Hello, gorgeous. LITTLE CITY LUNCHEONETTE IS OPEN — and it’s a love letter to the neighborhood.
INTEL: Little City Luncheonette is open on New Scotland Ave in Albany. We dropped in for stacked pancakes, breakfast cocktails + matzo ball soup. Chef Arvin Clemente is sending love in scratchmade chicken pot pies + sous/pastry chef Miles Murphy has your day sorted with a red eye muffin.
Interview: Susie Davidson Powell
Photos: Nick Lee /for The Dishing
In October 2025, I chatted with Albany Ale & Oyster co-owner Mia Hinners about a new project— Little City Luncheonette—going into Ale & Oyster’s former spot. (Albany Ale & Oyster moved up the street.) This week, I chatted with the team: Mia, G.M. Renee Matthews, first time head chef Arvin Clemente—who we featured as one half of tastemaker pop up, Ala Ala— and sous chef/pastry chef Miles Murphy—who we also featured in a tastemaker interview.
Last year, Mia told me: “The inspiration for Little City Luncheonette stems from our love of hospitality and that nostalgic experience visiting a luncheonette or diner. As with Albany Ale and Oyster, we want to help to continue to uplift this neighborhood—it’s a love letter to our community. Luncheonettes, at their core, are community spaces and their appeal is that they are cozy and unpretentious. Little City will be just that with elevated comfort food , serving breakfast and lunch all day. A place for families to gather for breakfast and watch Saturday morning cartoons, to meet a friend and catch up enjoying a cup of coffee and a piece of pie, or to rub elbows with a stranger at the counter eating a patty melt and drinking milk shake or float. There will even be a breakfast happy hour with specialty cocktails, wine and beer. You’ll see favorites like fluffy pancakes, eggs Benedict, matzo ball soup, tuna salad and even meatloaf on the menu.”
Mia, it’s February 2026 + you’ve done an amazing job transforming the original interior Albany Ale from its darker draft beer and bottle shop days. Can you describe the design and vibe?
MH: I worked closely with my friend and designer Deborah Bohl on this one. I wanted a vintage vibe with the wall paper and patterns. You’ll also see some old porcelain plates; chrome edges on the tables and stools. We wanted to brighten it up so we painted the brick and ceiling. The pink and green colors you see lean into the colors of an old guest check; that was my inspiration for our color palette.
I was surprised and delighted to see matzo ball soup on the menu. What was your inspiration?
MH: I feel it’s a like a warm hug in a bowl and exactly the type of item we want to offer on the menu. Matzo ball soup usually is a staple at Jewish American delis and on diner menus and it’s one of those items I always order, if available. Our prep chef Dan Silo led the team with this matzo ball recipe and then collaborated with Chef Arvin on the rest. I think it’s a beautiful representation.
I heard you came up with the sour cream and onion wedge salad. Is it something you’ve had or make yourself?
MH: I’ve had salads in NYC with potato chips serving as the crouton essentially, and knew I wanted to add it into our menu somehow. Our team made dressings and this one was the hit! A simple crunchy salad with delicious greens and herbs is just the best!!
Are there any other dishes you knew you wanted to have on the menu?
MH: A Dutch Baby Pancake is something I always make at home for my kids. It’s unique and versatile, but so simple and I haven’t seen it done locally. The house baked pastries, rotating desserts and our cocktail and coffee program will all use house-made syrups, infused liquors and fresh squeezed juices. Our small calculated touches that people don’t expect but set us apart from other restaurants will hopefully shine through. A piece of homemade pie or a chocolate milkshake with real chocolate, a mimosa with fresh orange juice or a Bloody Mary with everything bagel seasoning and aquavit… What could be better?!
Renée, Little City Luncheonette is open 7a.m. to 3p.m. and you have breakfast cocktails! This is genius, especially with shift staff from two hospitals either side of you. How did you go about choosing cocktails for the list?
RM: I wanted to have more cocktail options than just the brunch titans— the Bloody Mary and mimosa. So I started thinking about playful ways to incorporate a brunch vibe or a breakfast ingredient like jam or yogurt into our drinks. The breakfast margarita uses Earl Grey tea and citrus jam and started off as a breakfast martini I’ve been seeing places and online which typically uses orange marmalade. I made the pivot to tequila, so calling it a margarita instead of a martini was purely taste oriented.
I feel like I’ve been making milk punches on and off for a million years now. I used to make gallons of it for parties or just weekend summer service at Lil Deb’s. And I love a good baby girl yogurt parfait in the morning and so wondered if I could clarify a milk punch with yogurt the same way I would with milk or coconut milk. It worked and everything kind of fell in to place. The guys in the kitchen make their own yogurt which I’m using in the punch in addition to a honey syrup made with honey harvested by one of our bartenders, Nina, making the ingredients cool and local.
For non-alc, we have Dr Browns sodas that can be made into floats and we’re fresh squeezing all our juices so orange juice, grapefruit, lemonades—and in summer we’ll do flavored lemonades and iced teas.
And there’s really a morning happy hour?
Yes, happy hour is 7 to 9 a.m. Monday to Friday with $10 cocktails and a few bucks off beers.
Check out Renée’s Breakfast cocktails here.
Chef Arvin, congrats on your new head chef role. I’m sure it’s a big shift for you moving from evening dining to early daytime. What are you most excited about being at Little City Luncheonette and how did you approach building the daytime menu?
AC: It’s my first project as the opening head chef and actually having a major role from kitchen design to the actual menu. The owners were so supportive in allowing me to be creative and they allow me to use really good ingredients. I’m excited to both be able to serve food that I want to eat and food that I believe the general public wants. We’re aiming to make a lot of things from scratch, including the turkey and the yogurt. Doing almost everything from scratch allows us to use amazing ingredients and keep the menu affordable.
You have a special limited edition chicken pot pie on the daily menu. What’s the story there?
AC: We sell the chicken pot pie in limited quantities—12 a day—in order for us to be able to serve it best. We have limited space and it takes a lot for us to make the pie dough in house and continue making almost everything in the menu in house as well. The chicken pot pie staying on the menu is really our love letter to the community and we hope the community loves it as much as us.
Chef Miles, congrats to you as well! I know you’re creating daily cakes and pastries. Are there any that will be regularly in play?
MM: Thanks, Susie! It’s true, I’ll be rotating a lot of the pastries and desserts but one that’ll be there to stay, is the red eye muffin. It’s basically banana bread and a shot of espresso wrapped up in muffin paper.
What’s the story behind the ube-coconut cookies?
MM: Yes, for the purple cookie, Arvin and I thought we should have something to open with that’d flaunt our roots. Jamaica and the Philippines have a lot of similarities, but we decided on two known flavors: ube (called moonshine yam in Jamaica) and coconut which can be found in both countries.
