By Chris Osborne

ALBANY, May 2, 2007-There is no hiding Albany’s abundance of places to eat, drink, or dance.  With so many different places around however, the traditional food and drink specials are not usually enough for these businesses to thrive in this ever growing city.  Bars, restaurants, and nightclubs alike are constantly on the look out for new and exciting ways to attract customers and keep them coming back.

            The most common theme that bars and restaurants typically engage in to attract business is happy hour.  As nice as it is to hear the terms “happy hour” or “2 for 1” after a while it’s not always enough to keep people coming back.  Establishments such as Bomber’s Burrito Bar, Club Noche, Jillian’s, Skyline, and various others throughout that city are becoming known for having a variety of other attractions throughout the week.

            “I’ve always thought that owning a bar is like being in charge of a TV station” said Matt Baumgartner, owner of Bombers Burrito Bar and former owner of Club Noche.  “Like you have to have something that’s every night of the week, you have to give people a reason to like, tune into that place.”

            Baumgartner does not appear to be the only business owner around that thinks that way as more and more bars, restaurants, and nightclubs are beginning to incorporate specialty nights throughout the week.  One attraction that is growing in popularity is team trivia nights.  Teams of friends compete against other teams in a trivia challenge that can include questions about anything from sports and entertainment to philosophy and geography.   Prizes also range from free food and drinks to merchandise typically with the establishments name on it.

            Another attraction that is becoming increasingly more common and popular is live entertainment.  Live bands can be found playing at a variety of places around Albany just about every weekend of the year.  It’s also becoming more typical on the weekends to find popular local radio DJ’s broadcasting live from some of the hot spots around town. 

            Bomber’s Burrito Bar, for example, is unique because it is the most well know place around for specializing in burritos.  Knowing that the typical young person doesn’t usually have that much money to waste, Baumgartner opened Bomber’s in 1997 and focused on catering to them with good food at a cheap price.  As Bomber’s grew in popularity Baumgartner eventually was able to turn it into the full bar and restaurant type setting it has now. 

            “I think if you sort of pick one group and target them and just make that night busy, you know, because of that one group it’s easier than just sort of be like ‘this is our bar, come any night you want’” said Baumgartner.

He had the same tactic in mind when he opened Club Noche as well which was focused on what he called the “young professional.”  With having designated specialty nights such as trivia, wine, Latin, and ladies nights Noche has been able to carve out its own place among the various nightclubs.  Though smaller establishments are more common in Albany, there are a couple larger places that take entertainment options beyond just specialty nights.

Jillian’s and Skyline for instance, are two of Albany’s biggest entertainment attractions and have multiple floors with various activities.  Jillian’s main floor has a common setup with a large bar, dining tables, numerous televisions, and an area for bands to play.  However, the bottom floor has an arcade setting with pool tables as well and the top floor has become one of the hottest dance spots in Albany.  Skyline also has a similar setup to Jillian’s.  In offering so many activities Jillian’s and Skyline are able to attract a much wider range of people on any given day or night on top of any specialty night they may have going on.

“People are looking for the cheapest possible answer for a hard weeks work.  The only criteria, other than price, are good people, good music, and entertainment.  It’s that combination that will create a crazy night that will have possible consequences the following day,” said Josh Salisbury, a graduate student at the College of Saint Rose and self proclaimed “Albany veteran.”

Other than having a variety of things to offer people, the most important thing for a bar, restaurant, or nightclub to do is to get its name out there.  Word of mouth plays a large role on the life cycle of these establishments.  It’s become so important in fact that places often hire people to just go to populated areas around town just to hand out flyers and try to entice people to visit their establishment. 

“I probably spend more hours than I care to think about just passing out flyers and talking to people about the club,” said Topher Prawdzik, a promoter for Sneaky Pete’s.

            In the end thought with so many places around not every one of them can last.  Instead of going completely out of business however, many failing businesses are usually bought out and then re-opened under new names and management.  The Coliseum, for example, use to be known as The Post before it was bought out and Skyline use to be The Big House. Similar things have also happened to Partridge Pub and The Abbot.

              Even though most of the bars, restaurants, and nightclubs try to set themselves apart from the others they will always have at least one thing in common, the hit in business they take in the summer when most of Albany’s college population returns home.  With events such as Tulipfest, Fourth of July fireworks, and other various events that take place though out the summer however, businesses generally do not suffer all that much.  “It’s certainly not dead, but it’s definitely slower.  August, when Saratoga opens up we definitely slow down” said Baumgartner.  “It’s just the up’s and down’s of the area.”