Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Zander Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer
New Way Lunch will reopen on South Street by mid-summer, adding outdoor dining and a “facelift.”
“It’s been really hard having it closed,” Ali Gazetos Mineo told The Chronicle.
“It’s your flagship store, it’s been open 100 years on that street. So we knew we had to get it back open. It’s been really sad as a family to have it closed.”
Peter Gazetos, Ali’s father, said, “It’s the way things should be…getting back to normal after Covid. There certainly are a lot of people downtown who miss us.”
New Way downtown has been closed since 2020. During the pandemic, they’ve operated only the Queensbury location, which includes a drive-up window, and the Warrensburg sit-down restaurant. “Breakfast there has really taken off,” said Ms. Gazetos Mineo, adding that it no longer has a night shift.
As for adding outdoor dining on South Street, Ms. Gazetos Mineo said it will be situated in “the alleyway in-between, so it’s going to be covered.”
“Then we’re putting an addition off the back. It’s mostly storage…it’s always needed some more storage. So we’re just taking the opportunity to do that now. And new fresh paint.”
Ms. Gazetos Mineo said, “The restaffing will definitely be a challenge. For a while, it was really bad. But we’ve been able to hire like three or four new people in the last few months…
“We’re lucky, too, because we can train people at our other facilities before we open [in Glens Falls], whereas a lot of restaurants don’t have that.” She said they’ll need seven staff members to get going.
Many years ago New Way Lunch operated 24 hours a day. That’s not coming back, but will they be open late?
“We’re the late night food. That’s what we’re known for,” Ms. Gazetos Mineo said. “So we’re hoping to get back, but you’re kind of dependent on the bars in that scenario,” noting that some close earlier now than pre-pandemic.
“You can stay open to 4 in the morning all you want, but if the bars aren’t open, you’re not going to do business.”
Ms. Gazetos Mineo and her brother Nick Gazetos are the fourth generation in the 103-year-old family business launched in 1919 by John Floro, their great-grandfather, a Greek immigrant who came north from New York City.
Alongside South Street’s reopening, New Way Lunch is also now selling jars of their famous “Dirt Dog” sauce and launching a new merchandise line.
The sauce, canned in Rochester, is $8.95, and is available in stores now. It’ll be sold online in mid March.
“I’ve had people offer me like $100 for a cup of sauce to-go before,” Ms. Gazetos Mineo said.
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