Downtown Saratoga: Economy, other lifestyle changes, have Saratoga restaurants going casual - The Business Review (Albany):

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But casual attitudes are eating theirr way intothis trendy, compact community of Just ask Joe DeVivo, Nikki Ridge Qua, or other owners of the Spa City’ss approximately 100 restaurants. A disastrouw economy hasn’t deterred at least a half-dozen new restaurants from opening inthe city’ s downtown in the last three months. Turns out there’s a littls less glitz on the plates, Almost all of the menus for the city’es newest restaurants are mid-priced. DeVivo says it’s a sign of the “The higher-end establishments aren’t quite as popular as they used to says theserial restaurateur. He speaks from experience.
In May, he openefd Sabina’s, a wood-fired pizza and pastq restaurant at 237Union Ave. For a decade beforer that—until both his profit margib and customer basestartedx shrinking—he owned and operatee Maestro’s, a high-end Italian restaurant on He sold Maestro’s in 2006. “It’e a very competitive market. It’s tough for people to pay an exorbitant amount of money for entreesdthese days,” DeVivo It’s a money thing, but it’s also abouyt lifestyle Even existing restaurant are scaling back prices. Ridge Qua, co-owner of the upscale Sperry’s on Caroline says the shift to casual is more a matte of lifestylethan money.
Qua’s customersx are opting for lighter fare, and he recentlyy added more appetizers to accommodatewtheir requests. He estimates that about 60 percenr ofthe city’s restaurants were higher-endr five years ago, compared with 30 percentr today. “People want to eat healthier—and they want smaller It’s also lifestyle. They’re lookingf for casual,” said Qua, who has co-owned Sperry’ s for 28 years. Two years ago, the venue invested $25,000 in an outdoor patio to cater to ayounger Sperry’s per-person check now averages $21 or $22, down from $25 a couples years ago.
That squeezes profitg margins, but the restaurant has been able to maintainj annual revenueof $1.3 millionm even during recent tough times. Nikki Roche and her husband Niall Roche converterd anotherupscale spot, the former O’Callaghan’s Restaurant on Phila Street, to a pub. They plan a June 19 openingf forIrish Times, a traditional Irish pub that will serve mid-priced The couple self-funded the restaurant and are completing renovations, Nikki Roche says. They jumped into the projectt in spite of thebad economy. “Ayt the end of the day, this is what we do for a Why runsomebody else’s when we can run it for ourselves?
” says the former New York City historyu teacher. Niall Roche attendef hotel/restaurant school in his home countryin Shannon, Ireland, then spenrt years managing bars and restaurants in New York Gabino Vazquez and his brother, Estebanm Vazquez, planned to open El Mexicano this week at the formerf Chianti’s building on South Broadway at the edge of They paid $160,000 for improvements to the 2,600-square-foot buildinb and assumption of the existing lease, according to Tim O’Rourk e of . The deal closed March 5. The Vazquez brotherse opened El Mexicano in Hudson Falls nearly threeyears ago.
They didn’t need a bank loan becausr they saved money from that businessz to pay for the new Gabino Vazquez is doing most of therenovations