Between The Buns

November 23, 2013: the Doctor Who 50^th Anniversary. So, we headed to Between The Buns sports bar, hamburger and hotdog restaurant in our hometown downtown to celebrate! It was my daughter MJ’s idea, a supreme Doctor Who fan. And no, there is no connection between the restaurant and Doctor Who... at least as of this particular dimension’s writing. She just wanted an excuse to check out the new eatery and Julie was all for it, as was I.

 

At 6 Elm Street in historic downtown Potsdam, NY, the location is a neat, old, stand-alone building. Formerly a Masonic temple, it has large roman columns framing the main entrance frontage and was recently last occupied by La Casbah Moroccan food restaurant. I had only eaten there once (it was delicious!) before the Julie/Mom Project and don’t remember much at all of the interior downstairs. The upstairs had been renovated into a nightclub for live music and dancing. I went up there on several occasions only for Science Café community event presentations before those found a more appropriate home in the Civic Center.

 

Only the downstairs is currently used for regular seating. I think the upstairs is used for small private events. The walls and ceilings are covered over with “tin” paneling with metallic copper color paint on it and the exposed utility pipes. A triplet of interior passageways to a seating area off the bar room are ornately shaped with peaked curves. The copper-effect paint is accented with real copper paneling on the bar surface and a few other small areas such as the frames of the passageways. Overall, it is a pleasant, bright effect.

 

This is not your ordinary burger joint. Creative hamburgers and hotdogs is descriptive of the menu, which also includes a few specialty French roll sandwiches, salads and appetizers. All meals come with fries, a small side of coleslaw and house made bread and butter pickle slices (upon request). Though one can choose to eat the burger or dog held in hands, my experience is they are too loaded with their character toppings for this to be less than a totally sloppy, if still delicious, experience.

 

Julie got The Cuban specialty sandwich of house-roasted pork, bacon, bread and butter pickles with Swiss cheese and whole grain mustard. MJ ordered the Mac-N-Cheese hamburger, which is no longer available as of this writing. House made, creamy macaroni and cheese was pan-fried to top the burger patty along with a rosemary tomato sauce and real bacon bits. Mom (that’s me) also ordered a now defunct sandwich. The “Fish Sandwich” was composed of a patty of ground ahi tuna, seared with a black sesame crust and topped with pickled ginger and cilantro slaw and wasabi vinaigrette. A nice touch on the specialty sandwiches is a skewer to hold them together made of bamboo with a cute curly end.

 

Burgers are cooked to order doneness as red, pink or brown. MJ got hers brown. She likes well-done meat which is a good, safe preference. I ordered my ahi burger pink, as well-done sort of ruins the flavor and texture of fresh ahi. But truly, the fish was almost certainly not fresh, unless it was “fresh frozen”, a laughable term that has picked up in popularity in recent years. I am spoiled from my time in Hawaii where ahi tuna was caught offshore every day and we ate it raw with special seasonings as an appetizer called poke (pronounced poe-kay). I enjoyed my sandwich here, seared as it was with black sesame crust. It apparently wasn’t popular enough to keep on the menu and has been replaced by a southern style “Po Boy” sandwich of battered fried crabmeat with remoulade sauce (which I have since tried and it's yummy).

 

I am the only one who chose to have the side of coleslaw, though we all enjoyed our fries. I specifically made sure to get our sample of bread and butter pickles (which were a topping on Julie’s pork sandwich). The girls love pickles. These were heavy on cinnamon flavor and quite sweet with no onion as I generally associate with bread and butter pickles. They are very good, uniquely thick, wavy cut and crispy.

 

As for beverages, this is a bar, so I had a large mug of local beer, St. Lawrence Brewing Company’s Switchback Ale. It’s lovely, unfiltered pale ale and has become the mainstay of why I frequent Between the Buns as a regular now. More on that toward the end of this blog... the Mom Project, ha ha ha. Julie got a Sierra Mist, the brand they have here of her favorite flavor of soda pop, lemon-lime. It came served in a large, clear plastic cup with a straw. MJ’s favorite soda is root beer. This came from the bar in a bottle as the locally famous brand Saranac, presented with an ice-filled mug.

