saratoga living May/June 2108 issue

out of this world! ARE YOU READY FOR SPACE TRAVEL, SARATOGA? *{is uncle sam really from troy?}

MAY JUNE 2018

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a iv e n n

lle cto r’s e ditio n \

TH E C I TY. TH E C U LTU R E .

TH E L I F E .

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ELIZABETH SOBOL MICHAEL PHINNEY LIZZIE HUNTER CHAD BROWN ELISE STEFANIK BRANDON DRELLOS FRANCINE VERO TJ TRACY

and 12 more...

PORTRAITS BY

DORI FITZPATRICK saratogaliving.com

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the saratoga

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l a i c e

“Everything’s coming up roses for Saratoga!”

SUPERSTAR COLIN COWIE IS OUR NEW DESIGN EDITOR!

we knew them when

HOME MOVIES SARATOGA GOES HOLLYWOOD!

DAVID HYDE PIERCE JIMMY FALLON LANA DEL REY MICKEY ROURKE RACHAEL RAY

HAPPY 150TH BELMONT STAKES!

EXCLUSIVE PORTFOLIO BY

ROBERT RISKO

INSIDE SARATOGA 20 YEARS OF GORGEOUS DESIGN! @saratogaliving

#SLNY

together is a beautiful place to be 24 TAPS OF CRAFT BEER & MORE

SPECIALTY COCKTAILS

COOLEST GAME ROOM IN SARATOGA

MASSIVE PATIO & LATE-NIGHT DANCING

BEST FOOD IN TOWN

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info@zobelandco.com

11 Broad Street, Union Square Building

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Glens Falls NY 12801

SPECIAL PRICING THROUGH JUNE 30th

Peter Rymwid Photography

Zobel & co.

L IVING S PACES

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Earl B. Feiden . APPLIANCE .

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Family owned and operated since 1926 Latham . Clifton Park . Kingston . EarlBFeiden.com

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EAT. DRINK. DANCE. REPEAT.

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“Best sports bar in Saratoga” –Saratoga Living 389 Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY

518-226-4437

JUNE 30TH A CELEBRATION OF

SARATOGA’S RESTAURANTS & THE REGIONS SPIRITS, BEER, WINE, AND CIDERS

**ALL TICKETS INCLUDE $10 IN FOOD TOKENS, SOUVENIR TASTING GLASS, & ACCESS TO ALL BEER, WINE, SPIRITS, CIDERS, AND NON ALCOHOLIC TASTING BOOTHS** NO ONE UNDER 21 PERMITTED INCLUDING INFANTS AND SMALL CHILDREN IN CHILD CARRIERS

$60

G EN ER A L A D MI S S I O N 1 - 4 P M & 5 - 8 PM

$75

V IP 1 2 - 4 P M* SPECIAL SPIRITS & BREWS!

EATDRINKSARATOG A.COM

ABOUT PUTNAM PLACE The newly renovated PUTNAM PLACE is elevating Saratoga’s nightlife to unprecedented heights with our state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems, and elegant new interior. Come enjoy a truly unique, live music experience.

Our performance lineup features both regional and national touring acts from a range of genres, including rock, jam, EDM, country, funk and metal.

We are located in the heart of downtown Saratoga, one block away from Broadway and a few feet east of the famed Caroline Street entertainment district. Check out our calendar for weekly parties and upcoming events.

PREMIER ENTERTAINMENT

We bring the best acts to upstate NY! Recent shows have included: Blues Traveler, Rusted Root, Twiddle, Tim Reynolds and Boyd Tinsley of the Dave Matthews Band and Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang Clan…the hits keep on coming!

EVENTS & FUNDRAISERS

Our dedicated Event Planner will tailor your event or fundraiser into a themed party, auction facility, talent show or whatever else you can dream up!

WEDDING RECEPTION & AFTER PARTY

Wyclef Jean at Putnam Place!

There’s no place like downtown Saratoga for the last fling before the ring. Let us host your wedding reception, after-party or bachelorette party.

FOR INFORMATION ON UPCOMING EVENTS CHECK OUT OUR CALENDAR AT PutnamPlace.com

(518) 886-9585 | PUTNAMPLACE.COM | INFO@PUTNAMPLACE.COM 63A PUTNAM STREET, SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY 12866

inside may-june 2018

features Hall Of Fame

A RT BY RO B E RT R I S KO EXCLUSIV ELY F OR

saratoga living

Stars Love Saratoga Summers

BY W IL L L E VI T H

Our Biggest Movie Star

BY RE B E C CA H A RD I MAN

43 68 78 86 92 99 100

The Saratoga 20 P H OTO G R AP H Y BY D O R I F I T Z PATRIC K E XC LU SIVE LY FO R

saratoga living

The Pride Of Saratoga

CALL NOW to see how much your Saratoga Springs rental is worth and turn your home into cash during track season. We list your property for free!

SEARCH OUR extensive listings of Saratoga Springs rentals to find your perfect getaway home. More amenities, space and privacy than hotels!

BY W I LL LE VI T H

This home rents for $4,995 per week!

Saratoga Goes Hollywood

BY W I LL LE VI T H

“I HAVE WORKED CLOSELY WITH THE TEAM at Track Rental for two full summers now, and as a result of those experiences they have become my exclusive broker for the Saratoga Springs racing season.

They are very responsive and cater to both their clients’ and partners’ needs.”

The Big REVEAL

BY L I N D S E Y S H U M W AY

“I call Saratoga Springs the SoHo of the Adirondacks.”

—Ken Rotondo, p. 55

Gardner Cummings, MBA NY Licensed Real Estate Broker/Owner

—Scott M. on Google

Carolena Cummings NY Licensed Realtor

LOG ON TO TRACKRENTAL.COM OR CALL NOW 518-583-4970

inside

ABOVE & BEYOND

may-june 2018

features

20 Years Of Design

BY B E V E RLY TR ACY

So Close...

STORY AN D PH OTOG RA PH Y BY M IK E KAN E

108 114 118 122

It’s a philosophy of service.

It’s a foundation of trust.

It’s going the extra mile.

It’s a commitment to being your best.

Lake George, Then

BY B I LL H E N N I N G

It’s a ripple effect for good.

It works in life.

It works in banking.

The Belmont At 150

STO RY AN D P H OTO G R AP H Y BY M IK E K AN E

Lake George, Then, page 114

18 The Team 22 From The Editor

the front 25 It’s True (We Think) | 25 Saratoga By The Numbers | 26 Say What?

26 The Answers | 27 Teamwork | 30 Love Where You Live 32 Collector | 34 In Plain Sight | 38 Power Player: Dave Kenny | 40 Save The Date

the back 124 Saratoga After Dark | 130 Space | 136 Design: Colin Cowie 138 Arts | 141 Dressing Up | 142 Dressing Down | 144 Road Trip: Great Barrington 146 Over There | 149 Drink | 150 Expert

the end 152 Crossword: Happy Birthday! © 2018 Adirondack Trust Company

saratoga living Summer!

We’ve got you covered this season

JULY

ST AUGU

OGA T A R A S RK A D R E AFT

• All that happens after hours in Saratoga and the Capital Region— including the top restaurants, bars, galas and so much more • A deep-dive into the town you love—and the people and events that make it special

S! E C A R THE

• saratoga living’s most important issue of the year!

It’s the region’s only wall-to-wall horse racing (and polo and horse culture) publication • Our—and this city’s—love of horse racing: then, now, next

Your Inspiration Destination

MBER

SEPTE

T OF S E B E TH HING T Y R E EV • The complete A to Z guide to everything that makes Saratoga Springs the best town on Earth—from the best Art gallery to the best Zen spa and everything else in between • This is one can’t-miss issue!

Get in on the action! Call us at 518.584.7500 saratogaliving.com

A SINGULAR DESTINATION FOR THE BEST IN MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART VIP PREVIEW & CELEBRATION THURSDAY, AUGUST 2 6:00PM - 10:00PM FAIR DATES FRIDAY, AUGUST 3 | 12:00PM - 8:00PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 | 12:00PM - 8:00PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 5 | 12:00PM - 6:00PM

SARATOGA SPRINGS CITY CENTER SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK www.revealartfair.com | discover@revealartfair.com | 518.430.7828

Landscape Design / Build Since 1990

Innovative designs on every aspect of outdoor living Quality installation & detailed craftsmanship is visible on all our projects Artist: Jean Philippe Kadzinski Courtesy of Emmanuel Fremin Gallery

ART UNITES

EXPERIENCE AND ACQUIRE ART FROM INTERNATIONAL GALLERIES DISCOVER SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY

Landscape Maintenance

Complete professional landscape maintenance of lawn & garden Fertilization, pest control, pruning, mulching, seasonal enhancements, mowing & snow removal

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Beautiful, healthy & hardy annuals, perennials, trees & shrubs Huge selection of natural stone products, soils, mulches, tools, décor and more EXPERT ADVICE FOR ALL YOUR GARDENING CONCERNS

1621 Rt. 9 •• South Glens Falls, NY •• 518-793-2886 •• toadflaxnursery.com

HOSPITALITY + RESORT

CUSTOM RESIDENTIAL

COMMERCIAL + MULTI-USE

Richard Pérez-Feria EDITOR IN CHIEF CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kathleen

Gates Will Levith MANAGING EDITOR Natalie Moore SENIOR EDITOR Anne Newgarden DESIGNER Linda Gates LUXURY EDITOR Marco Medrano DESIGN EDITOR Colin Cowie SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Abby Tegnelia ARTS EDITOR Bill Henning FASHION EDITOR Todd Kingston Plummer SENIOR WRITER Jeffery Dingler PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Erika Phenner DIGITAL LEAD Monika LaPlante WEBSITE MANAGER Hakan Akyuz CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER Lawrence White SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Dori Fitzpatrick EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Madeline Conroy, Payton Huntington, Chloe Krammel, Sarah Midani EDITORS AT LARGE Greg Calejo, Susan Gates EXECUTIVE EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Karen Bjornland, Brien Bouyea, Tony Case, Kyan Douglas, Kate Doyle Hooper, Cornelia Guest Mike Kane, Simon Murray, Octavio Roca, Kevin Sessums, Michael Slezak, George Wayne WRITERS

Rosie Case, Rebecca Hardiman, Lizzie Hunter, Jacqueline Kuron, Jordan Levin, Sandy MacDonald, Maria McBride Bucciferro Katie Navarra, Mario Quirce, Mitch Rustad, Lindsey Shumway, Beverly Tracy, Joe “Woody” Wood ARTISTS / PHOTOGRAPHERS

Kyle Adams, Dave Bigler, Tracey Buyce, Pamela Camargo, David Cowles, Shawn LaChapelle Anna Murray,Terri-Lynn Pellegri, Robert Risko, Myrna Suárez, Scott Teitler

Becky Kendall PUBLISHER

Chelsea Moore Lianne Klopfer SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Rachael Rieck SPECIAL PROJECTS James Long MARKETING CONSULTANTS AMPLIFY Partners, New York City ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE FINANCE DIRECTOR

Saratoga Living LLC ANTHONY IANNIELLO Chair

RICHARD PÉREZ-FERIA President / CEO

BECKY KENDALL

Executive Vice President saratoga living is published eight times a year by Saratoga Living LLC. Subscriptions: Domestic, $19.95 per year; Canadian, $24.95 per year.

Application to mail at periodicals postage rate is pending at Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to saratoga living 422 Broadway, Suite 203, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.

Volume 20, No.3, May/June 2018 Copyright © 2018 Saratoga Living LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission from Saratoga Living LLC. All editorial queries should be directed to editorial@saratogaliving.com; or sent to 422 Broadway, Suite 203, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. saratoga living assumes no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. Printed in Saratoga Springs, NY, USA.

architecture interior design construction management

phinneydesign.com 518.587.7120 | 142 Grand Ave | Saratoga Springs, NY

the team Introducing Belmonte Builders’ Newest Community...

Discover Sonoma Grove! Conveniently located in a picturesque setting minutes from Downtown Saratoga Springs.

It’s easy to understand why Sonoma Grove home sites were selling before the streets were completed.

There are so many reasons to fall in love with Sonoma Grove! n n n n

28 Large, wooded lots in Phase I (most 1¼+ acres) Five minutes from Downtown Saratoga Springs Commuter’s dream — minutes from exit 15 on the Northway Convenient shopping — minutes away from Route 50

n n n n

Highly ranked Saratoga School System Low Wilton taxes with a Saratoga Springs address Maintenance free options in Phase I Pricing starts in the low $400s

TOUR OUR NEW, FULLY-DECORATED MODEL HOME 4 Brentwood Blvd., Saratoga Springs

DORI FITZPATRICK is a celebrated,

Saratoga Springs-based photographer who has transitioned from being a model with Elite Model Management in NYC in her younger years to being on the other side of the lens, photographing families and children. “Inherently, photography is about a captured image,” she says. “With this project, I was as excited as I was challenged because I was tasked with capturing a single image 20 times over that told a cohesive and powerful story. I think we nailed it.”

The Castleton | 3 BR, 2.5 BA

ROBERT RISKO Arguably the best magazine illustrator in the US, Robert Risko has been prolific as the principal caricaturist for Vanity Fair for almost four decades. His signature style—simple lines and color saturation—is as recognizable as it is memorable.

“I just love when my friend [saratoga living Editor in Chief] Richard Pérez-Feria calls me to do an assignment because I know it’s going to be exactly like eating a delicious banana split and, sure enough, working on these five celebrity portraits for saratoga living was just like feasting at an all-you-can-eat dessert table,” he says. “What a treat!”

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Open Great Room

Large Kitchen off Great Room

ASK ABOUT OUR QUICK DELIVERY HOME

COLIN COWIE is a bona fide superstar

and world-renowned event planner, television personality and lifestyle guru who, for more than two decades, has designed and produced the most talked about events across the globe.

“I’ve always enjoyed working in Saratoga Springs, and with our new presence in the area, I can’t think of a better way to get involved than to join the fabulous team at the new and improved saratoga living as Design Editor,” Cowie says.

Charming Master Bedroom

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Open Daily 12pm–5pm Open Tuesdays 3pm–7pm Closed on Mondays

For more information, contact Rob Rothschild: 518-275-3326 or rrothschild@belmontebuilders.com

To learn more about Belmonte Builders’ Communities and Floor Plans, visit belmontebuilders.com *As an HOA community, Sonoma Grove homeowners are subject to all HOA covenants and design guidelines and will be required to pay HOA dues. For complete details, see sales representative.

Congratulations on your 20th, Saratoga Living!

the team

See Beauty

in a New Light

SANDY MACDONALD

dehnsflowers.com 178 BEEKMAN ST, SARATOGA SPRINGS (518) 584-1880 n (800) 932-0933 15 TRIEBLE AVE, BALLSTON SPA n (518) 885-6222

Arts writer Sandy MacDonald divides her time between New York City and Nantucket, MA. A self-described high school chorus reject, she’s now a talented vocalist, with the help of a kindly voice teacher, and in the past decade, has sung with choruses in venues as prestigious as Westminster Abbey and Carnegie Hall. “As Yannick Nézet-Séguin recently advised students in an interview for Greenroom, ‘If you have a dream, it really can happen.’ Listen to the maestro!” MacDonald says.

Red light:

CLINICALLY PROVEN TO

REDUCE FINE LINES & WRINKLES CORRECT HYPERPIGMENTATION INCREASE COLLAGEN & ELASTICITY LESSEN APPEARANCE OF SCARRING

Ask Your Esthetician About POLY Light Therapy.

BEVERLY TRACY

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⁄ MAY-JUNE 2018

POLY CLIENT, ROBIN, BEFORE & AFTER 6 POLY SESSIONS* individual results may vary* (Beverly Tracy) TJ TRACY

Beverly Tracy is an award-winning, nationally recognized interior designer based in Saratoga Springs.

“Thinking about the last 20 years gave me an opportunity to look at all the ways I’ve grown and how my life has changed, as well as how interior design has developed in Saratoga and throughout the US,” Tracy says.

“It’s been quite a journey.”

mypolyled.com/rejuv @skincluded LED LIGHT THERAPY @skincluded&@mypolyled

mypolyled.com 1.800.950.2839 saratogaliving.com ⁄ 21

from the editor

20

SARATOGA’S CAN’T-MISS

COMBINATION!

y the age of 20, Alexander The Great had conquered numerous countries, Augustus Caesar had become a Roman Senator, Joan of Arc was victorious in war, Mary Shelley had published Frankenstein and on and on—legends, apparently, are in a hurry to get things done. In the hubris of my youth, I, too, saw myself on the fast track to greatness, and precisely on my 20th birthday, the day after Labor Day, I was beginning the second week of my junior year at Tulane University in New Orleans.

As Editor in Chief of the school’s award-winning newspaper, The Tulane Hullabaloo, I presided over an interminable meeting that finally ended with my crew surprising me by singing/mumbling “Happy Birthday” and passing around slices of ice cream cake, tortilla chips and cold beer. What a way to end our long, productive day. Even now, I smile when I think of that moment.

Exactly 20 years ago, I was, unbelievably, living my absolute best life: Surrounded by dozens of close friends and colleagues, I was a bachelor on the loose, working as co-owner and Editor in Chief (with business partner, George W. Slowik, Jr.) at PressCorps, our New York City-based magazine company. (Living in an incredible apartment at 2 Fifth Avenue next door to Washington Square Park certainly didn’t suck either.) Frequent travel to Los Angeles and Miami for celebrity interviews and photo shoots added to my enchanted existence, but it was my yearly summer trek to the Hamptons that truly gave me life. That summer, two decades ago, I shared a Southampton cottage (with an incredible pool) on a former potato farm with two of my closest friends, Jim Long and Geoffrey Blatt, and all I can remember from that entire season was how we couldn’t stop laughing. Hilarity was the norm at Chez Papi. We. Had. Fun. Since, right now, I’m excited and determined to make my new home in Saratoga Springs permanent and love-filled, I really can’t imagine what I’ll be doing exactly 20 years from now, but I sure do hope that, whatever it is, people who love me are near, the work I do is top-notch, I continue to think before I speak and my mad crush on this city, this seductive Saratoga, develops into an epic romance without an end in sight.

Twenty years is a curious time to measure, for it’s simultaneously a very long time indeed as well as gone in the blink of an eye. So here’s what I propose: Let’s take a moment and raise a glass to celebrate our collective past 20 years, with the strong belief that the very best for all of us is yet to come. I can feel it.

EDITOR IN CHIEF

@RPerezFeria

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Open to the public 7 days a week for championship golf, lunch, dinner, private events and Sunday Jazz Brunch. See website for winter/holiday schedule.

DORI FITZPATRICK

Richard Pérez-Feria

A day on our championship golf course, relaxing on the patio terrace, fine steakhouse dining.

