Have you been to Mint? They’re now entering their sixth month in business on Warren Street, so if you haven’t been - consider this a sign to make your reservation! We caught up with owner Johanna Geldern to hear more about the how she got into the restaurant business (it all started with a fortune cookie!), what to expect from their menu, and what’s coming up next for Mint (hint: expanded hours!)…
The Bar Room at Mint
First, tell us a bit about yourself and your background!
I received my Masters in Education from the College of Saint Rose and had a career in teaching elementary school (regular and special education) for over 16 years. As the standardized testing pressures got more intense from states and districts, the gap between my philosophical beliefs and the changes to the classroom structure necessary to meet standardized testing goals motivated me to make a change. I sold a property and began searching for a small business that I could purchase and run with the goal of completely changing my career and becoming an independent business owner. My girls (Katriel and Cagney Houlihan) and I had always daydreamed about running a bed and breakfast or owning a small café.
The online search for purchasing a business lasted well over a year, and during that time one of my friends owned a beachfront restaurant and had a vacant shop space available for a summer beach snack bar. It was sitting vacant but already had all of the necessary approvals to open, so I agreed to take on this project and created the menu, purchased the equipment and created the signage and theme. With her guidance and my hard work, we were able to open in about a month and I ran a very successful beach snack bar business for that season. This was equivalent to getting a Masters degree in running a small business in my mind.
Mint co-owner (and Johanna’s daughter), Katriel Houlihan
At the same time, my daughter‘s family moved home to New York from Florida and on a trip to see them in February, I discovered a café in Greenwich called Dish Bistro and I absolutely fell in love with the size, the location, the charm, and the healthy vibe of the menu. I literally said to my family and friends, “If I ever had a restaurant business, it would be just like this.” Months went by of searching and in August, I found Dish Bistro for sale online under my price range, and immediately began dialogue with the owners. We went back-and-forth with financials and logistics for a month and it was time for me to make a decision: was I going to pack up my entire life, sell my car and fly to New York to purchase this restaurant business?
I was out to lunch in Florida with my friend when the owner of Dish Bistro, Susan, called me. I hung up with her and I told my friend about the idea and potential plan of purchasing Dish and moving back to NY, and when I opened my fortune cookie after lunch it said “DISH” on one side and when I flipped it over, it said “Go for your dreams ~start with the spring roll” on the other side. My decision was made. At the time I had been studying the law of attraction and was looking for signs and I took this as a solid sign from the universe directing me to go for my dreams even though it was scary — terrifying, in fact!
I still have the fortune cookie. I like to think that my story will hopefully inspire others to listen to their intuition and follow their dreams, and to not allow fear to hold us back from making changes to pursue what excites us.
Once I made the commitment, everything seemed to fall into place.
How did Mint come to be?
We started in Greenwich as Dish Bistro in the fall of 2014, and I rebranded to Sweet Beet Bistro in April of 2015. My chef was passionate about local farms and we decided to create a “farm to table” theme there and offer homemade scratch kitchen food using high quality local farms. We wanted to use ingredients which were grown, raised, and cultivated with positive loving energy, and we wanted to honor those artisans. We wanted to prepare and serve the food with the greatest energy of love and positivity to our customers. Our desire was to create an atmosphere and experience which would create great memories and keep patrons returning.
We closed the doors to Sweet Beet Bistro after Covid hit in 2020, and it seemed like the perfect time to transition to a new location with more foot traffic. We already had a strong support system of loyal customers from this area that traveled to our Greenwich location, so that was a selling point as well.
We had been working with Peter Hoffman on a downtown space to lease. When this space came up, he asked us (my daughter Kate Houlihan and I) to come over immediately and take a look. He wanted to know if we could see its potential and his vision for our business in that location. We could see it instantly, and with great enthusiasm we told him we were 100% in!
Our philosophy of using the highest quality organic and most lovingly raised local foods is still at the heart of Mint!
The Dining Room at Mint
Why Glens Falls?
We see tremendous potential in this city! The events with food and celebrations are creative. The Glens Falls Collaborative and other groups are really committed to moving the city forward. It’s so important to create a business that is desired and will be embraced and nurtured by the community, and we feel this is a mutually beneficial partnership which we are thrilled to be part of.
What inspired the name?
We were originally going to name the new restaurant business Tarragon and Time. But after polling some friends and family, it wasn’t communicating the right vibe, so we went back to the drawing board. On a hike with my daughter Kate, she turned to me and said, “What about Mint?”. We thought about it and it had great connotations, so we decided to have a longer tagline (Inspired Plates and Crafted Potions) and a shorter easy to remember name - Mint!
Tell us about your menu! What can people expect to see?
Imagine Paris meets Brooklyn meets San Diego!
Our food is eclectic and creative, using only the highest quality products. We taste test as a group and tweak recipes as a staff. It’s vey important that our sauces, dressings, and all of our items really, are balanced in texture, flavor and appearance.
We have unique appetizers including cheese boards and seafood cakes. Our proteins are grass fed meats, local pastured products and wild caught seafood. As for customer favorites, the pizza is at the top of the list, along with our grass fed burger and vegan beet burger. We use 30+ local companies like Saratoga Olive Oil, Saratoga Gluten Free, Vermont Fresh Pasta, and Rock Hill Bake House, to name a few. We work with a local farm for edible flowers on our plating. The presentation is meant to be visually pleasing as well as good for you and delicious.
We offer a solid variety for special eaters with vegan options, gluten free options.
The drink menu includes craft cocktails, local and international wines, and several spirits and beer from local distilleries and breweries. We use all small batch local distilleries for our liquors, and our beer is all from within 60 miles of Glens Falls. We don’t use any large mass production wine at all — it’s all organic biodynamically farmed or sustainably farmed. You’ll probably notice you won’t get a headache after drinking wine here! We also craft our own elixirs with syrups using fresh herbs and delicious ingredients for cocktails — both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
Patio seating at Mint
Tell us about the space!
We have three main areas: a bar room, dining room, and covered garden patio. It’s nice to have the three separate spaces to allow for private events and just general versatility.
The building owner, Peter Hoffman, collects antiques and is very skilled at mixing the old with the new. Everything here is modernized and updated, but layered with antiques. For example, the globe lights are antiques from Germany. They add such an immediate sense of charm and history. The frosted glass by the front door is an antique — irreplaceable and one of a kind. The end gates on the patio came from a vineyard in Italy, and they bookend the space perfectly. The banquettes in the bar room were salvaged from the Capitol Building in Albany when they were renovating the Governor’s restaurant there. We discovered they’re from 1920, so many governors have sat on them when having their business meetings there, which is pretty unique!
The patio has been a big hit this season, especially when we have live music. We’re hoping to install a bi-fold door from the patio into our dining room, so that when we do have a musician here, the sound and experience can carry inside as well.
What's coming up next for Mint?
We’re hoping to start offering lunch by the end of September! We also hope to open seven days a week, as right now we’re closed Mondays. Also coming up - a to go menu! Lots of great things to come.
Most immediately, we’re looking forward to launching our fall menu around September 20 - stay tuned!
