Where to eat German food + drink a birthday boot. We’ve got you covered with 7 upstate spots for Bavarian, Alsatian and brauhaus fare.

Trudy Steier, bar director at Savoy Taproom on Lark Street + The Copper Crow in Albany’s Warehouse District talks teaching, travel, and building cocktail menus around movie titles + album tracks.

If Monday is the new Friday, you’ll need this list of 9 downtown Albany restaurants and bars open for dinner or late night menus.

Albany Ale & Oyster serves up all-day dining with retro flair, friendly service, craft beer + comfort food that sticks. (And $1 oysters on Sundays!)

Chef Miles Murphy talks Jamaican bickle, X-box, discovering the sweet side of culinary + becoming chef de cuisine at 21-years old.

Bless up with inner luv for our favorite Jamaican spots

We paired Dominican Exec. Chef Riany Mena of Toro Cantina (+ Menu By Mena) with DJ/music producer Rome Thrasher and asked: If this dish were a track, what would it sound like?

Where to go for (really good) tacos

Tisean Daniels, GM + Managing Partner of Ama Cocina in downtown Albany, talks tacos, tattoos + the tea on cold-brewed tequila.

The Pancho y Lefty - or cold-brewed tequila - is back at Ama Cocina 2.0.

Suwun Thai Home Cooking is the new home of Brooklyn Thai restaurant Ghang Thai Kitchen in the former Cuckoo’s Nest in Albany’s Pine Hills. Upscale but warmly welcome, the menu reads as a best hits of Thai classics with Thai-inspired cocktails in flavors from tamarind to coconut-ginger.

INTEL: 3 spots you need to know this summer for outdoor dining. Banh mi for your picnic. Burgers for the park playhouse. Taco truck, bbq and live music on an apple farm.

Where to go for pickle cocktails

Tom Blassman of the Allen Street Pub doubles down on bacon in his ‘Little Pig in the Big City’ cocktail with bacon-fat-washed bourbon and a garnish of a bacon-wrapped shrimp.

Mystic Momo’s colorful, pleated Nepalese dumplings are dished up in a former bank + OTB overlooking historic Townsend Park in Albany.