Photography by Zack Skowronek

It’s always exciting when a new restaurant comes to Saratoga. But when Noah’s Italian and Bear’s Cup Bakehouse opened within about two weeks of each other last December, there was more than excitement brewing around town. There was fervor…and a fair amount of espresso, too.

“It was chaos,” says Danielle DeSantis, who owns Bear’s Cup with her husband, Louis. “All of our equipment was brand new, our entire staff was brand new, and all of a sudden, the entire world was lined up down the sidewalk, all the way past the other side of the parking lot. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t absolutely insane.”

DeSantis describes those first few weeks—when customers were lining up outside as early as 6am and the bakery team couldn’t make their signature Bear Claw pastries fast enough—as a blur. “People came in and were like, ‘Give me 12 Bear Claws,’” she says. “The quantity was just massive.”

A couple of blocks away, a similar story was playing out at Noah’s—except the new Italian chophouse from the owners of Siro’s had a reservation system to act as a buffer to the masses, who’d surely be banging down the door otherwise. “I think we had a three-month wait list,” Chef Noah Frese says. “And honestly, it’s just been picking up, especially with track season. It’s kind of like you’ve got to know somebody to get in.” 

Now, there’s no denying that all this buzz was directly related to the quality of product these restaurants serve. (I mean, have you hadBear’s Cup’s bagels or the house-made pasta at Noah’s?!) But maybe, just maybe, there’s something larger at work, too. Could it be that Saratoga’s food scene as a whole is on the rise, and these two restaurateurs are riding—or rather driving—the wave?

The story of Bear’s Cup Bakehouse begins in New York City, when Danielle, a professional singer on the NYC wedding, restaurant, and corporate events circuit, met Louis, a financial advisor working in Connecticut. Both had food experience—Danielle in restaurants owned by Hillstone Restaurant Group, and Louis in his grandmother’s kitchen—and not long after falling in love with each other, the couple fell in love with Bolton Landing, where Danielle’s parents were living. They got married at The Sagamore in 2017, and, pregnant with their first child, began considering a major life change. “We were always toying with the idea of opening a coffee shop or a bakery or a bagel shop,” Danielle says. “But at the time, we were looking for storefront space in New York City.”

Then, Danielle’s stepfather, who at the time owned The Huddle in Bolton Landing, made them an offer they couldn’t refuse: free rent for a year in a commercial building he owned on Lake Shore Drive. And with that, the DeSantises became baristas, bakers, and Boltonians.

Bear’s Cup Bakehouse opened at 4973 Lake Shore Drive in May 2019, just 10 days after Danielle and Louis’ son, Teddy, was born. “We were like, ‘This is going to be fun—we’re going to have a magical little summertime coffee shop,’” Danielle says. “We had no idea what it would turn into.”

The following summer, the summer of Covid, Bear’s Cup made its first foray into Saratoga with at-home bagel deliveries, and a short five years later, Danielle and Louis were renovating the former home of Jacobsen Rugs on Broadway into a second Bear’s Cup location.

By that point, Bear’s Cup had built up not just a fanbase of Capital Regionites who’d tried their bagels and pastries while on vacation in Lake George, but an impressive following on social media, too. An August 2025 Instagram post announcing the new location got more than 1,000 likes—a majority of them young women who, come December 18, would be patiently waiting in line at Bear’s Cup Saratoga to post a photo of a coveted Bear Claw on their Instagram Story.

The origins of Noah’s Italian, on the other hand, date back to the summer of 2024, when Siro’s owner Peter Spitalny hired Roosevelt Room Chef Noah Frese to head up the kitchen at Saratoga’s iconic seasonal trackside restaurant. Not wanting to lose him to another restaurant during the Siro’s off-season, Spitalny began exploring other options. During the winter of 2024–25, Frese worked in the kitchen at The Wild Horse, Spitalny’s restaurant on Caroline Street previously known as Dango’s. Then, after Frese spent another summer at the helm of Siro’s, it was just a few short months before Spitalny and team opened Noah’s at 43 Phila Street. 

