The Eis House has been a part of the fabric of the Mexico community since 1977
by Tim Nekritz | nekritz@gmail.com
Like many folks in the Mexico area, Chrissy Mason and her family knew the Eis House as a community staple well.
A landmark business for nearly 50 years, the restaurant was a key part of the community.
Little did Mason know she and her siblings would purchase it and the Eis House would come to occupy her day-to-day life.
Yet when she first had an option to buy the iconic property, she was hesitant.
“My realtor friend Bill Galloway came up to me,” Mason recalled. “He was about to put it on the market and he’s like, ‘I know you guys basically grew up there. I’m about to put it on the market. Are you interested?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely not.’”
But …
Mason called her siblings, “and we collectively agreed that we were all going to get in on it,” she said.
A crew that also included Debbie Ferris, Jason Allers and Tim Allers had their purchase offer accepted in spring 2022 and were up and running it by early 2023.
Known for fresh and delicious food, ability to host a wide range of events, a community focus and a friendly, welcoming atmosphere, the Eis House has been a whirlwind ever since.
Did I mention it might also be haunted? More on that later.
Family atmosphere
The Eis House has been a part of the fabric of the Mexico community since 1977, owned and run by the Arena family for decades.
It’s where people celebrated special occasions: Wedding receptions, banquets and reunions filled these spaces. A longtime popular happy hour welcomed people from miles around. For many young folks in the community — including Chrissy’s husband, James — this was one of their first jobs.
But like many places where people gathered, especially small business, the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges. Restoring consistency was one of Mason’s goals initially but also going above and beyond for their customers and the community.
“We really try to make everybody feel like they’re family when they visit,” Mason said. “We try to make people laugh. I tell the staff, you can handle anything with humor and humility. And it’s true. We make people feel at home. And when people come in, they don’t want to leave.”
While not wanting to change an institution beloved by the community too much, Mason realized some updates were necessary. Today’s Eis House features some small remodeling, including a new game room, but still has its Mirror Room ballroom, its River Room on the side and back garden patio, all ready to welcome a wide range of functions.
“We wanted the decor to stay the same because this is still the Eis House lodge,” she said.
The Eis House also features a variety of entertainment, including trivia on Wednesdays, Steve Fierro’s combo of karaoke with live music on Thursdays and musicians on weekends. As of this writing, a fall craft fair was in the planning.
But for many visitors, the true star might be the food.
The kitchen, led by James Zemotel, puts an emphasis on fresh, local and homemade food.
“The food is incredible,” Mason said. “It’s tasty; it has a lot of spice to it. Everything is made to order, so you’re not looking at a bunch of frozen food.”
The only things that come into the restaurant frozen are French fries and onion rings, but the entrees and favorites are fresh and inventive, Mason said. Homemade bread is baked daily, sauces concocted on the premises.
“I’ve not had a bad meal,” said Mason, who works pretty much every day it’s open, Tuesdays through Saturdays. “It is a lot of work, but with consistent effort, they are very good at what they do. It’s a kitchen, so sometimes it gets a little stressful back there, but they work together as a team and they get food out in a timely manner and it tastes good and it’s fresh and people love it.”
Sense of community
To Mason and her family, giving back has long been a way of life. One thing that makes the Eis House stand out is its ongoing support of causes and the community itself, such as via Amazon box giveaways near the holidays.
“We worked with the Mary Nelson Youth Foundation out of Syracuse, and they were looking for a rural area that had a big parking lot in a community that might need help,” Mason said.
“So we partnered up with them and they brought in truckloads of Amazon boxes for free,” she noted. “Now, you don’t know what’s in them. Some people got breast pumps and clothes and shoes and a lot of things that people really needed. And it was around Christmas, so it was really helpful for the community.”
The Allers family owns and has owned a number of other businesses over the years and the connections run deep.
“We’ve always been a part of the community,” Mason said. “I had a gym in town. I trained a lot of the people in the community and they’re very supportive and they come out.”
Mason rarely says no to affordable requests for charitable causes, including youth sports, benefit fundraisers and local nonprofits. And shortly after this interview, one of the regulars asked Mason to sponsor a hole at a golf fundraiser and right on brand, she said yes.
The sense of community extends to the rest of the property, which includes six cabins. Customers there include people in town for weddings (especially when the Eis House hosts the reception), anglers, people working outages at the nuclear plants and just those looking for a weekend getaway.
“We get people that stay here in our rooms and they become part of the Eis House family within one dinner time,” Mason said.
You can walk in as a stranger and wind up having random and other conversations with multiple people. It’s an inclusive space where the regular customers want to see you come back almost as much as the staff.
Ghostly guests?
In terms of reportedly haunted communities, Mexico — nicknamed “The Mother of Towns” — has more than its fair share. The Starr Clark Tin Shop on Main Street and Casey’s Cottage in Mexico Point Park are well-known attractions for both regular tourists and those interested in the paranormal. The Eis House is starting to get known for its unexplained happenings now too.
Those with an interest in the paranormal would look at Mexico as a place with a long history on many traveling routes, including Underground Railroad activity helping runaway slaves to Canada and freedom. While it’s unclear if this property — which used to house an ice house, hence its name — had any part of that, many people report strange occurrences.
Mason recalls once seeing a figure dressed in black walk through the mirrored ballroom, looking as real as any other human, but the only other people in the building were accounted for. Employees and some regulars report unexplained footsteps, strange sensations, objects moving, mysterious shadows, doors opening and more.
Investigators from Syracuse Paranormal have made visits and recorded a lot of activity, including mysterious voices. Nobody seems to think anything on the property is harmful, although there are trickster activities.
Investigators think that there might be something about the land itself. The Little Salmon River runs through the property and the Oswego and Rome Railroad once dissected it, so one theory is that maybe it’s a historic thoroughfare with echoes of where many people passed through and stayed.
And if one were to believe such things are real, who wouldn’t love to hang out in a fun place in their spare time in the afterlife?
But for now, the focus of everybody on the Eis House team is on creating a living, breathing, vibrant space for a wide range of people to enjoy.
“People have fun here,” Mason said. “It’s just a great place. It’s a great feeling.”
Tim Nekritz is director of communications at SUNY Oswego, where he spearheads telling the stories of the campus community.