518-583-4653 • golfsaratoga.com 458 Union Avenue, Saratoga Springs, NY I-87 Exit 14, Route 9P South one mile

the front It’s True (We Think)

Call To Arms

EVERYONE S EEMS TO THI NK UNCL E SAM, THE I CONI C P ER S ONI FI CATI ON OF AMER I CA, I S FR OM TR OY—BUT I S HE?

BY W I L L L EVI TH

The Townsend Collection by American Standard.

A design collaboration is a very special relationship.

It’s a pleasure when our passion for quality products becomes part of the creative process. As an addition to the wide assortment of brands that homeowners have come to enjoy in our showrooms, we’ve recently curated new collections to help architects and designers distinguish their work when transforming baths and kitchens.

Product knowledge, detailed coordination and an accessible, friendly staff are added values we offer to ensure your project goes smoothly.

BALLSTON SPA 1 McCrea Hill Road ALBANY 17 Erie Boulevard

I

f you’re a native of the Collar City, you’ve likely heard this yarn spun over and over throughout your lifetime: Troy’s the birthplace of Uncle Sam, the red-white-and-blue-clad beirdo, the personification of the USA. You know, the guy with the star-studded top hat who beckoned to young would-be soldiers from that famous World War I poster: I WANT YOU. (Hell, I live in Troy, and I see the signage on a daily basis—there’s a lot of it!)

As the story goes, the inspiration for Uncle Sam was local butcher Samuel Wilson, who shipped barrels of meat off to soldiers fighting in the War Of 1812. (He was an affable guy, and because of this, townies nicknamed him “Uncle Sam.”) When soldiers saw the barrels marked “US,” they assumed it stood for Wilson’s moniker, when in fact, it meant “United States,” forever linking the man with the country. That story has held for more than two centuries, and in 1961, Congress even passed a joint resolution making it the official history.

Not so fast, says Professor Don Hickey of Wayne State College in Nebraska. Hickey, an expert on the War Of 1812, tells me he was at The USS Constitution Museum in Boston, when its research historian produced the diary of a 16-yearold midshipman from the “USS Wasp” named Isaac Mayo. The teenager makes reference to “Uncle Sam” in it—in 1810. That,

say uncle The first recruitment poster that popularized the Uncle Sam figure; (left) the grave of Troy butcher Samuel Wilson, widely believed to be the inspiration for Uncle Sam.

of course, blows the Congressionally sanctioned historical timeline to bits—and calls into question Troy’s big claim to fame.

Wilson’s buried in Troy’s Oakwood Cemetery and his headstone includes an ornate plaque, honoring his place in US history. Maybe they should add an asterisk to it—or not.

For other showrooms, visit frankwebb.com

Architects & designers are encouraged to visit frankwebb.com/professionals.

Saratoga By The Numbers

The 20 season 18 Saratoga Ra begins on this ce Course day in July The number of team sports offered at Saratoga Springs High School

s ger, frie f a bur beer at o e ic r The p and a draft days n Tues Char o Salt &

20

a aratog rs the S a e y f o mber en held The nu rfest has be e d w Cho The number of horses that race in the Kentucky Derby each year

The sq u Michele are footage o f North B Riggi’s hous Ron and e on roadwa y—in th ousand s

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the front

=SA

Y W H AT ? =

illustration by

DAVID COWLES

e x c l u s i v e ly f o r saratoga living

“Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga and your horse, naturally, won.”

–CARLY SIMON, singer/songwriter, in “You’re So Vain”

a friend indeed (from left)

Martel Catalano and Nell Pritchard, cofounders of Saratoga-based nonprofit Beyond My Battle.

Teamwork

Awesome BFFs A NONPROFIT FORGED BY F R I E N D S H I P A N D A C T I V I S M— I T ’ S Q U I T E A S T O R Y.

BY JEFFERY DINGLER

the

answers WHAT INTERSECTION(S) SHOULD WE ALL AVOID DURING RUSH HOUR? “The Route 50 arterial from Rock Street to Exit 15 has a high number of accidents and is the most congested road in the city.”

–GREG VEITCH, Chief of Police, Saratoga Springs Police Department

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WHAT SHOULD EVERYONE KNOW ABOUT THE HISTORY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS? “Saratoga’s history is really all about the unique qualities of the waters—the rest came later. The racing, gambling, music and fancy hotels were all designed to round out the Saratoga vacation experience, but taking the waters was the initial draw.”

–LORIE WIES, Local History Librarian at The Saratoga Room, Saratoga Springs Public Library

YOU’RE HOSTING A DINNER PARTY WITH ONLY AN HOUR’S NOTICE— WHAT DO YOU COOK? “Tacos! Most of the ingredients are close together in the grocery store, making for an easy shopping experience. And prep time for the meal is a breeze. Plus, tacos are always a crowd-pleaser.”

–MICHELE HUNTER, Executive Chef, Hamlet & Ghost

STEPHANIE CHALLIS

I

grew up in the Information Age, and I must admit, it’s still difficult to form a meaningful friendship over the Internet— and rarer yet, to find a group of friends willing to support me when I need them the most. This is the goal of Beyond My Battle (BMB), a Saratoga Springs-based nonprofit that provides emotional support, education, resources and awareness to people with chronic illnesses and their families.

“Isolation’s a huge problem for people with lifelong, threatening disabilities,” says Martel Catalano, one of BMB’s two cofounders.

Catalano was diagnosed at age 13 with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic condition that causes visual impairments, and could lead to permanent blindness. “Even the littlest thing can trigger anxiety, fear, anger or sadness,” says Catalano.

“For me, it could be tripping in public or missing a handshake that triggers the thought, ‘Is my vision getting worse?’” She first met her cofounder, Nell Pritchard, in 2016, and the two hit it off immediately. Like Catalano,

Discover the journey of a Colin Cowie event.

MAUREEN.BARINGER@COLINCOWIE.COM WWW.COLINCOWIE.COM

SaRatoga’S c C Next great Neighborhood Excelsior Park offers luxury living just minutes from downtown Saratoga and the famous Saratoga Race Course.

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MAGAZINES, BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS AND SOUVENIRS We have everything you need to enjoy your trip!

A large variety of beverages and snacks.

Our friendly knowledgeable staff is here to help.

Stop in and visit soon.

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AMTRAK RAIL STATION

Pritchard also suffers from a rare genetic disorder: cystic fibrosis, a disease that attacks the lungs and one’s ability to breathe—and which, seven years ago, forced her to have a double lung transplant.

So they set out to create an on- and offline support system for those suffering from a range of chronic illnesses. “The natural human response when undergoing stress is to seek social interaction,” Catalano says. “But oftentimes, there’s a wall that gets built up.

Besides its growing network in the US, BMB has also welcomed new participants from South Africa, India, France and Canada.

We have this stigma that we’re causing people pain or that we’ll be a burden or pitied by them.” For this reason, BMB also provides support for friends, families and caretakers of the affected. “It can be difficult to understand the emotions of—and therefore support—a loved one who’s living with a chronic disease or disability,” says Pritchard. And because a major component of BMB is online, there’s really no limit to who can be reached.

Besides its growing network in the US, BMB has also welcomed new participants from South Africa, India, France and Canada.

Although there are no restrictions on who can participate, for now, the lingua franca is English. That could change soon, though: Catalano and Pritchard just wrapped up an online crowd-funding campaign, blowing past their initial goal of $13,000 in just five days. (Their follow-up goal of $19,000 was surpassed within a week.) Even the cofounders of BMB were surprised by the outpouring of interest and monetary support—but I’m not. With such an amazing idea to their name, I can’t help but feel like they’ve started a revolution. One that will make Saratoga Springs— and the world—a better place.

The Capital District’s Only 8 Time Consecutive Chevy Dealer of the Year*

785 Central Ave & Everett Rd ● DePaula.com ● (518)-278-6036 *Based on manufacturers new car sales report for 2015, 2016 and Elite leader sales report for 2017

THE #1 VOLUME FORD DEALER IN UPSTATE NEW YORK FOR 2017!*

799 Central Ave ● DePaulaFord.com ● (518)-313-1757 *Based on manufacturers new car sales report for 2017

799 Central Ave ● DePaulaMazda.com ● (518)-313-0457

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the front

The perfect hotel to create exceptional experiences for your meeting, wedding or travel needs!

Enjoy European elegance in the heart of Saratoga Springs and footsteps from the best shopping, site-seeing and destination amenities that only Saratoga and Pavilion Grand Hotel can offer...

“It was July 3, 2017, and the light was perfect. I was out shooting , Spit and Spat in Congress Park, when a young family arrived with a little boy, who kept running around the reflecting pool and into my frame. Instead of waiting him out I decided to choose an angle that added a bit of humor to the scene. This is the resulting image. Sometimes capturing what happens in the moment is better than what’s planned.”

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the front alex the great

Russian immigrant (and recent US citizen) Alex Itskov owns Al’s House of Sport’s Cards in Schenectady.

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play ball Al’s House of Sports Cards sells a range of collectible items, such as signed baseballs, Pokémon cards and graded cards.

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BY WILL LEVITH n PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAWRENCE WHITE

A

t the age of 13, when my parents suggested I squirrel away my bar mitzvah money, I instead blew most of it on baseball cards. I’ve been an avid collector my entire life, and have spent thousands of dollars on my collection. And it just so happens that the Capital Region is one of those rare places where sports card stores are seemingly

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32 saratoga living

everywhere: I know of shops in North Greenbush, Albany, Cohoes, Watervliet and Saratoga Springs.

But my favorite spot is Al’s House of Sports Cards in Schenectady.

I like that it’s in the Electric City; my maternal grandparents, who are long gone now, lived there their entire lives—and I grew up going to their house on Avon Road (just a fiveminute drive from Al’s). It’s

⁄ MAY-JUNE 2018

also an aesthetics thing for me: The inside of Al’s has mountains and caverns of cards piled high, hither and yon, in no apparent order.

It’s delightfully all-over-theplace, and to me, that’s heaven on Earth.

The “Al” behind the store’s name is Alex Itskov, who immigrated to Upstate New York from Russia in the 1980s with his family.

He grew up in the projects on food stamps, but

persevered, graduating from Albany High School and eventually getting out.

He also got swept up in the sports card world— “the hobby”—which was peaking at the time of his arrival. “I just loved it; I was always a collector,” he says.

Last summer, Itskov finally got his US citizenship. “If you live in this country, you really should know your heritage,” he says about becoming an American.

“I don’t understand why some people don’t care for it, but I do.”

Even though the hobby’s been in steep decline for decades, Itskov still sees a steady stream of customers come into his store.

Kids are all about Yankees’ phenom Aaron Judge and Pokémon, a Nintendo-owned trading-card game, while adults have been buying up the Dungeons & Dragons-y Magic: The Gathering and cheap singles to complete sets.

Schenectady often gets a bad rap for being a little rough around the edges, but Itskov loves his adopted city. “Schenectady’s just a cool little town; it’s just different,” he says. I can’t help but agree. I have a history there—not to mention a baseball card “supplier” for life.

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the front

Pretty In Ink

SARA MCCARTHY IS MAKING CALLIGRAPHY HOT AGAIN, ONE INVITATION AT A TIME. n BY NATALIE MOORE

I

learned cursive in third grade. Although it finally allowed me to decipher my mom’s loopy, connected lettering, it was an enormous inconvenience to my eight-year-old self. I had already mastered printing and, if the younger version of me did say so herself, I had the best handwriting in my class. Plus, I had just learned to type on one of my school’s shiny new laptops, which had cursive

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34 saratoga living

fonts built right into it, so what was the point? My generation—the youngest cohort of millennials—is the last generation to have learned cursive in grade school. With the initiation of the Common Core in 2009, cursive was bumped out of the third-grade curriculum. That means, in a few decades, less than half of the population will know cursive. But not if calligrapher Sara McCarthy has her way. “I promise my

⁄ MAY-JUNE 2018

Traditionally, calligraphy has connoted a style of writing that’s equal parts elegant, whimsical and ageold—like what you might find on an ancient Chinese scroll. But McCarthy sees it as having no boundaries.

“Calligraphy can be anything you want it to be,” she says.

“It’s not just one style.” Take a look at her portfolio, and you’ll see what she means: For a romantic black-tie gala in Manhattan, McCarthy chose straight lines with

so fancy A hand-lettered

driftwood place setting on an elegantly set dinner table; (top) “day of” details for a wedding; (left) Sara McCarthy is bringing calligraphy back into the public eye; (opposite) a blue invitation suite on display at Wave Hill public garden in the Bronx.

(Invitations) TWAH DOUGHERTY; (McCarthy) TORY WILLIAMS; (Driftwood) MARY MARANTZ; (Wooden signs) INK REVIVAL

In Plain Sight

children will have the ability to write in cursive,” says the founder of Ink Revival, a calligraphy, design and printing company founded in Manhattan and now based in Saratoga Springs.

McCarthy and others like her are looping, flourishing and downstroking calligraphy right back into the public eye (calligrapher Seb Lester’s Instagram videos average more than 100,000 views each). What may be at the heart of this sudden wave of nostalgia: the fact that calligraphy and the handwritten letter recall an earlier, simpler time.

“It’s a romantic notion to have a handwritten address with a handmade invitation inside,” says McCarthy, who specializes in wedding invitations.

“You basically live your life on your phone, and having a moment to take a break from that— it’s therapeutic.”

She’s right; text messages and emails have succeeded in removing the humanity from our writing. With every place card, menu, page of custom stationery, logo and wall installation, McCarthy is helping to breathe life back into the art of writing.

Her work has been featured everywhere from magazines such as Martha Stewart Weddings and Vogue to a Perrier-Jouët Mother’s Day brunch at the Geoffrey Zakarian restaurant, Georgie, in Beverly Hills, CA.

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few flourishes on her invitations; for a summer wedding in Lake George, she used loose, flowing text, with added illustrations; and for a bat mitzvah at a Brooklyn skate park, she went for a geometric but feminine concept.

So is the world experiencing a handwriting renaissance? “I think it is, 100 percent,” McCarthy says.

“It’s booming right now.” The real question is: Will that boom last as we become less handwriting literate and more digitally reliant? Scrolling through the Ink Revival Instagram feed, past beautifully etched Christmas ornaments, elegant peach-and-navy table settings and hand-addressed burgundy valentines, I’m suddenly thankful that my eight-year-old self had to suffer through cursive. I really am.

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the front four seasons

Real estate developer and hotelier Dave Kenny wants to make Lake George a year-round destination.

LAKE GEORGE, REIMAGINED “There’s a push for Lake George to reinvent itself. It’s always been among the No. 1 summer resorts in the country, but now it’s trying to become a more year-round destination—and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be. We’re still a place that has a lot of T-shirt shops and pizza places—like Coney Island— but that has to change.”

PLAYING THE LONG GAME “Everything I’ve done—from the outlets to Sun Castle, where we’re booked with weddings every weekend—has been to create year-round attractions. We want to keep giving people a reason to come—and we want to keep people employed. Seventy percent of my employees are year-round.

I’d like to see my children and grandchildren have the opportunity to grow up in Upstate New York, get jobs and stay here, rather than see all our talent exported.”

Power Player

Dave Kenny, Mr. Lake George T H E R E A L E S T A T E M O G U L O N U P S T A T E N E W Y O R K ' S O T H E R H O T S U M M E R S P O T.

BY TONY CASE n PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAWRENCE WHITE

I

f you want to know what’s happening in Lake George, just ask Dave Kenny. One of the area’s most prominent real estate developers and hoteliers, he’s one of 12 kids in an Irish-Catholic family from Montauk, NY—quite the difference both geographically and in

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38 saratoga living

mindset from the verdant hills and isolated, lakeshore life of his adopted Upstate hometown. After working on fishing boats throughout his youth, Kenny worked for several years as a pipe fitter before moving Upstate and starting what would become the family’s hospitality empire with the purchase,

⁄ MAY-JUNE 2018

in 1978, of the 22-room Highway Host Motel. Kenny would come to develop numerous properties in the area—including hotels, shopping outlets, a family entertainment complex, the picturesque Sun Castle Resort and, most recently, the 119-room, $25 million Marriott Courtyard in the heart of

Downtown Lake George, which threw open its doors last year. (Today, Kenny and his siblings operate some 800 hotel rooms in Lake George.) saratoga living sat down with Kenny to talk history, hospitality and what’s sure to be another hot season at Upstate New York’s other big vacation destination.

STAYING COMPETITIVE “A lot of the locals are afraid of change. Going back many years, Lake George was where all the horsemen who came through Saratoga stayed. It used to be that Saratoga Springs was rundown, and Lake George was the destination. We want to attract younger customers. We’d like to have a convention center—and we may get one. Lake George is only an hour from Albany, and it’s such a beautiful area.”

HOSPITALITY’S CHANGING TIDES “Online reservations, thirdparty sites and low interest rates have led to all these hotels being built up and down the interstate.

What hasn’t changed is that, when you go on vacation, you want to feel important. It’s the little things; someone saying, ‘Hello!’ and ‘Good morning!’ Probably 80 percent of our business is repeat business.

You don’t want a customer to leave your property, for any reason, in the wrong state of mind. It’s pretty easy to be nice to people.”

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say cheese Hamlet & Ghost,

one of 15 local restaurants participating in Eat Drink Saratoga, will be serving up its delicious cheese curds at the event.

I

n my lifetime, I’ve loved many events: My best friend’s surprise sweet 16, senior prom with my high school crush, the enchanting SaratogaArtsFest Masquerade Ball at the Canfield Casino. But never in my 22 years of existence has there been an event so made for me. Heck, the first two words of this momentous affair are my two favorite things to do: eat and drink. That’s right, food fanatics, the inaugural Eat Drink Saratoga is coming to a parking lot near you this June (that is, The Saratogian’s lot on Lake Avenue in Saratoga Springs).

The Eat Drink Saratoga concept was born of the memory of the popular Caroline Street Block Party, which was held every year in the 1980s and ’90s. Says event

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organizer Jillian Petercsak, whose husband, Brendan Dillon, co-owns Caroline Street’s Hamlet & Ghost: “I remember staring at this big, open parking lot across the street and thinking, ‘Let’s see if we can create this really cool event that will bring back the block party in a civilized way.’” Eat Drink Saratoga will bring together 40 breweries and cideries, 20 distilleries, 10 wineries and 15 local restaurants, including title sponsor Druthers Brewing (saratoga living is the official media sponsor). For $60, attendees will receive a $10 food voucher and be able to sample from every alcohol distributor—not to mention, get a souvenir sampling glass (very cool). The event will be held on June 30, with two sessions from 1-4pm and 5-8pm. Ten percent of all proceeds from Eat Drink Saratoga will be donated to the Saratoga County Children’s Committee (SCCC), which works year-round to meet the basic and emergency needs of underprivileged children.

So far, the response from local restaurants has been overwhelmingly positive. “It’s such a community event,” Petercsak says. “Everyone was just like, ‘Yeah, sign me up!’ before I could even explain what the details were.” I’m not gonna lie: That was pretty much my reaction too. Isn't it yours? For more, go to eatdrinksaratoga.com.

