Jack’s Oyster House formally closed, is for sale
Open since 1913, the restaurant is being put on the market by its third-generation owner after attempts failed to find successor or sell privately
By Steve Barnes
Jan 22, 2024
Jack’s Oyster House on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011, in Albany, N.Y. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)
Cindy Schultz
Jack’s Oyster House was founded in 1913 and moved to its location on lower State Street in 1937. Albany’s oldest restaurant is closed and officially for sale, 17 months after closing temporarily.
John Carl D’Annibale/Times Union
ALBANY — Jack’s Oyster House, the oldest and most storied restaurant in the city, host to power lunches for generations of politicians and business leaders as well the site of bivalve-slurping and family celebrations and meals for every New York governor since its 1913 founding, is officially closed and being put on the market for sale, owner Brad Rosenstein said Monday.
“I tried to find a way to continue it under somebody else, but nothing ever came together,” Rosenstein said, making the announcement two days before what would have been the restaurant’s 111th birthday.
He abruptly closed Jack’s, at 38-44 State St., in August 2022 for what was announced as extensive renovations to the restaurant, its basement and second- and third-floor banquet facilities. The hope, he said at the time, was to reopen in January of last year to mark the restaurant’s 110th anniversary.
As months went by with no apparent sign of work, Rosenstein was quietly trying to sell the approximately 13,000-square-foot building, which contains the dining room, original bar, kitchen and upstairs spaces. The adjoining building at 38 State St., with Jack’s large bar, lounge and private dining room, is owned by the state, with assumption of the lease included as part of the sale, Rosenstein said.
Since the temporary closure, multiple potential buyers have toured the space with architects and engineers, including national chains, with five negotiations that came close to being finalized, Rosenstein said.
After none worked out, “When I decided it was time to really try to sell, I knew I should give it to the pros,” he said.
Rudy Lynch of Carrow Real Estate Services in Albany has the contract for the listing, which should be online later this week, according to Rosenstein. He said the asking price is $1.399 million.
He is open to selling the Jack’s Oyster House name, “But it would have to be the right person, the right fit. I’d love to see Jack’s be brought back and continue,” said Rosenstein, whose grandfather, the eponymous Jack Rosenstein, established the restaurant on Jan. 24, 1913, on Beaver Street downtown. It moved to the State Street location in 1937, replacing a Chinese place called the Occidental-Oriental Restaurant that had the words “chop suey” emblazoned above the door. According to restaurant lore, Jack was just 20, but he was able to launch the restaurant with $400 saved in the more than decade of work he’d already done, since starting as a newsboy at age 9 and soon enough moving up to oyster shucker at the famed Keeler’s Hotel. He shucked oysters at his restaurant for 73 years. During the oyster house’s first 100 years, it served lunch and dinner seven days a week, closing only once, for the funeral of 92-year-old Jack in 1986.
The stretch of State Street from Broadway to Pearl Street was nicknamed Jack’s Oyster House Way for the restaurant’s centennial in 2013. At the ceremony unveiling the street sign, then-Major Jerry Jennings said, “Jack’s is so important to the history of Albany. Jack’s being around for 100 years really shows how connected the city is to its past.”
Rosenstein started working at the restaurant full time in 1983 and became owner a decade later, succeeding his father, Arnold, and uncle, Marvin. Neither of Rosenstein’s two children chose to follow him into the business. Now 63, he said the challenges of the COVID-19 shutdown and recovery were catalysts in trying to bring in younger staff to help revitalize the restaurant. After a succession of chefs including John LaPosta, Dale Miller, Luc Pasquier and Larry Schepici, Rosenstein turned the kitchen over to the hot young chef Elliott Vogel, who, working with the restaurant’s then-manager partner, Josh White, starting in fall 2020 utterly transformed what had become a staid place with slow business.
Creative differences with Rosenstein led Vogel to leave in early 2022 after 16 months, and White quit when Rosenstein announced the closure for renovations. Since then, the most frequent inquiry to the Times Union, besides questions about its status, has been what recipients of unredeemed Jack’s gift cards could do to have them paid out or otherwise refunded.
Rosenstein said he hopes unused gift cards will be covered in the sale of the business and that the new owner would honor them, regardless of whether the new entity is the next generation of Jack’s Oyster House or a different concept.
“People should hang on to them for now,” Rosenstein. “I’ll try to work something out with the next operator.”
Jan 22, 2024
By Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes has worked at the Times Union since 1996, served as arts editor for six years, and since 2005 has been a senior writer. He generally covers restaurants, food and the arts, and is the Times Union’s restaurant columnist and theater critic. Steve was also a journalism instructor at the University at Albany for 12 years. You can reach him at [email protected] or 518-454-5489.
