Date Day: A City Adventure – 8/13/11

Joe and I went around to several places on Saturday, August 13. Rather than simply doing individual reviews, we've decided to give you a glimpse of a "date day." Here, for your reading pleasure, is a chronicle of our adventures.

1. Tap & Mallet

Joe and I decided to go to Tap & Mallet for the Southern Tier Total Tap Takeover, a special event featuring all beers from the Southern Tier Brewing Company. We had actually never been to Tap & Mallet, even though we’ve had it recommended to us before. We weren’t sure what to expect this first time there. We stood at the entrance for a bit, feeling awkward while waiting for a hostess, but when there wasn’t one, we decided to sit at the bar. The bartender was excellent, attentive, and friendly despite it being a very busy day for him. We also had the added bonus of sitting near the bar’s bobcat, which I friended on Facebook after overhearing that “Bob Cat” actually had an account. Why? I don’t know. Why not? 

Who knew bobcats were such social creatures?

Joe drank Krampus ’10. Seeing the name Krampus always makes me think of the Venture Bros. Christmas special (I don’t really feel like explaining that one—you’d have to see it). I drank the Wien Vienna Lager, which was good but really just reminded me of a fancy Yuengling. For lunch, Joe ate the burger with mash and gravy, and I ate the vegan chili. Overall, we thought it was a great place, and I have a feeling we’ll definitely be returning!

Surprise?

The vegan chili.

Joe's burger--what, you didn't think it was mine, did you?

2. Village Gate

Joe and I stopped in Village Gate Square on Goodman St., which is probably one of the most interesting places in Rochester. There are some popular restaurants there (Salena’s, California Rollin’, The Gate House, and Lento) and some cool specialty shops (The Bop Shop for records, Ricky’s Place for vintage clothing, Yankee Peddler for old books, and Outlandish for all of your gay pride and leather daddy needs... if that’s your thing). Village Gate is also home to many art studios as well. We visited Yankee Clipper, a collectibles store into which we rarely venture. Joe bought a football card, which I would rather not have to explain since it’s related to fantasy football. He doesn’t collect football (or any type of) cards, by the way, so this was a new thing for us. We also bought a Dalek figure there; Daleks are the things that look like fancy garbage cans on Doctor Who that fly around shouting “Exterminate!” We are very pleased with our Dalek and plan to include him this Christmas in a nativity scene, a la Mr. Bean.

We didn’t stop in The Bop Shop, and I’m not sure why, but it’s another favorite place of mine. I used to hate getting dragged there as a kid when my dad went record shopping, but when I finally started buying records too, it became one of my favorite places to go. Especially with some of my weird tastes, it’s the perfect place to go if you’re looking for something obscure, musically speaking.

3. Warner Castle/Highland Park/Mt. Hope Cemetery

These three are all in the same area. We parked in the lot for Warner Castle and went there first. This “castle” is a beautiful old home in the city open to the public during certain hours. They also have a beautiful garden behind the home. We took some pictures and saw a cat sunbathing (he had a collar, so we guessed he wasn’t a stray). He kind of looked like our cat Charlie, only with white paws.

The front of Warner Castle.

The courtyard in the back.

Kitty!

Near the front of Mt. Hope Cemetery.

One of the prettiest tombs there! Don't blink!

The older section, with the stairway from who knows when.

Next we walked through the edge of Highland Park. During the spring it’s known for its lilacs (hence the annual Lilac Festival). After that we arrived in Mt. Hope Cemetery, famous for being where local abolitionists Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass were buried. We didn’t go too far since we were having dinner soon after, but we walked around near the entrance where the fountain and many of the mausoleums are located. It’s a very pretty area, and although it’s a cemetery, it makes for a beautiful location for a walk or run through its park-like setting. If we hadn’t had any time constraints, we definitely would have stayed longer.

4. Abundance Co-op

Joe and I just went in here out of curiosity and to kill a few minutes before Lex and Ben arrived at The Owl House down the street for dinner. It reminded me of Lori’s Natural Foods in Henrietta, only smaller. If you live in the city and you’re in dire need of organic eggplant, I guess this is your place.

5. The Owl House

We had dinner with our friends Lex and Ben, another cutesy couple. We sat at the bar for a few minutes, since we were early and the restaurant didn’t open for dinner until 5:00. The bartender was nice, and Lex ordered a drink called “Agent Cooper.” Sadly, it took me a minute to get the Twin Peaks reference (“The owls are not what they seem...”), but I decided to try that as well. For dinner, Joe and I both had the Viva Verde! Tacos (Joe’s had pork, mine had tofu). I think mine could have had way more tofu in it, but I liked their use of fresh ingredients and the water bottle left on the table so we didn’t have to wait for refills. Lex and I also appreciated the fact that The Owl House accommodates those with vegan/vegetarian and gluten-free diets.

