North Country & Hudson Valley Rambler

A Tavola ~ New Paltz, NY

2012-02-28T20:17:00.000-05:00

A Tavola Trattoria
46 Main Street
New Paltz, NY 12561
Reservations: 845-255-1426
Serving Dinner from 5:30 PM ~ Thursday through Monday
Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Website

You know you are in the right place when your bartender is sporting a tattoo of a knife and a fork, along with one of a Bordeaux wine glass for good measure. These people are serious about food. I'm judging not just by the tattoos, but by the torrent of local buzz about the new husband and wife team of Nathan and Bonnie Snow, who are serving up authentic rustic Italian home-style meals at their new restaurant here in New Paltz. The restaurant's name, and the sign that greets you in the bar, tells the story well - "Tutti a Tavola!" or "Everyone ~ At the table!"; mom's call to dinner in every Italian household. Mangia!

The owners both earned their culinary spurs in a number of New York's finer kitchens, before opening up a place of their own. Nathan has primary kitchen duty, with Bonnie holding court out front, but I am told that she gets the credit for the restaurant's home made breads and desserts.
The space that houses New Paltz's new favorite destination is very homey too. The bar still sits at the rear entrance, with little changed since it welcomed diners to Beso, and the Loft, and Loup Garou so many years ago. The dining room and the loft upstairs are as comfortable as your mom's kitchen with well weathered "farm tables" scattered about and spaced with enough room to not crowd your neighbors.
We had arrived early for our 6 PM reservation, and waited for our table-mates at the bar. Our new favorite bartender Derek (he of the foodie tattoos) was showing off his latest syrup concoctions, one a blend of pistachio and cardamom. He makes these up for sodas and cocktails, and some also end up flavoring Bonnie's house made ice creams on the dessert menu. I asked him to make me a pistachio soda and I have to say the first thing I thought of when I tasted it was that it would have made a good ice cream. Go figure.
We perused the wine list while we were waiting and sampled a glass of chardonnay - a Castel Venus from Trapani in western Sicily, available by the glass at $10 or $38 per bottle. The wine list was modest in scope and modest in pricing, with a dozen decent selections of Italian reds. A Guidobono Barbera D'Alba ($42) from Piedmont would have been my usual selection, but I saw a wine I had not tried that looked interesting.
We tried the Santa Caterina Togiana Rosso Riserva, a meritage style blend of local grapes - Caniolo, once the primary grape of Tuscany, along with the grape that replaced it in popularity, Sangiovese, blended with an interloper - Cabernet Sauvignon. It was actually the most expensive wine on the list at $65 (marked up about 3/1), but we were glad we tried it.
The menu at A Tavola represents the owners' efforts to work with locally grown produce and meats and cheeses from local purveyors. The dozen listings offer house made pastas and charcuterie, with bread and pastries all baked on premise. The dishes are classic home-style offerings like gnocchi and pappardella, chicken under a brick, garlic and cannellini soup ($9), and last Sunday, an antipasti of crostini with whipped ricotta and honey, a beet salad and a farro salad. They all looked so good we ordered as many appetizers as we could without embarrassing ourselves, including one "for the table". LOL.
I started with the house specialty - grilled octopus. I cannot count how many people have told me about this dish. People have come up to me on the street to ask me if I have been to A Tavola and have I tried it - so it was with no small measure of high expectations that I ordered it. To me grilled octopus is the quintessential dish of classic rustic Italian (or Spanish) cuisine. I look forward to ordering it whenever it is on the menu at Aroma Osteria in Wappingers, or Mercado in Red Hook, two kitchens that do a spectacular job with it. Here the chef pairs a half dozen impossibly tender slices of braised imported Portuguese octopus with a melange of garbanzo bean and savory grilled red peppers sauteed with a few precious Ligurian Taggia olives. It was as good as advertised, and better. You really do need to try this.
A plate of crispy pork belly confit ($12) was just as tasty, glazed with an apple cider reduction and plated with some arugula and course ground mustard. Another evening special was the aforementioned crostini, I think made with browned slices of some of Bonnie's home made bread - a salt crusted country style white - which was spread with a honeyed whipped ricotta and sprinkled with flecks of rosemary. It reminded me of the classic desert of chestnut honeyed ricotta, but this was even better, paired with the beets and the farro - a rustic wheat salad. It was absolutely fantastic.
I had a hard time not ordering the chicken "under a brick" ($23) from the regular menu for my entree, because I really wanted to compare it to Gigi Trattoria's. I was dissuaded from ordering that because I couldn't pass up one of the evening specials - a platter of monk fish balls - "polpette" - served over a puddle of savory lentils. I was glad I ordered it, and I also have an excuse to go back very soon - to order the chicken. The hit of the evening was the pappardelle bolognese, available as an entree for $25 or a half portion for $13. This bolognese was silky smooth (chicken liver?), and obviously had been on the stove developing flavor since last Thursday. It was wonderful. The roast duckling breast, which also garnered rave reviews, was served a perfectly pink medium rare, with a confitted leg, some braised kale, and a sweet potato side. Another classic "Cucina Rustica" dish was the big bowl of braised tripe that my table-mate, Doc, ordered, served in a garlicky tomato base. Wonderful stuff.
I cannot tell you the last time I was this blown away by a new restaurant. The menu is admittedly in the style of cooking that I prefer to just about anything else, but that is only the beginning of the story here. The kitchen produces show stopping - and conversation stopping - platters of what is really just ordinary "rustic comfort food". It is just so extraordinary that you forget that is what you are eating.
That "extra ingredient" is more ephemeral. It is that little extra something that turns "good" restaurants into "favorite" restaurants. It is some combination of great food, or really comfortable space, or a favorite dish, bartender, or waitress, or in this case I think something even more special - any or all of the above, combined with the excitement and energy and passion and pride of a young (and extraordinarily talented) couple with their first restaurant. And it doesn't get any better than that. Let's all enjoy it while we can.

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Fire and Ice at the Schroon Lake Fishing Derby

2012-02-25T11:52:00.000-05:00

Next weekend - on March 3rd and 4th, the Schroon Lake Fish & Game Club will host their annual Ice Fishing Derby. In years past as many as 700 anglers have participated. It is quite the party, with groups of friends congregating around holes in the ice, hoping to reel in a prize winning lake trout or salmon, or perch, or pickerel or pike. Hundreds of dollars are awarded to winners in each category, but most people show up for the camaraderie, and a good time out on the ice.

The local bars and restaurants look forward to the event each year, because ice fisherman (and the very rare, but extremely popular ice-fisher-ladies) seem to be better than average drinkers. Go figure. Participants start to show up in town on Friday evening, and by 7 PM the bar stools at Flanagan's and the Timberwolf Pub are in very short supply.

The Bullet Pond Boyz

At the Fish and Game Club, my Bullet Pond Crew mans the kitchen, and the club hosts a pasta dinner on Saturday night. For a whopping $10 diners get a bowl of penne pasta tossed with my home made bolognese sauce, fresh baked bread and a tossed salad.

We also cook up a pot of chili for sale on Sunday. I would tell you this is the only reason to come to town next weekend, but I would be fibbing. We are of course very proud of what we do (and the pasta dinner is a fund raiser for the club), but when the boys and I are done cooking, we whip off our aprons and rush down to Witherbee's Carriage House.

Witherbee's Annual Bayou Bob Crawfish Boil

Each year, on the weekend of the Ice Fishing Derby, Witherbee's cooks up a hundred pounds or better of Louisiana crawfish boil. The real deal - fiery, Cajun style, lip burning, esophagus scorching, mud bugs. The dish comes as a heaping mound of pincers and tails, taters and corn on the cob, and anduille sausage, in a bubbly cayenne and Old Bay infused tomato broth that tips the Scoville scale somewhere between scotch bonnets and Hades. Beer helps. But not much.

The origins of this dish are credited to one Bayou Bob, one (obviously) transplanted local who passed away a few years back. He was noted for a prodigious appetite in all things, a penchant for playing chess, and his crawfish boil. In years past Witherbee's owners, Patty and Bill Christian, would serve it out on the lake during the tournament, and local lore is that they did not bring an auger to drill their fishing holes. They just dropped a cayenne infused mudbug on the ice and it scorched a six inch wide hole, twenty four inches deep. I do not doubt this story for a moment.

The good news is that you can have it all. You can try Witherbee's "Bayou Bob" Crawfish Boil on Friday night, and stop by for our pasta dinner at the Fish & Game Club on Saturday. If you do, poke you head in the kitchen and say hi.

Witherbee's Carriage House can be found at 581 US Route 9, Schroon Lake, NY 12870.
Phone 518 532 9595

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Il Barilotto Enoteca, Fishkill, NY

2012-01-28T11:01:00.000-05:00

Il Barilotto Enoteca
1113 Main Street
Fishkill, NY 12524
845-897-2031

Map & Directions
Lunch & Dinner: Monday ~ Saturday
Closed Sunday

Years ago, when Eduardo and Lucia Lauria, the owners of Aroma Osteria in Wappingers Falls, told me about their plans for a second restaurant in nearby Fishkill, I remember thinking at the time that it would be a mistake. The locations were too close, and a new venue would cannibalize traffic from Aroma. (The original conversations turned into a comedy skit. Eddie had toyed with the idea of opening a small plate "tapas bar" in Fishkill. Word got around that he was considering opening a "topless bar". You can imagine the phone calls. That idea was abandoned.) My skepticism was reinforced when menu ideas for a now planned Italian restaurant were discussed, as some of the staple dishes - bistecca gorgonzola, a roast chicken, a daily risotto, seemed to mimic Aroma's menu. Fast forward to 2012, your's truly was proven totally wrong, Aroma is still bustling, and Il Barilotto is one of the most popular restaurants in the valley. For good reason.

There are a number of reasons for the restaurants' success, but the one I will start with is that Il Barilotto is really nothing like Aroma. Both draw their inspiration from the Laurias' focus on the highest quality farm fresh ingredients and traditional Italian cooking, but where Aroma is dedicated to replicating the rustic classics of Eddie's mother's kitchen, Barilotto takes a more modern approach to many of the dishes. Eddie's brother-in-law and CIA alum, Wayne Homsi, runs the kitchen here.
The flavor of the bar and the dining room, managed by long time partner Scott Rosenberg, take a similar tack. The design has the look and feel of a trendy Soho bistro. Il Barilotto Enoteca may translate as The Wine Barrel, but the bar screams for a martini, or better yet, a negroni (straight up). Save the wine for dinner, where you will get to choose from the restaurant's noteworthy wine collection of over one hundred Italian selections. The exposed brick wall dining rooms have a more modern flair; the crowd always seems a little younger, the volume a little higher. It is the MTV alternative to Aroma's Saturday afternoon opera. (I, myself prefer the opera, but that does not make Barilotto any less appealing.)
The dinner menu is usually complemented with a selection of daily specials, but a few of the regular menu dishes are standouts. One of these is the duck breast, pan seared pink, plated with a reduction of grappa and dried cherries, and served with a vanilla scented puree of sweet potatoes. A nouveau twist on a traditional dish. There are always a half dozen or more pasta selections, including gluten free offerings. I confess that I almost always order the same one - a papparedella ($20) pasta (very wide fettuccine) tossed with the best duck ragu made in these parts, savory, rich, intensely aromatic and magically tender while still maintaining some texture. Wonderful stuff. Add a nice bottle of Barbera and it doesn't get any better.
One their best dishes is elegantly simple (and a dish that so many restaurants seem to avoid completely, or screw it up and dry it out) - roast chicken. I have had this dish dozens of times and it is always perfectly prepared. The kitchen here keeps this presentation very simple and traditional. A breast of chicken - from Murray's Farms in Pennsylvania - is roasted with herbs, flavored with a pan mushroom sauce and plated with whipped potatoes spiked with fontina (an Alpine cow's milk) cheese. Add a few asparagus spears and voila - perfection, for $24.
If you're not getting the chicken, start with the duck confit appetizer ($13), (almost) fall off the bone tender, crisped nicely before plating on a bed of frisee with a tart cherry vinaigrette. Any of the house made sausage (cooked or cured) dishes are also standouts. You could share the sausage app with the table (it's too much for one person - a grilled luganega salsiccia ($11), a traditional Italian mild ring sausage, made with lean pork and fennel. If I'm very lucky this dish on occasion will also show up as a lunch special.
Barilotto seems to have developed its own fan club to complement the regulars that I see each week at Aroma. I'd be curious to hear how you feel about the restaurant, and in particular how you would define the differences between the two restaurants. Please send me an email, or leave a comment if you want to join the discussion.