 

Not on the menu are desserts, but the waiter let us know they had a couple of options available. I cannot figure how I failed to write down what the option was that we didn’t choose, but I did manage to scribble what we did order, chocolate chip cookies. These came out as not just any old cookies. They were warm on a plate and drizzled with chocolate syrup. Mmmmmmmmm... I am not a big dessert fan, but these were delicious!

 

As we were enjoying our meal, MJ had her nose in a book (one with real paper pages, which she likes for the way they smell, among other things), I was writing in my spiral notebook for this blog and Julie was looking it over and talking to me as I consulted with her over various notes to take. A woman came up to us and said how she just had to express how refreshing it was to see people actually reading books instead of being absorbed in electronic gadgets!

 

Now really, MJ was the only one reading a book, but it’s true that many people who are absorbed in electronic gadgets are actually just reading e-books. It’s also true that Julie loves her electronic gadgets, but hadn’t brought any with her so she could immerse herself in the experience of what we were doing. It’s also possible that if I was typing my notes into some electronic gadget instead of writing with a pen in a spiral bound notebook, the woman may not have been inspired to approach us. But it was fun to hear a strangers’ impression of our behavior. And it’s a testament to how technologically challenged I am that I have no clue what electronic device would be most suitable for taking notes at a tiny restaurant table or how to use any such thing. I consider it a huge life accomplishment that I know how to write in cursive and type with fingers other than just two thumbs to use a word processor to compile my writing into a form that I can download to an internet blog site!

 

As any reader can tell from the first line of this blog, I have blown off the writing of this piece in typical Mom fashion! I have a thousand excuses, but I really had told myself that I was going to go straight home from our visit and write it up. However, I started the Julie/Mom Project as a no-rules thing. Something to inspire and enjoy, not to create unnecessary pressure out of a fun thing. And so it is!

 

The picture of Julie/Mom in front of Between The Buns was taken in November as the weather was getting cold, but it could easily have been taken not too long ago this spring. It is late May now and it finally feels like summer is on the way, though spring feels like it has just barely arrived here in the North Country, New York State. So, between the visit I just wrote about and now was winter. Between the seasons, Mom has been back to the Buns many, many times. The Mom Project at my new neighborhood hangout is just a few blocks walk from my house on Potsdam’s uneven sidewalks.

 

I blame my procrastination in writing this up on my frequency of visits... it’s like the visit was never over, so how could I write it up? Just an excuse for laziness, but here is what I discovered for my winter-long efforts: what a pleasant place to sit and read while enjoying tasty craft beer on tap! Maybe catch a sporting event if you don’t have cable TV at home? There’s a friendly manager who chats with you about local history and culture.

 

I am adding old photos of the building to the end of this. The original structure at the turn of last century was a mercantile, I have been told. Sometime after it was willed to the local Masons, the roman columns went up and the turret with the spiral staircase came down. It’s an interesting evolution of architecture. I wish I could remember more about the interior from its previous days as La Casbah. Apparently, the hardwood floor had been painted green. It was sanded and refinished for it's present use.

 

I noticed a few menu changes besides the fish sandwich. The Hangover isn’t listed, though one bartender insists they can make it if I wanted it. I noted it as a burger topped with applewood bacon, a sunny-side up egg and creamy cheddar. I haven’t been in the namesake state of being since coming here to inspire ordering one of these yet, but I’ll keep this in mind should the occasion arise.

 

I’m not sure what happened to the Mac-N-Cheese burger MJ had. Mac-n-cheese by itself had been on the menu at our initial visit under “Warm-Ups” but disappeared along with soup du jour and Pickled Goodness (b-n-b pickles, fire cracker carrots and marinated olives). But I swear I once saw someone having mac-n-cheese with something else that may have been a daily special. I hadn’t done a full accounting of the menu in my notes in November, so I have no objective idea of what all has been removed, switched or added.

 

There are some really unique assemblages such as The Saint and The Stoner. The former is a burger on fresh greens and roasted red peppers, topped with sweet chili pepper cream cheese mousse, shaved prosciutto, braised duck and balsamic reduction. I had this one and it was absolutely fabulous. The latter is a burger topped with swiss cheese, french fries, Michigan sauce, a hot dog and coleslaw. Yes, those are all toppings. I have never had this one and doubt I ever will.