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ists are tricky things for magazines: Top 10 this and Power 50 that are minefields most editors in chief avoid at all costs. I’m not one of those editors.

When we decided to celebrate saratoga living’s 20th anniversary, I knew we wanted to commemorate the occasion in a truly special way; hence, the birth of “The Saratoga 20.” Unlike lists based on marital status (singles), looks (sexiest) or influence (40 Under 40), our list consists of the ten men and ten women in Saratoga Springs and the Capital Region who not only excel in their chosen field, but also undeniably paint outside the lines and deeply contribute to the palpable mix that makes our home nothing short of magical.

Corporate executives, bar owners, politicians, entrepreneurs, designers, philanthropists—even high school students—ended up on our list and help make Saratoga one of the most important small towns in the world. Seriously.

The truth is, we could have chosen to do “The Saratoga 100” there are so many worthy candidates; but, in the end, to honor our 20th birthday, we narrowed our select list to the extraordinary individuals that follow.

— R I C H A R D P É R E Z- F E R I A editor in chief

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the saratoga 20

Queen Elizabeth

Y

ELIZABETH SOBOL reigns over Saratoga’s cultural landscape.

“People don’t realize that there’s literally nothing else like Saratoga Springs in North America.

It just doesn’t exist anyplace else.”

ou could say that Elizabeth Sobol, the President and CEO of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, is finally home. After growing up in Kannapolis, NC, and attending college in nearby Winston-Salem, then splitting time between Manhattan and Miami Beach—where she held management positions at IMG Artists and Universal Music Group—Sobol fell hard for Saratoga Springs the first time she set foot here—and the adoration hasn’t waned in the two years since she and her husband, Jorge Gómez, a Grammynominated Cuban bandleader, put down roots here. Whether it be launching the immersive “SPAC on Stage” series, which brings audience members within feet of performing artists, or landing the Cuban National Ballet this summer (SPAC is just one of four venues in North America to do so), Sobol has helped transform Saratoga from a horse racing-centric town to one that takes its arts and entertainment very seriously.

Below, find out why Saratogians are taking notice that this creative force of nature loves it right where she is. Lucky us.

ON HER INTRODUCTION TO SARATOGA My husband and I had an apartment in Miami Beach after I left Universal, and I was planning on taking some time off. I was three days into it when the phone rang and this person said, “We’re conducting the search for the new president of SPAC, and your name keeps coming up.” I said, “I’m going to go out on my balcony here in Miami Beach and describe the view to you, and you’re going to tell me why in the world I would move to Saratoga Springs.” They convinced me to come up there, where I’d never been before—this after all these years of running a talent agency and a record company, and having many artists play at SPAC. I came up in early June 2016, knowing and expecting nothing. I walked into town and saw the Lyrical Ballad and Northshire Bookstores, I had an amazing meal at Mio Posto and walked past Congress Park. By the time I got back to my hotel, I had this presentiment that I’d experienced everything in this small city that made me happy. The next day, I met the SPAC board—these amazing, caring, passionate, intelligent, dedicated people who loved Saratoga and SPAC, and they completely blew me away. By the end of that trip, my mind was spinning with ideas and possibilities. And then when

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44 saratoga living

⁄ MARCH-APRIL 2018

they brought me back up for a second interview and basically told me that they were going to offer me the job, I was taken for a more in-depth tour of the Spa State Park, saw the Hall of Springs and the Jazz Bar, the National Museum of Dance, the Automobile Museum, the mineral springs and I was besotted.

ON WHAT MAKES SARATOGA SO SPECIAL People who grow up here know how magical it is, but the minute you get outside of Saratoga, most people don’t have a clue. I’d spent all those years working in Manhattan in the music and culture business, and every summer, I’d end up going to the Berkshires—even though I don’t particularly like the Berkshires.

Now, when I pitch Saratoga to people who don’t know it—the same way that I didn’t know it—I talk to them about the bestin-class venue that has the DNA of Eugene Ormandy and George Balanchine in it, in a 24,000-acre park that spans from these incredible architectural beauties from the ’20s and ’30s to these exquisite woodland walks to curative mineral springs adjacent to a culturally vibrant, amazing, small downtown with lots of beautiful buildings and green space—and it’s 45 minutes from 6 million acres of Adirondack parkland and 32 miles of Lake George, all on a train line from New York City. People don’t realize that there’s literally nothing else like this in North America. It just doesn’t exist anyplace else.

ON HER PERSONAL PLAYLIST There’s very little that most people will recognize on it. If I’m listening to vocalists, I’m probably listening to either somebody like Joni Mitchell or some of the young crop of female singer-songwriters like Becca Stevens or Michelle Willis. I tend to listen to a lot of world music.

In the morning, I listen to Indian or Middle Eastern music, and in the daytime, I listen to that group of composer-performers who create hypnotic, pattern-based music like Oliver Arnold, Max Richter, Steve Reich or Philip Glass. I love Cuban and Celtic music.

Probably my favorite band to listen to right now is Darlingside.

ON HER BEST QUALITY AS AN EXECUTIVE AND MANAGER When I was studying piano, I had a teacher who was a literature person, and he always quoted E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End. The quote begins: “Only connect.” That phrase has really been the inspiration for my whole professional life. I see connections where they’re not necessarily obvious. I love doing that, and I think I do it well.

—WILL LEVITH

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the saratoga 20

Cory Nelson CLAIM TO FAME: Owner of Troy Kitchen ON SARATOGA: “In five years,

Saratoga Springs will add more fast-casual food options.”

HE SAYS: “I’m usually at the food court meeting a lot of people and making sure everybody’s having a good time.”

Georgie Nugent CLAIM TO FAME: Member of the NYRA and CDTA boards ON SARATOGA: “Saratoga’s a culmination of individuals with

institutional knowledge of how we got to where we are now, and a diverse group of individuals who are forward-thinking and wanting to grow in a manner that’s consistent with our vision.”

SHE SAYS: “I used to live by the C.S. Lewis quote: ‘Integrity is doing what’s right when no one is watching.’ But over the past few years, being on the NYRA board, and with the #MeToo movement, and everything that’s going on where more people are being outspoken, there’s another quote— Evil befalls the world when no one speaks up; when the time is right, you need to be heard—that, I think, is paramount, especially nowadays.”

Georgie Nugent is Saratoga. She’s poised, thoughtful, humble, generous— and, naturally, was wearing an impressive horse necklace when she showed up for her photo shoot. By day, she’s a business development manager, with an advanced degree in Environmental Science and Engineering. She doubles as a member of the New York Racing Association (NYRA) and Capital District Transit Authority (CDTA) boards. She’s described herself as American by birth, Canadian by upbringing, Swiss and horse racing fan by blood.

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46 saratoga living

⁄ MAY-JUNE 2018

If you’re interested in opening a restaurant but not quite ready to commit to a brick-and-mortar location, look no further than Troy Kitchen, a food court, bar/ lounge and entertainment venue in a 7000-square-foot building in Downtown Troy. “It’s essentially a business incubator to help small restaurants get their start,” says Cory Nelson, owner of Troy Kitchen. “We help them grow their business into a standalone location.” Nelson, a Brooklyn transplant, opened Troy Kitchen in April 2016, and it has quickly become an affordable takeout, delivery or eat-in option for college students, locals and day-trippers.

(There are DJ/dance nights with drink specials, too.) Troy Kitchen’s current lineup of food vendors represents a wide swath of the world: There are Middle Eastern, Jamaican and Mexican food stalls.

But does the incubator concept work? Yes. Just ask Troy Kitchen veterans K-Plate Korean BBQ and Bespoki Bowl, which now have their own locations in Downtown Troy.

the saratoga 20

Stephanie Collins CLAIM TO FAME: Philanthropist ON SARATOGA: “Only in Saratoga

Springs can you actually pet a horse at Starbucks.”

SHE SAYS: “I’ve never been in another town where there are so many people willing to give back to their community.”

What nonprofit in Saratoga hasn’t been impacted by the generosity of Stephanie Collins?

The reserved yet poised stay-athome mom serves on the boards of Wellspring and the Incredible Teddy Foundation, while also sitting on the Saratoga Hospital Annual Summer Gala and Jake’s Help From Heaven planning committees. A teacher by trade, Collins most recently taught at Shenendehowa High School, before becoming a full-time mom.

“Growing up, my parents were always volunteers, whether it be at our church or through our schools or coaching,” Collins says. “It was never a thought. When I had the chance to volunteer, I did it.”

Jacob Hopper CLAIM TO FAME: Founder and Publisher of ExploreSaratoga.com ON SARATOGA: “Only in Saratoga do you find multimillionaires and

billionaires walking side-by-side with the guy from down the street in his shorts and flip-flops. It’s a really unique experience.”

HE SAYS: “It’s my mission to highlight the best of Saratoga, for locals and visitors alike, in an interesting and beautiful way.”

Jacob Hopper wears two hats, both in the media world. He runs Modern Mix Marketing, a video production business, and is the Founder and Publisher of ExploreSaratoga.com, a website that curates the best things to do in and around Saratoga Springs. We can’t help but think Hopper’s cut from the same cloth as saratoga living: “I’m committed to producing the best lifestyle and tourism content Saratoga has ever seen,” he says.

“People love what we’ve been doing with ExploreSaratoga.com, which is incredibly encouraging.”

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48 saratoga living

⁄ MAY-JUNE 2018

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saratogaliving.com 49

the saratoga 20

Brian Straughter CLAIM TO FAME: President

of Turf Hotels and Chair of the Board of Directors for the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce ON SARATOGA: “Saratoga’s easily the best community in Upstate New York.”

HE SAYS: “I’m always willing to jump in and help my team in any way possible.”

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50 saratoga living

⁄ MAY-JUNE 2018

It’s been a busy couple of years for Brian Straughter, the quick-to-laugh husband, father and Saratoga Springs' man of the people. Last September, he was named President of Turf Hotels, which manages five hotels in the Capital Region, including the Hampton Inn & Suites in Saratoga. And this past January, the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce named him its new Chair of the Board of Directors. “I live in Downtown Saratoga, so I enjoy being able to walk to the local restaurants and retail shops,” he says. But maybe his most important role is the one he gave himself: He and his wife cofounded Jake’s Help From Heaven—a local nonprofit that assists children and their families affected by debilitating illnesses—following the tragic death of their son, Jake, in 2010.

Lizzie Hunter CLAIM TO FAME: Senior

Community Development Manager at the American Cancer Society ON SARATOGA: “It never ceases to amaze me how everyone in Saratoga comes together to make a difference.”

SHE SAYS: “I love my job because I get to go to work every day knowing that I’m making a difference. I love working with all of our volunteers and donors, many of whom have become friends that I’ll have for the rest of my life. Oh, and planning parties with the sole purpose of having fun and raising money to fight cancer? That’s not so bad either!”

If you haven’t been to an event put on by Lizzie Hunter, you need to. They’re spectacular. As is she. Hunter’s the woman behind the celebrated galas for the American Cancer Society (ACS), and it’s clear that it’s not just any old job to her: “It’s hard to put into words how grateful I am for ACS,” she says. “I’ve met so many people—survivors, caregivers, community leaders and enthusiastic children—who’ll never know how much they inspired me to do more.” When you throw amazing parties that raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for an organization that does so much good, how much more is there really to do?

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The Saratoga Kid

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TJ TRACY, high school student of the decade.

fter chatting with TJ Tracy, all you can say is “wow.” He’s one of very few high school juniors who seemingly has life all figured out. He’s selfaware, well-spoken, extremely grateful and unbelievably generous. Tracy founded his first nonprofit—TJ’s Turkeys, which provides local families in need with holiday meals— when he was nine. Nine! And earlier this year, he started SERV, a corporate start-up that runs errands for people who can’t easily get out and do them (a sort of Task Rabbit for Saratoga). What were you doing at 17?

ON SARATOGA’S UNIQUENESS Only in Saratoga can you find a perfect balance of everything. I feel like Saratoga has everything anyone could really need. Growing up in Saratoga has been an incredible experience, and I’ve loved every moment of it. Our downtown area is priceless and being able to hang out with friends downtown has been really fun. To be able to become a part of the community has been such an honor for me, and the generosity of the Saratoga residents has been overwhelming. Only in Saratoga are you going to find so many people who want to be a part of the community and who really want to be here because they love it. That’s really shown with the growth of TJ’s Turkeys and how generous the community has been in getting involved with our efforts.

ON WHAT HE’S MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT I do what I love better than anyone in Saratoga. I feel like a lot of people have this ideology that you can’t really do what you love as a kid, but I’ve been able to find what I’m most passionate about.

I’ve been able to really do what I love to do and that’s a really big part of TJ’s Turkeys: kids helping kids. We’re here to prove that just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t do what you’re passionate about and you can’t start taking steps in the direction of what you really love to do.

ON SARATOGA’S NEXT FIVE YEARS Saratoga will be a city everyone’s talking about, because of the way it has been growing, even in the past few years. Just from my perspective, it’s so much fun seeing bigger and bigger names coming to SPAC—even just things like that. And even little things like getting more burger places, which is really convenient for me, because I don’t have to drive to Five Guys. Saratoga has been heading in the right direction. It’s already a place that everyone’s talking about, but will become even more so in the next five years.

ON SARATOGA'S GREATEST ASSET Saratoga is involved.

I’ve grown up with my mom [interior designer Beverly Tracy] always attending charitable events in this community where everyone is always out and involved and really wants to be here. And I feel like that’s led to such an involved community and downtown area. Driving downtown on a Saturday night, you can see how buzzing it is. Yeah, Saratoga is involved.

—NATALIE MOORE

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“Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t do what you’re very passionate about.”

the saratoga 20

Francine Vero Saratoga Springs City Court Judge ON SARATOGA: “In five years, Saratoga Springs will continue to grow. I think it will continue to provide a great sense of community for the people and younger generations to come, and hopefully attract more people and a diverse population to this area.”

SHE SAYS: “When I first moved here, I was a lawyer and became very active in the Women’s Bar Association, at first, just to get to know other local lawyers, but also to be a part of this community and be a part of the local bar. And it’s given back so much.”

CLAIM TO FAME:

Francine Vero is the first woman to serve as City Court Judge in Saratoga Springs. Appointed to the position by former Saratoga Mayor Joanne Yepsen in December 2016, she successfully ran for reelection the following year. In her time on the bench, she’s made her presence felt, presiding over everything from eviction proceedings to cases of domestic violence—a topic she’s worked tirelessly on throughout her career. “I truly believe that I wouldn’t have been appointed and ultimately elected judge if it wasn’t for my connections in the community,” she says. “I’ve been active in the community not to further my career, but because I enjoy working with these people who are so devoted to the community and giving back.”

Ken Rotondo CLAIM TO FAME: Founder and President of Mind Genomics Advisors ON SARATOGA: “Only in Saratoga do you meet interesting, engaging

people on a routine basis. I call it the SoHo of the Adirondacks.”

HE SAYS: “I was somewhat bored in retirement—and had a veterinary degree and an MBA. I was fortunate to retire at a young enough age to know that I wanted to do something else. So I combined my business and medical backgrounds to form this new company.”

For most people, retirement means the end of the line, work-wise. For Ken Rotondo, it was just the beginning. After a successful career as a veterinarian, Rotondo went on to found Mind Genomics Advisors, a company that uses machine learning to identify consumer preferences.

Located in Saratoga, Mind Genomics numbers industry leaders such as Amazon, Costco, IBM and H&R Block among its top clients. Speaking of Saratoga, Rotondo is the city’s self-described biggest fan: “I probably enjoy Saratoga more than anybody,” he says. “I enjoy the history, culture, track and people.” And for the haters? Says Rotondo: “If you can’t enjoy Saratoga, I don’t think there’s anyplace you can enjoy.”

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the saratoga 20

Tim Pink (and Bluff)

CLAIM TO FAME: Owner of Saratoga Dog Walkers ON SARATOGA: “Only in Saratoga Springs would

you have a dog guy being featured in a magazine in a horse city.”

HE SAYS: “I walk packs of dogs better than anyone else in Saratoga.”

If you live in the Capital Region and love dogs, you’re likely already obsessed with the Saratoga Dog Walkers Instagram account, @saratogadogwalkers. Heck, even if you’re not a dog lover, you’re bound to be entertained— or at least impressed—by the feats of owner Tim Pink, dog whisperer extraordinaire. Pink’s known for his uncanny ability to walk sizeable packs of dogs around Downtown Saratoga— and after making 20 or more sit perfectly still, their leashes on the ground, snap a group shot of the dogs. It’s amazing. And beautiful.

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the saratoga 20

Chad Brown CLAIM TO FAME: Award-winning

Thoroughbred trainer ON SARATOGA: “In five years, Saratoga Springs will still maintain its historic charm, despite the ever-changing world we live in.”

HE SAYS: “Of all the racetracks I go to, there’s no place that has a picnic area or backyard like Saratoga’s.”

In a little more than a decade, Mechanicville native Chad Brown has reached superstar status in the Capital Region as a Thoroughbred trainer—thanks, in large part, to his successes at Saratoga Race Course. During his first-ever run there in 2008, he won with the first horse he entered in the first race on opening day.

Eight years later, at just 29, he took home Saratoga’s Top Trainer title, logging his 1000th win there.

The same year, he also won the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita. He’d end up winning a 2016 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer—and since then, he’s stayed hot, winning the 2017 Preakness and just missing the Winner’s Circle at this year’s Kentucky Derby, with runner-up (and saratoga living pick) Good Magic.

Tracey Buyce CLAIM TO FAME: Professional photographer ON SARATOGA: “I make a fool of myself to put

my clients at ease better than anyone else in Saratoga.”

SHE SAYS: “I think my connection to people and animals drives my business.

I have a horse and two dogs, so I’m a huge animal lover, and I’d say that a majority of my clients have animals. I think what you put out to the world is what you get back. I’m also a big believer in paying it forward. If you have a skill or talent, I think it’s your duty to give back to others.”

Photographer Tracey Buyce’s website has two photos on its home page: one of a woman riding a horse through a beautiful field, and the other, a bride and groom grimacing because the chicken they’re holding is trying to make a run for it. It’s not exactly the photo most people would frame on their mantel, but it’s hilarious. It’s a testament to Buyce’s sense of humor and love of animals.

When she’s not photographing weddings, engagements and families, Buyce volunteers for New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program, where she takes “glamour shots” of retired racehorses to help them get adopted.

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Iron Mike

MIKE PHINNEY, Saratoga's master architect, is changing the game.

ustainable architecture. Green building.

Environmentally friendly design. These aren’t the first phrases that spring to mind while admiring the hulking, turnof-the-century mansions that line North Broadway in Saratoga Springs. But one local architect wants to change that; he’s revolutionizing the way the Spa City and its residents look at architecture and design, and he’s doing it one passion project at a time.