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A Weekend in Ottawa, Ontario

2012-01-16T17:03:00.001-05:00

First Nation "Beaver" Lodge Pole

In past years, Montreal has been our destination of choice for a long weekend in January. This year we headed off in a slightly different direction, with some prompting from friends who have been singing the praises of the city of Ottawa. It is a four hour ride from Schroon Lake, twice the distance as the trip to Montreal. The weather was reasonably cooperative. We had to deal with some snow squalls on the way north on Friday, but nothing that the Mini Cooper couldn't handle. We arrived at the Chateau Laurier midday on Friday and mapped out our itinerary. The hotel sits on the banks of the Ottawa River, and a nearby bridge with a pedestrian walkway provides easy access to Gatineau in Quebec. Few cities are more pedestrian (and bike) friendly than Ottawa. Paths line major thoroughfares, and the thoroughfares are not limited to roadways. The river and the Rideau Canal are major destinations for tourists and locals alike, especially in winter when skaters crowd the ice covered waterways.
Ottawa serves as both Ontario's Provincial capital as wells as Canada's, and the historic Parliament buildings along the river make for many photo opportunities. A ten minute walk across the bridge to Quebec will bring you to the grounds of the Museum of Civilization, which traces Canada's history from the First Nation settlements of its First Peoples to the modern Confederation. I could have spent an entire day just studying the displays of Inuit artwork and crafts.

We only had two days in town, and we had made reservations for dinner on both Friday and Saturday night. The weekend was also the kickoff for Ottawa's version of Restaurant Week, which they call Winter Bites. I had emailed a few places to confirm that they were NOT participating, as we wanted to avoid the abbreviated menus that usually come along with it and the bum's rush - turn the tables - ninety minute meals.

Smoked Octopus Appetizer at Black Cat Bistro

On Friday we had dinner at the Black Cat Bistro, and dined at the bar. The owner, Richard Urquhart, remembered our e-mail when we arrived and joked about the fact that we were trying to avoid the Winter Bite crowd. This place obviously did not need any special events to fill the seats. The chef, Patricia Larkin, had also laughed when she saw the email, and came out to introduce herself. Friendly people, these Canadians. We started with a nice bottle of bistro wine, from a very nice bistro wine list, a Cru Beaujolais - Collin-Bourisset Cote-De-Brouilly for $45. The price may seem a little out of line to US readers, but the pricing of wine and spirits in Canada is considerably higher than in the states. Prices have actually come down quite a bit since a few years ago, thanks to an EU lawsuit challenging Canada's excise tax policies. I enjoyed a glass of wine with an appetizer that I never had before, but according to a number of sources was the kitchen's signature dish - smoked octopus. Two tentacles arrived with an artistic arrangement of accompaniments - tomatoes and olives and a paprika laced mayo dressing. Anyone who has ever cooked (or ordered) octopus knows how difficult it is to tenderize. Batali has devoted chapters to the art of cephalopod cookery, the octopus being the most difficult of the lot. This was spectacular. It was first braised (I assume for hours), and then very lightly smoked; just enough to let you know that it had seen the inside of a smoker, and finally charred on the grill. It was incredibly tender, still deliciously briny and sweet, and possibly the best I have ever tasted. I see why it is their signature dish. The main course was just as good. An evening special of loin of lamb was a whole saddle, perfectly cooked to a medium rare, and served on a creamy mound of potatoes and sauteed rapini. Mary opted for the pan seared scallops, also perfectly cooked, and plated with sides of spaghetti squash, green onions and beets. The complete menu can be found here. We added Black Cat Bistro to our list of favorites and look forward to our next visit.

On Saturday morning our waitress at breakfast told us we had a beautiful day for touring, although it was, in her words, "a little chilly". A follow up revealed that "a little chilly" meant 20 below, but that was 20 below celsius, which was really only 5 below. What a relief. After a morning at the museum we searched for another place that we had heard about called Murray Street Kitchen, just a few blocks from the hotel. Murray Street specializes in charcuterie and local cheeses, and the owners have developed a wine bar around that theme. There is a kitchen and a regular menu if you insist, but one look at the display case of pates and sausages and fromages du Quebec, and I for one saw no need for a kitchen. Just bring me the charcuterie / cheese combo platter and a bottle of tempranillo and color me happy. And we did exactly that.

On Saturday night we had dinner at a jazz club - Cafe Paradiso. From prior experience I have come to be extremely suspicious of jazz club kitchens. As a general rule I put jazz club dining in the same category as hospital and airport dining, except at jazz clubs the tables are much closer together. If I can arrange it I prefer to first eat someplace else, and then go to the club just for the show. We really wanted to hear Brian Browne on the piano, who was playing that night with Mark Ferguson, and the only way we could get a reservation was if we reserved a table for dinner. They didn't reserve seats at the bar. That was the only reason we ate there. I'm glad we did. The food was great; a jazz club first for me. I had an evening special of walleye pike (which they call pickerel locally). Mary ordered the steak frites which was also very nicely done. The total bill for the evening, including cocktails, a bottle of wine at dinner, and including the music charge was $130. Another candidate for my list of favorites ~ in the musical / kitchen / best value categories.

We are already talking about another trip to Ottawa, perhaps when the temperature is somewhere north of the red numbers. A walking or bike tour is very much in order. The pedestrian walkways and parks are as welcoming as the people. It is smaller and more manageable in a weekend than Montreal, but still has lots of shops and galleries and theaters and restaurants to try. And at least one really good jazz club.

If you do visit please let our other readers know about it in the comments section.

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Mexican Radio ~ Hudson, NY

2011-12-18T13:04:00.002-05:00

A day in Hudson NY, and lunch at ~

Mexican Radio
537 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534
www.mexrad.com
Lunch & Dinner, 7 Days

If you have not been to Hudson in a few years, then you have not been to Hudson. To suggest that the town has undergone a renaissance would not tell the story adequately; you really need to see it to believe it. The last few times that we decided to "stop in Hudson for lunch" we have ended up spending the better part of the afternoon; there is too much to see and do. There is a vibrancy to the place - the streets bustling with young hipsters sipping coffees and chatting and poking their heads into shops, and walking more cute dogs than any one town should have.
The central business district on Warren Street is home to a fantastic collection of restaurants and coffee shops, very high quality antique stores, house-ware purveyors, and gourmet shops. One shop - Otto - is dedicated exclusively to Turkish imports - decoratively painted serving platters and hand woven fabrics, hammered copper coffee pots (and coffees) and of course, the requisite porcelain evil eye without which no Turkish home would be complete. Hudson is most definitely a culinary destination, where diners are faced with the delicious dilemma of eating top shelf Mexican at Mexican Radio, world class American bistro fare at DA | BA, some of the area's best barbecue at American Glory, or sandwiches constructed on what is arguably the best baguette in the Hudson Valley at Cafe le Perche. I suggest you buy said baguette to take home and use it with some razor thin sliced prosciutto cotto purchased from Olde Hudson Specialty Foods, also on Warren Street. With so many wonderful choices, return trips are necessary, and keenly anticipated.

Serious Spice Rack

On our last trip we started our tour at Mexican Radio. The restaurant is open every day. The owners have two locations - one here in Hudson and a second on Cleveland Place (off Spring St) in SoHo. Both offer the same menu, with the expected selections of Mexican fare, but with very unexpected attention to detail (for casual dining) in quality and construction and the presentation of the dishes. The result is a menu that has reaped accolades from fans and numerous publications here in the Hudson Valley and in New York. The menu offers lots of vegetarian and vegan choices, and a concerted effort is made to source ingredients from local farms. It really does show.

Mexican fare at its best speaks of freshly chopped tomato salsas and crushed avocado guacamole and briny seafood ceviche braced with lime juice and flecks of red hot dried peppers. And chorizo sausage. With Dos Equis. All of the above can be found here in abundance.

Our extended lunch at the bar started with some very nice chorizo and a big bowl of piping hot butternut squash soup. Very seasonal, and very nicely done. I copped out and ordered the daily special - a "surf and turf" chimichanga, which is in essence a deep fried burrito. Take a very healthy flat bread wrap of veggies and shrimp and steak, and drop it into hot oil. What's better than that? This one - an overstuffed version the size of a smurf football - was just fantastic, with chunks of grilled flank steak and sauteed whole shrimp in every bite. All of this was smothered in a base of sauteed arugula and it was right up there with the best I've had anywhere.

Olde Hudson Charcuterie

It was a very nice start to a very nice day.
As I was walking up Warren towards Cafe Le Perche to buy some bread, I found myself eavesdropping on the young couple walking directly in front of me. One was trying to convince the other to buy a weekend home in Hudson. We would of course have to sell the Red Hook place, she said. How times have changed! Go see for yourself.
I look forward to our next trip to Hudson. Our first stop will be the charcuterie / cheese counter at Olde Hudson, where a wedge of Spanish Mahon cheese from Minorca has my name on it.

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Le Express ~ Bistro and Bar, Poughkeepsie ~ Red Oaks Mill

2011-12-05T16:02:00.001-05:00

Tasting Notes ~ Hudson Valley
Le'Express Bistro and Bar
1820 New Hackensack Rd. (Rte 376)
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
Phn - 845.849.3565

Open for Dinner ~ 7 Days
Lunch ~ Monday through Friday

We have a new bistro in town. John Lekic, the General Manager at Sapore Steakhouse in Fishkill, opened Le Express last month with his partner Roni Lala. The restaurant is in the space that was formerly occupied by Union Jack. We had a few nudges to give the place a try, and Mary and I stopped in last night for dinner. The interior has been completely revamped. The old Union Jack space used to be divided into two smallish dining rooms. That entire space has been opened up into one large very nicely furnished dining room, and the bar has been relocated to the left hand wall as you enter. A small lounge area in front of the bar adds a little seating for those who are waiting for a table (and I predict that there will indeed be people waiting for a table). We very much liked what we found.
If you go searching for Le'Express on the internet, you may have trouble finding any info. The odd spelling is apparently an attempt to avoid a conflict with L'Express in New York City. The resulting incorrect spelling confuses Google and Bing and Yahoo, all of which convert the Le'Express query to L'Express, with no local results. I'm sure that there is a lawyer somewhere to blame for this. (Please no emails from lawyers. You know I'm right) There is no website up yet, but there is a Facebook page (with no menu). Early adopters will just have to rely on Rambler and a compass.

Chef Mark Rosenberg's menu focuses on classic French bistro fare - escargot ($7) , moules frites ($13), beef bouruignon ($19), duck confit ($16) - along with some grass fed burgers, sliders and variations on an American bistro theme ~ macaroni au gratin ($14), chicken wings ( $9, with goat cheese and rosemary chili sauce).
We had dinner at the bar with our new favorite bartender Kate. Mary tried the half roast chicken ($18), which was plated with seasonal brussel sprouts and red bliss potatoes. I opted for the beef bouruignon. The dish consisted of what seemed like the better part of a pound of braised chuck roast, surrounded by mushrooms quarters, tender sliced carrots and braised potatoes. It was fabulous and way too much for one person. We ordered a bottle of 09 Marziano Abbano Rinaldi Barbera D'Alba to go along with it. The wine list is still a work in progress but the current offerings offer a nice selection and the bottles are reasonably marked up in the 2 /1 range. I like where they are heading with it (but they need one or two Beaujolais choices;-).
Le'Express is technically in a soft opening period and they may think they are not yet ready for prime time, but I think there is no reason to wait for them to work out the kinks. You learn by doing. I am really anxious to see how the community reacts to this newcomer. Le Express has the potential to become a new favorite haunt. If you enjoy bistro fare, you should go give them a try.

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Bistro Le Roux ~ Lake George, NY

2011-11-23T10:45:00.001-05:00

The Bistro LeRoux Open Kitchen with Wood Fired Oven

668 Rte 149 (at Bay Rd)
Lake George, NY 12845
(Phn) 518-798-2982
www.bistroleroux.com
Dinner ~ Tuesday through Sunday

Bistro LeRoux has now been open for a little over a year. It is located at the intersection of Route 149 and Bay Rd, about three miles east of the Adirondack Northway, Route 87. We have been hearing good things about it since their opening, but waited for the Lake George summer crowd to disperse before driving down for a visit. We really enjoy patronizing north country restaurants that remain open for the winter. Diners are especially welcome during the slow season, and the more relaxed pace in the dining room allows you to get to know the place and the personnel better than you could during the summer.
We drove down last Tuesday for dinner, not knowing if they had a bar or a wine list, as none are mentioned on the web site. (Panicked by this possibility, we stashed a bottle of Burgundy in the car just in case.)
Upon entering the restaurant, we were immediately and enthusiastically greeted by our new favorite bartender, Tiffany, who turned out to be one of the owners. Her husband and co-owner Jacob Guay was presiding over the open kitchen, which is in full view from the bar and surrounding lounge dining area. I took the picture above from my bar stool, which is right where we stayed for dinner. As I have stated before on this blog, the very best way to get to know a restaurant is to eat at the bar, as close as you can get to the service bar area. You will hear all of that night's really good dishes; what works, what doesn't work, (and who doesn't work). So we ate at the bar.
We perused a very nice west coast - centric wine list that reflected Tiffany's time spent in Napa. Most of the offerings were priced in the $30 range with 18 available by the glass, none priced over $10. The restaurant also offers "flights" of three wines with 3 ounce pours, which allows diners to sample more varieties than a full glass would prudently allow. Mary did spy a bottle of Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Village (priced with a very reasonable 2 / 1 markup at $23), which is what we ordered for dinner.