A damn fine drink.

My tofu tacos, with way too much cabbage and a cold black bean and corn salad.

Joe's pork tacos, which look almost exactly like mine... but with pork.

Lex and Ben--Cutesy Couples Unite!

6. Boulder Coffee Company (South Wedge)

A coffee shop with beer? Sounds like Joe’s kind of place. Lex, Ben, Joe, and I decided to go there so we could continue our conversation (and to wait out the heavy downpour during the thunderstorm). I drank a ridiculously huge iced chai, and we brought “Daffyd” the Dalek (the only nice Dalek in the village... anyone?) with us, as we all decided to name him. We also witnessed a Cake cover band called “This is Not Cake.” We could tell. I liked the comfy couches (those are always a plus in coffee houses), and I really liked some of the avant garde art on the walls—all or most of it was definitely local.

Mr. Bill!

Giant mermaid!

Dalek heart chai!

Lex posing as a Price is Right model.

After the storm died down, we went out to Lex and Ben’s place to continue chatting. I think we were going to play a game, but it never really happened and didn’t need to. For anybody who says that there’s nothing to do in Rochester, well, I think we proved you wrong... and this was just the tip of the iceberg.

Review: Grandpa Sam's Italian Kitchen - 8/5/11

When putting together our Top 5 lists, Joe and I had many different things to consider. We not only looked at the quality of the food for a particular restaurant, but also good service (and consistent good service), the atmosphere, the amount of options and flexibility in the menu, the presentation of the meal, the value of the meal for its price, and the ease of getting a table. One such place that Joe picked for some of these qualities was Grandpa Sam’s Italian Kitchen in Spencerport. If you recall the entry, however, you’ll notice that this restaurant ended up not in my Top 5 but instead in the honorable mentions section. Maybe since I’m the one writing this, I’m inclined to say that our recent visit to Grandpa Sam’s confirms my placement and not Joe’s. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a good little place to go when you’re craving a hearty pasta dish, but the lack of consistency in the above categories, to me, prevents it from being one of the Rochester area’s best despite its potential.

Joe and I went on a Friday night for a nice convenient date night right down the street. We hadn’t made a reservation, so we knew we would have to wait a bit. Sometimes we’re lucky and can get in almost immediately. Being that it was a Friday, we didn’t mind waiting. Joe entertained me by trying to test my psychic abilities by Googling pictures on his phone and asking me to guess what it was. (FYI: I’m not psychic... at all.) Joe and I waited ten minutes in the small waiting area by the door, which got crowded fast. During times like those, I appreciate restaurants with a decent-sized bar instead of a few uncomfortable chairs squished together. Finally, we were seated by the hostess not in the main dining area but instead in the room off to the side, which had many empty tables when we arrived in there. I’m not sure why we had to wait if they had extra tables available; it could have been that they were waiting for additional waitstaff to arrive at 6:00, but they’re only open for dinner, so I’m not sure that that’s it. I always find it perplexing when you have to wait while tables sit empty, but I’ll give Grandpa Sam’s the benefit of the doubt this time.

The interior of Grandpa Sam’s is a bit rustic and feels like eating at someone’s house. I like the burgundy paint and the Italian style mural on the back wall. The tables are spaced appropriately, so you never feel like you’re eating at someone else’s table (I remember this feeling quite frequently at the now-closed Henrietta Bazil location). The overhead speakers blasted out tinny ’80s Italian pop music, which I don’t think I’ve ever heard there before; it amused me and Joe for a while. Our server came over promptly, and except for disappearing once during dinner, she was consistently attentive and friendly.

Dancing to the Italian version of Gunther!

In front of the burgundy door to nowhere...

For drinks, I stuck with a glass of water while Joe drank a Labatt. I had tried a sample of their pinot noir special for the evening and found it too sweet (it should be dry). After placing our dinner order, Joe and I received a mixed green salad and some freshly baked bread, both of which arrive with any meal you order. One thing I like about the bread is that the server gives you a dish of olive oil, ground black pepper, and grated parmesan cheese for dipping. You can order garlic bread instead for an extra fee, but the fresh Italian bread always tastes wonderful without that extra seasoning. The salad this time, however, lacked ingredients—only a couple of sliced grape tomatoes and too-garlicky croutons were added to it, and the dressing tasted too strongly of vinegar. For being a salad for two people to share, it also seemed fairly small, but given its lackluster taste, I guess we should have been glad they didn’t give us any more. While waiting for our food, Joe continued to test my psychic ability (still not psychic). We then had a disagreement over which Ramone was a conservative, and our friend Ian confirmed via text that I was right about “Kill a commie for mommy Johnny” (Joe said DeeDee—really?). I won $5, which he never actually gave me, and dinner on this date night, which he did pay for; I’m a lucky girl!

