The iconic Notty Pine Tavern is on the block

A Troy restaurant that opened at the end of World War II is for sale.

The Notty Pine Tavern, located at 2301 15th Street on the northern edge of the RPI campus, has an asking price of $425,000 which covers the name, building and equipment.

The restaurant was founded by the DeBonis family, who sold it to the Zitto family which currently owns and operates it. The nearly 3,000-square-foot restaurant remains open.

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Closed Sundays. Phone: 272-4557 and 272-9383.

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Council's missing president needs a technology lesson

So easy a child could do it.

Troy City Council President Rodney Wiltshire has, for the second consecutive year, missed the all-important municipal budget vote due to his preference for being out of town on vacation rather than facing head-on a crucial, controversial topic in the community he is sworn to serve.

Wiltshire once again has excuses for being AWOL, of course, but there really is not a legitimate one in this era of high-tech communications. Despite being away, he nevertheless could have attended -- and fully participated in -- the Council sessions via real-time electronic means such as Skype, iPad's Facetime, etc.

The City Charter does not preclude that, nor does common sense. Should Wiltshire not have such technology available to him, surely someone could have loaned him the necessary device. Modern businesses use such remote communication all the time. Matter of fact, so do children who can't stand to be separated from their friends. It is not a radical notion.

Wiltshire says the 5-3 vote that was cast shows his attendance would not have made a difference in the outcome. That could be interpreted as him admitting he does not have any influence over Council actions despite his leadership position. Perhaps he is right.

The embarrassing, endlessly-squabbling council Wiltshire will not or cannot get under control, and his callous dismissal of his responsibilities say a lot about both his performance in office and his attitude toward his civic role. Unfortunately for the residents of Troy, he has at least another year in office. 

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Played for a sucker, one last time

Me with Danny Sarmiento.

The latest charity to which I contributed was the new National WWII Museum. A rather hefty contribution, in fact, in honor of my dad who was killed in action in France in WWII.

Since sending the organization a check, it has inundated me with endless requests for more money and pushing me to buy all sorts of useless tchotchkes. It is safe to say the organization has spent more in mailings and brochures sent to me than I contributed.

This, regretably, is not unusual. Numerous other organizations that have been recipients over the years of my contributions meant as supportive of their programs and goals have done the same mindless thing. I can site such groups as the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Capital City Rescue Mission, the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation, the American Red Cross and on and on.

By contrast, I also contribute significant sums through Rotary International, the 1.2 million-member global public service organization of which I long have been a member. In all the years I have done so, I have never been targeted for continual arm-twisting for more money.

It has been said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So, I am proclaiming my mental health to be strong and my charitable contributions from, now on to be limited to Rotary projects, be they local or international.

Locally, our Rotary club — Southern Rensselaer County, in my case, of which I am the current president — supports family service organizations, Boy Scouts, college scholarships, food pantries, literacy, the Gift of Life organization that brings children here for lifesaving cardiac surgery, and other undertakings. Globally, we support the ongoing battle to eradicate polio, provide ShelterBoxes which bring temporary shelters, tools, water purifying equipment, first-aid supplies and similar materials to areas ravaged by the forces of nature.

When I see the direct result of the hard personal work and generosity of my fellow Rotarians that does only good rather than becoming a catalyst for incessant fundraising, I know that decision is a proper one.

The most recent example is the $11,000 my club of fewer than 30 members raised to bring a Honduran youngster to Albany for lifesaving cardiac surgery under the auspices of the Gift of Life program. Little Danny Sarmiento (see photo above) is an example of what can be accomplished without wasting money on browbeating and annoying people who want only to help.

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Entrepreneurs' efforts mix pop-up and history

There's not a lot going on in the Troy restaurant world that doesn't have some input -- be it actual or inspirational --  from the husband-wife team of Vic Christopher and Heather LaVine.

Their latest item is a little something called Tavern Ramen, a pop-up restaurant that will be in operation during this Sunday's Victorian Stroll.

The venue will be 217 Broadway, just off Monument Square, where Christopher and LaVine are resurrecting The Tavern, a longtime mainstay that has been in ruins for years. Tavern Ramen will offer ramen noodle dishes -- guaranteed to be popular with the city's many students from RPI, Russell Sage and Hudson Valley colleges --  plus pork buns and a few other items from 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Will this pop-up lead to something more permanent?

"We're taking the concept for a test-drive," Christopher says. "(It) could evolve into something else at some point."

Spiak's dining room neon sign.

Details of The Tavern Restaurant concept and menu will be revealed over the next few weeks, with a soft opening projected by year's end.

Christopher and LaVine already operate the Charles F. Lucas Confectionery & Wine Bar and The Grocery in the same neighborhood, both in once-crumbling buildings they have completely renovated.