 

And in case anyone is wondering about the namesake of these burger sandwiches, “Stoner” is short for “Sandstoner”, which is the mascot of the local Potsdam High School. Potsdam, NY is historically famous for it’s distinctive sandstone that is incorporated into so much local architecture as well as exported. I know readers that aren’t from here needed to know that. I mean why else would someone name a burger topped with a Michigan hot dog, french fries and coleslaw, “The Stoner”?

 

So, nearby St. Lawrence University’s mascot is a “Saint”. In town, Clarkson University’s mascot is a “Knight” (two burger patties, ham, mozzarella, banana peppers, fresh greens, red onion, chipotle mayo). And State University of New York at Potsdam is a “Bear” (turkey, ham, pepperoni, melted mozzarella, cheddar, swiss, banana peppers, red onions and b-n-b pickles). Acknowledging our local places of education and sports with these names, they are.

 

Last but definitely not least is the addition made at the turning of spring: 25 new beer taps! This is definitely the Mom Project part of this place, though truth be told, I still go for the Switchback pale ale. I have tried all of the varieties they have that are in my preference of styles and enjoy many of them, but I love a good pale ale and I have found one in a very local product. My favorite time is when I happen to arrive when they have just put on a fresh keg of Switchback. The unfiltered yeast is all stirred up from moving around and it looks as thick as a latte. It is so very yummy when it is like this.

 

So, that is that. A bit lengthy, but I could blather on even more with my pent up, winter long experience of this place. I had to go away to work for several weeks just after they got the new taps in. Now that I’m back in town for at least a little while, I think I’ll go down tomorrow and catch some first round French Open tennis and a couple of mugs.

6 Elm Street ca. 1949, copyright 2014 Potsdam Public Museum

From a postcard I bought locally. This was before it was the Masonic Temple, early 1900s.

The Lobster House

Well this is the lamest blog project ever, but at least I’m not a quitter! We’ve actually been to The Lobster House twice now, separated by over a year. This is what happens when the laziest people on the planet make a no-rules blog. We never get around to writing things up, though we certainly do the restaurant eating. I say “we” never get to writing, that would be me. The best I get Julie to contribute to this project is the eating part and MAYBE taking a few notes and suggesting things to include.

 

Julie and I love seafood and definitely lobster. Julie had been dying to go to the Lobster House in Norwood, just five miles up the road from Potsdam in the beautiful North Country, NY. She decided she loves lobster after our adventure buying live ones to do at home from Larry's Fish Truck (blog post 9/20/11), which is now out of business. Julie’s Dad is a vegetarian as far as land animals are concerned, but his issues aren’t about eating sentient creatures. He has issues of flavor and maybe stuff that I have no place to speculate about. MJ is not so big on seafood... again why this could never be the MJ/Mom Project!

 

The first time we tried The Lobster House, we had been planning to go for my birthday. As chance would have it though, I got called up for an out-of-state job and would be away on that date, so we went immediately. My lost camera still not replaced, and nobody with a working camera on their phone, we got no pictures. I was pretty upset because the tank of live lobsters next to the bar is a neat, if kinda sad, photo op. I also forgot my blog notebook, so I saved the itemized bill and scribbled some notes on that about what we had ordered.

 

For our latest visit, I had been out of state for almost five months, spanning the summer. The kids had just gone back to school. Julie was craving seafood from watching mermaid television shows, "H2O: Just Add Water" and "Mako Mermaids". I would think watching shows about human-like fish (or fish-like humans) should turn one into a pure vegan, but apparently Julie has no issues with sentient creatures as food either! Still no camera and all phones were busted for taking pictures except one. The photo quality is poor and the pic of the sad lobster tank isn’t good, but I posted what we got.

 

MJ’s first time meal here was the two-choice combination. She got the fried breaded shrimp (the only seafood she has ever liked) and the chicken alfredo with caesar salad and side of veggies. This time she went with just the chicken alfredo. Better to have the remainder of chicken alfredo come home in a box than fried shrimp, as happened the first time. House salad, no dressing, and criss-cross fries rounded out her meal.

 

Dad went with the catch of the day, cod, fresh from Boston Market. Both of us have always enjoyed cod since reading a book about the history of the fishery and its disastrous crash in the north Atlantic. Apparently, they catch enough these days to supply a specialty restaurant in the tiny village of Norwood, NY. Coleslaw, a baked potato and a very large draft beer of Blue Moon went with his endangered fish. The first time here, he got the breaded deep-fried shrimp and fish combo. The fish part of that was unidentified, but good enough with his side order of veggies and coleslaw.

