MEET: Familiar Creature
Smells like Team Spirit:
Restaurateur Brendan Dillon + Executive Chef Michele Hunter really get along.
Interview: Susie Davidson Powell
Photos: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
Restaurateur Brendan Dillon + Chef Michele Hunter talk teamwork, hospitality, schmaltz as flavor + slipping White Lotus tracks on the playlist.
Familiar Creature Bar at 42 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs.
Familiar Creature familiarcreaturebar.com
IG: @familiarcreaturebar IG: @bdillon103 IG: @mirepoix112
___________________________________________________________________________
Welcome to The Dishing Quick Serve where we talk with tastemakers in the hospitality industry + trailblazers at the intersection of food, culture and art.
Brendan Dillon grew up in the restaurant business with his father as a chef in Hawaii and, later, Exective chef at Siro’s at the Saratoga race track. With business partner Dennis Kiingati, he founded Hamlet & Ghost on Caroline Street. Their new venture is Familiar Creature Wine Bar on Phila.
Michele Hunter is Executive Chef at Familiar Creature, a return move since she first joined Hamlet & Ghost in 2018 as executive chef after leaving her executive pastry chef role at The Adelphi Hotel. She was a 2020 winner of Chopped on the Food Network, but after leaving Hamlet in 2021, Hunter made a surprise move to Unified Beerworks Taproom in Ballston Spa, took a cross-country road trip in a van named Donna, and moved south to Hudson as the founding chef at The Hereafter cocktail bar. While working on pre-opening R&D for Familiar Creature, she joined Bakery Suzanne in Wilton. Dillon and Hunter both live and work in Saratoga Springs.
SDP: Morning, guys. Thanks for talking to The Dishing! How are you rolling into the weekend or coming week? Any plans?
MH: I plan to work! I'm here now. The bread needs to proof, someone needs to get here early to do that. Luckily, I have a full team on Saturdays so I try to sneak out early. The weather does not look good for the motorbike, though hopefully on Monday. Monday is when I submit all the orders for the week, so my free time starts after 11 AM.
BD: We're busy on the weekend so the early day is my time to catch up on paperwork and get set up. Fridays are a partial day off for me. I don't have to work Friday night because there's a manager at both Creature and Hamlet and Saturdays at Creature. But I'm preparing to go to Puerto Rico on Tuesday for my brother's bachelor party, so I'm excited about that.
SDP: Clearly you don’t like each other at all. [Laughter.] Brendan, you’ve described Michele as an “amazing teacher and leader” gifted at running a kitchen of young staff. Michele, you’ve described Brendan as “brilliant’ and “a genius.” What do you think is key to this special relationship and how you work with the team at Familiar Creature?
BD: It's inspiring watching Michelle work with younger, greener cooks, helping make sure that they know how things should look and taste - getting those subtleties right with seasoning and plating – and veteran cooks too because I think people respect her and like working for her. She’s tough in all the right ways, meaning she's not gonna put up with laziness, she's not gonna put up with people who don't wanna be there, and I think that commands a lot of respect. She’s always been inspiring to watch and at Creature, she's really at the top of her game.
MH: I love working with Brendan because he’s focused on the small details both back and front of house that people might not think about but notice in their experience: making sure the lights are right, the music is right in volume, what's being played, teaching people the hospitality part of the business. Hospitality is super important to us – it's not just feeding people – it's an entire experience and making people feel welcome and at home. It’s good we can be hard on each other and honest but not take offence because we have the same goal.
SDP: Michele, you were a pastry chef first, and happily jumped into Bakery Suzanne when it moved here last year, but when you left Hamlet in 2021, you two were talking about opening a bakery. What was the idea and is it still in play?
MH: We looked at several different spaces around town and found what we thought was the one, but didn't get it. Then when Brendan found this space, we talked about it but it wasn't the right time in my life – I needed to drive Donna (her van) cross country [laughs], and the cost of everything needed to set it up also had me a little nervous… Mrs. London’s does a really good job with French-style pastries, but an upscale American bakery is what we were going for. I think there's definitely room and demand here, for sure. I don't see I don't see it out of the question.
SDP: Let’s talk about Familiar Creature. There were road trips to Montreal, a focus on Quebecois-style menus for the wine bar, and a nod in your logo to your building’s prior life as a fruit wholesaler, but the actual wine bar concept was in the works for a few years. Brendan, why did you and your business partner, Dennis Kiingati, think Saratoga needed this and how close is it to the original idea?
