Having been the DJ for a number of events at 235 Hoosick Street, in Troy, NY, I an safely say that The Hilton Garden Inn is a great place to have your wedding, in and around the Troy, NY area.
COCKTAIL LAYOUT – One thing that I really like as a DJ is the layout. The main event hall is perfect for a wedding with a cocktail hour at hand. A portion of the hotel is sectioned off so that there are no real issues of interaction with guests staying at the hotel not related to the wedding.
The event kitchen, the wedding hall and the bar for the cocktail hour are all removed from the room and hotel business.
As you enter the event wing of this newer hotel in Troy, NY, there is a long wide hall in front of the dining room. There is a branch off of the walkway perfect for horsderves, with a comfy sofa area that even has a large screen television. This area even has a private restroom area for events, separate from hotel guest use.
At the end of the hall there is another opening, which allows for additional entertainment in front of a full bar. This place is perfect for wedding vendors, or activities. One thing I have seen that works well is having a photo booth or magnet shoot in this area.
Hilton Garden Wedding Dining Hall
DINING ROOM – There are actually two rooms that can be used, with a folding divider partition down the center. What I have experienced as a disc jockey there is usually weddings with around 150 people or so in one section of the hall. (The use of half of the alloted space seems perfect for most weddings that I seem to take part in.)
The room is carpeted with a slightly-raised removable dance floor (provided by the hall). The acoustics are great for music and the tables always look sharp.
STAFF – The event organizers do a great job. The wait staff is really funny, too. Setting up, they have a good time with each other and are good people. They even danced a little here and there while waiting on the guests.
FOOD – I’ve had both chicken and prime rib there. Both were very very good! No complaints!
OTHER GOOD STUFF – You are also looking at an ample parking lot for any crowd, The Recovery Room bar built into the hotel for an after-party (for those who want to keep the night alive when the DJ is done,) and even rooms to stay in when the night is over.
Without hesitation, I recommend The Hilton Garden Inn on Hoosick, Troy, NY to be considered for your wedding!
Hey, Lady ChowChow! DJ Kenny Casanova here, wedding DJ extraordinaire. I was surfing the web and saw that you were questioning if the Capital Region was “happening.” Being a mobile disc jockey in Troy, NY, I get to see some very interesting places and meet some very interesting people all around the area that you call Upstate. I would like to, therefore, chime in about your recent post about happening areas in the Capital District, and note that it is, and not just in the areas that one would think to visit.
While the Big Apple is the city that never sleeps and seemingly always has something going on somewhere, The Capital Region is also happening, and not just in the so-called “hot spots.” Areas in and around the state’s capital of Albany are making an impact and not just by the creation of great new businesses and eateries popping up within the cornerstone city of Albany, NY.
Saratoga Springs has a huge and continually growing list of must-see places. Schenectady is starting to really step up it’s game with all the recent face-lifts downtown. And it is also now “happening” in the ever-growing Troy, NY.
For a long time, Albany was really the only real town to go to for Capital Region “happening” happenings, but it seems, as of late, it’s neighbor, Troy, NY is also becoming “the place to be.” Here are a few reasons that The Capital Region is in fact happening, in Troy, proving that the area, as a whole is worth taking a look at:
The Charles F Lucas Confectionery & Wine Bar
1) CHARLES F LUCAS CONFECTIONERY – Lady, first off, you hit sugary nail right on the head with your recent review. You are correct that the Lucus Confectionery & Wine Bar is a delicious place to grab a glass of wine with friends. They have a great wine list, with a vast import selection that allows wine drinkers of all makes the means to find something that they will personally enjoy.
The cheese offerings at the Charles F Lucas Wine Bar are not cheesy, to say the least, and the sweets menu compliments the attitudes of the staff and owners: “comfortable and engaging.”This truly is one of the newest happening spots to break out in Troy, where people go who want to try something new.
2) BROWNS BREWING CO. – Another place the Troy traveler will want to try is Browns Brewing Co. If you are feeling more like beer instead of wine with weekly live entertainment, and interested in looking for a micro brewery with great food to boot, 417 River street is where it is at.
