I’ve had a good time checking out a few new local places, so I thought I’d do a little report on them. First: Unbeetable on Clinton Street in downtown Schenectady. This is a fully vegan restaurant, bar, and arcade, and I’ve been meaning to check it out, but then recently it was the venue for a Rotary even that G and I attended.
For our event, they had a little buffet of appetizers.
In the picture above, you can see (clockwise from the chips): some spinach and jalapeno dip, a mac and cheese popper, a couple of cauliflower wings, and an egg roll (rather than Asian, their eggrolls are “Reuben” or “Philly Cheese Steak”). My favorite was the spinach and jalapeno dip, which was not spicy, but which was so creamy and delicious that I worried that I’d eaten too much of it because too much dairy can give me an upset stomach, and then I remembered that it was entirely plant-based. Like, it was super-creamy and I completely forgotten it was not dairy at all. I would absolutely go here again and try more food. Plus they have cocktails and mocktails, none of which I’ve had a chance to taste yet, so I will make it a point to do so.
The set-up is interesting, and you can kind of get a sense of it here, with this picture I took of G doing the motorcycle game.
One side is devoted to the bar and restaurant seating, there’s a divider in the middle, and the other side has more seating as well as a bunch of video games as well as skee-ball, an air hockey table, and a pinball machine. So if you’d like to just ignore the video games, you can. Or if you don’t want to ignore the video games, well, there’s one of those sit-down Ms. Pacmans.
On a recent beautiful Sunday, I decided to take an aimless bike ride, and then I remembered that there were a couple of other new places to check out. First, Schenectady Trading Company. They’re under new ownership in a new location on North Center Street.
It definitely feels a bit tucked away, and there are stairs to get into the main space, but there’s plenty of good stuff inside. I actually got distracted by the shopping itself, as well as vibing to the music that sounded like they had stolen my Spotify playlist, but luckily I picked up a few local things for G, so here’s some of their merchandise.
I am always on the lookout for enamel pins for G’s Rotary jacket, and I liked the easy explanation of the seasons around here. Plus, the Schenectady sticker was just cool. This store isn’t always open on Sundays. In fact, it’s officially listed as closed, but when they’re able to staff it around farmers’ market time, they do, and you can follow them on social media for updates.
Then I pedaled over to State Street heading toward Gateway Plaza to check out to check out Mohawk Valley Art Shoppe.
This place was completely lovely, with lots of fun supplies, original art, plants, and plenty of natural light. They have a classroom set up, and I happened to visit as one of the classes was ending, and all of the participants looked like they’d spent a lovely afternoon and were feeling pleased with their accomplishments. You can check out their list of upcoming classes here.