 

I went with a combination lobster alfredo and the stuffed flounder the first time, which was filled with deviled crab meat, and was absolutely delicious! I might have gotten it again it was so good, but I like to do different things and Julie and I had a special plan this time. The lobster alfredo was good, but really didn’t do justice to the lobster meat, the flavor of which was drowned out by the creamy parmesan sauce and noodles. I got the cooked veggies side consisting of broccoli, carrots and zucchini. My criss-cross fries mostly ended up in a to-go box with MJ’s. A glass of chardonnay accompanied my food superbly.

 

Julie went with the name of the restaurant from the beginning and ordered a large Rock Lobster Tail our first visit. She loved it and I was almost regretful I hadn’t gotten one too as she dipped the pieces of succulent meat into the liquefied butter. Her sides were a cup of the chicken soup du jour and a garden salad with ranch dressing. She gave the tomatoes to her Dad.

 

Our appetizers on our first visit were the fried ravioli (consumed primarily by Dad and MJ) and the crab-stuffed mushroom caps topped with mozzarella, baked in garlic butter (consumed primarily by Julie and Mom). Julie and I each got a cup of the lobster bisque. We skipped the lobster bisque our latest visit because it really wasn’t that great. It was good, but I have perhaps been spoiled by the bisque at the Four Seasons on Lanai Island, Hawaii, which means I am unlikely to ever really enjoy a seafood bisque again in my life. This latest visit we repeated the successful appetizers of fried ravioli for Dad and MJ and the stuffed mushrooms for Julie and Mom.

 

The waiter had described some sort of mix-up with the lobster order from their supplier and instead of getting a certain number of lobsters, they got the same number of CRATES of lobsters. At least, that’s what it sounded like he said. Whatever the reason, the lobster was on special! Julie and I each ordered a whole lobster, the 1 ¼ lb size. We had great fun playing with cracking open our large insects-of-the-sea. There’s just something different about eating once-sentient creatures when you can still see their eyes on your dinner plate, or for that matter their whole bodies. Exoskeletal critters are still critters, but I suppose it’s no different than eating meat with the bones still in it. After all, isn’t it fun to play with a whole roasted chicken, waving a little wing at the person next to you or dancing it around upright on its drumstick legs? Julia Child seemed positively ruthless the way she flopped whole chicken bodies around and tied them up or skewered them in various ways. But then, she was equally detached with whole lobster bodies. See our blog post Larry's Fish Truck for memorable thoughts about lobsters as sentient creatures.

 

Caesar salad and criss-cross fries for Julie and rice pilaf and steamed vegetables for me were all consumed but the fries, the remainder of which made it into a to-go box. The lobsters were delicious and we had so much fun playing with them, we took their shells home in a to-go box at a waitress’s suggestion. (A few days later I washed them out and put them in the sun to dry as a souvenir of our dinner!) We had a pile of to-go boxes, one with the lobster shells (two bodies with heads and a couple of the cleaned out front claws), one with the remains of two orders of criss-cross fries, one with chicken alfredo, and two with desserts. Yes, everyone was too stuffed to have anything else to eat, but I let the girls get dessert to-go to eat later. I failed to write down what they got and the dessert options don’t appear on the menu to jog my memory. MJ claims she got something called lava cake with chocolate melty fudge on it and Julie says hers was some sort of Oreo Cookie concoction.

 

I needed to go home and crawl into bed. I can’t eat that much food, especially that much rich food, and not go into a food coma. I was lucky to make it the few minutes drive home without falling asleep at the wheel. The reader of this blog has probably been lulled into the same state of mind by my writing.

Murray's Old Irish Inn, Waddington, NY

Saint Patrick’s Day. This is a “must” day for the Julie/Mom Project. By blessed god or goddess we will celebrate this occasion! I saw adverts for a few places in the Julie/Mom Project hit list and considered some local places, but we we ended up on a different mission.

 

Well, we haven’t “officially” been to Scoopuccinos yet. I called them up, given their advertised specials in the North Country for corned beef reuben sandwiches and corned beef and cabbage dinner. It was JUST dinner. Julie and I wanted lunch and we wanted “traditional”. Side note here is that “corned beef and cabbage” is NOT “traditional Irish” fair but traditional “Irish American” fair. Look it up if you don’t care to recognize, this blog is about today’s world.