The bistro style menu lists every offering as a small or large plate, allowing the smaller plates to pass as appetizers, or in our case allowing six different items to be shared as a mini-schmorgasbord. In addition to the regular menu, Tiffany mentioned an evening special of jambalaya, one of my favorites. The regular menu offerings included crab cake ($7 / $13) served with a red cabbage slaw, a delicious flat bread topped with arugula and a creamy sweet sausage and carmelized onions, and finished in the nearby wood fired oven. A bowl of seasonal creamy butternut squash bisque ($6) was finished with toasted pumpkin seeds and topped with a pinch of french fried julienned sweet potato.

We were extremely happy to see an offering of Wild Alaskan Salmon ($13 / $25) served with purple potato hash. Hopefully more restaurants will follow Bistro LeRoux's lead and offer sustainably harvested Pacific's, instead of farm raised and environmentally problematic Atlantic salmon. Three cheers and a gold star for that. I did order a small plate of pork shanks ($12 / $23) served with a sweet potato risotto. A plate of sea scallops were perfectly seared and served with a side of "sweet pea mashed potatoes". The side dish was prepared exactly as it sounds and I have not seen it done that way since I was five years old and my mother tried to hide peas in my mashed potatoes. It was great. So was the aforementioned jambalaya, not done Creole style but prepared as a "white jambalaya", the braised meats and trinity of veggies layered on top of a creamy risotto, which was layered on just a dollop of herb laced olive oil to glisten the plate. It was all finished with julienned fried sweet potato and a garnish of grated grana padano cheese - a modern interpretation of a traditional plate. It was just fabulous but I doubt that it would be recognized as jambalaya in any Cajun Big Easy diner.
Last month we received a text from friends that were eating at Bistro LeRoux for the first time. This couple runs a very traditional and very successful bistro style restaurant in the High Peaks area. Their text said ~ "This place has Culinary written all over it" (pejoratively, I think). In fact the chef / co-owner here did attend the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park. I think my friend was eating a plate just like my white jambalaya when he texted that. Traditionalists (like me) are often critical of attempts to "deconstruct" recipes and tamper with the "classics". The kitchen here does sometimes head in that direction, but we still very much enjoyed the presentations, and the experience. The dishes we sampled were all well grounded in classic preparations; some a little playful but without getting silly. The kitchen added its own very competent signature but always stopped short of driving the dish over a cliff into a pot of "crustacean foam". Thank you for that. (Fans of modernist cooking should not take offense. For everything there is a season; just not in my kitchen, and not on this blog.)
The eclectic menu and well prepared dishes at Bistro Leroux are only a component of a most pleasant experience. The place is fun. As we sat at the bar, the owners greeted a constant stream of smiling regulars, many of whom stopped for a drink at the bar before sitting down. Lots of martinis served at this bar. I think I could fit right in, but Mary always reminds me of how many judicial districts we have to drive through to get home. A more welcoming atmosphere and waitstaff will be difficult to come by. Sinatra serenaded us throughout the evening. I was really thrilled to see the back bar's substantial collection of NY Yankee memorabilia including a signed picture of # 8, Yogi Berra. I think with a palm frond draped over it in reverence, Yogi could serve as an amulet to frighten away any Red Sox fans that might try to slip across Rte 149 from Vermont. I did not notice any on Tuesday.
All in all we left sated and most pleased with the experience. Bistro LeRoux will most definitely be a regular dining destination when we are in the Lake George area. Best of all, you won't need to wait until next summer to enjoy it.

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barVino, North Creek, NY

2011-11-22T10:21:00.001-05:00

Tortoise Creek Wine Dinner at bar Vino
272 Main Street North Creek, NY 12853
518 251 0199
www.barvino.net

North Country restaurants often need to think of creative ways to put patrons in the dining room at this time of year. Summer tourists and weekend homeowners disappear soon after Labor Day, and the ski season doesn't start in earnest for another month. Many area restaurants just close the doors for a few months. This shoulder season often brings discounts and incentives from area businesses that do stay open, and if you pay attention, some extraordinary opportunities at the local restaurants. One of those occasions was a "wine dinner" last night at North Creek's barVino Restaurant and Wine Bar, which focused on the wines of Tortoise Creek, and showcased the talents of the restaurant's sous chef, Kevin Gardner. Anna Bowers, the restaurant's co-owner and contributor to the Albany Times Union's Vinoteca wine blog, supervised the table service.
Mel and Janie Masters, the owners of Tortoise Creek Wines were in attendance, and provided the color commentary for the evening's festivities. They produce wines in both France and California. They act principally as negociants, purchasing and blending grapes from small local growers. Their French wines are from the Languedoc region, which stretches from the Spanish border in southeastern France to Provence. This wine region offers some great offerings of what I call "bistro" wines, value priced but well made wines blended from less well known grape varietals. Local grapes include Viognier, a wonderful example of which was included in last night's dinner. Another offering was made from Carignon, typically used in the Languedoc as one of many component grapes in blended wines, but offered last night as a stand alone bottling, which I had never tasted before. Wonderful stuff it was.
Chef Gardner produced a fabulous slate of offerings to complement each of the five wines that the Masters had brought along for the event. The Viognier paired perfectly with a spinach and roasted beet salad, tossed with toasted pumpkin seeds, and a Gorgonzola vinaigrette dressing. The next course was even better.
In addition to Tortoise Creek's European operations, they also blend wines in the Lodi region of California. To taste with a crab cake appetizer, a glass of their 2010 "Jam's Blend" chardonnay was served. The panko crusted crab cake was topped with delicate pungent slices of preserved black trumpet mushrooms that the chef had harvested in August. For me it was the highlight of the dinner, and was matched perfectly by the crisp clean - almost "french style" - chard.
For the main course we were presented with a platter of sliced prime rib topped with horseradish cream, served with whipped Adirondack red potatoes, and a chiffonade of butter poached brussel sprouts. A glass of 2009 "Cherokee Lane" Cabernet Sauvignon, from Lodi was presented with it. Chef Gardner had to explain the prime rib preparation before I understood how it came to be so incredibly tender. Typically a rib roast spends a few hours in the oven at 325F. This beef had spent the better part of the day slow roasting at 200F, which is basically a traditional "low & slow BBQ" methodology. It worked, and I will definitely try it at home soon. It also worked well with the Cabernet, especially when I saw that it was a $13 bottle of wine. What a deal, and what a meal.

We were all very happy to hear that this first "wine dinner" will not be barVino's last. I will be sure to post any planned future dinners on the Rambler calendar. The Bowers family's restaurant has quickly garnered a well earned, region-wide reputation for great food and wine at very reasonable prices in a casual - and most enjoyable - setting. They told me last night that they always like to have at least one family member present to try and assure that every guest is made to "feel at home". Mike Bowers says he and his family feel like they are just throwing a big dinner party every night. We feel the same way, and boy do they know how to throw a party.

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2 Taste Food and Wine Bar, Hyde Park, NY

2011-11-18T06:10:00.001-05:00

2Taste Food & Wine Bar
4290 Albany Post Road (Route 9)
Hyde Park, NY 12538
Phone: 845-233-5647
Dinner served Mon - Sat from 5 PM

www.2tastefoodandwinebar.com

Like many local diners, we were dismayed when Twist closed their doors last year. The restaurant enjoyed a good reputation (especially so for a restaurant that closed), and we were glad to see the space put back to good use when 2Taste opened this spring. One of the attractive features is the space itself, which showcases an airy open kitchen with a "Chef's Bar" around the perimeter. Diners get to watch new Executive Chef Jason Townsend's crew work their magic from anywhere in the dining room. Chef Townsend, a CIA alum, was the sous chef when the restaurant first opened, and has recently moved up to take over the helm in the kitchen. If you have not dined at 2Taste recently, you owe the restaurant - and yourself - another visit.

Our Wednesday night crew stopped in for dinner last week, and put the crew through their paces. Our new favorite bartender, Luke, was on the stick. Dennis recognized him from an earlier stint at Stonehedge in Esopus.
We popped a bottle of Natura Sauvignon Blanc, an organic value priced but very tasty Chilean, available by the glass for $8. The wine was representative of the list - lots of good values in what I call bistro (good but inexpensive) labels - Barbarescos and Tempranillos, Oregon Pinot Noirs and Cotes de Rhone's, and a very very nice Carmenere ($40) from Conch y Toro that we enjoyed with our entrees. I'm starting to see more of this grape showing up on local wine lists. Originally from France and used in a supporting role as a blending grape like Cabernet Franc, it has found a new home and new popularity in South America, and is becoming one of my favorites. Most of the wines on the list were in the $30 range, and carried most reasonable mark-ups. Gold star for the wine list.
A few classic "bistro favorites" jumped right off the page when I opened the menu. Bouillabaisse was listed first; one of my favorites. Next was a confit of duck, and Luke also mentioned a pate canard as an appetizer special. Two duck dishes to choose from. Way too hard. Another special was steak frites, serving a teres major shoulder (chuck) cut for the steak, another one of my favorites. What to order? Dining with seven people makes this easier, since we usually try and complement each other's orders and design our own tasting menu. This process suits me especially well, since I usually have the longest arms at the table.
George had two seafood platters to choose from. He opted for the sauteed scallops, perfectly seared and perched on some seasonal pumpkin risotto. The second choice was a grilled salmon filet - wild Pacific salmon, not farm raised. If only more restaurants were paying attention to all of the environmental issues with farm raised salmon. Diners who care and are paying attention will gladly pay the extra few dollars for wild salmon. Another gold star is awarded for the salmon. Thank you.
My bouillabaisse was offered in two sizes - $18 and $27. I opted for the smaller (watching my figure), but was still greeted with an over-sized bowl of thyme scented broth chock full of mussels and shrimp and tender rings of calamari and curiously no tomatoes - so not a classic Marseilles recipe but still quite delicious. We passed some confit of duck around the table, which was also very nicely done. Well cured but finished to a very nice crisp before plating, this dish is what the colder weather calls for. We added a few bowls of spiced blackened brussel sprouts, finally in season! I have five stalks from the Cooper garden in my kitchen sink waiting to be prepped at this very moment. Mr. Cooper also shared his lamb shank ($28), which was falling off the bone into a puddle of rosemary au jus. It had obviously braised stove top all afternoon and tasted every bit of the effort. Very nicely done. One item that we missed ordering was a plain old herb roast chicken ($19) - from Murray's Farm in Lancaster PA. There are few things better than a well made roast chicken. I want to try that dish on our next visit.
We were glad to welcome back this Hyde Park location to our dining circle of favorites, and we are very much looking forward to next time.

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A Weekend in Vergennes, VT

2011-11-05T12:05:00.000-04:00

The Emerson Guest House, Vergennes VT

Off the Trail Favorites - Vergennes, VT

The Champlain Bridge to Vermont is reopening this week, and we thought it would be timely to write post about the smallest city in Vermont - Vergennes. We took the ferry over a few weekends back, and spent a delightful Saturday evening out "on the town".
The expedition came about in our usual serendipitous fashion. We have been hearing about a local restaurant, the Black Sheep Bistro, for many years, and decided to drive over from Schroon Lake for dinner. On our last visit to Vergennes, we poked our heads into the local theater - the Vergennes Opera House - and fell in love with the space. Located upstairs from the town hall / police department (a popular configuration for small town New England opera houses), the cozy hall seats just a few hundred patrons, and a community theater group uses it to stage their productions. As luck would have it, the group was performing Neil Simon's "Rumors" that weekend, and for a total outlay of $24 for two tickets, our evening was beginning to take shape. I asked the box office manager if there were any inns within walking distance of the theater, and she recommended the Emerson Guest House, just down the block, which is where we decided to stay. It's a lovely B&B, complete with breakfast room and the requisite yellow lab to greet you at the door.
Having secured the theater tickets and a room for the evening , all that was left to confirm was the pre-theater dinner reservation. You can see this coming right?

