Lisa G’s restaurant is seen from Sentinel Road in Lake Placid on Wednesday, April 5. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

LAKE PLACID — At Lisa G’s restaurant — in the old opera house at the corner of Sentinel Road and Station Street — everyone is family — staff and patrons, new and old.

So when a pipe burst in the restaurant on Feb. 5 — flooding the building and causing widespread damage that forced the restaurant to close for repairs — the first concern that came to mind for Mike Mishanec, the owner of Lisa G’s, was his staff. He’s built a “core” of longtime staff at the restaurant, and he didn’t want to lose them with the closure.

That’s when community efforts to help the staff started pouring in.

GoFundMe pages, specials at local bars like the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery, and private donations almost immediately started funneling money toward the restaurant. Then, a few weeks ago, Cassie Hogue — who works front of house for the Whiteface Club and Resort’s two restaurants — had the idea to set up an auction fundraiser to benefit the staff. She’s friends with most of the Lisa G’s crew, and she loves the restaurant — as many others in the community do.

“The entire town loves Lisa G’s,” she said.

News photo — Lauren Yates Lisa G’s staff, including Head Chef Mike Giambalvo, center right, and Sous Chef Jesse Lamica, right, accept a more than $13,000 check on behalf of their coworkers on Monday, April 3. The check was the result of fundraising efforts by Whiteface Club and Resort front of house staffer Cassie Hogue, center left. Whiteface Club and Resort Executive Chef Jonathan Studley, left, provided between 600 and 800 hors d’oeuvres at the fundraiser Hogue organized at the club’s Cafe on the Green on Tuesday, March 28. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

She thought organizing the fundraiser for Lisa G’s at the Whiteface Club and Resort would be a good way to rally support for the restaurant’s staff and generate some new traffic at the club’s Cafe on the Green restaurant since she said it’s “a little of the beaten path,” at the end of Whiteface Inn Lane in Lake Placid. And she was right — the fundraiser, held on Tuesday, March 28, drew around 150 people and raised more than $13,000 for Lisa G’s staff.

Hogue solicited local businesses to donate for the auction, but she said people started coming to her — she’d get calls from people asking how and what they could donate. Local hotel stays, spa packages, a private chef party, topographic maps and boat rentals were among the auction items from locals and businesses like the Lake Placid Lodge, the Mirror Lake Inn, the Imagination Station and former Interlaken Chef Kevin Bousquet. For the raffle, they had gift certificates, skis, cornhole boards and jewelry from local businesses like the Little Blue House, Darrah Cooper Jewelers and the Adirondack Foot Sanctuary. Some of the Whiteface Club and Resort’s food distributors kicked in a few items for the auction and raffle, too.

Hogue said the night was an emotional one that proved the strength of the local community in Lake Placid. Whiteface Club and Resort Executive Chef Jonathan Studley, who served between 600 and 800 hors d’oeuvres at the fundraiser, said it was an opportunity for Lake Placid residents to “let their hair down” together at a community event for a good cause.

“It was really emotionally overwhelming to see how many people showed up to support them — like, faces I know — all locals,” Hogue said. “It made me proud to be a part of Lake Placid.”

Lisa G’s staff said they were overwhelmed by the March 28 turnout, too. Mike Giambalvo and Jesse Lamica, the head and sous chef at Lisa G’s, respectively, have worked at the restaurant for years. They accepted the more than $13,000 check on behalf of their coworkers on Monday, April 4. They were excited to see some of the loyal patrons they haven’t seen in two months at the fundraiser. Giambalvo saw the outpouring of people at the fundraiser as tangible proof of Lisa G’s stance as a staple in this community.

People mingle at a March 28 fundraiser for Lisa G’s staff. (Photo provided)

“It was a really eye-opening experience, for sure,” Giambalvo said.

Giambalvo has put in 12 years at Lisa G’s, working his way up to head chef from his starting position as a dishwasher, and Lamica is in his ninth year at the restaurant after starting at the salad station. When asked what’s kept them at Lisa G’s for so many years, Giambalvo and Lamica said the family atmosphere at Lisa G’s is unlike anywhere else — the employees have bonded over their love of the work they do.

“I enjoy walking into work and being like, ‘What’s next?'” Mike said. “Also, at the same time, I’m working next to people I kind of grew up in town with.”

Mike, 31, and Jesse, 33, went to high school together in Lake Placid.

In their time off since February, Mike and Jesse said they’ve been catching up on TV shows and visiting with family. Jesse said he’s also been brushing up on some new recipes — the chefs are excited to get back into the kitchen at Lisa G’s.

Fred Ryman, a contractor who is helping with repairs at Lisa G’s in Lake Placid, installs new piping in the restaurant’s kitchen on Wednesday, April 5. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

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Good-hearted people

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Though Mishanec was a bit shy about showing up to the March 28 fundraiser — he was worried that Lisa G’s had “taxed” the community too much — he ended up staying all the way to the end.

“The community outreach is, I think, the biggest takeaway for me personally, and something I’m kind of looking forward to discussing with the staff when they come back,” Mishanec said. “The only real way to show the appreciation of it and to pay it back is to pay it forward.”

Lisa G’s bar and one dining area are seen under repair in Lake Placid on Wednesday, April 5. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

Thank you is good, he said, but it’s not good enough — Lisa G’s is prepared to return the favor to other community members and businesses if ever they need help. Mishanec is also thinking of having a community event at Lisa G’s after reopening this month, but nothing official has been planned as of yet. Mishanec expects the restaurant to open in April — hopefully, sometime in the next couple of weeks, he said.

Mishanec took over the restaurant in November 2019 after working for roughly eight years as the Lisa G’s manager. It was a “big thing” at the time to sit across from Lisa Grigoriadis, the original owner, who told Mishanec, “This is yours now.” But Hogue believes Mishanec runs the restaurant just like Grigoriadis did — like a tight-knit family.

Mishanec said he doesn’t presume to be responsible for the family atmosphere everyone feels at Lisa G’s, but he likes to believe the restaurant’s crew and patrons are a sort of “tribe” — it’s all about having respect for the people who work at the restaurant as well as the people who patronize it, he said.

“I do look around and I just feel like there are very good-hearted people that work here and that dine here,” Mishanec said. “That informs itself when that happens … you then attract more of that as a consequence, and it builds on itself.”