New owner of Dove + Deer promising few changes
Center Square bar and restaurant sold by founders after more than five years
ALBANY — A veteran educator and real-estate investor is the new owner of Dove + Deer, a restaurant and bar in a historic building in the Center Square neighborhood since fall 2018.
Tom Vacanti said that under the deal with Dove + Deer’s founders, which closed last week, he paid $1.3 million for the business and building, located at the corner of State and Dove streets. There are four apartments above a restaurant space that is about a block above the state Capitol and has been home to bars and eating spots since at least the 1950s, including The Bleecker, P.D. Ladd’s, Pinto & Hobbs and Center Square Pub.
“I’ve traveled all over the world, and I think that Center Square spot has more character than most places anywhere,” said Vacanti. “Center Square is one of the
most history-rich and enchanting walks you can take.”
He said he plans almost no changes to the operation of
Dove + Deer, aside from perhaps expanding the days and hours in the coming months.
“I wanted it for how it currently is,” he said. “People love it. Why change anything? I am in no way intending to change what’s there. I just want more of what’s there.”
An employee of the Albany City School District for 18 years and its coordinator of online learning for the past decade, Vacanti said he began buying real estate early in his career, starting with a residential duplex. His holdings now total a dozen properties, all but two strictly residential. Half of the properties are partnerships, he said, three of which are with former students. Among his buildings is the Jesse Buel House on Western Avenue in Pine Hills, one of the street’s oldest homes, where he has lived since 2020. Enchanted by its history, he said he expects to find similar engagement as he learns more about the Dove + Deer building, at 32 Dove St. The second half of the Dove + Deer name comes from an earlier name for State Street. A street grid for Albany developed in the 1790s featured streets named for birds going north-south, mammals for east-west streets. The bird names remain, but mammal names have been mostly changed; State Street once was called Deer Street.
Vacanti’s first venture in the hospitality business was as a 50 percent partner in Mr. Bumbles Cafe on New Scotland Avenue, opened in February 2021 by its chef, Brandon Doran, who was the founding head chef of the Tipsy Moose brand.
“Mr. Bumbles was a passion project with a friend,” Vacanti said. In contrast, his approach to Dove + Deer was more painstaking, involving months of conversation with
the owners and informally polling many friends and acquaintances about their opinions of a restaurant he’d patronized and enjoyed but not frequented.
“I always heard good things about it. It’s one of Albany’s gems,” he said. “I don’t know how many people said, ‘Oh, that’s one of my favorite places.’”
The sellers were Brianne Baggetta and Tim Dillon, who opened Dove + Deer in October 2018, with managing partner Jessica
Arnold, after renovating what had been Center Square Pub. Baggetta and Dillon owned the building. Her main business, of which she is president and CEO, is The Mailworks in Albany, a printing and direct-mail firm. Dillon is its chief financial officer. The pair also bought and renovated the former Bongiorno’s, an Italian restaurant across the street at 23 Dove for 40 years. It became Rosanna’s Italian Kitchen, which Dillon and Baggetta sold last year to a partnership that includes the owners of The Hollow Bar + Kitchen in downtown Albany and the chef
Rachel Mabb.
Dove + Deer went on the market at the same time as Rosanna’s, in March 2023, with the owners saying they wanted to focus on The Mailworks. They started talking with Vacanti last summer.
“I wasn’t looking at owning another restaurant,” Vacanti said. “I saw it as a piece of real estate. But the more I got to know the staff and customers, the better I understood just how good a fit it would be.”
Dove + Deer is open from 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday.