22 Things You Didn't Know About Saratoga Springs
From a chicken coop turned contemporary art studio to the bar you didn't realize served food.
It always catches me off guard when I mention some Saratoga thing—a spot, entity or offering—that the person I’m talking to doesn’t know about. It happened the other day, when I told a friend (who lives in Saratoga) that our Gossip Girl Brunch was at UPH.
“Where?” he asked.
“Universal Preservation Hall,” I said. “That big church-looking building on Washington Street?”
Blank stare.
I get it. There’s so much going on in the world that we tend to stick to the places we know: SPAC for concerts, Uncommon Grounds for Coffee, the Woodlawn parking garage for finding a parking spot in a pinch. We could be driving by places we’d love, and not even realize it.
Saratoga Living After Hours, by definition, aims to keep you in the know about spots like Quarters and The Wild Horse, events like this year’s eclipse and Belatoga, and social codes like the unwritten rules of the Victoria Pool and who sits where at Saratoga Race Course. We’ve written about Saratoga’s best-kept culinary secrets, and the tips, tricks and hacks you need to know to have a good day at the races. But there’s simply so much to know. Here are 23 more things you may not have known about Saratoga Springs:
The idea for this story came to me when I was running (OK, jogging very slowly) on the path behind the SPAC stage when I got separated from the Saratoga Stryders group while trying to discern if Saratoga’s running clubs are the new dating apps. Whenever I’m on the trail, which goes from the Auto Museum parking lot to the Route 50 box office, I feel like I’m taking some sort of secret passageway—a portal that brings you from here to there quicker than should be possible. So that’s No. 1: the trail that goes behind the SPAC stage.
Speaking of SPAC, people still don’t know that it’s a not-for-profit. Live Nation rents the venue for its uber-popular rap, country and pop shows, but SPAC gets none of the ticket sales. SPAC is the entity that puts on the New York City Ballet and Philadelphia Orchestra shows in the summer, plus other classical programming all year long.
One more thing. In addition to its classical shows and in-school educational programming, SPAC operates an entire SPAC School of the Arts out of the Dance Museum.
Staying in the arts world, Saratoga Arts—the building at the corner of Broadway and Spring Street—offers free space for your band to practice. Just email grants@saratoga-arts.org (shoutout Spencer!) to set up rehearsal time. One caveat: Saratoga Arts will be closed from the end of this month to June 2025 for renovations.
Somehow, I’m still running into people who don’t know about the Coat Room’s rooftop, or even that the Coat Room exists at all. I think that was supposed to be the point, and why it was originally marketed as a speakeasy, but now they have hostesses standing outside 385 Broadway welcoming customers. One thing I recently learned, though: Coat Room does BOGO espresso martinis on Thursdays from 5-8pm. You’re welcome.
The private table in the Panza’s wine cellar Everyone knows Panza’s, but did you know that there’s wine cellar (not in the cellar) that you can reserve for a more private dining experience? It can seat up to 10 (eight comfortably) but can also serve as an intimate space for smaller groups.
News flash: When the line at Uncommon Grounds wraps around the restaurant all the way back to the coffee roaster, you do have another option. Saratoga Coffee Traders may be gone, but Broadway Coffee Co. is right up the street, just past DIVE.
Need a place to park? Don’t overlook that one spot on Broadway next to the blue mailbox outside Uncommon Grounds that doesn’t really look like a parking spot. It is one.
If you’d rather make your own food, you might go to the Saratoga Farmers’ Market at High Rock Park on Saturday mornings. But it’s also open in the same spot on Wednesdays from 3-6pm. (Not for long, though—when the Saturday market moves into the Wilton Mall in November, the Wednesday market stops for the season.)
Another way to get farm-fresh food? Pitney Meadows’ farm stand, which is stocked with veggies, meat and seasonal fruit year-round. Located in the large building to your left as you pull into the West Ave property, the farm stand runs on a self-serve honor system. Yep, you just drive up, pick up groceries and leave your money.
Saratoga proper is a treasure trove of books, with not one, but two bookstores right downtown. (Did you know Lyrical Ballad is located in the former vault of Saratoga National Bank?) Drive east until you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere and you may just come across Owl Pen Books, a former chicken coop that now houses 100,000 second-hand books. It’ll close for the winter in a few weeks.
Another converted coop you may not know about is the Union Ave home of Ardie and Dan Russell, which has recently begun hosting contemporary art events.
Before my inevitable obsession with pickleball began, I was terrified to drop by the East Side Rec courts because I didn’t know the etiquette associated with court-sharing. You may have seen a color-coded paddle rack on the fence; if people are waiting for a court and you finish a game, you’re supposed to come off and put your paddle in the rack to wait for another court to open up. Still not sure how it works? Just ask. The pickleball people are (for the most part) incredibly friendly.
The fitness center at the Saratoga Rec Center Now that the weather’s turning, the pickleballers will be moving indoors. One place they’ll go is the Saratoga Rec Center, which is in an of itself still a mystery to some Saratogians. The facility has a huge gymnasium, a community room that’s available for private rentals, and a free fitness room with exercise machines and weights that will get a facelift in the next year. All you need is a drop-in rec card.
