Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Gordon Woodworth, Chronicle News Editor
Michael and Kathleen Cirelli, who operate the dinner restaurant Cirelli’s Osteria near the Route 9 bridge in South Glens Falls, now plan to open Cirelli’s Jam ‘n’ Eggs, a breakfast and lunch spot two doors south of it.
Contacted for comment, Mr. Cirelli said, “I love breakfast. It’s my favorite meal of the day. I’ve always wanted to do breakfast.
“As time went by here, the space became available and the opportunity came up, and I decided to do it.”
He says, “My wife thinks I’m nuts. Every day she gives me that look.”
He laughed and said it’s hard to disagree with her.
“I’m out of my freaking mind,” he said.
He said Jam ‘n’ Eggs will be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“I just want to do real good homemade breakfast, with home fries and bacon, and homemade soups and turkey sandwiches and chilis for lunch,” he said.
“It’s just going to be a good place to eat some good homemade comfort food. And I might make homemade jams to sell, too.”
The 31 Main Street space has been the site of several restaurants over the years, including Maude’s Kitchen and Nathan’s Wakin’ Bacon. Mr. Cirelli said he aims to open by Oct. 1.
He said at first, he will be doing the cooking, but he hopes that will morph into more of a management role.
“I’ll be up at 5 o’clock every morning and work there until two, and then I’ll walk next door and start prepping for dinner at the osteria,” he said.
“I hope to hire a good chef who will be able to come in and do the prep work in the late afternoons for the next morning’s breakfast…I really need to rely on other people for a change.”
He said he plans to hire four or five more employees for Jam ‘n’ Eggs.
“It’s not a big place, but it’s big enough,” he said.
“We’ll have 99-cent coffee for the contractors, and breakfast sandwiches to go, and I want to sell homemade baked goods, too. You’ll be able to come in and pick up something quick.”
He said parking will be available on the street, and also in the back parking lot.
He said business at Cirelli’s Osteria is “going very well. We’re doing so much more catering, and we’re doing more weddings now, too. We fed the backstretch workers at Saratoga every Wednesday.
“We hit the year three and business started to climb pretty fast.”
The Cirellis opened the Osteria in April 2013. Previously, Mr. Cirelli was executive chef at the Georgian Resort in Lake George. He was also the chef at his family’s Luisa’s Italian Bistro in Moreau for four years, and in the 1980s operated his own Italian restaurant, Villa Nova, at 302 Bay Road in Queensbury.
Both of the buildings that house Cirelli’s Osteria and Jam ‘n’ Eggs are owned by Elliott Heyman.
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