Art Night Thursday 10/30

Carmen’s Cafe will host an “Art Night” this Thursday, Oct. 30 featuring: a honeybee themed intersection artwork project, an art opening with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a special dinner menu.

While community members create the chalk murals outside, Carmen’s Cafe will also host a tapas and sangria reception from 5 p.m. till 8 p.m. for artist Gary Masline. The restaurant will be open until 9 p.m.

Masline’s exhibit of 12 oil paintings is titled “Faces & Places.”

Based in East Greenbush, Masline’s paintings of oils on canvas have received awards from the Mohawk-Hudson Regional Exhibition, Albany Center Gallery, and the Arts Center of the Capital Region. In 2010, the Albany Institute of Art and History named him one of “Tomorrow’s Masters Today,” and in 2001 he won the Metroland readers’ poll for “Best Visual Artist.”

The paintings, on display at Carmen’s from Oct. 30 through the end of the year, use the colors and light of the American southwest, combining people and landscape images to create “stories on the walls.”

(Note: Contact Jim Lewis for publicity images of Masline’s artwork.)

SPECIAL MENU

Carmen’s guest chef, Ross Tuskey, will be preparing the following special menu for Thursday and Friday nights:

  • Braised Oxtail; Fontina Grits, Apple Gastrique, Fried Leeks, Cilantro
  • Butter Poached Monk Fish Medallions; Fried Green Tomatoes, Pine Nut Couscous, Pink lemon pearls, White Wine Syrup
  • Smoked Baby Pork-loin; Whipped Plantains with Coconut, Butternut Squash Hay, Pineapple Rosemary Demi
  • Grilled Halibut; Jicama Slaw or Yuka Fries, Pea Puree, Chorizo Cream (optional, depending on market)

Tuskey is a culinary trained chef who prepares food for Carmen’s Cafe on music nights.

Photo courtesy by Kathleen Lisson

Mundo Nuevo Returns! 2 Shows Friday 10/24

Bringing you Specials and Events from Carmen’s Cafe, a Cuban-American Bistro in the Heart of South Troy

Week of Fri. Oct. 24 to Sun. Oct. 26
(Sorry, Closed Thursday–
See you Friday for Mundo Nuevo

What Ya Got Besides Cubanos¡Lunch!

By which we mean, breakfast any time, PLUS our lunchtime menu! Which is why we are showing you a picture of French Toast with Fresh Fruit and Real Whipped Cream

Cubano Sandwich by popular demand—  pork, ham & swiss w/ mustard & pickle on Cuban bread

Picadillo

Check out our full menu! Though for a real treat, come in and see what’s on our Specials Board

Tapas Menu

Beef Stew slow cooked in a tomato herb broth

Costillitas de Cerdo baby back spareribs, dry rubbed and s-l-o-w roasted

Pan Seared Tilapia w/ garlic-wine-cilantro sauce

Grilled Lamb Chops w/ rosemary glaze

Flamenco Stew

Craft BeerCraft Beer

Check out this list and help us grow it over time. Tell us what you love and we’ll keep adding!

Nine Pin Cider by Nine Pin Cider Works, Albany, NY

Leisure Time and Hoponius Union by Jack’s Abbey

Raspberry Ale by Dark Horse

Scotch Ale by Black Isle

Check out all the Libations

Desserts: expanded offerings

Chocolate Satin Cake

Pear Apple Tart

New York Cheesecake

Flan

Upcoming Events Calendar

Mundo Nuevo Returns! Two shows, Friday, 10/24starting @ 6 & 8, cover 5

Mundo Nuevo 10/24
Elizabeth Kasius & Heard 11/21
The Nellies Victorian Stroll 12/7
Mundo Nuevo 12/19

Art Night at Carmen’s Next Thurs, 10/30

Gary Masline Faces & PlacesGary Masline Artist’s Reception 5 till 9

Open for Dinner! 5 to 9 Chef Ross is whipping up a special menu, we’ll pass out Tapas hors d’oeuvres and Sangria, and we’ll be serving dinner till 9!

Cortado Art

With the colder weather, we have started adding a little bit of fine German chocolate – 70% cacao – at the bottom of the cup.

Beyond the beyond!

Artist’s Reception—Gary Masline: Faces & Places October 30th 5–9

Gary Masline Faces & PlacesNew Art Exhibit: Faces & Places, works by Gary Masline Showing Thru 2014

Reception—Gary Masline: Faces & Places

Thursday, October 30th 5PM till 9PM

Dinner is Served!

Chef Ross is whipping up a special menu, we’ll pass out Tapas hors d’oeuvres and Sangria, and we’ll be serving dinner till 9!