Vergennes Opera House

Of course, they were booked at our requested time of 6 PM, but they could squeeze us in at 5. So be it. We arrived in town around 3PM, checked in at the inn, and strolled around town. We found a wonderful department store - Addison Outfitters, which carries the holy trinity of casual clothing - Pendleton / Woolrich / Carhartt. We still had time for a martini at Bar Antidote around the corner, which turned out to be more of a restaurant / night club than bar. The evening's entertainment was a blues band who were setting up and doing sound checks. They sounded well worth coming back for if the play ended early enough. The club also had what looked like a great pub menu that we will have to try on our next trip over.
We were looking forward to dinner at the Black Sheep Bistro, which was also within walking distance, and we arrived just in time for our reservation. Our waitress offered the evenings specials, and we ordered a bottle of red to have with dinner - a very bistro like bourgogne rouge from negotiant Albert Bichot, reasonably priced at $30. All of the appetizers were priced at $7, and all of the entrees at $19. So far I liked this place a lot. The appetizers included a few bistro classics - escargot Provencal, chicken liver pate, a Caesar salad with black olives. I tried a dish of duck "cigar rolls", spring rolls filled with tender shreds of roast duckling, served with a tangy tarragon apricot sauce for dipping. A nice idea, and very nicely done. One of the entrees piqued Mary's interest - a petite tender. We thought it was a filet mignon, but on presentation you could tell by the grain it was not a loin cut. It turned out to be a shoulder cut of "terrus major", beautifully carved from the chuck to mimic a filet medalion, and for my money more flavorful than a filet mignon. It was also very nicely done. I had some confit of duck for my entree, which was served with an apple raisin slaw and some crispy frites, accompanied by a homemade basil ketchup that finished the dish nicely. A bowl of the house specialty - garlic mashed potatoes was a delicious overkill. We saved some room for later in the evening. The tastiest part of the weekend was yet to come.
A recent edition of Food and Wine had featured the local bakery - The Vergennes Laundry. The bakery opens at 7AM, and we made a point of stopping on the way out of town for coffee and some pastries. This place is the reason to make a trip to Vergennes. We started with a croissant. I have never tasted better. I had to keep looking at my hands to see if they were dripping with butter. They weren't, but it seemed like they just had to be. The croissant was as light and airy as a cloud, but the buttery flavor and aroma was enough to season a lobster tail. Just unbelievable. Things were about to get even better. On the counter next to the register was a small pastry case. In the case, displayed like diamonds in the jewelry cases at Tiffany's, were the morning's just baked caneles. Part custard, part pastry, part bakery lore, caneles are to baking what Monte Carlo Grand Prix racing is to driving. Do not try this at home. You must try these, though. Impossibly moist and creamy in the center, infused with an essence of vanilla bean and rum, the pastry was encapsulated in a perfectly carmelized exterior to complete the package. Patisserie perfection. $2. Plus gas.

The Vrgennes Opera House
120 Main Street
Vergennes, VT 05491
802 877 6737
www.vergennesoperahouse.org

Black Sheep Bistro
253 Main St.
Vergennes, VT 05491
802 877 8991
Facebook Page

Bar Antidote
35 Green Street
Vergennes, VT 05491
802 877 8555
BarAntidote.com

Emerson Guest House
82 Main Street
Vergennes, VT 05491
802 877 3293
www.emersonhouse.com

The Vergennes Laundry
Wood Fired Bakery
247 Main St.
Vergennes, VT 05491
802 870 7157
www.vergenneslaundry.com

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Paradox Lodge ~ Lake Placid, NY

2011-10-19T14:17:00.001-04:00

Tasting Notes

The Paradox Lodge
2169 Saranac Avenue
Lake Placid, NY 12946
(Phn) 518 534 9078

Freshly Foraged Wild Mushrooms

Last Saturday we spent the day searching the north woods near the Paul Smith's campus for mushrooms. We were part of a larger contingent taking a trek offered by the college, some looking for medicinal mushrooms, some for coloring agents for dyeing wool, and some, like us, searching for supper. A month's worth of rain worthy of headlines had also produced a bumper crop of fungi, and it was hard to take more than a few steps without coming across our quarry. Beautiful lion's mane mushrooms clung to the trees, winter oyster mushrooms seemed to be growing from the end of every downed log. A fallen balsam yielded handfuls of rubbery wood ear - the kind you find in your soup in Chinese restaurants. It was a most productive and enjoyable afternoon.

Anticipating a drive through Lake Placid on the way home to Schroon Lake, we had called the day before to try and talk our way into Paradox Lodge, which is one of our favorite dining destinations. As expected we were told that they were booked, but Moses and Nan said to stop in any way and they would figure something out.
We anticipated eating at the two seats at the bar, or perhaps the bathroom. The Paradox dining room is quite small, with only twenty seats. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to be offered a deuce in the dining room, the result of a last minute cancellation. When we told the owners of our day's activities, Moses went back in the kitchen and returned with a large platter of wild mushrooms which Nan had harvested that week. I knew immediately what I was having for an appetizer. That very moment illustrates exactly what makes the Paradox Lodge so special. These people are passionate about what they do, and everything about the experience at Paradox reflects that passion.

Think about it. How much money can you make in a twenty seat restaurant? You are not doing this to get rich. You can do things, however, in a twenty seat restaurant that you could never pull off in a larger place. (Serve freshly harvested mushrooms from the local woods for one.) Twenty seats allow an attention to detail that is all but impossible in larger operations. When we arrived Moses showed off two pans on the stove that held the evening's specials. One pan held a half dozen roasted chicken halves, stuffed with slices of apples and whole aromatic sprigs of rosemary under the skin. I could smell the apples and the rosemary from across the kitchen. There were six portions. When they were gone, the "chicken special" was "86" - no more. The second pan held a neat row of braised bison osso bucco, which had simmered away for hours in a red wine sauce that had thickened to a luscious velvety blanket covering the marrow filled shanks. Each would be paired with the restaurant's signature dish - a platter of seasonal vegetables that could easily pass for a main course - roasted carrots and parsnip and florets of cauliflower, a cob of sweet corn and fresh spears of asparagus. I think the veggies are the reason that Mary loves to come here. The kitchen does not treat them as an afterthought - a necessary but secondary "side" - as is the case in most restaurants.
Given the two specials, we knew what our entrees were going to be, and we would share. There would be no reason to look at the regular menu. For an appetizer Mary ordered the wild mushroom soup, and Moses sauteed me up a platter of Nan's foraged mushrooms. All we needed to complete the picture was a bottle of Bordeaux. It had the makings of a fabulous evening. And it was.

A full review of Paradox Lodge can be found here.

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Tid Bits

2011-10-17T16:45:00.000-04:00

Just a few updates - but not enough for a full blog post.
It appears that Delafield's Restaurant in the Mount Carmel area of downtown Poughkeepsie has closed its doors (again). This location housed some iconic eateries in the past including Nick Beni's, Joseph's and Caesar's, all fabulously successful in their day. It is one of the most comfortable bars - and bar rooms - ever designed, so I really want someone to make a go of it there.

I have two posts to work on this weekend. We had dinner at Rraci's, a popular Italian restaurant in Brewster two weeks ago.

Last Saturday we spent the day foraging for wild mushrooms near Paul Smith's campus north west of Saranac Lake, and stopped for dinner on the way back home at one of our favorite destinations - Paradox Lodge in Lake Placid. It is still one of the best bistro style restaurants in the North Country, and one of our favorites. I'll try to get both posts up by Sunday.

Dining Out in Montauk, NY

2011-10-08T11:05:00.000-04:00

Our favorite restaurants in Montauk, NY

For many years I have made excursions to Montauk, usually in September and October. Our group - all fly fishermen - try to time our arrival to coincide with the arrival of the bait fish inshore in the fall. The huge balls of bay anchovies and other baitfish entice schools of of striped bass and false albacore close to the shore. The fish will readily come to a fly tied to look like an anchovy, and the sport has grown to the point that the majority of boats around the lighthouse now sport flyfishing anglers hoping to spend a few moments with a flash of green piscatorial splendor at the end of their fly line. We usually stay for three or four days on each outing, which affords us the opportunity to dine at some of the area's restaurants.

On the last few outings we have stayed at the Montauk Lake Club and Marina on the east side of Montauk Lake, just outside the village. They have a nice bar and a very nice dining room, but the atmosphere is a little on the formal side. The last thing anyone wants to do after a day on the water is put on a jacket and tie, so as nice as the place is, we will eat just one of our meals there; we usually hop in the car and go elsewhere.

If you are eating out in Montauk, you will probably be eating seafood. You really should, because the seafood doesn't get any fresher than this. Just down the road from the Montauk Lake Club is the Inlet Seafood Restaurant, which is owned by a group of local commercial fishermen. It is one of our favorites. The large and welcoming bar looks west over the water, and provides one of the most spectacular sunset views that you will find outside of Key West. The scene offers everything but a Caribbean "Green Flash". They also serve some terrific sushi, fresh off the boat. What the plates may lack in artistic presentation they more than make up for in freshness, quality, quantity, and price. You can't do better than fresh striped bass or yellowfin tuna caught that morning, dabbed with a little wasabi, and washed with just a touch of soy. Last week the kitchen was also featuring a tile fish filet prepared "picata" - sauteed with capers and a spritz of lemon and white wine. I can still taste it as I write about it.

In the middle of the village you will find the legendary Shagwong Tavern and Restaurant, which is a wonderful mishmash of local bar, town supper spot and tourist mecca. It is decidedly friendlier (read loud), more informal (read tee shirts) and popular (read three deep at the bar) than most of their competitors. Shagwong has been serving up "Good food and good times!" since 1927. The current owners bought the place in 1969. They are the go-to destination for a slab of steak or an over-sized lobster, or just to grab a glass of beer and a burger at the bar.

For a little more upscale setting, we often drive over to the Fort Pond area for dinner at Harvest Restaurant. This enormously popular destination offers fresh local seafood with an Italian influence. If the weather permits, you can enjoy your meal outside in the gardens, where the kitchen's herbs will surround your table, and the aroma of thyme and rosemary and garlic chives fill the air. The fare at Harvest is among the best in Montauk and they serve it up in gigantic portions. It is standard practice with our group - which typically will be eight to ten people - to order three or four appetizers and only five or six entrees. We will still have leftovers. The porterhouse steak is fantastic, as is the farfalle tossed with Italian sausage and peas and parmigiana cheese. We will always order whatever the daily seafood special is - frequently grilled scallops, or a filet of local striped bass. On a few occasions we have shown up with our own striper from the day's fishing, and asked the kitchen to work its magic with the catch.

A local Chinese Restaurant - Wok & Roll - takes the "catch your own" dinner preparation to new heights. This restaurant will take your fish and prepare it for you. In the case of a striper the fish is chunked and deep fried, then piled high and served in a spicy General Tso sauce. Their motto is "You Hook 'em ~ We'll Cook 'em". A whole 20lb striper would feed twenty people, and would cost around $100 to prepare and serve, including sides. Such a deal. I first read about this place in Sam Sifton's NY Times column. Mr Sifton is also an avid fly fisherman who spends time in Montauk

I believe that Dave's Grill enjoys the reputation of being Montauk's finest restaurant. That reputation, and its relatively small dining room, are the reasons that seating is always at a premium. They only take reservations for that same day, starting at exactly 4:15PM. We have been reluctant to take the risk of waiting until the last minute to book a table, because we frequently have trouble finding seating for our large party of anglers. After Labor Day the crowds thin out, and last week we were able to get in for dinner. The crowd here has a Hamptonesque look about it, with many more jackets and ties than sport shirts. We stopped for a drink at the bar, which was crowded with regulars getting ready to sit down for dinner. Two glasses of house wine (one for me, one for my guide) set me back $27, including $12 for a glass of CaDonini Pinot Grigio, which goes for $5 per liter, retail. Hamptonesque prices too. My guide assured me that a friend had delivered the scallops that morning, and we should try them if they had not sold out. We did. For $32. All five of them. Without a salad. Admittedly they were fantastic - seared perfectly leaving a moist, sweet center, perched atop a bed of sauteed chanterelles and accompanied by some grilled asparagus.

