Local restaurant spends over a year preparing for large PGA Championship crowds

PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The PGA Championship brought 235K visitors to Rochester. And here they were able to get a little taste of our city, including our restaurants.

The Pittsford Pub drew everyone from golf fans to PGA poster artist Lee Wybranski, golfer Michael Block, and sports commentator Scott van Pelt last week.

The PGA Championship may only have been here for seven days, but businesses like the Pittsford Pub prepared for more than a year.

“Really getting into it over the past four months with staffing and events that we we’re doing and promotions that we had going on and inventory and what we needed,” Pittsford Pub owner Scott Thyroff said.

Thyroff says he has a great team and everyone stepped up to the plate to get through the week.

“I did a lot of sprinting back and forth from inside to outside and to the kitchen and stuff. It was definitely nice having a lot of extra staff around to help because you didn’t really have to run your food as much. You’re able to focus more on your tables than doing that,” Server Madison Stonehouse said.

To keep up, one of the pub’s vendors lent them a refrigerated truck.

“I over ordered on beer, my kitchen manager over ordered on food, and it worked out pretty good, we didn’t really run out of anything,” Thyroff said.

And, perhaps some of those visitors will become regulars, like Kip Brockmyre.

“I think it was wonderful. I think it was a great place, and that many people gave it a lot more exposure, and a lot more people learned what a great place it was,” Brockmyer said.

The Pittsford Pub expanded its hours to meet the demand. Thyroff says some of those nights lasted until 1:30 in the morning.