An inspiring couple
Even on an overcast afternoon, the light from the lake fills the room.
Perhaps not into the area where the cozy sofas surround a warming fireplace, but everywhere else, Otisco Lake was as much a part of the restaurant as were the sparkling white tablecloths, the delicious food and stellar service. It was midwinter but memories of soft summer evenings on the deck with live music in the background added another descriptive to the space.
My spouse and I had enjoyed a middle of a Sunday afternoon lunch at Lakeside Vista only a few days before and were, as we had been in the summer when the outside decks welcomed us, impressed with the attention to detail and, of course, the food.
But this is not the story of a restaurant, as good as it is.
No, this is the story of the “back of the house,” the driving forces that culminated in one of the few on- the water eateries in the area.
No, this is not a fairy tale. The journey was sometimes difficult with deep valleys as well as climbed mountains, but it is one that exemplifies what we can be when we are determined — and when we don’t require a lot of sleep. It began some 50 years ago on the east side of Syracuse in the seventh grade at St. Vincent’s school.
Nancy Roy and Patsy Iannolo began the journey that would take them to the western shore of Otisco Lake some forty years later. From working class families each made their way to something more with hard work, grit and resolve.
“We came from blue collar people,” Nancy said.
Her dad was a carpenter and Patsy’s father worked in construction and as a postman. Family meant everything. Pat will tell you that he went to CBA because his father took a third job, a job taken to supplement a CBA scholarship to help pay Pat’s tuition. CBA launched Pat to Cornell while Nancy pursued a degree as an LPN.
Pat and Nancy married after college graduation. Their future was in their hands and they grabbed it with the excitement and innocence of youth and the gusto of a “of course we can do this.”
They bought, in their words, a dilapidated house on the north side that needed “so-much work” that we could buy it cheaply. They energetically under took the renovations while they raised their first born, while Pat attended medical school to earn both a PhD in pharmacology and an MD and while Nancy studied to be an RN through OCC. Nancy will tell you that under the paint at that house, an industrious archaeologist will find diagrams of Krebs cycles and digestive systems. They studied while they worked on the house.
I asked them, “How did you pay for medical school?”
They both worked on construction and rehab jobs for the faculty and staff at Upstate. They channeled the expertise of their parental models and the hands on experience they got working on their house. A colleague of Pat’s tells of leaving for home after a 36 hour shift at the hospital while they were residents.
“I went home to sleep, exhausted,” the friend said. “ Pat changed to go to work building houses. He has amazing stamina.”
Add another daughter and the couple moved further into what would be no less of an energetic and busy, busy life. At one time they built 50 homes through a construction business that they started, they raised chocolate labs and bought and rehabbed a building in Fulton, River Vista, where they have a banquet facility. Nancy and their daughter Christine work there every weekend.
Pat works nights as the chief of the Emergency Department at Auburn Community Hospital, maintains a full time medical practice in Liverpool, teaches pharmacology at Upstate and currently , besides the responsibilities he has at Lakeside Vista, gives talks on Catholic Christian topics such as “The Medical Aspects of Jesus’Crucifixion.”
Nancy and Pat wanted more children, but despite all sorts of medical intervention and adoption searches, it became clear that would be difficult if not impossible. They were urged by friends to make a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in Croatia. Nancy and Pat will tell you that, after the trip to Medjugorje their wish to have a son was fulfilled through adoption. Peter joined Maria and Christine as an Iannolo. Pat described a moment at Medjugorje where it became clear that he would establish a Marian Center in honor of the Blessed Mother, Mary. The center is located in the same building as his medical practice on Taft Road.
Amidst all of the responsibilities that their lives entailed, the Iannolo’s were regulars on Otisco Lake having bought, renovated and sold several camps. Four years ago while in their boat, they saw the sign that the restaurant was for sale. Like so many others in the area, they had fond memories of the facility in its many iterations. They bought it, and typically for them, they rehabbed the facility with their own hands. In fact, when my husband and I first visited Lakeside Vista, Pat had just left for work in the ED at Auburn hospital after striping the new upper parking lot.
These are people who love what they do.
“I am a high energy person,” Pat says. “I love my work, all of it. I enjoy fishing, photography and our dogs.”
Nancy will smile and tell you that she too has a lot of energy, but she needs to sleep, something which is not a necessity for Pat. If you ask why they take on so many challenges, they will tell you that they are motivated to make people happy.
“In all that we do, we tend to see an outcome that results in human happiness. We are not fancy people …(as an example, Pat arrived, dressed in paint spattered clothes, fresh from a renovation that he is working on in Skaneateles, ready to go to work in the ED that night), we just have this drive to use what gifts we have. Life is beautiful and deserves celebration.”
Pat leaned forward to tell me that he knows his thousand private patients by name. Nancy added, “They are an extended family.”
They have plans for the summer. Pat will build a 1,700 ft. deck out over the water. Boats will still be able to pull in and dock and there will be room for chairs and tables and the opportunity for true lakeside dining. “We want to enlarge the kitchen, develop a more extensive hors d’oeurve menu and small plate offerings.” You just know that this will happen.
When we sat down to talk on a Wednesday about their story, Nancy told me that she had just retired from working during the week as the nurse in Pat’s office. Now she only has the responsibility of the River Vista on weekends, but she plans to expand on one of her hobbies as a baker complete with a new convection oven that needs the larger kitchen at Lakevista to use. “We will have made-on- premises baked goods.”
Other members of their extended families are involved in the life of Lakevista. Siblings and in-laws work in the office and the house band.
“There are a lot of us and when we get together with the kids and the grandkids, it’s noisy chaos. We do work together on many ways.” Their daughter Maria is an orthopedic trauma surgeon at Upstate who also works at Auburn hospital.
Lakeside Vista has become well known for the quality of its food, its wine tastings and the variety of good music that accompanies its service. The restaurant is busy during the summer months, less so on the off season. While they are open for regular service on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it’s during the off season that special events, utilizing the 150 indoor seating capacity, can take place. Showers, graduation parties, family reunions and such are possible.
If you look out through the eastern- most windows of Lakevista, you can see the ski slopes of Song Mountain. The Iannolos put up a sign on the slopes illustrated with a map of Ostico Lake and the mountain. There’s a YOU ARE HERE notation on Song Mountain and another on the map of the lake saying “We ARE Here”.
Can you imagine a map with illustrations that would show the journey from St. Vincent’s seventh grade to Lakevista?
