(Credit: Courtesy Massie's restaurant, 2023)
(Credit: Courtesy Massie's, 2023)
Massie’s, the beloved South Glens Falls Italian restaurant that closed last month, has reopened the original bar with a limited menu with eyes on a grand reopening.
“Just something to keep the small kitchen staff we had working,” owner Jonathan Greenwood told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com when we contacted him after being alerted to a social media post.
Massie’s South End Bar & Grill now has its own Facebook page.
He made “just a small change in the name, so people wouldn’t check into Massie’s Restaurant and make people think we reopened.”
Greenwood is planning a grand reopening and is using the smaller space to train cooks.
He purchased Massie’s seven years ago and closed suddenly in late February, saying he was burned out and having a hard time finding kitchen help.
“It’s really just the small bar with a limited menu,” Greenwood said. “We’ve been open since Wednesday [March 8th]. It’s not the Massie’s menu, so I didn’t want to make a big deal of it.”
He said he and his fiancé are going on vacation soon, and plans are to reopen Massie’s Restaurant when they return.
“When we get back I’ll be working out the kinks in the reopen,” he said. “I didn’t want to lose the few we had in the kitchen, so I got a little creative.”
They are using the “original bar” to left of the front doors as patrons enter. Greenwood had installed a new bar just inside the doors when he bought the location seven years ago.
Greenwood bought the 94-year-old restaurant from Pat Russo. He remodeled and expanded, dramatically changing the interior while keeping many of the traditional dishes that generations of diners have enjoyed.
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What's old is new: At the end of the bar is a new, old sign that Greenwood found.
"It was in the old tattoo parlor garage. I found it a while ago but never had anywhere to display it,” he said.
Cliff Lewis owned the South End Market at 73 Main St.
"He was known for his meats," said Nancy Thurston, who started working there as a teenager about 1949. "Really super-duper ground meat was 85 cents a pound.
"Bananas were 10 cents a pound on Thursdays," she said, adding that it was only on Thursdays. The fruit was sold outside on the sidewalk.
The tatoo parlor on Main Street now was Lewis' second location, next door to the first, Thurston said.
Editor's Note: Nancy Thurston is the mother of publisher Steve Thurston.