Frese, an Albany native, learned to cook from his grandmother, who raised him, and his father, a chef with whom he reconnected at the age of 12. “Cooking was our way of hanging out,” he says of his dad. “I’d go in the kitchen and follow him around when he was doing orders. We’d cook together and watch Food Network. And my grandmother—I lived with her—she would always cook. I was just always fascinated by cooking and eating.”

After trying out college at Oswego and determining that it wasn’t for him, Frese returned home to work for his dad at Saratoga Winery before going all in on cooking. He attended the French Culinary Institute in New York City and landed a job working for Daniel Bouloud before relocating to Charlotte, NC for a sous chef job at Barcelona Wine Bar. When his grandmother got sick, he returned to the 518, where he worked at 677 Prime, The Roosevelt Room, and, eventually, Siro’s. 

“Saratoga was like Disneyland,” he says of landing the Siro’s job. “It was cool for me because I brought my whole staff that had been with me for years. Roosevelt was awesome, but there’s nothing like being in prime-time Saratoga. That first year? I’ll never forget it.”

As is the case with any new restaurant that draws a certain level of attention, the openings of Bear’s Cup and Noah’s were met with a mixed response. Most reviews were overwhelmingly positive, but there were some naysayers—aren’t there always?—who deemed the restaurants “overrated.”

“There was so much buzz that people came in here and right away wanted to video and wanted to talk about it,” Danielle says. “There were a lot of TikToks and Instagrams—mostly good—but then there were some people, rightfully so, who’d say, ‘This took too long; this wasn’t great; this was sold out early.’ It was hard for me, knowing that we still needed to work out some kinks. We were doing our very best, but of course nothing was perfect yet.”

On the Noah’s front, there was talk around town about if the restaurant was really booked out for three months, or if they were inflating those numbers to make it seem more exclusive than it was.(While reservations were in fact booked out that long, Noah says cancellations always happen, so the restaurant could actually accommodate some walk-ins those first few months.)

And then there’s the prices—low-hanging fruit for contrarians who love to hate on something everyone else seems to love. At Noah’s, you’re probably not walking out of there without spending $100 a head; at Bear’s Cup, that number is closer to $20 for a breakfast sandwich and latte.

“We know we’re a premium price point,” Danielle says. “We bring in our butter from Europe. We bring in our chocolate chips from Belgium. The prices of our product have never been higher; the prices of skilled labor have never been higher. And we pay people livable wages. There’s so much overhead that people can’t see. I would absolutely love to charge less for a plain croissant, but I just physically can’t.”

Frese, too, knows that his restaurants operate in the four-dollar-sign tier of the Saratoga foodiesphere. And this summer, he leaned into that fact at Siro’s, unveiling The Golden Boy, a $325 burger made with a 16oz wagyu patty, foie gras, king crab mornay, truffle bacon jam, and caviar that’s identified on the menu as New York State’s most expensive burger.

“At that price,” one person commented on a social media post about the new dish, “the cow should personally thank me.” Others called it a gimmick to get media attention. If that was the goal, it certainly worked; media companies from Albany to Utica covered the burger’s addition to the menu.

“The burger was a flex, obviously,” Frese explains. “People will pay top-dollar for a product that they’ve never had. That’s what’s cool about Siro’s: You can do stuff that people are going to have once a year, and they might come back next year and want the same thing.”

Of course, Frese’s restaurants have received their share of negative reviews, but he tries not to let it get to him. “The best chefs in the world are the ones that can wipe off a mistake, a bad service, a bad night,” he says. “It’s like throwing an interception in football. Are you going to hold onto it, or are you going to keep going?”

Nine months later, Noah’s and Bear’s Cup have become part of the fabric of the Saratoga community. You may still have to wait in line at Bear’s Cup, but there’ll most likely be a Bear Claw waiting for you at the end. And you may not be able to get a reservation for Noah’s at 7pm this Friday, but if you’re OK to go at 5 or 8:30pm next Tuesday, Mom’s Fried Spaghetti is in your future.

