Hot Dog Charlie's, Trader Ed's to re-open

Chuck Fetekes says the timing of the fire at his Lansingburg eatery couldn't be much worse - 4th of July weekend and a day after floodwater at another of his locations in Cohoes cost him half a day that he could have spent preparing to open a new shop in Saratoga Springs.

"My sister was filtering," says Fetekes, "adding some (cooking) oil in and I'm not sure exactly of the details but it just caught on fire. My sister tried to put the fire out herself with the extinguisher and then the fire department came."

Firefighters were called to the corner of 113th Street and 2nd Avenue around 9:30 a.m. Friday. 

Fetekes' grandfather began the business in 1922 on Congress Street in Troy. There are several other Hot Dog Charlie's stores in the area and some others have closed, including one that used to be in the Crossgates Mall. Fetekes says the fire will affect his other stores because the damaged store is where he makes the meat sauce, rice pudding and onion rings that go to the people who work at the other locations.

"They're concerned but we'll work it out one way or another," says Fetekes. He says he makes his sauce in a 40-gallon kettle twice a week and has yet to decide how he'll make the next batch. He says the business is insured and will re-open but he does not know when.

Next door at Trader Ed's, buckets ordinarily used to hold ice and beer bottles were catching only some of the water that firefighters had pumped onto the roof Friday morning. Manager Terry Frederick said the wood floor would be among the items that would have to be replaced. Frederick said the restaurant is insured but he, too, is not sure how soon repairs can be made.  He said his income and that of eleven employees has come to a sudden stop.

Frederick said retaining walls between the buildings may have to be reinforced. "The one hopeful thing of all of this is these buildings are so old that the beams are huge, which, if there was new construction it would have (eaten) right through them," says Frederick. "It was able to save this building."

Trader Ed's opened in 2007. According to Frederick, it is in the oldest building in the U.S. that was built as a pub and is being used for that purpose today. He calls it the oldest pub in America.