Planners approve second Amado expansion

Amado co-owner Lilian Rohrbach (right) and her helper Emily Sipler were staining some of the wood in their restaurant's back yard this week that will create five new rectangular gazebos on property she and her husband purchased this year on Lake Street as part of this year's seating expansion.

by Dan McClelland

The village and town board last month approved an ambitious outdoor dining expansion project by the owners of Tupper Lake’s Amado Cafe and Restaurant. The expansion at the popular eatery is the second in as many years.

The planners met via the Zoom computer application again this month.

The board action followed a public hearing on Wednesday, April 24 which produced no comments from the general public prior to the meeting.

Owners Cory and Lilian Rohrbach last summer added three greenhouse-style individual dining rooms to the backyard of their Cliff Ave. business. Also situated there were numerous canopied outdoor dining tables, situated in the midst of various shrubs and flower gardens.

Cory and Lilian Rohrbach will extend a garden of small shrubs and wild flowers from the one they created last year near their greenhouse-style dining rooms as a new perimeter for their expansion onto the neighboring Lake St. property. Cory said this week they open to have the expanded outdoor dining area completed by the end of May. (McClelland photos)

This year’s proposal is even more grand.

The couple this past year bought the neighboring property at 38 Lake Street, which was the Tyo family’s long-time home and are in the process of rehabilitating its landscape to accommodate five new rectangular gazebos, all connected by a covered walkway. The gazebos will be 26 feet by 16 feet with open sides.

The Rohrbachs have also set aside space on their new landscaped dining campus for a large 20 foot by 60 foot tent to accommodate wedding parcels. The large tent along with the new gazebos will seat as many as 300 wedding or party guests.

When the tent is up for an event, the gazebo closest to it could be used for their outdoor bar, Cory said this week.

Ray Martin, whose accounting practice is headquartered across the street from the project site, said at the planning board meeting “they fully support everything they are doing over there. Mr. Martin and his wife, Lori, were at the meeting on another matter that evening.

The public hearing was closed several minutes after it opened.

In the planners’ regular part of their monthly meeting Mr. Rohrbach, who detailed many of his plans when he first appeared before the planners last month, was asked by Chairman Shawn Stuart to update the board of any developments since then.

Board member Jan Yaworski noted that lighting hadn’t been discussed during his appearance before them last month.

“What’s going on with the lighting on the outside” and in the various new pavilions which will be constructed? she asked Mr. Rohrbach.

“First of all I want to say that Lilian and I are very strong supporters of the observatory project here in town. We donate heavily to it and have for the past several years.” Their annual gifts amount to about $3,000- he noted.

“We understand the need for having to have downward pointed lighting” under the community’s dark skies policy.

He said the lighting in the new gazebos will be chandelier-style with soft amber bulbs- meant to just light the tables and seating below them. The lights they plan to use there are called “Sputnik Chandeliers,” he told the planners.

All new lighting on the restaurant’s expanded campus will be similar to the soft lighting already found there on last year’s project.

“We’re looking to keep all exterior lighting low-level so even though you are outdoors you’ll feel like you are in a restaurant with soft lighting.”

“There will be no upward-shooting lighting outdoors and we're trying to keep all our lighting to a minimum. There will be some lantern-style wall sconces with shields on their tops to direct the lighting downward on the supports of the gazebos.”

Ms. Yaworski wondered about lighting on and around the outdoor tables that will be positioned around a new courtyard area.

Mr. Rohrbach said there would be ground lighting there similar to what they did around the grounds of their first expansion. “We are going to continue with that around the new gazebos.”

He said if they feel that the diners need more light on their tables they have a plan. He admitted the need for auxiliary lighting on each table usually may come late in the summer season when the evenings are growing darker. In the first part of the summer, however, daylight continues until after 9p.m.

He said they may install small downward-pointing lights on the branches of the trees that separate the two parcels there to light some of the table tops.

“Right now we don’t know exactly what we’ll be doing there, but we plan to address it on a need-to basis” as the evenings grow darker by summer’s end.

“We don’t intend to use any intense lighting. We’re very aware about the need to keep our local skies dark.”

He said they want their diners to be able to navigate their dining grounds safely, without adding to light pollution.

