RIP Ballinger's

Reporting from the wine bar...

Just was told by a former employee of Ballinger's that the place is now boarded up with a real estate agency sign on it. So much for "Gone Fishing."

Labels: Albany, Restaurants

posted by jbrzoska @ 11:26 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Salads in Albany! Jackbit and Joltz Finally Opens (and another door closes)

I haven't written anything about Albany in quite a while, but I think I've got some Albany commentary in me over the next couple of weeks...

Back in May, I wrote about the then-upcoming opening of Jackbit and Joltz, an Australian-themed cafe in Center Square on Lark. It was supposed to have opened on June 30th, then in August, then October, but today, January 25th, was the day.

I've been ridiculing the whole Australian theme, and I still find it a little silly, but it's turned out that the place is just what Lark Street needs. It's basically an Australian-themed equivalent of a Europe Cafe or Pax, like you'd find in NYC or DC. There are probably three dozen different sandwich selections (what the Australians apparently call "sangers" or "jaffles"), and you can walk in and get a salad with fresh greens with whatever toppings you'd like. I got a salad with fresh mozzerella, feta, tomatoes, peas, and chickpeas, for less than seven bucks.

They also offer "Joltz," which are made-to-order energy drinks, smoothies, and a lot of other salads and side. I think it's going to do well; it's two blocks from my apartment and a perfect place to do take-out.

In other Albany restaurant news, Ballinger's is closed, at least for now. I've been told that Doug Ballinger actually walked into the restaurant a week or two ago while it was open and just sent everyone, both customers and employees, home. Ballinger's website says it's going to reopen in the spring, but I've heard otherwise... fairly sketchy.

Anyway, there's another nice, upscale place to be in the area. Antica Enoteca, the wine bar I spend way too much time at on Lark Street, was purchased by Kevin Everleth a few weeks ago and has reopened as The Wine Bar and Bistro on Lark. During the last couple of months under the old regime, the place was pretty empty, but over the last couple of weeks, it's come to life.

How did that happen? Well, Kevin's a Culinary Institute-trained chef, and he's not only expanded the once-sparse menu, but made the food both wonderful and reasonably-priced... there's not an entree over $19, and the menu changes regularly. Over the last week, I've had escargot, filet mignon, penne in pesto cream sauce (like three times!) and duck breast. All delicious. The wine list is much larger, too -- at least triple the old one and growing every day. And the place is still as cozy as ever. It's very, very worth a visit (or like five visits a week!).

Labels: Albany, Restaurants

posted by jbrzoska @ 5:54 PM Trackback Link 2 comments links to this post

Philadelphia. PA -- Salads in Albany

Although I don't kvetch as much as some about the food in Albany, one thing that's hard to find in Albany is a good salad. You know, the kind you can get anywhere in a big city -- with cool stuff, like berries, arugula, goat cheese, bleu cheese crumbles, et al (Bellini's and Provence have good salads, but those are nowhere near downtown).

Even harder to find is a good place to get a take-out salad. While I was walking on Pearl Street the other day, I had lunch at Greenhouse, which is a chopped salad cafe. I can't judge the salad fairly, as I came in 15 minutes after it closed and the salad wasn't so fresh at that point, but it does have a neat menu, the place is cute, and the staff were friendly, so I'll probably go back.




Greenhouse, a chopped salad cafe on Pearl St.



More exciting is the new place that's opening up in my neighborhood, Jackbit and Joltz. Interesting name -- here's why:

"It's Australian slang for food or a meal," owner Daniel Batto tells me. "Somebody might say, 'I could go for some good jackbit.'"

Batto, owner of Top Shelf Catering in Clifton Park, isn't Australian and has never been Down Under, so he's justifying the name by offering jaffles, a type of grilled or toasted Australian sandwich. (Translation: Aussie panini.) A jaffle iron is at right.

Jackbit & Joltz, with a seating capacity of 35 to 40, also will feature an energy-drink bar with homemade concotions including a salt-rimmed "Jolterita" and an orange-flavored soother called the "Hangover Hammerhead."

"We'll be the antibooze place on Lark," says Batto, who quickly notes that, as the owner of Northeast Bartending School, he is in no position to oppose alcohol on moral grounds. It's just a good niche. (It also probably facilitated approval from the Lark Street community and the city zoning board.)

The hoped-for unveiling of Jackbit & Joltz is July 1. It will be open 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Labels: Albany, Restaurants

posted by jbrzoska @ 1:43 AM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- Ballinger's

I was going to post some photos of my photo shoot around Albany today, but I'm in Ballinger's, the new restaurant on Howard Street in Albany and felt it deserved a post of its own. Last week I wrote:

I was strolling around downtown a couple of days ago when I passed the old Ogden's restaurant building on Howard Street and noticed that a new restaurant is opening up at the same location. Ballingers (no apostrophe, for whatever reason -- the owner's name is Douglas Ballinger) opens up on May 3rd. It's down the street from me, so I'm going to try to make it. I wonder if it can succeed where Daniel's (the restaurant that succeeded Ogden's in 2003) failed?

Well, I don't know if it can, but it's certainly nice:



Ballingers on Howard Street

As a foodie, whether a bar does or doesn't have food is really important to me -- it's not a surprise that in Albany, I tend to frequent Justin's, the Wine Bar, Totem, and Lark Tavern, and stay away from Cafe Hollywood and Lionheart.

It's almost a month in, though, and there's still no menu here. I was under the impression they'd have one by this point (their fourth week), but it hasn't happened yet. Having said that, the waitresses have been walking around with some great tapas -- the chorizo and mini pizzas have both made me scramble to find more, and I've made quite a nice meal out of them. The service has been good too -- even as the place has gotten busier as the night has progressed (I've been here for hours), Paul, the friendly bartender, has gotten me my Coors Lights almost instantly.

The building that houses Ballinger's is a marvel; it's a three story building constructed in 1903. Ogden's restaurant, one of the previous incarnations of this building, was a very successful for many years, hosting Albany's politicos.

Ballinger's is using all three of the building's floors, plus its sizable patio. There's a bar on each floor (though the owners are going to have to negotiate the state's limit on three bars per venue). The ambience is great -- all of the floors are decked out in a plush 1920s-era fashion, and the music varies from Sinatra to Stefani to Matthews to Marley to world music and Green Day's "Welcome to Paradise" is blaring as I prepare to post this.

I'd love this place to succeed, but it may be too big for its own good. If it does succeed, that says a lot for Albany -- not only is it big, but it's not directly on Pearl Street, Broadway, or Lark Street. I'll keep an eye on it.

(Side note: The operator, Gerard, just gave me a free beer, so another point to Ballinger's :) -- wi-fi is a plus, too)

I took several photos, and you can check them out by clicking here (note for people on laptops/low-res: these photos are larger than normal, so you may have to scroll down to navigate -- it's worth it though; it's a gorgeous place).




UPDATE: Another foodie, Albany Jane of Albany Eats, reviewed Ballingers (is it really spelled "Ballinger's" or "Ballingers?" I think I'm switching to the latter) recently.

Labels: Albany, Restaurants

posted by jbrzoska @ 11:08 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Albany, NY -- The Blue Plate

I had a great dinner tonight at The Blue Plate in Chatham, NY. I'd been there once before, and was excited to go back. I had a really succulent leg of lamb after devouring an entire loaf of bread with their olive/mushroom/sundried tomato spread.

Thanks to Steve Harris from SI, we can see that Cindy Sheehan, joined here by the ever-loquacious Reverend Al Sharpton, is still getting a lot of attention from the media. That's great news, and I think Steve agrees. Thanks, Steve!

Andruw Jones jacked two more today, as Atlanta beat Milwaukee. The guy is just having a season far beyond what I'd expect from him, carrying the NL lead in both homers and RBI going into September. Meanwhile, I'd bet that Roger Clemens would've like to have Andruw as a teammate today, giving up no runs in 6 innings and lowering his ERA to a microscopic 1.51 but getting a no-decision as the Astros lost 1-0 to the mediocre Dodgers.

