You can see it and you can surely feel the long-lacking energy in Albany’s downtown. The capital city’s collaboration with local artists has walls popping with colorful murals, and ongoing redevelopment has new dining options fronting the Times Union Center on South Pearl Street and filling up storefronts as part of the Kenmore complex on North Pearl. The vegan spot Wizard Burger has new neighbors with the arrival of Banh Mi 47, and signs in picture windows announce a Skinny Pancakes creperie is opening.
What’s clear is Albany is mirroring the national rise of single-dish restaurants, small businesses focused on one main thing, usually with variations on a theme and complementary options to round out a meal. Usually fast-casual in business model, mostly built around online ordering, some with seats for dining in and few that would warrant a full review, they’re collectively making life a little more delicious and a lot more accessible. Here are three to know:
Ballistic Shrimp
In its prime location in front of the Times Union Center, Ballistic Shrimp is set to deliver us from a cold Albany winter with steaming hot clam chowder and a fish fry that prioritizes the seasoning on its haddock fillets over a craggy thick batter. And I’m here for it. Tail-on ballistic shrimp are plump mouthfuls and, knowing fries don’t travel well, you can choose sides from corn on the cob to rice or plantain tostones. A long counter glowing with underwired LED lighting feels part bar, part diner if you’re facing the fry action, but Ballistic Shrimp is all about fast-casual food, offering tuna melts, fried fish sandwiches and popcorn shrimp to dine in or take to go. And there’s more: Promos for crab mac and cheese, shrimp quesadillas and the daily soup are pinned to the counter on handwritten notes.
Not surprisingly, it’s shredded imitation crab in the gooey, crumb-topped mac and cheese, and the clam chowder is dense with potatoes and a cream base as thick as condensed soup, but It’s loaded with dill and chopped clams, served piping hot and will quell your hankering for comfort food on an office budget. Somehow a whole pound of snow crab legs with a side costs only $35 (and I say “only” assuming you’re familiar with considerably higher supermarket prices). Lobster tails (four pieces) and a side are $36; surf and turf, a market-friendly $42. Chances are you’ll order to go, but the large counter means you can safely spread out. There’s currently a call for monthly art to show: Local artists take note.
Address: 51 S. Pearl St., Albany
Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, closed weekends
Prices: Lunch specials, $8 to $14; appetizers, $7 to $14; sides, $3 to $4; fish and seafood combo meals, $9.50 to a shareable deal for $69
Info: 518-599-0792 and ballisticshrimp.com
Banh Mi 47
From Siena alumns Mike and Stacy Nguyen, a tiny shop called Banh Mi 47 saves us from densely bready torpedo and submarine sandwiches with their house-baked baguette for their Vietnamese banh mi. One bite and the crisp outer shell crushes audibly to the airy crumb, which is, they tell me, “50 percent lighter than other bread.”
It’s this impossible lightness, layered with silky pork sausage and smooth paté (cha lua paté), marinated grilled beef with scallion oil, (bo nuong), meatballs (xiu mai) lemongrass chicken or tofu (ga nuong sa or dau hu chien sa), that will have you craving more. Packed with cilantro, lightly pickled cucumber, carrot, daikon, sliced chiles (an option you should say yes to) and smeared in Kewpie mayo or Maggi seasoning sauce, every bite is a flavor riot that triggers the taste memory of fresh herbs and chile paste on Vietnamese pho. Don’t skimp on the thinly sliced jalapenos — the heat brings out the sweetness in the marinated beef and porkiness of the smooth paté. Supply-chain issues mean they are out of Impossible pork, for now, but springy fried lemongrass tofu hits the spot. You can also double the veg, or the meat, for a fee.
Banh mi ("banh" means "baked goods") are a lunch staple in Vietnam, sometimes dipped in sweetened condensed milk. While that’s not on the menu, you can order Vietnamese coffee made with Nguyen Coffee True Grit coffee beans and condensed milk (they use the gold standard Longevity brand, “Sua Ong Tho,” as it’s called in Vietnam), available iced or hot. There’s also boba tea in a dozen flavors and the palm-sized paté so, a flaky pastry filled with firm sausage meat, like a round sausage roll. Order online, from the QR code on the door or at the counter inside where two tables await, or you can put your banh mi on display at a two-top in the raised storefront window — fitting since Banh Mi 47 takes its name from the Saigon street address of a pho shop above which Mike Nguyen’s family lives. Having perfected house-made banh mi, we can only hope they might one day add pho.
Address: 74 N. Pearl St., Albany
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday.
Prices: Banh mi, $7.40 to $8.34; boba teas, ($3.70 to 4.62); coffee/drinks, $1.50 to $3.50
Info: 518-512-9762 and banhmi47.com
Herbie’s Burgers
The minds behind the now-closed wine bar Post have brought Herbie’s Burgers to life on Lark Street in the popping yellow of a classic ’50s diner melded with Herbie’s flawlessly branded, nerdy burger charm. A twin-track menu offers omnivores grass-fed smashed beef burgers (the beef direct from a farm in Claverack), and dairy-based milkshakes, while vegan-friendly, house-made, plant-based patties are lightly spiced, a little salty from soy sauce and packed with a staggering list of veggies, brown rice and cashew nuts.
The only real question is how many patties you plan to stack. Inside the brick-and-mortar storefront, the menu mentions single and doubles, but look online and there’s a triple-decker and The Herbfather, loaded with four patties and stuffed with fries ($16.75). Whatever you choose, the flavor profile closely mimics the old McDonald's song, “all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and…” — there are no onions. Instead, add the house-made onion jam, an addictive, sweet, sticky, caramelized-onion reduction that pumps up the flavor.
Surely the Herbie’s team looked at the sloppy, loaded fries coming out of the ghost-kitchens chains Flavortown and Mr. Beast and decided to do it better: Their hand-cut fries are slathered in cheese, onions and Herbie’s own special nerdy sauce, or order them straight.
Milkshakes, both dairy and vegan, are thick and creamy. fountain soda includes Maine Root lemon and lime and sarsaparilla. Lark Street has never had anything like this. And it’s open until 2 a.m. nightly to feed the bar crowd. The convenience of ordering online and delivery not only means you can beat the steady traffic. It means Herbie’s is the burger spot to beat.
Address: 196 Lark St., Albany
Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily
Prices: Single and double burgers, $4.95 to $6.50; fries, $2.95 to $4.95; shakes, $5.95 to $6.95; soft drinks, $2 to $2.50
Info: 518-776-4005 and herbiesburgers.com
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November 10, 2021 at 11:03PM
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Critic's notebook: Three new yummy quick-serve spots in Albany - Albany Times Union
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