Dave Gardell stood outside 148 Clinton Street on Tuesday, scissors in hand, a ribbon stretched across the doorway of a bar that didn’t exist six months ago. Behind him, 22 draft lines waited to pour. Around the corner, the marquee of the storied Proctors theatre glowed over Schenectady’s State Street. For the first time in nearly three decades, The Ruck had an address outside of Troy.
The Ruck², pronounced “The Ruck Squared,” held its grand opening and ribbon cutting on July 1, marking the first expansion in the craft beer bar’s 28-year history.
The new location takes over the former Unbeetable vegan bar and arcade space, which closed in October 2025.
“The Ruck has been my passion and my love for most of my adult life,” Gardell said. “Opening another Ruck is not something I’ve decided to do on a whim, but after looking at this particular location, my connection to Schenectady through the community college’s brewing program, and welcoming support here, I couldn’t resist.”
The original Ruck opened in 1998 at 104 Third Street in Troy as Sutters Mill & Mining Co. before taking on its current name. Gardell, a Rochester native who moved to the Capital Region to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, started working there as a bouncer. He moved behind the bar, learned the taps and the regulars, and by late 2004 he’d bought the place outright.
What followed was a slow, deliberate build. Gardell turned The Ruck into one of the region’s most respected craft beer destinations, running 32 rotating drafts alongside a scratch-made food menu anchored by award-winning chicken wings. The bar earned write-ups in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, rare national attention for a side-street pub in downtown Troy.
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The Schenectady location stretches across 4,000 square feet, nearly twice the size of the original Troy bar. It will feature the same menu — salads, sandwiches, wraps, burgers, nachos, wings — and will retain a number of arcade games carried over from the Unbeetable era.
The proximity to Proctors is no accident.
The Ruck’s Troy location has long served as a pre- and post-show stop for concertgoers headed to Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. Gardell appears to be betting the same formula works on Clinton Street.
But the formula in Schenectady now extends well past curtain call.
Proctors has anchored downtown since 1926, and in recent years the Collaborative has worked deliberately to ensure that anchor lifts more than its own box office.
Its Ambassador Program, launched in 2009 with the Schenectady City Mission, put residents transitioning out of homelessness and substance abuse to work as trained hospitality staff on downtown streets — greeting patrons, giving directions, connecting visitors to restaurants and parking. The program has since expanded to Albany and Saratoga Springs venues. Proctors reports a $45 million annual economic impact across the Capital Region, and CEO Philip Morris has described the surrounding restaurants as part of an “ecosystem around entertaining.”
That ecosystem has filled in steadily. The Mallozzi family opened Johnny’s on State Street in 2013 — directly across from Proctors, and among the first private dining investments in the downtown corridor. Rivers Casino followed in 2017, a $330 million development on the former ALCO site at Mohawk Harbor that brought a gaming floor, hotel, event center and year-round entertainment lounge to the waterfront. Frog Alley Brewing opened its taproom at 108 State Street in 2019, anchoring the Mill Lane Artisan District with a production brewery named for Schenectady’s 1903 baseball team.
Last August, the $55 million M&T Bank Center opened at Mohawk Harbor with a ribbon cutting attended by Gov. Kathy Hochul, giving Union College hockey a new home and the city a 3,600-capacity concert and event venue.
None of it happened overnight.
Downtown Schenectady has been classified as a food desert for more than 20 years — the last supermarket left in 2001. The Electric City Community Grocery, a co-op more than a decade in the making, is now under construction inside the long-vacant Wedgeway Building on State Street. The project, backed by more than 1,400 member-owners and a $2 million state investment secured by Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, plans to open by late 2026. If it does, residents will be able to walk to a grocery store on State Street for the first time in a quarter century.
Gardell’s second bar lands in the middle of that arc — not at the beginning and not at the end. He is not the first operator to bet on downtown Schenectady, and he won’t be the last. But 28 years in one location tends to sharpen a person’s instincts about where people want to gather. On Clinton Street, just around the corner from the marquee, he seems to like what he sees.
“We thank Dave and his team for seeing the opportunity to grow with Schenectady,” said Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy, calling the expansion good news for downtown.
Ray Gillen, chairman of the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority, said the bar’s reputation preceded it.
“The Ruck is a destination in Troy and we welcome them to downtown Schenectady,” Gillen said.
—Michael
