Friday's big one downtown is free. Party in the Square runs 5:30 to 11pm in Clinton Square, School of Rock first and then a Pink Floyd tribute act called In The Flesh, and the food and drink sales pay for instruments for Syracuse school kids.
Saturday has Usher and Chris Brown at the Dome at 7pm, a 5K down the runway at Hancock Field, market day in Eastwood, the Building Bridges festival at the Inner Harbor, and the Blueberry Jam at Critz Farms.
Stunning gardens in Franklin Square Park (featured in The Block section below)
You picked the dates. We booked the boats.
We asked which dates in August worked for a Salt City Club cruise. 250+ of you answered, so we chartered three. The people who voted got first crack at the seats — now it's open to the whole Club.
It's a private Cocktail & Mocktail Cruise with Syracuse Boat Tours, out of Dutchman's Landing in Baldwinsville. 90 minutes on the Seneca River, the whole boat ours, 5:30 to 7:00 pm.
Before you book:
34 seats per boat. Saturday is this weekend and the furthest along, but all three still have room.
You book directly with Syracuse Boat Tours at the links above. $41.04 a ticket, including taxes and fees.
Full bar aboard for cocktails, beer, wine, and mocktails. First round's on us.
This one's 21+.
Come to one of these, and you're a founding member. That means you get first look and priority access to the events and programs we’ll be rolling out next.
Hope to see you on the boat!
Now, here's what's on our radar this week:
TL;DR:
The Lineup: Party in the Square goes Pink Floyd on Friday (free), the Macedonian Festival runs three days on Onondaga Road, Eastwood Market Day and the Building Bridges festival both land Saturday, and Usher and Chris Brown fill the Dome that night.
Live Music: Champagne Blondes' album release at Funk 'n Waffles and Tim McGraw at the Amp (both Fri), PEAK on the Middle Ages loading dock (Sat), and Sugaray Rayford at The 443 (Sun).
The Tab: The Mixing Bowl in Camillus — a scratch kitchen and bakery where the patty melt comes on house-made sourdough. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
The Spotlight: Mark DiGiorgio's school band rehearsed in the basement of Webster Elementary. He came back 43 years later to buy the students new instruments, and Party in the Square is how he pays for them.
The Build: A week after re-upping with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Crunch owner Howard Dolgon says he wants out of the War Memorial. Onondaga County is weighing an arena that would cost $250 million or more.
The Block: Franklin Square's factories built air-cooled automobiles, the bats Babe Ruth swung, and rocket motors for the Navy. Then it emptied out. Now it's lofts around a fountain park the neighbors rebuilt themselves.
The Scoreboard: The Crunch and Tampa Bay extended their affiliation four more years, through 2029-30.
…and more!
THE LINEUP
Events this week — what's on, where, and how to get in.
Featured Event
Party in the Square — Pink Floyd Tribute Night Clinton Square, 161 W. Genesee Street. Friday, July 31, 5:30–11 PM. Free. Details
In The Flesh, a Pink Floyd tribute act, plays 8 to 11. School of Rock, the music school out of Fayetteville, opens at 5:30. The stage is on the Water Street side of the square, since the roller rink has the fountain end. Three food trucks most weeks. No ticket, no cover, no gate.
All proceeds from the series go to 727 Instrumental, which buys instruments for Syracuse students. The man who books it is this week's Spotlight.