At Brown’s Brewing Company, they have an impressive selection of homemade brews including Oatmeal Stout, Pale Ale, Brown Ale, Porter, Whiskey Porter, Tomhannock Pilsner, and my wife DJ Maria’s personal favorite Cherry Raspberry Ale. Order one of these pints in a membership mug (well worth the money) along with a hot pretzel and you are good to go!
(Brown’s Brewing Company is also the host of Revolution Hall, a musical venue that also pinch hits as an in-house catered wedding hall. Here is a recent review I wrote up on it, looking at Browns as a Wedding Venue.)
3) DINOSAUR BARBQUE – What is happening? “The Tres Amigos” Bar-BQ sampler at Dinosaur Barbque in Troy, NY., that is what! Ironically overlooking a beautiful section of the Hudson River in what many refer to as “the best biker bar around,” this BBQ joint embraces individuality.The wait staff dress respectably, while at the same time showing off body art and piercings. However, they present each customer with excellent service and arguably the best barbque around.
Even though Dinosaurs Barbque has other locations regionally, they are not at all corporate high brow. Dinosaurs is all about the local scene. They book local entertainment, host live events and are really becoming part of the Troy, NY scene. Carrying their own competitor Brown’s beer on tap, the atmosphere is one you won’t want to write off in your Troy visit, and if you choose, you can even write on their bathroom wall, as that is encouraged, as well.
Mexican-Irish Food at Its Finest
4) JOSE MALONE MEXICAN IRISH RESTAURANT – Lady ChowChow, I don’t know what ethnic cuisine you prefer, but at this location, it doesn’t matter…If you want the best in Mexican-Irish cuisine? (Insert ethnic joke here ___________. I could hit all kinds of stereotypical jokes here, but it is way too easy.)
Chef Ryan Cusack is the cultural mash-up mastermind behind this Mexican Irish . His blend of of mouth-watering Mexican & Latino dishes with Irish favorites makes this a place you have to experience to understand. If you want originality, this is the place to be, Jose Malone’s serves Irish Bangers & Mash with a guacamole. This odd cultural mash-up is also quickly becoming known for their original margaritas and their once-a-week tapas menu.
Jose Malone is seemingly the perfect place to eat corned beef burritos, get drunk and have a siesta with all your friends. This, too, is a definite cultural melting pot in Uncle Sam’s hometown that you won’t want to miss.
What the hell? They even have a live Bluegrass music night?!
Where You Can Play skee ball in a Bank Vault
5) FOOTSY MAGOOS – One of the few places near Albany where one can find “pickleback shots” and a great peanut butter white Russian is also in Troy. Footsy’s, making it’s home in what used to be a savings bank, has a good selection of Scotch and Beers that you can easily bank on.
BEWARE: Do not be blind to Old Man Magoo’s little hole in the wall. This place is happening.
Whether you are hungry, thirsty, or just looking for a place that you can go to to have a good time with friends, this is a pace that is worth investing your night at. This oddly-decorated little place has a decent shepherd’s pie, pictures of professional wrestlers and playing cards shellacked to the walls in the men’s room, and a skee ball inside the steel vault from the old bank.
Villa Valenti Pub has great food & fun weekly entertainment
6) VILLA VALENTI PUB – Over on Pawling Ave is a pub with great food and a rich history; perhaps one of the oldest and well-known pubs in Troy, owned formerly by Academy Award winner Maureen Stapleton & her brother John. Winning wing awards yearly, Villa Valenti Pub has a huge pizza take-out business, great pub fare, a beverage list that can’t be beat.
The Pub also mixes their great food & spirits with weekly entertainment. There is an Open Mic night. There are live bands. They have a weekly game-show like trivia game steeped in prizes and they also feature the area’s hottest Karaoke Jam with old school music videos and every game playing on the 27 big screen TVs. This is the happening “place to be” for a great mix of food & fun.
So is the Capital Region happening?
Your thoughts?
