Intel: The Future Is Fusion — Chef Collabs, Third Culture Menus + Peruvian-Mexican Grand Margaritas Plans a Second Location.

The 2026 NYS Craft Beer Competition Awards Ceremony, the largest state-level craft beer competition in the US, was held March 30 at Albany Capital Center. It concluding the NYS Craft Brewers’ Conference and prepared the stage for NYS Craft Brewing Day on April 11.

Yemeni coffee shops + smoothie bars are heating up upstate.

After Ichiban Japanese + Wok N Roe Burmese, the no-frills El Guayaquileño is bringing coastal Ecuadorian flavor to Albany’s Central Ave.

Veronica Agama—Latina, mother, entrepreneur + chef—talks food trucks, the diversity of Latin cooking + moving her Viva Empanadas business upstate.
— We also have her exclusive announcement of a new third location!

Upper New Scotland Ave in Albany’s Helderberg neighborhood is quietly blooming. We review Bloom Boutique Bar & Eatery, a new all-day new American restaurant inside The Rise/Midtown Square apartment complex.

Intel: All Change Around Albany + Troy.
— Editor Susie Davidson Powell dishes out the latest industry news in March.

INTEL: Little City Luncheonette is open on New Scotland Ave in Albany with comfort specials, breakfast cocktails + two familiar young chefs. We dropped in for stacked pancakes, breakfast cocktails + matzo ball soup to get the early dish.

Cheesecake Machismo’s Lynn Beaumont + Bam Lynch talk about 23 years of cheesecake innovation, tattoos, global community + being an Albany icon.

Open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., but breakfast cocktails + happy hour is a real thing at the brand new Little City Luncheonette in Albany, N.Y.

In Albany’s Warehouse District, Itameshi’s Bar Director Will Hoschek is inspired by rock samphire for a mermaid-inspired Vesper of the sea.

Will Hoschek, bar director of Itameshi in Albany’s Warehouse District, talks hot cocktails, kosho, ferments + why he came back to the industry he loves.

WHERE TO EAT—Below Ground at the Empire State Plaza.

We ask 7 bartenders if zero-proof cocktails are here to stay. They’re all in.

For The Dishing’s ZERO PROOF cocktail series, Trudy Steier (Savoy Taproom) reworks their signature Pink Jeans.

For The Dishing’s ZERO PROOF cocktail series, Tom Blassman (Allen Street Pub) serves up the Apple Wagon, an on-the-wagon apple cider mule.

Restaurateurs + parents Lily Tang + Khalil Shabib talk work/life balance, global travel + opening two restaurants in 5 years.

We paired Executive Chef John Marra of Albany Ale & Oyster (Albany N.Y.) with veteran radio host + DJ Nate da Great, and asked: “If this dish were a track, what would it sound like?”

Tania Shelow, baker-owner of Bitchin Donuts talks to us about the fire, business expansion, her evolving health journey + taking on Dunkin, one donut at a time.

Lauren Slezak + Colin Pratt of Delaware Supply talk beer clean glassware, the importance of foam + a perfect day out in New Orleans.