The O-town Scene

High Spirits A ghost and a change of plans inspires Alfresco's new bar by Cassandra Miller When plans fell through last year to retire and open a bed and breakfast in Oneonta, Jerry and Elisabeth Webster didn't exactly make lemonade with life's lemons – they made limoncello. Elisabeth creates the after-dinner liqueur from the zest of lemons, which are seeped in grain alcohol until the oil is released, and then mixed with simple syrup. It is one of several specialty beverages on the drink menu of the couple's newly opened bar, Harry's Wine and Spirit Room. The couple, who have owned and operated Alfresco's Italian Bistro since 1987, had never planned to run a bar. "We were going to retire," Jerry said. "We didn't expect to be here. ... But, you do what you like to do. I like to build. I like to create. It's not the perfect situ- ation, but you make it perfect." The Victorian-style bar the couple had bought for the bed and breakfast was the inspiration piece to renovate 16 O-Town Scene Feb. 9, 2012 the room between Alfresco's take-out pizza counter and main dining hall. They modeled the decor and style around turn-of-the-20th-century gentleman's clubs and a couple of their favorite New York City bars. Then they started building – extending the bar to double its original size, retiling the floor, installing a clock above the bar, creating an indoor window and pocket door and building and staining the entire back bar. "It's what we do. It's our hobby (renovating)," Jerry said. "We had a lot of fun building it." The couple have renovated various parts of the build- ing Alfresco's is in, which was erected in the early 1900s. The Websters incorporated the original brick and keystones from the D&H Railroad Roundhouse of Oneonta into some of the restaurant's arches and steps, and the brick hearth and slate boards were sal- vaged from the Old Main building of the State Univer- sity College at Oneonta, of which Jerry is an alumnus. Jerry and Elisabeth Webster stand in their new bar, Harry's Wine and Spirit Room, in their restaurant, Alfresco's Ital- ian Bistro at 26 Main St. in Oneonta. Photo by Benjamin Patton They have a reverence for history, and an interest in honoring Oneonta's history, in particular. When they were thinking of what to name the bar, they decided on Alfresco's resident ghost, Harry. Harry is said to appear in the form of a cold chill around 9:30 p.m. each night, according to Elisabeth. He lives in a closet that opens on its own, which is located in the room where the new bar is. "We've had Harry here for 25 years, and that's why it's Harry's Wine and Spirit Room," Elisabeth said. "Might as well just embrace him." The couple learned of Harry when a visitor to their restaurant in 1987 inquired about the ghost and asked how he was doing. The patron had worked with him in the 1930s when the building was the Oneonta Dairy Company. Harry was a caretaker of carts who died in the silo of the dairy, and he apparently has been hang- ing around ever since. And Harry's Wine and Spirit Room is a cozy place

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