Gary Masline is a painter who works exclusively with oils on canvas. A resident since 1979 of the Capital District, his paintings have been included in juried exhibitions across New York State, receiving awards at the Mohawk-Hudson Regional Exhibition, the Arts Center of the Capital Region’s “Fence Select Exhibition”, and from Albany Center Gallery. In 2010, the Albany Institute of History and Art, America’s oldest art museum, named Gary one of “Tomorrow’s Masters Today”, and in 2001 he won the readers’ poll for “Best Visual Artist” in “Metroland”, the Capital Region’s weekly arts and entertainment newspaper.

Gary paints with the understanding that art is meant to provoke a response, and his hope is to stimulate a dialogue with viewers responding to his use of color, light, and even body language, to establish image, illusion, or icon. The vibrant palette and intense light of the American Southwest have affected his work, and Gary believes the Southwest is one of the earth’s centers of spiritual energy, which animates artistic awareness. Realizing that a painting can feign a reality which the viewer may never have experienced or seen, Gary asserts that people can nonetheless be profoundly affected by southwestern images serving as emblems or totems, with the symbols or gestures in paintings generating highly individual “stories.”

Gary Masline’s previous creative incarnation was as a screenwriter, and he reasons that painting is a consistent development stemming from that history. If one thinks of Gary’s paintings as consisting of line/drawing, pigment/color, and story/narrative, his work reveals him still “making films”…now just one frame at a time.

Gary currently is a member of the board of directors of the Upstate Artists Guild, and formerly served on the board of Troy’s Fulton Street Gallery. His studio is in Troy. Trained as a lawyer, Gary in 2010 retired from a longtime position as assistant counsel and press spokesman for a governor’s investigatory commission. He lives in East Greenbush with his wife Sharon.

Tapas / Win Lunch / Artist Reception / Mundo Nuevo

Week of Thurs. Oct. 16 to Sun. Oct. 19

Paradise on EarthParadise on Earth

This is what our chickens wake up to every day. See? Already we are getting possessive. But if this is the first thing those hens see in the morning, no wonder their eggs taste so good.

Get Your Leaf Peeping In this week, or you will miss it!

And here’s the weekly hoop-de-raw from Carmen’s:

Friday Tapas Specials

Beef Stew slow cooked in a tomato herb broth

Costillitas de Cerdo baby back spareribs, dry rubbed and s-l-o-w roasted

Pan Seared Salmon over herbed couscous

~Full Tapas Menu Here~

Troy-FlowersTell Me Where–Win A Prize

A Cubano and a Cortado
That’s a Cuban Sandwich with Cuban Coffee, to you Anglos

Walking the streets of downtown Troy today, and I happened to look down. I saw these beauties: someone planted them to make the City look good, to bring a smile to a passerby’s face. And it worked!

Relax, slow down, enjoy life while you can.

So tell me where the flowers are, and be precise.  The winner gets to RELAX over a tasty lunch with us—  on us.

¡Lunch!

By which we mean, breakfast any time, PLUS our lunchtime menu!

Cubano Sandwich by popular demand—  pork, ham & swiss w/ mustard & pickle on Cuban bread

Picadillo

Check out our full menu!

Though for a real treat, come in and see what’s on our Specials Board

Gary Masline Faces & PlacesReception—Gary Masline: Faces & Places

Showing Thru 2014

Artist’s Reception Thursday, October 30 5 till 9

Dinner is Served!

Chef Ross is whipping up a special menu, we’ll pass out Tapas hors d’oeuvres and Sangria, and we’ll be serving dinner till 9!

Mundo-NuevoMundo Nuevo Next Week

Shows @ 6 & 8, $5 cover each

Music This Fall:

Mundo Nuevo – 10/24
Elizabeth Kasius & Heard– 11/21
The Nellies – Victorian Stroll
Mundo Nuevo – 12/19

Kitty CatPreview: Coming in November!

The Kitty Cat carving adorns the headboard of this king size bed. Springwood Studios, the former Icarus Furniture, will host a reception soon to show off Jim’s new gallery-showroom.

Spot The Flowers, Win A Prize

Tell Me Where–Win A Prize

A Cubano and a Cortado
That’s a Cuban Sandwich with Cuban Coffee, to you Anglos

Walking the streets of downtown Troy today, and I happened to look down. I saw these beauties: someone planted them to make the City look good, to bring a smile to a passerby’s face. And it worked!

Relax, slow down, enjoy life while you can.

So tell me where the flowers are, and be precise. The winner gets to RELAX over a tasty lunch with us— on us.

Troy-Flowers

 

Weekly Specials / Tapas / New Art / Fall Music Schedule

Week of Thurs. Oct. 9 to Sun. Oct. 12

Carmen Updates Window Boxes

As Wednesday’s cold front was rolling in, Jim was winter proofing and Carmen was cleaning and redecorating the window boxes. Check them out—  hearty mums, gourds and baby pumpkins.
Get Your Leaf Peeping In Soon!

