Pints for Preservation pub crawl hits five bars Oct. 17

The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation’s 14th annual Pints for Preservation Pub Crawl returns to downtown Saratoga Springs on Saturday, Oct. 17, with five stops starting at 3 p.m. at Druthers Brewing Company, NEWS10 reported. Proceeds go to restoration projects and the foundation’s work to protect the city’s historic buildings and landscapes.

This year’s route includes The Grotto, a tiki bar that The Night Owl’s owners were building on Maple Avenue in September. Along the way, the foundation points out the architectural history of each building and runs a scavenger hunt with a prize for the winner, according to NEWS10.

Pub crawl at a glance

Here are the details from the foundation, as reported by NEWS10.

• Date and time: Saturday, Oct. 17, starting at 3 p.m.
• Check-in: Druthers Brewing Company, 381 Broadway. Day-of registration opens there at 2:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $35 for one person, $60 for two or $120 for a group of four.
• What you get: a pub crawl T-shirt and a pint glass, plus raffles for prizes donated by local businesses.
• How to sign up: register online by 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, or call the foundation at (518) 587-5030.

The five stops

The crawl visits these bars in this order, according to NEWS10.

1. Druthers Brewing Company on Broadway.
2. Bailey’s Cafe.
3. Gaffney’s on Caroline Street.
4. The Grotto Tiki Lounge, entered from Straus Place.
5. Walt & Whitman Brewing Company, listed by NEWS10 as Whitman Brewing Company, which matches the welcome line on the brewery’s website.

Druthers and Bailey’s

The crawl starts at Druthers Brewing Company at 381 Broadway, inside the Broadway Historic District. The brewpub sits about 120 feet back from the street behind a hand-built iron gate, with a beer garden next to it, according to the company’s website. Opened in 2012, the Saratoga brewpub was the company’s first, and Druthers has since added locations in Albany, Schenectady and Clifton Park.

The second stop, Bailey’s Cafe, is at 37 Phila Street in a Saratoga landmark built in 1902, according to the restaurant’s website. Bailey’s pitches itself around pints and patio seating, and the restaurant also hosts private parties.

Gaffney’s, back in business

Third on the route is Gaffney’s at 16 Caroline Street, on the corner of Putnam Street. The building dates to 1903, and Gaffney’s first opened there in 1978. Gaffney’s shut down in 2024 after foreclosure proceedings and reopened in May 2026 under new owners who bought the property for $3.5 million in late 2025, WNYT reported. The redesign added coastal-inspired food, a sports bar called The Starting Gate and a 1920s-style speakeasy lounge called The Parlor, along with an upgraded outdoor patio for live music and DJs.

The Grotto, a new tiki bar

The fourth stop is the newest. The Grotto is a tiki bar built in what used to be The Red Room, the event space at the back of The Night Owl at 17 Maple Avenue. The only way in is from Straus Place, the alley off Lake Avenue that was renamed in 2025 for Mark Straus, the late father of co-owner Alex Straus, Saratoga Living reported in September.

Straus owns The Night Owl with Matt Pedersen, and their operating partner, Freeman Lattin, runs the new bar’s cocktail program of classic tiki drinks and rum-based originals, according to the magazine. Straus told Saratoga Living that the old event room was not earning enough and that “this room needs to evolve.” The owners were aiming to open by the last weekend in September. NEWS10 lists the bar, as The Grotto Tiki Lounge, as a stop on the Oct. 17 crawl.

The address has a long nightlife history. 17 Maple Avenue was home to The Metro, a lounge and nightclub, in the 1980s and ’90s, and to Sinclair Saratoga, a barcade, in the late 2010s, according to Saratoga Living.

Walt & Whitman closes out the day

The crawl ends at Walt & Whitman Brewing Company, a family-owned brewery and cafe that opened in December 2019 in the former Saratogian newspaper building at the corner of Lake and Maple avenues, according to The Daily Gazette. The upstairs cafe is in the old newsroom. The brewery’s website lists house beers, coffee and Detroit-style pizza, and says the building has four distinct dining areas for private events.

Why the foundation runs a pub crawl

The crawl is as much about meeting new people as raising money. Samantha Bosshart, who has been part of every crawl since the first, told The Daily Gazette last year that the event was created to reach a younger crowd that might not know the foundation, and called it “more of a friend-raiser” than a big fundraiser. She also said the crawl brings customers into bars on what would otherwise be a quiet Saturday afternoon.

Last year’s crawl drew up to 100 people to five different stops: Druthers, Tin & Lint, The Saratoga City Tavern, Henry Street Taproom and The Parting Glass, the Gazette reported. Druthers is the only bar on both lists.

The money supports the work of the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation, which was founded in 1977 to protect the city’s architectural, cultural and landscape heritage. Recent projects include the Clinton Street Comeback, which is restoring cottages, and the sale of 65 Phila Street after a campaign to save it. The foundation is also running its Autumn Sunday Strolls walking tours this month, as we reported in our Sept. 23 story.

Our read: the lineup this year leans toward downtown’s newer and newly reopened rooms. Gaffney’s and The Grotto give regulars a reason to see what has changed, and the Walt & Whitman finish puts the last stop in another historic building.

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