 

We briefly considered Maxfield’s (still on our hit list) and just as quickly rejected McDuff’s (written up last year). Also thought about Eben’s Hearth, where we love, but have already done for “the Project”. Looking through the “North Country This Week” adverts, we saw Murray’s Old Irish Inn.

 

It turns out that Murray’s is not listed in the North Country This Week Restaurant Guide that is suppooosed to be the guiding light of this blog. Well, I suppose we are off to new country then. We googled it, pretty much stop at main place and turn right. The St Lawrence Seaway was our guiding  sureness. We hit that and turned right! Turned right again and eventually found it.

 

The immediate survey found two small rooms adjoined in the center. The furthest room housed an inactive furnace fireplace and a mostly working pool table with over half the seating capacity. I honestly didn’t ask about the fireplace, it may well be in full force during the height of the winter season! It did not look disfunctional.

 

We were there for traditional American Irish corned beef and cabbage meal. Murrays promised it was there at lunch hour start for Sunday celebration and so it was! Julie and I headed out of town for not-quite Canada.  I joked about having our passports.

 

We found it eventally after realizing we couldn’t cross the seaway/border. Thank goddess for rural, sparse areas that make finding an establishment with a tiny, inobtrusive place an excercise in satisfaction.

 

The party was apparently over the night before... great for us, bad for traditional St Patty’s Day partiers. Not “bad” I suppose. I recall times in my younger days of St Patty’s Day celebration with too much revelry. So it was great for my day with my 11 year old kid, Julie, of the PROJECT.

 

We ordered our plates of corned beef and cabbage (supposedly profits offerered to a charity though i never caught what it was), then wondered about. There was a pool table Julie insisted on playing. I told her maybe and we did later.

 

The plates were piled high with corned beef, cabbage, baby carrots and potatoes, topped with a slice of buttered raisin bread. Julie asked about seasoning as we fished out large bits of flavoring, whole black pepper kernels and a bay leaf.

 

As we tucked into this smorgasbord, I considered our surroundings and presentation of the occasion. The large mirror backing the bar was engraved with “GUINNESS” as was other decor, including a proper dart board that was clearly not in use due to the presence of a structural pillar directly in the location of the throwing area. There was some typical green paperwaste garland and such, but my daughter and I were decked out in the most elaborate schemes for anyone there with our “I <shamrock> NY” shirts and green shamrock bead necklaces.

 

Julie got a green colored Shirley Temple, I ordered Guinness Draught. I looked for a tap and saw none. Out came my perfect draught. I noticed the empty box of nitrous oxide infused cans later. Works for me... beats the sometimes dirty lines in the places that serve the Guinness from a tap.

 

I asked about the process by which Julie ate her meal. I ate mine typically for me, a few bites of each item at the same time. I like to bolster the blandness of the potato (red skinned here) with a bit of corned beef and/or cabbage. Julie claims to eat each item in total, separately, in order of least favorite to most. I asked her how she felt when she then ate too much of her least favorite items and was too full to eat her favorite, “I hate it when that happens”. Curiously she claims also to save her least favorite item for last so as to use the excuse of being full to not eat it. The raisin bread went uneaten despite her claim to like it (two bites removed). The corned beef was second last to go and consumed in entirety! Both of Julie’s strategies seemed to be in play.

 

We shot one game of pool, poor Julie missing our rare lessons at my favorite bar in Hawaii. More lessons in how the table eats the que ball than anything else. The proprietor demonstrated a light-up silly hat from the party the night before and gave it to us, by which it failed soon after! Ha! I can fix it by soldering some electronic wires but it will have to wait for the next Vernal Equinox.

Ponderosa!

Ponderosa! The name evokes images of tall pine trees out west... ranches, cattle, STEAKS. Here in Potsdam, NY by the Canadian border and across America, it is a chain restaurant serving up the most basic sort of buffet food you can think of. I can't speak for ALL Ponderosas, but this local one is just like every other one I've been to.

The girls LOVE it, particularly Julie (pictured) of The Julie/Mom Project, who chose Pondersoa as her restaurant of choice to go out on her birthday this past New Year's Eve. Yes, that's how old this blog entry is as I watch the wet snow pile up outside in late February. I took the picture of Julie practicing guitar just a couple of days ago, though. I still hadn't figured out how to use my hand-me-down camera from my brother-in-law when we went out to Ponderosa.

