For 400th dining review, revisiting first: Next Door Kitchen & Bar

In October 2014, for my first review as the Times Union’s new dining critic, I featured Next Door Kitchen & Bar, a restaurant in Ballston Spa that had been open for just over two months. At its core was sustainability underscored by green practices: the walls clad in reclaimed local barn wood and historic barn doors, the interior design, from copper elements to hand-blown glass, undertaken by local craftsmen, the restaurant’s nearby urban garden providing herbs and vegetables for the menu, with food scraps sent to a local pig farm to minimize waste. 

It was an intelligently conceived, hyper-local model, one found in farm-to-table restaurants from California to London, but, almost a decade ago, less commonly upstate. Asterisked selections on the wine list highlighted natural and organic producers, an extensive whiskey collection was anchored by mostly small-batch distilleries, and attention to regional and local craft beers showed off New York’s range. So when I realized this week would mark my 400th dining review on the Sunday pages of the Times Union, I brought it full circle to revisit and see if it’s something in the famous Ballston Spa waters that keeps Next Door Kitchen & Bar going. 

Read the full article here