Kawa opens in Malta, Old World closes: restaurant news

Kawa Japanese Bistro, a sushi, ramen and hibachi restaurant, officially opened on Saturday, Sept. 19, at 11 Kendall Way in the Shops of Malta plaza in Malta, NEWS10 reported. Elsewhere, a Thai-style chicken chain opened in Clifton Park, a Wilton grocer and a 15-year-old Halfmoon pub closed, and a Union Avenue tavern changed hands.

September was a busy month for Saratoga County restaurants. This roundup covers the openings, closings and sales we have not written about separately. For the Wheatfields closing on Broadway and the Tāng Dumplings opening on Marion Avenue, see our Wheatfields story and our earlier report on Tāng and Kuma Ani.

September at a glance

Here is where things stand as of Monday, Sept. 28.

• Opened: Kawa Japanese Bistro, 11 Kendall Way, Malta, on Sept. 19.
• Opened: Gai Chicken & Rice, in the Clifton Park Center food court, reported Sept. 23.
• Sold: The Brook Tavern, 139 Union Avenue, Saratoga Springs, to Giuseppe Mola on Sept. 9.
• Closed: Power’s Inn & Pub, 130 Meyer Road, Halfmoon, after its last service Sept. 10.
• Closed: Old World Gourmet Market in Wilton, reported Sept. 14, with a deli planned at 514 Broadway.
• Moving next year: West Ave Pizza, to a nearby building on West Avenue with a new restaurant upstairs.

Kawa Japanese Bistro in Malta

The menu at Kawa Japanese Bistro runs from sushi, sashimi and specialty rolls to ramen, rice and noodle dishes, hibachi plates, bubble tea, desserts and cocktails, according to NEWS10. The restaurant has a full liquor license, the Times Union reported. On the restaurant’s online ordering menu, tonkotsu ramen is $17, pork soup dumplings are $9, and lunch specials served with soup, salad and rice run $11 to $14 until 3 p.m. Hibachi lunches with fried rice and noodles are $13 to $18.

Kawa is open for dine-in, pickup and delivery. The hours NEWS10 reported are these.

• Monday, Wednesday and Thursday: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 to 10 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 to 10:30 p.m.
• Sunday: noon to 3 p.m. and 4 to 9:30 p.m.
• Closed Tuesday. The phone number is (518) 400-8333.

Kendall Way is also home to Jimmy’s Pizza & Pasta at number 31, which has a Ballston Spa mailing address but sits in the Town of Malta. We have not eaten at Kawa yet, so this is a report on the opening rather than a review.

Gai Chicken & Rice at Clifton Park Center

A small chain with two Manhattan restaurants and one in New Jersey has opened in the food court at Clifton Park Center, NEWS10 reported on Sept. 23. Gai Chicken & Rice sells roasted and fried chicken, tenders, sticky wing platters and chicken bowls. The chain opened its first Capital Region location in Troy in January and is opening another in the Empire State Plaza food court in Albany, which the Times Union said was set for Sept. 28.

The Brook Tavern changes hands

Founder Bob Lee sold The Brook Tavern on Union Avenue after 13 years to Giuseppe Mola, a regular customer who lives in Gansevoort, the Times Union reported. The sale closed Sept. 9 and Mola worked his first night as owner the next day. Lee still owns the Wishing Well Restaurant in Gansevoort.

Mola, who grew up in Italy in a family that ran a cafe for almost a century, spent two decades running operations for restaurant groups in New York City, the United Kingdom and Charleston, South Carolina. He told the paper he plans to keep the staff and head chef Patrick Cramer, and is bringing in chef Benjamin Anderson from Charleston as a partner. The one change he mentioned is possibly opening on Sundays. For now the tavern serves 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; call (518) 871-1473. The building is leased from Leslie DiCarlo, who owns The Springwater Bed and Breakfast next door.

Two closings

Old World Gourmet Market, a grocery and import store in a former Pier 1 home goods store in Wilton, closed after 15 months, the Times Union reported on Sept. 14. Owner John Biagini, who moved from Brooklyn with his wife, Maria, in 2024 after five decades in wholesale meat, said shoppers stuck with the supermarkets around him and put his losses “in the millions.” The store had a rocky start, with two brief closures after its June 2025 opening, and the couple reworked the produce, meat and seafood sections more than once before deciding to close, the paper reported. The couple’s downtown shop at 514 Broadway is being turned into Old World Deli, with tables, prepared meals, pasta, sandwiches and catering, and Wilton gift cards will be honored there. Biagini expected the deli to open by the end of September. We have not confirmed it is open, so the deli is not in our directory yet.

In Halfmoon, Power’s Inn & Pub on Meyer Road closed after 15 years when a failed keg cooler turned Thursday, Sept. 10, into the last night instead of that Saturday, the Times Union reported. The Barn, the event building on the same property, stays open and is booking through 2027. The property on Meyer Road is for sale, and the listing agents are marketing it as a turnkey restaurant because a creek running behind the buildings would complicate redevelopment, according to the Times Union. Property owner Cara Gifford told the paper in May that selling would let her focus on her Ballston Spa businesses, The Factory Eatery & Spirits and J.J.’s Snack Bar.

West Ave Pizza plans a move

Mario Cardenas, owner of West Avenue Pizzeria and West Ave Chicken, told the Times Union the two businesses will move around the middle of 2027 to a two-story building he bought nearby on West Avenue. Upstairs he plans Mario & Sons, a dine-in restaurant with a bar and a coal-fired oven.

Know about something changing in your neighborhood? Send us a tip through our contact form.