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Located in a commercial plaza at the corner of Nott Street and Balltown Road in Niskayuna, The Broken Inn combines two spaces that previously were a barbershop and a beauty parlor.
Framed front pages of Capital Region newspapers cover historic events including the John F. Kennedy assassination, Richard Nixon's resignation, the first moon landing and more. The tufted leather banquettes came from a Boston sports bar.
The Broken Inn's turkey club features lettuce and bacon in the top and bottom.
Owner Tommy Nicchi stands at the end of the bar of his new Niskayuna bar and grill, The Broken Inn. Reclaimed from a Springfield, Mass., restaurant, the 26-foot mahogany bar previously was in Albany and Saratoga Springs locations of The Comedy Works, also owned by Nicchi.
Stuffed with whipped cream cheese, French toast on the weekend brunch menu at The Broken Inn is made with bread from Perreca's Bakery in Schenectady.
Eclectic decor appears on the walls throughout The Broken Inn in Niskayuna, reflecting the collecting tastes of owner Tommy Nicchi.
The Broken Inn features 16 beers on draft, two by the bottle.
NISKAYUNA — The long bar is gleaming dark wood, the tufted leather booths came from a legendary Boston sports bar, the sandwiches are giant, soft-serve ice cream will be available year-round, and attitudinous humor imbues the whole place.
That's The Broken Inn, a neighborhood bar and grill in a squat brick strip plaza at the intersection of Balltown Road and Nott Street. It opens on Saturday and is the latest project for Tommy Nicchi, who grew up in the entertainment and hospitality industry. His father, Tom Nicchi, opened The Comedy Works on Central Avenue in Albany in 1981 in a space below a restaurant he owned called The Deli Works after initially working for Gershon's Deli in Schenectady, run by his wife's relatives.
The comedy club moved multiple times over the years, with Tommy Nicchi taking over and eventually settling it in downtown Saratoga Springs. He has another Comedy Works, at the Plaza hotel in Las Vegas, and also runs their parent company, Stand-Up Global. It books comedy clubs and tours like the First Night of Funny series and manages comedians, including Gilbert Gottfried, Artie Lange, Nick Di Paolo and locally born favorite Jaye McBride, who opened for Louis CK at Madison Square Garden last summer.
Nicchi and his wife have three vehicles, each with more than 200,000 miles on them. Nicchi estimates he covers 1,000 miles a week and, between Vegas and a club he books in Hawaii, he's in at least three time zones a month. And now he has a place five blocks from his home.
He'd long thought it a shame that his neighborhood of 10 years lacked a restaurant residents could walk to.
"There are 900 houses within walking distance (of The Broken Inn), but it seems like everybody goes to Latham or Wolf Road to eat," said Nicchi.
Conventional wisdom held that there were no bars or restaurants because the town wouldn't allow it.
"I read the code and saw that I could," said Nicchi. And so he and his younger daughter, then 6, walked around gathering signatures.
"That's how we got approved," he said, albeit not without pushback, including a group on the Nextdoor app specifically targeted at his efforts, called "No not a bar in our family neighborhood of Nott St." It drew more than 450 comments. As a concession to concerns, The Broken Inn will open at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, closing at 10 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday, 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. (Weekend brunch starts at 10 a.m.) The closing hours are written into its approval from the town, according to Nicchi.
He was familiar with the space, at 2209 Nott St., because it adjoins a pharmacy that made a compounded medication needed for one of his daughters, who was born with a serious condition that required open-heart surgery on the day she was born. The pharmacist owns the building, and Nicchi mentioned to him that if the next-door spaces, a barbershop and a beauty salon, happened to become available, he'd be interested.
When the pandemic hit, they did.
"My comedy clubs were shut down and all of my comedians were grounded. This was my pandemic project," Nicchi said, adding that even he sometimes thought the same thing that others asked him: "What kind of crazy person tries to open a restaurant during a pandemic?"
