An Ode to Galleria 7
Is Latham's artisan food market the best lunch spot in the 518?
A wise man once told me that Latham is the lunch capital of the world. And now that I’ve been to Galleria 7 Market twice in the last week, I’m inclined to agree.
Last Thursday, upon leaving the iHeartMedia offices after recording five episodes of the Celebrity Birthday Game to help promote Universal Preservation Hall’s upcoming Shaken & Stirred Celebrity Bartender Party (long story; I lost), I spotted the artisan food market across the street. I was already in the left-hand turn lane, it was only 11am, and I had plenty of food at home, but I gunned it across Troy-Schenectady Road and into the parking lot regardless.
Now, I’d never been to Galleria 7, but I’ve heard plenty of its lore. My roommate, Maddy, works in Latham, and goes there regularly with her coworkers. “It’s truly the backbone of Northwestern Mutual Investment Services operations,” she says.
“I ran on Kobe for three years,” says her coworker Drew of the hibachi vendor located at the market.
For those who’ve never had the pleasure of enjoying a meal at the Galleria, let me explain. Inside the building, which has garage doors that open up in the warm-weather months as well as both indoor and outdoor seating, are 10 different food vendors each serving their own menu. Pick one (or more than one—no judgment here!), get a buzzer, and wait for your food to be ready. It’s perfect for office lunches when everyone wants something different to eat—in person, you can split up and reconvene at a table, and if you order online, you only need to send one person to one place to pick up everyone’s lunch.
While the market was pretty empty last Thursday given the early hour, I returned on Monday at peak corporate lunch time, 12:30pm, and found the place bustling with people—everyone from businessmen in suits to retired folks to a young couple on a lunch date.
I wandered over to Skinny Pancake, the Vermont-based creperie with a location in downtown Albany that opened in Galleria 7 about a month ago. After ordering The Vegan (a vegan buckwheat crepe stuffed with seitan, vegan pesto, vegan cheese, spinach, roasted squash, and caramelized onions), I fell into conversation with Adrianne Shaw, who leads Skinny Pancake’s training program and helped open the Albany location before the brand expanded to Latham. She’s also a Galleria 7 super fan.
“What’s great about it is that for families with children, everybody can order something they like,” she said. Furthermore, she continued, if someone asks for fries at Skinny Pancake (the Albany restaurant has fries but the Galleria 7 location doesn’t) she can refer them to another vendor across the room that has them, like Billy’s Burger Bar.
I asked Adrianne about her favorite dishes currently available at the market and got way more than what I bargained for.
“The pizza place has the best pizza I’ve had in the Capital Region,” she said, referring to Latham Wood Fired Pizza. Falafel Express has a really good blackened salmon salad, she continued. Though known for their tacos, La Capital makes a mean caramel tres leches. Dottie Lou’s BBQ’s Texas Twinkies are bacon-wrapped jalapeños stuffed with smoked cream cheese, chopped brisket, and cheese. Viva Empanadas has a stand-out Peruvian-style chicken dish. You can’t go wrong at Kobe Hibachi (“dealer’s choice,” she said), and Ruby at Shalimar Express makes the best Dubai chocolate.
Naturally, after eating my lunch, I went to find Ruby. Her family owns both Shalimar and Falafel Express at Galleria 7, and she makes the desserts under the name Mevasweets. (Ruby also likes the pizza place, which serves halal food that her family can eat, and the iced coffee from Skinny Pancake.) After feeding me her famous Dubai chocolate, which is milk chocolate stuffed with shredded phyllo dough and pistachio butter, Ruby sent me to get hummus, which she also makes, from her son over at Falafel Express.
And still I felt that I’d only scratched the surface. I watched as finance bros bee-lined it for Dottie Lou’s, as the line at La Capital (which serves margaritas!) grew longer and longer, and as a group wearing Regional Food Bank quarter-zips took a lap. “We just make the rounds,” one of them told me.
As I waited for Ruby’s son to pack up my hummus to go (I couldn’t eat another bite), I started chatting with Plug Power employees Bryan and Conner. When their office was in Latham, Bryan would go to Galleria 7 all the time; now it’s in Slingerlands, and he doesn’t get there all that much. His go-to is La Capital’s chicken taco bowl, but on Monday he was waiting for Kobe’s hibachi lunch, which he said is cheap for the amount of food you get.
Before I called it a day, I swung by Viva Empanadas (which is opening a spot in Saratoga soon!) to get an empanada to eat with my pita and hummus for dinner, and Kobe Ramen Shop to get a peach and mango bubble tea for the ride home. I also chatted with Howie, a recent Albany transplant from New York City and Galleria 7 first-timer, who had ribs with dirty rice and baked beans from Dottie Lou’s (he plans to come back to try more of the vendors), and the woman who was sweeping the floor, who’s all-time favorite Galleria 7 lunch is the cold noodle dish from Kobe Ramen Shop, before reluctantly heading home.
Two days later, when Maddy was working from home, her Northwestern Mutual Slack was popping off with lunch plans for people working from the office.
“Gonna bother everyone now,” her coworker, Greg wrote. “Getting Kobe for 11:45.”
But Greg had accidentally included the wrong Nicholas in the chat. “Hey guys, I work at the office in Franklin, WI,” the guy replied. “I think you may have added the wrong person here.”
“Well, if you’re ever in the Albany area, let us know,” Greg said. “We’ve got a great lunch spot for you.”
—Natalie