Andrew Quinn, owner of Desperados restaurant in Lake Placid, gives a Facebook Live update on Cinco de Mayo, one of his two busiest days of the year. The other is St. Patrick’s Day. He offers Mexican food with an Irish twist he calls MexiQuinn. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — The staff at Desperados restaurant had only smoked half of the corned beef they planned on serving St. Patrick’s Day by the time Gov. Andrew Cuomo closed all New York restaurants the day before.

It was a big blow to the “MexiQuinn” restaurant owned by Andrew Quinn. It’s Mexican food with an Irish twist, and St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo are his busiest days of the year.

“We got kind of hit because they closed (us), and I was sitting there with 200 pounds of corned beef,” Quinn said by phone Friday, May 8.

The executive order took effect at 8 p.m. Monday, March 16.

Restaurants are still allowed to serve take-out food, plus alcoholic beverages, which Desperados has been doing successfully. In fact, they served traditional corned beef dinners and corned beef quesadillas on St. Patrick’s Day for take-out. And they were so busy on Cinco de Mayo that they had to turn people away. Normally open from 4 to 7 p.m. for dinners, they got “crushed” with phone orders and had to stop at 6 p.m.

Desperados restaurant on Saranac Avenue in Lake Placid is seen here Tuesday, May 12. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

“We can only do so much,” Quinn said. “I have two guys in the kitchen, and that’s it.”

Normally he’d have double the staff in the kitchen on a busy night. But he’s down from 17 employees to six: two in the kitchen, a bartender, a waitress bagging meals and his two sons home from college — Patrick and Kevin — answering phones on busy nights.

“They can answer them quicker than they can make a meal,” Quinn said.

For the past 20 years, Desperados has been open seven days a week. Now, with the reduced staff, they are closed Monday and Tuesday (except for holidays such as Cinco de Mayo), serving dinner Wednesday through Sunday, plus lunch on Friday and Saturday. He’s kept the full menu, except pork chili verde and crab.

Financially, Quinn said he’s doing OK. He’s seen a lot of local support and said 80% of his business before the pandemic was from local customers anyway.

How is he making it work financially?

“I don’t pay myself,” Quinn said, “and we’re doing enough to get by.”

He still has some of that corned beef in the freezer, hoping to use it for a post-pandemic celebration.

“When this is all over, we’ll have a St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo (celebration),” Quinn said.

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Facebook Live updates

While many New Yorkers look forward to the governor’s daily coronavirus briefings — which always include stats about COVID-19 positive tests, hospitalizations and deaths — Quinn began posting his own daily updates on Facebook Live on his personal page starting March 20. Wearing a New York Yankees hat and using a smartphone, he gave his audience a tour of the restaurant and an update on what services he was providing.

“I started it because I’m watching and everybody was all negative and there was nothing out there,” he said. “I figured I was going to do it to put a smile on people’s faces. … It’s not all doom and gloom, but we’re not over this yet.”

Most of the time, he’s inside the restaurant, but not always. On Saturday, May 2, he was taped live taking a 10-second dip in Mirror Lake while the temperature was nearing 70 degrees.

Off camera, you can hear a woman say, “Andrew Quinn, you are an Ironman!”

“That’s it. It’s a cold one,” he said after coming out of the water.

He didn’t wear a hat at the beach, but he did have a green Shamrock bath robe. Otherwise, viewers will see Quinn wearing a hat.

“Believe it or not, every day I’ve done it, I’ve worn a different hat,” he said. “Now my roommate from college is sending me hats. The only hats I will not wear are two hats. I will not wear a Red Sox hat, and I will not wear a Patriots hat.”

But he will wear a Boston Bruins hat; he wore one on Tuesday, May 12.

“There’s only one team in all of sports, and that’s the Yankees,” he said.

Quinn tries to keep his messages light-hearted and timely. While wearing the Bruins hat, for example, he commented on the snow the region has been getting over the past week.

“There’s a big rumor it’s going to be 60 this weekend,” he said. “I’m very, very excited because this waking up at 25 and wearing full gear on May 12th, it feels like March 12th. But what else can we do?”

His delivery can best be described as folksy or down to earth.

“So how is everybody? Are you sitting there, everybody’s a little stir crazy wondering what’s going on? I know,” he said one day. “I think when the leaves come, you’ll see me get a little happier. But until then, it is what it is.”

He’ll even comment on current events. For example, Asian giant hornets — known as murder hornets — have recently been sighted in Washington state.

“I’m just worried about those killer hornets, but if they come up here, they’ll find out that those blackflies won’t give up their ground,” he said May 12. “And the blackflies are king up here, so I’m not really worried about the killer hornets. Those blackflies will just swarm them.”

At the end of each broadcast, he gives people “a little cheer.”

“Have a good day, and if you see a flying spider, let me know because then I’m going to Alaska. Have a nice day,” he said May 12.

In his own way, Quinn gives people a shot in the arm of positivity, a friendly face to see every morning. It’s his own version of a popular Irish blessing:

“May the road rise up to meet you.

“May the wind be always at your back.

“May the sun shine warm upon your face;

“the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,

“may God hold you in the palm of His hand.”

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Opening up

Quinn is being patient about reopening his restaurant. He knows it won’t be as easy as flipping a switch. The “new normal” will come with a lot of strings attached, mainly with cleanliness and social distancing guidelines.

“At Desperados, when we open, we’ll be all ready. We’ll have all the sanitizing means. My servers will never touch a dirty dish; only the bussers will,” he said.

While four economic regions in New York will begin reopening on Friday, May 15 — the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley and the North Country — they will be doing it slowly, in a four-phase process.

Restaurants are in Phase 3, so Desperados won’t be reopening for inside service anytime soon. And when it does reopen, there will be some major changes for staff and customers.

“In the future, I will probably reinvent the wheel, and we’ll figure out how to have a super big take-out menu,” Quinn said. “It will be online. I’m lucky I have three doors, so you can come to my side door for take-out, and then you won’t have to come in the restaurant or anything.”

Quinn said he won’t open up until he’s 100% sure that his staff and customers are safe and they can serve food safely. Realistically, he said that will probably be sometime next year.

“Everybody that’s here right now is good and safe, but once they start opening us up, we’re going to become a haven for all these people, and we’re not going to know if they’re safe or what’s going on, what they’ve been doing,” he said. “Have they been following guidelines?”

Quinn has ordered thermometers. Customers will have their temperatures taken before they are allowed in the restaurant, and staff will have their temperatures taken before they are allowed to work.

“The biggest problem is going to be when we reopen everybody,” he said. “You’re going to add 50,000 restaurants in New York, and you’re going to have to find product for 50,000 restaurants.”

In the meantime, Quinn has a little advice for people.

“Everybody, be safe, be courteous, and respect others. And we’ll get through this together.”