Local restaurants preparing for SUNY Oswego graduation weekend

OSWEGO, NY – One of the more popular weekends in the city of Oswego, SUNY Oswego graduation weekend, is around the corner.

Business will be booming around the city, with family and friends of graduates who need a place to sleep and eat. Local businesses like The Rooftop Lounge are preparing.

“We have a really good connection with a lot of students who come in as regular customers,” Lindze Pauline, The Rooftop Lounge bar manager, said. “We love looking at this as a way to send them off.

“It gets very busy,” Pauline said. “Two hours for this ceremony, people come in. Two hours later after the next ceremony more come in. We still try to make it a great experience for everybody, not try to make anyone feel rushed, and they can come celebrate.”

Pauline said that the restaurant books their staff accordingly and it does not feel busy to them.

“It feels like each year we have everything under control,” Pauline said. “We always have a smooth transition from table to table. We have every staff position filled. We’ll have our hostess, who is usually just our bartender, and a position for every employee to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.”

Pauline says that if you are a larger party, you will probably be put on a waitlist. However, it is common for people to cancel at the last minute, so she urges everyone to call and put their name down anyway.

As for small and fast restaurants that do not require a reservation, Rudy’s Lakeside Drive-In owner Jason Livesey says they look at graduation weekend as a great opportunity for business and the beginning of a good summer.

“We look at commencement weekend as our kickoff to the summer season,” Livesey said. “We get two big holidays that’s always big for us, one being Mother’s Day, but graduation weekend is usually the biggest of them all.”

Rudy’s officially opened for the summer on March 18th, which also brings a crowd.

“Our first couple days opened up always gets a good response from the local community,” Livesey said. “Usually it depends on the weather, this year wasn’t too great. But if graduation day is sunny then I think it’ll very much surpass opening day.”

Livesey says that when graduation weekend rolls around the restaurant starts to look for new employees.

“Since that weekend is the start of the summer season we start to hire going into that weekend,” Livesey said. “Our staff will almost double by the time that weekend rolls around.”

Just like Rooftop Bar and Lounge, Rudy’s tends to time the graduation ceremonies and prepare for a rush of people once it is over. However, Livesey says that he is fortunate that Rudy’s is a fast-paced food industry and he sees their business as more of a pre-dinner snack for graduation-goers, rather than a full meal.

For family and friends traveling for commencement, Best Western Hotel operations manager Jonathan Evergreen says graduation weekend gets so busy that the hotel does not call it graduation weekend, rather “blackout weekend.”

“All of our rates are frozen,” Evergreen said. “We don’t offer any rates for this weekend and we still sell out every year.” 

Evergreen says that it is best to book your room as quickly as possible, as rooms sell out quickly.

“I have about six rooms left to fill for the entire weekend,” Evergreen said. “Those will definitely get filled up quickly. I’d like to say by the first week of May we’ll be completely booked.”

Evergreen says he gets calls a year in advance to book rooms for graduation weekend.

“We book at most 50 weeks out,” Evergreen said. “So two weeks after the last graduation, people call and claim their spot.” 

“Harborfest is usually a little bit busier,” Evergreen said. “That’s mostly because the town is less busy. Harborfest brings around the overarching town and area. Everyone comes and they all want to park, so we have to be a little bit more vigilant.”