This Week
Onondaga County 4-H Youth Fair — NYS Fairgrounds. Four days of youth project judging and animal shows. Tuesday 10 AM–5 PM, Wednesday 9 AM–8 PM, Thursday and Friday 10 AM–8 PM. Free. Details
Trail Cam Demo — Beaver Lake Nature Center, 6:30–8 PM. Identifying wildlife from the center's trail-camera footage, then a short hike out to reset it. $5 per vehicle. Details
Wednesday, July 29
Sunrise Yoga — Clinton Square, 6:30–7:30 AM. Free, all levels; bring a mat if you have one. Details
Thursday, July 30
Syracuse Food Truck Takeover & Market — CNY Regional Market, 2100 Park Street, 4–8 PM. A rotating lineup of trucks plus local vendors and live music, under cover in the A-Shed. Details
Friday, July 31
Syracuse Macedonian Festival — St. George Macedonian Orthodox Church, 5083 Onondaga Road. Macedonian food and drinks, baked goods, ethnic music and church tours. Friday 4–10 PM, Saturday noon–11 PM, Sunday noon–5 PM. Free admission and parking. Details
Food Truck Fridays — Everson Community Plaza, 11 AM. Trucks, live music and art on the plaza. Details
Dear Evan Hansen — the Everson's Hosmer Auditorium, opens Friday, runs through August 9. The Tony-winning musical about a teenager swept up in a lie he didn't mean to tell, staged by Covey Theater. Tickets
Saturday, August 1
174th Attack Wing Runway 5K — Hancock Field, 8 AM. You run on the runway. Register
Eastwood Market Day — the POMCO lot at James and Grant, across from Walgreens, 9 AM–3 PM. Vintage, antiques, crafts and repurposed goods; more than 50 vendors last year. Details
Building Bridges Community Festival — Syracuse Inner Harbor, 401 Solar Street, 10 AM–2 PM. Free. Thirtieth year for the El-Hindi Center's dialogue program. Details
The Blueberry Jam — Critz Farms, Cazenovia. Pick-your-own blueberries, wagon rides and two stages of music. Gates 11 AM, music noon–9 PM. $12 advance, $20 at the gate, $5 kids 4–12, $10 after 6 PM. Tickets
Top Hits Cabaret — Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 927 Park Avenue, 5:30–7 PM. Harmony Katz & the Katz Meow running Billboard hits and cabaret numbers. Free, with a free-will offering for the basilica's food pantry. Details
Sunday, August 2
Middle Ages Brewing 31st Anniversary — 120 Wilkinson Street, afternoon. The brewery's anniversary party, thirty-one years on Wilkinson. Tickets
Friendship Fest — City Hall Commons Atrium, 201 E. Washington Street, noon–3 PM. Friendship bingo, a bracelet bar and nostalgic snacks; come solo, drop in any time. Free. Reserve a spot
Live Music
Tuesday, July 28
Jimmy Carpenter — The 443 Social Club, 443 Burnet Avenue, doors 5:30, music 7 PM. A two-time Blues Music Award winner on sax, in a 75-seat room. 18+. Tickets
Thursday, July 30
Ally the Piper — Westcott Theater, doors 7 PM. Bagpipe-fronted Celtic rock. Tickets
Ronnie Leigh Jazz Quartet — The 443 Social Club, 443 Burnet Avenue, doors 5:30, music 7 PM. A Syracuse jazz vocalist working the Monk and Ellington songbook. 18+. Tickets
Friday, July 31
Tim McGraw with 49 Winchester — Empower FCU Amphitheater, 490 Restoration Way, 7 PM. Arena country on the Pawn Shop Guitar tour. From $24. Tickets
The Head and the Heart — Beak & Skiff, 2708 Lords Hill Road, LaFayette, 5:30 PM. Indie folk, fifteenth-anniversary tour. Tickets
Champagne Blondes — album release — Funk 'n Waffles, 307 S. Clinton Street, 8 PM. A local band putting out a record. Tickets
Totally 80's Island Night with The Arcade — Paper Mill Island, Baldwinsville, gates 6 PM, music 7. Eighties covers on the outdoor stage. $10, all ages. Tickets
ESP with Kirsten Tegtmeyer — The Fitz, 321 S. Salina Street, 8:30 PM. Modern jazz from a Syracuse group, vocals by Tegtmeyer. Free. Never a cover, no ticket. Details
Saturday, August 1
Usher and Chris Brown — The R&B Tour: Raymond & Brown — JMA Wireless Dome, 900 Irving Avenue, 7 PM. Two R&B headliners sharing one bill. Tickets
PEAK — Loading Dock Series — Middle Ages Brewing, 120 Wilkinson Street, outdoors. Psychedelic indie funk out of Brooklyn. RSVP through the venue; no start time or price posted. Reserve a spot
Jesse Welles — Beak & Skiff, LaFayette, doors 5 PM, music 7 PM. Folk singer-songwriter on his Red Tour, with Steph Strings. Tickets
Dead & Friends / Jerry Garcia Birthday Bash — Westcott Theater, doors 5 PM, show 6. Grateful Dead songs on what would have been Garcia's birthday. $31.56 general admission, $125 with dinner and drinks. Tickets
Sunday, August 2
Sugaray Rayford — The 443 Social Club, 7 PM. Soul-blues. Details
Michael Centore — Beak & Skiff 1911 Tasting Room, 2–4 PM. The tasting room's Sunday afternoon set, cider in hand. Details
Monday, August 3
Tori Amos — In Times Of Dragons — Landmark Theatre, 362 S. Salina Street, 7:30 PM. Piano-driven alt-rock, with Bartees Strange opening. Tickets
Wayne Baker Brooks — The 443 Social Club, 7 PM. Chicago blues. Details
Coming Soon: Mets vs. Columbus (Aug 4–9) — the home stand returns to NBT. Lake Street Dive (Aug 5) and Cole Swindell (Aug 6) at Beak & Skiff. Taco & Margarita Festival at the Inner Harbor (Aug 7). Party in the Square, Party Rock Night (Aug 7). Locals Only Fest at Paper Mill Island (Aug 8).
