I was driving down Washington Street last week near Pope's Pizza and I saw this new office/residential development at the corner of Central Avenue. A quick online search and I saw that it will be called Washington Commons and is being developed by Steve Ethier. According to this Saratogian article, the photo below shows the first of what will be two mixed-use buildings hosting medical and other offices on the first floor, and residential units on the second floor.
You can also view this webcast of the Saratoga Springs Planning Board meeting from 2011 where the plan was discussed by the developers. The relevant portion starts at 7:48 into the video. Gotta love the internet. OK, take care folks.
I noticed that Papa Johns and The Ice Cream Man have new signs on and out in front of the building. I reported just over a month ago that The Ice Cream Man may open in May, but I get the feeling that will come sooner.
Staying on South Broadway, a bit further towards downtown, it appears that the Carriage House Inn is closed. The sign is down and it is all of the windows are shaded. I don't know if this is just a seasonal thing (although its web site shows rates for the winter), but you may recall that I reported back in September that it was for sale. Well it's a beautiful property so let's hope it's just a seasonal thing and it opens back up this spring.
OK that's it for now. Blogging becomes harder and harder these days - but fatherhood is going great and Margarita and I are blessed with our beautiful daughter! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year, and that you're staying safe and warm in this blustery weather.
I stopped out to the small strip mall on Rt 50 in Wilton Sunday night only to see this sign below on the door of the former Bon Ton Fish Market.
Employees at neighboring establishments advised me that the Greenwich, CT based Bon Ton, which opened in August of 2012, closed about a week and a half ago. They further advised that an Albany-based person, whom they didn't know but apparently already sold seafood in some capacity, will reopen a fish market in another name at the same location within about a week. Meanwhile, Moby Rick's seafood on Lake Avenue seems to be going well, at least based on my recent visit over the weekend.
This restaurant, which has been in the works since earlier this year, will make great use of a historic building behind the post office. The owners and the chef have a great following and I believe this place is going to be special and am in eager anticipation. You can link 15 Church's web site here and its Facebook page here.
Margarita and I recently had dinner at Jack Dillon's Farm To Fork Cuisine, the relatively new restaurant on South Boadway where the Big Apple restaurant previously was. The long and short of it is it's worth getting off the beaten path of downtown's Broadway and going to Jack Dillon's.
First of all, let's give former Siro's chef-owner Tom Dillon credit for having the confidence to go out and open a restaurant in a large building on Saratoga's restaurant skid row. In addition to the Big Apple, that location was the site of the brief stay of Morrissey’s and before that, the Joe Collins Restaurant for many years. It says here that Dillon still has what it takes to run a first-rate restaurant and it is so satifsying to patronize an establishment where the owner, and consequently the staff in both the front and back of the house, both have a cool confidence and know what they are doing.
It's great to have restaurants offer locally produced food, and I should note there are many Saratoga area restaurants that have been doing just that quite well for years. Jack Dillon's does it while offering a unique and pleasing overall experience with great service, presentation, and taste. This is a minor point but something I appreciated: even the bread service had a level of proficiency and thought to it.
Margarita ordered the fluke, which was breaded and pan fried with a tropical theme - it was served with a cooked banana still in the skin, and a mango, onion, and parsley salad. I ordered the wood fired salmon, which came with polenta and a remoulade. As you can see from the pictures above and below, they were presented beautifully and tasted as good as they look.
So venture out of downtown every now and again and try a restaurant or two in the outlying stretches. You might just like what you find.
For Steve Barnes' comments about Jack Dillon's on his Table Hopping blog, click here.
I want every new business in Saratoga to succeed. I go into Saratoga's new places with such high hopes and sometimes I'm encouraged, and sometimes I'm discouraged.
With that in mind, I hate to say it, but I'm not exactly feeling it with Alpha Dogs, the new hot dog place in that tiny little cave at 6 Phila Street that formerly housed among other things a bank vault, a laundromat, and most recently, a store selling high-end backpacks. My experience there wasn't awful, but if an entrepeneur is going to try to stake out a limited food niche then he/she better do it right and you better create future cravings so I keep coming back. Alpha Dogs did neither.
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't an awful experience. And they were only open about eight days when my wife Margarita decided she was in the mood for something quick for dinner, so maybe they will improve to the point that they do get it right and therefore create cravings in their customers. Time will tell I guess.
Part of the problem is that there is a stellar local hot dog chain called Ted's Hot Dogs in my home town of Buffalo. They broil their Sahlen's brand dogs over charcoal, and becuase Sahlens dogs are so delicious, they only need offer traditional toppings like relish, mustard, ketchup, sauerkraut, onions etc. It's the hot dog that's the center of attention, not a bunch of exotic ingredients. They handbread their onion rings and make real milk shakes. Suffice to say Ted's sets the bar high for other hot dog stands; my mouth is watering just thinking about a Ted's charbroiled hot dog.
Above: A Ted's in suburban Buffalo. Below: Some of Ted's hot dogs
Saratoga's Alpha Dogs offers a lot of creative ingredients for their dogs, which are cooked on an electric skillet. I had the “LA Street Dog,” a hot dog wrapped in bacon, deep-fried and topped with hot sauce, jalapenos and grilled onions, and Margarita got the “Tsunami Dog” with is a dog with teriyaki, grilled pineapple and green onions. The fries we ordered were undercooked and there was a pool of grease on the bottom - a result of not draining the grease properly and failing to briefly place and shake the fries on a paper transfer plate prior to serving. Like I said, I want it to succeed and they have been only open 8 days, but when a restaurant has a limited menu then they'd better get it right the first time or there may not be a second time.
The owners, Shelly and Mark Taber, are real nice and seem eager to please their customers. Perhaps the late night bar crowd won't be as discriminating, and along the way they'll improve to the point where they have a following. Or perhaps there is a niche to be filled for hot dogs with a lot of interesting ingredients. Because the place is so small, there is no seating available there so you have to take your food somewhere else to consume.
To read the Saratogian's article about Alpha Dogs, click here. The You Idiot blog also has a recent entry about Alpha Dogs.
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