Labels: Iraq, Restaurants, Sports

posted by jbrzoska @ 10:15 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Seattle, WA

My day was more or less uneventful; I headed to the University of Washington to set up for a conference, then went back to the hotel and worked with my boss. UW has a neat college town near Lake Union, and I hope to post some photos of it tomorrow.

Last night, after I got to the hotel, I went to have dinner and a drink or two at the hotel restaurant. Shortly after I'd ordered my first drink (a rum and coke), I began to chat it up with the bartender, who'd recently relocated from Windham, NY, a ski town slightly south of Albany on I-87.He'd told me of an Italian restaurant nearby that he said was so good, that if they were open on Sunday night he'd take away my beverage and kick me out of the bar (what, with all of the experience I have this week at getting kicked out of places).

I ventured the four blocks on foot to Pasta Freska, which was pretty unassuming both inside and out. It was a rare experience -- the waiter comes to the table and asks you what foods you absolutely won't eat. He then brings out whatever the cook's whims dictate.

Piano jazz in the background, first on the "menu" tonight was a salad with a light caesar dressing, followed by eggplant parmesan in a spinach bechemel sauce with a hint of pesto served straight from the pan -- maybe the best eggplant I've ever had. I accompanied the first course with a Maradi beer, an Italian brew golden in color, smooth in texture, and just a little sweet. The second beer of the night was a Mac and Jack African Ale -- reddish hue, a little fruity -- not all that distinguishable from Sam Adams Summer Ale, one of my favorites. I'd had it back in Helena and liked it a lot. Next was spaghetti with marinara and feta alongside a piece of chicken roulade stuffed with ricotta and smothered in a delicious dark mushroom sauce. Scallops, halibut, mushrooms, capers and spinach in a tart white wine sauce. I had no idea, but the waiter pointed out that this dish was -- PICATTA!!!! If you don't get the reference, do yourself a favor and consult your local video store and rent Beavis and Butthead Do America, for the love of all that is good!

Of course, what Italian night out would be complete without a basket of garlic bread? For dessert, they served a plate with a small piece of fudge cake, a sliver of tiramisu, and a scoop of orange sherbet.

Pasta Freska's waiters refer to their dishes as "surprises", and this critic asserts that all of them were pleasant. Of course, to be a real critic, this poseur needs an alimentary vocabulary broader than "delicious."

Apparently, the Iraqi constitution is not going to be completed on schedule. This isn't all that surprising... the elections had a pretty high turnout because each of the factions that were surpressed under Saddam showed up in large numbers -- the Shiites because they saw their opportunity for power, and the Kurds because their leaders told them that the election was the first step towards an independent Kurdistan. Of course, the Sunni turnout was very low. The constitution needs to be agreed upon by all parties -- if 2/3 of voters in three of the 12 provinces vote "no," then the constitution is null and void. I'm just not confident that the different groups in Iraq are going to be able to think beyond their own interests, and the events of the last few days seem to support that.

The Gaza pullout is underway, and with a few exceptions, appears to be going as planned. I don't trust the Israelis so much, but getting the settlers out of Gaza and a few of the 120 settlements in the West Bank is a good start.

Harvard is starting a program to study the origins of life. Many religious types discount evolution because it doesn't sufficiently explain how the first life was formed, but that's not the point of the theory of evolution. I'm happy to see this effort, and it's certainly a reaction to the recent surge in support for the quack-science "theory" of intelligent design. I'd agree with the scientist in the article who says, "My expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention," but have a feeling that we won't find out the answers in our lifetime. It's no easy task to look back five billion years and find answers. It is, however, inexcusable to attribute something to God because we have no other answer. It's very much equivalent to when Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) asks his dad how the vacuum cleaner works, and he replies "Magic."

In today's More Cowbell, Sports Guy pleads Johnny Damon's case for some MVP votes. I agree with him completely. Damon's having a fantastic season, and his hair's gotta be worth at least some consideration!