¡Lunch!

French TaostBy which we mean, breakfast any time, PLUS our lunchtime menu!

—Which is why we are showing you a picture of French Toast with Fresh Fruit and Real Whipped Cream

Cubano Sandwich by popular demand— pork, ham & Swiss w/ mustard & pickle on Cuban bread

Picadillo

Check out our full menu!

Though for a real treat, come in and see what’s on our Specials Board.

SearedTroutFriday Tapas Specials 10/10

Beef Stew slow cooked in a tomato herb broth
Herb Stuffed Pork Loin marinated, served over mashed sweet potatoes
Pan Seared Rainbow Trout over saffron rice & pea purée

~Full Tapas Menu Here~

Desserts expanded offerings:

Have you tried the Apple Crisp? Fan-Tastic!!

Flan

Raspberry Chocolate Layer Cake

Gary Masline Faces & PlacesNew Art: Gary Masline—Faces & Places Showing Thru 2014

Gary loves Santa Fe, and it shows.

You may have seen Gary’s work around the area, he’s widely known.  We like the way his paintings start to tell a story, then leave the rest for you to figure out.  Look for an artist’s reception toward the end of the month.

Shows @ 6 & 8, $5 cover each

Music This Fall:

Mundo Nuevo – 10/24
Elizabeth Kasius & Heard– 11/21
The Nellies – Victorian Stroll
Mundo Nuevo – 12/19

Rock Hill Bakery / Empty Bowls / Faces & Places / Specials

Rock Hill Bakehouse comes to Carmen’s

after a visit to the mostest fantasticest bakery in the area, Carmen’s is carrying Rock Hill Breads. One taste won us over!

Try a Basket o’ Breads with our own whipped Strawberry Butter and a Cortado!

Empty Bowls Benefit for the Homeless

Oct 5th 2014 ~ 12-3pm Italian Community Center Troy NY 12180

Featuring many Troy restaurants, including your favorite, Carmen’s
What wonderful blend of savory and spicy will we bring this year? You’ll have to come and see! It’s all good, all for the homeless, AND you walk home with a handmade bowl, courtesy of area potters and volunteers.

A unique event to support the growing fight against the issue of hunger.

OCTOBER 5, 2014 ~ 12-3pm~ Italian Community Center ~1450 5th Avenue, Troy NY 12180

Gary Masline Faces & PlacesNew Art Exhibit: Faces & Places, works by Gary Masline

Showing Thru 2014

Gary loves Santa Fe, and it shows.

You may have seen Gary’s work around the area, he’s widely known. We like the way his paintings start to tell a story, then leave the rest for you to figure out.

Look for an artist’s reception toward the end of the month.

Gary Masline is a post-modern realist working exclusively in oils. His paintings utilize the colors and light of the American Southwest, where he spent time as a youth, and often incorporate figurative images to create narrative.

Masline believes the Southwest is one of the Earth’s centers of spiritual energy, an energy which animates artistic awareness. Realizing that a painting can feign a reality neither the artist nor viewer has seen, he concludes that people can be profoundly affected by images of western landscapes which they may never have experienced, or by events which are alien to their actual experience, but which through imagination or memory reverberate nonetheless in the viewer’s unconscious.

In this regard, Masline expresses images that are emblematic or totemic, their symbols and gestures generating “stories” in the minds of viewers. He paints with the understanding that art is meant to be provocative, and his hope is to provoke a conversation with the viewer responding to his use of color, light and body language to establish image, illusion or icon.

Masline’s previous creative incarnation was as a screenwriter. He reasons that, if one thinks of painting as consisting of line or drawing, color, and story or narrative, his paintings reveal him making films…just one frame at a time, illuminating a moment of truth, whatever that may be for the viewer.

In conceiving a work, Masline frequently is influenced by the poses and postures of newspaper and magazine advertising, whose defined reality and bland presentation collides with his personal interpretations of body language and locale. He concurs with artist Gerhard Richter, who has worked from photographs and said “I am fascinated by the human, temporary, real, logical side of an occurrence which is simultaneously so unreal, so incomprehensible, and so atemporal. And I would like to represent it in such a way that this contradiction is preserved.” Masline’s other influences are painters Edward Hopper, Balthus, and Lucien Freud.

This Week’s Specials:

¡Lunch!

French TaostBy which we mean, breakfast any time, PLUS our lunchtime menu!

—Which is why we are showing you a picture of French Toast with Fresh Fruit and Real Whipped Cream

Cubano Sandwich by popular demand— pork, ham & swiss w/ mustard & pickle on Cuban bread

Picadillo

Check out our full menu!

Though for a real treat, come in and see what’s on our Specials Board.

