Notes from around town

 Walking up Congress Street this morning to catch the bus for work, I happened to notice that Calypso Restaurant, just weeks after hosting the Troy Foundry Theatre, has cut its schedule to 5 days a week, Tuesday-Saturday, 12-9. The eatery has been closed on Sundays & holidays from the jump, and now is also closed on Mondays, due likely to a quick decline in business. Advertising might help in the long term. Just sayin'.

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Across the street, Jimmy's Lunch is officially out of business.

We reported over the summer that the long running eatery had put up the for sale sign, and now the windows are covered in newspaper. That means the joint is done for good, and/or someone else will take over the space in due course. Like the long defunct J & L Diner on 6th & Ingalls Avenues, Jimmy's was serving only breakfast & lunch. If Calypso bombs out in its current home, what's stopping them from moving across the street to a relatively smaller, but more reasonable space?

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Stacks' Espresso Bar, a Lark Street hangout for coffee lovers, is opening in Troy in 2023 in the former home of Spillin' The Beans on 3rd Street. No date has been set for the opening. It'll give Atrium owner David Bryce someplace to hang out before work, as Spillin' was a regular stop for him. Now, if he could just figure out how to refill the Atrium, and make it more attractive instead of tearing it down, as he'd previously planned......

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Teacher. Pizza guru. Now an award winning author of children's books.

Rocco DeFazio, whose pizzeria and pizza goods shop on 4th Street has been the bridge to the Little Italy section linking downtown to South Troy, published his first book, A Shepherd's Tale, which won a literary prize, per a profile on Spectrum News 1 this morning.

File photo courtesy WAMC-FM.

DeFazio, a former 8th grade teacher at what is now Troy Middle School, has been a frequent guest on WAMC in recent years, and has been the organizer for the annual stickball tournaments in Little Italy. Something tells me the dude is going to get some write-in votes in next year's Mayor's race, as current Mayor Patrick Madden is stepping down after 2 terms, per the city charter.

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Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin announced the other day he was diagnosed with cancer. How far it is, we don't know. To me, it's a form of karma after he screwed his own party out of City Hall three years ago by betraying Tom Reale in favor of Rodney Wiltshire. All that did was gift wrap a 2nd & final term for Madden. I can think of a few people that could take his place..........