Lake George Village Off-Season: What's Finished and What's Next

"There are a lot of times you come into our dining room and people are wearing their winter coats because the building isn't insulated," Joe Mondella told the Glens Falls Business Journal in March. Mondella is one of three partners behind The Lagoon. Since 2018 the restaurant has stayed open 12 months a year, seven days a week, even when much of the village goes dormant. His remark about the coats sums up Lake George Village this fall. The public projects are finished. The amphitheater has its stage back, and a memorial now sits on the battlefield hillside. Making the commercial strip work in January is the part still ahead, and the business that never closed is the one taking it on.

Shepard Park has its stage back for the quiet months

The village gets its first off-season in years with a working bandstand. On July 17, 2026, the state announced that the $6.4 million Shepard Park Amphitheater was complete. It was rebuilt just over two years after a fire destroyed the old one. The new version has a performance stage, accessibility improvements, more seating options and paths you can actually get around on. It also adds new audio, visual and lighting equipment and a storage area beneath the stage floor.

The funding came from three sources. The Downtown Revitalization Initiative put in $2 million, the State Assembly put in $2.9 million through the Dormitory Authority, and the Village of Lake George contributed $1,566,000. On top of that, another $500,000 in DRI money bought audio, visual and lighting equipment for the new amphitheater. The town and village own that equipment and lend it to community groups, and the state described the goal as year-round programming.

The stage's first winter test is already on the calendar. The 2027 Lake George Winter Carnival is listed for February 6 through March 7 at Shepard Park. The organizers haven't posted the full schedule yet. Their site still says 2027 details are coming soon, so dates for individual weekends are still to come.

A hillside off Fort George Road that stays open in every season

Most of the village's other big addition this year has nothing to do with tourism. Construction on the Repose of the Fallen memorial at Lake George Battlefield Park finished in May 2026. The memorial sits off Fort George Road: five marble columbaria on a hillside overlooking the lake, with interpretive signs and a plaza.

It holds the remains of 44 people found during construction on Courtland Street in 2019. They include soldiers, a young woman and a child, at a site believed to be a Revolutionary War-era cemetery. On May 20, military vehicle collectors drove the caskets up Route 9 from the New York State Museum in Albany, with police and the Patriot Guard Riders alongside. That day, 36 pine caskets were reinterred. Some of the remains recovered were so sparse that several people share one box. Four more complete skeletons followed on May 22, including a soldier from the 1st Pennsylvania Battalion. The Northeastern Woodworkers Association built the caskets. The SAR Honor Guard led the May 22 procession, followed by the Village Volunteers Fife & Drum Corps.

The caskets fill only three of the five columbaria. Dan Barusch, the Town of Lake George's planning and zoning director, told the Adirondack Explorer that one empty columbarium is set aside for French and Indian War soldiers unearthed at Fort William Henry. Fifteen of those individuals have been studied at the University of Arizona since 1998. The fifth, he said, is "for the future." That's a real possibility here. National Grid found a set of remains near the Lobster Pot restaurant on the Mohican Street side in 2023, and contractors found another near the Adirondack Pancake House in 2024. The memorial's official site has a photo gallery of the ceremony but no visitor hours. Check before planning a visit around a set time.

October still fills Canada Street

The village doesn't empty out the day after Columbus Day. The next four weekends have dated plans.

Oktoberfest takes place on the street right across from the new amphitheater. The Harvest Festival at Fort William Henry offers seasonal food and drinks, music and firepits, with competitions on the three Saturdays. Its last evening is October 31.

Who's already open in January

The colder months are the stretch the DRI winterization money is meant to address. Right now they're covered by businesses that already stay open on their own. Warren County's tourism board lists 163 TapRoom at 163 Canada St. and Adirondack Pub & Brewery at 33 Canada St. in its year-round dining directory. The directory isn't dated, so call ahead for winter hours.

Out on Route 9 is The Log Jam Restaurant, at 1484 Route 9. It has a spruce lager brewed with Northway Brewing, and the restaurant told the Post-Star the beer would be poured year-round. David White and his family have owned The Log Jam since 1988.

And then there's The Lagoon, still serving every day, coats and all.

The winter storefront plan, in order

Mondella, Mark French and John Grillo, equal partners in GNSD Enterprises LLC, have bought the 50-year-old Village Mall on Canada Street from the Quirk family. The Glens Falls Business Journal reported the purchase in March 2026. The partners opened The Lagoon there in 2018 as tenants. The restaurant now takes up six of the mall's 16 storefronts, with a second kitchen and a patio on the lakeside level. The other ten street-level spaces house gift and souvenir shops, a candy store and a jewelry store. One tenant has been there 30 to 35 years. Mondella said the new owners want the current tenants to stay.

The state's project description calls for enclosing both ends of the mall and renovating the interior and facades so that all 16 spaces can operate year-round. The owners described the order of work this way:

1. Expand the lakeside deck and winterize the building first. The Lagoon side goes first, so the restaurant's revenue can help pay for the rest.
2. Renovate the facades on both the Canada Street and lakeside faces, as the DRI terms require.
3. Finish within one to three years. The first phase was targeted for completion by this coming winter. The DRI money has to be spent within five years.

As of this writing, no public update since March says whether construction has started. Treat that first-phase target as a goal, not a finished project.

The rest of the off-season list is at an earlier stage. The Lake George Arts Project, led by executive director Tanya Tobias, scheduled murals for the LG Mini-Mart/Gyro Hut, Fun World Arcade, the wall below the Boardwalk Restaurant and the Village Pump Station, with a public launch set for August 30, 2026. We haven't found a report confirming the murals went up. The state release mentions three murals and the Arts Project's materials mention four. The 18 painted canoes and paddles for the Art & Canoe Trail are now scheduled for spring 2027. Two other projects are still described only as plans: a mixed-use renovation at 267 Canada St., with a restaurant, a patio and five furnished workforce or student apartments, and pedestrian upgrades on South Canada Street between Sewell Street and Westbrook Road.

So this winter, residents get a rebuilt stage at Shepard Park, a memorial on the battlefield hillside, a carnival listed for February, and The Lagoon serving lunch in a building that isn't insulated yet.

If you're following how these Canada Street projects could change what a year-round address in the village feels like, I keep track of that as part of my work in Lake George. Dina Coluccio is glad to talk it through whenever you're ready. Let's Talk.