It’s no secret that the restaurant industry has faced significant challenges in the past few months. With guidelines restricting the operation of “nonessential” businesses (bars, movie theaters and other naturally cramped spaces), restaurateurs have been forced to reimagine their livelihoods to stay afloat.
For Caskade Kitchen & Bar, a popular tapas-style restaurant in Cohoes, concerns about sufficient space to socially distance customers away from one another have made reopening difficult. While some restaurants have been able to reopen with spaced-out, outdoor seating, the nature of the “small plates” model raises unique challenges. For this reason, Owners Kelly and Joe Proctor announced on social media their decision to effectively close Caskade but reopen it as The Daisy Cohoes.
The name should ring a bell. As Saratoga Living reported last August, the Proctors opened The Daisy, a taco and margarita bar in Downtown Troy, following the success of Caskade Kitchen & Bar, which the couple first opened in January 2018. Since then, The Daisy has become a hotspot for local diners, offering an assortment of playful taco creations and a refreshing cocktail menu (that includes three different types of margaritas). Troy’s Daisy has been able to continue serving customers, despite COVID-19 restrictions, offering takeout options for its tacos and to-go containers for its popular cocktails.
As luck would have it, the Cohoes location has already been approved for outdoor seating, so expect seatings in the coming weeks (the Capital Region is on schedule to enter phase three early next week, which includes the reopening of restaurants). Also, the owners are offering customers the ability to use Caskade Kitchen gift cards at the new restaurant. “We feel so fortunate to have a business model in place that weathered the storm of the lockdown and are excited to be able to bring it to Cohoes,” said the Proctors.