Because he's a collector of sorts, Nicchi has storage facilities full of stuff that he's found elsewhere. That long bar, originally from Springfield, Mass., was at The Comedy Works when it was in Albany, then in Saratoga, now in Niskayuna. The booths are from The Fours in Boston, which hosted four decades of Celtics and Bruins fans attending games at the nearby Boston Garden, replaced in 1995 with an arena now called TD Garden. The candy tables in the bar area are from a strip club in the Bronx.
As the menu notes, "Most everything in The Broken Inn came from someplace else." Even the name is repurposed, in a manner of speaking, blending his daughters' names, Brooklyn and Kennedy, now 11 and 8, respectively. (A comedian friend suggested what ended up being the bar and grill's name.)
The place seats about 50 and totals 1,000 square feet, kitchen included.
"People usually talk about size in square feet. With this kitchen, we talk about square inches," Nicchi said.
As a result, the menu needed to be focused and to feature items that could be made quickly in a small space that lacks room for significant prep work.
Start with wings, hummus, French onion soup or a creation called Stuffed Bacon: cornbread, onions and peppers wrapped with bacon and dusted with confectioner's sugar. Move on to those monster sandwiches: pastrami (hot or cold) on rye, a Reuben, roast beef, turkey, Grilled Cheese & Ham (two grilled-cheese sandwiches surrounding ham). Four items for weekend brunch. That's it.
"If you're looking for fine dining, we're not it," Nicchi said. His favorite description of The Broken Inn invokes a classic Manhattan sandwich spot and a Saratoga jazz bar: "It's Katz's Deli meets 9 Maple," he said. There are five specialty cocktails, 16 wines by the glass, 16 beers on draft and two by the bottle: Corona and Coors.
Now about that attitude. It's everywhere.
The Broken Inn is cash only. Says the menu, "Why?!?! Instead of giving 3% of our sales to the credit card companies, we contribute 3% of our sales to a different Niskayuna cause each month. We think they deserve it more!" (The fee on the in-house ATM is capped at $1.)
Yes, the sandwiches are really big. Yes, you're free to split one. However, doing so will cost you $20, or $4 more than the sandwich itself. Why?!?!
"Split plate fees suck. Servers, and causes, making half as much money sucks more. Our solution? A $20 split plate fee. ... Now do what you'd like, but we think you're better off getting your own and having lunch tomorrow. P.S. We will donate 100% of this ridiculous fee to this month's Niskayuna cause."
All soft-service ice cream, available in the restaurant or via a side window, costs $5. They'll make it as small as you want if it's for a kid, the menu says, but it's still $5. Kids whose sports team lost that day get a buck off. "Don't lie. Karma," says the menu.
Address: 2209 Nott St. (at Balltown Road), Niskayuna Opens: Saturday, March 5 Hours: 4 to to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 4 to 11 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday. Prices: Apps, $5 to $15; salads, $12 to $15; sandwiches, $12 to $16; kids menu, $8; brunch, $12 to $14; beer, wine and cocktails, $5 to $12 per glass. Info: broken-inn.com and facebook.com/TheBrokenInnNiskayuna. No reservations. Note: Takeout food will be available at some point but not in the opening weeks. Parking: On-site lot.
"That's all me," said Nicchi, who's spent the majority of his life and still much of his time surrounded by the skewed view of comedians.
"If you like us, great. If you don't, don't come," he said.
But he sounds friendlier when he describes his approach to the restaurant business.
"We're going to serve a quality product with a good attitude in a clean place," Nicchi said. "I tell my staff, 'Think of the most important person in your life. ... Now assume that everything we serve is going in front of that person.'"
Steve Barnes has worked at the Times Union since 1996, served as arts editor for six years, and since 2005 has been a senior writer. He generally covers restaurants, food and the arts, and is the Times Union's restaurant columnist and theater critic. Steve was also a journalism instructor at the University at Albany for 12 years. You can reach him at sbarnes@timesunion.com or 518-454-5489.