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.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Over the last century, the number of farms in Saratoga County has decreased by 84%. As local farmers work hard to survive and thrive, the first-ever Farm Showcase on June 22 aims to give the community a taste (literally) of what the county’s farms have to offer.

More than twenty local farms, providing everything from ice cream to beer to fresh produce, will participate in the event, which is organized by Saratoga PLAN (Preserving Land and Nature), a nonprofit land trust.

Michelle Culbert, Saratoga PLAN’s associate director, said that local farmers are finding creative ways to market themselves directly to consumers. The Saratoga Farm Showcase is one way to do that.

“Attending these types of events, going right to the farm store and purchasing directly from the farm, is the best way to support local farmers,” Culbert said.

Farms are rapidly evaporating, primarily due to development and urban sprawl. Developers like farmland because it’s usually flat and cleared of trees. Although this loss of farmland is happening nationwide, it’s even more pronounced in Saratoga County, the second-fastest growing county in the state. “We’re feeling it here more than elsewhere in the state,” Culbert said.

Part of Saratoga PLAN’s mission includes farmland conservation, which the organization says is “important to the long-term health of the economy, the environment, and the social fabric of our community.” 

Participants in the upcoming showcase include Hop City Maple, King Brothers Dairy, McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, Arnold’s Farm Fresh Produce, City Goat Farm, Dancing Grain Farm Brewery, and Smith’s Orchard & Bake Shop, among others.

Culbert said the inaugural showcase’s success will be measured both by ticket sales and, more importantly, how much everyone involved enjoys the experience.

Tickets for adults cost $10. Kids are free. All tickets must be purchased by Thursday, June 20. There are no day-of ticket sales. 

Included with a ticket comes a tour map with a list of participating farms and their special offerings and discounts, as well as an insulated cooler bag filled with farm goodies. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://saratoga-plan.snwbll.com/ticketing/saratoga-farm-showcase.