By ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

CANTON — The concessions eatery at the Partridge Run Golf Course, 70 Sullivan Drive, has a new caterer.

The owners of GT’s bar and grill on County Route 17 in Russell and Vinn’s Family Restaurant on Proctor Street in Ogdensburg will run the restaurant at the golf course club house. The village board approved a contract, albeit at a lower monthly rental rate than they would have liked, with the company at their Feb. 18 meeting. 

Karen Stowell and Raymond Lobdell, operating as The Grub Tub Inc., also run a food truck for special events like the Dairy Princess parade and the St. Lawrence County Fair, said Canton Village Trustee Beth Bullock Larrabee at the meeting.

“So they have been in different kinds of spaces and environments and can get food done quickly if needed,” Larrabee said prior to board approval of the contract. “At the golf course, there are different audiences that have different needs.”

Larrabee and Village Trustee Carol Pynchon, both members of the village’s recreation committee, were charged with finding a new vendor.

Larrabee suggested the board use the same contractual arrangement with Stowell and Lobdell that the village had Bacon Brother’s BBQ of Hermon, the previous company that ran the eatery.

Jen and Tim Bacon, of Bacon Brothers, ran the restaurant last season, but ultimately decided to pursue other ventures.

The restaurant at the course was run for years by Dennis Walsh, and then the Smokehouse, before the Bacons took over last year.
Before GT’s expressed their interest the village had difficulty finding a business to take over the operation.

GT’s will rent the space from the village as an independent contractor for $300 a month, Larrabee said. The company is to handle the morning coffee business for the golfers and provide food throughout the day, but the dining space offers opportunities for a busy restaurant or catering business.”

All profits from food and liquor sales go to the contractor. GT’s has to provide their own liquor license to sell alcohol at the site.

“The only thing I would add, is that everyone who is paying attention knows that our rent rate has continued to go down,” said Village Trustee Carol Pynchon. “We had expressed interest from several other possible concessionaires. This was the only proposal we got and fortunately we were happy with it.”

Pynchon said the rental fee was negotiated and that while the village was not completely happy with the rate, it was acceptable. GT’s will run the golf course concessions business for a year under a trial basis. After a year, the recreation committee will hold palaver with GT’s to possibly renegotiate the rent.

“We just request everyone’s understanding that we wanted to get somebody in there and that it was more important to get somebody in there and they need to get moving because they need to do their liquor license,” Pynchon said.

“I think we need to think about it holistically,” Larrabee said. “We need to have a concession out there and if we don’t have a concession out there, then business will go down and the revenues from that business will go down.”

For information about the course visit https://partridgerungolf.com/.