Meet Mike Phinney, principal architect at Saratoga’s Phinney Design Group. Born in Glens Falls and a graduate of Lake George High School, Phinney attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s (RPI) prestigious five-year architecture program. At RPI in the mid-1990s, Phinney was ahead of his time in his field, writing his thesis on and becoming passionate about green building. After graduating, he got his big break at the age of 27, when a former boss contacted him about a high-profile green building project in Albany. “I was made project designer and eventually, project architect, for a new headquarters for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which is the large building on Broadway against the river in Albany, with the green glass dome on top,” he says. “That became the first certified green building in New York State.

That was a milestone moment for me.”

Nowadays, he runs the multiple-award-winning Phinney Design Group, which has put its Midas touch on innumerable iconic locations, historic and modern, in Saratoga and beyond.

The firm has completed projects for the Saratoga Race Course, Yaddo, The Gideon Putnam, The Sagamore Hotel and Resort and Mohonk Mountain House. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The firm also does offices and houses— Phinney built his family’s own green home from the ground up just outside of Saratoga in Greenfield—and Phinney’s particularly passionate about old buildings and adaptive reuse and historic preservation. He’s just what “the new” Saratoga needs. And he’s on the Saratoga 20 because of it.

ON WHY HE’S NOT A FAN OF BIG EGOS Especially when it comes to design and construction, egos get in the way. When I was doing a big project early on, there was an issue, and

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being a young guy, I was like, “This is a big problem!” This guy pulled me aside and said, “Listen, Mike, I really appreciate what you’re doing here and your passion, but there’s no such thing as problems. They’re just situations that aren’t resolved yet.” That struck a chord with me. This is not a perfect process; you’re dealing with hundreds of people and weather and things happen, and if you don’t create a team mentality, you’re going to create issues. One of the things I’ve learned working in architecture for 25 years is that nothing ever goes perfectly. We have a philosophy at the design firm that the best ideas rise to the surface. Even interns, with very limited experience, get to work on projects and be in meetings and voice their opinions. It’s welcomed.

ON SARATOGA’S TOP-NOTCH ARCHITECTURAL PROFILE I think Saratoga’s much more advanced than most small cities.

The land-use boards and the fact that they have a Design Review Commission—those things are really great. It also has a really active preservation foundation. I think it balances well with honoring the past and embracing the future. I’d like to see greater diversity in the architecture, and more examples of modern architecture, where possible, but I think in general, the city tends to be conservative, which is not a bad thing. As an architect, it’s easy to critique things, but you want to strike that balance where you’re not messing up the historic fabric too much, but at the same time, expanding and being innovative.

ON WHY SARATOGA’S A CITY OF BIG THINKERS I think the city’s always been full of people with big ideas, such as Jim Morrissey and the Canfield Casino, and even C.V. Whitney with his purchase of the track, and expanding it, and then all the grand hotels that used to be here. The largest hotels in the world were here. There were always these big thinkers and visionaries that did big projects, and it’s interesting to see now that people are so afraid to add or change anything, and it’s like, well, some of the largest and most incredible things that were here are actually lost now. The Grand Union Hotel and The United States Hotel had massive ballrooms and meeting spaces. These were Renaissance men—the golden age of the Victorian Age, and they weren’t afraid to think big, and I think Saratoga needs to think big again.

—WILL LEVITH

“There were always these big thinkers and visionaries that did big projects in Saratoga, and it's interesting to see now that people are so afraid to add or change anything.”

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Patti Petrosino General Manager of Osteria Danny ON SARATOGA: “Only in Saratoga Springs is it the weekend every day.”

SHE SAYS: “I do love to talk.”

CLAIM TO FAME:

For being the Hostess/General/ Manager/Receptionist/Bookkeeper of an authentic Italian restaurant, Patti Petrosino’s style is markedly rock ’n’ roll. In her zippered black leather jacket, she almost gives off a Patti Smith vibe—if Patti Smith smiled more. Petrosino and her husband, Danny, own Osteria Danny on Henry Street in Saratoga Springs—Danny runs the kitchen, Patti runs everything else. The restaurant’s about as close to Italy as you’ll get in Saratoga, with small tables crowded together, unbelievable food and Patti, the Italian mom everyone needs in their life, making you feel right at home.

Mike Raymond CLAIM TO FAME: Chief Financial Officer of Prime Companies ON SARATOGA: “For me, Saratoga’s a great escape, when contrasted

with Albany and the rest of the Capital Region. I think that serves as a huge asset to and selling point for Saratoga.”

HE SAYS: “As the CFO of Prime Companies, which owns the Pavilion Grand and Fresh Market, I just crunch numbers all day. The instrumental people were really our partners, who envisioned what Saratoga would become.”

Prime Companies checks a lot of boxes: residential and commercial real estate development, brokerage and property management. (They own and manage Saratoga staples such as the Pavilion Grand Hotel and The Fresh Market.)

Enter its Chief Financial Officer, Mike Raymond. Though working mostly behind the scenes, Mike’s most certainly instrumental in everything big that happens at Prime. Just don’t tell him that. He’s quick to give credit to others who’ve played a role in the success of Prime Companies and the development of Saratoga and the Capital Region. Mike wears humility very well indeed.

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the saratoga 20

Elise Stefanik Member of the US House of Representatives from New York’s 21st Congressional District (and the youngest Congresswoman ever elected) ON SARATOGA: “Saratoga Springs is the place I got married, so it’s very special to me.”

SHE SAYS: “I feel very confident going into the midterm elections this November. I’ll always outwork my opponents. When I first ran for Congress, I logged 100,000 miles driving around this district in a year and a half. I have a very strong record of delivering results.”

CLAIM TO FAME:

Sue Kerber CLAIM TO FAME: Owner and Cofounder of Rad Soap Co. ON SARATOGA: “Saratoga is full of adventure. You can meet

people here from all around the world. I don’t think there are a lot of places besides major cities where you can do that.”

SHE SAYS: “I make the best soap in the world.”

Sue Kerber lights up any room she walks into. Her bubbly personality is infectious, and even if you’re meeting her for the first time, you feel like you’ve known her forever. Kerber is the owner of the Rad Soap Co., which she and her sons cofounded in Cohoes in 2009. It all started when Kerber sought out an organic treatment for her son’s eczema. Nine years later, the company’s products are sold in more than 180 locations across the country, including a Rad Soap storefront in Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany and Healthy Living Market & Café in Wilton, which Kerber says is one of their top retail locations. To get a sense of the type of person Kerber is, all you need to do is listen to her voicemail, which ends: “Have a Rad day!”

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When Albany native Elise Stefanik ran for Congress in 2014, she had no idea that, if elected, she’d become the youngest woman ever elected at the age of 30.

She won, of course, and has been representing New York’s 21st Congressional District—the state’s largest, which includes parts of Saratoga County—for the last four years. Stefanik (R-NY) tells us that some of her fondest childhood memories are of summers in Saratoga with her family. Up for reelection this November, the Republican Congresswoman sees herself as part of a new, younger generation of legislators, one that isn’t afraid to teach her congressional elders how to use Instagram—or cross the aisle.

Says Rep. Stefanik: “Regardless of where one is on the political spectrum, I think both parties agree that we need more people working together to deliver results for the American public.”

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the saratoga 20

Teddy Foster Campaign Director for Universal Preservation Hall ON SARATOGA: “Saratoga is the best place in the world to live.

I’m thrilled to live here. I raised my sons here, and it was a wonderful place for them to grow up.”

SHE SAYS: “I bring people together. I connect people.”

CLAIM TO FAME:

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If you’ve been to a social event in Saratoga Springs, chances are you’ve crossed paths with Teddy Foster. She’s everywhere, greeting everyone and just having a genuinely good time. As Campaign Director for Universal Preservation Hall (UPH), a performing arts education and entertainment venue located in a historic church on Washington Street, Foster’s been tasked with raising $5.5 million for the renovation of the facility. Though Foster’s job requires her to be all-in about UPH, you can tell her enthusiasm isn’t just an act: It’s real passion.

Brandon Drellos Co-owner of Caroline Street Pub and The Horseshoe Inn ON SARATOGA: “Only in Saratoga Springs can you find a music venue, racetrack, bars and restaurants, all in walking distance from one another.”

HE SAYS: “I wear flannels and bathing suits better than anyone else in Saratoga.”

CLAIM TO FAME:

“I would like you to know that I am a blue-eyed sweetheart.”

That’s what Brandon Drellos—the hilarious, charming, flannelwearing, bushy-bearded co-owner of Caroline Street Pub and The Horseshoe Inn has to say moments after greeting us. This tidbit, of course, came after a several-minute-long monologue about how he makes the best bombs—vodka bombs, that is. Clearly, a day in the life of Drellos is all jokes, all the time, especially when he’s behind the bar. But underneath Drellos’ larger-than-life personality, there’s some real, palpable, intoxicating charm. Count us smitten.

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HALL y FAME ∂

ART BY ROBERT RISKO EXCLUSIVELY FOR

saratoga living

David Hyde Pierce

Frasier’s little brother is Saratoga’s favorite son.

BY WILL LEVITH

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CREDIT

high school musical “At Saratoga Springs High School, I was in the drama club and the choir, and I played the piano for the orchestra,” Pierce says.

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remember when simply watching television was considered an event. There wasn’t a smartphone alarm or DVR to set; you had to make time in your calendar to watch a show—and if you didn’t catch it at that exact date and time, you were out of luck.

You had to either tape it (which was incredibly tedious), fake it through the water-cooler conversation or sheepishly admit to your friends that you’d dropped the ball.

One of the first shows that I had a weekly date with was Frasier, the spin-off to mega-hit Cheers. First airing in 1993, it had that memorable, jazzy theme song (“Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs”) and an ensemble cast that seemed like it had been stripped right from my childhood, which was spent kneedeep in the stilted egos of academia. My two favorites were the constantly-at-odds, über-educated brothers, Drs. Frasier and Niles Crane—played by Kelsey Grammer and newcomer David Hyde Pierce, respectively—who would lob witticisms at each other like hand grenades. Sure, it helped that Frasier inherited Cheers’ Brobdingnagian network audience, but right out of the gate, there was a different kind of intelligence to its dialogue and humor, and the chemistry between its characters was palpable—which had a lot to do with Pierce’s presence.

Prior to his turn as Niles, Pierce had appeared in a mishmash of mostly forgettable fare, and to the average viewer, he was just another “anybody.” Overnight, Frasier turned him into a star. Pierce, apparently, didn’t even have to audition for the role; he tells me it was handed to him by the show’s three creators. “They told me, ‘We’re thinking about having a brother for Frasier, and all we know is, since Frasier went to Harvard, his brother would go to Yale, and since Frasier is a Freudian, his brother would be a Jungian.’” Soon after, he was offered the part—and it’s safe to say that he exceeded all expectations: Over the next decade-plus, Pierce was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy 11 times in a row—a record-setting feat (he was 4-for-11, by the way).

Rewind the highlight reel a bit further, and you get the David Hyde Pierce that grants him inclusion in these pages. Born in 1959, Pierce grew up on Fifth Avenue in Saratoga Springs, attending Caroline Street Elementary School and eventually landing at Saratoga Springs High School—also my alma mater— where he excelled in the arts and won the coveted Yaddo Medal as a senior. “I was in the drama club and the choir, and I played the piano for the orchestra,” says Pierce. He’d gotten serious about the arts in a particularly fortuitous and hilarious way: As a sophomore, he was skipping gym class to play the piano in one of the school’s practice rooms. Music teacher Jeff Vredenburg happened to be within earshot, and instead of sending Pierce to the principal’s office, asked him if he’d be interested in accompanying the choir. “Now, looking back, I can’t tell you how important that moment was,” Pierce says.

While Frasier could’ve easily been any actor’s creative peak (it wrapped in 2004), Pierce stayed busy on the small and silver screens—as well as on his first love, the stage. You can find him in the film Wet Hot American Summer and its Netflix TV reboots, doing guest spots on critically acclaimed drama The Good Wife, and reprising a Niles-like role opposite Grammer’s Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons. And most recently, he’s been part of the stellar cast in the 2017 Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, which landed him a Tony nomination. “We’re bringing it to a close this August,” he says of the musical. “I’ve had many one-of-a-kind moments in my career, but this was certainly one that is to be remembered and cherished.”

Pierce has also remembered his roots, making his way back to Saratoga often. In the last decade, he’s played organ at the Bethesda Episcopal Church, lent his name to a Home Made Theater benefit and appeared at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with the Philadelphia Orchestra. “I’m looking forward to the next chance I get to come back home,” Pierce says.

I think I can speak for my fellow Saratogians in saying that we’re all eagerly awaiting that day, too.

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HALL y FAME ∂

Jimmy Fallon

How the king of late night started it all at The College Of Saint Rose in Albany.

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he first time I met Jimmy Fallon, more than a decade ago, about a dozen of us were sipping champagne and listening to Madonna’s Confessions On A Dance Floor softly playing in the interior cabin of an impressive yacht docked in Paradise Island, The Bahamas, moments after an epic fundraising concert by Patti LaBelle (to be more specific, the song “Hung Up” was playing on repeat). It was an epic night made even more memorable when Fallon, fresh from announcing his departure as a Saturday Night Live regular, joined our small group and immediately started joking around. Fallon was impossibly funny, unbelievably kind and as cool as you remember your best buddy from college being. And that, precisely, is his brand personified: Jimmy Fallon is everyone’s best friend from college.

Ah, college…After leaving The College of Saint Rose in Albany a semester before graduating to pursue comedy full-time, the affable host of The Tonight Show impressively finished his degree in 2009, some 14 years after leaving.

It shouldn’t be surprising that some of Fallon’s most successful career highlights include him as part of a brotastic duo with his megawatt pal, Justin Timberlake. In other words, the man sure knows how to be a friend. Fallon’s true genius lies in the fact that not only does he look like a guy who’d be your best friend, but he also is that guy. And Saint Rose graduates can proudly claim him as one of their own. So, yeah, Jimmy Fallon’s our kind of friend.

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friend zone Indisputably, Jimmy Fallon’s brand is that he’s everyone’s best friend from college.

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HALL y FAME ∂

Lana Del Rey

How the girl from Lake Placid conquered the music world. In style.

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n my humble opinion, Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die is one of the greatest albums about heartbreak ever written. Its hit single, “Summertime Sadness,” I’m not ashamed to admit, became a personal anthem after a certain breakup (yes, it was a summer breakup, too). But attached to all the heartache in these songs—in the sultry lyrics and smoke-filled atmosphere—is a vivid depiction of the wanderlust, confusion and longing that often comes with the territory of one’s early 20s.

You wouldn’t necessarily guess from her name and music that Del Rey's a local girl. Born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, the daughter of two former NYC advertising workers, she was raised in Lake Placid—site of the 1980 Winter Olympic Games—and grew up singing as the cantor in her church choir. “It’s not really somewhere I’ve spent a lot of time, not since I was 14,” Del Rey told GQ in 2011 of Lake Placid. “It’s beautiful. It’s a vacation destination. Olympics.

It’s small, 2,800 people…it’s very different from [New York City].” (Three years later in Rolling Stone, she said it was “really, really quiet,” comparing it to the town in the TV show Twin Peaks.) She and her family also spent some time in Miami, where she picked up a little Spanish and started thinking about a different, more exotic stage name. Raised Catholic in a tiny town, Del Rey rebelled, picked up a drinking habit at 15 and was sent to Kent School, a boarding school in Connecticut. It was there, influenced by its proximity to the music scene in the Big Apple, that she began her transformation into Lana Del Rey (her first stage name was Lizzy Grant).

Since releasing her “eponymous” debut album in 2010 (it’s actually titled Lana Del Ray, not Rey), Del Rey's released a string of critically acclaimed albums, sold millions of records worldwide (three have been certified platinum), collaborated with artists such as Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and pop powerhouse The Weeknd and been nominated for a quartet of Grammys. Her most recent album, Lust For Life, debuted last year at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. I think we can comfortably say that Lana Del Rey gives the “Miracle On Ice” a run for its money in the Best Of Lake Placid category.

CREDIT

american idol Since her 2010 debut, Lana Del Rey has released a string of critically acclaimed albums, sold millions of records worldwide (three have been certified platinum) and been nominated for an armload of Grammy awards.

BY JEFFERY DINGLER

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HALL y FAME ∂

on mickey’s mantel Mickey Rourke’s career-defining moment came in 2008 when he won a Best Actor Golden Globe for his turn as Randy “The Ram” Robinson in The Wrestler opposite Academy Award-winner Marisa Tomei (he also got an Oscar nomination for the role).

Mickey Rourke

From Schenectady to Hollywood, the star of 9½ Weeks and The Wrestler has been through it all.

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BY WILL LEVITH

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hen I was a teenager, my parents unwittingly allowed me to rent the director’s cut of 9½ Weeks from the Drive In Movie Store on South Broadway in Saratoga Springs (RIP). Had they known the lurid contents of the VHS tape, they might’ve thought twice about renting it for me. Confession: I was watching the 1986 film for Kim Basinger’s racy love scenes—but had I given the movie a fair shake, I would’ve realized what a solid actor the young hunk playing opposite her was. That was Mickey Rourke, who’d go on to play a broad range of rough-around-the-edges characters before having a career-defining moment in 2008, when he won a Best Actor Golden Globe for his turn as Randy “The Ram” Robinson in The Wrestler opposite Academy Award-winner Marisa Tomei (he also got an Oscar nomination for the role).

Long before Rourke became one of Hollywood’s most notorious bad boys, he was a kid from Schenectady. Born Philip Andre Rourke, Jr., in 1952, he was the son of a carpenter/bodybuilder. Rourke told host James Lipton on Inside The Actors Studio that his mother had nicknamed him “Mickey” because she hated his father—who had the same name. His parents divorced when he was six, and eventually, his mom remarried a police officer and moved Rourke and his two siblings to Miami (according to the actor, his stepfather physically abused him and his younger brother for a decade). Years later, in order to summon the proper emotional state for an audition at New York City’s famed Actors Studio, Rourke traveled back to the Electric City and reconnected with his estranged father. “We spoke for about seven hours,” Rourke told Lipton.

“He gave me $50 and bought me pork chops and mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, and he had 22 screwdrivers, and that was the last I ever saw him.”

Needless to say, he nailed the audition, and the rest is cinematic history.

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HALL y FAME ∂

Rachael Ray

How the girl next door from Lake George took television by storm.

B Y N ATA L I E M O O R E

W

hen I returned home from a whirlwind, two-day trip to New York City—during which I experienced a $25 margarita, my maiden voyage through the subway system and a meeting with superstar chef/philanthropist/ designer Rachael Ray (quite a change from a day in my typical Upstate life)—my mom wanted to know what the Lake George native was like. “Blunt,” I said. “But in the best way.” It’s true. Ray’s a to-the-point, no-nonsense force to be reckoned with; a boss. She says what she means without offending, follows her passions until they’re realized and manages to balance an Emmy Award-winning show, a furniture line, two nonprofits and cookware and pet-food lines, all while leaving time to buy thoughtful gifts for her coworkers and pose for the cover of saratoga living.

