REVIEW: Sushi By Bou, a speakeasy-style micro-omakase chain known for 12-course chef menus + dining speed, has a new experience in its arsenal. A handful of its 22 locations from Atlanta to Albany have added a monthly Tuna Cutting Experience featuring a 250 lb Bluefin tuna + sliced for a hungry crowd. Susie Davidson Powell joined the guests scraping bones with spoons + drinking sake from its head.

INTEL: The Dishing caught up with Andrew Patterson, former bar director of Milas in Schenectady, as he takes on a new bar director role at Sweet Polly in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

INTEL: Saud Khan, a 518 local + content creator known as Chaiguy on Tiktok, opened two Pakistani chai + coffeehouses in NYC after closing Alif Cafe in Glens Falls to move downstate. Now, he’s back with Alif Cafe 2.0. which soft-opened this week. We have the early intel.

TASTE: BREAKING BREAD — A Reuben-Inspired Cocktail for A Late Night Pickle Plate by Zach Wolfgramm + Tom Madarasz

Hospitality veteran Quang Tran talks service, Michelin stars, fatherhood + the good, bad + ugly of a career in the trenches.

Wine educator Dominique DeVito reminisces over summers in France for this week’s bottle crush + makes a case for a classically French Kir cocktail.

From the NeoVista Hospitality team comes the latest downtown Albany opening with their stylishly-designed all-day Bakery 66.

INTEL A new sibling for Milas + a new addition for Ziemann Hospitality with the planned opening of Bar Calvin in Stuyvesant Plaza. Coming June 2027.

Sommelier Val Feldman, owner of Stable Gate Winery, Barn + Vineyard in Castleton, talks natural wine, fermentation, inclusivity + expanding her family’s four-generation business.

At Hamlet & Ghost, bartender Tim O’Connell was inspired by a local chef to use marjoram in a cocktail. The result? An herbaceous, summery martini.

A collaboration between Val Feldman of Stable Gate Winery in Castleton + Italian bartender Francesco Dionese, based in New York City, means the Capital Region is home to Dionese’s Bitter Aperitif wine, a remarkably good alt to Campari, and a sibling for their Dionese’s sweet vermouth. Made in New York, baby.

Freelance bartender Janesha “Jaja Levons” talks bartending in New York, international modeling, skateboarding, raising her son + why beauty is more than skin deep.

EXCLUSIVE: As The Larkin HiFi closes, a veteran Albany bar team get ready to take the reins.

For Bastille Day, we have a roundup of where to eat upstate when you want to pretend you’re in France.

Chef Richard Lyman is on the move. Departing from his CdC role at The Roosevelt Room in Troy, the young chef is following his dream and joining La Padrona, a Michelin Guide-recommended restaurant in Boston, M.A. We talk to him about the move + his commitment to the craft.

Topped with Cava sparkling wine, Klocke Estate’s bittersweet vermouth spritz is a low-ABV summertime sipper.

From West Coast start ups to Saratoga’s Bakery Suzanne, Wilson Keenan makes the dough.

On its opening night, Pez—by James Beard-nominated Chef Éfrén Hernandez—shines in the former Rivertown Tavern at Rivertown Lodge. We took an early look.

Where to Find Filipino Food Upstate. We track down Filipino pop ups, a food truck in Glens Falls, a James Beard nominated spot, a kamayan feast + a few (rare) brick-and-mortar eateries.

INTEL: Chef Colin Miner is back in Glens Falls with a new modern menu at soon-to-open Katy’s Wine + Whiskey Bar. We got the early scoop on his small plates menu.