Category Archives: New Businesses

Tony Mariotti says he ‘caught the travel bug’ after college and has opened Bucketlist Vacation Planners to help customers find and enjoy adventure trips.

©2016 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Jennifer Farnsworth

Tony Mariotti is doing what he loves and says his clients are loving what he’s doing.

With a passion for travel, he has developed a new travel agency service in Saratoga that is spreading his infectious affinity for hitting the road.

“I caught the travel bug after college when I spent two months touring Europe, on a shoestring budget,” said Mariotti.

Kurt Borchardt, left, and Colin Quinn put their love of beer and brewing into the formation of their new business Artisanal Brew Works on Geyser Road in Saratoga Springs.

©2016 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Maureen Werther

For Kurt Borchardt and Colin Quinn, brewing beer is both an art and a science.

The owners of Artisanal Brew Works at 41 Geyser Road in Saratoga Springs opened their craft beer brewery the third week in July.

Borchardt and Quinn have a lot in common besides beer. Both men teach at Saratoga Springs High School. Both have been involved in homemade brewing for years. And both share an “incredible attention to detail,” according to Borchardt.

That characteristic was something Borchardt worried would drive his new partner “a little nuts,” he said, until they started working together and found out they were “cut from the same cloth.”

Borchardt worked for 13 years as a chemical engineer specializing in automation and controls. He always knew he would leave the corporate world and embark upon a teaching career. When he got married and began to raise a family, he decided it was a good time to make the transition to education. He currently teaches digital electronics, biotechnology, principles of engineering and woodshop.

Molly Reed is the owner of rōv & reeds boutique at 24 Caroline St. that sells a range of imported goods like soft furnishings, rugs, hand-crafted Moroccan leather goods, pillows, textiles and art.

©2016 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Maureen Werther

A new boutique, rōv & reeds, has opened at 24 Caroline St. in Saratoga Springs, selling a range of imported soft furnishings, rugs, hand-crafted Moroccan leather goods, pillows, textiles and art, along with other items from Southeast Asia and Morocco.

The shop also offers hand-crafted furniture, sculptures, wall art and handmade jewelry by local artists such as Jenny Horstman, who creates horse sculptures using scrap iron, and Peter Reed, owner of Rusticworks canvas and leather designs.

Owner Molly Reed partnered with her father, Tim Reed, who is also the owner of reeds on Exchange Street in Glens Falls.

Molly and her father decided to team up in her endeavor after she returned from a four-month shopping trip across Southeast Asia and Morocco. During her travels, she purchased rugs, pillows, silks and textiles from artists in Thailand, Myamar, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal and Morocco, with a plan to sell them on her online boutique, rovimports.com.

José Theoktisto and his wife, Belkis Castro, operate Oh Corn! Arepas, a new Venezuelan restaurant located on Route 9 in Halfmoon, open Tuesdays through Sundays.

©2016 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Liz Witbeck

Oh Corn! Arepas, a Venezuelan restaurant, in Halfmoon gives local diners a different alternative.

The business opened in April at 1505 Route 9 in Halfmoon.

An arepa, one of its specialties, is a flat, round patty of white corn. The dough can be baked, grilled or fried. Once the arepa is cooked, it is filled with various kind of ingredients a person may like. Some meat choices include shredded beef, pulled pork and chicken. Customers can also select from a number of vegetables, such as avocados and chick peas.

“Your imagination is the limit,” said owner José Theoktisto.

He said the most popular item on the menu is the reina pepiada, which means “the queen” in Spanish. The sandwich is made with chicken breast, avocado, mayonnaise and cilantro, stuffed inside an arepa.

Arepas are a staple in Venezuela, as well as in Colombia. They can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Often arepas are found available at roadside stands and eaten as street food.

Kiersten Houck, left, and Sandra James are the owners of Willows Bistro, a new restaurant in Ballston Spa, an establishment the owners describe as casual fine dining.

©2016 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Liz Witbeck

Willows Bistro, a new restaurant in Saratoga County, is a casual fine-dining establishment that opened in June.

Owners of the restaurant, at 11 Prospect St. in Ballston Spa, are Sandra James and Kiersten Houck.

Houck previously operated a food truck in Ballston Spa, the Lunch Brake. Before then, he worked at Saratoga Winery.

James served in the National Guard and U.S. Air Force and has a degree in culinary arts. The two teamed up together for their first experience operating a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Tina Levielle-Briscoe, co-owner of Simplicity, A Salon, styles hair in the studio’s new space at the Embassy Suites hotel in Congress Plaza. The business moved there from Henry Street.

©2016 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Maureen Werther

After 16 years on Henry Street, Simplicity, A Salon, now occupies space in the Embassy Suites hotel in Congress Plaza.

The space was available after a previous tenant vacated the premises. Co-owners Tina Levielle-Briscoe and her husband, Sahn, decided it was the right time to make the move.

“We loved Henry Street, but parking was becoming too difficult for our clients and we felt it was time to switch our energies to a new space,” she said.

Levielle-Briscoe said it all happened very quickly. Although they had considered making the move when Embassy first opened, another salon leased the space. However, in March of this year, they were given the opportunity to take the spot. Their lease on Henry Street was coming up for renewal and they made the decision to move.

Charles Usher and his wife, Amy Usher, are proprietors of Kraverie, a restaurant sensation that fuses Korean and French cuisine in the Beekman Street Arts District in Saratoga Springs.

©2016 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Maureen Werther

Kraverie, a Jersey City restaurant sensation that fuses Korean and French cuisine, is opening a second location in the Beekman Street Arts District in Saratoga Springs.

The new eatery opens at 78 Beekman St. on June 11. As it turns out, chef/owner Christian Usher is accustomed to taking his show on the road.

As their website says, Kraverie is the “brainchild of two revolutionary food truck owners.”

Charles Usher started his culinary career 10 years ago in Jersey City, N.J., as a food truck vendor, operating Lucinda’s Creperie. It was there that he met his business partner, Charles Heo, also a food truck vendor and owner of Krave, a Mexi-Korean BBQ.

Lamont Washington cuts a customers hair at his new establishment, TruCutz Barbershop, on Jefferson Street in Saratoga Springs. The shop opened in May.

©2016 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Maureen Werther

Lamont Washington has two important talents: He knows hair cutting and he knows marketing. His new business, TruCutz Barbershop, celebrated its opening on May 6 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the renovated building at 44 Jefferson St. in Saratoga Springs.

Since then, he said he has seen his new business grow day by day.

Washington didn’t start out with the expectation of becoming a barber. As a marketing major at SUNY Brockport, he started cutting his fraternity brothers’ hair and discovered he was pretty good at it. Realizing that it was a way for him to earn extra cash while attending school, he asked the owner of a local barbershop if he could use one of the empty chairs. The shop owner, who had no employees at the time, agreed.

“After watching me cut hair, the barber realized that I was pretty good at it,” said Washington. “It worked out well because the barber had nobody cutting hair in his shop at that point. He offered to train me, and I agreed and became his apprentice.”