Lisa G’s Owner Michael Mishanec, left, talks with longtime patron Greg Crodelle at the restaurant in Lake Placid on Sunday. Lisa G’s reopened this past Friday after a 10-week shutdown. (Enterprise photo — Lauren Yates)

LAKE PLACID — A chilly spring rain fell over a quiet Lake Placid on Sunday, but inside the newly reopened Lisa G’s restaurant, the air was warm and buzzing with laughter, chatter and the clatter of silverware on quickly-disappearing dishes. The Sentinel Road restaurant reopened on Friday after a 10-week shutdown.

A pipe burst in Lisa G’s on Feb. 5, flooding the building and causing widespread damage that forced the restaurant to close for repairs. But on Sunday, there were no signs that the restaurant had missed a beat — most of the tables were filled with patrons, and in the kitchen, cooks were juggling ingredients and assembling dishes with practiced precision. When asked if they were excited to be cooking at Lisa G’s again, the kitchen staff erupted with a resounding, “Oh, yeah!”

The people who work and eat at Lisa G’s tend to have some history with the restaurant, where employees say Owner Michael Mishanec has continued tending the restaurant’s “family atmosphere” cultivated by the restaurant’s original owner, Lisa Grigoriadis. Mike Giambalvo and Jesse Lamica, the head and sous chef at Lisa G’s, have worked there for 12 and nine years, respectively. And as Mishanec walked by the bar on Sunday, longtime patrons Greg and Ann Crodelle stopped him to say “congratulations” on the reopening and tell him how glad they were to be back at their favorite local spot.

“It’s home to us,” Greg told the Enterprise. “It’s ‘Cheers’ — ‘Cheers’ in the Adirondacks. And I’m Norm.”

The Crodelles have patronized Lisa G’s, which first opened in 2000, for years. Though they’re residents of Loudonville, the Crodelles have visited and owned a second home in Lake Placid for around 25 years. Just a couple of weeks before Lisa G’s shut down in February, the Crodelles bought a home across the street from the restaurant. They wanted a place within walking distance of their local haunt, Greg laughed. The couple was devastated for Mishanec and his employees when they heard about the water damage.

When the restaurant closed, Mishanec’s first concern was his staff. He’s built a “core” of longtime staff at the restaurant, and he didn’t want to lose them with the closure. That’s when community efforts to help the staff started pouring in.

The Crodelles were two of hundreds of people who rallied together to raise money for Lisa G’s employees during the closure. Cassie Hogue — who works front of house for the Whiteface Club and Resort’s two restaurants — set up an auction fundraiser that raised more than $13,000 for the restaurant’s employees. Her efforts were complimented by GoFundMe pages, private donations and specials at local bars like the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery that benefited Lisa G’s staff, the last of which became the Crodelle’s chosen method of donating. They drank “a lot” for Lisa G’s, Greg said.

Though Mishanec said he lost a few employees during the closure, a lot of the restaurant’s longtime patrons and employees — like Giambalvo and Lamica — were back and cooking a new menu at the restaurant this weekend. Mishanec said it’s been good to see some familiar faces walking through his doors, adding that the turnout this past weekend was “great.”

“People have been very, very, very gracious,” Mishenec said.

As of Sunday, Lisa G’s was not yet accepting reservations as the restaurant’s staff got back in the groove of cooking for and serving patrons.