Happy 10 years old to Julie as she, I and her sister MJ drove the few blocks up Main Street. Their father, my husband, Tony insisted on walking... as we all should have done, but... hey, we SHOULD'VE rode our horses there, too. Like, if we had horses, which we should to go to Pondersosa.

It was late afternoon... I can't decipher my notes... its either 4:00 or 4:80 pm... and its a Tuesday! Tuesday is kids eat free night (with a paying adult - after all this isn't a government social program)! Pretty good deal in the rural wasteland of the North Country. My only problem with this place is like any other buffet... I want to eat too much to get my money's worth and I end up in a debilitating food coma or IBS issue. I resolve to be more moderate at such places and take it easy... is that a New Year's resolution?

Julie gets a raspberry ice tea as a beverage, MJ gets a root beer. I forget my "Potsdam Sandstoner Discount Card" that would've got me these drinks free. Tony probably got coffee. I drank water.

Julie's first plate had nachos, green jello, croutons (yes, by themselves), grapes, french fry-chip stix, meatloaf and chicken pot pie. The meatloaf ended up left on her plate because she didn't like it. Grrr... I tell them to take only a small bit of something if they want to try it. Oh well... another drop in the great wasted food bucket that is America.

MJ gets pizza, grapes, mashed potatoes and gravy, onion straws and an ice cream cone. Tony gets broccoli, mashed potatoes, cheese pizza, herb-breaded fish, fried ravioli with marinara sauce and a bunch of salad veggies.

I get fried chicken, herb-breaded fish, stuffing and gravy, fried ravioli, broiled fish, mystery loaf (not the same as the meatloaf) with mushroom gravy and went back for salad: spinach leaves (NEVER pay buffet to eat head lettuce), gourmet greens in viniagrette salad mix, shrimp cocktail, seafood salad, red onion, green pepper and bleu cheese dressing.

We all go back for more.

MJ had "the shakes" from not eating all day before we arrived at the restaurant... which freaked me out a bit as all her strange popular cultural attitudes toward eating and food do... but she was doing just fine by the end of the meal being her usual, obnoxiously enthusiastic, healthy self.

Julie saved room for her Birthday chocolate cream pie back home in the fridge, I ate just slightly over enough (perfect - no ill effects) and Tony actually overate. This is something I didn't think was possible, but when he admits to such a thing, it is definitely true! He did power down the last bit of cole slaw on his plate for no waste and trodded his butt home while we drove back with no digestive issues over the three minute trip home.

Ton's Sports Bar

Woo Hoo! It's FOOTBALL season! My favorite time of year/place... autumn in the North Country, upstate New York... And football, of course. I have been a fan of (American) football since I was a kid. I remember my Dad teaching me the concepts and rules of the game while watching on TV Sunday afternoon, sitting in his lap in the easy chair. I used to be the only girl playing in local, neighborhood, pick-up games as a tweener. And the guys liked me on their team. I was agile, fast and understood the strategy.

Now back in Potsdam, my daughter Julie (of this project) is doing cheerleading as a 5th grader in Middle School. She cheers in an all ages club for the pre-High School football squad. I, Mom (of this project) am taking her to the games to cheer and realize that neither she, nor most of the younger cheerleaders know ANYTHING about the game!

We don't get cable TV right now (as part of our family budget cuts), so I can't watch the games (insert sad-face smiley emoticon), nor can I sit my kid in my lap and explain the game to her, as my Dad once did for me. Enter Ton's Sports Bar! What a great excuse to bring your kid to a bar! I was wondering how I was going to tackle the bars in our North Country This Week's Restaurant Guide.

Off we headed on our bicycles to 159 Market St from our home just down the street a few blocks away. I told Julie we would stay and watch the first half of a game and I would explain what was going on while we ordered and ate some food for our blog. I knew she would not be interested enough to last an entire 3 hour game. It was a beautiful fall day, warm and sunny. So we were in t-shirts as we rode our bikes along the lane, tree line leaves just starting to change color for the season.

