TASTY PASTRIES
The Crisp Cannoli offers high-quality food with customer service to match
CASTLETON- ON- HUDSON, N.Y. » If you’re looking for freshly made high quality pastries with high- quality customer service to match, head for The Crisp Cannoli.
Located at 1607 Columbia Turnpike, the bakery and cafe serves up fresh, locally sourced food six days a week (they’re closed on Sundays). Owner Jason Grant and General Manager Joanna Finkle, the brother and sister team behind the successful business, are always ready to greet customers with a smile and a warm welcome. The cozy shop has indoor and outdoor seating available, a breakfast and lunch menu with ample variety, and large display cases that show off their tempting pastries.
They didn’t always have such a comfortable setup, though. In fact, the business grew out of Jason’s kitchen.
“My father was a great Italian cook. We were always cooking and eating, it’s something natural that we do,” he recalled. With a tradition of good food as his foundation, Jason got his start in 1995 when he learned how to make cheesecake from a New York City cake maker.
He started making and distributing them in his own kitchen, and as he grew in popularity he started thinking about making it a profession. In 2011, he and Joanna made it official. The Crisp Cannoli was born.
“We became a small business, and our first show was the Schodack Island State Park Fall Festival,” Jason said. He and Joanna have been Schodack residents all their lives, and keeping the business local was always a priority.
At first, they operated the business as a mobile unit, popping up at events around the area. In August of 2012, they landed in their first storefront. They had a corner store in East Greenbush, near the intersection of Columbia Turnpike and Hays Road. But as they soon discovered, all that glittered wasn’t gold.
“It was a super cute, quaint location with beautiful hardwood floors,” Joanna recalled. “But it was a tough spot.”
The location didn’t have its own parking lot. Customers would have to share space with the Country Cafe next door, or drive down a back alley that reached almost to the East Greenbush post office a block away. It was located on a busy part of the Columbia Turnpike, which made for difficult inand-outs. From northbound on the Turnpike, making the left turn to get to The Crisp Cannoli could block traffic.
“Visibility-wise, it was good, but it was tough. People wouldn’t stop in,” Jason said. The store itself had issues too. It was a small location, too small for Jason and Joanna to offer the full menu they had in mind. Instead, they focused on the bakery half of their menu and tried to offer daily specials once in a while that would feature items from their cafe menu. Eventually, though, they had to face the music. The location was hurting their business. They weren’t getting enough customers to sustain the shop. So in 2014, The Crisp Cannoli shut its doors and went back to being a mobile operation. The decision turned out to be a good one. Operating a mobile business gave Jason the flexibility he needed to work around the schedules of his young children. The Crisp Cannoli continued to pop up at community events. Jason also did a lot of private catering orders and
weddings.
In 2018, Jason’s son was working as a dishwasher at the Main Street Diner in Schodack. Jason got word that the restaurant was in trouble, facing the possibility of closing down, largely due to the lack of a good cook. Wanting to see the business succeed, Jason offered to work as a breakfast and lunch cook on the weekends - for free.
Jason’s skill at cooking had a strong impact on the diner. When he was in the kitchen, the dining room would be full. One day, he looked out into the crowded diner and had a moment of clarity.
“It was that moment where you look in the mirror and go, ‘gosh darn it, people like me’!” he said. He had realized that people were willing to travel from all over, not just locally, for good food. HIS good food.
“It was good to see the entire area was still interested in our products,” he said.
It got Jason thinking about a retail location again. Not wanting to repeat the past, he knew that he would need to find a storefront that had everything he needed, something that was highly trafficked and very visible.
Despite Jason’s best efforts, the Main Street Diner was still failing. He entered into negotiations with the owner about buying the location, but after about five months, the plan fell through.
Fortunately, another opportunity presented itself. Over in Castleton, the building that housed the Lighthouse Cafe and a florist featuring hydroponic plants was in the process of being vacated. The building’s landlord had known Jason for years - their kids used to play together. The landlord reached out to Jason about renting the space.
A rental agreement was made, and Jason and Joanna got the keys to the store just after Thanksgiving. They got to work, and in about three weeks the new Crisp Cannoli location was open for business.
It’s been almost a year now, and The Crisp Cannoli is thriving. It is very much a family operation, with Jason’s and Joanna’s kids working at the shop, along with what Joanna describes as “a few nutty people like us who aren’t related that wanted to work here too.”
The larger space has allowed for a full menu, available all the time. It provides a balance to the store’s business that keeps things going no matter what time of the year it is.
“There are times of the year when business is booming, and times when bakery sales are low,” Joanna explained. “When everyone’s trying to get a bikini body, that’s when we do really well with the salads and sandwiches. The two sides of the business balance each other out.
“And usually, even if someone swears they’re on a diet and not going to eat a cannoli, they get the cannoli anyway,” she added with a grin.
