POTSDAM — When Brian A. and Jenny D. Walker revived 1844 House more than a decade ago, scampering kids rattled racks of glassware hanging above the first-floor bar as they played in their second-floor apartment. Barbies, sometimes just Barbie heads, hid behind chairs inside the American Bistro, a mark of the Walkers’ three young children.
Jenny, a north country native, and Brian, originally from Sarasota, Fla., traveled from their southern home to visit family in St. Lawrence County in 2005, looking for property in the Adirondacks to potentially develop.
That summer, they found French’s 1844 House.
Since its birth as a farm house in 1844 on Ira T. French’s property, now 6885 Route 11, the homestead evolved to function as a general store and community center. More than 100 years later in 1986, one of French’s descendants, Sally T.S. Dingsoyr, and Gigi J. Schreiber purchased the house and transformed it into a restaurant, French’s 1844 House. French’s closed in 2001, sitting vacant for five years before the Walkers brought new life to the historic Potsdam staple in 2006.
They learned Jenny was pregnant with their third child in 2006, and renovated and lived above the restaurant for four years through the Great Recession, before moving into a separate home.
After 14 years of cultivating relationships with staff, local farmers and regular guests, the Walkers are returning to Florida and beginning to transition out of 1844 House ownership.
“We’re excited about the next chapter in our lives,” Mrs. Walker said, adding that it was always a goal to move back to Florida and maintain a seasonal home in the north country.
The restaurant, bar, venue space and neighboring bed-and-breakfast are not closing, and Mrs. Walker said she is staying in New York for the next year to continue managing the business and facilitate a management transition to 1844 House staff, many of whom have worked at the restaurant for years. In the next year or so, the Walkers said, they’re hoping for a buyer who will continue 1844.
Hoping to be closer to his sunshine state family, particularly after the passing of his father, Mr. Walker began looking for new work about three years ago, and the anticipated Florida homecoming was moved up a few years. After a nationwide search, Mr. Walker was selected this spring as the next general manager of Captiva Island Yacht Club, a private locale on Pine Island Sound between the Gulf of Mexico and Roosevelt Channel. Mr. Walker officially enters that role this month.
With the COVID-19 pandemic closing 1844 House doors mid-March, the income source for both Brian and Jenny was cut completely. While the Walkers quarantined for the entirety of April in Florida, Mr. Walker completing an in-person interview for the Captiva Island position, 1844 business — like local business across the country — slowed to an uncertain crawl.
“The sheer concern that you feel when your entire livelihood and that of your 15 employees is plunged into zero is overwhelming,” he said.
Prior to the global health crisis taking hold in the north country, 1844 House was experiencing what Mr. Walker described as “record-breaking” growth. In 2019, revenue, supported by a surge of patronage, increased by 22 percent from 2018. In January, February and the first half of March this year, Brian said, 1844 saw double-digit growth over those same months in 2019.
Now operating with updated social distancing and public health guidelines, 1844 House is open for reservations and curbside takeout.
“We’ve always had a very loyal and amazing following within our community, so we’re feeling very optimistic that things are going to be just fine,” Mr. Walker said.
Both trained chefs — Mrs. Walker graduated from New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, and Mr. Walker from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park — the Walkers have developed a philosophy for 1844 House centered around an environmental and social consciousness, supporting local farmers and suppliers and fostering a welcoming community space.
Birdsfoot Farm, Canton, Bittersweet Farm, Heuvelton, and County Meadows Farm, Canton, were three of the first area producers with whom the Walkers developed relationships.
“We had the concept of farm-to-table when we moved to the north country, and we decided right then and there we would do a seasonal menu and rotate it with whatever crop was fresh at the time,” Mrs. Walker said.
Bringing on Amy L. Conger to lead the 1844 kitchen in December 2017, the Walkers began focusing more on management and marketing roles as restaurateurs. Ms. Conger has 30 years of culinary experience and previously worked as executive chef for SUNY Potsdam Auxiliary and College Educational Services.
Innovating the menu, the neighboring bed-and-breakfast, The Guest House at 1844, and event venue, The Barn at 1844 House, the Walkers said they have grown with the Potsdam and St. Lawrence County communities. They recalled witnessing college students on first dates at the restaurant, getting engaged during dinner, returning to the property to be married and eventually bringing children to 1844.
With Mrs. Walker greeting parties and Mr. Walker at the stove for years, 1844 has become inextricably tied to the Walker family. The shaking martini glasses and rolling Barbie heads embodied 1844 as much as the bistro-style menu and the property’s historic flair.
“Living upstairs from the restaurant for four years, the concept very quickly became the idea that everyone that walks in the door is a guest in our home and should be treated that way, and that’s the way we trained our staff right from the start,” Mr. Walker said. “They’re not a customer, they’re a guest.”
The most difficult part of this transition, Mrs. Walker said, has been saying goodbye to the regular guests they’ve come to know. But 1844, the Walkers emphasized, is not going anywhere this year.
“Places come and places go,” Mr. Walker said. “We’ve outlived so many restaurants in our community and we’re just a staple, we’re part of the fabric now. And we worked really hard to earn that.”
"story" - Google News
August 10, 2020 at 09:45AM
https://ift.tt/3gKtBJQ
New chapter set to be written in 176-year story of Potsdam's 1844 House - NNY360
"story" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2YrOfIK
https://ift.tt/2xwebYA
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "New chapter set to be written in 176-year story of Potsdam's 1844 House - NNY360"
Post a Comment