Best kept secrets of East Greenbush dining
Additions add variety to communte choices
Every now and then you find a gem worth the drive to a suburban town, like the taxidermy and excellent wings at The Towne Tavern in Averill Park, but suburban food is generally quick-order chains and neighborhood bars where the food needn’t be great if the draft beer is cold. Urban development attracts takeout options to grab on the drive home but are rarely a standalone reason to go.
So I’m sending dining news from across the river, minutes from downtown Albany, where Columbia Turnpike (aka Route 9/20) snakes uphill from waterfront Rensselaer to East Greenbush. It’s a stretch punctuated by the tech and biotech campuses of General Dynamics Information Technology, Ualbany East and Regeneron, a growing captive audience partly attracting new places to eat.
It’s been a slow burn. In recent years, I’ve featured tiny Shakin’ Bacon and its reinvention as Illusive Restaurant & Bar blocks from the train station, and Masala House, a standard Pakistani-indian restaurant making the only desi Indian pizza I’ve had outside London, Manhattan and L.A.
Leading the pack, East Greenbush boasts the best crackling pernil and mofongo at Mi Ecuador Juice Bar next to a tattoo shop and jazzercise studio, while Mister Onions has made hot dogs work in a drive-thru hut in the parking lot of a Market 32 Plaza. Coming soon, Albanybased Salsa Latina will open its second location in the former Greenbush Grille on Route 4, best known for its years as a biker bar. And the quick opening of a new plaza enabled a relocated Crisp Cannoli Bakery to graft the Why Not Burger ghost concept onto its kitchen and added Nic’s Trattoria to the dining landscape. It’s time for an update.
Nic’s Trattoria, the newest kid on the block, is hitting it out of the neighborhood. Gorgeous Neapolitan-style pizzas emerge from a 750-degree wood-fired oven, the leopard-spot blisters testament to dough made with imported 00 Italian flour and fermented overnight. Handmade pastas are instantly recognizable on the tongue for their toothsome bite. While you may be swayed by a honey diavolo pizza, spiced with soppressata and Calabrian chile, or a ham, egg and cheese topped in bechamel sauce, smoked mozzarella, prosciutto, chile oil and egg yolk, purists will enjoy the classic simply made with San Marzano tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil. Happily, they also fire panuozzi, a pizza-panino sandwich hybrid from the Gragnano region outside of Naples and perfect for lunch.
The “Nic” in the name comes from owners Rocco and Michael Nicoletti and their father Angelo, an immigrant from Naples, Italy, who ran pizzerias from Brooklyn to Hudson and owns Labella’s in Wynantskill. Chef and pastaio Michael graduated from culinary school in New York City, Rocco earned a business degree, and the brothers have brought their vision for an upscale trattoria to life with comfortably styled decor, an Italianate tiled bar and craft cocktail program overseen by childhood friend and bar manager Drew Harris, who learned his trade at Herban Feast and Emerald City Cocktails in Seattle.
A regularly changing slim menu features handmade pasta (gemelli, spaghetti and tagliatelle), though house Bolognese with slow-cooked pork and veal is a standout, and cacio e pepe is always available. You’ll find rustic beans-and-greens and arancini, but this isn’t a red-sauce joint, and substitutions are politely declined besides easy omissions. They’re exploring gluten-free options, though the nature of a scratch kitchen making fresh pasta in-house daily means they cannot prevent cross-contamination. The pandemic driven “Nic’s To- Go” is an online system for takeout and includes bar cocktails in takeout pouches. Try the St. Augustine (vodka, elderflower, pear, lemon, cinnamon, fennel, bitters, rosemary) or a High Fashioned (brown butter-washed rye, black walnut bitters, demerara sugar, orange and brandy cherry). House-made desserts and amari-driven after-dinner drinks are a bonus, along with Iron coffee roasted in Hoosick Falls. For now, a modest wine list is limited (our server offered us “white or red”), but there are plans to expand a bottle list.
Details: Nic’s Trattoria, 1 Springhurst Drive, East Greenbush. No phone. Reservations and orders online only. nicstrattoria.com.
Chez Mike: Hidden behind a storefront in the East Greenbush Hannaford shopping plaza, Chez Mike may seem an unlikely place for fine dining, but those who know, go. Chef-owner Mike Cohen, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, has been serving creative menus in this location since 2008, but in
the 2020 lockdown Cohen took the opportunity to remodel, expanding the bar area, lightening the look with white subway tiles and installing Plexiglas screens at the counter. Banquette bench seating and booths work hard to shed the store feel, but I’m always happy to sit at the bar.
While Cohen plays with seasonal ingredients, the menu always has bright salads and flavorful vegetable plates. A recent roasted butternut squash with cumin-spiced poblano peppers, caramelized apple, pickled cranberries, goat cheese and chipotlecider glaze is a snip at $10. But Cohen’s meat game is strong, with beef short ribs slow-braised in veal stock, stout and honey, or lamb shank with farro, figs and orange-mint gremolata. Insiders know to order the brick chicken or calf liver and mash.
A bottle list is available by request, but a comprehensive list of 25 wines by the glass includes albarino, pinot blanc and gewurztraminer along with carmenere, Beaujolais and Cote du Rhone. Cocktails change frequently, though a pear martini (pear vodka and ginger liqueur) and New- Old Fashioned (brown sugar simple syrup, orange and Knob Creek bourbon) are staples.
Details: Chez Mike, 596 Columbia Turnpike, East Greenbush. 518-479-4730 and chezmikerestaurant.com.
Srisiam Thai: Another Rensco secret, previously on a residential street, has relocated to the former Selena’s Cafe, opposite a Stewart’s Shops at the entrance to General Dynamics. Though owners Tin Ko and his chef-wife, Nuthaporn Sriwanto, have won several Times Union Best Of the Capital Region awards since opening in 2012, they were largely popular for takeout, which makes the new space all the more surprising. Inside the boxy street-facing building, they have crafted an unexpectedly attractive dining room with wall panels of Thai art and a menu focused on beautiful presentations. Crispy spring rolls are served in wicker balance scales, and crispy chicken arrives beneath a light wicker cage, both meant to conjure the traditions of a Thai market.
A wide menu features a full range of Thai curries — red, green, yellow, panang, mango, massaman among them — all fragrant with coconut milk and adjustable to your heat tolerance. There’s an excellent pad kra pao (spicy basil stir-fried rice), pok tak (spicy seafood soup with lemongrass and basil), lettuce-wrapped chicken larb kai, a slew of noodle plates from pad Thai to drunken noodles, and more than a dozen duck and fish dishes and competitively priced lunch specials. Those looking for recommendations would do well to try pla pad khing sod (deep-fried tilapia stir-fried with ginger and shiitake mushrooms) or crispy basil duck.
While Sriwanto is from Thailand, Ko hails from Myanmar and would like to introduce traditional Burmese dishes. We can only hope.
Details: Sri Siam Thai, 337 Columbia Turnpike, East Greenbush. 518-9151655 and srisiamthaifood.com.