By Susan Elise Campbell
On June 30th The Putnam Market, a prominent fixture on Broadway for decades, held a well-attended ribbon cutting ceremony for its latest addition to Saratoga’s offerings of exceptional eateries. The new Café at Putnam Market has taken over the space that was the market’s popular Wine Shop for more than 25 years.
“This is a food town with a ton of seriously good restaurants,” said co-owner Cathy Hamilton. “We have to keep changing to keep up.”
Hamilton’s husband, William Roach, ran the wine shop since its inception. When he announced his retirement last fall, Hamilton announced the Wine Shop would retire with him. There would be a bistro in its place to make up for the contribution wine sales made to the company’s bot-tom line, she said.
“From strictly a business standpoint, we needed $250,000 in sales at a 50 percent gross mar-gin to replace the earnings from wine,” Hamilton said. “There aren’t many things that can ac-complish that.”
Hamilton is one-half of the sister duo who founded and owns The Putnam Market. Hamilton describes herself as “the big picture person” on their team who “makes sure we can make payroll.” Her sister, Gloria Griskowitz, “is extremely good at planning and execution.”
It was Hamilton’s idea to have a café and offer specialty coffees, teas, chai, and lattes in the morning and wine and beer by the glass in the afternoon “to keep our customers here longer,” she said.
“Sometimes I come up with a new idea and staff just look at me,” she said. “When I sprung on them last autumn what was going to happen this year, one long-term employee burst into tears. But that was because she didn’t want William to go.”
There were no new hires to staff The Café. “We just re-deployed one full-time and one part-time employee who worked in the Wine Shop,” said Hamilton.
The Café provides plenty of room to sit and enjoy beverages with baked goods like scones, muffins, and rugelach. Any hot or cold signature sandwich, homemade soup, or specialty salad purchased in the main store can also be consumed at a table or window stool in the Café.
Hamilton said, “There is so much more light now that the space is very open.”
It was not lawful to have the Wine Shop accessible from the sidewalk, but now customers can enter the café from the street or from within the main store.
Customers are enjoying the same brand of coffee as the main market brews, Chris’ Coffee, which roasts, blends and flavors its products on Old Niskayuna Road in Albany. Hamilton said the family business helped determine their menu and even helped train staff.
“We are already famous for our combo sandwiches, such as roast beef and free range turkey that we cook onsite,” she said. “We now have worked out some recipes with Chris’ to make flavored lattes and coffees that are unique to us.”
New menu items include a smoked vanilla coffee that Hamilton said “has a warm taste like bourbon” and a hot chocolate made with Sundae’s Best, a New York-based chocolate com-pany. Another is matcha made with turmeric and locally grown mushrooms.
“We proudly source our ingredients from local suppliers because we love our community,” she said. “We continue to use the vendors who have been on the road with us.”
That road passed the 30-year benchmark despite a detour that shuttered some businesses during the Covid-19 years. Hamilton said that up and down Broadway, The Putnam Market, which is designated a grocery store, and Adirondack Trust Company, an essential banking in-stitution, were the only ones open for many months.
“I looked at photos from our 25th anniversary ribbon cutting and we were all wearing face masks,” she said. “The landscape has changed so much in Saratoga, but we are fortunate to be ‘right on the 50-yard line’ on Broadway, as our friend from the Tourism Bureau described it.”
When asked how The Putnam Market got to 30 years, Hamilton said her sister Gloria replied, “day by day.”
“The two of us are extraordinary business partners and both of us know, in our hearts, that each couldn’t do it without the other,” she said.
The Putnam Market Café at 431 Broadway is open at 8:00 a.m., serves breakfast until noon, and closes at 6:00 p.m. Happy Hour runs 4:00 through closing at 6:00. The main store opens at 10:00 a.m.
To learn more about menus and weekly specials, catering services, or ordering online, visit putnammarket.com.