Steve Barnes

New York

Senior Writer and Restaurant Columnist at Times Union (Albany)

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Articles

Dunning Street Station eatery in Malta closes, building sale pending

3 days ago | timesunion.com | Steve Barnes

MALTA — The Station, a restaurant open in a former silver diner on Route 9 since June 2016, is closed and a sale is pending on the building, according to chef and co-owner Scott Ringwood.
Status remains unclear for PJ’s Bar-B-QSA in Saratoga

3 days ago | timesunion.com | Steve Barnes

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The rumor mill has been at full grind lately about the status of PJ’s Bar-B-QSA. When will it reopen? It missed Memorial Day. And now it’s going to miss this week’s Belmont Racing Festival. Answers were absent online. There’s no sign on the door. The phone number is in service but does not have voicemail. Article continues below this adMight it be — oh, no! — permanently closed? That would be terrible!It’s not closed, say the owners in their first comment on the matter.
Due soon: Revival of Slick’s Tavern and new Japanese-Italian fusion

3 days ago | timesunion.com | Steve Barnes

Two anticipated restaurant openings — the revival of Slick’s Tavern in Schenectady and the debut of Itameshi in Albany, the area’s first Japanese-Italian fusion spot — are due in the coming weeks, according to their respective owners.
Alcohol reform struggles again as end looms for Legislature’s session

4 days ago | timesunion.com | Steve Barnes

ALBANY — Advocates for reforming laws governing the sale of alcohol this year, including the permissibility of wine in supermarkets, are running out of time as the state Legislature looks to wrap up its 2025 session next week while several alcohol-related bills remain in committee.
First look: Junior’s Bar & Grill opens in East Greenbush

1 week ago | timesunion.com | Steve Barnes

The fourth location of Junior’s Bar & Grill opened last week in East Greenbush with little advance promotion, but it still attracted approximately 200 customers. The following day: 350.
Saratoga’s Osteria Danny sold, new owner is ‘not changing anything’

1 week ago | timesunion.com | Steve Barnes

Former server at the restaurant with corporate career takes over after 9 years under founding chefSARATOGA SPRINGS — After nine years under its namesake chef-owner, the beloved Osteria Danny has been sold to one of its former servers, whose primary career has been with corporations including Walmart and TJ Maxx. Founder Danny Petrosinio will remain in the kitchen through the summer to ease the transition, both parties said Wednesday.
Food insecurity worsens upstate, supermarket wine wanted, more news

1 week ago | timesunion.com | Steve Barnes

In the latest food and restaurant news:Almost 100,000 children living in the 23 upstate counties served by the Latham-based Regional Food Bank experience food insecurity, according to research in Feeding America’s annual Map the Meal Gap study. Figures released by the local food bank show that 15.4% of children and 12.2% of the population overall don’t always know where their next meal is coming from.
Berkshires arts groups form council to collaborate, seek support

1 week ago | timesunion.com | Steve Barnes

Securing support for collective infrastructure needs. Providing affordable housing for seasonal and year-round employees. Initiating joint marketing efforts to attract enhanced tourism to Berkshire County. Increasing transportation options from the Boston metropolitan area to the region. Finding ways to fund intra-county travel to and from cultural venues. Identifying investments in climate resilience to protect Berkshire County from the damaging effects of climate change.
Theater review: A mother’s love takes on profound disability

1 week ago | timesunion.com | Steve Barnes

CATSKILL — The curtain speech prior to the opening night of Bridge Street Theatre’s regional-premiere production of the heart-rending play “Mary Jane” contained a warning: You’re probably not going to enjoy yourself. You’ll feel a lot of things — impressed, moved, disturbed, saddened and emotionally walloped — that rarely accompany conventional enjoyment, except in the sense of intellectually enjoying a well-made production of an anguishing play.
Memorial Day a time of remembrance for Vietnamese restaurant in Watervliet

1 week ago | timesunion.com | Steve Barnes

WATERVLIET — Lan Skiff was 7 years old when Saigon fell in 1975 and the U.S. military pulled out of her native Vietnam. She remembers jumping from a pier to an evacuation ship that was taking away the living and the dead. Little Lan believed her mother when she said the countrymen lying on the deck were sleeping, not among the estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians who perished in a war that lasted more than 20 years and involved American troops in direct combat for a dozen.