The year 1913 was marked by some memorable events. Thirteen years into the new century, Henry Ford opened his first assembly line automobile factory, permanently reshaping how the world would live and conduct business. It was the year when fathers across America were given their own national holiday and the 16th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving the federal government the power to tax personal income.

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Kennedy says he invited Foote, who was in town for a speaking engagement, to join him for lunch at Jack’s. “He ordered the oyster stew and a dozen oysters,” Kennedy recalls. “The next day I asked him where he’d like to go for lunch, and he said, ‘Let’s go back to Jack’s and have oyster stew and a dozen oysters.’ So we did. The same meal. Again.”

Kennedy laughs. “I think that if he ever were to return to Albany, he’d probably go back to Jack’s and order the oyster stew and oysters all over again. He was hooked.”

But while generations of Albany residents and visitors have gotten hooked on Jack’s since it opened its doors Jan. 24, 1913, its passage has not always been an easy one. When Jack Rosenstein resigned his job as an oyster shucker at Keeler’s, his plan was to share responsibilities at the new restaurant with a business partner.

Soon after opening, however, his partner declared that he wanted out of the venture, and Rosenstein found himself operating the clam and oyster bar by himself.

He would continue to supervise both the cooking and the service until he married at which point his wife, Jane, took over the front-of-the-house, leaving him to run the kitchen.

Nevertheless, business remained a struggle in the early days. “During the Depression downtown Albany was a really bad area, and most people were afraid to come down,” Brad Rosenstein says. “We were open seven days a week and the only place that was open after 5 p.m. The family had to find a way to bring people down here, so they calculated what the break-even point was, adjusted the prices accordingly and then worked to make it up in volume.”

While business in downtown Albany began to recover as the Depression eased, it proved to be only a temporary window of relief. By the 1960s the area was suffering once again and this time a casualty of inner-city turmoil and the wholesale flight of businesses to the outlying suburbs. By that time Brad Rosenstein’s father, Arnold, and his uncle Marvin were running the restaurant, and many neighboring retailers like John. G. Myer’s and Whitney’s were either joining the exodus or closing up permanently.

“I came back here in the early ’60s, and downtown Albany was a disaster,” Kennedy remembers. “It looked bombed out. The streets were empty.”

Even Jack Rosenstein’s original inspiration, Keeler’s, was forced to close in 1969. The Rosenstein family soldiered on, though, and gradually the area once again clawed its way back to viability, anchored by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s sprawling Empire State Plaza project. During that period the restaurant’s strategy was to offer good value and remain consistent, Rosenstein says.

“People wanted large portions at reasonable prices, and we gave them that,” he explains. “But our forte was creating great service for each guest. We did everything we could do to personalize the experience.”

An emphasis on service—Kennedy characterizes the Rosensteins as being “supreme hosts”—long has been a central element at the restaurant. “Usually, either I am or my father is in the front to greet guests,” Rosenstein says.

“The first impression a guest gets is critical.”