🚨 Prime reveals new menu & new NAME
PLUS: Elizabeth Sobol on SPAC's next culinary adventures
Happy Wednesday, Dispatchers!
I must be hungry — you’re getting two foodie features in a row.
Friday’s deep-dive will be quite a departure.
So dig in while you can.
But first, some news.
— Abby
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“There’s something really special and exciting about knowing that tables all over Saratoga are filling up at the exact same moment with people meeting each other for the first time.”
— Clark Gale, co-owner of Standard Fare
🔥 The group chat is on fire! Join the 43 people who have already signed up for April 8’s exciting launch of the Dispatch Dinner Club. Every 6 signups means another 6-top reservation at a local restaurant. (You find out which res is yours the morning of the event.)
We just booked table 7. Who’s filling table 8?
🍕 One Slice, Everybody Knows the Rules: New Saratoga Slice Fest to Feature “Pizza Stakes”
Pizza slices with the scent of sulphur? Only in Saratoga, reports saratoga.com.**
(Or do they?)
**April Fool’s! That’s the spirit, saratoga.com. 👏👏 (If you skipped clicking on the story the first time, here’s where you scroll right back up and read. It’s hilarious.)
⛳ New name, who dis?
When the restaurant at Saratoga National re-opens its doors for the season tomorrow, it’ll be under a brand-new name. Heritage at Saratoga National (Prime is so last year) ushers in an exciting new season — including an expanded bar and lounge area and a dramatic floor-to-ceiling curtain that provides intimacy in the dining room, among other renovations.
Check out the new menu!
🐰🐐🐷 Baby Animal Days
Bring the littles to Indian Ladder on Friday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. for the season’s first Baby Animal Day — think baby bunnies, chicks, ducklings, goslings, lambs, goat kids, piglets and a calf, for starters. At 6 p.m. the adults step in — register now for the adult Easter Egg Hunt.
📰 IN BRIEF
On call
When the Chamber put on a business panel discussion in February, no company was brought up more often than GlobalFoundries. Now the namedrop-of-the-hour is hosting a conference call to go over its first quarter earnings — registration is open now for the May 5 event. (Thanks to Saratoga Report for the tip.)
Change of hands
Not long after all the hoopla around its new menu, 15 Church has sold— and is closed for business. Don’t worry: It reopens April 14, and everybody’s talking about it, including the Albany Business Review and the Times Union.
🎉 Support the Dispatch
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Never corporate, always local.
— Abby
A taste of the world
I’ll start with our tourism board-approved given about Saratoga’s food scene: We have some of the best farm-to-table cuisine in the world.
But then I must say the quiet part out loud:
For a more diverse and authentic world cuisine not filtered through the fussy, spice-fearing lens of the typical American diet? Buckle up, you’re gonna have to go for a drive.
While President/CEO Elizabeth Sobol would be far too polite to say that, she does admit that part of the inspiration for SPAC’s vibrant, tasty Culinary Arts programming is to “bring international culture and cuisine to Saratoga.”
Sobol, who has spent her career nurturing some of the world’s most noted artists (including Joshua Bell) at Universal Music Classics and IMG Artists, spent more than 40 decades in New York City — which is, outside of Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, Central America, et al, the best place on the planet to get Asian, African, European, South and Central American cuisine.
So after relocating to Saratoga, what Sobol, like many New York City expats (including this one), missed most about the gleaming metropolis was … the takeout.
The premise of her resultant CulinaryArts@SPAC initiative — which is currently selling tickets to its April 23 Heartland Masala event — is simple: a special drink and/or wine and snacks during cocktail hour, and then a family-style meal. “After mingling and eating together, the guest speaks and is interviewed for future broadcast on WAMC’s The Roundtable,” Sobol says. “Then, everyone gets coffee and dessert.”
And while SPAC is most celebrated for its world-class live music, it’s the Culinary Arts programming that brings in the highest number of newbies.
“It’s astounding, but the Culinary Arts program has served as an incredible funnel for other programs,” Sobol says. “People come here having never been to anything at SPAC before, and then they end up coming back.”
Next up:
Heartland Masala: Indian Cooking from an American Kitchen
with Jyoti and Auyon Mukharji
April 23, 2026 | 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
The Darlingside, Kansas-born musician Auyon Mukharji collaborated with his mother, the Indian-born Jyoti Mukharjo, on a book that showcases 99 recipes from across India, with a special focus on Punjabi and Bengali cuisine.
“I would never call it an authentic Indian cookbook,” Mukharji says. “We draw inspiration from across India, and share recipes that can be tied to famine and colonization. It’s both lightness and darkness. And it’s not just a cookbook.”
Tickets are $125 and are available at spac.org.
AND
A Kitchen on Goose Cove with Devin Finigan
May 21, 2026| 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Experience the rugged beauty and culinary magic of coastal Maine with chef Devin Finigan, owner of Aragosta—recognized as one of Food & Wine’s best restaurants in both 2024 and 2025. In conversation with WAMC’s Joe Donahue, Finigan will share stories from her debut cookbook A Kitchen on Goose Cove, a love letter to Maine’s pristine seafood, seasonal produce, and the rhythms of life along its storied coastline.
Tickets are $125 and currently sold out. Add your name to the waitlist at spac.org.
📌 ICYMI…
Bonus 🐰 foodie Easter edition!
Season’s first 📸 party pics (Opera Saratoga)! PLUS: Saratoga Report turns 6
When the guy at the top steps in: high alert for real estate in Saratoga County
A Saratogian in ‘Time’ magazine
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