If I had to pick my very favorite place to eat in Montauk, it would actually be none of the above. My favorite destination is a very local hangout called The Dock. It is the antithesis of Dave's. The Dock sits at the end of the strip along the day boat docks off of West Lake Drive. The commercial fisherman and the sport fishing guides all gather there at the end of the day, half at the bar drinking $1 glasses of Bud, the other half gathered outside the front door, smoking a cigarette and talking about their day. It is here that you will get the real taste of Montauk, as opposed to "The Hamptons". If you think it has the look and feel of a saloon run by a retired New York City firemen, you will have guessed correctly. George Watson bought the old Fitzerald's Tavern in 1973, and molded it in his own image, and to his own rules. The rules, which are posted conspicuously throughout, include:
No checks, no cell phones, no screaming kids, no dirt bags, no whining, no chickenhawks.
The rules are scrupulously enforced, especially the cell phone prohibition. You will be asked once (and only once) to hang it up, This request may be delivered via bull horn (I kid you not). Non-compliants are escorted to the street. Mr. Watson was also a marine. In the middle of all of this mayhem lurks the soul of a fantastic eatery, serving simple but well prepared dishes - a top notch bowl of chowder, terrific chili, and of course the requisite platters of steamed clams, savory mussels, and fresh off the dock fish, all for half the price of most other places in town. And you don't have to listen to people talking on their cell phones, at least not for more than five seconds.

In order of appearance:

Montauk Lake Club and Marina
211 East Lake Drive
Montauk, NY 11954
631.668.5103

Inlet Seafood Restaurant
541 East Lake Drive
Montauk, NY 11954
631.668.4272

Shagwong
774 Main Street
Montauk, NY 11954
631.668.3050

Harvest on Fort Pond
11 S. Emery Street
Montauk, NY 11954
631.668.5574

Wok & Roll
716 Main Street
Montauk, NY 11954
631.668.6688

Dave's Grill
468 West Lake Drive
Montauk Harbor, NY
631.668.9190

The Dock Restaurant
West Lake Drive
Montauk Harbor, NY
631.668.9778

If you do stop in please let our other readers know about your visit in the comments section.

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Savona's Trattoria ~ Kingston, NY

2011-09-25T10:15:00.002-04:00

Kingston Rondout Waterfront
11 Broadway
Kingston, NY 12401

845-339-6800
Lunch & Dinner, 7 Days
www.savonas.com

The re-development of the Kingston Rondout waterfront started long before development efforts got underway in neighboring Newburgh and Poughkeepsie. The Kingston planners did a lot of things right (including easy access and lots of free parking), and the Rondout area draws lots of locals and visitors who can enjoy the river views, the shops, the Hudson River Maritime Museum, and of course the restaurants. The area has more than its fair share of dining destinations, including one of our favorites - Savona's Trattoria. The eatery has been open for a few years now, and has garnered a devoted following of regulars. There is a reason for the line at the door. Savona's offers a an expansive selection of well prepared classic Italian dishes, served in copious quantities for a very reasonable price. We stopped in last Wednesday for dinner and started at the bar with our new favorite bartender, Rachel.
The bar itself is a little on the small side, seating only a half dozen or so patrons with a few extra tables for diners. The barroom is adjacent to a larger main dining room, but we prefer to stay in the barroom if space is available. Our group was small last week and there was a single 4-top in the corner so we commandeered it for the evening.

We started with some Nando Pinot Grigio and Firestone Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc, both offered at $6.50 per glass. The wine list is value oriented, bordering on budget, but still offers a decent selection with most bottles priced at approximately 2 to 1 markups. The Giacosa Fratelli Nebiola D'Alba from Piedmont is probably the best value on the list at $29.

The menu offers way too many choices to make ordering easy, and the nightly specials only complicate matters for me. There are many classic appetizers to choose from: arancine - fried rice balls, stuffed with bolognese and peas ($7), eggplant rollatini stuffed with baby spinach and ricotta ($7), eggplant "Napoleon" stacked with mozzarella, tomato and basil ($8), mussels marinara ($8), or a dozen steamed littleneck clams ($12). Dennis ordered the "Sicilian Holiday", a family size charcuterie platter with slices of sopressata, Genoa salami, prosciutto, provolone cheese, and roasted peppers. It was easily enough for two, and priced at only $8. I myself opted for a half portion of linguini with a white clam sauce, which was a lunch size bowl of pasta topped with a half dozen little necks still in the shell, and tossed with a what seemed like a bucket of chopped clams ($12). The garlic was sauteed a little too much, but the dish was still fabulous and the app could have easily been my dinner. All of this was served with a basket of piping hot rolls, dripping with garlicky olive oil, reminiscent of baked "garlic knots", just not tied.
I had little room left at this point but we pressed on. The special board listed a Chianti braised short rib served with pappardella pasta, served with a choice of soup or salad for $19. Doc jumped on this one. We assumed that it would be a pasta dish tossed with a braised short rib ragu. But no. What arrived at the table was a Flinstone size short rib, perched on top of a bowl of pappardella. I did take a certain perverse pleasure in watching my doctor savoring this dish, he who counsels me on my cholesterol levels.
A dish of rigatoni tossed with sausage and broccoli rabe ($16) was equally as good. George, ever predictable, ordered the salmon finished with limoncello, and praised the results. I opted for another evening special - a chicken breast roasted with a apple and sausage stuffing, served with mashed sweet potatoes and asparagus. $17 and very nicely done.
All in all, a very nice evening, and at a most reasonable price. When the check came, we asked the waiter to double check it, thinking that the total was too low. We assumed that they had forgotten to transfer our bar tab to the dinner check. Not so; it was all there. Savona's offers a wonderful combination of well prepared regional Italian dishes and a friendly knowledgeable waitstaff, in comfortable, casual, surroundings. (And the price is right.) We look forward to our next visit.
If you do stop in please let our other readers know about your visit in the comments section.

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The Lakeview House Restaurant Orange Lake, Newburgh, NY

2011-09-24T08:29:00.001-04:00

343 Lakeside Road
Newburgh, NY 12550
845-566-7100
Closed Tuesdays
www.thelakeviewhouse.com

The Lakeview House Restaurant sits on the eastern shore of Orange Lake, a 400 acre lake just west of Newburgh, NY, off of Route 52. It is a picturesque setting; it reminds me of many of the waterfront eateries I frequented growing up on Long Island, especially if you could throw in some salt spray and a few seagulls. There is a wonderful sense of history here, starting with the lake itself, which was quite the resort destination a century ago. The Great Depression saw the end of the amusement park that was located here, but the Lakeview House lives on.

There is quite a bit of local restaurant lore here too. You can sense it as soon as you pull up a stool at the bar. A beauty of a bar it is, with a carved golden oak back bar sporting a framed liquor license dated 1899 - 1900, the very first issued in the county. There's even more history in the kitchen. The chef is one James Carter, who runs the place with his wife Tori. I have been a fan of Chef Carter since his days in the kitchen at Ward's Bridge Inn in Montgomery, NY in the 1980's. Ward's Bridge Inn, long shuttered, still remains atop my list of all time favorite local restaurants. Jim also spent time with Paul Benson, of Benson's Ireland Corners' fame, before buying the Lakeview House. When we stopped in for dinner a few weeks ago, he was assisted in the kitchen by none other than Urs Reist, who owned the Swiss Country Inn in Gardiner, another one of our favorite Wednesday night haunts from years gone by.

The Lakeview House is very much a "local" destination. The rest of the crowd at the bar were obviously regulars, all on a first name basis with our new favorite bartender, Sonia, who is also a Benson's alum. Jim's wife Tori runs the dining room, and greeted her own share of locals as the dinner crowd arrived, all with their own regular tables at the windows overlooking the lake. Interlopers that we were, we were relegated to a second row four-top in the front dining room. (We had also neglected to make a reservation for dinner, duh.) Some renovations since our last visit were in evidence in the dining room, which sported new floor to ceiling picture windows overlooking the water, and a new covered outdoor dining patio.

The menu at Lakeview House adds a few new twists to old standards. There are lots of steaks and chops and pastas. Roast Long Island duckling ($18.95) is offered with daily choices of fruit sauces; the requisite salmon filet ($18.95) is finished with sesame and soy. The steaks are always solid - choices include an over-sized filet mignon ($28.95) and three cuts of NY sirloin. If you can't decide, there's a mixed grill ($31.95) which combines a filet, lamb chops and grilled shrimp. It is a classic meat and potatoes menu, with nary a salad offering to be found, save the dinner salad (tossed greens, cucumber slices, and grated carrots) that is included with your entree.

We started with apps, all of which were very nicely done. My Shrimp Lamaize ($9.95), a holdover from Chef Carter's Ward's Bridge Inn days, wraps horseradish laced baked shrimp with bacon, and they are as tasty as ever. The Oysters Rockefeller ($7.95) is another old standard, topped with sauteed spinach and gruyere cheese. Escargot au Provence ($8.95) tops the garlicky Pernot infused butter sauce with a very un-Provencal like pecorino sheep's milk cheese, with surprisingly good results for the snails.

Chicken Scarpariello is another dish that was lost in translation, but still turns out quite tasty. Scarpariello or "shoemaker's pasta" traditionally uses a pan sauce of garlic sausage, vinegar, and pickled hot cherry peppers. The kitchen here adds hot sausage and broccoli rabe with delicious results. The sauce is most worthy of mopping up with a small piece of crusty bread (shaped like a small shoe) - "fare la scarpetta" in Italian. Buon appetito!
If you have not yet tried the Lakeview House Restaurant, it is well worth a visit; the place should not be left to be enjoyed just by the locals! The setting is most picturesque and the atmosphere comfortable and casual - you'll find more pick ups than BMW's in the parking lot. The very capable kitchen has been playing the old standards for decades and they are still most enjoyable.

If you do stop in please let our other readers know about your visit in the comments section.

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How to make the perfect chicken dinner.

2011-09-13T20:33:00.000-04:00

First, get a chicken......

Believe it or not, we don't eat dinner out every day, just a few times a week. We usually entertain on Saturday night, and those dinners tend to be "driveway parties" with friends and neighbors and too many courses and too much wine. (Everyone can walk home so we tend to get carried away.) During the week it's a different story. After a full day at the office the last thing anyone wants to do is prepare an elaborate meal. More often than not, we bake a chicken.
Not any old chicken, but an organic, farm fresh, pasture raised bird, preferably from a local producer. Tonight's bird came from Quattro's in Pleasant Valley. I always buy my duck from Quattro's and on my last trip there for confit fixins I also picked up a chicken. It gave me an opportunity to compare it to my favorite chicken, which comes from a farm in Putnam Station, NY, run by John and Mary Anne Smith.

Usually when I bake a chicken, I don't get fancy, especially during the week. I rub the whole bird with a few pats of room temperature butter, stuff the cavity with sprigs of fresh sage and thyme, and add lots of salt and pepper. Nothing else. Bake in a 425F oven for one hour 15 minutes (till golden brown) with some potatoes, let stand for ten minutes, slice, and serve. Done. It couldn't be easier and it couldn't taste any better, if - and I stress "if" - you start with decent bird.
Over the years I think we have tried most the commercial chickens available in local markets. As we started to pay attention to what they were being fed, and whether or not they were treated with antibiotics, and how they were raised, we started experimenting with farm raised chickens from local producers. For the most part they are all organically raised, with no antibiotics, and are not penned up all of the time. Another thing they have in common is that they are more expensive than your typical Shop Rite or Perdue chicken, some times twice the price. Since its usually just two of us for dinner during the week, one bird will do, and we feel the expense is justified - particularly if you find a bird that tastes as good as the ones we get from our favorite supplier - Maple Grove Farm in Putnam Station. Their chickens sell for $4.50 per pound, and they also sell Cornish game hens for $8 - $10 each Their birds are without question the best I have ever tasted. The Smith family sell their birds at a few North Country summer farmers markets - North Creek on Thursdays, Schroon Lake on Mondays, and Bolton Landing (Lake George) on Fridays. I will warn you that if you go to the North Creek market on Thursday you must get there before Anna Bowers from Bar Vino because she has been known to buy ALL of the chicken. The rest of the year the Smith's sell directly from the farm, which is on Rte 22 in Putnam Station, south of Ticonderoga. In addition to the chickens, they sell eggs and raise Tamworth pigs, so their sales flyer includes bacon and sausage and country style ribs, in addition to cuts of lamb and of course - rustic log furniture. Go figure. You can get more information here:

Maple Grove Farm Website
16297 State Route 22
Putnam Station, NY
Phone 518-547-9511

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The Bruynswyck Inn, Wallkill, NY

2011-09-05T12:27:00.001-04:00

The Bruynswyck Inn
2162 Bruynswyck Road
Wallkill, NY, 12589
8458951147
Closed Monday and Tuesday
www.bruynswyckinn.com

You might want to file this one away under "hideaways". The Bruynswyck Inn is located just off of Ulster County Route 7, the Bruynswyck Road, which heads south off of Route 44 just west of the village of Gardiner. The road meanders through the orchards and pastures and horse farms that occupy the space between the Wallkill River and the Shawangunk cliffs. A more picturesque setting is hard to find. We stopped in for dinner last month, on a Wednesday night outing with the usual dining crew. It was my first visit to the inn, but Doc and George were obviously regulars judging by the friendly reception from Lee, who was holding court behind the bar when we arrived. Her banter was as welcoming as the location, which has the look and feel of a vintage road house cum neighborhood hangout. All that was missing was the neighborhood. We were clearly miles from the nearest occupied anything.

