MARCH INTEL: ALL CHANGE IN ALBANY + TROY.
Chef moves, closures + re-openings. Editor Susie Davidson Powell dishes up the latest industry moves in and around Albany + Troy.
Story: Susie Davidson Powell
🫒 While Little City Luncheonette continues to pull in the crowds and rack up positive reviews, young pastry-and-sous chef Miles Murphy, has quietly left. His unexpected departure after such a strong opening team of Murphy and executive chef Arvin Clemente even included an ube-coconut cookie honoring their Jamaican-Filipino heritage. When contacted, owners Mia and Joe Hinners and chef Murphy shared glowing words for each other but the crux of the departure seems to lie in Little City’s need for a combined sous-and-pastry chef role, while Murphy wanted to focus solely on his pastry program. Murphy returns to his prior teaching position at SCCC where he had found a home after leaving The Delaware in Albany last year. Little City Luncheonette is continuing the in-house pastry program managed by the kitchen team with a new weekly rotation of cardamom buns, chocolate babka, lemon pie and brown butter chocolate chip cookies with sea salt, all in addition to their cakes, pies and—new last week—house-made soft serve ice cream. Since Clemente came to Little City Luncheonette straight from Familiar Creature in Saratoga—where executive chef Michele Hunter’s kitchen is known for epic weekly house-made ice cream flavors, I think we can expect he picked up some tips along the way.
While Chef Dale Hajdasz, the owner of pop up Pretty Pig Provisions, continues to flex his culinary chops at farmers markets and a roving dinner series from Paired Provisions at the Arts Center of the Capital Region to Indian Ladder Farm, he has left his residency at The Green Room at No Fun in Troy. At first, I thought he might be heading back to El Dorado where he had a week day residency until the building was damaged by fire. El Dorado re-opened last weekend, but staff assure me they’ll be making good use of a hot dog roller for dogs, sausages and taquitos. Meanwhile, the Albany-based team behind vegan Wizard Burger on Broadway in Albany (which started life as Burrito Burrito in Troy) is sliding on into The Green Room space as Burrito Burrito/Wizard Burger/Showdega at The Green Room. The space doesn’t have a full kitchen so, according to owner Chris Carpentier, the menu will be pretty stripped down with a hot dog roller for their “tube-shaped foods” and “a griddle and steam table” for the rest. He tells me, “The menu will consist of classic Burrito Burrito items, such as The Roswell Burrito and the Space Cowboy Burrito, with slight modifications to accommodate the lack of a deep fryer, and a few new items special to The Green Room like our Troy Tiki Burrito, with diced grilled Chickn’, sweet soy glaze, and grilled pineapple, pickled jalapeños, rice , beans and lettuce. There will also be No Fun Nachos with guac, jalapeno, and queso over a bed of fritos.” The soft opening will be Monday March 16th, 7:00pm for the Lazy Horse show. Nothing will change over at Wizard Burger in Albany, but if you don’t know they reinvented the bar side of Wizard Burger with a tiki bar vibe (enter: Maui Mules, Hurricanes, and margaritas) and a focus on happy hour with $2 off all drinks.
The big news last week was the overnight announcement of the War Room Tavern’s closure in downtown Albany. The outpouring of support saw the place packed to the gills with politicos for its last night, and pre-booked parties honored through the the weekend. But, there’s enough grapevine chatter to suggest maybe it won’t be forever? Some are hoping for a swift revival. We’ll be keeping tabs on the intel.
Now take the Larkin HiFi—which closed last November with a big sendoff after a very public battle over Albany’s cabaret laws and has been opening one weekend a month for a “help pay the rent” line up + bring-your-own-vinyl. Co-owner Aaron Wilson tells me they have now “transitioned to opening a few days a week while struggling with the landlord to find a suitable successor to take over the lease.” They have someone interested in taking over HiFi, but the landlords are keeping them locked in.
Pizza By Plu owner, Brian Plutchok, who had recently been test-driving Pasta By Plu in his new Guilderland location has abandoned the family-sized to go pasta dinners and returned to the pre-order pizzas only, although the family-size salads will remain and he has added a fried ravioli app with his much-loved sauce on the side.
RiiLaxx Tavern, the new nightclub and restaurant in the downtown Albany Ama Cocina space, held a ribbon cutting and grand opening last weekend with DJ Funk Flash and a new interior look. Sadly, they didn’t keep the Frida Kahlo floor-to-ceiling wall mural which is now painted black. First time restaurateur Corisha Cowan plans to serve a casual, family-friendly menu with chicken wings, sandwiches, steak, pasta, seafood, and $15 burgers, including an “Arbor Hill burger,” the “Trap burger” and “Biggie’s Fries.” Other menu items include Caesar salads, Betty’s Jambalaya and Rasta Pasta.
John Hwang, the Chief Operating Officer of NeoVista the new owner of Jack’s Oyster House, gave us the update for Cafe 66, a bakery-cafe at 66 State Street, and two Japanese bars—a wine bar called The Vault and a sake and whisky bar called Izakaya Kinko—in the lower level of the Beaux-Arts event space at 60 State. Originally projected to open in March, they’re anticipating late April or early May openings for all three. — SDP.