Cider Belly Closes Downtown Albany Location

Cider Belly Closes Downtown Albany Location

Terry O’Donnell

Some of the best donuts you will ever taste are from an incredible locally owned shop on North Pearl Street.

Cider Belly opened in 2014 as a joint venture between brother and sister Andy & Jennifer Novak. They’ve been in their downtown location close to ten years and even opened a second shop in Colonie last year.

Unfortunately, the amount of people continuing to work from home after the pandemic has taken its toll on their downtown location. The Times Union reports a note on the door of the shop reads:

We’ve been fighting to keep our downtown shop open in hopes people will find their way back to the office. Sadly, we just can’t afford to continue waiting. Times have changed and we have to change too. The last day of business, for now, was this past Saturday.

The owners say sales are only at 70% of pre-pandemic levels at best. Since many have still not returned to the office, traffic to the store is down significantly.

The good news is, Cider Belly is not shutting down entirely. The Albany location will still serve as a kitchen to prepare sweets for its location at 53 Fuller Rd in Colonie. Hours at that shop will actually be expanding to 7am-4pm weekdays and 8am-1pm on weekends.

The owners are hoping this move is only temporary and traffic in Albany will eventually pick back up.

feature photo: pixabay

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