After destruction, healing efforts begin
Restaurants, pubs sustain damage from protests, but neighbors rally as protectors
Jason Bowers was at home late Saturday when alarming messages from friends told him to check out live online videos originating from right in front of The Excelsior Pub, a business he has spent nearly five years building.
“All I could see were flames around it,” he said Monday. “I thought I was going to watch my place burn in front of my eyes. It was one of the lowest points of my life.”
The pub sits on Madison Avenue in Albany in the shadow of the Empire State Plaza’s East Garage. The venerable Hill Street Pub is across the street; about a block away is the Governor’s Mansion. After peaceful protests Saturday afternoon gave way to a night of violent clashes
with police, followed by vandalism and looting that started about 10 blocks away, at the Albany Police Department’s South Station, unrest spread to include the intersection where Excelsior Pub is.
One of the videos from the scene was streamed live by local videographer Chris Famelette, who lives nearby and whose glass front door was later smashed by a brick. A few minutes into Famelette’s video, he says, as he walks across Madison toward Excelsior Pub, “They’re looting this bar.”
Seconds later, though, Famelette amends the narrative: There was vandalism, but, he says, “People are holding them out.” In the video, men can be seen in front of the pub, waving their arms to keep others away from the pub’s door and windows. One can be heard telling the vandals, “That’s not right. … We love this neighborhood.”
From what Bowers has been able to piece together, a regular customer is the person who stepped in front of the entrance after Excelsior’s front door and some windows were broken. Then another took up guard. They told Bowers that 90 percent of the people nearby were not interested in vandalizing or looting Excelsior. One or two got inside the bar, according to Bowers, but damage was negligible. Another neighbor soon brought plywood to cover the broken glass. More showed up Sunday morning to help.
Remarkably, Bowers alluded to but did not focus on the overnight damage in a Sunday-morning Facebook post that thanked people for checking in on him and the business. Instead, he opted for a positive, forward-looking approach that invited people for takeout, and he used a photo of one of his windows emblazoned with a rainbow.
In a statement Sunday morning, Bowers said:
“The Excelsior Pub is proud to be a downtown Albany small business with incredible neighbors that are key to making these past few unprecedented months a little easier to handle. Last night and today, we were again embraced by this caring community with support that has helped us quickly get back to business.”
Elsewhere Sunday, a tense uncertainty remained. A long, impassioned but peaceful protest in Schenectady on Sunday eventually produced a scene rare in a nation riven by protesters clashing with law enforcement for the past week: Schenectady Police Chief Eric Clifford and other officers knelt in a show of solidarity with protesters demanding an end to police brutality. Clifford later marched with them.
But, as the city of Albany imposed another curfew for Sunday night to Monday morning, many businesses on Albany’s Lark Street pre-emptively boarded their windows, as did some on Central Avenue, at least among those that had not had theirs smashed Saturday night and early Sunday. Downtown, Mcgeary’s pub and the restaurants dp: An American Brasserie and Yono’s, both at the Hampton Inn, put plywood over windows and the front door. Owners and friends of Lodge’s department store and The Hollow Kitchen + Bar, across-thestreet neighbors on North Pearl Street, guarded their front doors and windows until late Sunday and beyond.
In Troy, word spread and sentiment was galvanized on Sunday in large part by Vic Christopher of Clark House Hospitality. He wrote on Facebook, “Troy is preparing for the potential of a riot,” and he told the Times Union, “People are saying they want to destroy Troy.” By evening, it seemed like much of the Collar’s City’s downtown was boarded up. Christopher even patrolled Troy during a live Instagram video late Sunday, driving around and marveling at how eeriely empty downtown was.
The Lark Street Business Improvement District said Sunday it is advising its members that, as long as the city’s curfew was not extended another night, they should consider uncovering their windows and reopening to the degree that they are allowed under the state’s phased reopening plan — i.e., still only takeout and delivery for restaurants. The Central Avenue BID, in contrast, told member to keep the boards up for a couple of more days, a representative said.
In Troy on Monday, Christopher cut a takeout window into the one-dayold boards on the front of his Little Pecks cafe, and he continued with Monday’s relaunch of the Donna’s Italian restaurant brand. He said his decision to leave the boards up is informed in part by a poster, from an organizer of Sunday’s Black Lives Matter protest in Schenectady, of another protest, this one at noon Wednesday in Troy. (A flier from the local YWCA, however, says Wednesday’s rally “has no organizer” and asks people to attend one on Sunday.)
Boards briefly covered the front of Plumb Oyster Bar on Second Street in downtown Troy, across from Christopher’s Lucas Confectionery. But Plumb owner Heidi Knoblauch took them down. Now, in big letters, a message on the window says, “We are sorry.”
Knoblauch wrote on Facebook, “for a moment, I lost myself to fear today.” Property developer Jeff Buell, who got his big start in Troy, congratulated her, writing, “She chose the power of words over the power of the shield. I watched my friend process life in real time. What is happening. What needs to happen. Who is listening. Who is paying lip service. Regardless of result, she made the Right decision.”
With neighbors’ help, Bowers was able to reopen Excelsior Pub for Sunday brunch. (The pub serves takeout 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekends.) He said he expects to be open again starting Thursday this week.
“I’m blessed. I know I’m no tina sb ada shape as a lot of others,” he said. “I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if (neighbors) hadn’t been there and stepped up.”
He said, “I’m completely and totally overwhelmed by the support. At the same time, I am completely and totally devastated by what happened.”
Excelsior Pub’s fifth anniversary is in August. Said Bowers, “I’m so looking forward to that.”