Leadership Saratoga is an eight-month program run by the Saratoga Springs Chamber of Commerce that provides up to 24 individuals each year with additional skills, knowledge and networks to effectively serve in volunteer leadership capacities. Today, the organization has some 700 alumni who serve on more than 135 nonprofit boards in Saratoga County. I’m in the program this year, and it’s awesome.
You can’t find everything on the internet. Those who want to learn more about the history of the place they call home should check out the Saratoga Room, a section of the Saratoga Springs Public Library that houses a behemoth collection of books, photographs and documents relating to the Spa City’s past. The staff recommend calling ahead—they may be able to pull some materials related to the subject of your search before you arrive.
A morning scene from the Saratoga backstretch We cover a lot of sorta-secret track tips in our tips, tricks and hacks story. One that’s not mentioned? Anyone can watch morning workouts on the main track, or the afternoon’s races, from the backstretch. You just can’t drive a car in unless you have a permit. Walk around the west side of the track to get there, or go through the entrance across from The Horseshoe.
If you want to see horses in a whole different light, you need to check out Stillwater’s Saratoga Polo School, which hosts twilight polo matches on Tuesdays and Fridays through the summer. Yes, Saratoga Polo Club is defunct, but the Polo School’s Mario Dino is bringing the sport back to the area.
If you’ve ever been over-served on Caroline Street, you’ve probably needed a ride home. That’s happened to me on, let’s just say, more than one occasion, so I have some advice. First: If you move your Uber location away from Caroline Street—say, the Adirondack Trust building—sometimes the fares are cheaper.
Saratoga’s taxi fare zones. Learn more at the link below. Second, if you’re planning to take a taxi and come in contact with a driver who’s trying to overcharge you, pull up this webpage. It outlines how much taxi drivers are allowed to charge in different zones of the city. “Before Uber, I used to argue with taxi drivers as a sport,” one Saratogian told me.
And third: I don’t know where you live, but I recently started taking the CDTA home, and it’s been a game-changer. The last bus from Wilton to Schenectady stops outside The Bunker at 11:15pm on Fridays and 10:56pm on Saturdays. And it costs $1.50, no matter how far you’re going.
Lastly—and this may come as a surprise to some of you—there are lots of drivers at the intersection of Circular Street and Whitney Place near the Batcheller Mansion who don’t realize that they can actually use their blinker to indicate which way they’re turning! Shocker, I know!
—Natalie
Quote of the Week
“I want to go home and burn my house down.”
—one Saratoga Showcase of Homes attendee upon seeing the Witt Construction home’s luxurious primary bathroom
New Year, New Acts
Just because Live Nation’s 2024 season at SPAC has wrapped up doesn’t mean Saratogians won’t have a chance to see more world-class acts right in the Spa City. This week, the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce announced the lineup for Saratoga New Year’s Eve, a reimagined version of First Night and New Year’s Fest that will bring live music to multiple downtown venues on the evening of December 31. This year’s event will be headlined by Ben Folds at the Saratoga Springs City Center and Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads at Universal Preservation Hall. Other performers will include Los Sugar Kings, Dogs in a Pile, Lindsey Kraft and Tops of Trees. Tickets for Saratoga New Year’s Eve, which start at $25, will be available beginning on Tuesday at 10am.
Photo of the Week
You’ve heard of “snowliage”—snow and fall foliage occurring simultaneously. You may have even heard of “bowliage”—a rainbow and fall foliage occurring simultaneously (probably not, though, since I just made it up). But have you ever seen all three natural phenomena at once? That’s exactly what photographer Jonathan Zaharek captured this week at Whiteface. Check out his Instagram page for some more world-class snowliage pics.
Sky High
It’s actually been a pretty big year for this area in terms of natural phenomena—Instagram has been littered with amateur photos of the northern lights taken from backyards all across upstate New York, and this week, we got a sighting of a comet that hasn’t been visible from earth for 80,000 years. Missed it last Saturday, when the comet was closest to the earth? You’ll still have a chance to see it, when skies are clear, through the end of the month.
Parking Mad
Yesterday, a contingent of Saratoga business owners organized by John Nemjo of Saratoga Outdoors met with Mayor John Safford to discuss the results and future of Saratoga’s paid parking initiative. “Every business owner that was there saw a dip in profits over the previous summer,” says my coworker, Annette Quarrier, who attended the meeting. “Now that September’s here and there’s no more paid parking, their business is back up.” The consensus among the business owners is that a majority of their business comes from locals, but not just Saratoga locals—they have customers who drive in from Wilton, Greenfield, Clifton Park and other places. Since parking permits were only provided to those who live in Saratoga proper, those from out of town stayed out of town.
This summer, paid parking generated $275,000 and cost the city $144,000, a number that includes the one-time fee for the parking meters themselves. It remains to be seen what will happen moving forward; another meeting of business owners and the City will happen in a couple of months.
Save the Date
Missed out on tickets to Friday’s Bourbon Land event at SPAC? You’ll have another chance to sample bourbon and American whiskeys next month at our 4th annual Whiskey Night in Saratoga, coming to Putnam Place on Wednesday, November 20. Learn more and get your tickets here.
ICYMI
Panel: What’s Your Dream Saratoga Meal?