Joe noticed that they had new specials. One dish sounded a bit more upscale: grilled salmon with risotto and a pineapple tomato salsa. Due possibly to Joe’s last disappointing experience with salmon at Ellicottville Brewing Company, he opted instead for the other special of lobster macaroni and cheese. The picture showed a dish of creamy macaroni and cheese topped with a rather large piece of lobster, and for the $18 price of the meal, it should have come with something close to that. This dish had the creamy sauce topped with breadcrumbs as in the picture, but the lobster came in small chunks. Joe also guessed, based on taste, that they had stretched the lobster portions of the dish with pieces of albacore tuna and imitation lobster. He said overall his dish was mediocre, and had this not been a special, I bet he would have gone with a bolognese pasta, which is one of his favorites. The menu asked “Need we say more?” after stating that it was a lobster mac and cheese; we would have to say that yes, they could have said a lot more. It just didn’t live up to Joe’s expectations.

Joe's lobster mac--not exactly what was pictured on the menu

I ordered a create your own pasta dish because I wanted to do something I hadn’t done in a while. For some reason that I now forget, I had been craving alfredo sauce all week, so I decided to make that my order. Usually, I’m unable to get past the Butternut Squash Ravioli on their menu, a unique specialty that really makes the restaurant stand out amongst Rochester’s Italian restaurants. This time I ordered fettuccine alfredo with roasted red peppers. I, too, think I should have ordered something else; I’ve had their alfredo before, and I’ve never had a problem with it, but this dish was just too thick and too messy. I couldn’t take a bite without splattering the pasta all over, and the sauce was so full of heavy cream that after only a few bites I was full. I took the rest home, and I’m not kidding when I say it took me two more attempts in the following days to actually finish it. The flavor was good, but it was unnecessarily heavy. The added issue of making a mess trying to get the pasta on my fork didn’t do the restaurant any favors that night, and the presentation could have been better as well. This just looks like a big soupy mess.

Say "cheese"! No, say "too much cheese"!

Our experience that night wasn’t really bad, but it wasn’t really good either. Both of us have had better from Grandpa Sam’s, and whenever we go back we expect better. We’ve had some really good service there, like when we took my Nana to dinner for her birthday in June. We’ve also had some really poor service; on one of my birthdays, Joe waited half an hour for a second (and small) dish of spaghetti on an all-you-can-eat spaghetti night—something that should have taken only seconds to prepare. This evening, our service was merely adequate, and the quality of the food was mediocre, if we’re being nice about it. For that, Grandpa Sam’s receives a mediocre rating, and I think it will be a while before we dare to return for another date night.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Review: Ellicottville Brewing Company – 7/30/11

We're back! And this time with an actual dinner review (none of that silly lunch stuff here now!). Enjoy!

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After a visit to Olean for a friend’s afternoon wedding reception, Joe and I decided to take a short excursion to Ellicottville Brewing Company. This took us on a nice scenic drive of about 28 miles to the small ski resort town of Ellicottville, NY. Joe and I are both SUNY Fredonia alumni; during our last year or so there, a second Ellicottville Brewing Company (or EBC) opened up in the village. On any stop through Fredonia (or to it, back when we still had friends going there), EBC is a welcome sight and a great break on any road trip. On Saturday, we visited the original location for the first time, and we definitely found it a very enjoyable experience.

The first thing we noticed upon entering was that this EBC location is much more spacious than the Fredonia one. The interior has the look of an old ski lodge—almost everything is wooden and rustic, with detailed moldings, old black and white photographs of skiers from the 1950s or ’60s, and chairs actually made from rough-hewn branches. We waited at the door for about a minute (not very long on a Saturday night), and then the hostess greeted us and actually apologized for keeping us waiting. I was kind of surprised—on a busy Saturday night, I expect to wait, but I guess things are a bit different in Ellicottville. She seated us right afterward, and within a couple more minutes we had our drink order placed for a pitcher of Blueberry Wheat beer.

With apologies to the random people at the bar...

He looks like he has a halo and like he's in deep thought.

Still somewhat chipper (and hungry) after driving to Olean and then to Ellicottville!