BD: Let's start with I'm not sure I ever know what Saratoga needs or wants. [Laughs.] I just gotta know what I need and want – so I guess it's a little bit of a selfish endeavor. My wife and I really enjoy going to Montreal and it was sort of the opposite way that Hamlet as a cocktail bar started, which was Dennis going out across the country all the time, trying these great cocktail bars and coming back saying, “hey, let's make this drink, let's try this, let's do that.” So, it kind of a flip flopped for Creature since my wife and I have been going to Montreal for years to these fun, lighthearted, wine-focused restaurants that are comforting and enjoyable.
I wanted a place that didn’t put wine up on this big pedestal but could make it fun, easy going, approachable, and a little more of a broad spectrum from classic sixth gen winemakers to funkier wines by younger kids experimenting all over the board. I think there's a lot of pleasure and excitement to be found on both sides of the coin. I hoped it could be a wine bar for everybody with food and bites to go along with it. I'm always looking for things - even in a big city - and asking myself, “Could this work in Saratoga?” I've had a lot of people come in and say, “it doesn't feel like I'm in Saratoga, it feels like I'm in Europe,” and I enjoy that…maybe it feels a little out of place at first, but I hope Creature can grow into Saratoga and Saratoga can grow into Creature, you know?
SDP: Michele, with your sous chef Alex John, you have a cool mix of cheese and house charcuterie changing daily and pairing beautifully with wine director Miles Merton’s wine picks. Then there are your signature flavor-packed small plates like the skate wing schnitzel and a pork belly brochette in honey madeira jus. What’s the driving inspiration for this menu? And do you have a favorite dish – or is that like asking if you have a favorite child?
MH: I think Johnson and I have gotten far enough in our careers now where we kind of feel stronger in our identity in that we’re not grasping at straws anymore. Even after the initial menu launch when we were making menu changes, Johnson got a little nervous. He's like, “what if we can't make food this good again?” so I told him: “It’s okay, follow your heart and it's gonna be good.” Our main motivation is ingredient-driven so with spring coming or ingredients we’re inspired by which influences a dish we make. I don't have a favorite dish on the menu… but all of it's exciting. Johnson just put on a new frog's leg dish yesterday. It’s really good, and I think very approachable for people – it's fun to put out something a little out of people's comfort zone, and see what they think.
SDP: Let’s talk about having one customizable entree: a single schmaltzy roast chicken sold as a 1/4, 1/2 or whole bird. And schmaltzy potatoes too. Has the whole bird decision been divisive? And why is schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) so damn good?
BD: Really, we just want chicken to be part of a really nice selection of smaller, shareable plates especially when the food is really meant to come out and be shared at the table. I think the chicken is supposed to be one of those options in the experience
MH: I really try to utilize everything we can and fat is flavor so using the schmaltz just doubles down. Our whole menu - front and back - is based on sharing and community too. When we go out we like to be engulfed in conversation, passing plates, eating, drinking, sharing stories for three and a half hours. So it’s a purposeful design of the menu – not as rigid as having a salad, then your steak and then a piece of cake.
BD: …I like this idea of Familiar Creature as a bit of a reaction to the world and what's going on in it. …even if we don't know each other we're part of the same community. More standing room, people closer, interacting, tasting wines. Maybe subconsciously - or more consciously as we've gotten into it - it’s that post-pandemic you needed a reservation to get into Hamlet on the weekend, then you're at your table so you don't get this nice blending of groups. I’m hoping, going forward, people appreciate a sense of community, talking to each other, communal dining.
SDP: How are you feeling about the escalation of wine tariffs and how it may impact for Familiar Creature as a wine bar?
BD: What's going on in the world is crazy, but I try to not be too pessimistic about it. Each day is a new day so I'll just deal with what's thrown at me. We've been doing this for a long time with Hamlet and you know our story at Hamlet with a flood, a fire, a pandemic. This isn't gonna slow me down any more than those did and we'll figure out what we have to do to accommodate it. If we have to drink a lot more American wine, we'll drink a lot more American wine, and we'll still find cool, fun stuff for people to enjoy. Obviously we would love to keep drinking Spanish, French, Italian and Greek wines, but we’ll just see what happens and go from there.
MH: I find myself buying all the Italian and French meats and cheeses right now in case we can't get them. Obviously we have a bunch of amazing producers in Vermont and New York to fill that side of the menu, but I find myself snatching things up, just in case...
SDP: Outside of work, what’s your favorite dish and where do you like to go for it?
BD: I mean it's no secret: Everybody knows I love Ala Shanghai (Latham.) I've always been a fan of that restaurant; I find the food really comforting and I find the owner Lenny to be an incredibly hard working and thoughtful guy. We've gone there in good times and in bad. I find the soups comforting and delicious and well done, so I always tell people to go. We have so many things we like and get over and over again, but we always try to branch out and add one or two new dishes. My wife would say that wontons in spicy flavor are her absolute favorite; I probably like the pork pan fried pork dumplings a little more, but I also love Aunt Song’s fish soup which is spectacular, fish in spicy broth… really well done and delicious.
