also be busy preparing baklava in a corner of his kitchen. And certainly, Chef Moses "Red" LaFountain will always be remembered as the restaurateur who introduced fine dining to the Adirondacks through his restaurant, e Steak and Stinger. Later, he would open Paradox Lodge to a smaller, more-intimate crowd of enthusiasts who admired his style of cooking. ese were the founders of a food movement in the Adirondacks, a movement that provided another reason for people to visit. At various times throughout the history of food in the Adirondacks, there have been chefs who stepped away from the range to also wear the hat of entrepreneur. LOCALadk 51

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