Update: Glass Tavern introducing Sunday brunch service

One corner of the restaurant's dining area. (photos provided)

UPDATE (4/9/17): The Glass Tavern in Glenville, which opened last fall, is adding Sunday brunch service, beginning with a traditional Easter brunch next Sunday (April 16). For the holiday, brunch hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and thereafter 11 am to 3 p.m.

UPDATE (9/27/16): The Glass Tavern has scheduled an official grand opening party for 3 to 10 p.m. Saturday, October 8. Live music, free hors d’oeuvres, tastings of Wolf Hollow Brewing beers, and a pig roast are on the schedule. 

 (Originally published 8/7/16) 

Socha Plaza exterior

When you look at the exterior of the Socha Plaza 115 building in Glenville, what you see is glass. Everywhere. So, it is not surprising its latest tenant is called The Glass Tavern. However, inside the new restaurant, scheduled for an official opening next Sunday but operating in soft mode as of today, it’s anything but glass.

The new venue opposite the airport is owned by Plaza developer Bill Socha and restaurateur Christopher Evans. It is reminiscent of classic dining clubs, all book shelves and dark wood and stone and soft lighting and a generally cushy atmosphere accented by a large stone fireplace. It seats about 200 on the patio, in the bar, the main dining room, and a library room. Much of the venue was constructed using reclaimed material from Socha’s grandparents’ farm on Waite Road in Clifton Park, and wood from two Lake Luzerne barns that were leveled for re-use.

Chef Yair de la Rosa

The menu is steak and seafood-centric, with beef sourced from Iowa Premium which specializes in USDA Prime Black Angus beef. Among the interesting-sounding offerings are a raw bar featuring ceviche; a carpet bagger steak dish (grilled filet mignon, fried oysters, tavern potatoes, housemade steak sauce) for $24; braised short rib mac-n-cheese and Nashville chicken (with hot butter sauce, cauliflower made, green beans), at $16 each; Irish curry fries (with cheddar cheese, curry sauce, bacon) at $7; oysters turtlefeller (with spinach, bacon and Parmesan) at $16; and, a “seafood harvest” (grilled gulf fish, crab-stuffed lobster tail, oysters turtlefeller, rice, vegetable, citrus beurre blanc) at $29.

The beverage menu offers eight draft and 15 bottled beers; a line of very reasonably-priced specialty cocktails including a Glass Martini (Chopin Black potato vodka, blue cheese-stufed olives) and The Looking Glass (Skyy peach infused vodka , Larceny Bourbon, cranberry juice, sweet and sour, squeeze of lime) at $10 each; a Naughty Dog (Bulldog English Gin, Campari liqueur, orange juice, Martini and Rossi sweet vermouth) at $9, and a Rumchata Taver-Tini (Rumchata liqueur, Malibu coconut rum, pineapple juice, shaken and served as a martini) at $8; and, a 30-plus label wine list grouped by price points (eight at $25 per bottle, eight at $35, six at $45, and six at $60, with most available by the glass).

The Glass Tavern is part the SoEva Hospitality Group, co-founded by Socha and Evans. Together, they purchased the Turtle Club Coastal Tavern & Claw Bar in Punta Gorda, FL, in 2015. The Glass Tavern menu was created by Yair de la Rosa who had worked for them at their Florida restaurant and moved here to be the startup chef.

The restaurant entrance is in the lobby of the Socha Plaza building at 115 Saratoga Road, Glenville. Phone: (518) 952-7443.

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• Go here to visit the Capital Region Brew Trail
• Go here to visit Notes On Napkins
• Go here to visit Dowd's New York Wines Notebook

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