By Kat Fitzpatrick
The Talk of the Town restaurant, a 34-year-old favorite establishment at 74 Hudson Ave. in Glens Falls, is settling down into new ownership.
Debbie Beckos has joined forces with the four owners of another Glens Falls’ favorite, the Bullpen. That bar/restaurant, at 216 Glen St., Glens Falls, was severely damaged in a fire last summer, causing the business to close.
Scott Endieveri, Paul Bricoccoli Jr., Jason Krogmann and his brother David Krogmann, Jr., have joined in with Beckos. After two months of the arrangement things have settled down said Beckos and Bricoccoli.
“They were all a little nervous at first,” said Beckos.
“They kept thinking ‘big changes, big changes,'” Beckos said. “And I kept trying to make them feeling comfortable. That’s why we are doing it this way, the three-year thing, so everyone’s comfortable–the customers too. So everyone gets used to everyone.'”
Beckos and the partners are engaging in a three-year training period with Bricoccoli, and Jason Krogmann participating with the business on a day-to-day basis.
Eventually, Beckos will leave the partnership.
The four men still plan to renovate the Bullpen. Endieveri is acting as the main contractor the renovation. It could open as soon as March 1.
“It was an old building that was fully gutted,” said Bricoccoli. “To redo a whole building from the ground up is really a huge project. Fabricating steel beams redoing all the wiring and the plumbing, it’s been a pretty extensive project.”
Meanwhile David Krogmann handles the day-to-day operation at the Horseshoe Inn in Saratoga Springs.
The deal with Beckos was closed in November.
“Basically what we’re doing now is that Deb is still in charge and we are learning the business from her from the ground up,” said Bricoccoli. “Everything, from soup to nuts … She certainly has got the system down so we want to learn it the correct way and keep it going.”
“It seems to be working,” said Jason Krogmann.
Part of the formula is the way that the four Bullpen partners get along. Their track record as business partners and friends spans over two decades. They have owned three Bullpen bars–one in Lake George, the one in Glens Falls and one in Saratoga Springs. The also own the Horseshoe Inn in Saratoga.
They sold the Lake George venue in 1994 and finally closed on a sale of the Saratoga Springs venue on Caroline Street early last June. The downtown Glens Falls location was gutted by fire less than a week later, “so we went from three places to one pretty quick,” said Jason Krogmann.
The Talk of the Town option was not one that came straight to mind.
“We wanted to do something and everyone of us fell in love with this idea. We’ve been coming here since we were children,” said Bricoccoli. “The timing ended up working out really well.”
“Everything kind of just fell in line,” said Krogmann.
Beckos was not seeking partners, but saw the idea as an opportunity.
“My new husband just sold his restaurant too,” Beckos said. “I’ve been here 34 years; was I going to be here forever? No, but my goal was to make the tradition stay the same and not just sell it to sell it and not care about what was going to happen to it. ”
She felt the partners would not change the restaurant. “It is a very warming feeling knowing that you are going to walk away knowing that it’s still going to be Talk of the Town. It’s not going to be Taco Bell or be torn down and be gone,” she said.
Beckos said she may even hang around after the transition period is over. “If they have a spot for me here part-time or if they need me for something, I’m here. I’ll have to do something. I’m not an idle person,” she said.
Beckos has readily accepted the observation that her pizza is “the talk of the town.” “We had to change the sauce and the dough when we bought the place because they had their own recipe. My aunt had a great spaghetti recipe that was ‘old Italian school.’ It was very expensive to make her way, so we did as much as we could to [match] the flavor so we kept tasting it and tasting it until we got it right … The dough that was here before had sugar in it and ours doesn’t have sugar in it,” she added. The restaurant can be found on Facebook and reached at 798-3348.
Photo Courtesy Of Kat Fitzpatrick