You may have eaten there a million times and not realized just how undeniably great Saratoga Springs’ Putnam Market is. The sandwiches, the chips, the soups, the salads, the specialty goods…the standalone, dedicated cheese area. And it turns out that one of the world’s biggest business newspapers agrees.
The Financial Times has included Putnam Market on an exclusive list of the “50 greatest food stores in the world,” which includes spots in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Rome and even as far off as Beirut and Singapore. “Along Broadway is Putnam Market, where tourists and locals alike come for lunch and a spot of dessert,” reads the article. “Order a sandwich, like the weekly grilled cheese special or the Catharine (roast free-range turkey, Cheddar, bacon, avocado spread, sprouts and Russian dressing). Then meander to the grocery’s cheese section for a portion of the esoteric Hudson Valley Truffle Falls, a cow’s-milk variety flecked with black truffle and rubbed with white-truffle oil and garam masala. Don’t leave without some rose-lychee macarons.” Rose-lychee macarons, indeed!
Putnam Market was launched by sisters Catharine Hamilton and Gloria Griskowitz in a converted warehouse space on Putnam Street in 1995, opening its popular Putnam Wine shop three years later (Catharine’s husband, William Roach, serves as the latter’s wine director). The market moved to Broadway in 2000 and has been there ever since.