MH: I don't have a lot of evenings where I go out. I do treat myself to a Taylor ham and cheese every week from Fat Paulie’s in town. That's like my dream for some mornings. Favorite dish.. I’ve been leaning into my Italian roots more lately – maybe from spending more time with my sister who leans into Italian food hard. On my days off, if I'm doing chores and hanging out at home, I make a big pot of pasta – a clean-out-the-fridge pasta. [Laughs.] Maybe it’s good Noah's Italian is opening very nearby.
SDP: What’s your go-to drink and a favorite bar where you get it?
MH: I get a mezcal margarita pretty much anywhere that juices their own citrus. I get it at Kindred, or sometimes a mezcal Paloma. If I’m somewhere and I don't know if there's fresh juice, I’ll get a tasty beer like a crisp Grolsch or larger. I did the IPA thing for a while, but they're a little too heavy now with nice weather coming out….
BD: I'm complicated! I don't go for the same thing often, I'm usually trying to look for something I haven't had before, like interesting flavor combinations and ingredients, so I don't really have a go-to cocktail. Life is too short to just drink the same thing? I do really love the Marcel Lapierre Raisins Gaulois that is on our menu at Creature so that's what I'm grabbing 60% of the time.
SDP: Name 3 places you love for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the 518.
BD: Breakfast sandwiches at The Nook in Saratoga, a little cafe next to City Hall. It's been a little cafe for a long time, but this new guy in charge over there does a house sauce and always asks if I want salt and pepper, little details which I like. I've been going there because the guy's really nice. I always like that Putnam Market has fresh baked blueberry muffins in the morning, and those are really good. For lunch, I'm slightly biased, but I eat whatever they put together for me at Taquero, my brother’s Mexican spot. I'll have a bowl or shrimp tacos or the special. And my other lunch go-to is lunch at Karavalli or at Sushi Thai. At Sushi Thai, I can get a little soup to start and a pad Thai or a little sushi, so I'm in and out pretty quick without breaking the budget. And at Karavalli I just really like his cooking. I don't get out too often for dinner, but I was recently at Milas in Schenectady and really enjoyed that. The meal and cocktails were good, the ambience was nice, and the service - they treated us well. I really enjoyed it.
MH: I've been wanting to go. I've only heard good things about Milas. Did you get the candied olives? OK, if I'm doing lazy takeout at home it's pretty much always Karavalli and I order too much on purpose to have leftovers. Lunch, when I was living in Hudson, I loved going to Mel the Baker for morning pastries and their killer sandwich every weekend. Friday, I think, is always Italian, and Saturday it changes. It didn't matter what the sandwich was. I don't even ask. I would get there at 11 and order it because they’re so good every single time.
SDP: What’s your approach to work/life balance? How do you unwind? And how can restaurants create a culture of wellness?
MH: I think we do a pretty good job at work in creating a good atmosphere. We work long hours and work really hard, but we enjoy being here and being with each other. If someone's having a personal struggle or struggling with something they're doing at work, it's a community where everyone is there to help, which is really nice.
BD: Another way we do that is just by being consistent. You know, like the places I really didn't enjoy working in my life were when you didn't know what you were walking into every day. If a manager was a jerk one day but loves you the next. When you come into any day to work for Michelle or a manager you know what you're gonna get.
MH: Yeah, the day might throw a wrench at you and things might get a little crazy but we're not gonna treat you differently. We're not gonna lose our minds with a big attitude. We just try to be consistent and friendly but still have expectations… Finding that work/life balance is hard with a new opening because how well the team and restaurant thrives depends on how many hours I'm here. I'm really trying to figure it out before the busy season, on how we can keep labor in line and the work/life balance in line. Brendan's working at two restaurants so that's a lot too.
SDP: Yeah, Brendan, how do you balance a young family with two busy restaurants?
BD: It got a little crazy for a few months pre-opening. Since it's opened, I've felt better about the situation, figuring out how to balance my days off.I wanna be at both places enough to be impactful and to have my presence felt, but I also have a lot of back end things to take care of so my time is better spent in the mornings when I can get things done without being around everyone. In a restaurant it’s easy to get chatty in the afternoon when everybody shows up and wants to talk about what's going on… so it’s how to balance back-end responsibilities and being on the floor showing my face and talking to customers because I really do enjoy that. I like being able to come in and find a new customer or someone I haven't seen in a while, pour them a taste of something cool, and sit down with them for a few minutes. But my whole day on Sunday is dedicated to spending time with my son; my wife and I had a date night last night, and I get to go to Puerto Rico next week.
