Elmira Mugs
Main Tag:
Description: In its heyday, Pierce’s 1894 Restaurant drew customers not from New York’s Finger Lakes wine country but also the Watkins Glen racetrack. It began in 1892 when Crawford Pierce won the Elmira property in a lottery, which cost him $200. He opened a hat factory. Soon after, the Double Decker Cigar Factory opened upstairs. By 1894 there was a lunchroom in operation. Guest rooms were added. A bowling alley went in. But it was the restaurant that soon came to dominate. At a dinner there in 1984, what was then the world’s most expensive bottle of wine – an 1806 vintage valued at $28,000 – was shared among 22 guests. Sadly, the business closed in 2008 and the many antiques inside were auctioned off.
