By Stefan Yablonski
The Press Box, a popular sports bar and restaurant in Oswego, has lost three parking spots.
However, it is gaining a 900-square-foot kitchen.
In mid-March, the new facility was a work in progress. The kitchen staff hustled to prepare for that day’s lunch crowd — while construction workers went about their task.
“This was a parking lot. Actually, right here was our loading dock. We’ve lost three parking spots,” Alison Canale Scanlon, manager, said.
The expansion will allow for faster food service and will enable the staff to serve more people at the same time, especially as the weather warms up and a greater number of people is expected to visit the location.
They had nine posts dug down six feet deep through the concrete. “They built it up and then we framed it and then we did the roof and then added the walls,” she said. “It takes time and it’s done right — it takes time.”
They tore apart the dish room and put a waitress station in its place.
“We’ve got new equipment on this whole line, the front and the back. So this is really exciting. The room out here is functioning — we are waiting on some more new equipment and other things,” Scanlon said.
Among the equipment they’ve added are a new refrigerator, new freezer, new grill and flat top and a new dish machine, a whole new dish set up, she said.
“The grill is a whole foot bigger. We actually had an 18-inch one a few years ago,” she said. “We now have a second oven. We’re not using it yet. But we added it in case we have a big party or something, that’s what we’ll use it for. We doubled the size of our walk-in coolers — we have plenty of room and storage.”
The rest of the new equipment was expected to arrive by the end of March.
The restaurant opened in 1984. The first renovation was in the late ‘80s.