Saratoga liquor lovers, rejoice! 9 Maple Ave, one of the last (and most beloved) Spa City watering holes to still be closed, due to the pandemic, is finally reopening this Thursday.
The bar has remained closed throughout the pandemic, in part, because of its size—capacity on a busy Saratoga summer night is usually only about 50 people and slicing that in half with social distancing guidelines in place would not have made much financial sense. But Owner Mike Siriani tells Saratoga Living that, with the news of the reopening of New York State a few weeks ago and scuttlebutt that the masking/social distancing mandate would be lifted, too, he put in a full order of inventory this past Sunday and got to work getting the bar in working order. Siriani will only be allowing customers in who can prove that they’ve been fully vaccinated, but besides that, he says, “there is no social distancing, there is no mask-wearing, it’s business as it always was.”
Siriani announced the bar’s reopening and its vaccination policy in a Facebook post on Tuesday evening, which he says some patrons have openly griped about. “I have zero tolerance for some [people’s] woe-is-me b.s.,” says Siriani. The post went on to say that the bar has installed an updated air filtration system and will be open Thursday through Saturday from 4pm–midnight.
For jazz lovers who flock to the bar on the weekends to catch live shows, Siriani says he’s already booked two old favorites. “I’ve got Jon LeRoy Trio coming Friday and John Savage, with a band called Out of the Box, coming Saturday,” says Siriani. (The former will be playing 8:30pm–12am and the latter, 8pm–12am.)
Opening night has been a long time coming, and Siriani can’t wait to see his customers—at least those ones that got their jabs. “I’m excited to see our clientele and have fun with them, do what we always do and make great drinks,” he says. “Have some fun, make some money. ‘Have fun, make lots,’ is my motto.”
—additional reporting by Will Levith
