Elbo Room takeout coming to Latham by early May

The Elbo Room, a bar on Delaware Avenue in Albany for more than 50 years, is opening a satellite for takeout food in a strip mall on Route 9 in Latham, next to The Fresh Market plaza.

William Roemer, who has owned the pub for 18 years, said he hopes to open in Latham during the first week of May. The location will provide The Elbo Room’s popular wings, pizza, wraps, salads and other bar fare for delivery/takeout only from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until midnight Friday and Saturday, and will be closed Sunday until football season. The Elbo to Go storefront, at 660 Loudon Road, previously was home to a Chinese restaurant called Honey Garden.

The Elbo Room, also known as The New Elbo Room, had its liquor license suspended by the state in August for multiple flagrant violations of pandemicrelated safety regulations. It reopened a month later and since has served lunch and dinner but no alcohol. Roemer said the State Liquor Authority initially fined him $100,000, which he said his lawyer negotiated down to $20,000, “but I refused to pay them a dime and turned in my license.” The case against the bar was for four violations, with a $10,000 maximum penalty for each under state law, meaning the highest the fine could have been was $40,000.

Records supplied by the SLA indicate Roemer’s attorney offered a conditional-no-contest plea and payment of a $30,000 fine, which the SLA board lowered to $25,000 when it accepted the deal. The Elbo Room sought a reduced fine, then volunteered on Nov. 30 to surrender its license in lieu of paying the $20,000 fine counteroffered by the SLA.

Located at 170 Delaware Ave., The Elbo Room is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday until football season.