We keep hoping that the Boathouse Restaurant over at Thendara will some day reopen. It was one of our favorite places to bring visitors, our children, and our grandchildren during the summer months. The entire property which included the Boathouse Restaurant, a wonderful formal dinning Inn, and a Bed and Breakfast closed to the public on Dec. 22, 2007 (click here).
But my hopes have been raised due to all of the remodeling activity that is going on at the old Boathouse Restaurant. It now sports a new roof. A work boat has been driving new piling into the lake to shore up the structure. I just hope that they haven’t done away with the “stop light” light pole on top of the restaurant which would signal green if they were open, red if closed.
Where else can you go to have a wonderful lunch or dinner seated just a few feet above Canandaigua Lake? The Pellicanos of Philadelphia bought Thendara in 2002 and spent the next five years remodeling and operating Thendara Restaurant Inn and the Boathouse. Recently the entire property has been enclosed with a chain link fence due to several robberies that have occurred there. But maybe, just maybe, the conditions are again right to reopen a little bit of history on Canandaigua Lake.
Some of the neighboring cottages are vacant; some are occupied by all year around owners. Regardless of the weather, hope springs eternal as one cottage owner leaves out his deck chairs on the end of his dock, as a reminder that next year the summer sun will return again.
For another owner who lives on the Lake all year around, his dock is all decorated for Christmas, just like you and I decorate our homes for Christmas. Come to think about it, we all have hopes and dreams for next summer in the Finger Lakes. But wouldn’t it be nice if the Boathouse were open for lunch along with a cool refreshing drink on the Lake?
Jim,
If there is a petition to re-open the boat house, please add our names to the list. We have many fond memories of family meals there with you and mom.
Jeff, Susan, Tyler and Michael
P.S. Bring back the blue whale! ,
Susan,
Thanks for your comment. I know of no petition but I do know a fair number of folks who would welcome the Boathouse back into the neighborhood! I have asked down at the Lafayette Dinner but no one is talking yet. But my theory is that if they are spending that kind of money, there will be an opening in the spring! Blue whales and all!