The legacy of The Silo restaurant

GREENE (WBNG) -- The community is mourning the loss of a Chenango County restaurant after it was deemed a total loss from an overnight fire.

The Silo, a restaurant in the Town of Green, has been around for half a century.

For nearly five decades, Gary Kurz and his family have owned and operated the restaurant.

“My whole family grew up here, all of my children worked here, hundreds and hundreds of people have worked here over the years,” Kurz said. “Working 50 to 60 hours every week pretty much seven days a week even though we’re closed on Mondays - it’s been my life and this is where we are now. I was hoping to retire and this is not the way I wanted to retire.”

Kurz’s parents originally took over the establishment in the early 70′s and relocated their family from North Jersey to the area during his youth.

For Kurz, growing up and raising his family within the walls of the Silo is something he holds near and dear to his heart.

“It’s even hard to think how many memories there are, but I just love all of our customers. Our customers are like family and we just had a great group of people that patronized us and supported us,” he said.

As for what’s next, Kurz said it depends on the insurance. He and his family may rebuild the restaurant, but for now, he’s grateful for the support from the community.

“Thanks so much to all my previous and present customers and people that support us. It’s heartfelt by all of my family and all of the staff. All of the staff is of course as devastated as we are,” he said. “You know, it’s even hard for me to realize how much it touched the community, but apparently by the comments I’ve been reading and every time I sit down to read them I start to cry a little bit.”

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