Glens Falls Business Journal photo
By Paul Post
Raul’s Mexican Grill is offering new menu items to keep up with growing competition, and its owner has expanded his business footprint to stay at the forefront of Glens Falls’ fast-paced revitalization.
“When I started in October 2007 there wasn’t much here,” Russ Porreca said. “I could list the restaurants that were open at the time. Now we’re saturated with Mexican restaurants.”
In response, he’s bringing back popular fried chicken and waffles, previously offered at the former Chicken Shack, which he owned adjacent to Raul’s near Centennial Circle. Raul’s will also feature hardwood smoked brisket, beef and pork dishes.
In February 2021, Porreca purchased the former Dizzy’s Chicken building at 72 South Street, near the intersection of Broad Street, with plans to move Raul’s there when his lease at 164 Glen Street expired.
But in May, he purchased the downtown building, home to 162 and 164 Glen Street, for $800,000. The three-story building, at the corner of Hudson Avenue, has upstairs apartments in addition to first-floor commercial space.
Porreca recently leased his South Street site to long-time chef Shannon Hart-Hume who plans to open a unique new restaurant by early December, tentatively named Bastard Restobar. The eatery will have an eclectic menu offering Korean, Italian, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes.
“Think of it like the Great American Melting Pot,” she said. “I’m using ideas from each of these cultures, with an American twist. It’s a bastardization of these cultures.”
Hume-Hart and her husband, Hudson Falls native Philip Hart, are both Culinary Institute of America alumni. He will have a part-time role in the venture.
Hume-Hart has held a number of executive chef positions including three years at Bard College in the Hudson Valley. This is her first time owning a business.
She said she’s very optimistic about the city’s economic development and wants to get in on the ground floor of South Street’s anticipated business vibrancy.
“All the change that’s happening here is wonderful,” she said. “South Street is where it’s at. I’m proud to be a part of it.”
Porreca, originally from Hudson, also graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and gained a wealth of food industry experience from Las Vegas hotels to New York City farmer’s markets before landing in Glens Falls to help open a relative’s restaurant.
“I ended up here by accident,” he joked.
But his business success is the product of hard work, determination, foresight and a knack for understanding consumer preferences.
His South Street building, which Hart-Hume is leasing, is ideally positioned for taking advantage of South Street’s huge makeover, starting with a new $4.5 million, 6,000-square-foot Market Center, expected to open by the end of this year.
Funding for the Market Center comes from a $10 million state Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant the city obtained in 2017. A separate $500,000 grant is expected to pay for a new pocket park between Market Center and the former Hot Shots tavern at the corner of South and Elm Streets.
Plans call for Market Center to become a year-round home for Glens Falls Farmer’s Market, in addition to other events from family gatherings such as weddings and reunions to festival-type activities, which could include temporary closure of South Street to pedestrian traffic only.
Completion of Market Center is expected to be followed by Bonacio Construction company’s renovation of the former Hot Shots and Sandy’s tavern buildings and a food-oriented business incubator, owned by the city, on Elm Street behind Hot Shots.
The Hot Shots and Sandy’s buildings will have first-floor commercial space, mostly likely for restaurants, with apartments in upper stories.
“We’re hoping those facilities will be open by spring,” said Jeff Flagg, City of Glens Falls development director.
The business incubator will be accessible from Elm Street and the Market Center side, allowing foot traffic between both buildings for larger events.
The incubator, which the city will lease as part of the Market Square complex, will have three main components. First is a commercial kitchen for catering or a place for start-up firms and farmer’s market vendors to make value-added products.
“It might even be used as a teaching kitchen,” Flagg said. “There’s all sorts of possibilities. We’re hoping for a real synergy between the Market Center facility and incubator. It’s designed as be as flexible and multi-purpose as possible. We’re working with focus groups on how best to use it.”
The building would also house a regional market, similar to Taste of NY displays at Northway rest stops, to show off locally-produced foods such as maple syrup, honey, fruits and vegetables; and a tourism element that invites people to the incubator and then encourages them, with a map or app, to visit area food and beverage-type businesses such as Adirondack Brewery and Nettle Meadow Cheese.
When the Market Center, business incubator, Hot Shots and Sandy’s projects are done, Bonacio Construction plans to build a large five-story, multi-use structure where the Farmer’s Market pavilion and parking lot is currently located. The structure will wrap around Sandy’s, have first-floor commercial space and apartments overhead.
But this also presents somewhat of a challenge by taking up a fairly large parking area. Flagg said the city is looking at a number of options to create more parking downtown.
“Those are issues we’re going to have to work through,” he said. “It’s a good problem to have.”
In addition to Glen and South streets, several other projects are being advanced in Glens Falls.
Queensbury-based Foothills Builders is pursuing plans for a mixed-use building at a large vacant lot on Warren Street next to Simon’s Heating and Cooling Inc., near the corner of Oakland Avenue. The project is currently before the Planning Board.
Also, Kru Coffee has an agreement in place to buy a parcel at Tech Meadows, next to the UA Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 773 building off Luzerne Road. Plans call for a roasting, canning and packaging facility to complement the firm’s downtown location at 140 Glen Street near Centennial Circle.
In addition, developer Chris Patten wants to build a 60-unit Washington Square apartment complex at the Glen, Washington and Harlem streets block. But the proposal is opposed by some Common Council members, neighbors and preservationists who are concerned about its impact on the neighborhood’s character. Three buildings would have to be razed to make room for apartments including a brick house with unique architecture at 391 Glen Street, directly opposite First Presbyterian Church, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.