Charm abounds in revitalized Arthur’s Market

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When the Beekman 1802 Mercantile store in Sharon Springs temporarily transformed into the Rose Apothecary from the TV series “Schitt’s Creek”, people turned out in droves. Today, in the Palisades district of Schenectady, Arthur’s Market, a local market and café with a history dating back to 1795, steals the show.

My first thought after parking in historic Polachek Square is surprise: Brightly painted chocolate boxed houses line North Ferry and Front streets off the leafy roundabout. Even mid-week there are strollers and dog walkers in the neighborhood one block from the Mohawk River, where a bike path, dog park, and playground only add to its unknown charm. Passing past Arthur’s French bistro-style sidewalk tables and chairs, we climb Arthur’s curving stone steps around the corner of North Ferry and open the original doors to a beautifully renovated cafe. Owner Haley (Priebe) Whalen, a digital marketing consultant from Connecticut, brought the market to life as a cafe, grocery store and community center by hosting a weekly social hour with the Stockade Association and tastings, such as a recent beer and cheese event. easy since Whalen’s husband owns Great Flats Brewing downtown in Electric Town.

Arthur’s was a labor of love, stripping and outfitting the space with vintage details, many found at local architecture salvage stores or brought in by locals who remember the original; even more come from the UK, where Whalen lived for six years. Without knowing it, I was struck by a familiar feeling, common to London bakeries and cafes occupying lovingly restored stores, with large picture windows, wooden pastries and the matte tint of Farrow & Ball paint on wood. weathered wood. Whalen laughs when I mention it: she matched Farrow & Ball’s Studio Green color at a Scotia paint store, where she’s now affectionately referred to as Arthur’s Green.

As a cafe and grocery store, half of the L-shaped space leads to the counter supported by chalkboard menus and a display case stocked with cookies and pastries, a cooler with freshly made salads, and paper-wrapped sandwiches waxed, and a freezer with ready-to-warm scratchy dinners in the big-hearted and home-made vein of chicken pies and a roast sausage with pears and seedling potatoes. Chef Julia Aiello, a recent Culinary Institute of America graduate, cooks in New Market Kitchen and shares her grandmother’s recipe for a red lasagna made with sautéed mushrooms and green beans. The soups we order for lunch are also available in take-out quarter containers. A dog walker herself, Whalen had the pre-pandemic foresight to include a counter window that opens to the street for dog walkers to order coffees and take out meals.

We join a light lunch crowd – two couples and a family happily munching on sandwiches and soup. Dinner there is a kind of picnic. We enjoy the lids of a hearty chicken orzo soup with shiny lemon and dill and a cream flavored with garlic and wild mushrooms. There are gooey macaroni and cheese topped with panko and a choice of seasonal quiches. Pick a heated roasted butternut squash, slip out of its paper bag and share on a napkin. Girthy sandwiches are European in shape: Rustic Bread Alone 12-grain baguettes are buttered and stuffed with slices of cured ham and Gruyère with lemon aioli, or spread with balsamic fig jam wrapped around huge brie bumps. with peppery arugula as a slight relief. Deconstructed, they would make copious plowman’s plates; put together, they’re big portable meals.

We sip hot apple cider enriched with lemon and cinnamon, and house roasted No. Six Depot coffee in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts; the medium roast guest coffee, which rotates monthly, is Touchy Coffee from Troy. The sense of community extends through the grocery store, where the other half of the L connects to a back patio with picnic tables and flat access from the road for strollers or wheelchairs. Paintings, postcards, and photos of Arthur over the years hang on a wall, a tribute to the original, and plenty of goodies from happy customers that Arthur relives.

Store tables and shelves are chock-full of finds both local and far-away, from the handiest (toothpaste, bone broth, and sriracha) to gifts (sea salt caramels, rosemary truffles and Morito dark chocolate sticks from Brooklyn) . There’s honey from Forts Ferry Farm, tea and honey from Saratoga Tea and Honey, Bread Alone bread, meter-long Napoli spaghetti and McVitie’s chocolate digestives from the UK cheese, hand-printed wrapping paper, craft cocktail kits, and illustrated Advent calendars that could represent the pets of Polachek Square and you’re guaranteed to do some impulse shopping before you go.

In the upstate, it’s not uncommon to plan a drive around lunch at a country store. One thinks of Hoosick Provisions in Hoosick Falls, Bartlett House in Ghent, Old Chatham Country Store and Vischer Ferry General Store. Arthur’s Market, extending its 226 year history, has joined the club, and since it’s open six days a week, you should find time to go.

Arthur’s Market

Where: 35 N. Ferry St., Schenectady Hours: 7 am to 5:30 pm Wednesday to Monday, closed Tuesday Prices: Beverages, $ 2 to $ 4.75; cafe menu, $ 2.50 to $ 14.25; Take-out dinners for two, $ 12.95 to $ 15.95 Info: arthurs1795.com and 518-709-0019

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