It’s not hard to see why. The Crisp Cannoli’s freshly and locally made, high quality pastry is hard to resist, beach season or not. Everything on the menu, pastry or cafe items, is made with the best, freshest ingredients Jason can get his hands on. The menu also reflects Jason’s high priority of supporting local, small businesses. If it isn’t made in-house with locally sourced ingredients, it’s provided by another capital area business.
“That’s important - having that fresh, homemade stuff,” Jason said. “And staying local.”
The most popular sandwich on the menu is the turkey mozzarella with homemade pesto. Behind it is the New Yorker, the cafe’s nod to a New York City reuben sandwich.
To make every sandwich on the menu, The Crisp Cannoli makes its own roast beef, corned beef, and chicken patties, smokes the pastrami, and cooks the turkey themselves. Their cheeses come from Four Fat Fowl in Stephentown, who in turn uses milk from Schodack cows. All their bread is provided by Prinzo’s Bakery. The cafe’s produce ingredients come from Kristy’s Barn in Schodack. Capital City Roasters provides their coffee.
On the bakery side of the menu, the business’s namesake cannolis are the bestseller, followed closely by their cronuts - doughnuts made using croissant dough.
Ingredients come from Greatful Grains Wine and Spirit Shop, S& S Farm Brewery, Windy Hill Orchard, Chatham Brewery, and Fort Orange Brewery. The Crisp Cannoli has 26 flavors of cannoli and 18 flavors of cronut on a weekly rotation, including some seasonal flavors. All the cannoli shells are hand rolled, and they’re never filled until a customer places an order. At the end of June this year, Jason and his crew had rolled out about 45,000 cannoli shells.
To keep the business growing, Jason is enthusiastic about making other community partnerships. Decorating the shop are handmade signs and crafts from Franny’s Farmhouse DIY Crafts, all of which are for sale. It’s the perfect way to add unique decor to the walls while simultaneously promoting a local artist.
Recently, The Crisp Cannoli formed a side business, called Chief’s Barbecue. Jason partners with Schodack police chief Joe Belardo to offer smoked barbecue menu specials on a weekly basis at the shop, and at their mobile events.
“The police are regular customers, and if you talk to Joe you find out that he’s really passionate about barbecue,” Jason said. “So he’s the pit master. We put our heads together and come up with some nice stuff.”
Chief’s Barbecue focuses on smoked foods, powered by the two small and one large smoker just outside the shop. Past menu items have included smoked pork mac ‘ n’ cheese, smoked chicken, and pulled pork. Their next feature, starting very soon, is Wing Wednesdays.
“Have you ever had smoked wings before?” Jason asked. “It changes the way you eat wings!”
Another community partnership Jason is very excited about is the one he has formed with Berben and Wolff, the vegan eatery with locations in Albany and Troy. The Crisp Cannoli is working closely with them, getting ready to roll out a vegan menu.
Jason buys vegan ingredients wholesale from Berben and Wolff and is using them to make vegan cannoli, cheesecake, cupcakes, and chocolate chip cookies. Taste test responses so far have been very positive, and the items will be on The Crisp Cannoli’s menu soon. They also have a gluten free menu currently available.
Future plans for The Crisp Cannoli’s business include wholesaling. Jason has just hired a sales person to focus on bringing their products to other shops that don’t make their own pastries. He also would like to expand to including a full breakfast menu.
Other plans include working with the property landlord to get some repairs done. “The building needs some work, and the parking lot needs a lot of attention,” Jason commented. “It’s really bumpy, and after a rainfall we have Lake Schodack.”
For the time being, though, Jason and Joanna are happy to take things slow, focusing on what makes The Crisp Cannoli successful - fresh foods made in small batches, and excellent customer relationships. They put a big emphasis on customer service.
“Anyone can make pastry, but we provide you with world class service,” Jason commented. Customers coming into the shop are greeted personally, and thanked as they leave, often by Jason himself. Counter staff is always friendly and polite, and will deliver your food right to your table.
It’s all part of Jason’s efforts to give back to the community. Tip jars are visible on the countertop, but they’re not used in the traditional way. None of The Crisp Cannoli’s staff gets tips, and Jason pays them a higher salary to compensate for that. Instead, all tips are donated to community charities. This month the money is going to domestic abuse support.
Excellent customer service means big tips. Big tips means more money that Jason can put back into the community to support worthy causes.
To support The Crisp Cannoli, and in turn help to support the community, stop in and see what’s on the menu. Or look for them at upcoming community events. Their next big activity is the Victorian Stroll, where they’ll be selling bakery items, hot drinks, and Chief’s Barbecue smoked foods.
Whether it’s at a mobile location or inside the shop, The Crisp Cannoli is proud to offer its customers high quality food and high quality service.