Labels: Politics, Restaurants, Sports, Travel

posted by jbrzoska @ 12:15 AM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Boise, ID

Whew, this heat'll kill ya... I went out in the mighty Sebring today into the heart of downtown Boise. Neat town. College and political town, like Albany. Something I havn't really touched on over the last few days is that each city I've visited over the last couple of days is surrounded by mountains, and Boise is no exception.

Top down, I went seeking the mythical Sonic Burger. If you don't know Sonic, that's 'cause you're well, not cool. Sonic is a place that has excellent burgers and a really creative menu. For whatever reason, they advertise in the Northeast despite the fact that there aren't any Sonics there. It's such a cruel tease -- the commercials are totally droolworthy. I was lucky enough to get a chance to try Sonic for the first time last winter in Jacksonville (eatin' a Frito Pie back when I was sportin' the Jewfro), and have wanted more since, every friggin' time I watch ESPN's Best Hour on TV (Around the Horn/PTI).

I didn't ask for directions to Sonic, because 1. I never ask for directions, and 2. there are a zillion of them around here, so I figured I'd find one easily. Well, I didn't. I drove and drove, and ended up in Eagle, a rather nice suburb of Boise (photo, photo, photo). Eagle is more or less what I figure a Colorado town to look like -- nice houses, gated communities, horses, and lots of mountains! On my way, I heard a couple of songs that I love -- Toad the Wet Sprocket's "Something's Always Wrong" and Pearl Jam's "Glorified G" -- though someone should really introduce a bill making it illegal for DJs to declare that a song that was released when I was 14 is "so old!" Oh, and capital punishment for this jerk.

Having overshot Sonic, I headed back in search of it again. This gave me a bit more time to switch back to Christian radio... I had to make a stop at Wal-mart (where else?) because I just had to pick up a notebook to write down what I heard... Two women were discussing false Christian teachings and began telling discussing several... two of the ones I heard sounded sort of weird -- a guy who said that anybody can be a "Christ," not just, as they said, "Jesus of Nazareth." Another was a guy who says that the second coming of Jesus lives in a Western city and goes by the name "Matea," and has a collection of followers. A little strange to me, and the women were acting like the fact that people even think these things is utterly detestable (they weren't freaked out that these people say they talk to God, just that it wasn't the "real" God -- to me, anyone who says he/she talks to God is a kook in my book). They were convinced that these false prophecies are taking hold among the "professionals" and "intellectuals" all over the country.

The third "false prophet" was a woman by the name of Barbara Marx, who has received a congressional honor for her attempts to start a Department of Peace (doesn't that already exist?) and who has been cited but no less of a theological luminary than Walter Cronkite. Anyway, her teaching is that Armageddon can be bypassed if world peace can be brought out all over the world. That sounds nice, right? Not to these women... according to them, this philosophy is "Luciferian Doctrine" -- the "type of thing that Satan wants us to believe." Well, now I'm beginning to understand why we're in this aimless war, led by our Prophet-in-Chief, and why an American hero like Cindy Sheehan is doing what she's doing to stop it. By the way, I think her story is catching on. Unfortunately, this administration's "highest stage of Nixonism" may keep her actions from having an effect.

Another thing from Christian radio... those people certainly do NOT like Gnostics. Which is ironic, since they finished them off, massacre-style, like 1600 years ago. Dr. McGee, the radiovangelist was talking about how "arrogant" they were... isn't that kind of like the Turks talking about the "conceit" of the Armenians or us, as Americans, talking trash about the Indians?

Shortly after leaving Wal-Mart, I stumbled upon the elusive Sonic. It was everything I'd been waiting for ('cept they didn't have Sonic Water :( ). No mind, I can make that myself at home. I ordered a Fire Island Burger and a Foot-long Coney (hot dog with cheese and spicy baked beans). So good!