Lady ChowChow, I challenge you to come back to Troy, NY sometime soon and give a few of these happening places a try. Then you will know, first hand, why Troy, NY is helping to better make The Capital Region a happening place!
PS – Don’t forget The Brown Bag!!! (Pineapple Salsa Burger!)
For more on Troy, NY and also party planning tips & wedding information in The Capital Region, check out DJ Kenny Casanova’s blog.
Colonie Elks in Latham, NY - Affordable Wedding VenueAffordable Wedding Hall Review – Colonie Elks in Latham, NY
If you are a bride or groom to be and interested in saving a little on your hall but still want an elegant layout with outdoor ceremony potential, you might want to check out the Colonie Elks Club over in Latham, NY.
The Colonie Elks of Latham, NY is pretty much in the middle of everything. It is conveniently located ten minutes or so from Troy, ten minutes from downtown Albany, ten minutes from Albany airport, and not too far away from Schenectady and Clifton Park; maybe 15 minutes or so.
The Colonie Elks Club has a large outdoor space for your wedding ceremony. If an outdoor ceremony is important to you, I think it is safe to argue that will enjoy the ceremony site on hand; complete with a nice white gazebo and lots of shrubbery / greenery to boot. There is also a large pavilion available for outdoor activities / functions.
From my experience, the food is pretty good. Last Saturday, I was the wedding DJ there. The hall was offering their guests a choice of a stuffed chicken or prime rib. I had the beefy prime rib, and it was great!
They also have a separate bar for your cocktail hour and a disco ball set up with both white and red lights!
The Colonie Elks is a great medium-end venue option for a wedding that really gets the job done, in the end. It is an affordable avenue made possible without cutting any major corners. For my reviewing purposes, I would have to rate it 8 out of ten stars, in looking at the big picture, maybe only subtracting a tiny bit on not having lightning quick service on the actual entree. While the Elks may not have a huge waiting staff like maybe a Mallozzi’s catering venue, I am sure you will end up saving a lot of money because of this in the long run.
If you are now planning on having your wedding in this area, the Colonie Elks is definitely worth looking into.
This weekend, I had the pleasure of being the disc jockey at a fun wedding at Key Hall at Proctors of Schenectady NY. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this venue, it is conveniently located to the left of Proctor’s on State Street in downtown Schenectady, NY.
This hall is the former Key Bank who many may remember as being decked out in stone and marble flooring, now making an interesting backdrop for weddings and other events, alike.
For this particular wedding of about 100 guests or so, the front of the hall was curtained off to provide accommodations for a cozy ceremony. After the ceremony, the chairs are lifted and shifted back to the tables and the cocktail hour is ready to go.
Comfortably seating 200 guests for a sit-down dinner at Key Hall at Proctors, this hall is somewhat narrow, but is still very spacious. There is also a nice bar in the opposite corner of where the ceremony was set.
The food was great! The caterers had four different stations featuring a carving station, a pasta station, a nice buffet selection, and a hamburger slider table with homemade milkshakes to order.
If you are thinking about booking this hall for your wedding, the high ceilings and the original vaults from the old-fashioned bank make for some great picture opportunities, as well.
The acoustics are quite a bit tricky in this hall, but can be dealt with. I have found that an L1 Model2 BOSE System (not a model 1) is ideal to use for this venue. The Model 2 may be the best option for sound, due to the stone walls making it kind of gymnasium-like. Therefore, if you are looking at this hall, you may want to see if the BOSE L1 Model 2 is an option from your DJ.
This particular BOSE system (L1 Model2) has many, many small speakers (rather than one large one) that are tilted in many different directions and aligned into a sound bar-like position. This enables the speakers to send out a blanket of sound waves further at lower levels. This means you don’t have to crank the sound very loud to reach the back of the hall. What your DJ should probably do is turn the bass down a bit, as well, so that it doesn’t echo too much, as the acoustics in this hall will accentuate the bass that is already there.
In the end, Key Hall at Proctors is a good option where you can have your ceremony, cocktail hour and reception all in the same place.
