latham

We all know there are plenty of chain restaurants throughout the Capital Region. Now there is a chain of cookie stores that will add three locations. The first Crumbl Cookies will open next week.

Shaker High School graduate, Tommy Kanhle is entering his 9th season in Major League Baseball. The right-hander from Latham has pitched well enough to earn a 2-year/$11.5 million contract with the New York Yankees through the 2024 season. However, Kahnle's second stint in pinstripes has gotten off to a slow start.

If you observe Lent or you just want a fish fry, here is a guide to the best fish fries in the Capital Region according to Yelp! reviews. There are some restaurants that specialize in fish fries and others that are full restaurants. There are 10 on this list but there are probably twenty more we could have listed.

Hoffman's Playland was an amusement park in Latham from 1952 until 2014. Even though many of the rides were relocated to Huck Finn's Playland in Albany, Hoffman's holds a soft spot in many Capital Region families' hearts. Take a look at abandoned Hoffman's Playland.

If you shop in the Latham area, you know that there are a ton of stores for every need. Whether it's PetSmart, Lowe's, Walmart, Home Depot, or grocery stores, this area is a shopping hub. This is why I was completely caught off guard when I noticed the huge sports store that I usually shop at was temporarily closed!

The old Kmart building on Watervliet Shaker Road in Latham is becoming an entertainment and sports destination. The Scarlet Knife, an upscale restaurant just recently opened and more construction is on the way including a new sports complex.

If you drive along Route 9 in the Latham/Cohoes area chances are you have driven by this eyesore. It was an operating motel for quite some time, became apartments, and then it declined. Eventually, it was condemned. Now construction crews are tearing it down.

There is a popular maybe even legendary Japanese restaurant in the Capital Region that has only had one location. It was announced that they will be adding another location up the Northway in Saratoga County. For the owner, it was a lifelong dream.

The Starlite Music Theater opened in 1957 and was a popular venue located in Latham. There were many acts that passed through the Starlite until 1997. It was a 3,000 seat theater in the round. In the 1980s I saw Belinda Carlisle of the Go Gos at the Starlite Music Theater. Kenny Rogers, The Monkees, Weird Al Yankovic, Jonny Cash, Run DMC, Diana Ross, and more graced the stage. The Starlite closed its doors in 1998 and laid dormant for years. Then in December of 2012, the Starlite was demolished. Here are pictures of the venue in the summer of 2012 before it was leveled.

You're at work, slogging away at your desk when you get a notification on your phone. It's a picture of your dog, fast asleep on the couch with a bit of drool pooling on the floor next to him. And at that moment, you remember why you're working so hard in the first place. To afford doggy daycare, of course!

Have you ever been at your kids' sporting events, on a boat, or outside when the weather turns cooler and it begins to rain or you start to get wet? You try and warm up with a blanket but it gets soaked in the elements. There is an entrepreneur out of Latham who just might hook a shark with her invention that solves this dilemma.

There are plenty of chain restaurants in the Capital Region and now you can add a sweet new chain that will set up shop in two local cities.