After Sonic, I visited the Idaho State Capitol (photo, photo, photo, photo). That's two Capitols in two days! I think I'm going to alter my plan and hit Salem tomorrow, to make it three in three... Anyway, I got to go through the Capitol here at a much more leisurely pace than the Montana one. I spent time talking to the assistants to Governor Kempthorne (R) and to his Lt. Governor. They were happy to show me around, though, just like in every other state I've visited so far, had some pretty negative things to say about a certain female Senator from my home state. And I got to take this rather frightening photo.

I didn't get to meet the real governor, because he was out getting ready for his daughter's wedding, which is this weekend in Boise.

In pro sports news, that schmuck T.O. may get his comeuppance if the ownership of the Eagles has its way. And in playground sports news, kickball is catching hold among adults -- like I'd hoped it would! I stole 242 bases in the summer of 1989... eat your heart out, Rickey Henderson!

Final thought before I go out for dinner and a few drinks among the good people of Idaho... is there any friggin' way to avoid that AWFUL Coldplay song on the radio?

Labels: Religion, Restaurants, Travel

posted by jbrzoska @ 8:30 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post

Spokane, WA

So, I left Lake Moses to do the last 100 miles to Spokane. Seems pretty crazy that I can do all of this driving without any company, but I do it all the time -- how? Well, I've created this pretty high tolerance for driving as long as long as there's something good on the radio. My definition of "something good" has broadened significantly -- I've developed a Christianity fetish lately... it just sort of fascinates me. I just wrapped up Dante's Purgatorio on the plane (which, just like Inferno, I would not have been able to follow without Robert and Jean Hollander's amazing translation and commentary), and it's pretty hard to keep up with medieval poetry if you don't know much about the New Testament. Christian radio can be a lot of fun to listen to. They can fit Jesus into everything (see Crown Financial Ministries), and before today, I'd never heard the word "prayerfully." I'd listened to a piece on dieting for God, and the diet turned out to be Kashrut!

One of the things that makes Christian radio so much fun to listen to is their incessant bashing of liberals and liberalism. Case in point: on USA Radio yesterday, I was listening to a preacher who called himself Dr. McGee. His daily sermon cited the NT to relate how St. John didn't want Christians cavorting with liberals (the "dangerous jungle of liberalism") or "extremist" conservatives. I thought that he might be a little balanced because of his talk of the latter, but it turned out that his definition of an extremist conservative was anyone who bashed him. His example was another preacher accused him of associating with a Catholic bishop -- he'd never do that. (EDIT -- Apparently he's been dead for 20 years but his show is still broadcast on Christian radio).

I finally managed to catch a Fresh Air piece I've been hoping to hear for over a week; an interview with '50s teen icon Paul Anka. Mr. Anka has recently released an album called "Rock Swings" (LINK), a full CD of swing covers 80s and 90s rock songs. Very odd to hear his version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" alongside the original.

Spokane turned out to be beautiful; architecturally its downtown reminds me of an live version of Springfield, MA (which comes across as a ghost town to me), and much of it is centered on the Spokane River (photo, photo, photo). -- shows what a city can do with a river if it doesn't place an interstate highway within a couple hundred yards of it. Did you know Gonzaga was here? Neither did I (photo, photo).

On the recommendation of a couple of people working at my hotel, I had dinner at C.I. Shenanigan's (photo) -- a seafood chain based in Spokane and Tacoma which brews its own beer. At first, I tried a blond and a Yellowjacket summer brew (photo) -- the yellowjacket was better, but the Bighorn Amber, which I had next, was best of all. The menu was great, and I had pepper calamari (photo) and a spinach salad. Places on the east coast should have pepper calamari! My waiter told me that he was a rare liberal in a red area -- he was part of a militarily transplanted family from Norfolk, VA. I sat next to a couple of Bush voters who have been living in Spokane for 8 years -- the wife seemed ambivalent about having voted for Bush, but the husband said repeatedly, "I voted for him five times -- in the last election!" Oh, and here's a rare photo of me on my own vacation.

As it turns out, South Dakota is just too far, so my itinerary is getting a bit more set.

Labels: Music, Religion, Restaurants, Travel

posted by jbrzoska @ 10:00 PM Trackback Link 0 comments links to this post