That’s just the short list
We track way more than we can squeeze into The Lineup. Refer 2 friends to the Club, and the full calendar unlocks:
THE TAB
One food or drink spot a week — what's new, what's worth the trip, and what to order.
A scratch kitchen and bakery on Bennett Road, counter service, breakfast and lunch only. The bakery case is up front. They also run a wholesale operation, baking sourdough, ciabatta, cinnamon rolls and pecan sticky buns for restaurants, cafes and hotels around Syracuse. The bread on your sandwich is the bread other kitchens buy from them.
Enjoying the Patty Melt and outdoor seating at The Mixing Bowl
Order the patty melt, $12.75. Sautéed onions, Swiss and their "Smash" sauce on that house sourdough. The chicken Caesar, $13.50, comes as a wrap or a salad, with grilled chicken, bacon and parmesan, and the dressing is thin and sharp rather than the thick bottled kind. The kids went for the grilled cheese, $9, cheddar and provolone and American on the same sourdough. Everything we ordered hit the spot, and we still haven't tried the breakfast menu.
The bakery case changes daily because everything in it was baked that morning. Some of it is gluten-free, the peanut butter cookie included, and it was delicious.
They're closed Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday 8 AM–6 PM, Friday and Saturday 8 AM–3 PM, Sunday 8 AM–2 PM. Menu
|
THE SPOTLIGHT
A deeper look at one person, place, or project in Syracuse.
The Basement at Webster Elementary
Mark DiGiorgio's school band rehearsed in the basement of Webster Elementary. It was the only room in the building they could use.
He came back nearly 43 years later, this time to buy the students brand new instruments. Webster's music director Bill Sokolowski worked out what they needed, and Charlie Reller put up the grant money.
DiGiorgio runs 727 Instrumental. It gives students in grades 4 through 12 an instrument of their own to keep, plus private lessons, in districts across Onondaga County. The case for it is straightforward: kids enrolled in music and arts programs show higher attendance rates and higher grade point averages.
Mark Digiorgio (right) dropping off instruments for students in need at Grant Middle School (photo from 727 Instrumental)
Party in the Square pays for it. The Friday series in Clinton Square is 727 Instrumental's own event, free to walk into, and all proceeds go back to the foundation.
Two Fridays are left. This one is the Pink Floyd night, and August 7 is Party Rock.
From 727 Instrumental.
THE BUILD
Construction and development around the city, in plain English.
The Crunch Want a New Building
Howard Dolgon just re-upped the Crunch with the Tampa Bay Lightning. A week later, he posted that he wants them out of the War Memorial.
"The time is right for bigger and better things," Dolgon wrote on Wednesday, July 22, describing a state-of-the-art arena that could draw bigger sporting and entertainment events. The Crunch have played at the War Memorial since 1994.
Postcard of the finished War Memorial building early 1950’s (photo from Dennis McGann - Nostalgic Syracuse)
Onondaga County is at the table. County Executive Ryan McMahon put the figure at $250 million or more, and went out of his way to defend the current building: "It's one of the best venues in AHL hockey. So it's not that it's a neglected facility, it's a very strong facility." His condition is tenants: multiple stakeholders signing leases, and enough year-round activity to justify the scale.
