Downtown Dating Spree By Zack Vogel Photo by Deborah Neary
Desperate times
call for desperate measures. My wife Marla and I hit a bit of a rough patch recently. There was no marital strife or discord, but after a few years of smooth sailing, we ran into some turbulence—in the babysitter department. The result was nearly four months without a date away from our two fantastic, energetic, fantastically energetic young sons. For the sake of everyone’s safety and well-being, we all needed a few hours apart. It started back in August when my parents visited from Myrtle Beach. They had read my glowing review of the restaurant 15 Church, and proclaimed that they must take me and Marla there for dinner. Marla proceeded to call our main babysitter—unavailable. “No worries” I said. “We have other, eager new candidates.” But, seven is not the lucky number it used to be. Shockingly, exactly seven attempts resulted in zero available babysitters. Marla selflessly insisted that I go to dinner and she stayed home with the boys. We failed to find babysitters the next two times we planned a date. It turns out that babysitters aren’t what they used to be. They grow up. They go off to college. Shockingly, they even maintain personal interests extraneous to the devoted, albeit infrequent care of our children. It’s no wonder, with an epidemic of similarly babysitting challenged parents chained to their homes that global economic growth continues to stagnate. Something had to be done. Then, I was hit with a stroke of brilliance. We live in Saratoga Springs. Yes, we live here because it is a great 46 | Simply Saratoga | HOLIDAY 2014
place to raise children, but we almost forgot how fantastic it is for an adult night out on the town. Saratoga Springs has a complete and compact shopping and dining scene all in one picturesque, walkable, historic downtown. If planned and executed to surgical perfection, I could chalk up four dates in just one night. A typical date for us involves about two destinations. Simple arithmetic dictates that eight stops equals four dates, and since seven clearly was not our lucky number, it must then be eight. My mind became obsessed with the challenge of pulling off this historic “super-date”, I had to give it a shot. With babysitter scheduled, I pulled out my GPS enabled smartphone, directory of local businesses, sextant, protractor, etc., and began to strategize. Of course, relaxation is also a key to any quality date. We started our date with quick, destressing, five minute massages with Theresa at the new Pavilion Grand Hotel Spa. We followed that up with a quick stroll up the hill to our 5:30 p.m. reservation at the bar at 15 Church for an appetizer and glass of wine. Yes, on Saturday night at 5:30 p.m. one does need a reservation at their bar. I’ve been tempted to make a reservation at 15 Church simply to walk by on the sidewalk. It’s super popular, and with good reason. The beet salad special, ordered after a glance at the Roamplate.com online specials menu on my iPhone, was fantastic. Leave it to Chef Brady Duhame to combine whipped chèvre, horseradish crème fresh, duck cracklings, pistachios and a hardboiled egg in one dish. Never before had that assembly of ingredients met in my mouth, but much like this date of ours, that combination was clearly long overdue.
Marla and I tend to be quite practical and efficient with our time (in case you hadn’t figured that out already). Our slew of fall family birthdays, coupled with the holidays makes this season crazy, so we decided to incorporate some gift shopping into this date. With no time to waste, we went straight to the friendly, helpful staff of G Willikers Toys for a recommendation for our soon to be seven year old son. Minutes later we left with a wrapped, three-in-one, marshmallow launching, iPod holding contraption requiring lots of assembly— perfect for our little engineer in training. We then browsed The Savory Pantry leaving with a caramelized onion whipped mustard spread, and purchased some delicious, white truffle oil from the Saratoga Olive Oil Company, both gifts for fellow foodie family members. What stroll through Saratoga would be complete without a quick browse of Northshire Bookstore? After a short bookstore void following Borders’ departure, Northshire seems to have quickly filled those large shoes as the hub that ties downtown together. On this Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m., Northshire was hopping. We had plenty of time (yes, seriously) before our 8 p.m. dinner reservation at The Mouzon House, and bumped into friends on the sidewalk in front of Wheatfields Restaurant. It occurred to me that I would be remiss in leaving spontaneity out of any good date, so we popped into Wheatfield’s for a nice glass of wine at the bar, where we bumped into more friends. After many years living in Manhattan, we still have a great appreciation for the smallness of Saratoga, and how we merely need to leave the house to run into friends. saratogaTODAYnewspaper.com