THE LENHART HOTEL BEMUS POINT, NY

SUMMER CASUAL

 
Today the Red Hat Kinzua Kuties visited the Lenhart Hotel in Bemus Point NY. This old hotel is only open in the summer and has a lovely view of Chautauqua Lake from the rocking chairs on the front porch. We had lunch inside and then toured the hotel. Our guide was fourth generation to operate this hotel. In the lake’s heyday, there were many steamboats and large hotels all over the lake.


Sip and enjoy the water views at the Lamplighter

BY RICK STANLEY

Special to The News

July 17, 2009, 7:03 AM / 0 comments

BEMUS POINT—On most occasions, a trip to the tavern or nightspot is primarily for the beverages and the company of fellow revelers. But sometimes, the visit can be to soak up the ambience.

A stop at the Lamplighter Cocktail Lounge in the summer is definitely of the latter variety. The Lamplighter is located on the first floor of the historic Hotel Lenhart overlooking Bemus Bay on Chautauqua Lake.

“It’s really a romantic bar,” says Walter, the bartender, who is whipping up a round of drinks that includes two signature Lenhart Rockers at $5 apiece and two Bud Light Limes at $3 each. “A lot of people just like to come in, grab a table by the window and just look out at the lake.”

While the grand, wooden hotel was built in 1880 as one of the stops for the steamships that plied Chautauqua Lake, the Lamplighter didn’t open until 1960, says John Lenhart Johnston Jr., owner and operator of the hotel who sometimes works the bar himself. The space where the Lamplighter is located is a renovated billiards room. The hotel’s bar used to be on the other side of the building, which is now a guest room, Johnston says. He then displays a weathered liquor license from 1911.

The bar features about 25 bottled beer varieties and the standard array of mixed drinks. It also features the Lenhart Rocker, which is a potent concoction of vodka and other spirits, and the Dark ’n’ Stormy, which mixes rum and ginger beer.

Couples sauntered in and out of the Lamplighter, ordering drinks and then bringing them out to the locally famous porch where you can just sit, sip and watch the sunset while rocking in the hotel’s colorful chairs.

The Lamplighter, “which really hasn’t changed much since 1960,” Johnston says, is an intimate little place. It has about a dozen tables and an oak bar decorated with a cherry inlay of Chautauqua Lake to which patrons can belly up. There are no televisions or video games, just soft music playing, which, on this visit, was Billie Holiday.

The walls feature intricate woodcuttings done by Cecil Rhodes, a longtime Bemus Point artisan. One work features a steamship, the City of Cincinnati, which used to make the rounds on Chautauqua Lake. There’s also a tiger musky on the wall—the “fighting fish of Chautauqua Lake,” says bartender Walter. Also on display are several model ships built by Johnston’s father.

Behind the bar is a vintage sign that says: “Street girls bringing sailors into hotel must pay for room in advance.”

It all makes for a pleasant, secluded ambience that is worth drinking up.