At press time, peak track season, Frese had his hands full with regular service at Noah’s and Siro’s. But this fall and winter, he has plans to double down on chef’s table dinners—exclusive private dinners hosted in a secondary kitchen on the second floor of Noah’s, where guests can watch Frese and Danny Petrosino, the former chef/owner of Osteria Danny who now makes the homemade pasta and gelato at Noah’s, prepare a three-course family-style meal.

“I want you to feel like you’re at dinner at your grandma’s house on a Sunday,” Frese says. “For me, it’s awesome because I get to learn things from Danny. My family’s Italian, so I grew up having Italian American, but as far as someone that really knows the roots of authentic Italian cuisine, Danny’s the guy to learn from. Probably the best part of my career has been with him, picking his brain apart and learning from him.”

As for Danielle and Louis, this off-season will bring with it Bear’s Cup’s third location: a bakery in the soon-to-be-opened Maple Commons mixed-use development located on Maple Avenue in Wilton. The project is being developed by Rich Paulsen of Paulsen Development, a longtime Bear’s Cup customer. “He was sick during Covid, and we delivered bagels to his doorstep,” Danielle says. “So, when he thought about what to put in the retail spot, we were the first people he thought of.”

The new location will allow Bear’s Cup to expand its Saratoga County footprint both in terms of production and seating—Danielle and Louis are already utilizing every square inch of production space at the Downtown location, and one of the main complaints they get is that there’s not enough seating there.

“We’re thinking about Wilton as a place for families to go,” Danielle says. “It’s the outskirts of town where they don’t have much of this kind of thing available to them. There’s a Dunkin’ over there, a Cumberland Farms, a Stewart’s, but we wanted there to be something artisanal available for families.”

While the initial and continued success of Noah’s Italian and Bear’s Cup Bakehouse may have been Saratoga’s biggest food-related stories of the last year, they didn’t happen in a vacuum. Everywhere you look, local restaurateurs are doing big things—and marketing them in a way that’s hard to ignore. Standard Fare is hosting sold-out chef dinners basically every other weekend. Ronnie Solevo is expanding from his Italian roots to a chic and mysterious oyster bar that’s set to open in the former Scallions location this fall. The new owners of 15 Church have brought a fine-dining favorite back into the limelight. And, for the Caroline Street crowd, Gaffney’s is back, and it’s actually good.

“Saratoga right now is on the rise,” Frese says. “There’s a ton of great spots, and more spots opening. There are a lot of talented chefs. We’re getting more exposure, and I hope that things like James Beard and the Michelin Guide are starting to look up here.”

Danielle agrees. “I love when I walk in somewhere and they’ve changed their menu,” she says. “Every time I go into 15 Church, there’s something new on the menu. They’re obviously trying to innovate and elevate, and I can appreciate that. I always look forward to seeing Hamlet & Ghost’s new cocktail menus. Same with Familiar Creature. Miles, the sommelier, has his finger on the pulse of the wine scene. You go in there and they’ve got some new bright crémant you get to try, and you feel like you’re part of something.”

In other words, Noah’s and Bear’s Cup are helping set the stage for the next chapter of Saratoga dining. “When we look back five years from now, this will be a memorable moment,” Frese says. “Saratoga’s on the cusp, and five years from now, it’s going to be something real special.”  

4 Questions With…

Danielle DeSantis

Favorite thing on your menu: Sesame bagel toasted with scallion cream cheese and tomato

Favorite dish by another local chef: Alex Lempka’s burger with duck fat fries

Go-to place for takeout: Karavalli, Kinjo, Forno Bistro

Best advice you’ve ever received: Keep your menu simple

Noah Frese

Favorite thing on your menu: Tony’s Orecchiette

Favorite dish by another local chef: Danny Petrosino’s eggplant parm

Go-to place for takeout: Herbie’s Burgers

Best advice you’ve ever received: Stay original