If you’re going to a place where the word “Brewing” (or some variation) is in the name, you should expect good beer. EBC doesn’t disappoint! The Blueberry Wheat is my favorite, but they also have an Oatmeal Stout, “Nut Brown,” Pale Ale, and something Joe sampled later on called “Pantius Droppus” (he liked it, but it was too malty for me). Like the Rohrbach Brewing Company in Rochester, you would have to be crazy to order a Budweiser or Coors in a place like this. In our pitcher of Blueberry Wheat, they actually threw in some blueberries. I know this violates the Man Law of “no fruit in beer,” but I thought it was a nice touch. (Joe drank it; he’s the manliest man I know!)

Our beer!

The beer taps

Onto the actual meal: for a starter (sorry, appetizer—we’ve been watching too much Gordon Ramsay), Joe and I ordered mushroom bruschetta. It sounded too interesting not to try! The menus at each EBC location differ, and at “EBC East” in Ellicottville, they offer four different kinds of bruschetta: traditional, mushroom, steak, and pepper with goat cheese. The mushroom bruschetta was such a great start that it was almost too great; the rest of the meal had a lot to live up to. This dish consisted of four slices of Italian bread topped with a piece of ricotta cheese, arugula, and the cooked, marinated mushrooms. When the waiter first set the plate on our table, I detected the earthy scent of the mushrooms. The taste, although it started out a bit salty, finished nicely with no bad aftertaste, and we could easily pick up the traces of rosemary and the dish’s white truffle oil (fancy!). Our only (very minor) complaint was that the ricotta could have been a bit warmer—it tasted cold in comparison to the mushrooms and bread. That’s an easy thing to ignore, however, and the mushroom bruschetta serves as a great twist on a classic starter dish! (As an added bonus, check out the exquisite presentation—most of the meal came with square or rectangular dishes such as this one.)

For dinner, Joe ordered the Summer Salmon, which consisted of a grilled salmon topped with a cucumber and tomato tapenade with rice and asparagus on the side. After the excellent mushroom bruschetta, this dish really had to impress, and sadly Joe did not think that it did. He said for the most part that the meal was just bland. Everything was cooked fine—although the salmon was grilled too long and looked a little black around the edges—but mostly everything lacked seasoning. The saffron rice didn’t have a saffron taste, and I saw Joe add salt and pepper to it at least a couple of times. He had the same complaint about the asparagus—cooked well, but no real flavor. The presentation also lacked the same refined look as the bruschetta, since it was served on a bizarre beer bottle plate—cute, but not really fitting for this meal. The one thing that saved the entire meal from disaster was its side: a crisp Caesar salad with romaine, a house-made dressing, and “well-fired croutons,” according to Joe. Overall, however, Joe said that this ambitious meal was a letdown.

Joe's dinner with beer bottle plate!

 My meal was probably a bit less fancy, but mine was far from being a letdown. I ordered the falafel burger, which I thought was another unique twist on a classic. If you’ve never had falafel, I’ll explain it: it’s a Mediterranean food made from fried crushed chickpeas (same stuff used in hummus!), and it’s usually flavored with curry and other spices. It typically comes in a pita and is topped with tzatziki (a cold yogurt and cucumber sauce). Falafel usually consists of several smaller pieces of fried chickpea—EBC’s falafel burger was essentially one big falafel in a bun. I actually didn’t eat the bun because it was too big and instead just ate the falafel with my fork. I think it would have worked better in a pita. I know EBC was probably trying to get away from that traditional side of the dish, but it’s tradition for a reason: the bun is too big for the falafel burger. Unlike Joe’s meal, the falafel packed a lot of seasoning. In some places I actually found the curry too overpowering, but for the most part it had just the right amount of flavoring. I ordered a salad for my side dish, which I usually do because I hate french fries, and I loved its presentation in a neat little square bowl. The salad itself had a mix of romaine, arugula, and herbs, and the shaved parmesan and lemon balsamic dressing on it complemented the flavors nicely. My meal turned out perfect, except for the burger bun. This leads me to believe that the menu might be hit or miss; some of their dishes are quite ambitious, and sometimes you can only offer so much innovation on tradition.

Great presentation... except for the plastic cup of dressing?

On the night we dined at EBC, a jazz band, the Paul de Ritter Quintet, provided some entertainment. They even went around taking requests. After our meal ended, we sat at the bar with an old acquaintance from Fredonia and her boyfriend, since they also attended the reception. There we just talked, listened to the music, and drank a little bit more of EBC’s great custom brews. This must have been a festival weekend in Ellicottville, for there were bands in some of the other bars (and one out on the street). Maybe not every aspect of the meal was perfect, but I think we couldn’t have asked for a better night.

Our overall review is four out of five stars. The beer, the bruschetta, and the atmosphere definitely make Ellicottville Brewing Company a worthy excursion.

Rating: 4/5 stars