Putnam's Restaurant & Bar

Enjoy Dining in Putnam's Restaurant and Bar


Photo courtesy of The Saratogian, Erica Miller Putnam's Restaurant and Bar at The Gideon Putnam Resort is steeped in historic ambience. Murals hand-painted by Irish artist James Reynolds in 1939 form a panoramic backdrop of Adirondack scenery and glimpses of Saratoga Springs at the turn of the last century. Executive Chef Brian Sterner and his culinary staff await your arrival for a premiere dining experience.

Putnam's Restaurant and Bar is open year round serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily to the Public and Resort guests. Putnam's Patio is also available during the summer months. 
 

Daily Putnam's Specials


Putnam's specials change daily please ask your server or call for details, 518-226-4719.

Putnam's Hours of Operation


Putnam’s Dining
Breakfast
Grab & Go Continental
Monday - Thursday 7:30 a.m. til 10:00 a.m.
Full Service “a la Carte”
Friday – Saturday 7:00am – 11:00am
Full Service
Sunday 7:00am – 10:30am
Sunday Brunch 10:30 a.m. til 2:00 p.m.
             
Lunch and Dinner Menu
Light All Day Dining Menu
Sunday – Thursday 11:00am – 8:00pm
Light Menu
Friday – Saturday 11:00am – 9:00pm
Also note : Friday – Sunday there will be an additional Prix Fixe Menu available 5:00pm – Close

Putnam’s Lounge
Monday  - Saturday 11:00 a.m. till 9:00 p.m.
Sunday - noon til 9:00 p.m.

Late Night Menu
Available during the Summer Season only.

Putnam’s Patio
The Patio is closed for the season. Putnam's Patio is an extentsion of Putnam's restaurant and bar during the summer months located through Putnam's on the backside of the hotel.  Sit back and relax under the umbrellas and take in some delicious food and great scenery.

Hours of operation are subject to change without notice.


View Putnam's Breakfast Menu


View PUTNAM'S MENU


View Putnam's Late Night Menu


Wine List

Gideon Putnam Resorts wine list.

Room Service Menu

Photo courtisey of The Saratogian, Erica Miller

for reservations please call 518-584-3000


Call now to make reservations.

 DID YOU KNOW? As a world food, potatoes are second in human consumption only to rice. And as thin, salted, crisp chips, they are America's favorite snack food. Potato chips originated in New England as one man's variation on the French-fried potato, and their production was the result not of a sudden stroke of culinary invention but of a fit of pique.

In the summer of 1853, Native American George Crum was employed as a chef at an elegant resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. On Moon Lake Lodge's restaurant menu were French-fried potatoes, prepared by Crum in the standard, thick-cut French style that was popularized in 1700s France and enjoyed by Thomas Jefferson as ambassador to that country. Ever since Jefferson brought the recipe to America and served French fries to guests at Monticello, the dish was popular and serious dinner fare.

At Moon Lake Lodge, one dinner guest found chef Crum's French fries too thick for his liking and rejected the order. Crum cut and fried a thinner batch, but these, too, met with disapproval. Exasperated, Crum decided to rile the guest by producing French fries too thin and crisp to skewer with a fork. The plan backfired. The guest was ecstatic over the browned, paper-thin potatoes, and other diners requested Crum's potato chips, which began to appear on the menu as Saratoga Chips, a house specialty.

In 1860 George opened his own restaurant in a building on Malta Avenue near Saratoga Lake, and within a few years was catering to wealthy clients including William Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and Henry Hilton. His restaurant closed around 1890 and he died in 1914 at the age of 92.

The idea of making them as a food item for sale in grocery stores came to many people at around the same time, but perhaps the first was William Tappendon of Cleveland, OH, in 1895.   He began making chips in his kitchen and delivering to neighborhood stores but later converted a barn in the rear of his house into "one of the first potato chip factories" in the country.

At that time, potatoes were tediously peeled and sliced by hand. It was the invention of the mechanical potato peeler in the 1920s that paved the way for potato chips to soar from a small specialty item to a top-selling snack food. For several decades after their creation, potato chips were largely a Northern dinner dish.

In 1921, Bill and Sallie Utz started the Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Salie Utz used her knowledge of good Pennsylvania Dutch cooking to make the chips in a small summer house behind their home. The hand-operated equipment Salie used made about fifty pounds of potato chips per hour. While Salie stayed home making chips, Bill delivered them to "mom and pop" grocery stores and farmer's markets in the Hanover, PA and Baltimore, MD area.

Out in Monterey Park, California  the Scudders company started making potato chips in 1926. Laura Scudder is credited with developing the wax paper bag for potato chips which made a wider distribution possible because of its preserving properties.  Prior to this bag potato chips were dispensed in bulk from barrels or glass display cases.

In 1932, Herman Lay founded Lay's in Nashville, Tenn., which distributed potato chips from a factory in Atlanta, Ga. Herman Lay, a traveling salesman in the South, helped popularize the food from Atlanta to Tennessee. Lay peddled potato chips to Southern grocers out of the trunk of his car, building a business and a name that would become synonymous with the thin, salty snack. Lay's potato chips became the first successfully marketed national brand.

The industry that George Crum launched in 1853 continues to grow and prosper. Potato chips have become America's favorite snack. U.S. retail sales of potato chip are over $6 billion a year.  In 2003 the U.S. potato chip industry employed more than 65,000 people.

*George Speck was born to Abraham and Catherine Speck. George also used the name Crum, as his father did while working as a jockey.

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"My husband and I were married at the Gideon Putnam in an outdoor ceremony. The grounds were impeccable and the attentiveness of staff; unbeatable. We and our guests were thrilled with the setting, service, and classiness of this resort. Thank you so much for helping to fulfill all our dreams for a perfect wedding!

”

– Elizabeth

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