Born in Glens Falls, Ray moved to Lake George when she was eight.

There, her mother managed the local Howard Johnson's restaurant, the chain’s last surviving outpost. After a stint working in New York City in her 20s, Ray returned to Upstate New York, where she managed Mr. Brown’s Pub at The Sagamore and then worked as a buyer at Cowan & Lobel, a gourmet market in Albany. There, she began teaching her “30 Minute Meals” classes, which got her discovered by the local CBS TV affiliate, TODAY and eventually, The Food Network.

On Saratoga Springs, Ray says, “I consider it my backyard.” Her go-to spot here is Lyrical Ballad, the cavernous bookstore on Phila Street. “I love music and I read actual books, and Saratoga is where you go to get that stuff.” Though she admires Saratoga for the arts, Ray tends to steer clear of the racetrack.

“I love horses,” she says. “I’m always deathly afraid that one of them will get injured, and they’ll have to shoot it like in Marnie.” This sentiment’s certainly not uncommon, even among track lovers. Ray’s just not afraid to say it. And I, for one, respect her even more for that. Like a boss.

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CREDIT

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book smart “I consider Saratoga Springs my backyard. I love music and I read actual books from Lyrical Ballad Bookstore on Phila Street,” Ray says.

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texas hold ’em Anthony Weaver, a former Saratoga High School football star, is now a defensive coach for the NFL’s Houston Texans.

The Pride Of Saratoga Meet 20 locals who’ve tasted fame and success— and never looked back.

BY WILL LEVITH

ne of the benefits of being a product of Saratoga Springs and its public school system—this year marks my high school class’ 20th reunion—is that I’ve had the chance to get to know a number of Saratogians who’ve ended up becoming way more famous than this guy. While I don’t know every single one of the people on this list personally, I’ve had a chance to see many of these stars shine, up close and from afar—and for that, I can’t help but be honored that we share a common hometown.

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the pride of saratoga ANTHONY WEAVER (FOOTBALL)

Tony and I both graduated from Saratoga Springs High School in the class of ’98— and that’s where our similarities end.

An absolute beast for the Blue Streaks’ football team—he completed his high school career with 1305 rushing yards and 11 TDs, offensively, and 192 tackles and 15 sacks on defense—Tony ended up bringing his skills to the University of Notre Dame, where he starred as a defensive end and was named a team captain. Entering the National Football League draft in 2002, he was picked up by the Baltimore Ravens, where he played for four seasons. Tony ended his NFL career with the Houston Texans, where he currently works as Defensive Line Coach. (He previously coached for the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns.)

JOSH GREENBAUM (FILM)

A year ahead of me at Saratoga High, Josh got his undergraduate degree at

Cornell University and landed an MFA in film from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

He’s since become a highly soughtafter documentarian and director, with films to his name such as The Short Game and Becoming Bond, both of which took home the Audience Award at SXSW (you can watch them on Netflix and Hulu, respectively). He’s also the man behind the TV docu-series Behind The Mask, which picked up Hulu’s first Emmy nomination, and he’s landed directing credits for episodes of Fox’s New Girl and ABC’s The Neighbors.

Josh’s latest film, Too Funny To Fail, about comedian Dana Carvey’s failed attempt at a comedy series, is currently streaming on Hulu.

GABRIEL BOYERS (AUCTIONS)

Gabe and I grew up together in Saratoga and became fast friends because of a number of shared interests, including music (he’s a concert violinist), collecting

the aughts, and Pia had been named the youngest Chief of Staff to a Congressperson in history. Her boss?

Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head by a mentally unstable gunman at a public event in 2011. Overnight, Pia was thrust into the spotlight, keeping the world informed of the Congresswoman’s condition on the national news—and running her office. Now semiretired from politics, Pia’s cofounded Republic Restoratives, a distillery based in Washington, DC, with her longtime friend and fellow Saratogian, Rachel Gardner.

Gabriel Boyers

(I’ll get to that shortly) and the fact that we were both “fac brats” (i.e., sons of Skidmore College professors). Gabe and his husband now run Schubertiade Music, a Boston-based auction business focused on hard-to-find music items, such as signed manuscripts and jazz LPs, and they recently launched the KABINETT art gallery in Beantown’s trendy SoWa district. Gabe’s also President of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association, with expertise in authenticating the John Hancocks of many of the world’s top musicians.

“I’m the person that people call to authenticate music material from all over the world,” he tells me. See, kids? It pays to know that old-fashioned cursive.

The Figgs: (from left) Mike Gent, Pete Donnelly and Pete Hayes Sawyer Fredericks

Fun fact: I shared a class at Lake Avenue Elementary School with Scott Valentine’s nephew, and the kid’s claim to fame was being related to Scott. It makes sense.

If you grew up in the ’80s, Scott was about as famous an actor as Saratoga

Josh Greenbaum (with Stephen Colbert)

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Scott Valentine

(Sawyer Fredericks) LAWRENCE WHITE; (Scott Valentine) BADER HOWAR; (Gabriel Boyers) KABINETT

SCOTT VALENTINE (ACTING)

had ever produced: From 1985-89, he had a recurring role as the gritty Nick Moore on the hit sitcom Family Ties, starring Michael J. Fox. He went on to have a busy acting career, doing turns on everything from Murder, She Wrote to NewsRadio and JAG. These days, Scott’s no longer in the acting biz, and in fact, has gone in a completely different direction: Based in Los Angeles, he’s now Managing Director of Excelsior Capital Partners, an investment banking firm. But Scott has fond memories of his days in the Spa City: “It was one of the most iconic places to grow up,” he says.

We, of course, agree.

SAWYER FREDERICKS (MUSIC)

Hailing from Connecticut by way of Montgomery County, where he grew up on a Fultonville, NY, farm, Sawyer was a quick study as a singer-songwriter, getting some of his earliest gigs in at Saratoga’s Caffè Lena. After releasing his debut album in 2015, he found himself on the national stage, competing in NBC’s The Voice. After performing a range of covers that could’ve easily been a playlist

on local radio station PYX 106—including a medley performed with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty (who’s playing a headlining gig at Saratoga Performing Arts Center this July)—the then 16-year-old ended up becoming the show’s youngest ever male winner.

He’s toured tirelessly since—selling out a trio of dates at the end of May at Caffè Lena—and has released a pair of wellreceived albums, A Good Storm (No. 48 on the US charts) and the independently released Hide Your Ghost.

PIA CARUSONE (POLITICS)

Pia and I—along with Gabe—attended The Beagle School over on Regent Street in Saratoga. Fast forward to

THE FIGGS (MUSIC)

I’ve seen The Figgs perform at Caffè Lena, The Parting Glass, Putnam Den (now Putnam Place) and the Bowery Electric in New York City. I own most of their albums—including some rare cassette tapes and EPs. In short, I’m a superfan. The band, consisting of Saratogians, reached its mainstream peak in the ’90s, with Pete Hayes on drums, Pete Donnelly on bass/vocals, Mike Gent on guitar/vocals and Guy Lyons also on guitar/vocals. By ’96, they’d been signed to a major label, Capitol Records, and were all over the radio. Guy eventually left the band, but The Figgs continued touring as a trio— and just last year celebrated their 30th anniversary as a band. For interested parties, start with Low-Fi At Society High and fan out from there.

PHANTOGRAM (MUSIC)

Pia Carusone

If The Figgs were Saratoga’s Great White Hope in the ’90s, Phantogram would be that for the Millennial generation.

Founded in nearby Greenwich, NY, in 2007, the duo consists of Sarah Barthel (vocals/keyboards) and Josh Carter (vocals/guitar). They’ve put out a trio of

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Hot 100), the Grammy-winning “Drops Of Jupiter (Tell Me)” (No. 5), “Calling All Angels” (No. 21) and “Hey, Soul Sister” (No. 3). Scott left the band in 2014, but, I’m sure, not before making whomever his instructor was in the Saratoga High jazz band very proud. These days, Scott runs Thunderwood Sound, a music studio in Nashville.

Giacomo Smith

Phantogram: Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel

band there and at the historic Soho venue, Ronnie Scott's. (The head of music and promotions there is an old friend of mine, and I connected the two.)

Did I mention that Giacomo’s played for Prince William, Duchess Kate and even the Queen of England? He most recently landed onstage at NYC’s Jazz at Lincoln Center, introduced to the crowd by actress Glenn Close.

albums, the last two of which, Voices and Three, hit No. 11 and No. 9, respectively, on the US charts. (Four singles have charted as well, including the most recent and a personal favorite, “Same Old Blues.”) A close friend of mine also worked with Josh at saratoga living’s neighbor, Uncommon Grounds, so, I'm guessing, at least 50 percent of Phantogram can make a killer latte.

SCOTT UNDERWOOD (MUSIC)

If his name doesn’t ring a bell, his former band’s certainly will: Train. The graduate of Saratoga High, class of ’91, was the San Francisco pop band’s drummer from its inception in ’94 through its era of superstardom, during which it battered the charts with songs such as “Meet Virginia” (No. 20 on the Billboard

Dottie Pepper

DOTTIE PEPPER (GOLF)

I was at local French restaurant Chez Pierre with my parents recently, when Dottie Pepper walked in. Whispers and rubbernecking abounded—including from my mom, who confirmed Dottie’s existence out of the corner of her eye.

She’s one of an exclusive cadre of elite athletes from the area—a decorated LPGA golfer who won a pair of major championships in 1992 and 1999, and 17 total tour events. Since she retired in 2012, Dottie’s worked as a golf analyst on ESPN and CBS, and recently launched her own brand of sunglasses, Pepper ProEyes. They help improve your shade…not your handicap.

LAURA HAJEK (ACTING)

A former Miss Glens Falls and graduate of The Waldorf School in Saratoga, Laura's an actress known for roles in the Richard Gere movie The Dinner and the TV series The Deuce and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She's also an indie musician, performing as Edith Pop, in the duo Schlomi Bagdadi and in A Place Both Wonderful and Strange.

GIACOMO SMITH (JAZZ)

Scott Underwood

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Giacomo and I missed each other at Saratoga High—he’s a tad younger than I am—but our families are close, and we have a Skidmore connection (his mother, Shirley, is an Italian professor there, and my parents had a number of overlap years with her). A talented jazz clarinetist and saxophonist, Giacomo now runs Kansas Smitty’s jazz club in London and regularly plays with his

Laura Hajek

(Phantogram) TIMOTHY SACCENTI; (Scott Underwood) CHERYL UNDERWOOD; (Dottie Pepper) TIMOTHY KURATEK/CBS; (Giacomo Smith) CHOI DAVID; (Steven Brundage) GETTY IMAGES; (Mike Brown) DEATH WISH COFFEE COMPANY

the pride of saratoga

Steven Brundage

STEVEN BRUNDAGE (MAGIC)

Steven was born in Brooklyn—but made a name for himself performing magic on the streets of Saratoga. After gaining fame in 2014 for a viral video that features him talking his way out of a speeding ticket by wowing the cops who pulled him over with a Rubik’s Cube trick, he went on to appear on ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s TODAY and impressively, was a semifinalist on America’s Got Talent. Luckily, you can catch him on June 21 in Saratoga at the ESSAE Annual Conference & Expo.

James Charles

JAMES CHARLES (MODELING)

Mike Brown

MIKE BROWN (COFFEE)

In 2012, Mike founded Death Wish Coffee—“The World’s Strongest Coffee” —in Saratoga. Three years later, he had a 30-second advertising spot running during the Super Bowl, and soon thereafter, a joe-brewing empire for the ages. Death Wish has since been an official sponsor for the New York Comic Con and NASCAR driver Ty Dillon— and you can buy it at supermarkets all over the Capital Region. Maybe they’ll sponsor saratoga living’s next deadline crunch?

Growing up in nearby Bethlehem, NY, James is nothing short of a groundbreaker. At the age of 17, he became the first-ever male spokesmodel for CoverGirl. Now 19, he’s built himself a YouTube empire too, servicing more than 4.2 million subscribers with makeup and pop culture tips—not to mention showing off his ethereal mug—and racking up multiple millions of views on everything he uploads. We’re not worthy!

MARTHA QUINN (TV/RADIO)

I didn’t have MTV on my rabbit-eared TV on Second Street until I was 15, so I really didn’t grow up on music videos or VJs. But when I was able to mainline a half hour here and a half hour there at my grandmother’s place in Schenectady (she

had cable), I fell hard for the format—and VJ Martha Quinn. She always seemed to be interviewing my favorite hair-metal bands—Van Halen, Poison and the like.

My young Spidey senses must’ve been going off for another reason too: Martha and I were both products of Upstate New York; she’s originally from Albany.

These days, you can hear her on SiriusXM and iHeartRadio. And, she’s still as good as ever.

DION LEWIS (FOOTBALL)

If Tony Weaver was our area’s most famous NFL defensive player, Dion’s got the offensive category wrapped up.

An Albany native, the running back/kick returner starred for Albany High and Albany Academy before winding up at the University of Pittsburgh and being

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the pride of saratoga WILLIAM DEVANE (ACTING)

Saratoga Celebs, RIP

William’s that actor whom you can’t quite place, but you know you’ve seen in a million things. Born in Albany, William was the son of then New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt’s chauffeur (yes, that Franklin who ended up becoming President of the United States). William’s acting career, which kicked off in 1967, is a Leonard Maltin movie guide’s worth of the greatest TV shows of all time, including the mini-series From Here To Eternity, Gunsmoke, Knots Landing, The X-Files, The West Wing, and most recently, 24, where he played the fictional POTUS. His father would’ve been proud.

(Andy Rooney) STEPHENSON BROWN; (Jeff Blatnick) BURNT HILLS-BALLSTON LAKE HIGH SCHOOL

JEFF BLATNICK

Dion Lewis

Sometimes it’s good to give people labels. Adam Gray was just 14 and still attending high school in Lake George in 2003 when he—incredibly—launched SheetLabels.com, an Internet startup that bought and sold labels of all kinds—for food, wine, chemicals and cars, to name a few. “I had a special arrangement with our Vice Principal, where I could actually leave class and take a phone call, because he understood I was trying to get a business started,” he tells me. By the time he left high school, the business was banking six figures in revenue,

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Adam Gray

Jes Hudak

JES HUDAK (MUSIC)

I’ll never forget this: I played cello in the Saratoga High Chamber Orchestra, and we were accompanying the chorus one day, when this young soloist just tore the roof off the place. Everybody was like, “Who’s that?” It turned out to be Jes Hudak, who would soon become a mainstay at Caffè Lena, self-release an album and hit the fast track to superstardom. Among her accomplishments: She toured as the lone backing vocalist to Enrique Iglesias and performed at the rebooted Lilith Fair in 2010. The following year, she landed on Bravo’s songwriting competition reality show, Platinum Hit— featuring pop/folk star singer Jewel as a judge and host—and came in a close second. She’s since released a followup album—and a number of singles, EPs and side projects with a range of players in the pop world.

(Dion Lewis) THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS/DAVID SILVERMAN; (Jes Hudak) BRIANNA SAGE

and the company’s now worth well into the seven-figure range. (He serves as its President and CEO.) SheetLabels. com is headquartered in a 33,000square-foot facility in Glens Falls, has 30-plus full-time employees and serves 50,000 customers nationwide. Talk about a high school job.

ADAM GRAY (ENTREPRENEURSHIP)

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(1957-2012)

A Niskayuna native, Blatnick, who’d recently survived a bout with cancer, won a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Later in life, Blatnick became a UFC commentator and high school wrestling coach at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake.

MAUREEN STAPLETON (1925-2006)

Originally from Troy, Stapleton went on to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in 1981’s Reds.

Prior to that win, she had been nominated for three other Oscars, all for Best Actress in a Supporting Role:

ANN B. DAVIS go mo! Oscar winner Maureen Stapleton with Charles Durning in Queen Of The Stardust Ballroom.

Lonelyhearts (1958), Airport (1970) and Interiors (1979).

ANDY ROONEY

(1919-2011)

A decorated broadcast journalist, whose TV writing career began in the ’40s, Rooney became a TV personality in the late ’70s, when his “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney” segment began airing at the close of

(1926-2014)

A Schenectadian by birth, the actress became all but synonymous with her TV character, Alice Nelson, the affable housekeeper on ABC’s long-running family sitcom The Brady Bunch.

Davis wound up winning a pair of Emmys for the role.

GRANDMA MOSES (1860-1961)

Born in Greenwich, NY, Anna Mary Robertson Moses—a.k.a.

Grandma Moses—is one of

the best-known folk artists in American history, launching her career at the tender age of 78. Her artwork was “discovered” in nearby Hoosick Falls (where she also died at 101), and at least one of her paintings has since sold for north of $1 million.

PAUL NEWMAN

(1925-2008)

Paul Newman may have been born and raised in Ohio, but he makes this list for cofounding the Double H Ranch in Lake Luzerne—one of the most important nonprofits in the area, which provides programs and support for children dealing with lifethreatening illnesses as well as their families.

—WILL LEVITH

GO GOBOATING BOATINGwith with

drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles (he’s currently on the Tennessee Titans). But it would be his handful of seasons with the New England Patriots that solidified his career in the annals of football history: He won a Super Bowl ring in 2016 with the Pats, who pulled off the largest comeback in the championship game’s history.

84 saratoga living

megawatt newsmagazine 60 Minutes. Rooney spent more than just a few minutes in the Capital Region, though; he was born in Albany and attended The Albany Academy.

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(clockwise, from top left) saratoga living chair Anthony Ianniello poses with former Boston Red Sox slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz at last year’s Saratoga Wine & Food Festival; actress Ashley Judd takes in a race at Saratoga Race Course; actor Joe Pesci, smiling but not “clowning,” at the track; Emmy-winning soap legend Susan Lucci rocks a hat for (Susan Lucci, David Ortiz) LAWRENCE WHITE; (Ashley Judd) ADAM COGLIANESE; (Joe Pesci) ZUMA PRESS

SUMMERS

star gazing

the ages at the races.

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stars love saratoga summers

2018 ALFA ROMEO

2018 ALFA ROMEO

STELVIO AWD

t was 2004.

Just months into moving to New York City, and I was perched in front of the TV in my tiny Queens apartment, praying. I’m not a very religious man, but damned if I wasn’t saying something to someone up there that night. It was basically: “Please, Boston Red Sox, win the World Series” over and over again. Then it the flying happened—and the rest of the tomato lands night’s a blur of cheering and (from top) Olympic gold laughing and back-slapping medalist Shaun White with and whiskey shots. girlfriend Sarah Barthel of the I never would’ve gotten band Phantogram and her mother to that place without the at Hattie’s; music legend Paul Simon Sox’s Designated Hitter (center) with the Skidmore David Ortiz. He’d been so College students he taught clutch the entire Series, but

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stars love saratoga summers

ADAM COGLIANESE

especially against the formidable New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. Every time we needed a big hit, he came through. He’s been one of my heroes ever since—and I aspire to one day meet him and thank him.

