WEBSTER, N.Y. — Plans to tear down a popular restaurant/bar in Webster are not sitting well with those who frequent the establishment.

What You Need To Know

  • Bay Side Pub to be torn down so Webster can move forward with plans to raise the road to prevent future flooding
  • Current owners have been there since 1996, but have leased the property from Webster since 2003
  • When a new building replaces the current one, current owners will not have first dibs on it. Anyone will be able to bid on it
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The building housing the Bay Side Pub has looked over the bay since 1950, a local watering hole turned destination point.

Purchased in 1996 by Robert Buono and his sister and brother-in-law, the Bay Side Pub is known by some as a hidden gem, set along the bay in Webster on Lake Road with devoted patrons.

“You can come down here and you can spend an hour and 20 bucks, and feel good about your life and get away from things, ‘cause life’s hard," said regular patron Vincent Hesketch, of Webster.

“It’s the people,” said Buono. “That’s the charm and personality of the place, and that’s what we love about it.”

Back in 2003, the town purchased the property. Since then, the Bay Side leases from Webster. And come this winter, the Bay Side Pub is slated to be torn down – so the town can move forward with plans to raise the road to prevent future flooding.

“Change we're not against,” said Buono. “Change isn’t bad. It's how they're proposing it and how they're doing it by putting us all out of a job.”

After pulling through the pandemic, if the Bay Side shuts down, all 50 of its employees will lose their jobs," Buono says. "Not because of the pandemic. Not because of the flooding. Not because of bad management or poor choices or gambling or drugs. The only thing that's going to put all of us out of business is the government. And that's the shame of it all.”

When a new building replaces the current one, current owners will not have first dibs on it. Anyone will be able to bid on it.

“It's the largest smack in the face yet,” said Buono. “We've been here, the town has owned it for 18 years, and now we have to fight to stay here, when we've been fighting 25 years to stay here. It's just … I don't know how to — I don’t get it.”

Funding for improvements comes from the Lake Ontario Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative.

“You can't use those kinds of public funds, and then just ingratiate a private owner, with no formal process of letting other private businesses bid on that," said Webster Town Supervisor Tom Flaherty.

Flaherty is, however, rooting for the current Bay Side owners.

“I really hope you guys are going to be one of the bidders, and I hope you’re the winning bidder," said Flaherty.

“As long as we keep communicating with Tom, I think we might be able to come up with a solution,” said Buono. “And that's what I'm hoping.”

But, unless a deal is ironed out, it could be last call at the end of the season for folks who cherish the spot on the bay.

“The Bayside Pub is the place where the local community gathers,” said Hesketch. “It is a destination, and the town of Webster ought to be damn proud of it.”