MASSENA — A fine dining experience in Massena has gained a name for itself in the Big Apple.
While promoting Massena’s fishing opportunities at a sports show in New York City, Sports-Fishing Promotion Director Donald R. Meissner said he was surprised to hear anglers discussing the Gristmill Brewery, a brew pub and full-service restaurant located on Water Street.
“I have to tell you that these sports shows that we’ve been doing have been, in my mind, the best that we’ve ever done. New York City was an eye-opener. I never thought that was one of our key markets, but my gosh, this year I think it was the best show we’d ever done. Not that we had done it, but the reaction we got from the people,” he said.
And that’s where he and Linda McQuinn heard the talk about the Gristmill Brewery.
“We’re standing there and I hear this shouting from the aisle. ‘Well, Massena now has a wonderful restaurant,’ and they’re going like that. So, other people are looking and it’s bringing people in. He was talking about the Gristmill,” Meissner said. “To have somebody down in New York yelling out about Massena’s eating establishments, that was pretty impressive.”
Another attendee had positive words to say about Massena.
“There was this guy standing just outside, listening to me talk to somebody about the fishing here. He was smiling, so I looked at him and I said, ‘Have you ever heard of Massena?’ He says, ‘Yeah, I’ve been there.’ He was a doctor that lives in Manhattan. He was there with his wife and daughter, and he said, ‘I come to Massena for the Tackle Warehouse event,” Meissner said.
He said the individual had high praise for Massena.
“He said, ‘I’m going to tell you, I’ve traveled all over the country, and Massena treats us better than any place else in the United States.’ He got very specific. He said, ‘The fact that you will take people around in a golf cart and take them back to their truck and so forth. We’ve never been treated like this before,’” Meissner said. “Then he started talking about bringing his wife and daughter this year just for a special vacation up here so that they could go out to the locks and see that, and to the nature center and some of the things that are part of our presentation.”
Massena’s offerings were also addressed during a sports show in New Hampshire. He said a psychology professor from one of the colleges in the area wanted to bring his grandchildren to Massena to enjoy the fishing that he was seeing on the monitors set up at the show.
“An hour later, he comes back with five kids of all ages from let’s say pre-school all the way up to teenager. He said to the kids, ‘I’m going to leave you in the booth. You can get a chance to get to know this person and see what you think of this area.’ They were so well-disciplined or well-mannered. It was a pure delight. Now they’re planning to come up here, and I want to make sure when they do come up here that this is a special trip for these kids to get introduced to the outdoors like that,” Meissner said.