We arrived in time for the kick-off of the Oakland Raiders at Buffalo Bills. We sat in the main table area in front of the big screen we had all to ourselves. There were only six other patrons sitting at the bar itself (where I would rather be), able to also watch the Chicago Bears at New Orleans Saints on the smaller TVs. I noted that Ton's has a pool table, foosball and electronic dart board games. There is a small stage where bands play on Friday and Saturday nights. There is also a free popcorn machine. There looks to be a juke box, but it probably only gets turned on week nights.

Its a good, typical bar menu, better than just the basics, with a real kitchen. It offers chicken tenders, popcorn chix or shrimp, burgers, hot dogs, fish sandwich, poppers, mozerella stix, onion rings, and cold sandwich basics-ham, beef, turkey, tuna or egg salad with potato or mac salad sides and a soup du jour. I am going to add here that I scoped this place out this summer. They make excellent Bloody Marys as I learned while using them to check out some Grand Slam Tennis finals action earlier this year. It is a friendly and even "family" atmosphere, at least in the pre-evening hours, of which is all I can speak to.

I ordered the chicken parmesan sandwich and large fries to split with Julie. Though normally I would have gotten a tasty beer to go with my meal (they have Saranac Pale Ale on tap), I was on a restricted diet for a medical procedure in two days so just went with a 7-Up. Julie got a Shirley Temple (her favorite bar beverage) along with her, fittingly enough, Buffalo chicken wings... mild w/bleu cheese, celery a given. Julie praised them, I tried them and they were excellent. They were deep fried then drenched in a lovely, tasty hot-tangy sauce, dripping and pooling with grease.

This is why I have to say, as I did in our blog for The Bagelry, here is a type of cuisine that seems only to be properly accompished in a regional setting. First thing is that Julie's order of "mild" above, would be considered scalding "hot" in other areas. There may be some rare place, far-flung from the northeast U.S. that pulls off "Buffalo" style chicken wings, but I have never experienced it, despite my extensive living and travels. Most places at least try to cover for their shortcomings by labeling them as just "wings" on their menu. But, you can still tell they are trying to do this... Buffalo style hot wings as popularized in western, upstate NY. Said "wings" or "hot wings" are just wrong on so many levels... the worst ones being done in this odd kind of reddish-colored batter, like quasi-southern fried chicken. They aren't even spicy hot, at least not to my seasoned palate. Bleu cheese dressing is usually not even a choice and you are lucky to get celery on the side. Maybe they give you some other mayonnaise-based dressing to cut the bite (?) of the so-called hot sauce, like ranch. Puhleeez, what a joke.

We watched the game. I tred to explain every play and down. I brought a real football and demonstrated the position of the center hiking it for special plays like the quarterback sneak. Julie and I have thrown the ol' pigskin around in the yard before, so I figure this is like a visual aid to teaching the game. It was 21-3 Raiders at halftime when I asked her if she wanted to go. Of course, she said yes. In my own heart, I knew it could be a blow-out or a fantastic comeback. Alas, it was the latter as I found out later. It seems a little unfair that the only live football I get to see these days are her Middle School cheering games with these sad rules that take away the kicking aspect for lack of skills. But, when I'm there, I empathize with these young kids even if only as a young kid myself at the neighborhood playground field. And I still get into it!

Oh, btw, we have transitioned into the Fall Restaurant Guide now. As this "no rules" blog goes, we will piddle our way through as we see fit or the moment strikes us.

The Bagelry

Oh, The Bagelry! In the heart of downtown Potsdam, NY at 9 Market Street, this choice little specialty sandwich shop is near and dear to my heart. Back in my youth, eh hem, of college in the mid to late 80's, The Bagelry was a shining beacon of gastronomic desire. Alas, it still is. It is worthy of a food pilgrimage across a continent to indulge in a type of food that is simply not available in the USA properly west of the Mississippi River. At least not in my experience, and I have lived and traveled across the continental United States to Hawaii. You simply CANNOT get a properly made bagel outside of the northeast except in a few very rare places, which I did not live in and have only heard about from possibly suspect sources.

When I lived in Wyoming for years, I once had my visiting mother-in-law from the Potsdam area bring me garlic bagels from The Bagelry on the airplane. Though quadruple bagged, the garlic fumes of her carry-on baggage turned heads on the plane. I was sooo grateful for her sacrifice. Even three day old bagels from the Bagelry are a Godsend in the wasteland of Wyoming, where we bought bready "bagels"at the grocery store to serve as hamburger buns.

