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By Christine Graf
Finnigan’s on the Lake is a new tavern and grill located on Ballston Lake.
The space at 175 Lake Road was previously occupied by Villago Pizzeria, which operated there for seven years before closing in July of last year.
Before opening Finnigan’s on the Lake, owners Matt and Stephanie Finnigan operated Ballston Lake’s Carney’s Tavern from 2013 until 2021.
The couple made the decision to close Carney’s after an inspection of the building revealed structural problems that would be too costly to repair. They began looking for a location to establish a new eatery in either Clifton Park or Latham.
“We had looked at this location (175 Lake Road) a year prior. It had been for sale for a while, but it just wasn’t turnkey enough for the price they were asking at the time,” said Matt Finnigan. “As luck would have it, the stars just kind of aligned and somebody else bought the property and we ended up coming up with the lease option on the building where we have first option to buy. We had just begun looking at spaces, and it was inside of three weeks that this just kind of landed in our laps.”
The Finnigan’s do not own or operate the boat launch that is across the street from the eatery. In prior years, boaters were able to pay at the restaurant to use the launch, but that is no longer the case.
Carney’s was the first restaurant that the Finnigan’s owned, but Finnigan himself has decades of experience in the restaurant industry.
“I started when I was a kid,” he said. “My grandparents were part owner of Latham Bowl, and I was flipping burgers when I was eight years old.”
He was the kitchen manager at the Orchard Tavern in Albany and worked for all five Ground Rounds that were once located in the Capital Region. He ran Carney’s with his wife, Stephanie, who now runs Finnegan’s front of the house and can be found behind the bar four nights a week.
According to Finnigan, the pandemic made the already difficult job of operating a restaurant even more challenging. Owners have been forced to contend with staffing shortages, food cost increases, and COVID protocols.
Before opening their lakeside restaurant, the Finnigans completed an extensive remodel to the existing space.
“It needed a lot of work. Everything was stark and white, and we wanted to keep it bright while doing an Irish Celtic thing,” he said. “We hired a friend of ours who became our project manager and made our visions come true. I don’t even know how many linear feet of barn board we put in here, but my wife and my project manager milled and stained the barn board themselves.”
Because they wanted to host live music on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons, they had to address the acoustics in the room. In doing so, they replaced the ceiling with a product that looks like tin but is actually noise-absorbing foam.
From the moment Finnigan’s on the Lake opened its doors, business has been booming, Finnigan said.
“It’s at the point where we can’t even accept reservations because we don’t want to turn people away who are coming through the door. They are coming through the door non-stop,” said Finnigan. “We’ve been very lucky. We’re even busier than we were at Carney’s.”
The menu includes a wide variety of Irish-American fare as well as Italian dishes, pub food, pizza, sandwiches and burgers.
“It’s high-quality food, and there’s something for everybody,” said Finnigan who oversees the kitchen.
The drink menu features standard and signature cocktails, wine, and bottled and draft beer. The Finnigans invested in a state-of-the-art draft beer system to dispense the 12 draft beers.
The restaurant has a staff of approximately 25 employees, and that number will increase after the patio is opened at the beginning of May, said Finnigan. They also plan to renovate an upstairs event room that can hold upward of 60 people. They hope to have it up and running in time to host holiday parties.
For more information, visit www.finnigansonthelake.com