Just caught Catskill brown trout

Lee announced that her significant other - Brittany born Chef Jean Boulidor - was in the kitchen, having recently returned from a day's fishing in the Catskills. He came out to the bar with a platter of freshly caught brown trout, and I knew immediately what I was having for dinner. But the story gets better.....

Sitting on top of the bar was a a large paper bag. A friend had stopped in with a day's foraging of golden chanterelle mushrooms, which solved the mystery of what I was going to have with my trout. I love it when a plan comes together.

Freshly foraged chanterelle mushrooms

At this point I did not even want to look at the menu, for fear of finding something that would dissuade me from my plan. I did, if only to share some of the options with you, dear reader. The offerings are a nice collection of old standards - Coquille St. Jacques ($9), mussells Mariniere ($10), Escargot with a garlic butter sauce and a splash of Pernod ($8). Some of the appetizers on the list - fried calamari and coconut shrimp - seemed out of place. Dennis actually ordered the calamari, which could have used a more assertive seasoning and some salt to pick up the flavors. I did enjoy the coquille, made with plump seas scallops in a creamy white wine sauce. Entree choices included more classics - steak au poivre ($26), roast duckling ($21, and grilled lamb chops with mint jelly ($29)). You can view the entire menu here.
The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the platter of mushrooms, elegantly but simply sauteed in sweet butter, along with the afternoon's catch of brown trout, fresh from the frying pan. Nothing better, and a most memorable evening.

If you are planning a trip in this direction, I suggest that you consider including a few stops along the Shawangunk Wine Trail, and finish with a meal at the inn. Leaf peeping season is right around the corner, and there are few places more spectacular than the Gunks to take it all in.

If you do stop in please let our other readers know about your visit in the comments section.

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Schroon Lake Fish and Game Club Annual Chicken & Lobster Bake

2011-09-03T07:53:00.000-04:00

Schroon Lake Fish & Game Club
Hoffman Road
Schroon Lake, NY 12870
518-532-7572

Saturday, September 10
Noon until ?

There are certain functions that qualify as being uniquely American activities - the proverbial slice of Americana. Certainly community BBQ's deserve to be in that category. Usually small town affairs, they are often held at the firehouse or the town park, or in our case in Schroon Lake - on the grounds of the Fish and Game Club. The club serves as the community's civic center. It has a dining room that holds a few hundred people. Outdoor pavilions built specifically to hold this annual event, shelter picnic tables that accommodate a few hundred more. With the singular exception of one school reunion, in twenty years, I have never seen them used for any other public function. There's a baseball field and horseshoe pits and the requisite bar, back behind the dining room. Volunteers keep the place ship shape and ready for the next function. Dozens of volunteers will make the place ready for next Saturday, when hundreds of locals gather for our annual farewell to summer.
Traditionally held the weekend after Labor Day, it is one final opportunity to spend time with your neighbors, most of whom will soon be closing up their summer camps and departing for warmer climes. Within a month the town population will drop from over five thousand summer residents, back to the seventeen hundred who call Schroon Lake home.

The Lobster Crew getting ready to boil water.

For $30 you get a whole Maine lobster dinner complete with boiled potato and corn on the cob, unlimited clam chowder for as long at it lasts, our world famous BBQ'd chicken with all of the fixin's (well maybe not world famous ~ but pretty popular in Schroon Lake, NY). There's also a beer cart selling brews, and hot dogs and sausage and peppers for those who need even more to eat.
There is a friendly rivalry between the crew that cooks the lobsters (Dozer Dan & Co.) and the Chicken Crew, comprised of yours truly, my Wednesday night table mates - Bob, George, Dennis and Doc, and a few other friends. The rivalry centers around my contention that the chicken should get top billing - as in Chicken and Lobster Bake, not Lobster and Chicken Bake. For years the affair was billed as the "Lobster Bake". When we took over the chicken grills five years ago, we insisted that the chickens get recognition. The Schroon Lake Fish and Game Club marketing committee saw fit to re-title the event as the Lobster and Chicken Bake. Last year I wrote a letter to the Times of Ti editor (the local paper) explaining my position, which they printed under the heading - Chickens Cry Fowl! My premise is this - the chicken crew spends weeks preparing for this event. We blend out secret spice rub for the birds (See recipe here.) We simmer our homemade BBQ sauce for hours the day before the event. We prepare the grill pits - so called firehouse grills - that can barbecue 480 half chickens at one time. Then we have to slave over smoky BBQ pits for hours to make it all come together - exactly on time.
The lobster guys on the other hand, show up an hour before, boil some water, plunk in a few hundred lobsters and wait until they turn red. For this they should get top billing? I don't think so!
You should stop by and see for yourself. Have some of our chicken. Maybe try a lobster. (It's included in the $30 chicken price) Listen to some music (and dance in the parking lot if you like). And please stop over and say Hi. We hope to see you there.

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Chez Pierre Restaurant, Gansevoort - Wilton, NY

2011-09-02T08:18:00.000-04:00

Chez Pierre Restaurant

979 Route 9

Gansevoort, NY 12831

Phn: 518 793 3350

Closed Mondays

Open 7 days during racing season
www.chezpierrerestaurant.com

Channeling Pierre Franey ~

Chez Pierre is just north of Saratoga, hidden away on Route 9 between Northway exits 16 and 17. The website lists their address as Gansevoort, which is really five miles south. The cocktail coasters state that the place is in Wilton. Just outside the parking lot is a sign that welcomes you to the town of Moreau. Confused yet? The website lists a different address for patrons looking to find the place via GPS. I can tell you that my Droid's Google Maps program would have none of it, leading me to a spot a few miles south of the restaurant. I kept driving north on 9, searching for the neon Eiffel Tower, appearing in the mist like a Brigadoon during track season.

Chez Pierre has a wonderful history, which is worth telling. The story begins in WWII France, where a young GI named Joe (honest) Baldwin meets a young local lass Pierrette, whose family operates the local village bistro. They fall in love; the young GI asks for her hand; Dad says come back to France when this is all over and we'll talk. He does; they (say I) do. GI Joe brings her back to Gansevoort (or Wilton, or Moreau). Enter the eponymous first born Pierre, soon followed by Patrica, Patrick and Pia, all of whom have been involved in the restaurant's operation. Pia was in the dining room last Wednesday, welcoming regular patrons as they stopped in for dinner, most of whom arrived after a day at the track. Pia's husband Lincoln now runs the kitchen and serves up French country classics, traditional dishes that have not changed over the restaurant's forty eight years in business.

As traditional as the menu is, the dining room and lounge area is even more so. Around the bar were scattered bent wire bistro chairs, at tables set with white and pink linen. The back bar showcased a collection of 1960's era collectible liquor bottles, cast as sailing ships and automobiles and thankfully - no busts of Elvis. It really looks like the French bistro set from every MGM musical you've ever seen; all that was missing was Gene Kelly washing glasses behind the bar.

I stopped in last Wednesday, and had dinner at the bar with my new favorite bartender Alie. I arrived at 6:30, just before the Saratoga crowd showed up for cocktails. Alie started me off with a basket of warm sliced baguette, which appeared with a slab of house made pate. The portion was a Mel's Diner meatloaf sized slab of a very tasty pate, which was a perfect companion for the baguette, but I immediately regretted ordering an appetizer. That is until my grenouilles ($11) showed up. I love frogs legs. These were very nicely prepared, lightly breaded and sauteed in a lemony white wine and butter sauce. Perfect.

Next came a salad of mixed greens dressed with a home made watercress vinaigrette dressing, which came with my entree. As I finished my salad and sipped on a glass of chardonnay, I studied some of the French writings that adorned the walls around the restaurant. Scrolled over the back bar it read: "Quand ce Coq chantera credit l'on fera" which I think means - You'll get credit when the cock crows - but I could be wrong on that. The appetizer offerings include many of your favorite classics including my froggies. Also listed were escargot ($12), Coquille St. Jacques ($14), and of course, onion soup ($7).

Similarly, the entrees read like the menu from the 39 World's Fair's Le Pavillon ~ Veal Oscar ($30) (seriously, when was the last time you saw Veal Oscar on a menu), sauteed medallions of veal Francaise style ($25), roast duckling ($25) l'orange or served with a bing cherry sauce, and Lobster Newburg ($38). I ordered the chef's special for the evening - another Continental classic - Veal Rossini. Two slices of veal loin, finished with a luscious brown sauce flavored with sauteed shallots and spiked with demi and Madeira and topped with a smear of goose liver foie gras. Served with scalloped potatoes and roasted green beans, it was very nicely done and also a trip down memory lane.

Chez Pierre hits its stride during the summer months of racing season, but stays open throughout the winter. I look forward to a return visit this fall, when I imagine the bustle of the Saratoga Racetrack crowd will give way to the tempo of a local village bistro. That is, after all, how our story started.

If you do stop in please let our other readers know about your visit in the comments section.

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Farmhouse at the Top of the World, Lake George, NY

2011-08-19T12:11:00.004-04:00

Dining Out in Lake George

The Farmhouse at the Top of the World

441 Lockhart Mountain Road

Lake George, NY 12845

www.farmhousefood.com

Lunch & Dinner, Wednesday through Sunday

Open seasonally – May through October

Finding a great dining experience in Lake George has always presented a challenge. Like most Adirondack vacation communities, business owners have exactly nine weeks to make a living – from July 4^th through Labor Day weekend. The majority of businesses shutter soon after, with a few brave souls staying open hoping for enough lake ice for a Winter Carnival, but those are the exceptions. Restaurants face the unique problem of hiring and training a staff for the summer – both a kitchen crew that can prepare the menu, and a dining room staff that is up to the task of serving it. A lot of seasonal places deal with the reality of summer college student help and offer a menu that does not require seasoned restaurant professionals to prepare and serve. The overwhelming majority of restaurants in the Adirondacks go down this road. The Lake George dining experience was the Adirondack experience writ large, with a hundred places suddenly appearing each summer, only to disappear like hibernating bears come fall. Of this group I would classify very few as extraordinary, and most would not compare to their downstate competitors. The Inn at Erlowest is certainly one of the exceptions, but the experience there is a little too formal – and expensive - for our tastes. The Gristmill on Schroon in Warrensburg does a nice job with the short season, and will be the subject of a future post. After spending a day at the track last Wednesday, we stopped in at The Farmhouse at the Top of the World for dinner, and came away thinking that we had found our new favorite Lake George restaurant.

Kevin London and Kimberly Feeney are the husband and wife team behind this six year old venture. While the term “farm to table” is becoming hackneyed with overuse, this is the real deal. The couple operate their own farm on site, raising their own produce and egg laying hens. The chef's stint at Tarrytown's Blue Hill at Stone Barns no doubt provided inspiration for much of the menu, and furthered his passion for farm fresh produce. They supplement their own products with meats and cheeses sourced from local producers, and get their fish Fed Ex'd from Montauk and New England suppliers. On Wednesday nary a single farm raised salmon dish appeared on the menu - gold star for that - but we did try some fantastic Montauk scallops ($13) for an app, served over a roasted corn relish, spiked with some smoky bits of bacon.

The restaurant's menu changes each week to reflect whatever is coming up in the garden, and the Lake George summer season coincides perfectly with that effort. House made pastas are also included on the menu. A hand rolled tagliatelle tossed with golden zucchini and roma tomatoes was right up there with the best I have had anywhere – impossibly delicate, with just a hint of olive oil, and fresh garden veggies sauteed for just a moment - to perfection. The dish could be ordered as an app for $10, or an entree ($18) The true test for the kitchen was an order of duck confit ($9), which was listed as a “snack”, and could pass as a side or an app. We judged the confit against my benchmark favorite duck confit – mine. Our table-mates Pete and Tracy graciously suggested that they still like mine best, but I know they were lying. This dish was just great – a perfectly preserved hindquarter with not a hint of residual duck fat, crisped before serving and plated on a bed of fresh salad greens. Another great starter was a salad of early kale (($7), tossed with a local maple infused salad dressing. Quite tasty. Much to my surprise Mary ordered the Farmhouse cheeseburger ($14), which was topped with some house cured pancetta, a raw milk blue cheese, and served with a wonderful homemade ketchup that we passed around trying to guess the recipe's ingredients. In addition to the obvious tomatoes, we thought we sensed some chipotle and a little ginger. You should try it for yourself; served with a huge portion of frites, it's quite good and it may be the best burger you have this summer (and you won't have to worry about what country the meat was sourced from). I tried a dish of Elihu Farm lamb ($24) – tiny bite sized meat balls served with a hand rolled cavatelli in a lamb ragu, and cherry tomatoes with a hint of harissa – a North African chile garlic spice blend. The dish was reason enough to come back.

