Frank Guido, the 80-year-old restaurateur behind some of the Hudson Valley's best-known waterfront dining spots, is closing Port of Call in Catskill after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Guido has said the time had come to close the restaurant so he can concentrate on his health, and he plans to complete the sale of the building by the end of September.
The diagnosis was first reported by the Times Union. The Daily Freeman detailed Guido's decades-long career running more than 20 restaurants across the Hudson Valley. According to Hudsonvalley360.com, Guido plans to complete the closing of Port of Call under his ownership on Sept. 30, selling the Catskill building for approximately $1 million to buyer Peter Schram, who intends to convert the site into an event center. Per the Daily Freeman, the restaurant is expected to reopen under different ownership.
A Second Cancer Fight at the Same Waterfront Site
Guido confirmed he received the inoperable lung cancer diagnosis in July, a decision he made alongside his son and business partner Mark Guido to sell the Catskill venue so he could focus on his health, the same report from Hudsonvalley360.com notes. The Daily Freeman reports Guido is undergoing chemotherapy treatment in New York City.
This is not the first time cancer has upended his plans for the Catskill property. Guido bought the Port of Call restaurant building in 1999, and, per the same account, was diagnosed shortly afterward with aggressive prostate cancer so severe that doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering gave him five to 10 years to live. He leased out the property for a period before eventually opening Port of Call there, across from Dutchman's Landing Park.
Storms, Fires and a Loyal Following
The restaurant's history since then has been anything but smooth. Port of Call was destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011 and Guido reopened it in 2012.
According to the Village of Catskill Waterfront Resilience Task Force, the village launched an initiative in 2013 to address coastal flooding risks related to sea level rise. The Village of Catskill identifies the state-supported Local Waterfront Revitalization Program as a framework for improving coastal areas. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, its Flood Resilience Handbook addresses public-access sites along the Hudson River from Troy to Yonkers. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Community Risk and Resiliency Act in 2014 to build New York State's resilience to rising sea levels and extreme flooding.
Guido chronicled that resilience and his broader career in a memoir, as reported by Hudson Valley One.
From the IRS to a Hudson Valley Dining Empire
Guido, a Kingston native, attended Marist College and earned a degree in accounting before working for the Internal Revenue Service, which he left three months after starting, according to the Daily Freeman. He later opened a bar near the SUNY Ulster campus in Stone Ridge and went on to specialize in seafood and Italian cuisine, building a restaurant group that at one point operated 26 different restaurants in the area.
His original Mariner's Harbor restaurant location in Highland was ranked among the top 500 restaurants in the United States during its peak in the 1990s, Hudson Valley One reports. In March 2015, the Guido Restaurant Group signed a 20-year lease for the historic Steel House property on the Kingston waterfront to launch Ole Savannah Southern Table and Bar, which operated on the Rondout for a decade before transitioning to a new concept, The Cornell, in 2025.
Family Restaurants Remain Open in Kingston
Despite the closure of Port of Call, Guido's family presence in Kingston is not going away. Mariner's Harbor in the Rondout, operated by Sal Guido, will remain open, as will Frank Guido's Little Italy in midtown Kingston, which serves traditional Neapolitan cuisine and is operated by Mark Guido.
Guido's civic standing in the region extends beyond the dining room. The Ulster County Italian American Foundation named him its “Signore of the Year” in 2015, according to the foundation.
