“They are very polite,” he said back then, but Jayne added that he was worried when large numbers of them stood on the street waiting to get in on the weekends.
Jayne ended up selling the bar to Ed Beck — Mike’s dad — that same year.
According to P&G’s, Ed had a great opening weekend but had no customers the following week. “A disheartened Beck couldn’t understand what he had done to alienate everyone — and so quickly,” their website reads.
That slow weekend — in mid-August — happened to be the same as the Woodstock Festival in Bethel.
During Ed Beck’s time, P&G’s also went to SUNY New Paltz to hold a free party on campus for students — back when the drinking age was lower.
But Ed Beck also had other stuff on his mind. He also ran Easy Street in Hyde Park and another restaurant. During the 1970s, Stormy Nickerson managed the bar and eventually took over.
The beginning of the modern P&G’s era
Ed Beck and his son Mike eventually took the bar back over in 1981 — officially changing the name from “Pat & George’s” to P&G’s.
“In 1981, I had graduated from college. My father was now running two restaurants on the other side of the river. And Stormy wanted to get out of the business, because he was getting a little older,” Mike said.
For Mike, who grew up steeped in the restaurant business, the transition provided a good opportunity. He started as a partner with his dad, and then in 1985 he became the full owner.
A Huguenot Herald article from 1981 mentions a P&G’s that sounds almost identical to the present day — a place where “young and old, college teachers and students, local working people business men, college alumni, and of course, summer league softball players” would come to gather.
For the current owner, P&G’s saw a huge transition during his first few years. New York State increased its drinking age from 18 to 19 in 1982. Later in 1985, New York upped it again to 21 to match federal regulations.
“When the drinking age went from 18 to 19 — and then from 19 to 21 — there used to be a bunch more little bars in town. They didn’t necessarily serve food. There used to be Digger’s and Saint Blaze,” P&G’s owner said. “When the drinking age went up, there was a shift. It was just us and some of the other places that served food. We were more established than some of the places that were just bars.”
Increased tourism to the Shawangunk Mountains during the 1990s also helped add customers during the once-slow summers, according to Beck.
He also sees a different SUNY New Paltz than what he had seen in the ’80s and ’90s. “You know, New Paltz is a tough school to get into now,” he said. “So the makeup of the student body is a lot different. I used to joke about it, but I think New Paltz used to have a lot more B and C students than they do now.”
With more academic students, drinking is not the first priority. “They’re spending a little more time studying and a little more time at the library. So there’s a little bit of a transition there,” he said.
In 1994, P&G’s underwent a renovation to make its storefront look more like the old Blue Crane Inn — a link to the past Mike Beck wanted to create. Another renovation in 1999 added those large glass windows overlooking the back of the building.
Near-tragedy struck P&G’s back in 2008, when a kitchen fire engulfed part of the building. The fire started on a packed Saturday night in August.
“College was back, and that’s a busy time — a busy month. College is coming back, but not all the local people who aren’t students had left,” he explained. “We had a fire in the kitchen — right in the middle of dinner hour.”
Grease build up behind the kitchen hood was the culprit. Fortunately, everyone got out safely. But the charred remains of his business haunted Beck.
“It was eerie too,” he said. “It was like the Titanic. Walking in here there were meals that were like half-eaten and in different stages of service.
“We were lucky too. The Fire Department — I mean, this whole street could have gone up — they got here instantly and saved the majority of the building. We had to rebuild our kitchen and one of our AC units of the roof was destroyed.”
After they gutted and rebuilt the kitchen, P&G’s eventually got back on its feet.
Throughout the years, the restaurant and bar has seen its share of famous faces. Actor John Turturro and chef Hayden Quinn occasionally stop by when they’re in town.
To learn more about what’s going on at P&G’s in the present day, head to www.pandgs.com. ++
P&G’s is the first installment in a six-part series featuring the history of local taverns. Next week, the spotlight will be on Bacchus.
