By Paul Post

 Trustco Bank has a new location in downtown Glens Falls at 37 Bay Street. The branch moved there from its previous home at the top of Glen Street hill, near Park Street, and occupies a former Citizens Bank building that closed several years ago.

“We had been looking at this building for a couple of years,” Trustco branch Manager Kathryn Nasr said. “The previous location didn’t have a drive-through and trying to do business, with lack of parking, was a nightmare especially when Cool Insuring Arena had a big event going on.”

In addition to a drive-through and more parking, the Bay Street building is generally more accessible with a spacious interior, colorfully designed with an Adirondack theme.

One wall has a timeline with historic photos featuring milestones from the bank’s and City of Glens Falls’ past. Trustco was previously Schenectady Trust.

By Rod Bacon

Aficionados of the classic chrome-sided diners that offer comfort foods at almost all hours of the day and night know that Silk City Diners are the gold standard of such establishments.

Founded by Everett Abbott Cooper in Patterson, New Jersey, the company produced approximately 1,500 diners between 1926 and 1966. Each was tagged with the year and order in which it was built; for example, 5607 would be the seventh diner manufactured in 1956.

In 1950, Phillip Patenaude purchased one and had it shipped to Lake George, where it stood at the intersection of Routes 9 and 9L until a highway configuration in the 1960s forced it to move to its present location. Originally named the Point Diner, Patenaude rechristened it the Prospect Mountain Diner after the move.

In 1968, Patenaude sold the diner to Arthur Leonhard, who built an adjoining dining room called the Rickshaw that served authentic Chinese food until 1991. The Rickshaw was then renamed the Lighthouse Cafe and Lounge. During his career he also owned Lucille’s restaurant in the village as well as Topside on the second floor of the same building.

Pat Humphrey, the current owner, worked with Leonhard, her significant other, at all the restaurants he owned. When he passed away in 2013 she inherited the Prospect Mountain Diner.

In 2007, a fire started in the air conditioning units in the addition and the smoke damage resulted in the entire structure being torn down. By this time, of course, Silk City Diners was no longer manufacturing the classic structures but Humphrey wanted to continue the legacy built up over the previous decades. She traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, and contracted with Dinermite Diners to construct a replacement for the one that burned.

By Rod Bacon

Since the 1930s, eateries designed to resemble railroad dining cars that feature shiny chrome interiors have been beacons for people seeking comfort food in small towns and big cities across the country.

Two area establishments built in the style of these classic diners are owned by Bob Pilarinos; the Ambrosia Diner in Queensbury and the Capital City Diner in Albany.  Both were fabricated by the DeRaffele Manufacturing Company of New Rochelle, N.Y., which has been designing and erecting diners since 1933.

The family-owned business was launched when Bob’s father, Dennis Pilarinos, opened the Columbia Diner in 1984. He sold that establishment and later opened the Capital City Diner, the Ambrosia Diner in Catskill, the Plaza Diner in Hudson, and finally the Ambrosia Diner in Queensbury. He passed away in February 2024 but the family continues to operate two of his establishments. Bob explained that while the family still owns the other two they are operated by others.

He attributes the success of the enterprise to the fact that diners are convenient and  offer a wider menu selection than traditional restaurants.

“You can get anything you want at any time of day” he said. “Parents might want a full dinner while the kids want pancakes, and we can accommodate that. There is also the ‘nostalgia factor’ among older patrons. They love the look and feel of the traditional diners.” 

Operating the pair of diners is a true family affair. In addition to Bob, his wife Alaina helps out at the Queensbury site and his sister and her husband, Tina and Saki Tyrnas, run the day-to-day operation of the Capital City Diner.

By Paul Post

The wait is over!

Nine years ago, the City of Glens Falls applied for a potentially game-changing $10 million state grant to revitalize downtown.

Money came through a year later and in October 2023, following pandemic-related delays, workers broke ground on a new market center, part one of a huge multi-phase effort to transform South Street. On Friday, May 16, hundreds of people gathered to celebrate opening of the Events Downtown Center, nicknamed “The Ed” in honor of the late Ed Bartholomew, the Warren County Economic Development Corporation leader, whose driving force made the project possible.

“This property in 2016 was the definition of downtrodden,” Mayor Bill Collins said. “A jumble of rundown buildings, garbage in a parking lot, no residents. Hot Shots was closed, had been abandoned and stripped of all its copper plumbing by vandals. Sandy’s was on its last operating legs and, of course, the so-called incubator building had been closed for over two decades. Look at how far we’ve come.”

“Who would have ever believed we would ever have been here amidst all of this progress today? Ed Bartholomew that’s who,” Collins said. “He painted the vision with Mayor (Jack) Diamond, shared the vision with the community, worked with Mayor (Dan) Hall to build forward momentum. After his (Bartholomew’s) untimely death, a coalition of citizens was brought together to continue that progress. Thank God that they did.”

One of the center’s primary tenants, Glens Falls Farmers Market, will hold its first event there from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 7 with a variety of special activities.