"If you're going to spend a quarter of a billion dollars or more," McMahon said, "you have to make the case to the public."
Nobody will say where it would go. Dolgon has a site in mind and won't name it: "Right now, we're not going to share that." No funding source, no timeline. McMahon expects real cost figures, including the taxpayer share, in the coming weeks and months.
Coverage from CNY Central and Spectrum Local News.
THE BLOCK
One neighborhood at a time — what's there, what's changing.
Franklin Square
The blocks around Plum Street and North Franklin Street made things for most of a century.
H.H. Franklin Manufacturing built air-cooled automobiles here from 1902 to 1934, and the neighborhood is named for him. The Joseph G. Kren bat factory at 717 North Clinton turned out the bats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig swung, from the 1920s until Kren died in 1953. Clinton Knitting called itself "the Largest Manufacturer of Ribbed Underwear in the World" starting in 1893. Merrell Soule made a 27-ingredient mincemeat, powdered milk and lemonade, and later Borden ice cream. Easy Washer Plant 4, at Solar and Spencer, shipped washers to all 50 states and 61 countries and built rocket motors for the Navy in the 1950s. Syracuse Electric Light & Power lit 21 arc lamps on North Clinton in 1882, the city's first steam-generated electricity.
Then it went. New Process Gear left for DeWitt in 1961, and by the 1980s most of the district stood empty.
Coming back took 35 years and happened one building at a time. Pyramid's Robert Congel started in 1987, converting the old New Process Gear plant to offices and building the fountain park. MacKnight Architects did the factories: O.M. Edwards became The Lofts at Franklin Square in 2001, 92 apartments with a history exhibit on the ground floor. The Bradley foundry became The Foundry in 2006, its forging hammer still in the lobby. The Merrell Soule building, up since 1904, became lofts in 2022, with Central Rock Gym on the ground floor of the plant that made the powdered milk.
Fountain and beautiful greenery in Franklin Square Park
The center of the neighborhood is Franklin Square Park, just under an acre at Solar and Plum, with a fountain and gardens. Neighbors started rebuilding those gardens in 2020 and the City came in as a partner afterward. The Benjamin Franklin statue arrived with Congel's redevelopment. Different Franklin.
A few spots right around the square:
Freedom of Espresso — 115 Solar Street, in The Lofts.
Boulangerie — 526 Plum Street. A sandwich counter and bakery, weekdays only, 7 AM to 2:30.
Central Rock Gym — 600 North Franklin Street, in the old Merrell-Soule plant.
Play the Game, Read the Story — 689 North Clinton Street. Comics, board games, and tables to play them on.
Metro Home Style — also 689 North Clinton. Cards, home décor and gifts. Closed Sunday and Monday.
Spybaby Bridal and Prom — 426 North Franklin Street.
The Onondaga Creekwalk — 4.8 miles, paved and off-road with a few road crossings. It runs the creek side of the district, south to Armory Square and the Southside, north to the Inner Harbor and Onondaga Lake, where it joins the Empire State Trail.
THE SCOREBOARD
Local sports — what just happened and what's next.
The Crunch and the Tampa Bay Lightning are staying together. The two signed a four-year extension in mid-July that runs the affiliation through 2029-30. Since it started in 2012, 104 players have suited up for both clubs, and Syracuse and Tampa Bay currently hold the longest active streak of both teams clinching the playoffs in the same season — eight straight. Details
The Mets are away all week. Six games at Rochester, nothing at NBT until Tuesday, August 4 against Columbus. They split six games at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, dropping the last one Sunday 3-2. Christopher Morel drove in both Syracuse runs, including a ninth-inning home run that got them within one.
Boeheim's Army is out. La Familia knocked them out of TBT on Sunday, 70-66. TBT shuts the game clock off inside the last four minutes and sets a target score instead, so every game ends on a made basket. La Familia got to 70 first. Three wins short of the $2 million
Every Tuesday, in your inbox and at saltcityclub.com.
Join the club.
— Salt City Club Team