SARATOGA SPRINGS — Noah’s Italian, the next showcase for the chef Noah Frese from the owners of the track-season favorite Siro’s, held a preview dinner Saturday and welcomes the public for the first time Tuesday, nearly a year after it was initially projected to open in a longtime restaurant building at 43 Phila St.
The dinner menu runs to about 40 savory items and includes Italian classics, eight pasta shapes made in-house by veteran Saratoga chef and former restaurateur Danny Petrosino and a chophouse array of expensive steaks and lamb that run from $62 to $142. Not including the steaks, entrees average $39, pastas $35, starters and salads $17. The wine list includes 18 by the glass, averaging $18, and approximately 75 bottles, ranging from $37 to $640.
Hours are 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, until 11 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, closed Monday. Tuesday night is fully booked, according to the Noah’s Italian page on the OpenTable reservation platform, with the rest of the week showing only early and late availability. The restaurant does not currently take phone reservations.
Demand is high — more than 400 reservations were made within 12 hours of them becoming available starting Nov. 20, according to OpenTable — as are expectations. Frese has been on one of the fastest upward trajectories for Capital Region chefs in recent memory since his debut launching the kitchen at the ambitious Roosevelt Room in North Greenbush in August 2023. He left 10 months later to go to Siro’s and so impressed its owners after his first summer catering to track-season swells that they committed 14 months ago to opening a restaurant named after him.
Renovation plans for 43 Phila St., home to restaurants from Mother Goldsmith’s starting in 1939 to The District, open for less than two years until February 2024, evolved and expanded for much of this year, according to Frese. He is a minority partner in the business with Kevin Decker, general manager of Siro’s and owner of the nearby restaurant The Wild Horse, and Siro’s owner Peter Spitalny, who bought 43 Phila St. last year with his wife, Elena.
Noah’s Italian has a seating capacity of approximately 180, Frese said. While the upstairs dining area had been discussed by stakeholders as a possible supper club with entertainment, he said, current plans call for a-la-carte service on both floors, with a supper club or other specialty dining possible in the future as customer patterns and demands become more clear.
In addition to Frese and Petrosino, who sold his Osteria Danny on Henry Street in May after nine years and has owned restaurants locally for four decades, the kitchen leadership team includes Dylan Burkhart (ex-Black & Blue Steak and Crab in Guilderland) as executive sous chef and sous chefs Julia Evans (an alum of Siro’s and The Wild Horse) and Dillon Keeney (also Siro’s).