Time Union
By ALAN WECHSLER, Business writer
First published: Friday, July 27, 2007

Caterer to stars opens Ballston Spa eatery

New spot offers upscale food, but in a casual, relaxed surrounding

Success for Kim Klopstock came, as it often does in the catering business, completely at random.

In this case, it was at a party she was catering about 10 years ago. At the time, a guest said she knew David Letterman's aide. Maybe she could get The Lily and The Rose -- Klopstock's business -- a gig serving the famous talk-show host.

Klopstock smiled and assumed the guest was full of bluster -- until about a year later, when she got a call inviting her to cater Letterman's annual staff party for 450 people, held at a skating arena in Manhattan. The celebrity guest list included actors Nathan Lane and Drew Barrymore. A caterer to the stars was born. Since then, Klopstock, a Porter Corners resident, has catered events for singers Tom Petty and Willie Nelson. She once catered an event where Joan Osborne was the private entertainment. She's done yacht events off Nantucket and traveled up and down the East Coast for the private parties of hosts she says she is not allowed to name. Now, Klopstock has added a restaurant for the rest of us.

Walk into Fifty South, just north of Ballston Spa on Route 50, and you'd never guess its owner has spent the last 17 years selling formal service to demanding, high-paying clients. The restaurant looks like a typical local eatery, with basic wood furniture, plastic tabletops and a lime-green paint job.

But the food is more upscale than appearance might predict. The half-pound burger is made from sirloin, and the pan-seared tuna is served in a martini glass.

To Klopstock, the two businesses represent both sides of her life. The high-end serving side was influenced by her growing up in a wealthy household with servants and old-world sensibilities. Then there's her other life, the rebel side, which inspired her to leave the formal world behind to hitchhike around the country, live on a farm in Washington County and, at one point, give birth to her daughter in a van.

"I think it's time to have a house, a place for people to come," said Klopstock, now 47. "I want this to be a casual, relaxed place. I don't want a high-style restaurant."

It's certainly a friendly place. An hourlong interview this week was interrupted by, respectively, Klopstock's mother, one of her two daughters and a couple that has hired Klopstock to cater their wedding. At one point, Klopstock sidled up to a new customer at the bar and jokingly poked fun at his choice of light beer.

And this is only during the soft-opening -- Fifty South officially opens next week.

It's a family affair. Both daughters, Talara, 23, and Sierra, 21, work at the restaurant, while Talara's fiance tends bar. Klopstock's husband, Patrick Lavin, keeps the books. Some of her longtime catering staff now work here too.

Meanwhile, Klopstock manages Lily and Rose from a room in the back. Her mother, Holly Grande, said she is proud of her daughter, whom she let do what she wanted when she was younger.

"I didn't say very much," Grande said. "I let her be what she was going to be. Some of it I liked and some I didn't."

Family has always been part of Klopstock's business. Several years after starting the catering business in 1990, she got an unexpected call from someone at Albany Law School, who wanted her to cater a graduation at Empire State Plaza. Had she ever done a party for 1,000 people?

Of course, Klopstock answered, fibbing through her teeth. Next thing she knew, she was calling friends and relatives, recruiting everyone to serve and help bring supplies to the plaza. A parade of 15 cars, mostly Mercedes, Jaguars and the like, made their way to Albany packed to capacity with flowers and other paraphernalia.

A few years later came the call from Letterman's team. And doors began to open.

Klopstock said her success comes from two things: attention to detail -- such as the polished, all-silver cutlery and the way every course is served with a meal-appropriate wine -- and serving in the old-world style -- individual service, no schmoozing with famous guests (the staff is forbidden from asking for autographs) and a strict policy of not discussing events with outsiders.

Michael Splann and Janeen Bianco of Niskayuna hired Lily and Rose for their fall wedding. On Tuesday, they stopped by the restaurant to say hi. "She's as wholesome as her food is," Splann said.

2128 Doubleday Avenue
Rt. 50, Ballston Spa

884-2926