HOW WE GOT HERE

Husband & wife team Jason & Kayleigh Pierce have developed a habit of breathing new life into historic bars & restaurants and the neighborhoods surrounding them. In late 2015, upon hearing of the impending demise of Justin’s, they immediately sprang into action acquiring the famous establishment on Albany’s historic Lark Street.

After months of hard work and floor to ceiling renovations that were respectful of the historic nature of the space, they launched Savoy Taproom in May of 2016. Focusing on expertly crafted cocktails, perfectly prepared scratch made food and live music, the establishment quickly became one of Albany’s most popular night spots and won countless local, regional & national awards for their cocktails.

In 2018 Jason Pierce began to have aspirations of creating another bar & restaurant in Albany’s North End warehouse district and, as was in his nature, he started looking for a historic building in which to do it. As luck would have it Albany County had recently acquired the old Albany Film Exchange building on North Pearl Street and Pierce quickly made a move to acquire the space. During the 1940s theater operators would trek down to the film exchange to turn in their old film reels and exchange them for new the latest new theatrical releases. In fact the building still had three large film vaults where the film reels had been stored — one of which Pierce envisioned as the new restaurant's kitchen. Pierce was also familiar with the building itself, having started renovations on the space with a friend many years prior.

By the late spring of 2019, with a closing date on the Albany Film Exchange having been delayed several times, Pierce was notified that he would not be able to acquire title insurance on the property due to the nature of a previous foreclosure. A requirement of his financing for the project, which was to involve substantial renovations and restoration of the building, the lack of title insurance killed the project in its tracks.

Somewhat gun shy about the death of the Albany Film Exchange building deal, Pierce hesitantly began to again search for an idle location for the Copper Crow concept. At this same time Stout, which had occupied the space at 904 Broadway for almost ten years, closed and Molly O’Bryan’s, another Irish themed pub, took over the space.

By early 2020 Pierce had began to hear rumblings that Molly O’Bryan’s was for sale. He immediately approached the owner, struck a deal and bought the business… right as COVID-19 hit. Undaunted by a global pandemic, Jason & Kayleigh Pierce began what would become a multi-year process of renovating and updating the space. They scoured the area for objects that they could repurpose - piles of old reclaimed wood from another local warehouse that would serve to adorn some of the walls, old metal warehouse duct work that would serve as planters, Victorian era iron gates that would divide the bar and dining room spaces, antique stained glass windows from a local church, an old 19th Century bed frame that would become an arbor - their unique vision somehow allowed them to see now what was, but instead to imagine what could be. The existing kitchen, which had been designed to produce basic pub fare and fried food, was redesigned, new equipment was installed and the space was converted into a modern, well equipped kitchen capable of producing a full menu of fine foods.

As renovations moved forward they started working with founding Chef Timothy Gates to develop a food menu that would feature an eclectic array of internationally inspired American fusion dishes that incorporated ideas, ingredients and methods of preparation from around the world. In October of 2021 they announced that the restaurant would be opening for takeout & delivery opening beginning on November 4th, 2021. On New Year’s Eve the restaurant celebrating their grand opening with a huge New Year’s Eve Gala.

Sixteen days after the restaurant had fully opened tragedy struck. A January cold spell caused pipes to burst in the warehouse space above the restaurant sending over 65,000 gallons of water cascading down into the bar and dining room. The establishment was forced to close for six months to repair the extensive damage caused by the flooding and reopened on July 15th of 2022.

Today the restaurant is open Tuesday through Friday from 4pm to midnight, Saturday from noon to 1am and Sunday from noon to midnight, serving both lunch and dinner on the weekends. In January of 2023 Executive Chef Seth Corey took over the reigns in the kitchen, further refining the establishments unique blend of internationally influenced cuisines.