New Year's Resolution: Support Local Journalism
We're kicking off 2023 with a SLAH subscription sale!
Happy New Year, Saratoga Living After Hours readers! After a much-needed break, the SLAH team is back on the beat of Saratoga, and ready to totally crush our second full year of bringing you one-of-a-kind, hyper-local news. Are you new here? Let’s first take a look back at our most-read stories of 2022 (not to be confused with our personal 10 favorite stories from the last year, which we published in November to celebrate SLAH’s first birthday).
SLAH sits down with Taylor Rao of Two Buttons Deep, the Capital Region’s most recognizable Miller Lite–loving influencer.
Abby Tegnelia goes undercover as a football fan to root for the home team at the Bills Mafia’s Saratoga HQ: PJ’s Bar-B-QSA.
Celeb Shot: Ashlee Rose Hartley
Another local Instagram personality tells all about assimilating into Saratoga culture as a body-positive influencer.
The ukulele-playing owner of Mountainman Outdoor Supply shares his not-so-traumatic tale of being bitten by a shark.
The 5 Worst Saratoga Intersections, Ranked
Let’s just say the Saratoga Springs Police Department had a few things to say about this one.
Vibe Check: Murder in the Canfield Casino
Natalie Moore teams up with the Capital Region’s most hilarious couple to solve a whodunnit at the History Museum’s annual fundraiser.
Vibe Check: Saratoga Motorcar Auction
We let Gen Z-er Claire Burnett loose in the sea of classic car-lovers at the 2022 Saratoga Motorcar Auction.
The 5 Floors of Saratoga City Tavern, Explained
A floor-by-floor vibe check of Saratoga’s tallest bar.
First Course: The Scarlet Knife
SLAH heads south to Latham to try out the Capital Region’s newest fine dining experience.
The Unwritten Rules of the Victoria Pool
For a public pool, the Spa Park’s crown jewel is shrouded in quite a bit of privacy. But not anymore.
We’ve obviously had a great time covering these stories and more, and think Saratoga Living After Hours provides the on-the-ground coverage the Spa City was previously lacking. But don’t take our word for it.
“I’m a big, big fan of Saratoga Living After Hours. I look forward to their posts 2-3 times each week. In fact, whether there are 2 or 200 emails in my inbox, if I have an e-alert from SLAH, I always open that one first! The topics are consistently diverse and creative, and the perspectives from Natalie and Abby are always engaging. I recommend subscribing to SLAH to anyone who wants to know about the REAL goings-on in Saratoga and the Capital Region.”
—Arthur Gonick, editor, The12866.com
“I enjoy Saratoga Living After Hours because it gives me a deep dive into what’s going on without having to do much research. One of my favorite articles was the unwritten rules of the Victoria Pool. I’ve been in Saratoga County my whole life but never knew such a place existed. It’s now one of my favorite spots to network and meet new people in the summer.”
—Brad Cranston, owner, Great Off Leash Dog Training, LLC
“Saratoga Living After Hours is my go-to guide for all the insider info I need to stay on the pulse of my hometown. I learn something new every time I read it. Plus, as executive director of a nonprofit, I know how hard we are all working to keep our treasured entities afloat, and as a paid subscriber I feel great supporting local journalism.”
—Carly Connors, executive director, Saratoga Automobile Museum
Now that you’ve gotten a quick-and-dirty primer on what SLAH is, a word: In the last year and change, we’ve grown this newsletter from the ground up, and now boast nearly 1,700 subscribers, not counting the thousands of locals who find SLAH stories online through our Saratoga Living social media accounts and on Saratoga Report. Of those subscribers, though, only 5 percent (the three readers who gave testimonials above included!) have access to every single SLAH post; the rest see paywalls on all of our Tuesday posts. We’re aiming to up that number significantly in 2023, but can only do that with your help.