The wine list was also a pleasant surprise – an eclectic mix of reasonably priced but well chosen wines including a nice Tempranillo (Dacu Bodegas Emerita, 2008 Ribera del Guardiana) which we drank by the glass for $6. A dozen wines were available by the glass. A glass of Ramitello Di Majo Norante arrived corked, but was quickly replaced and was removed from our bill. You can view the entire house wine list here.

The dining room at The Farmhouse looks out over the Top of the World golf course, and as you might expect provides some spectacular views. The room is furnished with shaker style wooden chairs, generously spaced so you do not feel crowded. Sometimes it seemed that there were too many staff personnel in the dining room, with waitstaff, and runners, and bussers all buzzing about; still at times we had to look for our waitress. The service standards were noticeably higher than most local restaurants – waiting till all diners are finished before removing plates, knowing the wines on the list and knowing the ingredients of each dish on the menu. Grading on a curve - among the best in the area (but still not up to the extraordinary standards set by the kitchen.)

On the Rambler Facebook page last week our friend Jeremy opined that his favorite area restaurants were : BarVino in North Creek, Bistro Tallulah in Glens Falls, The Owl at Twilight in Olmstedville, and Lake George's Farmhouse at the Top of the World. We couldn't agree more.

If you do stop in please let our other readers know about your visit in the comments section.

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Tomatoes ~ A Love Story

2011-08-15T15:45:00.007-04:00

Pattypan squash, beets, kale, basil, and Tomatoes!

Is there anything better from the garden than a summer tomato? During the rest of the year I think about them every time I am in the market, every time I eat a salad, every time I am served the cardboard tomatoes that we suffer through from October through July. It is finally August, and August is for tomatoes.

Here in the Adirondacks it is difficult at best to raise garden vegetables. The season is short, especially at higher elevations. Planting anything other than peas before the first week of June invites trouble. Frosts are the norm in May, and a foot of snow is not unheard of. The amount of daily sun light in the northeast compounds the problem, leaving gardeners to search for hardy varieties of fast growing veggies. It also helps if they have a sense of humor. This year I planted six different varieties of tomatoes, in hopes of finding one or two that were up to the task. I started the plants "Indian style" - or at least that's what I read somewhere - with a fish planted under each plant as a "built in" fertilizer. As luck would have it, the bluegills are up near the shore line spawning during the first week of June, and six sacrificed themselves for my garden. I buried one beneath each plant. The next morning I noticed six holes dug neatly down the side of each plant, and a paw swipe showing exactly where I had buried each fish. The plants were untouched; just the fish had been stolen. My trail camera revealed the culprit - the resident red fox had stolen a meal for her kits.

Red fox in the garden - stealing my "fertilizer".

Not an auspicious start for the garden. The rest of the story reads better. I did indeed have two varieties that grew head and shoulders above the rest of the plants - a Garden Leader - Tasty Yellow Cherry is full of ripe orange fruit, and a Bush Early Girl that we purchased at Garden Time in Glens Falls is the most productive of all.

Last weekend Mary also found some heirloom varieties at the farmers markets, so we were faced with the happy dilemma of too many tomatoes. Her favorite solution to that predicament is to roast some up on sheet pans with a spritz of sea salt - 275F for two or three hours, depending upon the thickness of the slices. Store them in a bowl with a good extra virgin olive oil and you have the tastiest bruschetta topping that your garden will produce (until next August.) They will last for a few weeks in the refrigerator and get better with age.

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Tasting Notes ~ Cosimo's Trattoria, Poughkeepsie, NY

2011-08-08T19:56:00.001-04:00

Cosimo's Trattoria
120 Delafield Street
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

Phn: 845 485 7172
www.cosimospoughkeepsie.com
Lunch & Dinner, 7 Days

Every once in a while we don't feel like cooking but we also don't feel like a big meal out. Last night was one of those nights and we stopped in at Cosimo's Trattoria, for what is becoming something of a weekly ritual - a quick dinner at the bar comprised of a salad, a pizza, and a glass (or two) of Pinot Grigio. The restaurant is located just off of Route 9 across from Marist College, and as you might expect it draws on the campus crowd. This can make for interesting conversation at the bar, which is where we usually end up eating.
The place does offer a full lunch / dinner menu of what they bill as "Tuscan" specialties - dishes like veal scallopine, or a rosemary scented ribeye steak, and a half dozen pasta choices including rigatoni alla buttera, and tortollini boscaiola. Rarely do we go down that path.
We're there for the wood fired oven pizzas. I would describe them as "thin crust" pizza but that does not adequately tell the story. The crust is unique to Cosimo's; I have not tasted anything like it anywhere else. It is indeed a thin crust, but it has a wonderful crunchy texture which I attributed to lots of corn meal being used on the counter while prepping the dough. I tried that at home, with good but not comparable results. I've since found out (with much groveling and an intervention from my friend and fellow baker, Bob) that their dough recipe includes semolina flour. The result is a fascinating flatbread / pizza with a pasta like flavor and a crunchy exterior. They pair this as a special with different toppings each day, in addition to the regular menu pizza offerings including a classic (and quite good) margherita, portobello mushroom, spinach and bacon, or quattro stagioni - topped with smoked ham, artichokes, mushrooms and a tomato basil sauce. More often than not I pass on these too. I'm there for one reason - the "scampi pizza", topped with fresh arugula, sundried tomatoes, a garlic pesto spread, whole sauteed shrimp, and shaved parmigiano cheese. For $12.95. It's fantastic. This and a small Caesar salad and I try to convince myself this is a healthy dinner. Mostly.
Say Hi to Brad and JoJo, one of whom is usually holding court at the bar.

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Hudson Valley Table Scraps

2011-08-05T12:13:00.001-04:00

Table Scraps - Delafield's Restaurant

2 Delafield Street, Mount Carmel, City of Poughkeepsie.

Robert Nelson, the Executive Chef at Delafield's Restaurant has purchased the business with his wife, Dandelyon, who will assume front of the house responsibilities. Chef Nelson has run the kitchen at Delafield's since they opened last year. Prior to that he worked at the Locust Tree in New Paltz.

North Country Table Scraps

2011-08-05T12:09:00.000-04:00

Table Scraps ~ The Owl at Twilight, Olmsteadville, NY

Rich and Joanne Dwyer, the owners of the Owl at Twilight, have announced that in the future the restaurant will be open seasonally, from May through September. The Dwyers will be spending their winters in Georgia, where Rich has accepted a position with the University of Georgia. They anticipate closing soon after Labor Day. Check for updates on their new Facebook page.

The Local Restaurant and Bar ~ Rhinebeck, NY

2011-08-04T13:46:00.001-04:00

The Local

38 West Market Street

Rhinebeck, NY 12572

Reservations: 845 876 2214
Closed Mondays

www.thelocalrestaurantandbar.com

As I sat at the bar waiting for my Wednesday night tablemates to arrive, I perused the menu looking for dinner candidates. My eyes were immediately drawn to a menu listing for arugula salad, made with Surryano ham. I recalled reading an article - in Garden and Gun magazine of all places - about this artisanal ham from Virginia. I had made a mental note to order some. It is a classic story of an "aha" moment in business - grandson realizes that granddad's process for curing Virgina style hams is basically the same process as curing prosciutto, and why can't we upscale this product? Fast forward a few years and now Surryano hams - made with high fat, hormone free, heritage Berkshire pigs and aged under exacting conditions for up to eighteen months - command top dollar, and are front and center on the country's best menus, including The Local's.

Arugula salad "Wrap" with Surryano Cured Ham

That one entry that jumped off the page proved to be emblematic of Chef Wesley Dier's menu - billed as seasonal, local, sustainable, and eclectic American. It is indeed all of the above. Everything about the place is red white and blue, including the wine list, which offers a wonderful collection of American offerings - with nary a bottle of Beaujolais to be found. The menu reminds me of the regional American theme of the Culinary Institute's American Bounty restaurant. Diners will not be surprised to find out that Chef Dier, who also ran the kitchen at the now shuttered 40 West next door, is a CIA alumnus.

The space at the Local, tucked into a store front just west of the Beekman Arms, is small but thoughtfully laid out, with a mezzanine dining room on the second floor peering down on the bar and the open kitchen. We counted a total of 32 seats spaciously laid out in the main dining room, with only a few more down on the first floor. Some outdoor seating provides some much in demand additional seating in the summer. The small, cozy bar area is quite comfortable, and our new favorite bartender, Robert, walked us through his favorite menu selections while we sipped our way through a bottle of Barnard Griffin Fume Blanc ($34), a sauvignon blanc from Washington State.

The menu lists an eclectic mix of dishes using seasonal products sourced from local farms and purveyors. Happily many of the offerings are available as "small plates" allowing a mix and match dinner of multiple choices to share, which is exactly what we did. We started with samplings of each of the offered salads.

An evening special was a Caesar salad, fresh romaine served with dollops of a creamy house made dressing. Doc passed around portions of his endive, radicchio, and roasted golden beet salad, topped with toasted spiced pecans, and tossed with a tangy vinaigrette dressing and chunks of fresh orange. ($12) I would tell you to order that but if you do you will miss the aforementioned arugula and Surryano ham "wraps" which are now firmly ensconced on my list of top ten all time salad dishes. Two bunches of fresh garden arugula are first dressed with an elegantly simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil, a spritz of lemon and a dash of sea salt, and then rolled up in a razor thin slice of the best "Virgina ham" you have ever tasted. - silky smooth with a nutty finish and just an essence of hickory smoke; it will show well against the best European speck style hams.

Next came a round of appetizer sized small plates. I had a crock of chicken dumplings, a half dozen pouches of seasoned NorthWind Farm chicken, served with slices of shitake mushrooms. Very nicely done. Better yet was a plate of slow roasted pork belly ($18), glazed with a soy cola sauce, and served on a thick slice of watermelon, surrounded by wontons stuffed with Hudson Valley foie gras. What's better than that? Doc generously shared his plate of Scottish Highlander grass fed beef "sliders", served on a pillow soft brioche with aged cheddar cheese from Bobolink dairy farm($15). We matched all of these dishes with sides of "caramelized" cauliflower ($10) which was roasted with capers and raisins and polenta "croutons". A dish of fried brussel sprouts ($10) was just as good, tossed with an herbal Thai spice mix and a fish sauce vinaigrette.

George had two fish offerings to choose from, both earning the Rambler's Choice Award for seafood sustainability. The regular menu lists a spice rubbed wild Pacific king salmon ($26), served with chipotle whipped potatoes. An evening special came with a prompt from our server Becky, and our table's choice was the wild striped bass. It was beautifully prepared - moist and flaky and served in a puddle of briny caper and burnt butter pan sauce. Wonderful stuff.

Cups of freshly made espresso finished the meal, served with a snifter of Sambucca and a plate of biscotti.

We came away sated, unanimously impressed, and looking forward to a return visit. The Local sports the whole package - an inventive diverse selection of regional dishes made with seasonal, top quality ingredients from local sources, a very nice bar to relax and have a drink (or enjoy dinner at the bar if dining alone), a well chosen wine list, and a professional, friendly, waitstaff who obviously enjoy working here and are justifiably proud of the product that they offer. If we awarded "stars", we would throw in an extra one for the music play list - Temps, Stevie Wonder, Four Tops. Everything tastes better with Motown, yes? The Local Restaurant and Bar is added to our list of Hudson Valley Favorites, and we highly recommend you visit.

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Overheard at the Bar ~ Cucina Poughkeepsie?

2011-07-27T15:05:00.001-04:00

After sitting vacant for more than a decade the space that housed Angelisa's on College View Avenue is being readied for a new restaurant. Planning is underway for a new Italian eatery at the property, which is owned by George Banta, proprietor of the Beekman Arms and other local establishments. Gianni Scappin, chef owner of Cucina in Woodstock, and formerly at Gigi Trattoria in Rhinebeck will be at the helm. A summer 2012 opening is planned. Stay tuned.

Hudson Valley Top 10 Favorite "Bistro Style" Restaurants

2011-07-08T09:47:00.002-04:00

We present our list of Top Ten favorite "bistro style" restaurants in the Hudson Valley as of July 2011. They all serve great home style cooking using local farm products, with a decent bottle of wine, in a comfortable and casual atmosphere. No haute cuisine here, just basic good cooking. All of the listings are links to the full blog post with hours of operation and contact info.

