At the 75th anniversary celebration of Panza’s Restaurant, customer appreciation will be the focus. Wednesday, Nov. 13, the owners will thank their guests for continued patronage during the past 75 years. 

From 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the 13th, Panza’s Restaurant invites the Capital Region to a free Italian Feast. This free lunch is no small offering. It will include family specialties such as Panza’s famous pizza, homemade pasta dishes, and homemade meatballs and sausage, to name just a few. Complimentary coffee and soft drinks will also be served.

During this special celebration, Panza’s will also launch its fall menu, and guests will receive a complimentary copy of this new menu.

Arrive early for this special occasion as space will be limited. Again, this lunch is absolutely free for everyone to honor Panza’s 75th anniversary celebration.  Please note this free event is for eat-in customers only.  No takeout will be available.

In 1897, in Mechanicville, Panza’s Bakery officially opened its doors. That was the first time upstate New York experienced the delicious Neapolitan-style brick-oven-baked pizza and other secret family recipes the Panzas brought with them from the old country. Ma Panza and her husband, Joseph, were unable to speak English when they first arrived from Naples, Italy, so they let their cooking do the talking for them. Now 75 years later, their authentic brand of home-style cooking continues to be a staple in the Capital Region. 

“On this special milestone for Panza’s Restaurant, we want to express our sincere appreciation to our customers, staff members and suppliers for their continued support,” said owner and head chef Tony Panza. “Our family remains committed to the traditions originated by my grandmother and my grandfather. We are proud to carry on their legacy and look forward to serving patrons for many years to come.”

Panza’s Restaurant at 510 Rte. 9P on Saratoga Lake is open for lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday (closed Saturday for lunch). Panza’s onsite ballroom can accommodate 250 guests or can be divided for smaller events. Panza’s is also available for offsite catering needs -- no party is too small.

For more information, call Panza’s Restaurant at 584-6882, visit www.panzasrestaurant.com or go on Facebook at twww.facebook.com/panzas.restaurant.

--Jennie

On Monday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m., Northshire Bookstore will host a reading, discussion and signing with Susan Gillotti, author of “Women of Privilege: 100 Years of Love and Loss in a Family of the Hudson River Valley.”

Using private diaries, letters and journals of three generations of women in her ancestry, Gillotti has revealed the darker side of her wealthy family who once lived in Grasmere, a Rhinebeck estate.

On the surface, the lives of these people seem ideal. The family at Grasmere has wealth, well-known neighbors including the Roosevelts and the Vanderbilts, and a rich family background in the Hudson River Valley. However, secrets lurk beneath this façade, threatening to disrupt the happy routine. The family is spared little in terms of struggle; they battle with mental illness, alcoholism, yearning for divorce and even questions of sexual identity.

Gillotti, the great-great-granddaughter of Sarah Minerva Schieffelin, used the resources left in her hands to trace the decline of her once-privileged ancestors of the Hudson River Valley throughout the century “Women of Privilege” spans.

Reviewing the work, Booklist wrote, "Gillotti tells the hidden, harrowing story of her family with judicious restraint, penetrating clarity and considerable passion, ensuring that the Grasmere women's struggles illuminate the shackling and persistent misogyny that not even privilege negates."   

Northshire Bookstore is at 424 Broadway. For more information on this or other events, call 682-4200 or 1-855-339-5990, or visit www.northshire.com. 

--Jennie

Timberline Printing and Signs, a printing business with 24 years of experience, has set up shop at 75 Weibel Ave., offering services to municipalities, merchants, clubs and individuals.

Proprietor Pam Hauser, who hails from the Chicago area, will work with customers’ own creations or do the imaginative work, helping clients show their companies’ best face for an enterprise or event.

Hauser features digital printing, book binding, photo albums, business cards, posters, window lettering and truck lettering. She offers Web site design and full-color printing with a fast turnaround focusing on customer service. 

The business also offers brochures, every-door direct-mailing services, letterhead, postcards, envelopes, self-inking stamps, decals, menus, raffle tickets and corrugated plastic.

Available signs include full-color banners of all sizes, custom canvas printing, magnetic signs, campaign signs, real estate signs and event signs.

“We will work within anybody’s budget,” Hauser said. “We believe there is a fair price for everything, and everything has a fair price.”

She began her career as a service writer in marinas before serendipitously slipping into the printing industry.

“I used to call sign painters to come and paint names on the boats’ transoms,” Hauser said. “I loved watching the painters work, and after a while, I started practicing on a plate-glass panel in my garage. I couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed it, and that’s how it all started.”

Hauser applied her talents to commercial sign companies before branching out on her own.

“This is an awesome industry,” she said. “I love what I do.”

Timberline Printing and Signs is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Additional hours are welcome by appointment. Call 580-1000 or 708-1493, and visit www.timberlineprinting.com.

--Jennie

 

Bringing passion and experience to the table, Corporate Executive Chef Michael Kiernan has come to work at Wheatfields Restaurants, located at 440 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, and 54 Crossing Blvd., Clifton Park.

With a background at Franklin and Marshall, the Culinary Institute of America, and such establishments as Windows on the World and Ark New York City, Kiernan has a talent for heightening the natural flavor profile of foods and for attention to detail. These skills served him well as the chef for high rollers at Trump Taj Mahal, where the sky was truly the limit for patrons, since no menu was provided. He has the ability to create in a moment’s notice dishes using the freshest ingredients, something about which his new employer, Wheatfields Restaurants, is also passionate.

Wheatfields, widely known for its fresh handcrafted pasta and award-winning wine offerings, welcomes Kiernan’s ability to source the best locally grown products, continuing the restaurant’s history of farm-to-table menu items.

Wheatfields Bistro and Wine Bar in Clifton Park will be Kiernan’s home base as he cultivates a new menu for the brand this fall. Working closely with Chef Jonas Wu-Norman of Wheatfields Restaurant and Bar in Saratoga Springs, Kiernan’s culinary knowledge will put the brand in a position for continued growth, said owners Tim and Colleen Holmes.

Kiernan is the recipient of the Keating Award for Most Likely to Succeed. He calls the Capital District home with his three children, ages 13 to 16.

Ten years after the Holmeses took over, Wheatfields Restaurant and Bar has

evolved into one of the major success stories of the Saratoga region. Even during the recent tough economic times, the restaurant is attaining record sales with a burgeoning local following and a vibe that attracts new visitors every day.

The success of Wheatfields prompted the Holmeses to launch a second venue in nearby Clifton Park in 2009. With the same dedication to taste, quality and service, Wheatfield’s Bistro and Wine Bar has become another go-to restaurant and lounge in the Capital Region. 

--Jennie 

 

Things are happening at 490-492 Broadway these days. Mountainman Outdoor Supply at 490 Broadway is expanding through the rear of its current location, which remains open. That store has divided its space with Saratoga Guitar, which will move its second shop from 8 Caroline St. to 492 Broadway. Each business has its own entrance. Access to Saratoga Guitar is through the rear.

Saratoga Guitar will have approximately 1,200 square feet in the new space. It is an expansion of the business’s former Caroline Street location, selling new, used and vintage guitars, ukuleles, banjos, mandolins and accessories, as it has for the past 20 years.

Each store may have some unique products, but the main shop at 60 West Ave. will continue with full-service sales and rentals, repairs, school band and orchestra instruments, and supplies. Guitars, banjos, ukuleles, mandolins, basses, amplifiers, digital pianos, sheet music and more are available there.

Owner Matt McCabe hopes to open the Broadway store in early November.

See saratogaguitar.com, where viewers can sign up for the Saratoga Guitar newsletter.

--Jennie

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