The couple has a penchant for preserving/restoring as many original items as possible in their projects, or re-purposing others with a touch of local history. A prime example of the latter is their acquisition of the dining room neon sign that hung for years at Spiak's, a popular Watervliet restaurant that has closed due to retirement.

"Walter Spiak has been working in the restaurant since he was 12, and he's got no regrets about retiring. He wanted the dining room sign to end up in a highly visible location, so he decided to send it our way," Christoper says. 

"It will be displayed prominently at The Tavern Restaurant. The sign has been on display for decades, and is actually a replacement for the original sign which read 'Ladies Entrance'."

For those of you who keep track of such anachronistic items, the former South End Tavern in Troy -- still up for sale along with several adjacent buildings -- still has a "Ladles Entrance" sign on premises.

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Why soft drinks and food stamps don’t mix

As I stood in the checkout line at my local supermarket the other day, mentally complaining about the continually rising prices of food, I noticed a couple ahead of me piling up cigarettes and beer on the conveyor belt.

It caught my attention because they had been paying for their groceries with food stamps supported by your tax dollars and mine. That left them plenty of cash for the beer and smokes.

Ah, the cradle-to-grave welfare system. Why use your money for the basics of life when someone else’s money will get them for you? In effect, you are buying their drinks and smokes.

There are, of course, some people who can’t exist without assistance, but I see so many examples of people simply milking the system — put bluntly, stealing money from my wallet — that I have less and less sympathy all the time.

I recall some months ago when the partial collapse of an old brick residential building in Troy forced tenants of an apartment to find accommodations elsewhere. I felt bad for them at first. Then it was revealed that the building was Section 8 housing in which a big chunk of the rent is paid by -- guess who? -- you and me, through our taxes.

On the surface that’s alright because some people need such assistance. But, by law only family members are allowed to reside in each unit, and their total income must be below a certain level to qualify. It turns out one of the occupants was the boyfriend of the mother of the family, not a legal family member.

Plainly put, this lout and loutess were jobbing the system to get cut-rate rent for her and rent-free housing for him while other members of the community whose taxes are supporting them are worrying about making their own rent or mortgage payments.

These are far from isolated cases. When they keep popping up generation after generation, I root for some tighter oversight of welfare programs so the truly needy are aided and the truly cheating are exposed.

In many communities around the country, municipal governments have been petitioning the federal government to allow them to prohibit food stamp recipients from using the handouts to purchase soft drinks. A small step, but better than no step, unless you’re among the soft drink makers/distributors/sellers and their cohort (snack food manufacturers, for one) already whining about the proposal.

Why do I regard this as a positive step for society at large? Besides the obesity problem, to which sugary drinks contribute mightily, take a look at the numbers, step by step:

• There are 1,700,000 New Yorkers getting food stamps.

• That is roughly equal to the combined entire populations of Vermont, Wyoming and Washington, D.C.

• If each food stamp recipient bought just 1½ soft drinks daily, that would come to about $2,500,000 a day, or $76,500,000 a month of your money being spent.

• That last figure exceeds the annual gross state product of each of 13 states: Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Perhaps you’re beginning to get an idea of the enormity of the topic.

By the way, if you think my figure of 1½ soft drinks a day to make my case is too high, consider that all available data puts the average American’s soft drink consumption at 3 quarts per week. We’re the largest soft drink consuming nation in the world. And you and I are buying the sodas for a lot of those people.

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Threat to BID the latest mismanagement move by Troy

Under Mayor Lou Rosamilia and an eternally, childishly bickering City Council, much of the progress the City of Troy has made in the past two decades to revive itself is beginning to circle the drain.

Troy has an ongoing record of epic overspending on police and firefighter overtime, and ignores its own budget by continuing to hire more part-time employees than it has money to pay. What that means is that (a) administration and council people are inept budgeters, and (b) they are even worse as managers.

When you practice this sort of financial cliff-walking and have the state looking over your collective shoulder and threatening to take over the city's finances -- again -- there's a problem. You begin grasping at straws because you are too incompetent to remedy the situation.

One of the straws is a proposal by the city to raise the fees it charges the Troy Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) for helping it ... well, improve downtown business. You know, the lifeblood of a community when its tax base keeps eroding?

The BID, a non-government organization -- that alone qualifies it for credibility -- made its mark under founding director Elizabeth Young Jojo and continues to be relevant under the direction of Erin Pihlaja and special events/marketing coordinator Danielle Roberts. If you're not familiar with the organization, you probably are familiar with the events it co-hosts with the city to bring thousands of people and even more thousands of dollars to Troy through such things as the Troy Pig Out, Chowderfest, Rockin' On the River, Riverfest, Troy Night Out, Troy Restaurant Week, public art such as the Uncle Sam statue project ... .

