Troy’s River Street Market: More than a Food Court

The River Street Market in Troy is a food hall by its own definition, but this place is far more than that. A bright, airy space in the Hedley Building is home to a half dozen restaurants ranging from Luka’s, a “Salumeria and Spirits” featuring high-end cured meats and cheeses, charcuterie, focaccia sandwiches, salads and full bar of craft cocktails and obscure wines, to Stacks Espresso Bar, whose mission is, “To share our passion, and proud to serve exceptional, accessible, specialty coffee.”

But it’s not just that, there are some great concepts floating around here under the same roof like Maria’s west coast inspired-good for your tastes and soon the addition of a Mazzone original, Papa Cico’s featuring gourmet pizza. The Copper Pot features soups, salads, and sweets from the chef that brought you “Sweet Sue’s”. Locally sourced ingredients are treated with loving care here, more on them later!

The River Street Market also has the Hatch Test Kitchen, featuring an ongoing series of new cuisine concepts. As well as Prime Burger and Shakehouse owned by chef Jaime Ortiz. Chef Ortiz opened several restaurants as corporate chef of Mazzone Hospitality; one of which is 677, which he owns himself as of early 2017. Critics have called his approach to food “passionately playful”.

Mazzone has started construction on a rooftop restaurant called “433” with spectacular views of the river that will be available for catering or special events.

Nathaniel Bette is managing the property for First Columbia and was kind enough to walk through the history of the property from its rehab by the Hedley organization back in the ’90s through its purchase by First Columbia in 2006. The building originally housed the Cluett, Peabody Shirt and Collar manufacturers, the business that gave Troy the nickname of “The Collar City”. A lot of the original machinery is still in the building and the future of that section is currently under negotiation with a Vermont brewer who wants to open there in mid-2020.

The surrounding area in the city is being swept along in the changes with plenty of parking right across the street. With the current renovation of the seawall in Troy, access from the water on the Hudson River will be available as well. There are currently plans to build a “Ribbon Park”, a 24’ wide park/walkway cantilever off the seawall from the market all the way down to the Green Island Bridge.

The market is featuring Thursday trivia night, Friday live music, and there is even yoga on Wednesday mornings. Special events like The Enchanted City, a popular steampunk-themed festival, will be featured in the market. This week, yours truly will be a judge in the Scary Foods Chopped Challenge.

Word is already getting around about the market. Jim Kambrich and Jason Gough worked together on WNYT Channel 13 for a long time. They’re both fishing buddies of mine and have helped with charity projects I’ve been involved in over the years. Jim, as you no doubt know, anchors the news at Channel 13, and Jason does the weather for the Times Union, and on his own jasonsweather.com.

“This is a nice setup for me because it’s high end food, even when I’m in a hurry, I can get here, get my food and get back to the station quickly. The quality is the thing. Operations like this should make fast food companies take a second look at what they’re offering AND what they’re charging for it! Those guys shouldn’t be charging $10 and up for what the commercial used to tell you that you should get change back from your dollar for, you tell me which one you want!”

Jim Kambrich, WNYT Channel 13

“Not only what are you paying for, but what are you putting into your body? I just came back from vacation where my buddy took his kids to a blueberry farm so they could learn that food doesn’t come from the grocery store, it comes from the ground. So when you have a place like this that’s sourcing local ingredients and real fresh food, people come back. Any successful restaurateur will tell you, ‘You’re not successful from your guests, you’re successful from your return guests.”

– Jason Gough, Times Union and JasonsWeather.com