Oswego sunsets are known to be beautiful, with the town overlooking Lake Ontario. Watching those sunsets while eating a meal with your close family and friends is something that the restaurant Alex’s on the Water offers.

Alex’s on the Water, located on 24 East 1st St., offers an inside and outside section of the establishment. The outside is a patio that consists of tables for customers to sit and eat at and an outdoor bar overlooking the water.

“It’s such a pretty place. The fact that it’s right on the water is great, and that they have the nice outdoor patio. They can heat it if it’s chilly, it’s great to be outdoors,” Julie Pretzat, dean of the school of communications, media and the arts at Oswego State said.

Pretzat is one of the restaurants loyal customers, holding an annual event there called Drinks on the Dean. Pretzat holds this event in May, the week of finals, and invites the whole staff and faculty of the department of communications. She hands out vouchers and buys the first drink that everybody orders there. Everyone is welcome to stay and order more drinks, and there is catered food provided by Alex’s on the Water.

“We gather down at Alex’s on the outdoor patio and people come in and just have lots of down time,” Pretzat said. “We get to interact with each other and have conversations that we don’t often get the opportunity to do during the semester because we are all so busy.”

The food provided tends to many different eating restrictions that some might have, because of the restaurants “varied menu,” Pretzat said. Alex’s on the Water gives the dean the options of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free food for everyone that attends the event. 

Keeping up with the taste of what customers want is a challenge that most restaurants struggle with, especially in a small town. Alex’s on the Water is known as one of Oswego’s “nicer” restaurants, people flocking to it for a fancier night out. However, this is not a name that Alex’s on the Water wants attached to itself. 

“When you label yourself fine dining, it kind of scares people away. You want the blue collar customers to come in,” Mark Pluff, the manager of operations at Alex’s on the Water, said. 

Alex’s on the Water wants to invite everyone to come inside. They do not want to turn people away because they seem too fancy. With this goal, they want to make sure customers, like college students, feel comfortable to choose their restaurant for the night out.

“Alex’s on the Water is such a beautiful place and some people get kind of intimidated when they go down there and look at it, thinking, ‘I can’t go in there if we’re not dressed up’ and that’s something we don’t want to be,” Pluff said. “We want to be the average joe that you can go in there and have a good time, bring your family in and sit down and have a good meal.”

However, the atmosphere of Alex’s on the Water does depend a lot on the location of their spot. Being located right on the water makes their spot seasonal. In recent years, Alex’s on the Water decided to close during the winter months after realizing their business decreased significantly because of cold weather and earlier sunsets. Closing may not affect the customers, but the employees must find another way to bring in money during those months out of work. 

Employees that have worked at Alex’s on the Water for a few years tend to collect unemployment during these winter months, according to Pluff. He also mentioned that some do get other jobs in restaurants, such as Steamers, that are owned by the same company as Alex’s on the Water. The restaurant opens up again around April.

Although Alex’s on the Water closes during the colder months, their employees and their customers are still loyal. They are still a staple in Oswego, where many people come for the friendly atmosphere and good food, including Oswego State student Anna Boyd. 

“It’s nice, but it’s not too over the top. So it’s good to celebrate special moments with friends and family,” Boyd said.

Photo by Rachel McKenna | The Oswegonian