A fixture of Queensbury’s culinary scene is closing, as owners hope that the consolidation will keep its hot dog business red hot.
The Gazetos family has been on a roll for more than a century — with New Way Lunch locations in and around Glens Falls serving their signature hot dogs to loyal customers since 1919. In November, the family announced the imminent closure of its Queensbury location, which had been running for nearly 25 years.
Loyal customers Jim Nichols and Erin Gagnon are paying a final visit to the Queensbury location, relishing one of their favorite lunch spots one last time.
“I get three dogs with the works. That’s the only way to get it with everything on it, onions, mustard, the sauce. Other than that, she likes hamburgers, so be it, it’s the only place that serves a good hamburger she likes and that’s why we’re here; we get the best of both worlds. I go old school, she goes a little country,” explained Nichols.
Gagnon says she’s tried the famous hot dogs, with the works, but prefers the hamburgers.
Even in its final days, the Queensbury New Way Lunch is still attracting new customers. Lenny Simone made the journey from Lake Luzerne.
“I came because I saw it in the, I guess, the news—the paper,” said Simone. “I saw it online, actually, that it was closing in January. So, I’d never been here before, the people I used to work with told me I had to get here, and now I’m here. It was very good!”
Peter Gazetos had been helping his mother Angela run New Way Lunch since the late 1970s, and in the spring of 1990, he took full ownership over his family’s business.
Speaking with WAMC in the back booth of the Queensbury restaurant, which his daughter Ali runs full-time, Gazetos calls the coming closure a “consolidation.”
“Because right now we can’t do the things we want to do as far as marketing, we want to do some outdoor events, we can’t do any of that. Ali can’t even do her paperwork in a timely fashion because of the fact that we’re physically in the restaurants working every day. Which is fine, we don’t mind working, but you can’t let a business operate you, you have to operate the business,” said Peter Gazetos.
He says that the real secret to how the sausage gets made is the customers who keep coming back.
“There’s a reason why we’ve been in business so long. It’s about the customers. And you think back of the characters – especially the old, the original location 54 South Street – the people that you, you remember the people, the faces, not necessarily names even. But the, you know, the fondness that people have for the New Way Lunch is what keeps us going. And that’s what—those are the memories you cherish,” said Gazeto.
The downtown Glens Falls location is less than 10 minutes away.
Dave Lapell runs a trucking company in Glens Falls and has been eating at New Way Lunch for 65 years.
“The family used to come in here and get the hot dogs at $.25 a hot dog back then. And for a family of four, you could feed a whole family of four for 10 bucks and be happy as heck when you went out of here,” said Lapell.
Lapell says he came today for a special reason.
“Trying to impress my girlfriend. Her first time here. And it’s just an easy place to grab lunch. It’s economical, it’s nice people. Food is good, absolutely,” explained Lapell.
Manning the grill, with nearly 100 dogs going at a time, is Peter’s son Nick Gazetos. He says the dogs he’s grilling, made and supplied specially for New Way Lunch by Sabrett, are just like the ones his great-great-grandfather made.
“This hot dog is as close to the hot dogs were like when we started 100 years ago. Back then, most of them were pork and beef, they weren’t all beef. That’s why our hot dogs aren’t as salty. It’s a skinless hot dog so there’s no artificial skin on it,” explained Gazeto.
A proper, with-the-works, dog from New Way Lunch comes doused in mustard, onions, and a special meat sauce, called “Dirt Dog” sauce, which the Gazetos have perfected over a century. Nick Gazetos keeps a constant rotation of dogs on the grill, ready for the surprisingly common dozen dog order. Nick Gazetos says it has gotten more expensive to operate the Queensbury location, which is leased unlike Glens Falls and Warrensburg, due to inflation and pandemic-related stresses.
But it’s also time for his parents to take a little off their plate.
“So, basically, for my parents to be able to retire we have to close the business. There’s just no way around it anymore. And we tried for the last four years not to do it. But, you get to a point where, you know, you got to make a decision for what’s not only best for you but your staff and the community too because we want to serve people properly and take care of our customers. That’s why we made it 100 years,” said Gazeto.
