Get excited, cheese lovers. Putnam Market on Broadway will close on Monday and Tuesday to construct a specialized cheese room. Market co-owner Cathy Hamilton traveled to London where she was in La Fromagerie, a cheese shop that had a similar room, and decided to bring the idea back to Saratoga Springs.

The 100 square foot room will be located near where the cheese is currently located in the store, but the new room will be enclosed, insulated and kept at a temperature somewhere between 50 and 55 degrees. There will be a glass window customers can look through to see the cheese, and they can enter the room to sample. The cheese will be protected, wrapped and cut to order. Putnam Market sources its cheeses from regional cheese makers and some cheese importers.

“The goal is to roughly triple the amount of cheeses we carry and make it easier to see,” Hamilton said. “It’s new and exciting.”

Ali Khalil has reopened Manna’s restaurant in Ballston Spa with his brother, Moe. The name is the same as it was under the previous owners, but the menu is different. The restaurant, which has been open under the new owners for less than a month, offers a menu with mainly Italian-American cuisine with some breakfast menu options, and more of a focus on delivery and takeout food. The brothers also operate a pizza parlor, Rusty’s Pizzeria in Watervliet, which they took over three years ago. While the brothers do have experience in the restaurant business, this is the first restaurant they’ve operated that has a larger seating capacity.

They decided to keep the same name as the restaurant had before to make for an easier transition and because Manna’s was a big name in Ballston Spa.

“We decided to open this one because there was that motivation for more, the American dream,” Khalil said. “For us anyway, we give 200 percent.”

-- Jamie

Leta Betor and Susan Stanley, both of Saratoga Springs, are opening a new store called The Gift Box June 1 at 215 Milton Ave.
The store, which Betor compared to an emporium because of the variety of goods they'll sell, including collectibles and newer items. There will be everything from furniture to bird houses, china and chandeliers, which the two have sourced from different collectors.
Neither of the two women have operated a store like this before, and began actively collecting materials for the past six months. The store will be open year-round and into the evening.
"In Ballston Spa, things tend to close early, and it seems like you can't get anything after 4 or 5 p.m.," Betor said. "We'll open later in the day and stay open later at night too."

There's also a new place to work out on West Avenue in Saratoga Springs. Saratoga Core Fitness now has a location at 68 West Ave. The gym's motto is "everyone is an athlete." There are packages for different classes, single classes and physical training sessions are $45 per hour.
Victoria Nye Cordi, an Albany native and fitness trainer, recently opened the facility, which basic training, something called "Mommy and Baby Restore the Core," a workout for a mother and her small child and Piloxing, a mixture of Pilates and boxing.

--Jamie

Here's a very interesting tidbit Ballston Spa Superintendent Joseph Dragone shared at Wednesday's Board of Education meeting, relating to both education and business in our area:
ABC News' David Muir was in the district's schools on Wednesday, reporting a story on the economy of the region and GlobalFoundries for the network's 'Made in America' series.
Here's what school district spokesman Stuart Williams emailed me Thursday about how schools fit into the story:
"They included filming of our Clean Technologies and Sustainable Industries Early College High School students as part of the piece," Williams wrote.
Muir is a weekend anchor for ABC World News, and reports on the economy in the network's ongoing series.
We haven't been able to determine when the show will air, but we'll be sure to you updated on this as we're able to come up with more information.