Why would "our favorites" not necessarily be "the best"? Read about that here.

Italian:

Aroma Osteria, Wappingers Falls

Mercato Osteria, Red Hook

Pub style:

Beechtree Restaurant, Poughkeepsie

Red Brick Tavern, Rosendale

American Bistro (and best raw bar):
Boitson's, Kingston

Brasserie (and best newcomer):

Brasserie 292, Poughkeepsie

French:

Le Canard Enchaine, Kingston

Le Pavillon, Poughkeepsie

German:

Mountain Brahaus, Gardiner

Indescribable - in a class all by itself:

Basement Bistro, Earlton

Do you think we left someone out? Please Email me!

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Brasserie 292 - Poughkeepsie, NY

2011-07-03T10:12:00.013-04:00

Brasserie 292

292 - 294 Main Street

Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

(Phn) 845-473-0292

www.brasserie292.com

Lunch & Dinner
Closed Sunday

After decades of being culinarily deprived, Poughkeepsie's city center is suddenly awash in wonderful dining destinations. The Artist's Palate established the beachhead, along with Crave, and then Bull & Buddha and Karma Lounge, and now Brasserie 292 - all in walking distance of each other.

Some will define a brasserie as a bistro with beer taps. They came to popularity in nineteenth century Paris, run by Alsatian expatriates, and offered the food – and beers – of that region near the German border. Brasser means brewer – and early brasseries did focus on the beer, but more modern versions now pay just as much attention to their wine list. Authentic brasseries offer the comfort food of Alsace, dishes like choucroute garnie and boudin sausage, and escargot a l'Alsacienne and Kassler – cured pork with a smoke finish. It is, without question, my favorite style of cooking, and my favorite type of restaurant. Finally, we have our own brasserie right here on Main Street, Poughkeepsie, and a very fine one at that.

The brasserie concept was actually a Plan B for the partners, who considered a few different formats first. General Manager Chris Crocco, who holds court in the dining room, worked at Bobby Flay's Bar Americain and Mesa Grill in New York. His brother Dan, who runs the kitchen, has his own culinary CV, including stints with James Beard winner Melissa Kelly at Primo in Rockland ME, and our friends Eddie and Lucia Lauria at Aroma Osteria. They are joined in this enterprise by Alex Serroukas, whose local establishments include the Double O Grill's in Rhinebeck and Wappingers, and The Standard at Crossgates in Albany. This new venture is a stretch for all of them; stylisticly a brasserie is like nothing they have done before.

The look and feel of Brasserie 292 is, well, a brasserie. This is the real deal, complete with a “blade” neon sign, lots of stainless, and black and white patterned tile-work, and period looking milk glass lighting. Our new favorite bartender, Leia, will be waiting for you just inside the door, polishing her white marble bar-top. The main dining room seats eighty in a mix of banquettes and two tops that can be strung together for larger parties. It is an efficient use of too little space, and is complemented by a smaller row dining room alongside which can squeeze in another two dozen patrons.

Our Wednesday Night Dinner Crew stopped in last week on what was actually their opening night. The menu is printed in a bistro type set used a century ago, and goes nicely with the décor. I was thrilled to see so many brasserie classics listed. Onion soup ($7) leads off on the menu, followed by steak tartare ($11/$18) and my favorite - escargot. I stole a fork-full of the tartare from my dining companion. It was a nice portion of chopped tenderloin, assertively seasoned with back pepper, Worcestershire and mustard, and flecks of cornichon pickles and served with slices of baguette. Very nicely done. My escargot was served in the shell, doused with a little garlic butter and parsley sauce, and offered up with a pair of slightly too small snail tongs, which were a little too tight to handle properly. I had visions of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and wondered if my snail shells were going to end up across the dining room in Denise Chickery's lap. (They behaved and stayed put and were quite tasty.)

The menu also lists a raw bar offering daily specials of clams on the half shell, or oysters, which will rotate according to availability, along with crab salad ($14) and shrimp cocktail ($12). An appetizer special reminded me of a similar dish prepared in a similar fashion at an old favorite haunt - La Rive Restaurant in Catskill, now long shuttered. A prepared salt cod – baccala - is blended with seasoned potato, and served in a crock as a spread. It is what baguettes were created for. This kitchen's version was great. Another bistro / brasserie classic is the Belgian staple – moules frites ($14), nicely done here, especially the frites. Twice cooked, I think, crispy and delicious and what french fries should taste like. The juicy plump mussels were served in a white wine and butter bath, laced with some smoked ham bits, fresh and sweet and tasty. We washed all of this down with a few bottles of a white Bordeaux, a Chateau Jacquet, very reasonably priced at $26, and a red Petalos, from a great producer, Alvaro Palacios, for $38.

We tried a plate of duck confit ($24), nicely cured and crisped before service, another classic dish that I will look forward to ordering again. A pan seared salmon, was served on a bed of wilted spinach ($23). The menu also offered a roasted cod ($23) or a tuna steak seared au Poivre ($25). The menu lists a daily special for each day of the week - bouillabaisse ($26) on Friday, cassoulet ($20) on Monday, and a whole roast chicken, served for two diners on Wednesday's ($20 per person).

All in all, for a first night's effort the place passed with flying colors. In fact, the greatest compliment that I can give the place is that if I had not known it was their first night open, I never would have guessed it. Our server, Kayleigh, was attentive and charming, and put up with our antics. Everyone else in the dining room chipped in on an as needed basis, which suggested that they had some extensive training before the opening – and also that they were probably pooling tips, which in my book always improves the service. To say that Brasserie 292 is a welcome addition to the Poughkeepsie dining scene would be something of an understatement. We liked everything about the place and will certainly be back soon.

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American Glory BBQ, Hudson NY

2011-06-26T13:22:00.006-04:00

342 Warren Street
Hudson NY 12534
Phone 518 822 1234

www.americanglory.com

Last weekend we took advantage of a sunny Sunday, fired up the Mini Cooper, cranked up the Springsteen, and headed up the Taconic. After a quick stop to load up on some Seyval Blanc at Clinton Vineyards and some roadie victuals from the Wild Hive Cafe, it was off to Hudson.

The foodie grapevine has been all abuzz for some time about two Hudson destinations on Warren Street - Mexican Radio, and American Glory BBQ. Last Sunday we were hankering for some Q.

We arrived in Hudson just in time for their Gay Pride Festival, which I suppose would have been even more festive if they had scheduled it one week later. The restaurant was located a few blocks down from the celebrations, but still had a full bar and busy dining room.

We settled in to two seats at the bar, and perused the menu. You can peruse the menu yourself right here. The offerings included the holy trinity of BBQ - ribs, brisket, and pulled pork, but also a good selection of non-Q items - grilled steaks, gumbo, vegetarian platters, and rotisserie chicken. I was there for the BBQ - and was gratified to see all of the old standards available in combination platters.

The kitchen prepares two cuts of ribs. A St. Louis style refers to the cut - not the sauce. The breastbone cartilage that runs across the top of the rack is removed. A full pork spare rib is also available. The meats are prepared "Memphis Style" - with a nicely spiced dry rub, served "nekked", with sauce on the side. A rack of squeeze bottles of homemade sauces are served with your Q, and cover all of the regional variations on that theme - from Carolina style vinegar based sauce to a St Louis sweet tomato based version. I personally like my ribs just the way they come out of the smoker. A well made rub and the right amount of smoke is all the flavor I need. These had both, and they were great.

The real surprise on my combination plate was a Tallahassee smoked turkey leg. The menu described it as "mammoth". I can only say that who ever butchered this turkey is a better man than I. I did see a turkey leg this big once before - at the Renaissance Festival in Sterling Forest, but there it also had to double as a weapon. It was also delicious. It was impossibly tender, moist, flavorful and somehow still had a wonderful crispy skin. The pit-master here takes "low and slow" to places that I have not been before. The ribs were perfectly cooked - a toothsome texture just shy of "fall off the bone" - something very hard to master.

The side dishes were reason enough to show up. We sampled the mac and cheese, and the red beans- a spicy garlic red sauce that was just perfect with this dish. Hidden away under our pile of ribs and slices of smoked brisket was a mound of the kitchen's version of Texas hash - chopped brisket in a tangy BBQ sauce. All of this, with some corn bread on the side, was $41 for two people. Where else can the results of ten hours of labor be had for $20.50 per person?

The atmosphere downstairs in the bar area was very casual, but still very comfortable. The exposed brick walls look very much like the fire house that it once was, and the 30 foot bar is beautifully appointed and well stocked with local craft beers and a few nice wines. I did run upstairs to peek at the dining room, which looks to seat another fifty or so diners without the "bar" atmosphere. Families might find that more comfortable (and the rest of us want you to take your kids up there anyway) (Kidding!)

American Glory BBQ is serving some of the best Q that I've tasted outside of St. Louis in a wonderful setting complete with a great bar, outdoor sidewalk seating for the summer, and a great selection of locally brewed beers. What's not to like?

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Serevan - Amenia, NY

2011-06-18T14:01:00.003-04:00

6 Autumn Lane,
Route 44, just west of Route 22
Amenia, NY 12501

Dinner Thursday through Monday
Reservations: 845 373 9800
www.serevan.com

Serevan has long been on our personal list of Hudson Valley favorites. Open for seven years, Chef Proprietor Serge Madikians' kitchen focuses on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean fare, with an emphasis on the cuisine of his native Armenia. Armenia's regional dishes are influenced by centuries of occupations by the neighboring Turks and Persians and Russians. It sits at the crossroads between Eastern Europe and Asia and the Silk Road travelers brought even more culinary ideas along with them. That cuisine, and the menu at Serevan, accord vegetables and spices the same reverence as the regional meats, which focus on lamb dishes along with meals of chicken or beef. Cured olives and figs and dates are married with lemon citrus sauces scented with cumin and rosemary and mint and hints of garlic. It is a simple style of home cooking that Serge's kitchen takes to high art. Chef Madikians' talents were recognized recently by the James Beard Foundation, when he was named a finalist in the foundation's North East Regional competition. His menu is especially enjoyable during the growing season when local farm produce starts appearing. We stopped in last night for dinner.

At 8 PM on a Friday the dining rooms are full with local regulars. Serge seems to know each and every guest, all of whom are greeted with hugs and smiles and whispers of what awaits them in the kitchen. It is a delightful scene that only plays well in small towns or neighborhood destinations where everyone knows your name. So it is at Serevan.

We started with a bottle of Luciene Crochet Sancerre ($42), which I ordered to complement the seafood that was being discussed by my tablemates. There was a black bass under consideration. More than one departing diner was heard raving about it as they were leaving the restaurant. Brook trout was another evening special. I knew I was going to have a warm calamari salad ($12) for an appetizer. There's something about the grapefruit undertones of a Sancerre's Sauvignon Blanc grape that goes really well with fish.
Another appetizer turned out to be the hit of the evening - a minty cream of fresh pea soup, served chilled. The peas were so sweet it could have been a dessert; it tasted like - and had the texture of - melting pea ice cream. Absolutely fantastic.
My calamari salad was tossed with a citrus spritzed roasted cauliflower and dill. The squid was tender and sweet and the dish was a wonderful combination of lemon scented flavors and textures. It was also big enough to pass as an entree. A delicious roasted beet and watercress salad, plated with citrus infused garbanzos rounded out our foursome's apps.
Our entrees included the requisite rack of lamb ($34) broiled to a perfect pink center, scented with rosemary and garlic, and plated with basmatti rice. The ladies each ordered the brook trout ($25), which were a fair bit larger than anything I have caught lately, and served with chick peas, hummus and preserved lemon. The menu has an extensive selection of seafood including wild Alaska salmon and wild caught striped bass. I appreciate restaurants that do not serve farm raised Atlantic salmon and Serge gets a gold star for the effort. I was tempted by the branzino ($25), a Mediterranean sea bass, served with a puree of poached Anjou pears.
I settled on the Chicken Bastillia ($23). Bastilla is a classic Mediterranean dish that the kitchen here puts its own stamp on. It is Moroccan in origin where it is the national dish and traditionally made with pigeon. (I was fine with the chicken substitute.) The bird is first fried, and then braised and blended into a "meat pie" filling with lots of onions and ginger and cinnamon and saffron and coriander and parsley and then stuffed into a phyllo like pastry called warka. Every nationality has there only national pot pie dish and this is one of my favorites - especially the way Serge makes it.
We finished our meal with our usual espresso and Sambucca and were happy campers all.
Total cost? I have no idea; our dining companions Robert and Sarah picked up the check. Whatever it was, it was worth every penny.

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