By Andrea Harwood Palmer
The Saratoga-based advertising agency Fingerpaint has secured an investment partner, Knox Lane, a private equity firm in San Francisco.
“Even with everything going on in 2020, it was a great year for us,” said Beth Beck, head of the company’s Saratoga Springs office. “It was a year of continued growth.”
She said company founder Ed Mitzen “made the decision to find an investment partner. Not someone to be part of the day-to-day operations, but someone to act as an investment partner,” said Beck. “Over the last part of 2020, Ed spoke with over 30 different investment groups. At the close of the year, he had decided to move forward with our partnership with Knox Lane.”
Mitzen was attracted to Knox Lane’s commitment to make sure there are women in leadership positions.
The investment from Knox Lane is strictly about helping Fingerpaint achieve continued growth, said Beck. Mitzen will maintain control of the company while Knox Lane will provide capital for continued growth capacity within the ad agency, as well as acquisitions.
‘Simply Food’ In Wilton Offers Breakfast, Lunches And Occasional Takeout Dinners
By Jill Nagy
During her nine years operating the Five Points Market and Deli in Saratoga Springs, Maura Pulver often wished she could do “just food” and not worry about the other obligations of operating a neighborhood market.
Now, she has a new operation called Simply Food at 666 Route 9 in Wilton. It’s not really a restaurant, she said, but rather “kind of like a family shop.”
She serves breakfast sandwiches, lunches and, on Tuesday nights, home cooked takeout dinners. The lunch business, she said, has been very good. There are many new stores and offices in the neighborhood and, so far, not many options for those people to buy lunch.
Her breakfast sandwiches are very popular, she said, and dinners sell out most Tuesdays. So much so, she is thinking of adding another takeout night.
Among her breakfast sandwiches selections is the Blueberry Bomb, on grilled and buttered blueberry bread, loaded with cheddar cheese, two eggs, sausage and maple syrup. Another selection, the “horseman breakfast,” consists of two eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, American cheese, and hash brown potatoes on a hard roll.
Grant Cottage, Where President Completed Memoirs, Made National Historic Landmark
Courtesy NYS Parks and Recreation
The Grant Cottage state historic site, a 19th century residence where U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant completed his memoirs shortly before his death, was named a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.
Acquired by State Parks in 1957 as a State Historic Site, the 43-acre Saratoga County property includes a two-story residence where Grant, diagnosed with terminal throat cancer, went to complete his memoirs for six weeks immediately prior to his death in July 1885.
“This well-deserved federal designation brings more public awareness to the important role this place played in the life of one of our most famous national leaders,” said State Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid. “State Parks is grateful for the years of work invested in obtaining this designation by our Regional Commissioners and the Friends of Ulysses S. Grant Cottage that operates and cares for this site.”