SARATOGA SPRINGS — Dango’s, a sports bar and restaurant on Caroline Street in downtown Saratoga Springs, will transform into The Wild Horse after a multi-month gut renovation.
In a social media post, the company said it had hoped to open in time for the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival but was now targeting an early July reopening. The Wild Horse will feature a new outdoor bar and gazebos.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Julie & Co. Realty announced last week that Nicole Buck has joined the company.
Buck was born and raised in Saratoga Springs. She worked at the Saratoga Senior Center and Skidmore College. She holds a BS in Chemistry from Boston College and an MBA from the University of Central Florida.
MALTA — A plan to build retail stores and hundreds of residential units on the current site of the Albany-Saratoga Speedway was met with resistance at a Malta Town Board meeting earlier this month.
During the June 3 meeting, representatives from Five Corners Development and The NRP Group delivered a lengthy presentation about their proposed mixed-use Camber Ridge development during the public comment period, which is usually reserved for town residents to make three-minute statements. The NRP Group’s Jonathan Gertman said he hoped the presentation would “shock and delight” the town.
After the presentation went on for about 20 minutes, Councilperson Barbara Conner interrupted to say that she had no idea the presentation was going to happen and that discussion of the Camber Ridge development wasn’t on the agenda. “I don’t know anything about this and I feel a little blindsided,” Conner said. “I’m looking at some of our friends and neighbors out there who have things to say to us and I don’t think this is the right time, and I would’ve appreciated knowing we were going to have this kind of presentation.”
A meeting attendee blasted the developers’ presentation, calling it “totally inappropriate” and “absolutely ridiculous.” The presentation had interrupted many Malta residents who wanted to speak about a proposed State Police barracks in the town’s Luther Forest neighborhood.
The nearly 50-acre Camber Ridge development is set to include “some element of senior housing, some element of multifamily housing across mixed incomes, as well as the potential for affordable home ownership,” according to the June 3 presentation.
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A conceptual plan showed buildings that would house a brewery, commercial space, apartments, townhomes, green space, and a courtyard/amenity area.
“This multiphase mixed-use project aims to transform the recreational site into a vibrant community consisting of housing, retail, community amenities, and walking trails,” said a statement on the Camber Ridge website.
The development would replace the Albany-Saratoga Speedway, where racing may no longer occur after the 2025 season. The developers said they planned to keep the track’s legacy alive to “appease race fan enthusiasts.”
It will be some time before the project can be fully approved by the town. The developers are making a formal proposal this summer and hope to reach the site plan approval process by the end of next year.
Ollie’s Bar & Grill at 120 Broad Street in Schuylerville celebrated its recent opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony last week hosted by the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. Photo via the chamber’s Facebook page.
FORT ANN — Upstate New York has long been known for its water, from the Catskill Mountain watershed that supplies New York City with clean drinking water to the mineral springs that gave Saratoga Springs its name. Now, there’s a new local water company on the scene that sources its product from an artesian aquifer in the Adirondacks.
Realm, a premium water brand, will be officially unveiled at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City later this month. Its water source in Fort Ann, about 30 miles north of Saratoga, is said to be “98% uncontaminated” and “untouched by natural and human pollutants,” according to the company’s press release. Owners Mark and Joe Miller have spent the last seven years trying to bring the water to market.
“Water is the most essential element and we cannot survive without it. We understand the importance of providing and protecting natural resources, which is why Realm means so much to us,” said Realm’s CEO Todd Kletter in a statement.
Starting this fall, Realm will be available in still and sparkling varieties, packaged in glass bottles. Consumers will be able to purchase the bottles via the brand’s website.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The owners of Saratoga’s Broadway Deli in downtown Saratoga Springs will soon open a new venture: Bibulous, a full-service dessert and cocktail bar that will be located at 35 Henry Street.
“[Bibulous Saratoga] will feature a rotating selection of seasonal homemade desserts as well as a few savory bites,” wrote co-owner Daniel Chessare in a social media post. “Waiting for a reservation? Stop in for a glass of wine and cheese plate. Then swing by after dinner for a little dessert and a nightcap before heading home.”
Chessare said he hoped the business would be open later this summer. Updates will be posted to the Bibulous Saratoga Facebook and Instagram pages.