Friday Tapas Specials 10/3

TapasBraised Beef Short Ribs w/ herbed garlic mashed potatoes

Pan Seared Salmon in garlic cream sauce over saffron rice

Pernil slow roasted pork shoulder over saffron rice w/ chimichurri sauce

~Full Tapas Menu Here~

FlanDesserts: expanded offerings:

Flan

Raspberry Chocolate Cake

PreRamble 2: Sept. 27

PreRamble 2

PreRamble 2— Bigger and Better than Ever!

  • Free Helmets for Kids
  • Bike Safety Course
  • Free Bike Tuneups
  • Walking and Biking Tours of Washington Park, the Burden Iron Works Museum and the New Riverfront Trail

Upstate Kayak Rentals will bring their boats to the Troy Boat Launch at Ingalls Ave for the PreRamble 2.  Rent a boat for $10 an hourStoryHarvest:  Finishing up with Free Concerts at Freedom Square

StoryHarvest: Finishing up with Free Concerts at Freedom Square

Ramble Challenge— If 50 people pledge to ride to work for a week, an anonymous donor gives us $1000 to buy bike racks for around Troy. Come to our booth at the Farmer’s Market this Saturday to enter and win a chance for a free kayak ride!

The PreRamble is a celebration of human-powered transportation in Troy.  It starts at First and River Streets, at the south end of the Farmer’s Market, on Saturday, Sept. 27.  It features sample lane markings, showing how the soon-to-be-built path will look, as well as intersection art, used to slow traffic at critical intersections.

Troy Night Out, 6 pm Friday Sept. 26:

Volunteers needed to help chalk intersection art and lane markings.  Meet at First and River Streets.

Farmer’s Market, 10-2 Saturday, Sept 27, centered at First and River:

10-11:30—  Bike safety course from the Troy Police Department—  free bike helmets for kids who need them, while they last

10-1:00—  Complete Streets Tours leaving from First & River.  Borrow a bike if you need one.

10-12:00—  Bicycle tune up station by Troy Bike Rescue

10:30—  Walking tour “State and Second” by the Rensselear County Historic Society leaving from the Information Booth.   Led by Stacy Pomeroy Draper.  $5

12:00—   Walking tour of Washington Park by the Washington Park Association leaves from the Transport Troy Booth at First and River.  Led by Lynn Kopka.  Free.

12:-3:00—  Self guided tours of the Burden Iron Works Museum, foot of Polk Street.  Get maps at the Transport Troy Booth at First and River

1-4:00—  Kayak rides at the Ingalls Ave. Boat Launch by Upstate Kayak Rentals.  $10/hr.  Maps available at the Transport Troy Booth, First and River

3:30-6—  Story Harvest:  Free concert by Nation Beat & Alex Torres and his Latin Orchestra, Freedom Square (101st & 6th Ave.)  Stone Soup:  Community Meal

prepared by the Chef’s Consortium.  All free.  Maps available at the Transport Troy booth, First & River

Enter the Ramble Challenge:  If 50 people bike to work for a week, an anonymous donor has promised $1000 for bike racks in Troy.  Enter at the Transport Troy booth and win a chance for a free kayak paddle!  Extra bonus, available to all:  Ride with the Mayor on Thursday, October 2 at Noon, leaving from Monument Square.  45 minutes.  Free, led by Troy Mayor Lou Rosamilia.

Email Andrea at diyRestoreit@gmail.com to register, and get a chance to win a free kayak paddle!

Empty Bowls Benefit for the Homeless Oct 5th 2014 ~ 12-3pm Italian Community Center Troy NY 12180

Featuring many Troy restaurants, including your favorite, Carmen’s

What wonderful blend of savory and spicy will we bring this year? You’ll have to come and see! It’s all good, all for the homeless, AND you walk home with a handmade bowl, courtesy of area potters and volunteers.

A unique event to support the growing fight against the issue of hunger.

OCTOBER 5, 2014 ~ 12-3pm~ Italian Community Center ~1450 5th Avenue, Troy NY 12180
Description: The Empty Bowls Program is a wonderful grassroots movement that have brought artists, chefs, and communities together to help raise money for local food programs. Started nearly 20 years ago, it spread throughout the country to raise money and awareness about hunger.For the past seven years, the Collar City Clay Guild, in partnership with the Troy Architectural Project, Inc., has been fortunate to organize the Empty Bowls Project in Troy, NY. The Empty Bowls Program has become a community event in the city that draws hundreds and maybe even over a thousand people each year to help raise money for food programs.Every year, the Troy community flocks to the Italian Community Center with the great expectation of warm soup, fresh bread, beautiful handmade bowls, and the wonderful company of friends. By selling bowls, we have been able to raise almost $100,000 for the food programs in Troy.Since the beginning of the Empty Bowls Project in Troy our impact has been great, in 2009 we supported 17 food programs in Troy to help put food on their shelves and deliver food to those in need. Empty Bowls