Ommegang ‘Pop Up Shop,’ Plus Restaurant, Corn Dogs Pending
For Alex Webster, owner of Alex & Ika here and Cantina de Salsa in Cherry Valley, the taste of a corndog was the taste of vacation.
“I grew up in England, where they didn’t have corndogs,” he said. “I would go visit my grandma in California, and I have very strong, happy memories of getting a corndog.”
Beginning in July, Webster will share those happy memories with other vacationing families with the Cooperstown Corndog Co., opening in the Alex & Ika’s front window at 149 Main. “All the restaurant dining is in the back; people don’t want to sit in the window,” he explained. “It’s a shame not to use it.”
Offerings will range from the classic corndog to the more adventurous, including jalapeño and chocolate chip. “It’s surprisingly good,” he said. “Don’t knock it until you try it!”
Cooperstown Corn Dog isn’t the only new restaurant downtown.
Olli’s at Red Light
At 22 Chestnut, Susan Bruce is putting the finishing touches on Olli’s, a farm-to-table restaurant and pastoral market featuring local meats and Beekman 1802 cheeses, eggs and fresh-squeezed juices.
“We want to show the bucolic side of country living,” she said. “This isn’t about a farm with 10,000 acres – we might want to showcase a farmer who has four rare goats or someone who has written an artisan cookbook.”
In addition to serving “simple and fresh” modern American fare, the dining room, she hopes, will become a space for community gathering, showcasing small farms and local agriculture. “This isn’t just a restaurant,” she said. “We want to host workshops, we want this to become a hub of community activity.”
Ommegang In Town
At 134 Main, the finishing touches are being put on Ommegang’s Prohibition Store, a pop-up mercantile.
“It’s a way of reaching out into the community at large,” said Sean Bolger, the brewery’s store manager. “Right now it’s just for the summer, but if it’s successful, it could extend into the holiday season,” he said.
The store will feature apparel, glassware, local food items and barware, and although beer will not be available for sale, the brewery plans on hosting special event tastings. “No beer, just gear,” said Bolger.
They’ve also partnered with the village’s trolley system to take visitors to and from the brewery for tours, lunch and tastings. “It’s an ambassadorship for the brewery.”
BASEBALL BOUTIQUE
But for a slightly faster pace of life, apparel shop Baseballism across the street at 131 Main aims to bring a new NYC boutique feel to a Cooperstown staple. “We want to be the Ralph Lauren of Baseball,” said associate manager Ryne Rivino. The store manager is Ben Atkinson.
Their American-made, vintage-feel T-shirt line started as the souvenir of the Baseballism baseball camp in Portland, Ore. The shirts sold so well that they expanded the shop off their headquarters, and then set about looking for a new location. “We thought, why not Cooperstown?” said Rivino. “You can’t find shirts like this anywhere else.”
Baseballism is run by four partners, Kalin Boodman, Travis Chock, Jonathan Loomis and Jonathan Jwayad, who played baseball together in college. Chock had brought a team to Cooperstown Dreams Park, and when the company began thinking of a second story, this one made sense.” “Cooperstown is the center of the baseball universe,” said Boodman.
And since it opened in May, the store keeps almost running out of shirts, especially the “6+4+3=2” equation. “It stands for shortstop, second base, first base equals two outs,” he said. “When we explain it to people, they love it.”
FRESH FISH
And at 29 Pioneer, The Firehouse Market, which opened on Pioneer Street last summer, has a new location – and new items on the menu.
“People in the village drive all the way to Oneonta to get fresh fish,” said owner Lucy Townsend. “But now, they can get it here.”
The rustic, butcher-paper menu lists all the to-go specials for the day, and their hand-cut cheese section has expanded, including Painted Goat, Cooperstown Cheese Company and other New York State cheeses. “We really stress picnics and outdoor entertaining,” she said.
The store, with its checkered floor tiles shelves packed with kitchen gadgets and gifts, has a “European feel,” said Townsend. “It’s like being in a big city market here in this little village.”