A perfect, delicate crispness to the exterior coupled with a softly dense interior is just pure culinary artistic mastery. Though I now miss many types of regional cuisine from my travels, there was nothing I missed more than being away from a proper bagel for the last twenty plus years. And now, I am back! And The Bagelry is more than just dear to my heart, it is NEAR again.

As readers of this blog know, I lost my camera. I had planned to take a picture of the lovely bins of seasoned and other variety bagels to post with this. (Edit: my friend took a picture recently and I have now added it, YAY!) There are plain, wheat, sesame, onion, garlic, cinnamon raisin, italian, salt, poppy seed, everything, oh... Then, of course, you have the toppings or sandwich selections to be made. All sorts of tuna melt, breakfast egg, Gobble (deli turkey), Nova Lox (with cream cheese, onion and capers), Fresser (piles of different deli meats with cheese), Reuben, ham-n-cheese, etc. That list is huge and I can't possibly remember them all.

Back in town, we come here often now, almost always just to get a half or baker's dozen to bring home to make up ourselves. This day in early June, Julie and I decided to have breakfast here before school as a treat. Julie had never tried the lox spread (lox mixed with cream cheese) and I had a feeling she would like it, fond as she is of cream cheese and also has a taste for fishy stuff, as do I. We were picking up a half dozen to go (wheat, cin-raisin, garlic) and then got a prepared toasted garlic bagel with lox spread to eat in, split between us. I got onion and tomato on my half and we each got a pickle slice. Nice breakfast... I sent her to school with garlic, salmon and pickle on her breath!

We sat at the outdoor tables on the sidewalk of old downtown. It was a beautiful morning, still cool at the street corner by the Raquette River. There was a light breeze and long shadows of the morning to escape into, but you could tell it was going to get hot this day. When we were finished, I sent Julie to school on her bicycle from there. It is nice to be back in Potsdam!

Billy's Deli

Billy's Deli isn't actually in the North Country This Week Spring Restaurant Guide that is the basis for this blog. It just opened after the guide was published, but this is a "no rules" blog, so we decided to include it in our little adventure anyway. I had planned on us going to the grand opening on May 1st, but I completely spaced it. These things happen. We lose cameras and forget dates of events we wanted to attend. But we can't give up. We just have to keep moving on through life.

It was May 28th when I dropped off MJ and Julie at the Roxy Theater in downtown Potsdam, NY to see "Kung Fu Panda II" while I went to Ton's Sports Bar (a future destination for this blog) to catch some Wimbledon tennis action instead of seeing the movie. MJ and I texted each other at the end of the movie so I would know exactly when to pick them up. They had a small ice cream at the little stand next to the theater that bought me some time to see the end of a match.

When I parked in the lot across the street to pick them up, however, they declared they were hungry and wanted to go to Billy's Deli, which was just a couple doors down from the theater at 2 Main Street. Oh well, wanted to check it out some time and I was hungry for a cold sandwich. I love deli sandwiches.

Boar's Head meats and quality breads from a local bakery are billed for this deli and so it was. We all ordered 8" subs. MJ got cooked salami with pickles and swiss cheese. Julie got the "Pastrami-rama" with swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato, hold the mayo. Actually there is some confusion as to whether she said to hold the tomato as well as the mayo because when it came out with diced tomato on it, she picked it all off. I couldn't remember if she had said that or not so I'll withhold judgement on who's error it was. I ate her tomato along with my sub, cajun turkey (which was very well-spiced and yummy) with horseradish cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onion, cherry pepper rings and mayo. You can tell who is the most adventurous of our little trio here! I used to work in a deli many moons ago and have a great appreciation for specialty meats and lots of additions and dressing.

We shared a small bag of Block and Barrel brand BBQ potato chips and MJ and Julie got raspberry ice teas while I drank water. I ended up spilling my water all over the table, but managed to miss anything that might've been damaged, including my notebook we were taking notes in. I actually got Julie to write down some of the notes for "our" blog this time. I was busy with my laptop on the window sill, getting my e-mail because I could get an internet hit there. We were still in transition between houses at this time. Julie couldn't finish all of her sandwich so I took it home and ate the rest the next day. I knew the ice cream before the meal was a bad idea. Oh well, no harm done. The sandwich saved well with no mayo or tomato on it.