Until then, he’ll be just another untouchable celebrity—the type that’s been a summer mainstay in Saratoga Springs. Whether it’s Olympic gold medalist Shaun White grabbing a bite at Hattie’s (his they’re girlfriend is Greenwich, with her Former NY native Sarah First Lady, US Senator, Barthel, lead singer of Secretary of State and Phantogram: see page 2016 presidential candidate 81) or Emmy AwardHillary Rodham Clinton winning soap opera with former Albany icon Susan Lucci taking Mayor Gerald in a day at the races, Jennings.

Saratoga’s where the rich and famous come to play in the summer. We even caught some of them in the act.

—WILL LEVITH

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From Seabiscuit to The Way We Were, Saratoga (and surrounding areas) has proven to be popular terrain for big-time movies. We’re not surprised.

ready for our close-up When Hollywood movie studios come calling, Saratoga Springs makes them feel at home. It’s always about location, location, location.

BY WILL LEVITH

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saratoga goes hollywood

distinctly remember, when I was a fifth-grader at Lake Avenue Elementary School, one of my classmates snagging a part as an extra in Billy Bathgate, a feature film set in the 1930s that was shooting in Saratoga Springs.

While it’d be another seven or so years before I’d legally be able to watch the R-rated film, I remember being proud of my little hometown at the time; it was as if we’d finally “made it.” Here are 15 glittering examples of when Hollywood—and some of its brightest stars—came calling on the Capital Region. Or, as we call it around here, when Saratoga went Hollywood.

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5 6 2

Saratoga (1937)

Stanley Kubrick fans know him best for A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut, but his earlier films are just as engaging—like this 1962 adaptation of the shocking-for-the-time novel, Lolita, adapted to the screen by its author, Vladimir Nabokov. Starring James Mason , Sue Lyon and Shelley Winters, the movie features screen time for both Lake George and Albany.

The Way We Were (1973)

Hell might freeze over before this sentence ever gets written anew: “Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford acted together on the Union College campus in Schenectady.” But yes, in the early 1970s drama, which won a pair of Oscars, Streisand (the liberal activist) and Redford (the Golden Boy) wound up in the Electric City. Visibly, there was more than a little bit of electricity to go around, too.

Ghost Story (1981)

“A horror movie starring a late-career Fred Astaire?” you ask. If you’re hoping for a macabre classic with sweeping dance sequences, you’ve come to the wrong place. Think: melting faces

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4. TOUCHSTONE PICTURES; 7. ALBANY.ORG; 8. CITY LIGHT FILMS; 9. COURTESY OF BARBARA SANFORD

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Lolita (1962)

saratoga, take one 1. The poster for the 1937 classic, Saratoga; 2. Fred Astaire on the set of 1981 horror film, Ghost Story; 3. Angelina Jolie filmed a chase scene for her movie, Salt, in Albany; 4. Bruce Willis was one of a star-studded ensemble cast in 1991’s Billy Bathgate; 5. (from left) Director Sydney Pollack with his The Way We Were co-stars, Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford; 6. Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes co-starred in 2012’s The Place Beyond the Pines; 7. Will Ferrell and movie, The Other Guys, shot chase scenes in Albany; 8. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman (left) and Chris O’Donnell (right) shared the screen in 1992’s Scent of a Woman; 9. A young Scarlett Johansson atop a horse, shooting a scene for The Horse Whisperer; 10. Tobey Maguire starred in the Oscar-nominated Seabiscuit.

CREDIT

Not a bad place to start, no? This 1937 classic starring Clark Gable and Jean Harlow is all about horse racing, gambling and romance—and features scenes shot at the Saratoga Race Course.

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saratoga goes hollywood and other B-movie camp. Considering it’s scored just a 35 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, it shouldn’t be at the top of your queue—save, maybe, for the fact that scenes were shot both in Saratoga Springs and Albany.

Ironweed (1987)

This Oscar-nominated film starring the thespianlicious pairing of Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep—based on the eponymous Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Yaddo veteran William Kennedy—takes place in Albany. So it made a whole lot of sense to shoot the movie in the Cap City. You’ll recognize locations on Lark Street and Clinton Avenue—as well as in nearby Watervliet, Troy, Slingerlands and Glenville.

Billy Bathgate (1991)

It’s not difficult to see why the 11-yearold me was so excited about this movie: With a cast featuring Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman and Bruce Willis, Billy Bathgate—which tells the fictional tale of a young protégé to real-life gangster Dutch Schultz (Hoffman)—would end up

nabbing a Golden Globe nomination for Kidman and solidifying Saratoga’s status as a serious setting for the silver screen.

Scent Of A Woman (1992)

Hoo-ah! Al Pacino took home a Best Actor Oscar for his role as the crotchety, blind Lt. Col. Frank Slade in Scent Of A Woman. In the film, Slade’s temp-job handler, Charlie Simms (Chris O’Donnell), attends the fictional Baird School—which is none other than Troy’s Emma Willard, ironically, a school Simms would never have been able to get into himself (it’s girls-only).

The Age Of Innocence (1993)

Just a handful of years after the producers of Billy Bathgate rolled into the Spa City, Martin Scorsese shipped his cameras—and stars Daniel DayLewis and Michelle Pfeiffer—to the Collar City. At Italian restaurant, Lo Porto, in Downtown Troy, hungry visitors can feast on a plate of Veal Scorsese, named for the bushy-eyebrowed directing legend who dined there frequently during filming.

The Horse Whisperer (1998)

Hillenbrand and starring Tobey Maguire (fresh off spinning webs as everyone’s superhero Spider-Man), filmed scenes at Santa AnitaPark, Keeneland and, yes, Saratoga Race Course.

Someday, Saratoga will be used as the backdrop to an intense, bloody alien invasion movie. Until then, it’ll make for the perfect turn-of-the-century setting— or horse racing haunt, as it did in 1998’s The Horse Whisperer, directed by and starring Robert Redford and a young Scarlett Johansson. Scenes were shot at Saratoga Race Course, of course.

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

I have to admit: I didn’t enjoy this movie at all. In fact, I hated it. Famed movie critic Roger Ebert, on the other hand, dubbed it “the best film of the decade.”

(Maybe I have to rewatch it.) Starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and written/directed by Charlie Kaufman— both Oscar winners—the movie takes place primarily in, you guessed it, Schenectady, NY. Portions of it were filmed in the real McCoy.

The Time Machine (2002)

Man, the things I could do with a time machine. (I’d probably swing back to fifth grade and sign myself up as an extra in Billy Bathgate.) Don’t confuse this forgettable film starring Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential) with the much, much better 1960s sci-fi flick of the same name. But definitely watch it, because it was filmed in Albany, Schenectady, Troy and right here in Saratoga— specifically, in the Spa State Park.

Salt (2010)

Angelina Jolie—known for her on- and off-screen badassery—turned up in Albany to film a chase scene off of I-787 for her action-packed, Oscar-nominated, Salt. Capital Region moviegoers got to screen it at Proctors a full day in advance of the rest of the world. Not a bad deal for lending your streets to Lara Croft, eh?

Seabiscuit (2003)

The multiple Oscar-nominated film, Seabiscuit, based on the novel by Laura

girl, interrupted Sue Lyon starred opposite James Mason and Shelley Winters in Stanley Kubrick’s controversial classic, Lolita.

The Other Guys (2010)

Anything Will Ferrell touches turns to comedy gold—and this 2010 cop movie spoof, which costars Mark Wahlberg, is no exception to the rule. Just like Salt, the movie was peppered with chase scenes filmed in Albany.

The Place Beyond The Pines (2012)

You’d think a contemporary cops-androbbers movie starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes would be a winner, but it’s actually a snoozer. The film’s set in—of all places— Schenectady, and true to its roots, it filmed at a number of recognizable locations there, such as Ellis Hospital and Vale Cemetery, as well as spots in Scotia, Glenville and Latham.

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captain kirk Kirk Douglas, starring in Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 classic, Paths Of Glory, was born and raised in Amsterdam, NY.

A TESTAMENT TO LUXURY LIVING

Our Biggest Movie Star Just how did ‘Izzy Demsky’ from Amsterdam become KIRK DOUGLAS, Hollywood icon? Not easily.

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attended a wedding in Amsterdam, NY, years ago, but only recently learned that the groom’s father had gone to high school with the city’s most famous native son, the great Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas (though in those pre-fame days, Douglas was known around town as Izzy Demsky).

Back then, Amsterdam was an industrial hub, whose mills and factories manufactured everything from carpets to gloves, buttons to brooms (and even skivvies!). It also helped sculpt Douglas, playing a critical role in his later, monumental success.

As he describes it in his riveting autobiography, The Ragman’s Son, “On our street was every conceivable nationality, a little League of Nations: Italian, Polish, Irish, Russian, German, British, Lithuanian and probably many others…Sometimes we would beg or steal potatoes from home, build a fire in the gutter and roast them.”

Indeed, Douglas’ childhood in Amsterdam was defined by wretched poverty, deprivation and anti-Semitism, a unique set of circumstances that fueled the young Izzy’s ambitions to escape. It also taught the future onscreen tough guy how to be scrappy and shrewd. The only son of seven children born to poor Russian Jewish immigrants, the often hungry Douglas survived by scrambling and pilfering, selling candy and soda pop from a wagon to factory workers

and regularly getting pummeled by neighborhood bullies— all the while dreaming of becoming an actor.

When Douglas left his hometown after high school to pursue that dream, he did so almost mythically. With $163 in his pocket, he and a pal hitchhiked to St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, where he charmed his way into the school (and helped pay his tuition with a gig as a janitor). After a stint in New York City theater, Douglas eventually landed in Hollywood and went on to achieve international renown with a critically acclaimed body of work that includes Champion, Lust For Life, Paths Of Glory and, of course, Spartacus.

Needless to say, Douglas counted many greats of showbiz as close friends and colleagues—Fred Astaire, Lauren Bacall, Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Burt Lancaster and Billy Wilder among them—and seduced a veritable who’s who of Hollywood’s most formidable leading ladies, including the likes of Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich and Rita Hayworth.

At 101, Douglas is still in the game in his own way, most recently presenting an award at this year’s Oscars with his daughter-in-law, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. A centenarian marvel, this son of an illiterate ragman who hailed from the wrong side of town remains today, without a doubt, the oldest—and quite possibly the most well-respected—living legend in Hollywood who can call Upstate New York home.

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THE BIG

A contemporary art fair of this magnitude is long overdue in Saratoga.

Now, at last, it’s here.

BY LINDSEY SHUMWAY

GALLERY: Emmanuel Fremin Gallery ARTIST: Jeff Koons TITLE: Balloon Dog (Yellow) MEDIUM: Porcelain and

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GALLERY: Kathryn Markel Fine Arts ARTIST: Deborah Zlotsky TITLE: Time Bomb MEDIUM: Oil on canvas DIMENSIONS: 36 x 36 in.

ESTIMATE: $6000

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the big reveal n a recent trip to the Louvre in Paris, it wasn’t until I went up to the third or fourth docent and asked in my minimal French, “Could you tell me where Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus is?,” that I realized I was wasting valuable time. There was so much to see! (I later realized that the painting was 200 miles away in Belgium, but that’s another story.) I’m happy to say that Saratoga Springs will soon have its own Louvre’s worth of fine art on display and for purchase—and it’s coming to the City Center this August.

Historically, Saratoga’s main summer attractions have been the racetrack, ballet and other cultural events—but a major art show has been oddly absent. That’ll all change with the introduction of the inaugural REVEAL International Contemporary Art Fair. “Art is a common language,” says Jacquie Grande, Founder and President of REVEAL. “I think hosting an event where art is the common denominator will bring people together.” Hundreds of artists’ works will be shipping in from dozens of galleries all over the globe, and it’ll be the perfect atmosphere for both the serious collector and window-shopper.

Running from August 3-5, with a VIP celebration and preview on August 2, the REVEAL Art Fair will be a welcome addition to an already frenetic Downtown Saratoga summer scene. And when I stop by, I’ll certainly know enough not to be looking for the Mona Lisa—but it’s possible that the next one might be hanging somewhere nearby.

GALLERY: Emmanuel Fremin Gallery ARTIST: Drew Tal TITLE: Porcelain Dynasty MEDIUM: Photography DIMENSIONS: 48 x 39 in.

ESTIMATE: $20,000

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GALLERY: Emmanuel Fremin Gallery ARTIST: Bob Tabor TITLE: 0059 MEDIUM: Photography DIMENSIONS: 45 x 66 in.

ESTIMATE: $14,000

(overleaf) GALLERY: Susan Eley Fine Art ARTIST: Chase Langford TITLE: Del Mar 29 (2017) MEDIUM: Oil on canvas DIMENSIONS: 30 x 48 in.

ESTIMATE: $6240

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the big reveal

GALLERY: Galleria Ca’ d’Oro ARTIST: Ewa Bathelier TITLE: Blue Sky dress MEDIUM: Acrylic on fabric DIMENSIONS: 827⁄10 x 787⁄10 in.

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GALLERY: Emmanuel Fremin Gallery ARTIST: Hung Yi TITLE: Panda Yauan Zai MEDIUM: Hand printed enamel and steel sculpture DIMENSIONS: 33 x 28 x 34 in.

ESTIMATE: $65,000

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CREDIT

BY BEVERLY TRACY CREDIT

20 YEARS OF DESIGN

THE AUTHOR, AN AWARD-WINNING, SARATOGA-BASED, INTERIOR DESIGNER, TAKES US ON A JOURNEY TWO DECADES IN THE MAKING.

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W

VESSEL SINKS, PLASTER WALLS, MODERN LIGHTS AND ORGANIC WOOD

hen I was asked to write this article about 20 years of interior design in Saratoga Springs, my mind immediately traveled back to a glorious time in my life: my twenties. I got my first job then, toured wine country on the back of a BMW motorcycle, traveled with a healthy spending account and learned how to drive on the Santa Monica Piers (at night, big mistake). My design mentors included Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Doug Tompkins and Giorgio Armani and, in 1998, I actually worked for Calvin on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.

It was pre-kids and pre-Saratoga. What a time to be young, excited and alive!

It was in New York City that I was first introduced to Calvin’s classic and clean aesthetic. At the time, interiors were filled with faux sponge-wall finishes, wallpaper with borders and plastic ivy. Beige was at its all-time high, floral patterns showed up on oversized chairs and wall stencils prevailed. Thankfully, I skipped the era’s design misses and moved right into the early aughts, a time of Tuscan kitchens, shabby chicness and DIY everything. A few years into the 2000s, I started peeling LIVING ROOMS BECAME off yesterday’s wallpaper and replacing it with cream, then FAMILY ROOMS AND taupe, then gray walls, removing WERE SUDDENLY shiny brass door fixtures, opting instead for oil-rubbed bronze, COMFORTABLE AND then polished nickel everything.

LIVED-IN, RATHER THAN I ended my love affair with antiqued cream kitchens, which PERFECT AND STUFFY; I replaced with bright white DINING ROOMS BECAME cabinets, rich, dark-stained floors and minimal decor.

OPEN KITCHENS WITH I arrived in Saratoga in the FARM TABLES AND fall of 2006. My son TJ was just starting kindergarten, and OUR LOVE AFFAIR WITH my other son, Josh, was in OPEN FLOOR-PLANNED preschool. I brought my design business here, and my new HOMES WAS BORN. clients were intrigued by the clean lines, mix of textures and directional thinking I’d brought from Manhattan. It was out with the old decade and in with the new one, a time of open floor plans, authentic elements and custom finishes. Four years later, a clean, classic look inspired everything I did. Big stainless-steel appliances replaced white (and worse, black) ones, marble and quartz started to push out granite (thank you) and powerful industrial faucets popped up in classic white kitchens with large, dark-stained islands. Small dark rooms were replaced by big, open, bright ones, and we chipped away square tile, opting instead for the subway type everywhere. Saratoga was ready for a new look and the homes evolved beautifully as we shed the outdated, tossed the ivy and removed the clutter.

Then, with a nod to the past, we gave up the dining and living rooms, realizing that we were assigning too large a percentage of real estate to rooms that were seldom used. Living rooms

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BRIGHT WHITE CABINETS AND FARMHOUSE SINKS

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comfort kitchen Creamy white kitchens were all the rage by 2010; (opposite, clockwise from top left) vessel sinks, which sit on the counter, became the trend in the early 2000s; in the late aughts, clean, bright kitchens became a respite from the crazy world; Tuscan kitchens with rustic accents gave warmth a new look in the late ’90s; in the last five years, designers, including here in Saratoga Springs, have moved away from square tile to a more modern subway shape.

became family rooms and were suddenly comfortable and lived-in, rather than perfect and stuffy; dining rooms became open kitchens with farm tables, and our love affair with open floor-planned homes was born. The kitchen became the new center of the house, and everything happened around large islands. At the same time, as life became more hectic, with technology affecting everything we did, interior design became more grounded, and we turned to a more organic feel, with rich, natural colors of the earth, fruits and vegetables, live wood edges and authentic finishes. Recycling was also in

TUSCAN KITCHENS AND LARGE STAINLESS-STEEL APPLIANCES

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Love blossoms in Saratoga. counter rather than being dropped in or mounted below it. Coupled with plaster walls, warm, natural wood and a rough textured stone floor, this look was all about getting away from oversized vanities, opting instead for beautiful, organic natural lines, warm colors and modern light fixtures.

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taupe notch In the mid 2000s, creams and taupes took over.

Here are some interior design trends that helped define the last 20 years in Saratoga and beyond: TUSCAN KITCHENS AND LARGE STAINLESS-STEEL APPLIANCES Featuring weathered surfaces, natural textures and warm colors, Tuscan kitchens—often combined with rustic beams, stone and arched entries— mixed warmth with a new look in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Replacing Formica counters, boring oak cabinetry and bright brass hardware, this new look with black iron fixtures, oil-rubbed bronze hardware, large stainless-steel appliances and large farmhouse islands simultaneously felt collected and sophisticated.

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vogue, and with it came a focus on reusing furniture. So we’d see old pieces cleaned, painted and given a new spot. It was all about moving forward quickly while trying to stand still. So much can happen in 20 years if you want it to. And we wanted it to.

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VESSEL SINKS, PLASTER WALLS, MODERN LIGHTS AND ORGANIC WOOD Everybody wanted vessel sinks in the early aughts. They sat on the

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CREAMY WALLS, RUSTIC, RECLAIMED BEAMS, DARK-STAINED FLOORS AND MINIMAL DECOR As we moved into the mid 2000s, we abandoned warm colors for a cooler, more modern palette. Creamy and taupe walls replaced sun-drenched warmth, and reclaimed wood beams showed up next to modern decor.