SDP: You've already expanded hours to Tuesdays. Are you thinking you'll go seven days a week or keep a day off for everybody?
BD: We're gonna see how it feels, see financially where everything's at, as we get into the busy season and decide if we should open seven days, possibly. …As things kind of ramp up, I think it'll do well. We'll start opening the patio any nice days we get… We still have a few little touches to get it set up.
SDP: Ok, let’s get personal. What’s something you always have in your fridge?
MH: At home I always have tangerine juice in my fridge. I call it candy juice. The Natalie’s one.
BD: We always have cucumbers in our house.
SDP: What music or artists are you listening to currently at work or at home?
BD: I've been enjoying the Familiar Creature playlist I keep adding to. There's some French funk and disco mixed with soul and whatever strikes my fancy. I'm always looking for something upbeat, but not so intrusive it's gonna throw you off from having a good time. But – I have been sneakily adding in some of the music from the third season of White Lotus, which is just like these like funky Thai tracks that somehow work. You know, really funky songs… and you can kind of hear it because it's the White Lotus theme song, but if you're not paying attention it's Thai with really interesting instruments... [Laughter]
MH: We actually don't play music in the open kitchen at all. I’ll have one earbud in in the morning before anyone gets here, but once people are here, it's no earbuds, talking to each other, talking about the food, which has been really nice to kind of embrace the culture in here and keep everyone excited and bringing ideas to the table. That's one of the most fun parts about the job for me: Gathering ideas from everybody so they have some ownership in getting food on the plate too. But personally I've been trying to find new music recently because I've been in this Indie acoustic realm, kind of an alternative style. We were listening to French Funk for a while when we were opening to kind of get the vibe going.
BD: And our Hamlet kitchen staff are all giant nerds so all they talk about is Magic the Gathering and when they're gonna play Magic the Gathering next. [Laughter]
SDP: Do you wear a favorite brand or preferred work labels in the kitchen?
MH: I've noticed I mostly own black V-neck T shirts and jeans, so I think I need to expand my selection. I rock Duluth double panel jeans most of the time. They have lots of pockets and don't fall down. They're good for pretty much anything, riding the motorbike, and if I get them all beat up, they're fine, and everything washes right out which is amazing. I got them for the farm, but end up wearing them all the time now. We have Elective Threads aprons for service, but I prefer my Tilit ones. They're very comfortable, take a beating, wash well, are wrinkle free, very low maintenance, which is good for me.
BD: I'm probably the least stylish person ever. I do dress up well - you know I got it from my dad - I’ll put on a sport coat, a nice pair of shoes, nice pair of slacks, but my daily looks are a little boring….some kind of T shirt or a Brooks Brothers shirt.
SDP: It’s your day/night off. If ressies were no issue and you can get in anywhere, where would you go?
MH: I like to kind of go to one place, have a drink, have a couple of snacks and then bounce to the next place and do the same thing. My most memorable dinner was Peruvian Llama San in New York, and it was one of those days where we’d take the train down, get pizza for breakfast, go to lunch, reservation number one, second lunch reservation, early dinner, and then another dinner later. Llama San is one of my favorites…their tigre de leche with the scallops was crazy. I wanted to drink it out of the bowl.
(*Ed. note: Llama San in Greenwich Village closed in June2025, but Llama Inn in Brooklyn is open + Papa San recently opened in Hudson Yards.]
BD: There are so many places around the world I’ll get to, but obviously I put Montreal up there. I'd hit a couple of cocktail bars, a wine bar and late dinner at Mont Lapin – they just opened Rotisserie La Lune, a Quebecois rotisserie spot too. If I'm dreaming of things I haven't done, it's meandering around San Sebastian or a small town in Italy. I'm not a big three Michelin star person. I prefer interesting, well done simple food, but Asador Etxebarri is on my bucket list and St. John in London too.
SDP: Since the lockdown, we’ve seen a shift in dining trends with fewer walk-ins, people staying home, high costs, staffing issues, and an increase in in-restaurant programming just to get people in the door. What do you see for the future of restaurants/bars?
BD: I keep reading these articles about how dining is the new nightlife, but Saratoga seems a little behind New York City – less of these upbeat/night out kind of restaurants that people are spending time at in the city. So I don't know exactly, it's a good question. I mean, the world's a little topsy-turvy right now but hospitality is fairly safe from any AI takeover – somebody still has to cook food! But we're not safe from things that go along with it like DoorDash and ghost restaurants. I think it's hard to emulate a great night out at a good restaurant. Going online does not fill that gap, so I think dining out will always have its place. I would like to see a shift in importance and accessibility of good food. I really don't want there to be a time when only the 1% can enjoy a good restaurant. That would be like the biggest shame going forward, right?
This interview has been lightly edited for length.