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Best patio in Albany

By on May 6, 2013 in City Guide, Drink

best patio in albany

The best patio in Albany is a hard category to find a clear winner. If you’re drinking beverages of any kind outside during nice weather, chances are you made a good decision on how to spend your time.

Regardless, our pick for the best patio is a tie between Cafe Hollywood and the City Beer Hall, with the wildcard being the Wine Bar.

Both Hollywood and the City Beer Hall patios are huge, so it’s rare that they feel too crowded and you can still enjoy a conversation at a normal volume. Both patios also have table service, so you don’t have to leave your post outside in order to get a drink from the bar. It is also very hard not to enjoy the walk to the City Beer Hall, if you take State Street down. I also enjoy the Wine Bar’s patio, which is smaller, because of the atmosphere, with exposed brick and vines overhead.

City Beer Hall, 42 Howard Street, Albany, NY
Cafe Hollywood, 275 Lark Street, Albany, NY
The Wine Bar and Bistro on Lark, 200 Lark Street, Albany, NY

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Best sushi in Albany

By on May 6, 2013 in City Guide, Eat

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The best sushi in Albany is Shogun on Madison Ave. They are relatively new to the area, celebrating their one-year anniversary in March. The decor and atmosphere gives the restaurant the feel of fine dining, but the prices do not reflect that category. Definitely a great date spot, with a good cocktail menu and even those weird people that exist who “don’t like” sushi will be able to find something delicious to order. Can eat in or take out, and they also have a patio, which is a huge plus for the warm months. They also are open late, which makes it a great place to begin, or end, your evening out.

Runner-up is Sushi X in Latham, which features “all you can eat” sushi and other menu items.

Shogun, 457 Madison Ave, Albany, NY

Sushi X, 710 New Loudon Road, Latham, NY

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The best cheap drinks in Albany

By on March 24, 2013 in City Guide, Drink

best drinks in albany

The best spot to get cheap drinks in Albany is McGeary’s. Especially on a Sunday, after 8pm when drinks are two-for-one and DJ Trumastr is playing music.

Honestly almost every single bar in Albany is cheap. There’s only a handful that are much higher than normal dive bar prices, such as The Point or dp. Most are the standard $4 for a pint and $5 for a mixed drink.

McGeary’s Restaurant, 4 Clinton Square, Albany, NY

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The best burrito in Albany

By on March 24, 2013 in City Guide, Eat

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The best burrito in Albany is from Bros Tacos or Bomber’s. Bros is a more authentic, cooked-to-order style place, whereas Bomber’s is a bit kitschy-er. Bro’s even makes their own corn tortillas in-house.

People love to hate on Bomber’s but the reason they can score so high in this list is they have more than one vegan burrito on their menu, one with tofu, and another with great vegan chicken nuggets. So much so that my non-vegan friends get that instead of anything else on the menu. Bros also takes much longer than Bombers as it’s all cooked fresh to order, so be sure to call ahead.

Bros Tacos, 319 Ontario St, Albany, NY

Bombers Burrito Bar, 258 Lark St, Albany, NY

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The best record shop in Albany

By on March 18, 2013 in City Guide, Shop

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The best record shop in Albany is Fuzz Records on Lark Street. The shop owners are your tastemakers, and there’s not an overwhelming amount of records to go through, meaning that any record you find there is of quality and carefully selected. That being said, if a record you are looking for isn’t there, they will happily order it for you. Occasionally, they will host shows which are intimate performances by default due to the size of the shop, which makes for a unique live music experience. The shop is also beginning its own record label, with its first vinyl pressing set for release in April.

However, if you are in the mood for digging, Last Vestige on Quail Street is your spot.

Fuzz Records, 209 Lark St, Albany, NY

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The best coffee shop in Albany

By on February 22, 2013 in City Guide, Drink

The best coffee shop in Albany is Tierra Coffee Roasters on Madison Ave. They consistently have the freshest beans that will bloom when you use them in your pour-overs at home, and they also offer alternative brewing methods such as the Chemex. They also, of course, have free wireless internet and tons of really great vegan and non-vegan food as well.

The best coffee shop in Troy is, without question, The Charles F. Lucas Confectionery which serves Blue Bottle beans, and has a vintage piston driven manual espresso machine. The Confectionery also has the best atmosphere out of any establishment in the area, and is also not a coffee shop, but a wine bar that happens to have coffee.

Tierra Coffee Roasters, 1038 Madison Avenue, Albany, NY

Charles F. Lucas Confectionery & Wine Bar, 2nd Street, Troy, NY

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Artists announced for Camp Bisco XII

By on February 21, 2013 in Music, Things to do

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Here’s the list of performers so far: The Disco Biscuits, Bassnectar, Passion Pit, STS9, Animal Collective, Umphrey’s McGee, Flux Pavillion, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Lotus, Boys Noize, Wolfgang Gartner, Tommy Trash, Dillion Francis, UZ, Aeroplane, Alvin Risk, Audrey Napoleon, Baauer, Bear Mountain, Boombox, Break Science, Cherub, Chris Malinchak, Clockwork, Com Truise, Congorock, Cosby Sweater, Crizzly, Dan Deacon, Designer Drugs, Dirtyphonics (Live), El-P, Eskmo, Flosstradamus, Free Energy, Gigamesh, Govinda, Gramatik, Grandtheft, Green Lantern, HeRobust, Heroes x Villians, Indobox, Killer Mike, Koan Sound, Manic Focus, M | O | D, Nadis Warriors, Nick Thayer, Paper Diamond, Party Supplies, Popeska, Project 46, RL Grime, Rubblebucket, Ryan Hemsworth, The Werks, Toro y Moi, Twiddle, Vacationer, VHS or Beta, Wick-It the Instigator, and Zoogma.

Additional details to follow on campbisco.net.

We’ve covered the past two festivals and you can check out our coverage in our archive.

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