Friday, July 06, 2012

The End of Hattie's at Saratoga Race Course?


Can it be, Say no for this would be Blasphemy.

Foodie writer Steve Barnes of the Times Union (Albany, NY) reports that the Hattie's Trackside location has been moved this year to the Carousel Area. Barnes describes the new area as an "out-of- the -way former crepe spot". Must of been out of the way-I never saw it. Crepe Spot? Who eats crepes at a race track anyway?

Barnes further reports that Hattie's owner Beth Alexander thinks the location is "horrible".

The Hattie's former location at the track was located in a very convenient spot in the backyard just outside the escalators leading to the 2nd floor of the clubhouse. As I wrote on this blog in 2010
"I find a Hattie’s fried chicken sandwich eaten around the 6th race or so has just the perfect mix of ingredients to give me the proper nourishment to continue on for the remainder of the card."

Now what to do should Hattie's go forward on their threat to stay away due to the expense involved in making the new space work? Sure, there is still the Paddock Bar and Shake Shack, but there is no duplicate to the splendid, messy, calorie filled, almost orgasmic inducing Hattie's fried chicken sandwich. Nothing available at the track comes close, nothing, nada, zilch.

Is this what we can expect from the Governor Cuomo (aka Emperor Cuomo) controlled "new NYRA". Give me the old NYRA than. Ousted CEO Charlie knew a good meal when he saw one and surely would have never moved Hattie's.

The Government can't run the DMV, we expect them to know good food?

1 comment:

Teresa said...

Hattie's approach to this has been a pretty major local PR disaster. Check out the comments on the articles in the Saratogian, and their Facebook comments came across as entitled and spoiled. It seems that NYRA's request was not unreasonable, after all, based on what I read last night.