BALLSTON SPA — When he was a kid growing up in the Bronx, Augie Vitiello was surrounded by homemade food cooked by his “100%” Italian family. Now, decades later, that same atmosphere survives at Augie’s Family Style Italian Restaurant in Ballston Spa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary earlier this month.
“The core of what we do is an old-fashioned red sauce joint,” Vitiello said. “I didn’t want to be this highfalutin, snobby restaurant.”
Vitiello officially got started in the restaurant business at age 13, when he started as a dishwasher and worked his way up to peeling potatoes and cutting vegetables. But his cooking education really began at home.
Vitiello still has potent memories of the dishes his Italian-born relatives would prepare: eggplant parm, roasted chicken, pickled vegetables from the garden, even homemade wine.
“Every day there was something on the fire cooking, from the Sunday sauce to a simple stew,” Vitiello said. “You couldn’t run away from it.”
By the time he was 17, Vitiello was roasting prime ribs and whipping up shrimp scampi. He spent one semester in college, but knew right away that the only kind of education he wanted was culinary. So he enrolled in the New York Restaurant School in Manhattan.
“It was all focused towards opening up my own business,” Vitiello said. “That was always in the forefront.”
When he turned 24, an opportunity to open an eatery presented itself. “I was young, I was dumb. I knew how to cook but I didn’t know how to run a business,” Vitiello said.
Despite his inexperience, Vitiello plowed forward and made a career for himself. He ran his own restaurant in Larchmont, New York for 13 years before deciding to relocate to the Capital Region. “As much as we knew the Saratoga area was a special place, it far exceeded our wildest dreams,” he said.
In June 2004, Augie’s Family Style Italian Restaurant first opened its doors in Ballston Spa. In 2017, Vitiello opened a second “to-go” location across from the East Side Recreation Park in Saratoga Springs. Both businesses are still going strong.
“I’ve been very fortunate and very blessed to have the energy and the enthusiasm to still want to do it,” Vitiello said. “But without my employees, there’d be nothing. That’s the most important thing.”
A lifetime surrounded by Italian food hasn’t lessened Vitiello’s enthusiasm for it. He said his favorite meal is a simple chicken parmesan with a side of penne alla vodka. “To me, that’s a marriage made in heaven,” he said.
BALLSTON SPA — Augie’s Family Style Italian Restaurant in Ballston Spa celebrated its 20th anniversary on Monday, offering patrons complimentary glasses of Prosecco and cannolis to celebrate the occasion.
“Twenty years ago, we moved from the New York City suburb of Larchmont to Ballston Spa,” Augie Vitiello wrote in an Instagram post. “We were embraced by the incredible community in upstate New York, which we are now so proud to call home!”
Born and raised in the Bronx, Vitiello learned home-style Italian cooking from his parents. He ran a restaurant in Larchmont for 13 years before relocating to the area.
Augie’s currently has two locations: a full-service restaurant in downtown Ballston Spa, and a take-out restaurant in Saratoga Springs across from the East Side Recreation Park on Lake Ave.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation held two sold-out tours of the Saratoga Race Course during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival on Friday, June 7 and Sunday, June 9.
The tours, led by the foundation’s Executive Director Samantha Bosshart, explored the history of the track, as well as its many renovations and expansions over the years. Bosshart also explained her foundation’s role in shaping the track’s appearance. Tour guests were allowed to enter the track before gates officially opened to the public.
For information on upcoming foundation tours and events, visit www.saratogapreservation.org/calendar/.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The New York Racing Association (NYRA) last week unveiled renovations to the lower level of the Clubhouse at the Saratoga Race Course, highlighted by a revamped Jim Dandy Bar.
Visitors will be greeted by a new horseshoe-shaped bar reflective of the original green and brown color scheme of Saratoga. Originally founded as a members-only lounge in the 1940s and later named after the improbable winner of the 1930 Travers Stakes, the Jim Dandy Bar has been relocated within the Clubhouse to its original setting based on historical drawings, and is flanked by vintage scenes of Saratoga Race Course.
Other changes to the lower level of the Clubhouse include the addition of a drink rail, which encircles the lower level and offers fans a clear view of the saddling paddock; an information station; and improved restroom facilities that feature historic photos embedded within the wall tiling.