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CREAMY WHITE CABINETS, INDUSTRIAL APPLIANCES AND SOAPSTONE COUNTERS By 2010, kitchens lightened up to a creamy white, appliances got bigger and stronger, sporting an industrial air, and natural stone became the norm. Soapstone, quartz and marble, with their soft-honed finish, replaced shiny granite, with oil-rubbed bronze hardware and minimal decor remaining the choice for designers.

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BRIGHT WHITE CABINETS AND FARMHOUSE SINKS In the late 2000s, white kitchens were a classic and clean escape from a hectic life, and farmhouse sinks reminded us of a simpler time (even when they were imported from England and quite expensive). Honed marble counters were soft, natural and light. Our lives were frenetic, and a clean, bright, light and clear kitchen became a respite from it all.

SUBWAY TILE, TAUPE WALLS, CEMENT SINKS AND LARGE, RECTANGULAR FLOOR TILE Throughout the last 20 years, we’ve moved away from square tile—and in the last five, moved to a more classicbut-rectangular subway shape, often in cool taupe and gray tones.

Coupled with a poured-cement sink and polished nickel fittings, the modern bathroom layout reflects the simplicity and the organic warmth of where interior design is now.

C a p i t a l Co n s t r u c t i o n i s a n e nv i r o n m e n t a l l y r e s p o n s i b l e g r e e n b u i l d e r s e r v i n g S a r a t o g a a n d Wa r r e n Co u n t i e s . We b u i l d h o m e s o f l a s t i n g d i s t i n c t i o n w i t h a n a p p r o a c h t h a t s e t s o u r co m p a ny a p a r t f r o m t h e t y p i c a l h o m e b u i l d e r. O u r s i m p l e p h i l o s o p hy i s t o b u i l d t h e r i g h t w ay f r o m s t a r t to f i n i s h . T h i s , o f co u r s e , m e a n s b u i l d i n g g r e e n .

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Lake George, Then S.R. Stoddard’s stunning photographs of ‘The Queen of American Lakes’ are sublime. Full stop.

BY BILL HENNING

perfect landing (clockwise, from top left) A rustic bridge at Hulett’s Landing; Hulett’s Landing on the east coast of Lake George; Pearl Point near The Narrows; (opposite) S.R. Stoddard, born in Wilton, NY, in 1843, was a photographer whose works helped popularize Lake George and the Adirondacks.

I RECALL SEEING

a David Hockney work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City last winter, one of his composite Polaroid pieces, where a series of individual photographs, all taken from slightly different vantage points, are assembled to form a “complete” picture. A century earlier, photographer Seneca Ray (S.R.) Stoddard was working the same type of magic in the Lake George region.

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Stoddard’s photographs of “The Queen of American Lakes” and the Adirondacks are some of the finest ever taken—and a number of them are now collected in Water & Light: S.R. Stoddard’s Lake George (Chapman Historical Museum). He took 10,000 photographs in the Adirondacks, including more than 700 shots of Lake George. It’s a selection of 150 of those sepia-toned images, culled from the Chapman Historical Museum’s collection, that forms the heart of Water & Light. The book is organized as a pictorial tour of the lake from its head at Lake George Village (then Caldwell Village) northward, past Bolton Landing and through The Narrows, to Ticonderoga, where the waterway drains into Lake Champlain.

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Before Stoddard became a highly-sought-after photographer, he was earning his living painting decorative landscapes on the interiors of railway cars. When he settled in Glens Falls in 1864, he opened his own business doing ornamental and sign painting—and spent his free time painting portraits and landscapes. Stoddard would end up approaching his landscape photography with a painterly eye. When taking photographs of a lake or falls, he’d use a longer exposure to render the surface of the water milky and luminous. And when he made prints, Stoddard would sometimes combine different exposures to obtain a stronger image, for example, burning the clouds from one image into the clear sky of another to heighten drama.

Though Stoddard exhibited work at Philadelphia’s “Centennial International Exhibition of 1876”—the first official World’s Fair—the artistry of his photographs went largely unrecognized during his lifetime. It wasn’t until 1980, when his work was prominently featured in “American Light: The Luminist Movement, 1850-1875” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, that Stoddard’s reputation as a fine artist was established. That it was ever in doubt should come as a surprise to anyone paging through Water & Light. Though the scenes themselves can be described simply—views over the pristine glacial lake to the forested mountains beyond, shots of rocky coastlines and picturesque wooden bridges, steamboats and landings, ruined forts, staid hotels, rustic

a great lake (from top, left to right) Tea Island; Trout Pavilion; “The Tug-of-War” at Crosbyside; Lake View House; Sagamore Landing; The Sagamore; Lake George, north from Black Mountain Point; Fort George Hotel; (opposite, from top, left to right) steamer “Colvin”; Paradise Bay; The Narrows; the Fort William Henry Hotel’s piazza from the west; Black Mountain; steamer “Minne-Ha-Ha”; Sheldon Point from Trout Pavilion; Horicon Sketching Club.

camps and people in Victorian dress fishing, canoeing, lounging in hammocks or engaging in a tug-of-war—the sum is considerably greater than the individual value of the parts. I can’t help but let Stoddard’s work whisk me away to a serene summer afternoon on Lake George. Won’t you join me?

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SO CLOSE...

Good Magic nearly pulled it off at The Kentucky Derby. Nearly.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE KANE

FOR A FEW GLORIOUS SECONDS, as Good Magic reached the top of the stretch at the Kentucky

Derby on May 5, trainer Chad Brown figured he’d captured the first Derby win of his career. Co-owner Bob Edwards of e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, a Derby rookie already possessing a remarkable record of racing success, did too. At the other end of the stretch, kneeling in front of four

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monitors on NBC Sports’ trackside set, I was having precisely the same reaction, though I certainly wasn’t screaming like Brown or Edwards. “Keep coming, keep coming,” I whispered as Good Magic moved a bit closer to front-running Justify, the unbeaten 5-2 favorite trained by Bob Baffert. “Keep coming.”

An instant or two later, Brown, Edwards and the millions of people watching at Churchill Downs and on TV realized that Good Magic wouldn’t be winning this race with destiny. Justify

had responded to the challenge and spurted away on the track made a sloppy mess by nearly three inches of rain. Some 20 seconds later, Justify reached the finish line of the 144th Kentucky Derby, with a 2½-length victory over Good Magic.

Brown, the 39-year-old Mechanicville native building a Hall of Fame résumé, could’ve been bitter, but was remarkably upbeat afterward. “We’re working our way towards that Winner’s Circle,” he said. “It wasn’t meant to be this year. It

good place saratoga living’s Derby pick, Good Magic (No. 6 in yellow), came in second in the first leg of the 2018 Triple Crown, just behind the formidable winner, Justify.

was a tough field. But I’m real proud of this horse. He kept fighting all the way to the end and showed that he’s a top-class horse.” Jockey Jose Ortiz had followed Brown’s instructions and tracked Justify through fast early fractions. When the time

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came for the stalker to pounce, when many fast horses might’ve faltered, Justify had enough left.

The next morning, after checking on Good Magic, Brown smiled as I approached. “You almost got that right; I thought you did, picking us to win,” he said. I nodded and laughed, “Yeah, I was feeling it, too.” Back in January, saratoga living’s new Editor in Chief, Richard Pérez-Feria, asked me to pick the Derby winner in the year’s first issue. Though I realized, at that point, it’d be a fool’s errand, I agreed and went with Good Magic, co-owned by Edwards and his wife, Kris, a Saratoga Springs native. It wasn’t a longshot pick, because Good Magic was the 2017 two-year-old male champion, but precocious colts don’t always develop. Fortunately, Good Magic did.

Much like Brown, Edwards was disappointed, but satisfied. “Good Magic made the move, and Justify just made the move at the same time.

He simply kept going. We didn’t have enough to catch him,” he said. “To run in your first Kentucky Derby, and to come in second, it’s still unbelievable.”

I couldn’t agree more.

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racing royalty Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and jockey Victor Espinoza enter the Winner’s Circle at the 2015 Belmont Stakes.

The Belmont At

150 The final leg of the Triple Crown is celebrating a big birthday.

STO RY A N D PHOTOGRAPHY

BY MIKE K ANE

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his year marks the milestone 150th running of the Belmont Stakes—“The Test of the Champion”—on June 9 at Belmont Park in Elmont, NY. First run in 1867, the Belmont’s the oldest of the races that make up the American Triple Crown—and at 1½ miles, it’s also the longest. It was named for August Belmont, a 19th-century German immigrant, who amassed a great fortune and great political power in New York and was a leading sportsman. The greatest Belmont ever? There are plenty to choose from, and good arguments can be made about a number of them. But for my money, it’s the epic 2015 running, when 90,000 people cheered as American Pharoah ended the 37-year Triple Crown drought. In all my years covering sports, I’ve never seen, heard or felt anything like it. Happy birthday, Belmont— here’s to 150 more.

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(For A Great Cause) THE SHAKEN & STIRRED BARTENDER EVENT WAS AS COMPETITIVE AS EVER.

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aratoga Springs showed its competitive side at the sixth annual Shaken & Stirred Celebrity Bartender Party on May 17, which once again pitted local businesses against one another in a competition to serve the most drinks—and earn the most tips. All of the money earned by the teams was then used to benefit the renovation of the Universal Preservation Hall (UPH), a performing arts education and entertainment venue located in a historic church on Washington Street in Downtown Saratoga.

Eight teams battled it out, one-on-one, under

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strings of yellow lights on the spacious patio of Prime at Saratoga National. The matchups were Adirondack Trust Company versus Stewart’s Shops, Pure Barre versus Sinclair Saratoga, Baby Bumps versus Julie & Co. Realty and DeCrescente Distributing Company versus Phinney Design Group. After holding a solid lead throughout most of the competition, Adirondack Trust Company

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was ultimately bested by DeCrescente, which raised more than $12,000 in tips.

In all, more than $45,000 was raised for UPH. “This year, the teams were on their game and highly competitive,” says Teddy Foster, Campaign Director for UPH. “They choreographed wonderful entrances”—think loud theme songs, T-shirts being thrown into the crowd, air horns blasting and even

prime time Around 500 people came out to Prime at Saratoga National to support UPH; (inset, from left) UPH Board Members Bob Egielski, Tonya PellegriniLawrence and Rob Coughlin and UPH Campaign Director Teddy Foster.

a cow mascot (for the Stewart’s team, naturally)— “and they were really in it to win it.” Why has Shaken & Stirred become such a Saratoga staple? “People love it because it’s in a beautiful location, it’s for UPH—which a lot of people love—and it’s easy: You don’t have to get dressed up, there’s no cover charge and it’s all just about enjoying yourself,” Foster says. “It’s like the unofficial kickoff to the summer.”

Next year’s event has already been scheduled, Foster tells me. It’s May 16, 2019—same time, same place. I’ll be there, margarita (and tip) in hand.

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Fighting The Good Fight At ACS’ Gala Of Hope

BY WILL LEVITH

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chair Anthony Ianniello’s trio of entities— Ianniello Anderson, PC, our magazine and Putnam Place—serving as presenting sponsors for the night’s soirée. The event was orchestrated by ACS’ own planner extraordinaire, Lizzie Hunter, and featured

special honoree, Jeanne Walsh. Highlights of the night included a red carpet Starcam hosted by Brit Drahos and Bill Perry, a live auction, a surf-and-turf sit-down meal and a busy dance floor, with tunes provided by local favorite, Soul Session. The most

moving part of the evening came when the house lights were dimmed, and people who had been affected by cancer were asked to raise glow sticks, illuminating the darkened room. It was a vivid reminder that the fight against the odious disease is an ongoing battle.

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1. Guests pose for a selfie; 2. (from left) Richard Pérez-Feria, Beverly Tracy, Becky Kendall, Seth Davis; 3. Gala goers break it down; 4. Joe Pilatich, Michael Lia, Ryan Smith, Adam Bowers; 5. An attendee leads her friend to the dance floor; 6. Alexis Klopfer with her sister, Lianne, behind the (iPhone) camera; 7. A guest placing a bid in the auction.

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n April, the American Cancer Society (ACS) held its annual Gala of Hope, raising awareness for ACS’ mission—and much-needed funds, of course—at Saratoga’s Hall of Springs. The black-tie affair was a major success, with saratoga living

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hen Saratoga’s premier lifestyle media company teams up with Saratoga’s top luxury hotel,

it’s bound to be an epic night. And it didn’t disappoint.

On April 11, saratoga living—and the rest of the city—celebrated the release of its first ever Design Issue at the beautiful Adelphi Hotel. Presented

by Phinney Design Group and cosponsored by Luizzi Bros. Sealcoating & Paving, Beverly Tracy Home Design, Alfa Romeo of Albany and The Adelphi Hotel, the evening featured complimentary wine from

Arias Wine, music by Rich Ortiz, photos by Dave Bigler Studio, video by Red Cape Dream Productions and, of course, swag bags. The Design Issue’s celebrity cover was revealed to feature none other than hometown hero Rachael Ray, and the Adelphi Hospitality Group’s newly minted head chef, David Burke, was in attendance, along with several other area design gurus featured in the issue.

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saratoga living’s Design Party Had The Adelphi Rockin’

1. (from left) Patrick Poirier, Garrett Russell, AJ Schmidt, Bourke Kraus, Tyler Russell; 2. Mike Phinney (second from left), his wife, Marci Phinney (at his left), Tess Palma-Martinez (at her left) with friends; 3. (from left) Marco Medrano, Richard PérezFeria, Nick LaFountain; 4. (from left) John Baringer, Laura Simele, Dave Bigler, Maureen Baringer; 5. Rich Ortiz; 6. (from left) Sofia Davis, Jeffery Dingler, Gabriella Boschetti; 7. (from left) Anthony Ianniello, Peter Ianniello, Tony Ramos, Antonelli Ramos, Greg Kerber; 8. (from left) Shareefah Drahos, Brit Drahos, Becky Kendall, Richard Pérez-Feria, Sharon Kendall; 9. Beverly Tracy, Joe Mastrianni.

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the back ⁄ space race Visionaries imagine a future where space travel’s affordable enough for citizen thrillseekers and adventure travelers alike. Sound like science fiction? The day’s coming sooner than you may think.

The Sky’s Not The Limit I N C R E D I B LY, S PA C E I S Y O U R N E X T L U X U R Y T R A V E L D E S T I N A T I O N .

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the back ⁄ deGrasse Tyson, there are plenty of ways to nerd out, but all pale in comparison to the idea of blasting off to the cosmos yourself.

Fear not, earthlings—2018 just so happens to be the year when space travel is democratized.

(Democratized, that is, for the über-rich. For now, most of us will have to settle for a terrestrial vacation. Lake George, anyone?) There’s a new space race afoot.

And unlike competing

SpaceX has its sights set on transforming what it’s calling “Earth to Earth” transportation—or using space travel to deposit you in far-off places such as China or Australia in a frighteningly short amount of time.

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superpowers with vaguely sinister intentions and looming doomsday clocks, this new race is between companies in the private sector. Their goal? To take wealthy citizens on the ultimate adventure: blasting off into the stratosphere, or to the moon and back!

As you might expect, “space tourism,” the term for this budding industry, isn’t exactly cheap. Tickets range anywhere from $250,000 to $58 million, depending on the company and the experience. (And for those misanthropes among us, some companies are even offering one-way tickets to the cosmos. More on that later.) For companies such as SpaceX, Orion Span and Virgin Galactic, it turns out that money and competition are excellent drivers for innovation.

For decades, human space flight has rested squarely in the government’s domain.

Fewer than 600 people, almost all of them public employees, have left the Earth’s grasp. But entrepreneurs and “space billionaires” such as Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk are hoping to change that. While the rich will go first, these visionaries imagine a future where space travel’s affordable enough for citizen thrill-seekers and adventure travelers alike.

Sound like science fiction?

The day’s coming sooner than you may think.

The first space tourism company to leave the Earth’s atmosphere may very well be Virgin Galactic. Speaking on behalf of his New Mexico-based company, Branson has said that flights aboard SpaceShipTwo

could begin as early as this year. So far, more than 500 aspiring astronauts have signed up—paying $250K a piece—including Hollywood A-listers Ashton Kutcher, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. If you can’t picture a life without some of those names, consider this: A fatal accident during a test run in 2014 claimed the life of a Virgin Galactic pilot and set development back by years. While the rewards—getting to experience weightlessness, having a dinner party trump card—may outweigh the risks, space is an inherently dangerous place.

SpaceShipTwo certainly sounds innocuous enough, but it’s an air-launched suborbital spaceplane designed to carry six passengers and two pilots to an altitude of about 62 miles above our home planet.

Things could go wrong. Fast.

For Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is planning to send a privately crewed “Dragon 2” spacecraft beyond the moon, an independent FAA-funded analysis found the risk of death to be 1 in 270—or roughly equivalent to that of climbing Mount Everest. The weeklong flight will largely retrace the path taken by “Apollo 8” astronauts in 1968, and two customers have reportedly shelled out “a significant deposit,” per SpaceX, or what experts believe is anywhere from $58 million and up, for a ticket. Musk is known for offering overly optimistic timetables, but he’s said that the mission could come as soon as late 2018.

And what about the next decade? Musk founded SpaceX way back in 2002 with the not-so-small

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remember the first time I fell in love with the idea of space travel. It was aboard the “Millennium Falcon,” a light freighter capable of interstellar flight commandeered by a scoundrel, a princess and a hero. I was hooked. Star Wars and the expanding genre of science fiction have been a staple in my life ever since. From space odysseys to aliens to Neil

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intention of colonizing Mars. So far, SpaceX has set an aspirational goal for the first cargo mission to land on the Red Planet in 2022. Objectives include confirming water resources and identifying hazards: fewer little green men and more living safely on a dead rock. To that end, initial power, mining and life support infrastructure will need to be put in place.

A second mission, this time with both cargo and crew aboard, is targeted for 2024. Piggybacking on SpaceX’s eventual ecological developments, Dutch company Mars One is intent on sending space travelers off, with a one-way trip to the Red Planet sometime in the next couple of decades. The company’s wrongly claimed in the past that it’s received more than 200,000 applicants—the figure is closer to 3000—and its criteria for selecting astronauts is downright dubious. At the moment, Mars One is weathering claims that it’s a hopeless endeavor

2018

SITI Company, Chess Match No. 5, June 22

Aurora Station will orbit 200 miles above the Earth’s surface. Luxurious accommodations will include private suites for two, while every 90 minutes the space station will complete a full orbit around the Earth.

or even a hoax. It remains to be seen if such a project will eventually lift off. Unfortunately, your idle daydreams of that annoying, weird coworker volunteering to live on Mars should stay in the realm of fantasy…for now.

Compared to the Mars voyages, Orion Span has a less ambitious but nonetheless exciting goal: construction of the world’s first luxury space hotel. Think strolling the Maldives counts as exotic?

