All Over Albany

Nutella bacon bagel at Wired Coffee

There are certain foodstuffs that really only exist for those moments when you just don't care about life anymore. Those items that make it hard to believe the eater actually places value on their health, life expectancy or general well-being.

For those moments when all hope is gone, there is the Nutella Bacon Bagel from Wired Coffee.

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Pizza dinner at Mia Lucci's

As a lifelong pizza eater, I've come to learn there really isn't such a thing as "bad" pizza. Sure, there's pizza that doesn't quite hit the mark of great -- or even good -- pizza, but even subpar pizza is better than no pizza.

That fact became abundantly clear during the last few rounds of the Tournament of Pizza that I helped to judge. (RIP, TOP **kisses hand, points to God**.) A few slices were questionable, in the kindest terms, but I didn't flat-out refuse to scoff down any of them.

Those slices are few and far between, however: As a whole, I'd put Capital Region pizza up against pizzas from any corner of the world. We've got an amazing array of styles and varieties here. The doughy Sovrana's slices. The interesting crusts and no-Parm rule at DeFazio's. The pan-baked pub-style pizza at Kay's. The giant foldable slices from I Love NY and Paesan's. Farm-fresh sourdough pizza from 9 Miles East. (Tell me when to stop...)

If you're going to break into the pizza game 'round here, you better be darn confident in what you are offering. Sometimes that comes via the actual pizza. Other times, it's an experiential thing. Mia Lucci's in Colonie gives us a little of both.

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The "INclosed" place to shop

Colonie Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary this Saturday afternoon. It first opened in November of 1966.

The shopping center -- the Capital Region's first enclosed mall -- was built on the site of the former Colonie Country Club along Wolf Road. The mall posted the above construction photo on its Facebook page today. It's kind of amazing comparing the scene there in the mid 60s with how it looks today. (The population of the town of Colonie grew from almost 30,000 in 1950 to almost 70,000 in 1970.)

An interesting bit about the origin of Colonie Center is that it was built by a subsidiary of Sears Roebuck and Co. The ownership of the mall has since changed hands multiple times, but Sears still owns the chunk of the mall which its store occupies. (You might remember that fact came up when the Colonie Center Whole Foods was announced.)

Reading through a Schenectady Gazette article about the mall's opening, and the Sears subsidiary's involvement, this part caught our eye:

A distinctive feature of each Homart center is the attention given to meshing the center with the mood and tempo of the specific community to be served. ... At Colonie, the country-club atmosphere has been retained with much of the architectural accent upon conveying the urban mood which is inspired by the booming growth of the Great Northeast.

It's country clubby -- but, you know, with an urban mood.

The early ads played up both the country club angle and the fact that mall was fully enclosed -- er, "INclosed." Check out this grand opening ad that ran in the Gazette...

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The new plan for the First Prize Center

The First Prize Center is one of the most prominent sites in the Capital Region core. It sits on the border of Albany and Colonie, right alongside I-90. And even though it's been been crumbling for decades, multiple attempts to redevelop it over the years have fizzled.

And now there's a new a plan: The development firm Richbell Capital announced Thursday its intent to completely replace the site with a large mixed-use development that would incorporate housing, retail, entertainment, and offices.

Here are some details...

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Phoenicians Mediterranean Palace

Robert Rahal

The new Phoenicians Mediterranean Palace recently opened on Fuller Road in Colonie. It's the successor to the Phoenicians Restaurant on Central Ave -- and it's big. The space itself is huge, and owner Robert Rahal has big plans for it.

Here's a quick look around, along with a few bits about what's in the works...

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Ice cream slider at Kurver Kreme

I have to be honest with you. I don't think there is much more that I could add to this story than this: There is a magical place on the western fringes of Albany proper that serves soft serve ice cream inside a glazed doughnut -- and then rolls the whole thing in sprinkles.

Really? You're still reading? You need more details than that? (sigh) OK, let me share with you that which I have tasted.

And by the way, it's called The Slider, and it is from Kurver Kreme.

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Dosas at Parivar

A masala dosa.

