Fun in Saratoga

Downtown Price Chopper sold

The Times Union, both on its web site and its Saratoga Seen blog, is reporting that developer Sonny Bonacio announced today that he has purchased the Railroad Avenue Price Chopper and would redevelop the site in a project that will reportedly include an unidentified grocery store.   Well folks we knew it was coming.  The Post-Star also reported it here.

Great Dinner at Max London's

I really enjoyed a dinner I had recently at Max London's Restaurant on Broadway.  It was my first time there (but not my last) and it struck me that, unlike too many other restaurants, they trained their staff well and really paid attention to the details.  The staff balanced friendliness with professionalism and the food, right down to the bread, was excellent.  I really appreciated the creativity of my dish, which was a pasta dish with black sea bass and mussels with really savory sauce that, according to the menu, had chili in it.  I couldn't really taste the chili, but the dish was excellent nonetheless. 

Here's something strange - they charged me $2.00 when I asked for grated cheese.  I didn't like that, but it was minor and certainly didn't affect the overall experience, which was great.  You can also reference a Times Union review from earlier this year as well as a Post-Star review for more in depth information.

Here and there

OK let's try to fire up the blog once again:

The Victorian Streetwalk will be,as always, the Thursday after Thanksgiving, which this year is December 4th.  You can find out more information about it on the Downtown Business Association website.  One one hand I hate to start talking about December already, but on the other hand every month is great in Saratoga so I will embrace it and announce the exciting upcoming events.  I highly recommend this event - lots of fun for everybody here and it puts you in a great mood.

I always like to see Saratoga businesses opening, however hearing that Lanci's was reopening threw me for a bit of a loop.  The Times Union Table Hopping blog had the story here.

Speaking of Saratoga restaurant news on that blog, they also mentioned in a recent post that some new owners are putting a big Irish Pub into 14 Phila street, which formerly was home to O’Callaghan’s Fine Food & Spirit and, before that, the Original Saratoga Springs Brew Pub.  It seems like that property has been empty for a while, so this is welcome news. 

Not quite Funny Cide but....

I am presently in Lexington, Kentucky, home of the Keeneland Race Course.  About two years agoI had a friend who is from Lexington tell me that Keeneland was much nicer than Saratoga.  I of course thought that was blasphemy, but now that I visited here, I won't say he was right, but he wasn't exactly wrong either.   It is a beautiful place and the horse racing, like Saratoga, is top notch.  I am going back later today (they have a total of five Grade 1 Stakes races this weekend) to watch the races and I will take my camera and get some shots to post on here. 

One of the Grade 1 races yesterday was the Darley Alcibiades Stakes.  This is a $500,000 race and it was won by a horse named Dream Empress which is owned by a 20 person syndicate that bought her for $60,000 at the Keeneland Sales.   Horse ownership is an expensive hobby with a lot of heartache and unforseen expenses - it's not an investment in my book.  Nonetheless it is still a great experience and every now and again lightning does strike, as happened with Funny Cide or Dream Empress, as this article in today's Lexington Herald-Leader reports.  The picture below is from the article as well.

One final note:  I witnessed a horrifying accident on the track when some horses and jockeys went down.  I saw jockey John Velazquez lay motionless for several minutes and I was very scared for him.  The last I heard is that he was alert and moving his extremities - which is a good sign.  I am trying to find out more but the information has been scarce and not updated.  I'll try to post a follow up on here later tonight.