Main Deck brings contemporary farm-to-table fare to Keuka Lake

New restaurant brings three food & beverage experiences to Penn Yan, with Main Deck Restaurant, Tunnel Bar Cocktail Lounge, and Scuttlebutts Casual Quick Service

PENN YAN — Main Deck, a new waterfront eatery located in Penn Yan, opened its doors on Wednesday, July 20. The former Top of the Lake location was redeveloped, following a purchase in late 2021 by Penn Yan native Tim Stuart.  After several months of redesign and renovation, the Main Deck concept has been brought to life with three unique dining concepts — a restaurant, a patio lounge and bar, and take-away window service; with Stuart’s vision executed by a highly curated team of experienced professionals led by General Manager Brad Burritt and Executive Chef Jason Lambert.

“Main Deck strives to provide exceptional but affordable Farm-To-Table cuisine, excellence in service, and a unique aesthetic with stunning lake views so our customers can enjoy a very memorable dining experience. My family and I love the Penn Yan and Keuka Lake community!” says Stuart. “This is the center of the rich farming as well as wine and craft beer industries that extend across the picturesque American Finger Lakes Region. Penn Yan is known also for its extensive boat building history — it was home for 80 years to the Penn Yan Boat Company, which employed generations of boat designers, craftsmen and boatbuilders and sold boats throughout the world. This inspired a water sports, boating, and lake life heritage that is unique to Keuka Lake and the region. Main Deck celebrates this history, these traditions, and this community,” says Stuart. 

Main Deck sits on the north end of Keuka Lake and offers expansive waterfront views from the interior dining rooms, outdoor decks, and lower-level patio bar. The restaurant will open for dinner and brunch by reservation only, with a happy hour available Wednesday through Sunday.  Sister concepts, Tunnel Bar, located on the lower level of the establishment, and Scuttlebutts, a walk-up window service, will open late July. Tunnel Bar will offer lakeside dining and relaxing with a very casual in-depth look into cocktail culture, local beers, as well as highlight the Finger Lakes’ accolades as the top wine region in the United States. Scuttlebutts, the walk-up window service that allows guests a grab-and-go option, will offer all-day service that includes easy breakfast fare, sandwiches, burgers, fries, “Snowizard” Snowballs, ice cream treats, and non-alcoholic beverages all influenced by Lambert’s nod to his New Orleans roots.

Brad Burritt, general manager of Main Deck, joined Stuart at the inception of the project and has an extensive career in restaurant management. “We want to provide our customers with a top level of service and a destination where they can find the highest quality in food, wine and beer,” says Burritt.  We hope that our three-part service model comprised of our Main Deck restaurant, the Tunnel Bar patio lounge, and Scuttlebutts walk-up window allows locals and visitors alike to experience Main Deck in different ways while enjoying the very best that the Finger Lakes region has to offer – from locally sourced food ingredients to the best wines and craft beers.” 

Chef Lambert joins the Main Deck team from a long history of cooking at top restaurants in New Orleans, where most recently he was Chef de Cuisine at Toups South and Toups’ Meatery owned by the city’s award-winning Cajun restaurateur, Isaac Toups. Lambert and his kitchen team have developed a thoughtful menu that marries his Louisiana influence with Main Deck’s modern farm-to-table approach.  The menu is rich with ingredients from local farms like Oink & Gobble Farms, Rosenkrans Farm, Bedient Farms, Briar Patch at Whiskey Hill, Finger Lakes Farms, and Satur Farms and focuses on reimagined comfort food influenced by Finger Lakes Region’s casual lake life and the abundance of local area fresh produce, meats, and cheeses.

Start the Main Deck journey and order one or several dishes from the Small Plates offerings including Stuffed Clam Bake, Beef Tartare and Apple Glazed Pork Belly along with a selection of four salads with protein add-ons that include confit chicken, broiled fish, chargrilled steak, or seared scallops.  Continue with the same sentiment of “together” with For The Table options that include a Butcher’s Block or Local Cheese Board served with daily selections of house-made charcuterie and local farm cheeses and Mussels and Pistou served with arugula, roasted garlic, pecorino, and focaccia.

Main dishes celebrate various land, sea and plant combinations.  From the land, a not-so-traditional BBQ Rabbit and Slaw is served with cornbread; Schnitzel and Spaetzle Panned Pork Loin is paired with creamy raclette, mustard sauce and pickled cabbage and comfort favorites like a Blackened Confit Chicken Leg, Steak Conserva and Double Smashburger are available. Paired perfectly with the water views, guests can also enjoy Seared Scallops with squid ink romesco, saffron calas, corn relish and grapefruit and Whole Snapper Almondine with brown butter, green tomato chow chow and cauliflower purée.

A heightened focus on plant-based items has been created in partnership with “Vegan Mary,” a resident consultant who holds a certificate of Plant-Based Nutrition from Cornell University. Dishes include Local Buckwheat Noodles with roasted eggplant, charred peaches, crispy garlic, and chili oil, Arrabiata Ragu a spicy tomato sauce, roasted veggies and Bayou Cora heirloom grits and Mushroom Pilaf preserved lemon, English peas, and walnut crema. Main Deck will offer on all its menus a selection of Vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options.

In addition to dinner service, Main Deck will also open for a weekly Sunday brunch, as well as a Happy Hour every Wednesday through Saturday. Brunch items awaken fresh assortments of morning-favorites like Bananas Foster French Toast; Buttermilk Biscuits and Gravy with farmers sausage and fried eggs, and Shrimp and Grits with NOLA style barbecue shrimp, parmesan grits and Tasso, and more. Happy Hour also beckons a new menu, with a mix of specialty-priced dinner menu items and new additions.  The bar bites menu can be enjoyed at the bar, indoors or outdoors with dishes ranging from $6 to $16 and specialty cocktails, beers, and wines.

Beyond the striking Penn Yan Boats theme of the new restaurants, by local interior designers Heather & Mat DeMoras, of Heather DeMoras Design Consultants Inc. in Rochester, and the improved views of Keuka Lake by architect Chuck Smith of Design Works Architecture in Fairport, there’s more good news for boaters. Stuart says that permits have been applied for to dredge the shallow lake bottom and remove the submerged remains of an old steamboat pier that have made arriving by boat hazardous for all but the shallowest draft. Once the dredging has been approved and completed, permanent docks will be installed soon after.

Main Deck is located at 301 Lake Street, Penn Yan, New York. Dinner will be available by reservation only Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m.  Brunch will be available by reservation only on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Happy Hour will be available Wednesday to Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. Lunch service is slated to begin late summer.

For reservations, please visit OpenTable. For more information, please visit www.maindeckpy.com or call 315-694-7536. Follow along on Instagram at @maindeckpy and on Facebook at MainDeckPY.

*Hours are subject to change. Please check Instagram or Facebook for updated hours.