There are universal norms when it comes to street foods around the planet: It must be cheap, it must be portable, and it must be filling.

Dosas are the classic Indian-style version of a crepe that hits all these markers. And Parivar -- the Central Avenue Indian supermarket (No, not that one. Or that one. It's the one with the peacock on the sign.) -- serves them up fresh and piping-hot, just like one would get from a vendor's street cart in an alleyway in New Delhi or Mumbai.

But unlike a street cart, Parviar lets the eater indulge from the comfort of indoor seating in a nice air-conditioned café.

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Easter candy from Krause's

I'm a little buzzed.

Sugar buzzed.

Just moments before I sat down to write this post, I subjected myself to tasting (that is, gobbling down) a selection of Easter-themed candies from Krause's Candy in Colonie.

As I rode the sugar wave, it became clear: Ditch the aisles at Big Box Store for filling holiday baskets, and make haste towards Krause's for your Easter treats.

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Pulled Pork Sandwich from Stockyard Bar-B-Q

Pulled pork is probably my favorite barbecue offering. Barbecued chicken or ribs were never something I got particularly excited about, though I am a fan of brisket. But there is just something hard not to love about that tough chunk of pork being lovingly rubbed with spices and flavorings, then left to marinate in its own fat and juices in the gentle heat of charred wood and charcoal.

Patience is a virtue, especially in cooking, and nowhere is that more true than with pulled pork. Hours of anticipation lead to fork-tender strands of meat that await a sweet and tangy sauce and two pieces of bread to accompany it.

And the version at Stockyard Bar-B-Q is the perfect example of what pulled pork sandwich should be.

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Shrimp Banh Mi Wrap at Reel Seafood Co.

Wait, where's the bread?

I've a bold proclamation to make.

No one in the Capital District is making an authentic banh mi. Not nobody. Not no how.

There are many places that certainly give it the ol' college try, but they all fall short in one way or another. Now, I'm not saying that these eateries should just give up, but maybe they should start rethinking what they are trying to do.

One area restaurant is already doing that, and it might come as a surprise. It's Reel Seafood Co., one of the independently-owned holdouts on Wolf Road in Colonie, and its take on banh mi is something to be admired.

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Brits R Us

Bangers for your mash. And other things British

Anyone who appreciates candy (chocolate in particular) from across The Pond, knows there are a lot of flavors, ingredients, and brands that are tough find in the USA. Things like Flake bars, Aeros, and Crunchies are hard to come by here. And what you can find -- British brands such as Cadbury -- may not taste quite the same on the Hudson as they would on the Thames.

Which is one of the reasons ex-pats and anglophiles in the Capital District may be excited about one of Colonie's newest additions: Brits R Us.

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Coccadotts Cup Cake Wars III

Coccadotts owner Rachel Cocca Dott

Coccadotts was back on the Food Network's Cupcake Wars this past weekend. And it won.

The Colonie-based bakery came out on top of a "bad girls" WWE-themed episode. Coccadotts bounced back from a first-round setback in which the judges weren't on board with a chicken breast/yam/cinnamon cupcake, to make it through to the final round where the judges praised Coccodotts' flavor adjustments and its large display involving a wrestling "ring" surrounded by cupcakes sitting in the "stands."

The ep aired this past Saturday. It will repeat this coming Friday (September 27) at 11 am. It's also available on-demand from Amazon Instant Video.

Coccadotts says the winning cupcake varieties will be on sale in its shops today (it also has locations in Clifton Park and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina).

It was the bakery's third shot on the show -- the first was in 2011, the second aired earlier this year.

Coccadotts has been savvy about scoring attention and publicity over the years, not just through its Food Network appearances. Its Super Bowl-themed cupcakes -- including a Buffalo wing cupcake -- got it national coverage this past January.

Earlier on AOA:
+ Trying the Super Bowl-themed cupcakes from Coccadotts
+ Tasting Capital Region cupcakes

screengrab: Food Network

Last chances for an Albany Bagel... for now

An everything bagel from back in May.

