Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor
Sunday, April 5, The Log Jam Restaurant turned 50 years old. It was on April 5, l976 that brothers Pete and Tim Bailey of Bolton registered to do business as The Log Jam. They’d built it from logs they harvested on the mountains above Lake George.
Why sell so soon? I don’t know exactly, but I remember one of the Bailey brothers telling me, “I’ll never do another business in the State of New York.”
The Tonnesens operated The Log Jam for 10 years. They also originated the Log Jam Outlets plaza adjacent to the restaurant.
David White bought the restaurant in 1988 and has been operating it ever since, now in the second generation with his son Brian as president.
David installed Tony Grecco as the Log Jam manager and he’s still in charge after 37 years. Chef Rod Russo — a member of the family that long operated Massie’s and Pat’s Dugout in South Glens Falls — likewise has had a Log Jam tenure spanning decades.
I’ve always been struck by the continuity, not just of management but of many of the people working there. People make careers of it.
From talking to Tony, I know that’s very much be design. The Log Jam provides a 401(k) retirement plan with contribution match to employee deposits. Tony has told me that in the transient restaurant biz, the Log Jam aims to be where people stay.
Owner Dave White’s restaurant career began in 1967 “with one single Kentucky Fried Chicken Store on Genesee Street in Utica,” says a history on its website.
White Management operates multiple KFC, Dunkin and Taco Bell franchises.
In 1975 it ventured into full-service restaurants with the Butcher Block, which it still operates in Plattsburgh.
The company website notes, “Tony Grecco graduated in 1982 from SUNY Plattsburgh, and began working as a dishwasher at the Butcher Block in Plattsburgh that same year. Grecco worked his way up the ranks at the Butcher Block, next as a bus boy, then a line cook, then a server, and finally as assistant manager.
“In 1988, Grecco was brought over to Lake George to become the general manager of The Log Jam Restaurant,” where he’s been ever since.
(By the way, the Log Jam Outlets are now owned by Ed Moore, the entrepreneur who opened and operates the French Mountain Commons outlets across the road.)
I’m not privy to numbers, but I assume The Log Jam is the area’s highest volume restaurant, serving lunch and dinner year-round.
It’s situated in-between Glens Falls and Lake George, in that sweet spot north of Exit 20, and at the turn that many skiers make going to and from Killington and other Vermont mountains.
That Route 9 corridor once had a slew of log-built, now vanished restaurants — The Montcalm, Alfonso’s (which became the Red Coach and Coachman and Johnny Rockets, razed last year). Caldwell House still holds forth a few miles north on Route 9. Long ago, the T&T stood just north of what became Exit 20 at the spot where a Stewart’s (former Jolley) is now.
When the T&T was sold to Mobil Oil in 1971, its log building was moved to the Log Jam site and operated until the Baileys replaced it with the one they built.
The stone fireplace in the Log Jam bar still burns wood, another tradition that continues here and is rare elsewhere.
Ditto the big salad bar, though Tony caused an uproar last year when Log Jam social media announced the salad bar’s termination. It was an April Fools prank.
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