Franklin's Tower

Franklin's Tower Restaurant, named for a Grateful Dead song, is the 4-month-old successor to the Plaza Grill, an Albany business that for 71 years occupied the circa-1820 Broadway building. Franklin's Tower is positioning itself in downtown Albany as the "Place to Be" for cocktails, excellent food and live music - eclectic stuff, not just the Grateful Dead. Lunch and dinner patrons can dine in dark-mahogany booths on the first floor or trek up steep stairs to a comfortable, red-walled dining room that reputedly once was a hangout for the likes of Babe Ruth and Dan O'Connell, among other athletes and politicians. Up on the cozy third floor, there's a bar, plush love seats and a view of University Plaza to attract private parties or overflow diners. By the way, you may wonder if the Grateful Dead ever played ``Franklin's Tower'' in Albany. Onetime Dead member Robert Hunter who wrote the song played it at the Palace Theatre back in '97. Nice tidbit for your dinner conversation