When you walk into Main Deck, the energy hits you before the menu does. It is the kind of place that fills up on a Thursday because word got around, because someone heard something on the radio driving in from Rochester, because a friend’s mom ran into someone at a store and asked if the big event was still happening this weekend. That kind of reach does not happen by accident.

The restaurant and bar, which operates across two platforms — the main dining room and a tunnel bar called Upper Deck — is now in its third season, and the owner is clear-eyed about what has driven the growth. He did not start with a marketing plan. He started with a phone call from the mayor.

“Our good friend, Mr. Mayor Dan Kandala, gave us a rundown,” he says. “That’s really how we got started.” From there, the strategy evolved into something more deliberate: a combination of radio and digital advertising built around special events, working together rather than independently.

If you have an advertisement that says go check the website verbally on the radio, vice versa — they feed into each other.

That feedback loop is not just theory. Before FrostFast, one of Main Deck’s signature seasonal events, a friend’s mother walked into a store and stopped a stranger mid-aisle. She had heard the spot on the radio and wanted to confirm the event was still on for the weekend. For the owner, that moment was the proof of concept. Someone outside his immediate circle, in a different town, had the event lodged in her head because she had heard it.

The digital side of the buy has pushed the reach further — past the Finger Lakes and into Rochester, Syracuse, and beyond. “We’re in such a digital era right now,” he says. “People get on their phones to look up things.” For a newer business still building name recognition, that broader digital presence has given Main Deck access to an audience that radio alone might not reach. For a business already known locally, radio reinforces what digital plants.

He is equally direct about the working relationship with the FLX Local Media team — two account reps, both named Dan, who come by every couple of weeks with actual numbers.

Very personable, very thorough — they give you forecasting. They come in and show you what’s working and what’s not working. You’re not just throwing money into a void.

That accountability matters to him. He can see the data. He can see what moved and what did not. And when he looks at where Main Deck is now compared to its first season — the praise on the menu, the atmosphere, the crowds that showed up for events they heard about on the radio — he connects it to that visibility.

For businesses just starting out, he does not hedge: go digital first. Get the reach while you are building. Layer in radio when you are ready to reinforce it. The channels are not competing for the same dollar — they are each doing a different part of the job.

Being present on digital as well as on the radio has definitely just been beneficial for us. Because it’s working.

Main Deck is in its third season. It is still growing. The Upper Deck tunnel bar is drawing its own crowd. And somewhere in a store in the Finger Lakes, someone is probably asking if the next event is this weekend — because they heard it on the radio.