My family moved into Cohoes in 1993. Shortly after moving in, we noticed a small pub up the road and have threatened to go eat there ever since.
Monday night we finally did. Admittedly, it wasn’t our first choice – we had been planning to hit-up another local place in Cohoes recommended to us by the Sunday bar tender at Uno’s in Latham, but The Pub and Grille was open – and we were hungry.
It’s gone a by a few names in the past, perhaps most famously “Maggie’s”. One surprising thing my parents, sister, and I noticed on entry was how small it is inside. Officially it can hold 35 people.
After taking a moderately long walk in the very windy and chilly weather to find Joe’s closed, and then walking back towards the house we arrived at 201 Columbia St around 8 in the evening. There were maybe five customers other than us – but it being a Monday night, that wasn’t surprising. We found a table in the back, and Kim scurried out from behind the bar to hand us menus, silverware, and take our drink orders.
The menu is simple – I like that in a pub. While it does use both sides of the laminated sheet of paper, the font is large, easily readable, and offers about a dozen items.
My sister ordered their mild wings, which she was very happy with. My mom, dad, and I all ordered burgers. We also got their smothered cheese fries to share, and I got an order of chicken tenders in their atomic sauce to both have there and bring home for later. The only goof in the order was with my dad’s burger, which didn’t have the cheese or bacon he’d requested, but did have onions which he hadn’t. However, Kim got that fixed in just a couple minutes, and we were back to enjoying our respective meals.
Currently their beer selection is pretty limited – Sam Adams, Bud, and something else on tap, and a couple in bottles. However, as good fortune would have it, Monday also saw a local beer distributor showing up for a small staff tasting and discussion of craft beers.
We sat around visiting, eating, and just generally enjoying the evening for about an hour and a half before my parents and sister decided to head the 4 blocks back to their house.
Meanwhile, because I wanted to stay and have a couple more drinks, I introduced myself to the group sampling the various craft beers that had been brought by the distributor, and was invited to take part – yahoo! free beer!
Available for tasting for a strawberry brew (way too sweet in my book, but similar to a Lindeman’s Cassis or Framboise for consistency), various hoppy ales, a couple browns, and a black – among others I don’t recall now. The best part of trying small samples of the different beers brought wasn’t, in fact, that they were free, but that most were made in the general vicinity – ie, the northeast and mid-Atlantic states. I’m a sucker for local brews when they’re available.
The Pub and Grille doesn’t have a set closing time, per se. It might be as early as 11p, or as late 3:30a – it depends on how many folks are there wanting to buy beverages. A little before 11 Monday night, Kim was about to make a last call to the bar when three new folks sauntered-in. Never one to pass-up a customer, the place ended being open till nearly 1:30.
For beer heads, the Pub and Grille isn’t yet a place to go for a good selection of brews, but it will be in a couple weeks as they add a whole series of craft brews to the menu.
If you’re looking for a nice, small, friendly place to hang out, has good food, and good atmosphere (literally – this is NY state were talking about), especially if you want to be able to walk home if you’ve maybe had one too many, this place should make the list of anybody in Cohoes.