The startup bagel stand Albany Bagel has just three more Saturdays at the farmers' market at the Crossings in Colonie. From an email it sent out this week:

We're still working on figuring out what the next steps will be for the Albany Bagel Company after the market closes. So while this probably won't be your last chance to try one of our bagels, it certainly will be your best chance in the near future. So come on out and grab a bagel on Saturday (9am-1pm).

As a further incentive: we officially crossed the line into profitability last weekend. We donate 100% of profits to charity, so that means that from now on every bagel you buy will mean even more money being donated to charity (even before profitability we've been donating 10% of our revenue).

ABC has an interesting backstory: it's the creation of Michael Dirolf, a software developer, along with his family and friends. They didn't have any baking experience -- they were just dissatisfied with local bagel options. So they spent a year honing a bagel recipe to resemble the bagels Dirolf had gotten in New York City.

Back in May, shortly after the stand's debut, we stopped by to try a few bagels. And they were really good -- still warm from the oven, chewy, with a crackly outside. We especially enjoyed the everything version, which was nicely savory without the burned garlic flavor that sometimes accompanies an everything (ABC wasn't using garlic on its everything -- just onion). It was easily one of the best bagels we've had in the area.

So, if you haven't tried them, yet -- here's your chance. Three more Saturdays.

Checking out the new location for the Hong Kong Bakery & Bistro

The Hong Kong Bakery recently moved from its location nestled in the front of the Asian Supermarket on Central Ave to 8 Wolf Road -- it's right at the southern end, across from Colonie Center between Cocca's Inn & Emperor's.

Among the changes: Their menu has expanded, and they added "bistro" to their name. It's now the Hong Kong Bakery and Bisto. And it lives up to the bistro moniker -- there's a counter to pick up baked goods and drinks to go, and sleek brushed metal tables with glass tops for dining in. It's cozy, casual, and chic at the same time. Go for a power lunch, or show up with a book and sweats, and you'll be welcome all the same.

After stopping in at the new location, here are a few things that are worth trying...

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Albany Bagel Co.

Albany Bagel Co. everything bagels.

Perhaps you are among the many who have been intrigued by the mysterious Albany Bagel Co., which appeared out of nowhere late last year. They have been tweeting, creating interesting maps of Albany, and teasing all of us with the promise of great bagels.

Well, the wait is almost over. The Albany Bagel Co. will begin retail operations at the Colonie Farmers Market at the Crossings this Saturday.

But who are they? Why are they doing this? And what can we expect when they finally start selling their bagels to the public? We talked with one of the founders to find out.

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Life of Pi waves started in Colonie

Here's a large-format version.

Last night Life of Pi won the Oscar for visual effects -- thanks in part to a Cohoes company.

Aquatic Development Group -- which designs and makes equipment for waterparks and pools -- made the wave tank used to simulate the ocean in the film (which involves the main character being trapped with a tiger on a life boat). It was installed at former airport in Taiwan, where the movie was shot.

The photo above -- from a ADG press release -- is from the Life of Pi wave pool. During the acceptance speech, the Life of Pi effects team mentioned the tech "kept us from having to go out to the real ocean."

Here's a TU profile of the company from this past November.

ADG's tech was also used in Master and Commander and the 2006 Kevin Costner film The Guardian. The company has installed 90 percent of the wave systems in the United States, according to its website.

(Thanks, Erik.)

This is how they roll

For most people bowling is a hobby. A way to hang with friends, a reason to hit up the snack bar.

For a handful of local high schools, though, bowling is a sport. Columbia, Lansingburgh, Niskayuna, Schenectady, and RCS are among the local schools that have teams.

But the best of the bunch could be Colonie Central High School. The girls and boys bowling teams there have combined for three state championships (and one state runner-up) over the past three seasons.

And they don't even get a pep rally.

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The next life of the Latham Circle Mall

A conceptual sketch of the "Shoppes at Latham Circle."

The Latham Circle Mall has already lived a few lifetimes. It was built in 1957 as an open air mall, and then converted to an indoor mall two decades later. Today, well, it's more or less dead.

