(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
The Firehouse Restaurant in Hague, N.Y.
Food trucks.
In the times of COVID when restaurateurs must juggle and adapt, Sheri DeLarm is wondering if food trucks can solve some problems. She has already spoken to some food truck owners and is looking for more.
She and her husband Cripin Ginn own the Firehouse Restaurant on Graphite Mountain Road in the hamlet of Hague at the north end of Lake George. The restaurant is known for its horseshoe bar inside, and patio seating overlooking the Hague Brook outside.
They are, and have been for many recent summers, the only restaurant in Hague. The restaurant closes for the winter, and this past winter, they let their chef go as they looked for a buyer for the building. It is not an odd situation, as they have changed chefs many times over the years.
“It’s always difficult to find back-of-the-house help up in our neck of the woods, but the pandemic has certainly escalated the situation,” she said.
Not only would they need a chef to open the kitchen, DeLarm said in an interview today, “there has to be seven other people in the kitchen, too. I cannot find help is the bottom line.”
Since they didn’t sell and DeLarm is determined to open, she tells FoothillsBusinessDaily.com, that she has turned to food trucks, which she thought would offer some flexibility in terms of soaring food costs.
Getting the commitments and scheduling has been difficult. Seven food trucks, of the 26 she called, have responded. She is still pushing to talk to more and is hoping more will step forward.
In the meantime she has reached out to the town planning board to let them know the food trucks will be setting up in the small space between the road and the restaurant, a space that would normally be used for umbrella-covered picnic tables. She said the board has been understanding thus far.
However, if the food trucks do not work out, she turns to Plan B, which would be simple food that the bartenders can serve easily, she said. She is thinking now of chili, vegetarian chili and hot dogs.
“Just enough to suffice the needs of the alcohol bureau, because you have to sell food apparently,” she said.
Still, she wants to hear from more food trucks and is trying to get the schedule set. They plan to open mid-June.
“We’ll be open for sure,” she said, adding later, “It’s a short season, so I think I can get by.”