Quick rundown on filling time in Lake Placid before and between games. And it's exciting that with Quinnipiac sidelined by Clarkson, it will be quite competitive for the games. (NCAA RPI has Q 11th with Dartmouth 8th, Cornell 9th, Princeton 23rd, Clarkson 34th) I've written more deeply on this in previous years (see the 2025 thread (https://elf.elynah.com/index.php?topic=265038.msg265044#msg265044)).
If you had trouble finding lodging for 2026, yeah, sucks, there's the FIS Cross-Country World Cup Finals in town Thursday to Sunday. Sucks. You will find something. And if you're a little bit crazy, you could even do LP as a day trip since the title game is 5 pm.
About dining and drinking, most all you want is on the main drag in LP, Main Street, which runs south to north, with the Olypic Center / Herb Brooks Arena at the south end. Best parking for the rink is just south of the rink, it's free, go where the guys with safety vests point you, not a scam. Five-minute walk.
As you walk north along Main Street, the water on the right is Mirror Lake not Lake Placid (that's beyond the northern tip of Mirror Lake). Lot of shops, restaurants, coffee shops. All in the span of about a mile. In the past, the arena lets you leave between games to get something to eat and in addition to pizza nearby, there are
- Wiseguys, the sports bar in town. Lots of TVs, good-enough food. In recent years service has been impacted by difficulty in getting staff. You'll wait a few minutes, not a half-hour. Sometimes the game referees dine there. Be nice to them. They're only assholes during the game. And they may be judging Cornell next year, too. From the rink, walk downhill (south) and when you pass the Olympic speed skating oval, turn right
- Lake Placid Pub & Brewery. Good food, great beer, some brewed on site. Walk south almost to the end of the speed skating oval, left on Mirrow Lake Drive, one short block in. Big, darkish downstairs pub, 2 floors above that is better for dining. There is a gorgeous deck in summer. It has a sibling, Big Slide Brewery & Public House, about a mile out of town on Route 73 heading toward LP Airport / Keene, they are transitioning to Mexican fare and I assume that means upscale Mexican. Been there 3-4 times, always good food after a sometimes lengthy wait; they have outside seating and they keep it open even in the shoulder months.
- Big Mountain Deli & Creperie. Fabulous lunches and breakfast but not dinner (site says closes Saturday 5 pm but I thought it was 3. Crowded. Now the best place for breakfast with the closing of the ...
Downtown Diner. Classic diner, lots of Cornell fans found the place, had a great conversation with some of the family of Andy Iles '14, our All-Ivy goaltender. Alas, it closed in January 2026. (https://www.lakeplacidnews.com/opinion/columns/2026/01/01/on-the-scene-lake-placids-downtown-diner-is-closing/)- Saranac Sourdough. Really good sandwiches, eat in or take out. About a mile out of town, turn left where Main Street bears right. Breakfast (great if you have a car) and lunch til 2 pm, 12 noon Sunday. Good food for the victorious ride home Sunday. 2126 Saranac Ave.
Mirror Lake Inn. Continue north on Main Street as the road curves right around the lake. Walkable. On Mirror Lake. Nice decor inside, a great deck outside were this summer. We used to own the land the MLI sits on but post WWI they thought it was overvalued, and sold (correction, I married into the family).
Anyplace downtown not mentioned, the food is okay at minimum, else they go out of business.
Time to kill Saturday during the day? Drive south out of town on Route 86 and follow the West Branch of the Ausable River to Wilmington, where Whiteface Mountain (ski area) is. Or drive 25 minutes to Saranac Lake, larger than LP, picturesque downtown. (Just driving around Mirror Lake is a great 10 minute detour, see the recent mini mansions at the top end of Mirror Lake now that it was discovered by Wall Street bros circa 1990.
Is there still a pancake breakfast fundraiser open to the public on Saturday morning of ECAC weekend? I think it was the American Legion but I honestly don't recall, it's been several years now since my last one.
Checking. We spend a third of the year in LP-Keene. Don't recall a recent March fundraiser-pancake breakfast but sometimes groups don't always get the word out even when the listing is free.
Apropos of other dining, the name alone makes you want to try it: The Redneck Bistro on the Saranac Road (the road that joins up with Main Street at the north end, about a quarter mile from downtown.
One thought about Wiseguys. I went there last year after the game. The only food on offer was deep fried bar munchies: Fries, onion rings, mozzarella sticks. Nothing else. No burgers, no sandwiches, no salads.
There's also a decent Peruvian restaurant (Sol de Oro) on Main Street.
Ah, you've hit on the issue of service staff availabity:
Job desirability <--> wages & tips <--> distance to travel from residence (living cost makes you live outside Lake Placid) <--> lack of kitchen staff / busboys (read: ICE seems everywhere) ----> longer waits for service, fewer food offerings, unhappy customers.
We spent half of May to October in the Essex County/LP area last year. Even at season's peak the local websites had frequent postings about no lunch service today (sorry no staff), reduced hours tomorrow night, etcetera. Yes, we have noticed fewer late-evening offerings or the kitchen closing late. In the past, Wiseguys and others tracked the ending time of the ECAC games and made sure extra servers were on hand.
There have always been challanges. Out in the Rockies where workers have to travel an hour late at night to get home to shared trailer 40 miles away, there have been late night accidents and some deaths of worker who, sober, still fell asleep at the wheel.
In LP / Saranac a decade ago there were a lot more international guest workers especially those from eastern Europe where there is no phrase in the native language for "customer service" exemplified by a pizza place on Mirror Lake where we ordered a large pizza half plain, half sausage and were informed "Izz not possible."
Quote from: billhoward on Today at 05:32:54 PMIn LP / Saranac a decade ago there were a lot more international guest workers especially those from eastern Europe where there is no phrase in the native language for "customer service" exemplified by a pizza place on Mirror Lake where we ordered a large pizza half plain, half sausage and were informed "Izz not possible."
Hey, as someone who's half-Polish...
yeah you're right tbh our customer service generally sucks 😅