Hot ticket
Spa day: Indie-folk trio Darlingside, whose Auyon Mukharji (LEFT) co-hosted a recent Culinary Arts at SPAC, performs at the Spa Little Theater April 9 during its first post-reno season. (Photo by Patrick McCormack)
From the editor
Hey, Dispatchers.
When you’re a legend like Saratogian Bill Parcells, you get a front-row seat to anything you want, right?
Even, as it turns out, the comeback party for the sports media “photo scandal” of the year…
I’m more likely to be seated at any of the exciting performances announced today by the Spa Little Theater, which will soon show off its $12 million makeover. Keep reading for the scoop on both of these breaking stories.
See you there.
— Abby
In this issue:
🏈 Comeback of the year?
🎬 Coming home
🎃 Beyond the gourd
💬 Social networks
🩰 Curtain call
📩 Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Subscribe — and join the 7,000+ of your neighbors who never miss a thing.
🏈 EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT
Bill Parcells has a seat at Dianna Russini’s comeback
One of the year’s biggest sports media stories has a Saratoga twist: Bill Parcells is helping kick off NFL insider Dianna Russini’s comeback, she revealed yesterday in People.
Parcells, the two-time Super Bowl champion who lives in Saratoga, joins sports radio host Damon Amendolara as one of the first guests on The Russini Report, a weekly NFL show debuting Wednesday on BetUS. Russini will also write a column for the Costa Rica-based site.
It’s her first media venture since she resigned from The Athletic in April, after the New York Post’s Page Six published photos of her hugging and holding hands with Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel at an Arizona resort. Both Russini and Vrabel, who are married to other people, have denied any impropriety. The Athletic, reports Poynter, later found that Russini violated company policy by not disclosing the relationship, but that it had little effect on her coverage.
🎬 ‘Seize’-d the day
Former Saratogian Sharon Liese brought her documentary Seized home to the Capital Region Saturday with a glamorous screening at the Palace Theatre. The Emmy-winning director, sister of local celeb Barry Potoker, made waves at Sundance this year with the First Amendment story of the 2023 police raid on a small Kansas newspaper. HBO then bought the film. George R. Hearst III is among its executive producers and was on hand Saturday.
🍨 DISH
“Fan favorite” spumoni leads the new Stewart’s winter lineup of holiday flavors. Remember how it got here? At the 2025 Saratoga Hospital Gala, Stewart’s let an outsider name a flavor for the first time ever. Michael and Linda Toohey won it for $50,000, someone yelled “Do another one!” and Carmine DeCrescente bid another $50,000 on the spot. That was $100k in 60 seconds, and you read it here first: Hospital Gala auction best ‘since Marylou and Michele’. The flavor launched as “Carmine’s Holiday Spumoni;” this year, it’s just Spumoni, but we’re thrilled it stuck around. Welcome back, Spumoni — and Sugar Cookie, Peppermint Stick and Eggnog.
15 Church’s Cheesesteak Alley stirred up the foodie crowd this week with a (very) limited drop of a new sandwich: Wagyu Meatball. Don’t wait — the pop-up warned that the enormous sub — garlic butter-toasted seeded semolina bread packed with wagyu meatballs and mozz sticks and topped with marinara, shredded parm and chives — is available this Weds-Sat only. In fact, many pick-up times already say, “order limit reached.” (Hint: be open to late night.)
Coat Room likes to stay coy on the details, but its new cocktail list launched yesterday — meet you there for happy hour?
🎃 EATING OUT
Saratoga’s fall menus give pumpkin the night off.
Fall in formation: At Standard Fare, the fall cocktail list includes tastes of spiced cranberry, sweet potato and brown butter-washed bourbon. Pumpkin is served with a side of shade in the Basic Witch (FAR RIGHT).
Is anyone else over pumpkin spiced everything? In Saratoga Springs, there’s more to autumnal flavor than — what many foodies refer to as — the great orange menace. Gourd antagonists will be pleased to know that chefs all around town are offering a refreshingly diverse array of fall flavors. Here are the best.
The Coat Room sticks a fork in it
The team at the Coat Room is not playing: The steak and garlic cream over rigatoni is the autumnal pasta dish you didn’t know you needed. It tastes like fall, without a trace of pumpkin.
Kindred gets fired up
The wood-fired chefery on tap at Kindred now includes a fantastic fungi pasta (wafu), featuring a creamy shroom ragù and furikake + an idyllic fall salad composed of ember-roasted beets, pepitas and fig glaze.
Lago by Druthers falls for autumn
Lago’s menu offers a range of warming dishes, from classics like chili con carne, to a killer shroom burger and maple-bacon Brussels sprouts. My favorite is the baked apple and brie grilled sandwich — with chopped bacon, and a pancetta-onion jam. Perfection.
Standard Fare nails it
All of autumn, minus pumpkin, is on the menu here, from candied burrata salad with butternut squash and pecans, to confit duck leg and turnips + smoked pork chop with Brussels, celery hearts, potato mash … and so much more. Wash it down with the Yam I Right?, which features rum + sweet potato. (Of course you’re right — you always are!)
📌 ICYMI…
🎟️ HEADS UP
Next week: Purdy’s 2nd Annual Barrel Night
Last year’s Barrel Night was such a hit that Purdy’s is pouring it all over again.
Sip through Purdy’s private collection of single-barrel picks, all hand-selected and (by definition) found nowhere else. Plus, the holiday festivity is starting early: Every barrel pick is 10% off that night, which makes the event a pretty smart place to knock out the whiskey lovers on your holiday list. (And maybe yourself.)
🗓️ Thursday, Nov. 19, 4–7 p.m.
📍 Purdy’s Discount Wine & Liquor, 70–72 Congress St. in Congress Plaza
In partnership with Purdy’s Discount Wine & Liquor.
💬 HOT OFF THE FEED…
Window shopping
We asked our social media followers what should move into the former Saratoga Signature space at 82 Church St., and you got really creative.
Naturally, multimillion-dollar condos came up a few times. (Yes, they were kidding…)
You also pitched a diner, auto parts (a nod to the building’s roots), affordable housing, a Trader Joe’s and a high-end wine bar — with leather couches and a fireplace (my personal fave).
☕ …HOT OFF MY MORNING EMAIL
I got the idea for the “What should move into…” post from the Saratoga Report publisher Dan De Federicis’ column that came out this week. His October “Column as I see ’em” is as hyperlocal as it gets … he shares his thoughts on the future BJ’s gas station, Elise Stefanik’s online behavior, the “not your father’s coffee and breakfast place” moving into Wheatfields, and so much more.
👉 Column as I see ’em
🩰 NYCB headlines first post-renovation season at Spa Little Theater
Pointe of return: New York City Ballet dancers at a past On & Off Stage at SPAC. The company brings the program indoors to the Spa Little Theater March 20 and 21.
SPAC’s 2027 spring season will reopen Spa Little Theater after its $12 million renovation with New York State Parks, the first major update to the 500-seat venue since it was built in 1935. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center opens the season on March 5, before New York City Ballet’s first appearance at the theater — performing “On & Off Stage” programs March 20 and 21. The rest of the lineup includes The Acting Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Chloé Arnold’s Syncopated Ladies, Darlingside (co-presented with Caffè Lena), Matthew Whitaker, Inon Barnatan and Kings Return.
Tickets start at $29 and go on sale to the public Nov. 20 at spac.org.
🕶️ Psst. Paid subscribers already got the first issue of Incognito Mode. For $10/month, you’ll never miss the next one — and you’ll help keep the Dispatch free for everyone.
