Vibe Check: Single in Saratoga (Valentine's Edition)
Plus: City Council drama, a glitzy save-the-date, a dog-gone movie with local ties, foodie news and more.
If you were to observe Wednesday night’s all-ages Single in Saratoga event at Bailey’s as a fly on the wall, you’d walk away thinking that the biggest problem local singles have is that they don’t know what they want. “What am I looking for?” virtually all guests—aged 25 to 65—asked their friends as they signed into singles night.
For those of you who haven’t been to one of our popular singles nights (by the way, why haven’t you?!) we provide name tags that have a place for your name and what you’re looking for—an idea that came from a gay attendee at our first singles night. The idea was that people would, in theory, write “men” or “women” or “men or women,” but in practice, the question has provoked more existential crises than we expected. “What am I looking for?” one attendee asked, more to herself than to her wingwoman. “I’ll have to come back.” Other friends provided a wide array of suggestions: someone with a credit score over 700, someone who can lift more than you, 20-year-olds, a hiking buddy, an eggplant emoji…the list goes on. One woman was so flustered by the question, she accidentally stuck her name tag back onto the sheet of blank name tags. “If anybody wants to know why I’m single,” she said, embarrassed, “this is it.”
Others made quick work of answering the question. Hunter from Oklahoma, whose southern drawl was so thick that us New Yorkers decided it had to have been fake, wrote “a second cousin,” without consulting anyone. When I suggested to a young woman that she could write “men” in the blank space she quickly countered: “Not men.” Someone else was more concerned about a potential love interest’s pets and wanted to write “dog owners” because “I don’t have a dog but dogs love me and I love dogs.”
Regardless of what people wrote, and despite the period of awkwardness before the Deep Eddy vodka kicked in, the party was a hit, with singles chatting and matching up in beer pong, Connect Four, Valentine’s Day–themed Scattergories and a particularly rousing game of cards that kept my group of friends slugging Miller Lites long after some singles had turned in for the night. The V-Day spirit wasn’t always in the air—one woman had to break it to the guy talking to her friend that there was “no vibe between the two of them”—but there was plenty of mixing, mingling and stealing glances at potential love interests, age difference be damned, across the room.
The crowd itself came from all over, with most (interestingly) hailing from Latham, Gloversville and Schenectady, and others driving in from as far away as Cambridge and Hudson. Most, including a pair of work besties on their first after-hours hangout, had planned their evening around singles night, but some just happened upon the party. One group of men at the regular Bailey’s bar were overheard hyping one member up to come into singles night. “You’ve got to make a decision on who you’re going to be,” one of them said. “Someone who takes a risk or someone who doesn’t.”
That being said, showing up to Single in Saratoga is a pretty low-risk move, especially since people were broadcasting their relationship goals on name tags. At least one person—the girl who’d said “no men”—was a major fan of the name tags. I ran into her on the way to the bathroom after the party. “Honestly,” she told me, “I wish every bar did this.”
See the full Single in Saratoga photo gallery here.
—Natalie
Interaction of the Week
“How many Jell-O shots can you have?”
“Probably one every six minutes.”
“Forever?”
“No, but for a really long time.”
—Overheard at Uncommon Grounds
Restaurant Roulette
If you keep up with Saratoga foodie news, you’ll know that downtown staple Sperry’s changed hands (purchased by another downtown hot spot, but the hope is that Sperry’s won’t change too much), and that when Saratoga Lake’s 550 Waterfront reopens this spring, it will be run by Druthers. The menu will be about 80 percent different from those of Druthers’ other locations, and Druthers beer will be brewed on site. Oh, and today’s the biggest foodie day of the year. See you at Chowderfest, Saratogians!
Stray Golden
This week, the trailer dropped for Strays, the vulgar live-action canine comedy coming to the big screen this summer. In it, an abandoned dog (voiced by Will Ferrell) teams up with a group of stray dogs to exact revenge on his former owner in foul-mouthed fashion. Why do we care? Strays is directed by Saratoga native Josh Greenbaum, the man responsible for 2021’s Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. “Strays is a comedy, but I think audiences will be surprised about how emotionally honest it is,” the director told Saratoga Living shortly after the movie was announced. “The film has a lot of heart, and it was incredible to watch the trainers work with the dogs on the film set.”
Save the Date
This one is a real save-the-date, because we haven’t even started selling tickets yet. Overdress to Impress, our most popular event of 2022, will return to The Adelphi for the second year in all its glitz-and-glam glory on Thursday, March 23. Thank you to presenting sponsor Keeler Mercedes, and sponsors California Closets and N. Fox Jewelers, for dreaming up many glam surprises (just you wait!) to make the event great. Follow us on Eventbrite to be the first to know when tickets go live!
All Politics is Local...
It was pretty difficult to avoid all the local political hubbub this week, so let’s get right to it. The hot debate over the new location of the Code Blue Winter Shelter lured a lot of people to tune in to this week’s City Council meeting live feed (update: the mayor has formed a new task force after the collapse of the 5 Williams St. plan, and a police oversight Civil Review Board—it exists now, just seven months after it was legalized and nearly two years since it was initially approved). But a Black Lives Matter protest ended up shutting the meeting down, with BLM-Saratoga challenging the council members to "Show up!" when tragedies like the Tyre Nichols killing occur—then the live feed abruptly ended, with the meeting ending shortly after. And then on Thursday evening, when the council got back together, we learned that the city's Director of Risk and Safety felt like a political football last year. That feels more hostile than fun, she told the council in a claim that could lead to a lawsuit against the city, the mayor and two commissioners.
But if you get past all that news, you'll see that Saratoga Bride and Gown has found a new home on Circular Street after getting the stanky boot from their space on Van Dam in January, and the Local Pub Tea House on Beekman Street celebrates turning 15 years old!
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Talking Saratoga
Want to hear more about this week’s City Council meeting? Listen to this week’s Saratoga Podcast for a full discussion—including audio from what went down after the live feed so abruptly ended.
This Week in Saratoga Living After Hours
On Monday, we asked readers to ID three close-up shots of downtown locations.
And on Tuesday, we shared an exclusive sneak peek at PDT Market, which will open in the location of the former Price Chopper Limited in the coming weeks.