But reincarnation may be just ahead. A development group is proposing to demolish a large part of the Latham Circle Mall and build again as the "The Shoppes at Latham Circle" -- with retail, restaurants, entertainment and -- gasp -- maybe a supermarket.

Here's the outline of the plan...

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The recipe for a juicy rumor -- or, Did you hear the one about Wegmans and Albany?

The ingredients are there...

Hey, have you heard the rumor about Wegmans coming to Albany? At the Latham Circle Mall? At the First Prize Center?

Variations of this rumor have been circulating since at least the beginning of the year. We've heard from it about 100 different people (an exaggeration, but not by much). And they all heard from a guy who knows a guy who... you get the picture.

The latest version surfaced Tuesday and it goes like this: the big W has bought the Latham Circle Mall -- it's a done deal -- and Wegmans will start demolition/construction soon. Since then, we've watched search referral traffic for "wegmans albany" come rolling in. The word has obviously gotten around.

Well, for what it's worth, Jo Natale -- a spokesperson for Wegmans -- told us today that the company has not bought the Latham Circle Mall property.

But that story is just so delicious. And it's easy to see why -- it follows the recipe for a juicy rumor...

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Pug Ball VIII

Little devil.

The annual Pug Parade and Costume Ball is coming up June 2. It's pretty much what it sounds like: a bunch of pugs parading about. In costume.

The event is organized by the Albany Capital District Pug Lovers Group and is a benefit for the Mohawk & Hudson River Humane Society and the Green Mountain Pug Rescue org.

We attended the Pug Ball a few years back -- it was a lot of fun. Pugs are sort of inherently funny dogs. Many of them appeared to actually enjoy parading about in costume. (Or, at least, they didn't feel like it was crushing their will to live, as some dogs have claimed.) There seemed to be a lot of happy people and dogs.

Of course, if you're a strict no-costumes-on-dogs person, this event is not for you. Because the costumed pugs will have you surrounded and outnumbered. Snort.

The Pug Ball runs from noon-4 pm on June 2 (a Saturday) at the main pavilion in Colonie's Cook Park. The pug parade is at 2 pm.

Whole Foods is coming to Albany

A Whole Foods in San Diego.

Updated 11:55 am May 3, 2012

Whole Foods announced in its quarterly earnings report yesterday that it has signed a lease for a store in the Albany, New York area. The company also mentioned it on its Twitter feed.

A spokesman for Whole Foods, Michael Sinatra, tells AOA the store will be at Colonie Center. He says the supermarket chain will be taking over a portion of the bottom floor of the Sears space there. The store is expected to be 32,000 square feet.

Sinatra says the target date for the store opening is late 2013 early 2014. The store is still "very much in the planning phase." It will be Whole Foods' first store in upstate New York. Sinatra says the company already works with a lot of farms in this region.

"We've had requests for sometime from that area, so we're excited to open there," Sinatra says. And in an follow up email: "Nothing in particular pushed us over the edge [in deciding to expand to Albany] other than tremendous support from the local community in having us come to Albany."

At tip of the hat to Business Review for first reporting the lease signing.

What about Sears?

The announcement prompts the question: What about Sears? Susan Spaccarelli, Colonie Center's marketing manager, told us this morning that Sears will not be leaving the mall -- but she couldn't share details because the mall has not received official confirmation of the deal. Spaccarelli said Sears owns its chunk of the mall, so any leasing deal would be between Whole Foods and Sears.

A spokesman for Sears, Chris Braithwaite, tells us the company plans to continue on as usual at the Colonie Center location -- it's just that part of its space will be turned over to Whole Foods. He says it's too early to tell what the product mix will be in the reconfigured space. Braithwaite says the Colonie Center store is one of the bigger Sears, though he declined to share its square footage.

Sears and Whole Foods have teamed up for a similar deal in at least one other location, in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Supermarket field is getting crowded

Either by coincidence or strategy, the Whole Foods will be going in just down the street from the new Trader Joe's on Wolf Road. TJ's hasn't announced when that store will open, but it probably won't be long -- the company has said it would be during this quarter.