At Saratoga Living, an overwhelming majority of our content is free: You’ll never see a paywall on saratogaliving.com, and our gorgeous, glossy print magazine is free for the taking when it comes out six times a year. Our Monday morning Game Time posts on SLAH are free, as are our Saturday weekend roundups. But we all know the struggles that have plagued print publications in recent years. Our parties, online auctions and digital ad sales have helped keep us afloat the past few years, but by expanding our network of paid Substack subscribers, we can ensure that SLAH—and Saratoga Living, for that matter—sticks around to provide the Spa City with the local news coverage you love to read.
After all, our mission is to celebrate Saratoga and shower it with the attention it deserves—without supporting local journalism, a future could exist where non-metropolitan cities like ours are covered (infrequently) by entities such as The New York Times. Together, we can stop that from happening!
If you’re still on the fence about supporting local journalism, we hope this will push you right over the finish line: For the next two weeks, we’re offering a special sale on SLAH subscriptions. You can get 100 percent of our content sent directly to your inbox every Monday, Tuesday and Saturday for just $4 a month—that’s less than your daily coffee order at Kru.
To everyone who has supported SLAH in its first year, as a reader, subject, support staff or muse (you know who you are), thank you. And to those who haven’t yet experienced the wild ride that is this newsletter…Welcome aboard.
—Natalie and Abby
Did you know?
At the end of every (free) Saturday SLAH post, we recap what’s going on in the world of Saratoga in a digital digest? In other words, Saturday SLAH is worth the scroll.
Quote of the Week
“If you’re sober, why wouldn’t you have a bidet?”
—Overheard at Bailey’s
Speaking of Sober…
The first week of every year, we hear rumblings from our friends who claim to be doing a dry January. Of course, when the first weekend of the month rolls around, many of those mini-resolutions are thrown out the window. (After all, there’s not much else to do in January other than drink.) At least one Saratoga County resident has made dry January a little more realistic. “I’m attempting a damp January,” she tells me. “Do I need to spend money on a happy hour or could I go on a walk instead? But I simply will not give up après-ski.”
That’s a Wrap
Spotify Wrapped posts and parodies flooded Saratoga’s social media networks this past December, but DZ Restaurants is keeping the trend going. The ownership group, which operates Boca Bistro, Forno Bistro and Chianti, posted the most ordered dishes of 2022 on each restaurant’s Instagram earlier this week, giving followers a look at some of Saratoga’s favorite dishes. While Boca and Forno saw a tight race between its top dishes, at Chianti, Mezzanine Alla Vodka won in a landslide. Italian night, anyone?
Boiling Over
Luckily, we don’t believe in bad omens, because Saratoga rung in the new year in quite an unfortunate way. Around 9am on January 1, a significant water main break at Excelsior and East Ave left many residents with low water pressure or brownish water, and a boil advisory was put in effect by the City. Thousands of bottles of water were passed out by the City throughout the week, but area businesses were forced to pivot: Saratoga Tea & Honey offered a limited menu, BARE Blends didn’t offer coffee products, and Uncommon Grounds was up and running, just without putting ice in iced coffees. The boil advisory was lifted on Wednesday, and 2023 was back on the right track.
Dance Dance Revolution
Starting this month, Saratoga resident and competitive dancer Julie Labate is launching C3 Hip Hop Dance Co., a hip hop dance program for kids ages 6-18 that she says aims to develop skills and establish a lifelong love for the art form. The first session runs from February to June with Sunday afternoon practices, culminating in a year-end performance for friends and family. Interested families should plan to attend a free clinic at Max Level Fitness on January 22 to preview the program’s choreography an class structure; a team placement event will happen the following weekend. Visit dancefitsaratoga.com for more information. And, oh yeah, there’s a little something for adults, too, that the SLAH team may or may not be totally excited about.
Save the Date
If you haven’t heard, Hattie’s Mardi Gras is returning! The beloved annual fundraising event will be back at the Canfield Casino after a five-year hiatus on Saturday, January 28 with New Orleans–style food, music by Soul Session and much more. This year’s beneficiary? The Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. See you there, Saratoga!