The company behind Jack's Oyster House has lost most of its senior management team since August, temporarily shuttered two of its Albany restaurants, and watched more than 20 employees walk out the door since a round of layoffs in July. NeoVista Hospitality, which once envisioned as many as eight restaurant concepts and brands spread across downtown Albany, is now navigating a staffing crisis that has quietly reshaped its ambitions.
According to the Times Union, NeoVista has lost food and beverage operation manager Arnole Santos, corporate beverage director Josh Turo, executive catering chef Joe Schulte, and executive pastry chef Starla Bradshaw since August. A company representative told the paper that the losses amounted to most of NeoVista's senior management. Some managers left voluntarily, the paper reported, while others were fired or told their positions had been eliminated.
Among the highest-profile departures was John Hwang, who abruptly resigned from his role at the company in June. Nick Parker, who had served as NeoVista's corporate culinary director, has since left to join a company founded by Hwang in the same role. The turnover has rippled down through the ranks too: Bradshaw's pastry staff lost two members around early October, and Santos lost a sibling who had also worked for the company around the same time.
Two Basement Restaurants Go Dark
Izakaya Kinko and The Vault Japanese Chophouse, the twin Japanese concepts tucked into the basement of 60 State St., closed temporarily during the last week of October. NeoVista has not publicly announced the closures, and the company's business social media pages for 60 and 66 State St. have gone untouched since late September. Jack's own Facebook page, by contrast, has posted six times in six weeks.
Patrick Toomey, NeoVista's director of business development and the company's designated spokesman for founder and CEO Kevin Yang, said the company hopes to reopen both basement venues by the end of this week. Toomey said NeoVista is considering adding sushi to Izakaya Kinko's small-plates menu, and is converting The Vault's steakhouse concept into a bar and lounge with a small-plates menu of its own. The Vault had opened only in May alongside Izakaya Kinko.
Despite the closures, both restaurants showed signs of activity Monday: Izakaya Kinko was listed as available for Grubhub orders, and The Vault was accepting OpenTable reservations. Toomey said NeoVista's staffing and business model across its multiple Albany buildings had become financially untenable, prompting the company to cut staffing after a review.
A Deli Delayed, a Building Untouched
NeoVista's broader footprint in Albany has also stalled. The five-story building the company bought on James Street in early 2025, where it had planned a supermarket, daycare and children's indoor playground, remains largely untouched. Space the company leased at 41 State St. for a planned New York City-style Jewish deli called Jack's Deli is still mid-renovation, and the concept has instead been condensed to a 12-item lunch menu served at Cafe 66.
Construction delays pushed the openings at 60 and 66 State St. to the start of summer, a lag that contributed to the financial strain the company has been under, alongside slow business. NeoVista revived the Jack's Oyster House brand late in 2025 and then opened four additional restaurant concepts over the following seven months — an expansion pace that outstripped what the business could apparently sustain.
Consultant Brought In to Steady the Ship
Facing mounting numbers that, in his words, did not make sense at the time, NeoVista hired restaurant consultant Robb Finn to advise on staffing, financial and conceptual challenges. Finn owns Saint Florian in Hudson, New York, and trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York City before interning with chef and restaurateur Zak Pelaccio, who later introduced him to Hudson through the restaurant Fish & Game. Finn opened Saint Florian after working in Colombia and the Pacific Northwest, and per Toomey, has been advising Yang directly on changes at NeoVista.
Some signs point to stabilization at the flagship restaurant, at least. Four front-of-house employees who had worked in Saratoga over the summer have returned to Jack's Oyster House, and Craig Holmes, who formerly worked at the Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing, was named general manager there. Jack's Oyster House, at 42 State St., is the one Albany property NeoVista owns outright; Cafe 66, at 66 State St., and the basement Japanese concepts are all in leased space, along with a banquet facility on the first floor of 60 State St.
The company temporarily closed two restaurants amid the financial losses, part of a pattern that began with layoffs over the summer. Yang had attributed that earlier round of cuts, which hit about 15% of NeoVista's local workforce, to a seasonal slowdown, according to Times Union. Despite the turmoil, Toomey said Yang remains committed to his Albany investment and will stay involved in the company's operations going forward.
