SYLVAN BEACH — The surest sign that spring is on the horizon of Oneida Lake is throwing up of the sashes at the slew of seasonal eateries in Sylvan Beach, Mohawk Valley’s own “resort” town, with echoes of carousel organs, pinball bells, shrieks from roller coaster riders, and the orchestras that once set the ballroom of Yesterday’s Royal to music.

Among the first to make the promise that winter is ending is the Canal View Cafe, located at the corner of the Erie’s Barge Canal and Oneida Lake.

Jean Tabarrini grew up in her parents’ restaurant, Tabarrini’s, which stood where Harpoon Eddie’s now stands. After their divorce, she and her mother bought a humble house on the edge of the vintage lakefront village. They rented it for a bit, then, in 1977, when Jean was 23, they opened a coffee shop there on that corner with a customary lunch counter lined with a few stools. They called it the Canal View Cafe.

Like Sylvan Beach itself, the Canal View Cafe is framed in history — the wood for that house was borrowed from the wooden roller coaster at the amusement park. Tabarrini points out the posts and beams proudly. Enter from Canal Street, where there’s ample parking for boat or car, into a classic oak beer and wine bar where the lunch counter once was, and “the porch,” now enclosed, offering full “canal views.”

“Only the bar and the porch are original,” said Tabarrini. “Everything else was added on.”

Add-ons include a second-story residence, a large dining room with canal and lake views, and a fanciful terrace laced with flowers, an el fresco space shaded by a lazy tree, filtering lush lake views through its outstretched branches.

The cafe serves upstate beers and wines, including Finger Lakes’ Thirsty Owl Reisling, North Country Red aged at Thousand Island Winery, and craft beers brewed at the F.X. Matt Brewery in Utica, the Ithaca Beer Company, Ommengang Brewery in Cooperstown and Hamilton’s Good Nature.

But one hasn’t truly done “Canal View” until you’ve drained a “Chicken of Wine.” A focal point above the bar is a collection of chicken pitchers.The originals, said Taparrini, were from Italy. The rest she’s collected over the years or have been gifted by patrons. Who needs a carafe?

Spring specials include Wine Wednesdays with 89 cent shrimp however you like ‘em (consider the bam bam!) and $3.99 house wine. Enjoy Thirsty Thursday beer specials. Friday features the clam strips dinner. Saturday serves Steak Oscar, or indulge in roast pork for Sunday supper.

On this Thursday, the daily special pot roast fell apart at the touch of the fork. The drink special was a Beringer Bros. Bourbon Barrel Aged Cabernet Sauvignon, complete with the rigor one wants from a cab, set off by the soul and savor of bourbon — smooth as the lake on a breezeless day. Taparrini tempted fate by ending with a truffle, another “Canal View thing” where chocolates lure from a glass cake platter at the host stand; imported from Birnn’s Chocolate of Vermont, where her father resettled, a nod to him.

Kristy, our server, shared that she had “been with Jean” for four years, after 27 years at the Spaghetti Factory. She wanted it known that Jean had “taken in so many kids who nobody else would have given a chance.”

“I remember every kid,” said Taparrini poignantly, “We’ve changed a lot of lives.”

Taparrini, who serves as Sylvan Beach Historian and resides in the apartment atop her eatery, was asked to reflect on her relationship … with the lake … took a breath for a moment, then paused for another, before replying … “It’s been my whole life.”