Aurora Station will orbit 200 miles above the Earth’s surface.

Luxurious accommodations will include private suites for two, while every 90 minutes the space station will complete a full orbit around the Earth. Those willing to pay $9.5 million will see day and night every 1.5 hours during their 12-day stay.

(No filter necessary, of course.) In addition, those luxury cosmonauts will experience weightlessness and fast, wireless Internet access— in space! Because how else are you going to post all your sunsetfrom-low-orbit photos to Instagram?

The Aurora Station plans to launch in 2021.

Don’t like the idea of spending time in the cold, dark, lifeless reaches of space? Not to worry.

SpaceX also has its sights set on transforming what it’s calling “Earth to Earth” transportation—or using space travel to deposit you in faroff places in a frighteningly short amount of time. In addition to vastly increased speeds, one great thing about space travel is the lack of almost any friction. Once the ship leaves the atmosphere, there’s no turbulence or weather to worry about. (Although you might want to consider an Ambien for blastoff.)

The benefits of “Earth to Earth” are huge: A flight from New York to Paris could take as little as 30 minutes. Now that’s an innovation we can all enjoy.

While it’s not quite Star Wars’ “Millennium Falcon,” I’ll take a suborbital trip over a coach ticket on a commercial airliner any day.

Close the pod bay doors, HAL. And get me a drink. STAT.

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the back Design ⁄

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have traveled more than 14 million miles on behalf of my clients, I’ve been fortunate enough to constantly find inspiration from cultures and traditions all over the world, allowing me to bring new and exciting elements to my designs. I put a lot of effort into the timing and flow of events so that the guest experience is seamlessly constructed from beginning to end.

〔1〕 WHAT MAKES A COLIN COWIE EVENT DISTINCTIVE? I pull from the client’s unique DNA, meaning no two of my parties ever look the same.

I use my five-senses approach to guarantee that everything guests smell, touch, taste, see and hear is flawlessly orchestrated and catered to the seasons, time of day and overall experience of the event. There’s a certain art in giving guests just the right amount of time to eat before livening up the dancefloor with a carefully curated musical selection. My favorite part of any event is when the candles have burned halfway down, the wine’s taken its effect and everyone’s got a smile wrapped two-anda-half times around their face. That’s truly why we do what we do. My recent work in Saratoga’s the ideal example. After expanding our presence into the area, I was able to get involved with events like the Saratoga Wine & Food Festival and use the DNA of the event itself to enhance and

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revamp it. This September, guests at the festival can expect to experience it like never before.

〔2〕 WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO MAKE OVER YOUR HOME? I like to start with a basic canvas. Gray or white are my favorites, as they showcase all other colors fabulously. When it comes to entertaining, I’m a huge collector of tabletop items.

Start with your basic white and treat it like a little black

and airy colors for the warm summer days, and darker, warmer colors for those winter nights. Always remember that bringing guests into your home is the best way to give them a window into your life!

〔3〕 WHAT’S THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF PL ANNING A DESTINATION WEDDING? The obvious difficulty is the added logistical consideration. If guests

Colin Cowie To The Rescue saratoga living’ S N E W D E S I G N E D I T O R HAPPENS TO BE THE WORLD’S BEST EVENT P L A N N E R . L U C K Y U S . n BY C O L I N C O W I E

dress. You can dress it up or down, depending on the occasion and your mood.

Embrace a couple of colors that speak to you and build a collection of coordinating napkins, placemats, candles, water glasses and objects, allowing you to create multiple looks. That way, you build a wardrobe that is a reflection of your own personality, whether you’re setting a few placemats up for a TV dinner or a formal meal at the dining room table. I find it’s a good idea to think of your home as a summer and winter space.

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are flying in for a multiday event, you have to think about moving their luggage seamlessly, making sure everyone’s able to make it to and from each venue in a timely way and creating a well-thought-out production schedule to adhere to.

What I usually do is bring in a core management team and then hire local creative partners and vendors, who are familiar with the location should we need anything. I’ve had the pleasure of teaming up with the right people at these destinations and making sure that I have a crew of

intelligent and professional producers who can handle site-visits and other premeditated logistics, so that there are minimal surprises on the day-of.

And remember, with all the logistics, a well-informed guest is a happy guest.

Send a save-the-date, set up a website with all the travel and attire information the guests might need and mail out a confirmation package that clearly stipulates the different events, times and dress codes. Finally, assume that they haven’t read anything and leave them the itinerary again, along with a welcome note.

the main event “My favorite part of any event is when the candles have burned halfway down, the wine’s taken its effect and everyone’s got a smile wrapped two-and-a-half times around their face,” saratoga living’s new Design Editor and event planning superstar, Colin Cowie, says.

〔4〕 WHAT’S THE SINGLE BEST TIP YOU CAN GIVE AN ASPIRING COLIN COWIE PROTÉGÉ?

The one ideology that’s guided me throughout my career?

Ruthless editing and perseverance. The service industry today is oversaturated with products. We don’t need another solution or hospitality provider; what we need is to ruthlessly edit to get rid of the 90 percent of clutter and keep the 10 percent that truly matters in making a quality offering to the client. Perseverance is key. Remember, every “no” gets you one step closer to a “yes.” Surround yourself with a team of individuals who are experienced, knowledgeable and ready to put in the work. Having a support system that you can depend on is a major key in being able to sustain a successful business.

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Conducting, recording, teaching, inspiring…

Yannick Nézet-Séguin maintains a world-orbiting schedule that seems nothing short of superhuman.

Philly’s Music Man, Yannick Nézet-Séguin T H E C E L E B R AT E D P H I L A D E L P H I A O R C H E S T R A C O N D U C TO R G E T S R E A DY T O ‘ W O W ’ A G A I N A T S PA C T H I S S U M M E R . n B Y S A N D Y M A C D O N A L D

(Conducting) JAN REGAN; (Headshot) HANS VAN DER WOERD

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s a child, I had a bird’s-eye view of the Metropolitan Opera. In 1962, I was exploring the hidden passageways of the old Met, when famed soprano Leontyne Price lost her voice during La Fanciulla del West, and my father, the house doctor, had to prescribe her vocal rest. I was at the about-to-open new Met in 1966, when, during the dress rehearsal for Antony and Cleopatra, she had to be extracted from a malfunctioning pyramid. I promise not to jinx the Met’s Music Director designate, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, when he brings his hometeam Philadelphia Orchestra to perform at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) August 8-28—a commitment that preceded the Met’s staggering announcement, last winter, that he’d been appointed successor to James Levine.

Although Nézet-Séguin has already begun advising and brainstorming, he won’t officially assume the Met’s reins until the 202021 season, his plate being already quite full. Make that plates: He’s accustomed to spinning plenty at the same time. Staggered directorships have him overseeing not just the Philadelphia Orchestra (for whom SPAC’s amphitheater was built,

to Eugene Ormandy’s specifications, in 1966), but the Orchestre Métropolitain De Montréal (Nézet-Séguin’s birthplace, a mere 43 years ago) and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in the Netherlands. Conducting, recording, teaching, inspiring…he maintains a dizzying world-orbiting schedule that seems nothing short of superhuman.

Nézet-Séguin clearly thrives on the challenge, and SPAC is one residency he wouldn’t want to miss.

Although he’s conducting half of the performances,

relatively speaking, it’s a vacation for him. Glancing at Nézet-Séguin’s grueling schedule, a house doctor might advise some R&R. Rest may not be the maestro’s forte, but in Saratoga Springs, with its medicinal waters, relaxing spas and panoply of enticing restaurants to sample, recreation is pretty much guaranteed. philly fanatic The busy Nézet-Séguin oversees the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain De Montréal and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

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S K I D M O R E ’ S A R T I S T- I N - R E S I D E N C E , J O E L B R O W N , B R I N G S H I S G U I T A R Q U A R T E T T O T R O Y.

BY JEFFERY DINGLER

(Terri Lyne Carrington) TRACY LOVE

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he Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet featuring Skidmore’s artist-in-residence, Joel Brown, will join forces with the Albany Symphony on Sunday, June 3, to premier Forever Wild, a new symphonic work by New York composer Evan Mack. The performance is part of the American Music Festival going on at Troy’s Riverfront Park from May 31 to June 3. Forever Wild won’t be your typical evening out at the symphony; audience members are encouraged to bring their acoustic guitars and join in during the finale of the new composition.

Opera Saratoga is hosting its “Bernstein Birthday Celebration” on Sunday, June 10. The concert is a tribute to famed American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein on what would’ve been his 100th birthday. Members of Opera Saratoga’s Young Artist Program will perform selections from Bernstein’s most popular

guitar pick (above) The Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet will perform at Troy’s American Music Festival on June 3; (right) Jazz musician Terri Lyne Carrington is coming to the Zankel Music Center with her band on June 26.

works, including West Side Story and Candide. The celebration will be held at the Carriage House at The Mansion Inn. As part of the Skidmore Jazz Institute, Terri Lyne Carrington and her band are coming to the Arthur Zankel Music Center on Tuesday, June 26. A threetime Grammy winner, Carrington is a Renaissance woman of sorts, playing the drums, singing, composing and producing records.

She’s also played with many of the biggest names in jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock and Esperanza Spalding (the latter two are performing at the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival June 23-24).

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Now You See Him T H R E E C A N T- M I S S S H OW S F O R T H E C A S UA L C R OW D.

BY JEFFERY DINGLER

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llusionist and endurance artist David Blaine is coming to Albany’s Palace Theatre to perform a special oneman show on Tuesday, June 26. Blaine is known for interactive shows that shock and awe—in one primetime TV special, he encased himself in a block of ice for 72 hours in New York City’s Times Square.

Don’t miss a chance to be a part of this magical event.

Country superstar Keith Urban is bringing his 58-performance “Graffiti U World Tour” to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, June 27.

This marks Urban’s SPAC debut and his first trip to the Capital Region since his Times Union Center show in 2011. The tour date is part of SPAC’s Country Megaticket package, which includes four other high-profile shows: Rascal Flatts (July 7),

Jason Aldean (July 15), Dierks Bentley (August 5) and Luke Bryan (August 19).

Critically acclaimed folk singer-songwriter Sean Rowe is returning to Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs to play a set on Sunday, June 24. The Troy native has recorded a Tiny Desk concert for National Public Radio and produced a number of well-received albums, including his most recent, 2017’s New Lore.

Leading the practice of law.

blaine game Magician and endurance artist David Blaine is bringing his illusions to the Palace Theatre in Albany this June.

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⁄ MAY-JUNE 2018

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY 358 Broadway, Suite 206 Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

CLIFTON PARK, NY 805 Route 146, Northway 9 Plaza Clifton Park, NY 12065

ALBANY, NY GLENS FALLS, NY 8 Airline Drive, Suite 101 333 Glen Street, Suite 200 Albany, NY 12205 Glens Falls, NY 12801

BOSTON, MA BONITA SPRINGS, FL saratogaliving.com One Boston Place, Suite 2600 9990 Coconut Road,Suite 345143 Boston, MA 02108 Bonita Springs FL 34135

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the back Drink ⁄ MIXOLOGISTS:

Mary Jane Carville and Hilary Morrison BAR:

Sinclair Saratoga COCKTAIL:

The Metro

‘The Metro’ Makes A Tasty Comeback

S I N C L A I R S A R ATO G A T I P S I T S C A P TO A F O R M E R S PA C I T Y A F T E R - H O U R S I N S T I T U T I O N W I T H I T S N E X T G R E AT S A R ATO G A C O C K TA I L E N T RY. P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y D O R I F I T Z PA T R I C K

We wanted to bring together worldly flavors, and at the same time, play on a familiar classic summertime gin and tonic. The drink’s namesake is the old Saratoga Springs nightclub, The Metro, which lived here at 17 Maple Avenue for many years in the 1980s and ’90s.

out of this world! ARE YOU READY FOR SPACE TRAVEL, SARATOGA? *{is uncle sam really from troy?}

MAY JUNE 2018

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HOME MOVIES SARATOGA GOES HOLLYWOOD!

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☐ 1-year Domestic: $19.95 ☐ 1-year Canadian: $24.95 ☐ 2-year Domestic: $39.90 ☐ 2-year Canadian: $49.90 This is a: ☐ New subscription ☐ Renewal

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The Metro

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

0.5 oz. coconut milk 0.5 oz. fresh lemon juice 0.5 oz. fresh orange juice 0.75 oz. simple syrup 1.5 oz. gin 1.5 oz. tonic water

Combine coconut milk and gin in a container and refrigerate overnight. (Fine strain when infusion’s finished.) Add coconut milk-infused gin, lemon juice, orange juice and simple syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain over fresh ice in a Collins glass. Top with tonic, garnish with a lime wheel and enjoy Saratoga’s freshest cocktail!

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the back Expert ⁄

Bottle Of Red, Bottle Of White

PUTNAM MARKET’S BRITISH WINE DIRECTOR, WILLIAM ROACH, I M PA R T S K N O W L E D G E F R O M H I S D O W N T O W N P E R C H O N B R O A D W A Y. PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAWRENCE WHITE

I

f you’re lucky enough to live in Saratoga Springs—or are a frequent visitor—you’ll know Broadway’s Putnam Market well. When I was a teenager growing up here in the 1990s, I spent many a weekend afternoon in the deli line ordering a sandwich there, but it wasn’t until about 2001, when I was 21, that I could legally enjoy the bottles in the little shop next door.

That would be Putnam’s Wine Room, which first opened its doors 20 years ago, and has been a staple in Downtown Saratoga ever since. Let’s say you need a Pinot, Cab Franc or rosé on the go. Know that Putnam’s Wine Director, William Roach, will guide you to your next vintage wisely.

For one thing, he holds a level four diploma in Wine & Spirits from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). In addition, he’s a WSET Certified Educator— meaning that he actually teaches the intricacies of wine. (He also holds an MBA from London Business School and pronounces “privacy” with a succinct “i” because, yes, he’s British.)

Says William of his time in the business: “I sold Putnam Market’s first bottle of wine in May 1998. Since then, I’ve had many hours of wine education and many opportunities to taste wine

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in all manner of places, with many who know more about wine than I do.” This year marks William Roach’s 20th year at Putnam, so saratoga living asked him to share 20 kernels of wine knowledge that he’s learned throughout the decades.

—W I LL LE VI TH

Here’s William Roach’s (amazing) list:

ON KNOWING WINE

1. Wine knowledge starts with geography and a smattering of chemistry.

2. If you want to appear knowledgeable about wine, try not to mention fruit or berries.

3. Buy two bottles of wine that are similar, barring one thing—price, place of origin or age. Then compare and contrast for sweetness, acidity and persistence.

Do not consider which you like better until the very end. Repeat.

AT A RESTAURANT

4. Take the sommelier’s advice. Tell him or her how much you want to spend and the style you’d prefer— as in: “I’d like to spend somewhere around $50.

I like Pinot Grigio but I want something different.”

5. When asked to taste the wine, just smell the glass. If it doesn’t smell like it would taste nice, it probably won’t.

Ask the sommelier (or

⁄ MAY-JUNE 2018

wine waiter) for a second opinion—as in, “This doesn’t smell right to me, what do you think?” Even if he or she doubts your judgement, in a well-run establishment, the wine waiter will quietly bring a replacement bottle.

IN A WINE STORE

6. Most customers are fearful of buying wine they, or their guests, won’t like. Familiar brands and high ratings offer them reassurance. If you don’t recognize many labels in a store, it’s because you’ve found the wine equivalent of an indie bookshop.

Start a conversation: It’ll be welcomed.

7. Wines that are out of fashion are usually lower priced and better made than popular and fashionable varieties. For example, this is a very good time to drink California Merlot.

8. The more specifically the label describes the source of the grapes, the more likely the wine will have a distinct personality.

PAIRING WITH FOOD

9. Wine and cheese go well together: Sweet wine with blue cheese is terrific, hard cheese goes great with Cabernet Sauvignon and washed-rind cheese pairs up perfectly with Chardonnay.

10. Food will always change the way wine tastes. Sweet

the wine king Putnam’s Wine Room and its Wine Director, William Roach, are celebrating 20 years in the wine business.

food will make a dry wine taste tart. Lemon juice will make a dry wine taste sweet.

Protein (cheese) will make a tannic wine smooth. Try it.

THE WINE BUSINESS

11. Four winemaking companies account for 63 percent of all the wine sold in the US. Their products include all the well-known brands.

12. The production of well-known wine brands runs to millions of cases.

Nobody on Earth makes millions of cases of wine that nobody likes.

13. Most well-known brands use between two and four teaspoons of sugar per bottle to make the wine instantly appealing.

14. Wine is the only consumable product on your dining room table

that’s not required by law to display the ingredients it contains. Interesting, no?

ON PLEASURE

15. It’s hard to like any food or drink upon first encounter. That can often be helped in equal measure by peer pressure and sugar.

16. The joy to be had from a glass of wine is directly proportional to the amount

of fun you’re having. In other words, context is, as always, everything.

17. Never store wine glasses upside down. They will end up smelling musty.

FOR A CROWD

18. For a large party, keep the choices to a minimum—one red wine, one white wine and one wine with a touch of sweetness. And always

buy a little more than you think you’ll need.

FOR A SPECIAL OCCASION 19. Always buy wine that’s good enough, but not too good—nothing that demands to be the center of attention.

ON GIVING WINE

20. If the recipient’s a total wine geek, give good olive oil. Trust me.

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Happy Birthday!

BY N ATA L I E M O O R E ACROSS: 1. Control + ___ + Delete 4. Opposite of horiz.

8. Some computers 12. Neither this ___ that 13. A small ornamental case 14. Response from a cave 15. Prefix meaning three 16. Ladder component 17. Prince album Purple ___ 18. New York Citybased HBO dramedy turning 20 in 2018 21. Visualize 22. Texter’s “I didn’t need to hear that” 23. ___ boy 26. Hawaiian accessory 27. Greek exclamation 30. Movie remake, featuring twins, that’s turning 20 in 2018 34. What you use to 21-across 35. Group 36. Allowed to do something 37. “Chandelier” singer

38. Web portal formerly called The Microsoft Network 40. Disney theme park turning 20 in 2018 47. Nothing, in Spanish 48. One of Michael Jackson’s brothers 49. Honest former pres.

50. Above 51. ___ von Bismarck 52. Like some cigarettes 53. Tidy 54. Take a break 55. Uber driver’s approx.

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29. Caesar of popular sci-fi movie series 31. China’s locale 32. Person who sells homes 33. Strong flavor 37. Like some phones 38. Baseball gloves 39. Snob 40. Shakespearean “soon”

41. Central part of a cathedral 42. “I have an ___!”

43. Flying toy 44. Famous Braves player Murphy 45. Death notif.

46. Prefix for -morphosis and -data

466 Broadway Saratoga Springs New York

THE HEART OF SARATOGA SPRINGS

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