City Squire Pub — Restaurant in City of Schenectady

I was looking for a venue for a baby shower for my daughter and son-in-law and Googled “restaurants in Schenectady with a private room.” When I saw the City Squire come up in the results I thought, Yes!, because I then remembered the upstairs space from going to a private event there a few years ago.

I went through the catering menu and made some preliminary choices and then met with Aaron who gave me feedback on them. He showed us the space, talked about options for using it, what services they could provide, etc. Over the course of the last couple of weeks before the event we conferred on the final count and menu choices by phone, text and at another meeting.

On the day of the shower my husband and I went over in the morning and found the upstairs space to be clean, bright and inviting. There were two small couches in front of a gas fireplace with a coffee table, square tables that could be configured in many different ways and high chairs at the bar. A large flat screen TV which we had planned on using to play a slideshow had been angled towards the room for us. We were able to move tables a bit and set up centerpieces and vintage tablecloths that I brought. The space is so pleasant that it didn’t require anything else.

That afternoon we got to the venue a bit early but everything was all set to go! Unfortunately my tech support (son) couldn’t make it at the last minute so we just brought a laptop and monitor for the slide show to run on a loop and set it up on a table on the side of the room. Sharing a playlist on Spotify was also on my son’s to do list but Aaron stepped in and put on some classic music that added to the atmosphere nicely.

We had conferred with Aaron and Danielle about when to bring out the appetizers and desserts we had selected and they did so in a timely manner. Everything was delicious and kept warm for the appetizers and cold for the ice cream sundae bar. The quantities were generous and beautifully presented. Having the bar right in the same space was so convenient for our guests. There was plenty of room for people to sit at tables, stand at the bar or mingle with each other and the toddlers there could safely run around with the two stairways being off to the side and easy to monitor. Bathrooms were nearby. Parking was convenient and right next to the building.

Everyone we interacted with was very welcoming, friendly and professional, including the bartender assigned to us, Danielle. Aaron was available by phone call or text for questions or updates.

We were very happy with how...

to check out the City Squire tonight. Cool little local place that's been fixed up with a new menu and a new interior design. At first glance it's what you'd expect of a local pub. The pine ceiling and dividers mixed with the brick wall accent is current and cool. There's a variety of seating from tables to high tops, as well as a nice new bar area. Oh and although the weather wasn't permitting, the front porch area could make for a really fun summer hangout.

The staff was really friendly and attentive without being annoying or too much. It was a little hard to hear because there's nothing to absorb sound, but that's to be expected in a pub. The only thing that didn't fit was the cool LED ceiling lights, which give the otherwise warm and friendly place, a state office lighting vibe. Being married to an interior architect means I get the scoop on such things -- so please swap out those cool ceiling LEDs for warm ones so I never have to hear, "Cool LEDs in restaurants should be illegal" ever again.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the food. It was pretty good. Not amazing, just pretty good. We both had the a French Onion Soup, which would be great if it had a little more cheese. Our main courses were the fried chicken sandwich, which got high marks across the table, but they thought the cole slaw wasn't sweet enough to justify putting it in the sandwich. Make it pineapple chunk cole slaw and we're talking bout something special. I had the Squire Burger, which had really great flavor. My only issue was that the burger was more tall than wide, appearing to be smaller than it actually was, due to it being buried in the bun. Flatten it out while seating and the problem is solved. Both meals came with packaged pub fries, which were fried perfectly, unfortunately neither of care for those. Firestone 151 still holds my heart when it comes to fries and I'd eat them every day of the week if they wouldn't eventually kill me.

So would I go back? Yes I would. This place just reopened and so there's some adjusting that needs to be done. Assuming they add more cheese to their French onion soup, get warmer LEDs in the ceiling, and get better French fries, I think we could put the City Squire in...

Stopped in at 12 on a Saturday for lunch before heading to an afternoon show at Proctors. The modern look was nice, not too much noise, beer list was decent. We decided to sit at the bar for our visit. My wife and I got the buffalo chicken dip appetizer (this was great) and both ordered burgers. She likes her well, I always go medium. Food came out at a decent pace, slightly slower than we would have expected being a fairly simple order. Our bartender was a bit slow on checking on our drinks even though there was only one other couple seated at the bar at the time. We had to ask for 2nd beers even after ours were gone for around 5 mins. When our burgers came out, my wife's was to her liking. I found mine was just lightly seared on the outside and rare/med-rare on the inside. I had already asked for the check before biting into the burger knowing our time constraint, and sending the burger back and waiting wasn't an option. I ate the bun and topping and another bite or two of the burger, and the fries. Having worked in a high volume kitchen getting a burger off of it's intended mark is usually a miss on the cook running the grill, or the temp was entered incorrectly on the bartender's end. It wasn't a great first impression, I might go back for the buffalo chicken dip, maybe try the...