Another angle in all this: the local supermarket field is getting crowded -- and competitive. ShopRite is investing significantly in this area with two (eventually four) new stores. A Vermont-based market called Healthy Living -- which is a bit like Whole Foods -- is planning to open a store in Wilton. The relatively new Fresh Market in Latham has apparently been very well. The Honest Weight Food Co-op is looking to move ahead on its planned location in Albany. And the established players, Price Chopper especially, appear to be trying to step up their game.

Wegmans could cause a mass medical emergency right now with any sort of nod toward this area. Thousands would probably succumb to supermarket hysteria-induced fainting.

After the jump, much reaction -- a lot of it not positive -- from Twitter and Facebook.

(Thanks, Alex!)

photo: Flickr user Roebot

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Eating the buffalo chicken wing cupcake from Coccadotts

Buffalo wings and cupcakes together -- as nature probably never intended.

When we heard this week that local cake shop Coccadotts was making Buffalo chicken wing cupcakes for the Super Bowl, we were intrigued. Because... Buffalo chicken wing cupcakes. It seemed unnatural, possibly wrong -- and perhaps, in some weird way, maybe kind of good.

So we stopped by the bakery today to eat one.

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A fisher strikes a pose

Today's wildlife moment: a posing fisher.

During our email exchange earlier this week with scientist Roland Kays, he passed along two recent clips his wildlife cameras had captured in the Colonie. The first, embedded above, is of a fisher striking a pose in front of a camera just off Sand Creek Road (we're guessing this is the general area):

This camera was ... in a slim strip of forest that connects 2 larger wooded areas (aka core areas). Our GPS tracking of fishers suggested that they used this strip as a movement corridor to get between the larger fragments, we are now testing that by setting cameras out.

We've linked to it before, but here's Kays' "Scientist at Work" series at NYT about tracking fishers in Latham.

The second clip, of raccoons "jogging" over a footbridge near the Hilton Garden Inn at ALB, is after the jump.

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Trader Joe's confirms Wolf Road location

The site of the soon-to-be Trader Joe's in Colonie.

Trader Joe's has confirmed that it will be opening a store at 79 Wolf Road in Colonie. The company says the store will open during the 2nd quarter of this year. The grocery store will be approximately 13,000 square feet.

Commence whatever ceremony you had planned.

A tip of the hat to the Business Review's Michael DeMasi for first reporting the news today. And to the TU's Chris Churchill for first identifying the site back in November.

The strip mall where the TJ's is being built formerly housed an Office Max. When we stopped by last week to peek through the windows, the interior had been gutted to the dirt. A construction worker told us the space will be filled by a "a Chinese restaurant and a gourmet grocery store."

The Wolf Road Trader Joe's will not be carrying wine, says TJ's spokesperson Alison Mochizuki. This isn't surprising -- in New York State retailers are only allowed one location to sell wine and liquor, and TJ's has one in Manhattan.

As for why the company chose Albany -- and whether the We Want Trader Joe's in the Capital District group influenced the company, Mochizuki says in an email:

There's a lot of foodies in Albany! We consider ourselves the neighborhood grocery store and feel Albany is a wonderful community to be part of.

Although it is very nice to be wanted, wooing doesn't go into our decision making processes of selecting a location.

Full company press release after the jump -- and a bunch of reaction from people on Twitter...

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Colonie still among lowest-crime large municipalities in nation -- but not the lowest

Colonie is ranked #7 on this year's list of lowest crime cities in the US as compiled by CQ Press.* The town was #1 in the rankings for 2010 and 2009.

This year's rankings are based on stats from 2010. Colonie's police chief says the number of major crimes dropped slightly this year. [TU]

The city of Albany was ranked 295th on this year's list -- that's up (or, in reference to crime, down) from #317 in the 2010 rankings. And the crime score compiled by CQ for the city dropped from 86.77 to 68.06.

CQ Press also ranks metropolitan areas. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro is #77 on this year's rankings -- it was #73 on last year's list. It's still well below the national average.

The Glens Falls metro ranked #8 this year, after topping the rankings last year.

If you're curious about the methodology behind these rankings -- and the strong criticism of them -- here's a little more...

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