VAN DYCK HITS THE RIGHT NOTES AS IT TRIES TO LIVE UP TO THE PAST.(ARTS)

Byline: WILLIAM M. DOWD Associate Editor

SCHENECTADY -- The gradual demise and eventual shuttering of The Van Dyck back in the fall of 1994 was cause for great wailing and gnashing of teeth on several levels.

It meant the end of a longtime bastion of live jazz, and one of the city's few alternatives to a seemingly unending string of Italian restaurants. Nothing wrong, of course, with that cuisine, but one does long for variety.

So it was with some measure of cautious rejoicing that a retooled and modernized operation debuted last March as The Van Dyck Restaurant & Brewery -- after a ton of planning and about $2 million dollars invested.

The idea was to try taking advantage of rising interest in brew pub-centered destination spots -- those places you can spend an entire evening, but find a few different places to sit as you had a meal, a drink and were entertained. The path had already been cleared locally by the Troy Pub & Brewery, Malt River at the Latham Circle Mall, the Big House Brewing Co. in Albany and the Original Saratoga …