Ms. Yaworski wondered about any ground lighting on the pathways connecting the gazebos.

A covered pathway with small lights under the roof will connect the buildings, he told her.

On the grounds there will be a number of solar-powered LED lights which are relatively dim in nature, he noted.

A nearby street light also casts light down onto the property, he told her. He said that light and the lanterns on the gazebos should be able to provide the light necessary for their expanded operation.

The planner applauded their adherence to the community’s dark skies initiative.

Ms. Yaworski also asked him about the landscaping planned along Lake Street.

Mr. Rohrbach said they plan to continue the gardens of shrubs and ground cover they did in their first phase down Lake Street to the house there.

“We’ll probably use shrubs and small birch and maple trees” to create a buffer between the sidewalk and the dining areas. We don’t want people to feel like they are sitting in the middle of a parking lot. We want people to feel they are in the Adirondacks and in the woods,” he said of their plans to retain the large trees between the two properties.

“We plan to use low shrubs around the place so the visual going into the courtyard won’t be blocked.” The wild flowers they planted in their beds will be continued in the new gardens and perimeter areas, bedded in red mulch.

“The plants that didn’t survive the winter, you are planning on replacing them, correct?” asked Ms. Yaworski.

“Yes...that goes without saying!” the chef told her.

Planning board member Tom Maroun said he reviewed all their plans and said “he likes the whole concept,” adding: “it looks very nice.”

Volunteer Dave St. Onge said he also looked over the plans “thoroughly” and agreed with Mr. Maroun’s assessment of the project.

Another planning board member Jim Merrihew told the applicant he was “very excited” for him and his wife. “I think this is a super addition to the community!”

“My only question is you have to keep the building and you are going to have these beautiful gazebos and grounds there.” He said they will be in contrast with the tired condition of the former house’s exterior. “I assume you are going to do something with at least the wall facing your restaurant to dress it up a little bit? Do you have plans for that?”

Mr. Rohrbach indicated that may not happen this year. “The reality is our plans for our 10 Cliff St. restaurant and the 38 Lake Street property are for the exteriors of the buildings to be completely redone” some year very soon.

He said their current plans call for the construction of new bathroom facilities for diners in the house at 38 Lake Street.

Mr. Rohrbach said they are not in a financial position this year to do all the re-siding work- given the investment they were making in their new project at this time.

“However Lilian and I were talking this week about putting some stained tongue and groove wood on the ground level” of the exterior of the house near the entrance to the restroom area to improve its appearance. “We want to try to make that area as attractive as possible- either through greenery or siding so that you are not looking at the old shingles on the house, ” he told Mr. Merrihew.

For this year, one of their options may be to remove the old asphalt shingles on the section of house near the gazebos and paint or stain the clapboard siding underneath, if it's in decent condition.

“But we do have plans to improve the facades of both the buildings soon!” Both buildings will have new matching and stained clapboard-style siding in the near future, he promised the planners. The colors will match the greenhouse dining rooms and new gazebos in the courtyard.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Cory told the planning board member. “If we had the money the siding would be going on right now!”

Mr. Merrihew said he was encouraged by their project and their future plans to dress up their buildings.

Planner Doug Bencze said he really liked what the Rohrbachs were doing with their property and their business there. “They are doing a great job with it and I’m for what they are doing! They’ve been busy like bees!”

Chairman Shawn Stuart called it a “very energetic project which is certainly going to look very good here. We’re all looking forward to you seeing it through to fruition.”

Approval for the project was unanimous on a motion from Tom Maroun, seconded by Jan Yaworski.

When the project was introduced at the planners' February meeting, Mr. Rohrbach said they had considered razing the old house. But then they realized it would make a great place for modern bathrooms for the outdoor diners and as a place to store all their tables and equipment out of the weather each winter.

In recent weeks Cory and Lilian have also been doing renovations to their kitchen inside the restaurant to double its size. A hallway and a room off the kitchen that were previously unused by the couple have been reopened and renovated to accommodate several of their large coolers currently situated in the kitchen, which will open up more space there.

The Rohrbachs are currently looking to hire as many as 30 part-time and full-time waiters and waitresses and kitchen workers and cooks this summer.