You know when you finish your meal at a restaurant and the waiter—having just cleared your dinner plates—comes over to see if you’d like dessert? More often than not, you’re completely stuffed and can’t imagine ingesting another thing. But half an hour after you’ve left the restaurant, that sweet treat starts to sound pretty good.
“My wife, Jen, and I really enjoy getting a happy hour drink somewhere and then a bite to eat somewhere else,” says Saratoga’s Broadway Deli owner Daniel Chessare. “And then maybe walk around a little bit, and then dessert. But by the time we’re ready for dessert, it’s ice cream or nothing.”
While Chessare certainly isn’t knocking Saratoga’s robust ice cream offerings, he wanted a place where he could get a restaurant-worthy dessert without worrying that he was taking up a whole table at a restaurant just for dessert. So he and Jen decided to open one themselves.
Coming later this summer is Bibulous, a bar specializing in small bites—pâté, cheeses, warm olives—and desserts, located around the corner from Phila Fusion on Henry Street. That’s right: no entrées. The thought is that people can come in for a snack and a cocktail while they wait for their dinner reservation somewhere else, or come in after their dinner reservation for a slice of chocolate cake and an espresso. Chessare who, before opening the deli was the head chef at Merry Monk and sous chef at The Wine Bar, will oversee the bar’s savory options, while Jen, an experienced baker and former manager of Henry Street Taproom, will handle the sweets.
“We’ll have three or four staples, and then some rotating desserts,” Chessare says. “The whole menu will change seasonally. So in the fall, it’ll be a bit more cozy—apple and pumpkin—and in the winter, a little more decadent and rich. And summer’s more light and fruity.”
Where, you may be wondering, did the name Bibulous come from? It’s actually an adjective meaning excessively fond of drinking and eating. And if that doesn’t describe Saratogians, we’re not sure what does.