Syracuse, N.Y. - The place known for clambakes and seafood on Taft Road in Syracuse has announced they will be closing.
Hinerwadel's posted on their Facebook page that after 104 years they were calling it quits.
Below is what Vicky Hinerwadel had to say:
"Dear Central New York,
This announcement is unfortunately coming a little sooner then we anticipated due to one of the news channels that actually came and set up on our property yesterday saying someone called them. We were hoping to have sufficient time to announce this in our own way to our staff, customers and suppliers. I apologize to the ones that I wanted to tell personally if they hear this way first.
I am writing this post with a very heavy heart. We want to announce to all of our very appreciated customers, employees and suppliers that we have made the very difficult decision to make our 104th season serving our clambakes to the CNY community our last.
This has been a very heart wrenching and emotional decision. I have been in a battle with cancer for over 2 years now and we have made the decision it is time to put my health first. Unfortunately there is no 5th generation to carry on the tradition of our clambakes.
We are very grateful for the community, businesses and organizations that has supported four generations of our family's business by attending our clambakes for the last 104 years. We are also very thankful to the many wonderful people who worked for us, which a lot of the times felt more like family than staff. I always said they were the backbone that made it all work. They not only worked for us but we made some very long and lasting friendships.
My great grandfather was a postal carrier for Syracuse, his love of clams and seafood started the whole tradition of our clambakes. Which was very odd seeing we are no where near the ocean! He bought 34 acres in North Syracuse in 1914, he farmed part of it and began his dream. People would take cable cars from the city to attend the clambakes. He found a way to transport clams packed with ice in wooden barrels on trains from the Chesapeake bay to supply his dream. Our clambakes survived many ups and downs including the depression, a couple of recessions, prohibition, many wars including World War 1 and 2 and the Korean War to name a few. We had several fires destroying our buildings to the ground and even a gas explosion that destroyed our kitchen but somehow we persevered all these obstacles.
We also served our salt potatoes at our clambakes and in the early 1960's my Dad started packaging them in his garage by hand and distributing to small markets such as Sweetheart Market and it grew from there making it a popular and loved delicacy in CNY and beyond. We are planning on continuing to distribute our Hinerwadel's Salt Potatoes, so please look for them on your local store shelf!
I want to acknowledge all the small business owners that work the long hours, sacrificing time with there loved ones and never getting enough sleep because your mind is always working 24/7. For anyone that hasn't run a small business please believe me the owners make many sacrifices to try to attain the american dream. I just would like to say to Governor Cuomo that our harsh winters are not the reason for the exodus of people and businesses, which he recently said, but it is the taxes, policies, lack of available staffing and the rising cost of doing business in New York State that has hurt the small business owners trying to achieve his or her dream. I ask everyone to buy whenever you can from your local small business. There are a lot of people when you put the numbers together that all these small businesses employ. I will continue to support our local small businesses wherever I can and hope you will too.
To my work family and to the Syracuse area and beyond, there will never be enough gratitude for our long run putting on clambakes for CNY.
Please feel free to post any memories you may have of us from over the years, we will cherish these forever.
Sincerely and with much gratitude,
Vicky Hinerwadel "