Tara Kitchen owner on becoming a restaurateur
The Albany Business Journal is running an interview with Aneesa Waheed, the restaurateur of four Tara Kitchen locations. She has a fifth planned for New York City, the story says. She tells the ABJ that she accidentally fell into the restaurant game and Schenectady — her family is from upstate New York — was a place with the right rents. Greenmarket in the city had just started, and when they rejected her boutique idea, someone suggested food, and it was off to the races.
Queensbury: Clarion Inn & Suites sold
The Clarion Inn & Suites at the north end of the Outlets of Lake George in Queensbury has been purchased by a western New York hospitality executive, the Albany Business Journal is reporting. Owner/operators Dave Kenny and his daughter Laura Kohls sold the property that includes the inn plus the Starbucks cafe and Silver Boutique building. Jon Lapper with the Bartlett Pontiff Stewart & Rhodes law firm in Glens Falls represented the sellers, the story says.
Longfellows restaurant on the block
The owners of Longfellows Hotel & Restaurant on Union Avenue have announced they are selling, after 26 years running the Saratoga Springs establishment, the Daily Gazette says. The final day will be Jan. 23, according to the story, and 78 employees will be laid off. Sullivan will still own and operate the Olde Bryan Inn on Maple Avenue. A sale is planned, the story says. The Times Union story says an out-of-town buyer is already in the mix and will expand the location into a resort. The closure has left at least one wedding party in the lurch, the TU story says.
Bond Act rundown
The Adirondack Explorer has an explainer piece about the Bond Act of 2022. It will be found on the back of the Nov. 8 ballot. The state is looking to borrow up to $4.2 billion to “support climate change mitigation, flood reduction and restoration projects, open space land conservation and water-quality improvement projects,” the story says. $1.1 billion goes toward flood risk reduction in the Adirondack Park, $1.5 billion for climate change mitigation and the rest is either undesignated or for open space and recreation, the story says. The Hochul Administration is pushing for the act, but conservative groups are highlighting the fact that the previous Bond Act, now over 20 years old, was never fully spent.