A reader recently sent me a dining guide he’d happened upon, titled “Capital Cuisine.” Published in 1979, it was written by Sara Bassett, a name unfamiliar to me and not present in Times Union archives, and Pat Titterton, who was involved in the local theater scene for decades, contributed theater pieces to the Times Union for many years and, with her husband, Lew, became a Saratoga philanthropist. She died in 2021 .
Of the approximately 85 restaurants covered in the book, nine are still open, though in most cases not under the founders. Otherwise, paging through is a stroll down the lane of meals long past and names almost forgotten, including Casa Verde in Albany, Jim Rua’s pre-Cafe Capriccio restaurant, located where Hill Street Cafe is now; Yorkstone Pub (later Bayou Cafe and now The Hollow, also in Albany); Hiro’s in Colonie, the region’s original teppanyaki restaurant, serving from the mid-1970s until 2016; Villa Balsamo, open on Route 50 south of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center for decades until closing after the 2017 racing season and now for sale for $800,000 less than the original asking price; and Bavarian Chalet, opened in Albany in 1950 as Little Bavaria, then renamed after a move to Guilderland that lasted from 1963 to 2005.
The prices are predictably eye-widening, including 95-cent cocktails and soups, $3.50 for a platter of spaghetti and meatballs that was “enough to feed at least three, probably four” and $2.75 for a dozen oysters. The authors can be rhapsodic, calling Phila Street-era Chez Sophie “simply exquisite” ($20 prix-fixe menu with soup, salad, appetizer, entree with sides, dessert and coffee), but they aren’t mere cheerleaders, for example advising to always opt for pasta over meat dishes at Lombardo’s in Albany: “You might enjoy (veal Marsala) if you’re really fond of Swiss steak — to which this veal bears an amazing resemblance — but it’s not a particularly good entree anyway.”…