Rachel’s Spice Cafe to close

Chronicle Staff Writer Zander Frost writes: Rachel Dutra, who operates Rachel’s Spice Company & Cafe on Warren Street in Glens Falls with her husband Dave, announced on Facebook Live that she will close the cafe as of June 25.

She said they plan to focus on their seasonal businesses in Lake George, and in the off-season she will become the “spice and tea lady,” with a Youtube channel and online store.

“There’s no need for a eulogy here,” she said. “In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Somebody gets to live…That’s me.”

Ms. Dutra said, “I could sit here and I could tell you that it’s the cost of goods, it’s the Covid crisis that we, I think, kind-a made it through…

“I could tell you that it’s the economic crisis that we’re in right now; I’m about to go put gas in my little tiny car, it’s going to cost me about 80 dollars.”

“I can tell you that business has declined, because it has, because nobody has any money right now because everything costs so much.

“But in reality, it’s just me. I can’t pour from an empty cup. And my cup has run out. I’ve been doing restaurants for 16 years and I just don’t have it in me anymore. And you guys deserve better.”

Ms. Dutra said she plans to convert the cafe kitchen into a “commissary kitchen” to “help people when they’re just getting started.”

Rachael Ray. the Lake George native who is host of the nationally syndicated Rachael Ray Show, gave Rachel’s Spice huge boosts in Internet sales in the past half-year touting Rachel’s “loaded salt and pepper” and other products. (Chronicle, Jan. 28, 2022.)’

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