All Over Albany

Summer with Sandor Silverman

Today's summer stay-cation tips come from Sandor Silverman.

From meeting Sandor in person, and from his comments on AOA, we always kind of picture him at the center of a party. He's often organizing events like happy hour meet-ups or pub crawls, has been known to offer to buy a beer or two, and is definitely someone we'd want on our side in case of a zombie attack.

All these things, and many others, made us curious about how Sandor likes to spend his summers.

About Sandor:

I'm a software consultant and a long term resident of downtown Albany's Center Square neighborhood. I came to Albany for school and ended up working up here. I think Albany gets this backhanded compliment that it's close to a lot of things -- but it's a nice little hub and with a little research,you can find a lot of things within an hour drive that will keep it interesting. It sticks in my craw a little bit when people say things like "this place doesn't have decent bakery..." You really have to look around -- there are decent bakeries, ethnic foods, arts organizations -- all kinds of things.

What do you like to do here in the summer?

We're ideally suited for little day trips for hiking -- The Berkshires, Catskills, Hudson Valley. I really really enjoy the Adirondacks for a wide range of hikes. If you go high enough you're getting into a new kind of ecology up there that we might not normally see in this part of the country.

I like the Catskills for the folklore -- and the trails there are close enough to tie
in a hike and a restaurant stop somewhere. If we're going out for the day or a weekend I really like to pack as much into that one weekend as I can.

I also like to do a little urban hiking --walking through the different neighborhoods right here in Albany -- Pine Hills, Delaware, up Whitehall -- just to see what's going on. I don't know if I'm irrationally pleased or rationally pleased to see all the new branches of the library opening up. It's such a center in the community.

We did the great beer walk -- a spontaneous social thing-- through Facebook and blogs. We just said "Hey everybody, lets meet up at Wolff's and take advantage of the daylight and stop in and have a beer.

This summer I'm looking forward to Albany's hub-ness -- checking out Megabus and Southwest. Heading to NYC or Baltimore. I took a $5 ride on the Megabus recently for a book signing.

Do you have a favorite summer food you look forward to in the area?

We actually just went out to Saltsman's Hotel in Ephrata. They harvest milkweed from all the farms and the fare they serve is like... Adirondack American --steaks, chops, fried chicken and family style side dishes. And they serve this creamed milkweed. I didn't even know you could eat milkweed. It's got cream and butter in it, so its satisfying no mater what the plant itself tastes like, but it's sort of a cross between asparagus and spinach, but maybe a little greener -- if you can wrap your head around that. It's very good, and it's a very short season --early summer. The place is about ten miles north of Canajoharie and it's open all summer long. We found it from hiking out there a few years ago.

What do you like most about summers in the Capital Region?

I grew up in Sullivan County in the Southern Catskills so the weather wasn't too different from here. Then I lived in Europe and in Florida for a bit. I know periodically we get binged with the rainy summers, but more often than not we get a great stretch
of moderate to really nice weather where we're not restricted --like we have to be inside sweating or staying dry. It's kind of cliche to say that we have four nice seasons... but we do.

What are some of your favorite summer memories from the Capital Region?

Probably between my junior and senior year at UAlbany. I was working part time at El Loco and living in student ghetto on other side of Washington Park and I think the entire summer was either working, hanging on the porch or sitting in the park with a group of people that were new enough to Albany that we hadn't heard stories about why we shouldn't sit in Washington park. And we had just enough money to keep ourselves in food and beer, and it was just great weather. And everything you needed was in walking distance in downtown Albany.

Another of the key great memory is from the late 90s. I was living above the Daily Grind and the old Larkin had live music. I remember this night when music was pouring out into the street -- and if you just framed it with your fingers right then, it was that great little urban enclave that the BID kind of sells it as.