I’ll take ‘Libations’ for $200, Alex
New bar at Tupper’s Well Dressed Food serves up local beers, ‘Jeopardy’ happy hours
TUPPER LAKE — Well Dressed Food recently cracked open Libations, a wine, beer and cider bar inside its Park Street restaurant, with the hope of attracting a larger dinner crowd.
Co-owner David Tomberlin said business has picked up as the restaurant now closes at 9 p.m. instead of 6.
“We’re really good at lunch right now,” Tomberlin said. “We’re trying to do the same thing with dinner.”
The grand opening for the bar was during the May 25 Party on Park event. Well Dressed Food has been open for five years, and Tomberlin said the bar was always a plan, as the store has always sold beer and wine.
With a birch wood bar built by Tupper Lake woodworker Clarence Bell, the establishment sports 12 seats, four taps and a cooler full of the eponymous libations.
“(Bell) made it so easy,” Tomberlin said. “He’s an excellent craftsman, woodworker.”
Bell cut, nailed and sealed the butcher block bar off site and assembled the pieces inside Well Dressed Food.
Tomberlin said he and co-owner Russ Cronin recently started hosting “Jeopardy” happy hours on Thursday and Friday nights from 6 to 8 p.m. The two have been “Jeopardy” fans for a long time, Tomberlin said, but got the idea for the trivia show nights as 32-game winner James Holzhauer was in the middle of his historic winning streak.
For two hours all drinks are 25% off. Attendees play along with the show, shouting out answers until Final Jeopardy, when everyone silently writes their answers down. Winners each get a free drink.
Tomberlin said there is a designated bartender at Libations Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and he plans to get the bar a liquor license in the near future.