You get the point. The city, apparently does not. The same city that is incapable of paving its streets, getting rid of burned-out structures and boarded-up buildings, closing its brazen open air drug markets, that has council members threatening to sue each other for slander, that dithers endlessly on bringing to reality a development project on  the former site of City Hall ... yet continues to practice out-of-control spending then searches for pockets to pick to make up the deficit.

The BID is a self-supporting organization devoted to helping businesses small and large thrive in an atmosphere that makes downtown relevant again. It works on a thin $400,000 annual shoestring to achieve what government has failed to do for so many years. The cost to the city treasury? An estimated $63,000, an average of about $170 a day. Hardly a speck in a municipal budget, but with a great bang for the buck.

So, what does the city council propose doing? Including a budget revenue line of $150,000 it would siphon from BID-run events. The problem: If the BID has to pay that kind of money, it won't have as many events, it probably will have to raise vendor registration fees for the events it does have, and, thus, the city won't have as many visitors coming here to spend money.

It's such a simple equation, I'm amazed that even the short-sighted council and administration don't realize it. (Wait. When I re-read that sentence, I'm not amazed. It's par for the course with government in this city.)

BID Executive Director Pihlaja succinctly summed up the situation: “We cannot afford this.”

She said she was blindsided by the proposal. She also said she could get the services the city says cost it $63,000 for roughly half that figure. Given the standard government inefficiency, I believe her.

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Update: Slidin' Dirty, restaurant version, sets opening

Historic look at the building.

UPDATE (11/10/14): The new restaurant version of the popular Slidin' Dirty food truck is expected to open a week from Friday, on November 21, at 9 First Street in downtown Troy. It will be a casual, 63-seat, full-service restaurant with a 15-seat bar.

(Originally published 6/28/14.)

9 First Street is a historic spot poised to take part in a modern movement -- the rapid expansion of the restaurant segment that is sparking much of Troy's latest renaissance.

The renovated four-story building, built in 1864 as William Young’s bookstore and bindery, is a 6,100-square-foot structure of brownstone and cast iron. It has been vacant since 1996 when the city's Code Enforcement bureau ordered it closed due to unsafe conditions.

Last year, CEO Jeffrey Buell and his company Sequence Development purchased the structure -- located just off River Street next to the Rice Building -- for $10,000 from the Troy Local Development Corporation (TLDC), a community improvement nonprofit that provides financial assistance for construction, acquisition and rehabilitation projects in the city. Buell, who worked in the administration of Mayor Harry Tutunjian, is supported by new chief operating officer Elizabeth Young Jojo, former director of the Troy Downtown Business Improvement District.

Announcing the restaurant.

On Friday, the owners of the Slidin' Dirty food truck, Tim and Brooke Tanney, revealed they will open a restaurant on the first floor as well as maintain the truck operation they started in March 2012. An opening late this year is projected. No name has been announced for the restaurant, and its theme is not yet known.

“Everyone that looked at this building prior to our purchase deemed it too far gone or not worth the effort,” Buell said in a statement Friday during an open house. “We rejected that concept and want to challenge people to think differently. The urban cores of our cities are what grew this country. It is history that cannot be replaced. Just because a building is covered in dust, falling apart at the seams, and collapsed upon itself doesn’t mean it can’t be saved. It just requires hard work, creative thinking, and a willingness to go the extra mile.”

The third and fourth floors include a pair of 1,350-square-foot, two-story duplex apartments featuring exposed brick and beams, quartz counter tops, recessed lighting, washers and dryers, and forced hot air heating with central air cooling. Rent is $1,750 per month. The second floor is a loft-style flex space expected to be occupied by August.

Sequence Development also is in the process of a $2.4 million rehab of a block of three buildings across from 9 First Street on the corner of First and State (16 First Street). Those units will be available for rent this fall. Other Sequence projects include 1 Monument Square (construction of two new mixed-use buildings); new student housing developments for Hudson Valley Community College, and redevelopment of 160,000 square feet of space for Clarkson University in Potsdam. The company was formed in 2012.

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Cafe Congress unveils opening menu, not opening date

The soon-to-open restaurant.

Sara Fish hasn't yet announced a firm date for the opening of her new Troy restaurant, Cafe Congress, but she has revealed the opening menu.

Fish, known for her everything-from-scratch cooking, also will be leaning heavily on baked goods from Crazy Russian Girls Bakery in Vermont. So, when will the new venture, located in a renovated building at 336 Congress Street, actually open?

"Hopefully in just a few weeks," says Fish. "I'd like to say by Thanksgiving, but I've learned not to commit to firm dates."

