Courtesy Glens Falls Collaborative (2021)
The Take a Bite event brings the cooking onto the sidewalk for small portions at $1 to $5 apiece.
The downtown Glens Falls restaurant event, Take a Bite, was generally praised during the city’s Common Council meeting Tuesday night, July 13.
“Take a Bite last week, it was really nice to see everybody out and smiling,” said 4th Ward council member Scott Endieveri. He referred to opening day of the event, Wednesday July 7.
Take a Bite continues today and runs Wednesdays through Aug. 25.
[This post was updated shortly after publication. See the edition, below.]
At-large council member Jane Reid said she had met with architects and others working on the South Street projects, two large developments near South and Elm streets (read more here and here), and when they were done, they went to Take a Bite and were “blown away” by the event and saw what the downtown area offered.
Take a Bite moves downtown restaurants out of doors and onto the sidewalks along Glen, Ridge and Maple streets. It offers space in City Park, near Bay Street, to restaurants coming in from elsewhere.
A couple bands play as the restaurants offer small plates at $1 to $5 apiece. Fifteen restaurants are scheduled to participate later today, including Gourmet Cafe, Alif Cafe and Juicin’ Jar, three restaurants that did not participate last week, said Robin Barkenhagen in an interview today.
Barkenhagen is the owner of 42 Degrees on Glen Street and the president of the Glens Falls Collaborative, a consortium of downtown businesses that hosts the event.
“Take a bite was fantastic, and it’s just going to get better,” Barkenhagen told the board last night.
He said that he heard that one person complained about Glen Street being closed from Centennial Circle to Bay Street during the event. He said that people told him they liked the extra space and that it gave them “breathing room.” About 1,000 people attended, so he called that a pretty good ratio of pleasure and displeasure.
The discussion quickly moved to how nice board members thought it was to have the street closed and allow people to move off the sidewalks along Glen Street. Ridge Street retained its travel lanes. Emergency personnel in the city asked for this, Barkenhagen said in an earlier interview.
“What a pleasure it was to walk across Glen Street, as a opposed to Ridge Street, and not have to worry about traffic,” said First Ward Councilman Jim Campinell.
The Chapman Historical Museum and the World Awareness Children’s Museum will have tables at the event, Barkenhagen said. As well, representatives from CDPHP will have a table near their bikeshare station outside City Hall (read more here).
On July 21, the Warren County Health Department will be bringing a COVID vaccination station to the city’s gazebo, during the event.
Take a Bite runs 5 to 7 p.m. in downtown Glens Falls, Wednesdays through Aug. 25. To see our earlier coverage, read here.
Updated July 14, 12:40 p.m.: Maureen Folk at the Chapman Historical Museum got back to us just after posting. She said the museum holds a sort of BINGO or tic-tac-toe in which people take a card from Chapman’s table at the event and search for the historical items listed. Completed cards are entered into a drawing for a prize. This week: a book of legendary Seneca Ray Stoddard photos.
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