Schroon Lake Fish & Game Club Annual Chicken and Lobster Bake

Schroon Lake Fish & Game Club
Hoffman Road, just east of the Adirondack Northway (87)

The Schroon Lake Fish & Game Club will host their annual end of summer chicken and lobster bake next Saturday, September 8. The festivities start at noon. Tickets are on sale at the club, Flanagan's, the Timberwolf, Black Bear in Pottersville, or at Schroon Lake Liquors.   

The Schroon Lake Fish and Game Club Chicken Crew

Your's truly and the Bullet Pond Boys will be manning the "firehouse" chicken grills, applying our famous BBQ rub and secret sauce.  Stop over and say hello!

Dana and Dan try not to fall in the lobster cooker. 

The lobster crew will be trying to remember how to boil water and wait for the lobsters to turn red.  That's really hard so try not to interrupt them while they're cooking.  

Planning a Day at Saratoga Track

The "Greeter" at Siro's Restaurant

Dining, parking, and wagering. 
The complete guide to dealing with the crowd. Or not. 

We made our annual pilgrimage to the track last Friday, a summer ritual steeped in tradition. It is the only day of the year when I will visit a racetrack, or place a bet. I am not a serious "student of the ponies", but after thirty years of practice, I do know what an exacta is, and even how to calculate the cost of "boxing" said exacta. I have a betting routine that helps assure I enjoy the day.  I combine the favorite with the long shot in an exacta, which requires both horses to finish win / place (first and second). To me there is no fun in just betting the favorite and winning your money back. On Friday I bet the first eight races before leaving for our dinner reservation (more on this later), and I went eight for eight. I lost every race. Since I bet $10 a race, the day cost me $80. (This is also an annual ritual.) Mary, on the other hand, has no such routine, no system or budget of any kind, and won enough to pay for dinner.  Go figure.
Planning a day at the track presents huge issues for me because I abhor crowds, absolutely hate sitting in traffic, looking for parking, and most of all - eating volume produced "fair food". You can see the problem. If you share these aversions, you may be interested in reading about our routine.  

Il Gallo Giallo Wine Bar, New Paltz

Il Gallo Giallo
36 Main St., New Paltz, NY 12561

845-255-3636
Open for Dinner / 7 days
Restaurant's Facebook Page


Il Gallo Giallo (the Yellow Rooster) opened this month in the space formerly occupied by 36 Main. Our galloping gourmands stopped in last Wednesday for dinner. Darrin Siegfried, the new owner, is a former Executive Chef who moved to the front of the house while working in management at Windows on the World. He is also Past President of the Sommelier Society of America, and the wine list will no doubt reflect that expertise as he continues to expand the offerings.  The restaurant just had their liquor license approved last week. The current wine list, as good as it is, is very much a work in progress.
We were thrilled to see our old friend Theresa Fall behind the bar. Chef Ryan McClintock has the reins in the kitchen with sous chef Luke Roberti, all almuni of 36 Main.
The new menu appealed very much to our Wednesday night gang, with a large selection of "small plate" offerings which allowed us to share. We overdid our selections, and I'm pretty sure that between the four of us we sampled most of the menu offerings.

Henry's at The Farm - Tasting Notes / New Chef

Buttermilk Farms Inn and Spa

220 North Road, Milton, NY
Reservations: 845-795-1500
www.henrysatbuttermilk.com

Dinner Wednesday through Sunday
Lunch Friday & Saturday
Sunday Brunch

Big doings at Henry's at the Farm, formerly known as Henry's Farm to Table. The restaurant's operation  has been turned over to Chad Greer and his wife Tammy Ogletree, who were the dynamic team that ran the heralded Beso in New Paltz for six years. Chef Greer has already put his stamp on the new menu, and we stopped in last week to sample the goodies. Many of the fruits, vegetables and herbs are grown on site at the restaurant's own Millstone Farm, or up the road at Hepworth Farm. Local is the buzzword here, and other local purveyors were much in evidence last week, including cheeses from Coach Farm, and breads from the wheat wizard, Don Lewis, at Wild Hive Bakery in Salt Point.  
If you do stop in please let our other readers know about your visit in the comments section.

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Ideas? Recommendations? Email me at NorthCountryJoe@gmail.com 

Turtle Island Cafe, Willsboro, NY

Turtle Island Cafe
3790 Main Street, Willsboro, NY 

518-963-7417
Website

Lunch: Friday though Sunday
Dinner: Thursday through Monday


Recently I received emails from two different readers suggesting a visit to the Turtle Island Cafe in Willsboro. (#HatTip to Jack and Mike. Many thanks!) The restaurant's website piqued our interest, offering hints of a kitchen committed to area farms, a most creative menu, and a serious wine list to boot.  We took a detour from Blue Mountain Lake after last weekend's Rustic Antique Show at the Adirondack Museum, and headed for Lake Champlain.
The restaurant is on Main Street, just past the bridge over the Boquet. It is an unassuming building, with a cluster of umbrella'd tables in front. Given the threatening weather we opted to eat inside. The entrance leads immediately into the dining room, packed cheek by jowl with tables. We grabbed a booth near the front window.

Le Bistro du Lac, Westport, NY

Le Bistro at the Westport Yacht Club
44 Old Arsenal Road, Westport, NY
Reservations: 518-962-8777

www.bistrodulac.com

Open for dinner / mid-May through mid-September



Le Bistro du Lac's seasonal opening each summer is an eagerly anticipated Adirondack event. Like farmer's markets and county fairs, many of our favorite Adirondack dining destinations are only open for a few months - appearing briefly, like Brigadoon, each year. For us a trip to Bistro du Lac is almost always accompanied by a show at the nearby Depot Theater, another wonderful seasonal treat.
Last Sunday we attended the matinee performance of The Marvelous Wonderettes, which let out at 4 PM. Our dinner reservations were not untill 5:30, so we stopped at the Westport Country Club for a glass of wine in the lounge overlooking the 18th green, before driving down the road to the marina for dinner. (Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.)

The Roundhouse at Beacon Falls ~ Swift Restaurant, Beacon, NY

Swift's dining room overlooks Beacon Falls on Fishkill Creek.

The Roundhouse at Beacon Falls
Swift Restaurant
2 East Main St., Beacon, NY 12508
Reservations: 845-765-8369
Dinner: Wednesday through Sunday


Restaurant Website



The Roundhouse at Beacon Falls is perched on the banks of the Fishkill Creek, overlooking Beacon Falls. The restoration of the historic complex of buildings is still a work in progress, with much of the space in the larger buildings still months away from completion. The inn and banquet facility are scheduled to open this fall. The main dining room - Swift Restaurant - opened last week, and we stopped in last night for dinner.  No reputable reviewer would visit a restaurant in its first month of operation, but thankfully we are not really reviewers, and certainly not reputable.