Here's a look at what she'll be cooking, with the beverage list still to come:

• Featured Soup $4/$6
A cup or bowl of homemade seasonal soup
• Bakery Bread $3.50
Warm with real butter or herbs and olive oil
• Bagels $2.50
Toasted with butter, hummus, peanut butter or farmer’s cheese, ground nutmeg and cinnamon
• Toast with the Most $2.50
Bakery bread sliced thick, toasted with butter, jam or local raw honey
• Yogurt Parfait $5.50
House yogurt with local organic granola, drizzled with local raw honey and dusted with fresh ground nutmeg
• Goldie Lox $9
Honey oat bagel, farmer’s cheese spread, capers, local field greens, red onion, Nova lox, honey
• Mega Muffins $2.50
Made from scratch locally in a variety of flavors
• Cinnamon Roll $5.50
Hot and oozing with icing, made locally with organic ingredients
• Ultimate Peanut Butter and Jelly $5.50
Local white chocolate peanut butter, homemade jelly, thick slices of whole grain wheat bread
• Hot and Twisted $5
Perfectly salted soft pretzel, served with homemade seasonal mustard
• Pickle Your Fancy $5
A selection of artisan pickled vegetables cured locally
• Cheese Board $13
A selection of locally sourced artisan cheeses paired with seasonal fruit compote
• Hummus Plate $7
Homemade roasted garlic and lemon chic pea hummus served with warm bakery bread
• House Mac and Cheese $7
Cheddar and Swiss cheeses, elbow macaroni, caramelized onions, diced apples
• Beans and Greens $11
Braised kale in lemon-garlic chicken broth, shallots, chic peas Romano cheese, garlic toast
• Hummus Among Us $10
Garlic-lemon hummus, local greens, red onion, roasted red peppers, feta cheese, olive tapenade, whole grain wheat bread
• Apple Chevre Sandwich $7.50
Local herb blended goat cheese, local raw honey granny smith apple slices, ciabatta roll
• Greek Salad $11
Field greens, feta and blue cheeses, tomato, red onion, Greek olives, balsamic vinaigrette

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Troy Waterfront Farmers' Market moves indoors Saturday

The Capital Region's largest farmers' market will begin its indoor season this Saturday.

The Troy Waterfront Farmers’ Market, now in its 15th year, will operate from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays in The Atrium building at 49 Fourth Street.

The market will have five new vendors this winter. They are:

• Nine Pin Ciderworks
• Jamtastic
• Tidy Thyme
• Tierra Farm
• Vital Eats

“We are very excited to begin our winter season. The market and its vendors are committed to providing local, producer-only products to the Capital Region. Our new vendors bring a new or different element to the market family and we look forward to welcoming them.” said Monica Kurzejeski, market manager.

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To lurk and to protect

UPDATE (10/1/14): Today, I drove by the Troy PD patrol car spot I mentioned in the following post written last month. There’s a cruiser there again, in the same low (if any) crime area. This time, the officer inhabiting the vehicle isn’t just idly watching traffic go by while nefarious activities go on in some of the surrounding blocks. He wasn’t watching the street at all. I circled around the block and checked to be sure what I saw the first time was accurate. Yep. He was busy reading. Oh, and protecting and defending, too, I’m sure.


I had to pay a visit to an Adirondack Tire Center in Troy’s Lansingburgh section today. Not much of a way to begin a commentary, but it’s the reason I noticed what I noticed. A Troy Police Department cruiser sitting in the parking lot of an abandoned gas station across the street.

I had seen the same thing while driving down that same street a day earlier. Under many circumstances it would be an unremarkable sight either time. This time it caught my eye, however, because I remembered Chief John Tedesco several weeks ago announcing an expanded police presence in the wake of numerous outbreaks of arson, shootings and stabbings in that city neighborhood.

If so, this particular deployment was a waste of the cop’s time and my tax money.
That stretch of 2nd Street is anything but a hotbed of illicit activity. It’s a commercial strip, just south of Powers Park. A smarter place to be would be about four blocks north and one block east. That’s where you’re getting into the sections of open-air drug markets and plywood-studded deteriorating buildings that seem to attract arsonists and other assholes.

Unless the intent of stationing a patrol car on that quiet section of 2nd Street was to catch the occasional speeder or scare off any out-of-towners headed deeper into the ‘Burgh for a drug buy, it doesn’t make much sense. We already have too many spots in the City of Troy where patrol cars are stationed to catch errant motorists while ignoring obvious drug activity in areas the police have, in effect, surrendered to crooks.

Our city's cops have been trained for better things. They are good cops who, I am quite sure, would rather be putting their energy and training to better use. Let them.

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