Carmela’s Banquet House – An Affordable Venua Option For Small to Medium-sized Weddings
Carmela’s Banquet House located at 301 Washington Ave in Rensselaer, New York is a great place to hold a small to mid-range wedding. If you happen to be a bride or groom-to-be and have roughly 75-125 people on your guest list, this really believe that Carmela’s could be a super affordable option for you. At the same time, Carmela’s can provide quality in service for your special night.
LOCATION – Carmela’s location itself could be a positive when choosing your venue selection. This banquet house is out of the busy side of Albany and more layed back off the main drag of a Rensselaer residential area. This venue provides its own spacious parking lot, so that your guests have no parking issues. Logistically speaking, the location itself is only a few blocks away from Interstate Route 90, making for a smooth transition to and from the hall, overall.
A Nice Rounded Bar for More Guest Comfort
FACILITIES – The hall provides a separate place for the bridal party to gather and relax after photos for the soon-to-come grand introduction.
Additionally, in the corner of the bar, there is enough space for traditional wedding decorations/activities, like a wedding photo booth, an acoustic guitarist, or ice sculpture, perhaps. In the dining room, there is a spacious dance floor and great adjustable lighting. It is also important to note that there is a nice round bar off of the main dining room, which allows for more people to enjoy the bar experience.
FOOD – Recently, I was the disc jockey for a wedding that had a nice chicken breast, or strip steak, as well as a vegetarian dish available. The food is really tasty! The garnishes that the bride and groom selected were garlic smashes potatoes, and a great mixed vegetable medley of peppers, onions and cauliflower.
STAFF – I really enjoy the staff. they are good people; very friendly and easy to work with.
Overall, I give I recommend this hall for a small to medium-size wedding. Give them a drive by. It could be worth it!
Clifton Park Elks Lodge Wedding ~ Great for 80-120 people
Clifton Park Elks Lodge # 2466 – Wedding Venue Review
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of being the DJ once again at The Clifton Park Elks Lodge. Aside from some really good home-made cooking and tasty food, the people are very easy to work with at the lodge. They offer a decent nice venue at very reasonable pricing. They also really allow a lot of freedom to the bride and groom in the outline of the night’s events.
The Lodge’s facilities at the Clifton Park Elks are a great place to have the wedding of your dreams or enjoy a great barbecue. Guests can choose from their indoor facilities with 2 connecting rooms, dance floor and complete bar, or their out-door pavilion with a large grill and on-site sporting games. The Elks Lodge can also custom create a combination package of both.
The food really is great considering they cook all their own food without a cateror. It has a more homey-like feel to it, rather than the mass-produced feel that some of the bigger venues have, and I think that the guests appreciate that.
They do serve their guests the buffet food portions which slows down their buffet line to some degree. However, the hand-carved prime rib was high quality and great for a smaller-to-medium sized venue. The sides were really good, as well, and they even featured their own home-made sauces, like a great bistro horse-radish for the beef.
If I could change one thing, I would probably open the buffet line up to both sides of the table to speed up the serving, and set up a separate station for the hand-carving roasts. However, because it is a smaller venue, maybe 80-120 guests in full capacity for the dinning room, it is possible that space is an issue.
There is a nice little bar in a separate room for the drinking enthusists, as well as a small bar in dining room.
One more thing I really like is that they are super easy to work with. For example, the lodge doesn’t force the cake, or toast on you. In a lot of cases, wedding halls and catering venues really push to have the cake cutting activity very soon after the dinner. This helps them organize the employees’ duties in the back and an early cake activity can actually maximize employee potential and save the hall money. However, an early cake is not always in the best interest of the party, as many people leave right after the cake, and the activity can really slow down the fun. At the lodge, they are really cool with letting it happen later. I also don’t think they try and soak the bride and groom with a cutting fee.
The lodge is conveniently located at 695 Macelroy Road in Ballston Lake NY. This location is right on the border of Clifton Park and is an easy place to get to. It is still far enough away from the commericialism right off of the 87 exit.
If you are interested in booking your small to medium sized wedding there, the phone number is (518) 877-5200.
