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🀄 MAHJONG CORNER

All-Level Open Play — Sunday, Nov. 1 @ 12:30 p.m.
For experienced players and Guided Play grads who know the rules and can keep the game moving.

Beginner Class — Tuesday, Nov. 3 @ 5 p.m.
Welcome, newbies!

🔥 HOT SPOTS

By Kathleen Willcox

Even as this sunny fall weather keeps a certain set of Upstaters in shorts, we’re squarely in fireplace season. The town’s hottest winter accessories are flickering to life, and we’re playing favorites.

Fave fireside double feature: Kindred & Henry Street Taproom (84 & 86 Henry Street)

These sister spots sit side by side, and both know the way to a winter heart is an open flame. At Kindred, a funky, always-lively wine bar, two wood-fired hearths warm the dining room while small plates bring the big flavor. Next door, the Taproom serves some of the best scratch-made pub food around. Snag a fireside seat if you can (or gaze longingly at the flames) and dig into the seasonal farm toast and pizza specials, or the OG fried chicken sandwich.

Fave lit vintage cocktail: Inn at Saratoga (231 Broadway)

This historic inn oozes Victorian vibes, and serves up an epic side room parlor with a cozy fireplace, gilded antiques and vintage books for anyone in need of a Brontë or Collins fix. Do your best fainting couch recline with an Autumn at the Inn in hand (tequila, maple syrup, bitters, muddled orange, cinnamon and sugar rim). 

Fave outdoor firelight: Lago by Druthers (550 Union Avenue)

Outdoor fires abound at Lago, where you can pull up an Adirondack chair and get some of the best lake views in town. Bring friends, and grab a steamer bucket of clams, shrimp, andouille sausage, corn on the cob and baby red potatoes, with a side of pretzels and beer cheese for the adult autumn camping experience you didn’t know you needed. And no one would ever turn down Lago’s Boozy PB Milkshake, so why would you?

📰 IN BRIEF

‘When Do Rules on Historic Preservation Go Too Far?’ asks the New York Times, as it visits the Spa City and the proposed changes to our preservation rules.

Saratoga Civic Pulse did double duty with recaps on the City Council Meeting and the Education Board Meeting from Oct. 20.

Have egg prices evened out at our local farmers market? WAMC reports.

🗓️ WHAT TO DO

This weekend’s calling…

Saturday
Hit Saratoga Springs’ Fall Fest from noon to 3 p.m. Come all dressed up with a big ol’ bag for trick-or-treating from (very generous!) local shops, a pumpkin scavenger hunt, live tunes and the (in)famous Pumpkin Roll down Caroline Street. Free and fun.

Sunday
Morning
The Preservation Foundation’s last Sunday Stroll of the year takes off at 10:30 a.m. from the NE corner of Nelson and Fifth avenues. The theme? “Historic Madison and Fifth Avenues.”

Evening
‘Tis the season for ghost tours! I’m joining this one on Sunday (Haunted Saratoga, three times starting at 4:45 p.m.), and not for the first time. Not only do Joe and his team tell the best ghost stories (and histories) of some of the coolest spots, but this Sunday the tour will also hit Congress Park for the 5:30 p.m. performance by the Adirondack Dancing Witches. Festive!

🥃 HEADS UP

Purdy’s Discount Wine & Liquor is bringing back Barrel Night after a big (real big) first year. Taste your way through ultra-exclusive single-barrel picks — hand-selected and found only at Purdy’s — including returning favorites and brand-new additions to its private collection. Every barrel pick is 10% off during the event, so consider your holiday gifting handled. (One for them, one for you?)

🗓️ Thursday, Nov. 19, 4–7 p.m.
📍 Purdy’s Discount Wine & Liquor, 70-72 Congress Street in Congress Plaza

Together with Purdy’s Discount Wine & Liquor.

🤔 GOOD QUESTION

By Monica Frydman

Olde Bryan Inn, 123 Maple Avenue
Alexander Bryan, Saratoga’s first permanent settler and a Revolutionary War scout, bought the property in 1787 and ran an inn. His son built the stone house; after the inn era, it became a home, then Burnham’s Hand Laundry, before the restaurant opened in 1979.

Hamlet & Ghost, 24 Caroline Street
The name comes from the saying, “A town without a tavern is like Hamlet without the ghost.” A 19th-century account links it to settlers debating whether to build a church or an inn first.

Familiar Creature, 42 Phila Street
The Hamlet & Ghost owners named it for a line in Shakespeare’s Othello: “Good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used.”

Hattie’s, 45 Phila Street
Many locals are familiar with Hattie Moseley Austin, an African American woman who was born in Louisiana and opened Hattie’s Chicken Shack in 1938 with $33. But did you know that she was named for the wife of a local rabbi who ended up helping to raise her after her mother died?

Max London’s, 466 Broadway
Named for Max London, whose parents owned Mrs. London’s Bakery next door. He opened his restaurant in 2007 after traveling in Europe and studying pizza dough in Naples.

Elody, 54 Phila Street
Named for owners Patti and Larry Weaver’s granddaughter — who turned 2 on the restaurant’s Opening Day.

📌 ICYMI…

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