Eating out on Schenectady's State Street

Here’s a tipoff that you seem new to the area. When a waitress says to you: “You must be new.”

That happened to me in August when I was hanging around State Street in Schenectady. I was on a kind of mini culinary tour of this place — I haven’t gotten to spend much time here, which I learned quickly is a crying shame. State Street is so fun, with so much to do — and so much to eat. Over the past couple of years, lots of eateries have popped up here, providing dinner and drinks for the Proctor’s theater crowd: Mexican Radio, Zen, Johnny’s; and Nico’s expanded, adding a roofdeck. And there are kids who hang around here, too. Drawing with sidewalk chalk on Jay Street’s brick road.

So I decided I would do something only people armed with a meager expense account can do: I would go to Zen for an appetizer and a drink. I would go to Johnny’s for a meal. I would go to Aperitivo for dessert.