Scarlet Knife a classy, pricey option in Latham

There’s hardly a trace of the former Kmart in the elevated parking lot off Route 2, between Latham Circle and Watervliet. The brand new Scarlet Knife has radically reimagined 15,000 square feet, taking a flagship position in big-box space left vacant since the store’s closure in 2014 and more recently filled with mixed businesses from Vent Fitness to Bunker indoor golf, since Bill Lia of the LIA Auto Group snapped it up.

Scarlet Knife owners James Warren, of Troy’s kW Mission Critical Engineering (recently sold to a global engineering firm), and his brother-in-law Paul Dimm, a veteran chef from New Jersey, conceptualized the restaurant from the ground up, securing local design team SWBR Architects for the physical execution and believing this level of dining theater is something the area needs.

I’m inclined to agree. It’s hard to overstate the details or evident costs of a bar curved like the blade of a santoku knife that seeps a scarlet glow; richly upholstered banquette booths dividing the dining room before a sea of tables stop short of a chef ’s counter, arched for optimal viewing of the open kitchen and where solo dining might be the way

to go. People spend money on pleasure interests from travel to sports, but pricey dinners can get a bad rap, and there was much gasping at previewed menu prices — with swift adjustments in the opening week. Dimm and General Manager Alexandra Sisca acknowledge Scarlet knife may be a special-occasion restaurant for some or a multicourse

experience for those who dine more frequently. The bar crowd will soon have the pick of a new menu with a Scarlet Knife burger, and brunch featuring lobster scrambled eggs and poached egg and crab hash that starts later this month.

The glamorous interior is daunting in size yet still inviting and positions the open

kitchen as the star of the show. That’s literal, since the team offers tours of the kitchen like upscale Eleven Madison Park. Wine walls partition off private rooms with their growing cellar collection in floor-toceiling racks. Somewhat remarkably, the Gallery Room features local art and sculpture curated by Albany Center Gallery, while the Reserve

Room, with AV equipment and gorgeous boardroom table, seats an intimate 16. Even the exterior has been wood paneled, and a side patio with oversized bar is primed to be this summer’s fun in spite of its unlikely location. But let’s get stuck into the soon-toopen Dessert Room, inspired by Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa

Photos by Susie Davidson Powell/For the Times Union Scarlet Knife in Latham occupies 15,000 square feet in part of a former Kmart building between Watervliet and Latham Circle.

The kitchen at Scarlet Knife in Latham faces a kitchen bar and the dining room, with wine walls and private rooms at the rear.