Five months after the 91-year-old Sperry’s Restaurant in Saratoga Springs was announced as being sold, only to have the deal collapse within weeks and Sperry’s close, is again on the verge of being sold, according to Scott Johnson, a former Saratoga mayor and one of the six partners who’ve owned Sperry’s since 2010. The group is only the third owner of the restaurant since it opened in 1932.
“We’ve reached a deal with the new owners, and now it’s in the hands of the lawyers,” Johnson told the Times Union on Tuesday.
He said he believed the new owners intend to keep the Sperry’s name and concept, but the sale terms do not require it.
Johnson said, “That’s my hope — and why would you buy such an important, historic place then change the name?”
He said he was precluded from identifying the intended buyers, whom he said are a group composed of locals and out-of-towners.
Whether the sale could be finalized in time for Sperry’s to open during this year’s season of the Saratoga Race Course, opening Thursday and continuing through Labor Day, was unclear. In February, Johnson said Sperry’s was under contract to be sold to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed price. That intended buyer, another Spa City restaurateur who was never publicly identified, walked away from the deal, and by late March Sperry’s had closed temporarily “due to the ongoing sales process,” according to a voicemail greeting.
Johnson said Tuesday he was “much more confident” that the new deal would be completed. Johnson and his wife, Julie, are partners with two others couples in Sperry’s; two are involved with the restaurant, all three with the real estate. The building is at 30½ Caroline St. The sales agreement includes the property and the business, Johnson said.
In other developments, two new beverage-focused operations open this week:
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