Cindy Schaap was 18 years old when she got her first job tending bar. She moved on to become a business owner, and spent 22 years as proprietor of North Syracuse Mini-Storage. Still, since that first tavern job she’d known that someday she’d like to own her own bar.
“I always thought someday, I want to give it a try,” Schapp says.
After growing up in Camillus, Schaap settled in Brewerton 25 years ago. She and her friends discovered the Trackside bar, located next to the Brewerton Speedway, and often gathered there. But several years ago, after decades as a favorite local hangout, Trackside was forced to close its doors.

“When it closed, we were devastated,” Schaap remembers, a sentiment shared by many in the community. Luckily, she had entered into a new chapter in her life. Her children had left home for college and she’d sold her Mini-Storage business. Her thoughts began to wander to her young-adulthood dreams of someday owning her own bar. Schaap began to realize that she had stumbled upon both the perfect opportunity and the ideal location. Determined and independent by nature, she decided that she would reopen her favorite bar and take the reins herself.

“It was a time in my life to do something I’ve always wanted to do,” explains Schaap.
October will mark the second anniversary of the opening of Back on Track Again, the reincarnation of the popular trackside hangout. The bar still had plenty of local traffic and remains the preferred watering hole for speedway drivers who often wander in after Friday night races. But this bar is distinctly Schaap’s, with her personal style evident in every corner. She still tends bar herself, and considers the band of women she employs as bartenders to be like family.

“I have the best staff going,” she proudly asserts. “They are phenomenal.”
The ladies have plenty of opportunities to demonstrate their abilities to draw and maintain a crowd. Under Schaap’s ownership, Back on Track Again has become a Friday night hotspot for local bands like One Hard Crank, 10 to Midnight, and T.J. Sacco & the Electric Rodeo.

“I brought live entertainment back to Brewerton,” claims Schaap. “That was going to be my niche.”
Schaap also makes room for local pool, softball, and dart leagues to play, drink, and dine. Outside the bar there are lit horseshoe pits where patrons can enjoy games after dark, and a huge pavilion out back provides the perfect venue for bachelor or bachelorette parties, poker runs, fundraisers or benefits.
It’s difficult for Schaap to pinpoint the exact type of clientele one might find at Back on Track Again, because patrons vary in age, occupation and lifestyle. “We are extremely biker-friendly,” she explains, though she doesn’t consider it a biker bar. “It is not uncommon to see bikes lined up out front.”
She is a 13-year breast cancer survivor who works hard to raise consciousness about the disease, often finding ways to use her increased visibility in the community to support her cause. Schaap was recently featured in New York Rider magazine in an article spotlighting the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund’s “Ride for Research.” A picture of Schaap inside Back on Track Again was used as the cover photograph for the magazine’s June 2008 issue.

After one particularly rowdy Friday night, Schaap and her fellow bartenders discovered a ladies bra that had been left behind by a guest, and decided to hang it from a ceiling inside the bar. “That was all it took,” explains Schaap, for other female patrons to jump on the bandwagon. Now dozens of bras decorate the rafters. “It was very symbolic” of her personal struggle with breast cancer, says Schaap, and has since become a Back on Track Again free drink incentive. Forfeiting an undergarment earns you a cocktail on the house. “You get a top-shelf drink for a ‘top shelf’ bra,” explains Schaap.

The menu at Back on Track Again features fish dinners on weekends, which often draw speedway racers for lunch before Friday night races. Four bucks will buy you a pound and a half of wings on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and prices of draft domestic beers and well drinks drop seven days a week for Happy Hour between 4 and 7 p.m.
The bar is adorned with artwork created by local artists, and Schaap is happy to display it. “If anyone comes in with artwork,” she explains, “I let them put it up.” Two mannequins have found a home in a back corner of the bar and are costumed according to season. They currently sport leather biker gear skimpy enough for the hot summer season, and regularly make their way around the joint. “They’ve been on the dance floor, on the bar, out front,” says Schaap. “They have been everywhere, these girls.”

Diane, the newest addition to the bartending staff at Back on Track Again, is a testament to the tight-knit community that has formed—and continues to grow—inside Back on Track Again. She was pulled behind the bar to help out one night while she partied with friends, and has been on staff ever since. A lifetime resident of Fulton, she quickly moved into the house located directly next door to her new workplace with her youngest children, and hopes to someday buy it.
“She’s always there for me,” Diane says of her boss, explaining the motivation behind uprooting her life for her job of two months.
“She fits right in,” adds Schaap, smiling.

On August 24th the bar hosted a benefit in celebration of the life of regular patron Don Redhead, who was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness. “It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done here in terms of the number of people,” explains Schaap. “I wanted to make sure that man is happy for his benefit,” she adds with conviction, displaying her personal commitment to each one of her bar patrons.
“You go through your busy day, your busy life,” Schaap muses, “but when the opportunity comes to touch someone else, there’s nothing like it.”
Several hundred guests showed up at the party, which featured outdoor bars under tents as well as live music from five different bands. Throughout the day, there were raffles, a 50/50 drawing, and a grand prize giveaway.
Visit Cindy at 68 US Rt 11 Brewerton, NY in front of the Brewerton Speedway. Phone: 668-2009