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.

First Crush

 

Ah, mid-September in Potsdam, NY and I was back at college. I am transported back to my college days in my mind as I experience my favorite season of autumn in my favorite place to experience it. But this day I was literally back at college. No, I wasn’t going back to school for a class. I was participating as an aged sorority alumna in the SUNY Potsdam Greek Summit.

 

It was lunch break for the summit, so my friend (and contemporaneous sorority sister) Charlotte and I went home and got Julie (future sorority wannabe) and headed to downtown. We would usually go to The Bagelry, but we knew it would be packed, so we went to a place I hadn’t been before, though Julie of The Project had. Coffee bar by day, wine bar by night, bistro whenever, First Crush is love at first sight.

 

At 32 Market Street, this cute business front is at the intersection with Elm Street. As we settled into the last empty table, Charlotte wondered what the location of this narrow space was at the time of our college tenure. I reminded her that it was quite literally a corner store where one could purchase, magazines, newspapers, cigarettes, sodas and beer, at greatly inflated prices than if you walked your butt further away from downtown. In the wintertime, which can be bitterly cold here in the greater St Lawrence River valley, the distance saved was well worth the higher prices.

 

They have morning, afternoon and evening menu options. Bagels, panini toast, oatmeal, rolls and quiche of special varieties are listed for breakfast. The take-out menu I have from our visit doesn’t include dinner, but I have seen the dinner options on the website. Because I am lazy and writing this four months after the fact, perhaps it’s a recent addition. Or maybe since delivery is only available for lunch hours, they don’t include the dinner on the paper, take home menu.

 

Gourmet salads, wraps, and panini sandwiches are the lunch options. The dessert list, Starbuck’s coffee drinks, and seasonal cold drinks are listed for any time of day. Julie ignored the children’s menu of simple traditional fare and went straight to the sweets! Apparently some of the morning menu is available afternoon because that is where her fruit and yogurt parfait with raspberry and blueberry is offered. She also had the Cookies ‘n Cream from the frozen, non-coffee drinks.

 

I got the Rubini, a reuben sandwich on rye panini bread and Charlotte got the Calabria sandwich of roasted chicken, mozzarella cheese, roasted red peppers, and pesto mayonnaise on rosemary focaccia. Those come with potato chips. Charlotte had water with lemon. A pint of Harpoon India Pale Ale washed down my Rubini most excellently.

 

We had to get back to the afternoon session of the Greek Summit on campus so Julie walked the short couple of blocks back to our house as we headed the opposite direction. It was a very satisfying lunch. I would like to eat here again, maybe even in the evening. Some of the dinner options look tantalizing.

McDuff's on St Pat's Day!

McDuff's Tavern, 59 Market St. in historic downtown Potsdam, NY, was a regular haunt of mine back in the ol college days of the mid to late 80's. It was originally Morgan's when I first came to town my freshman year, but changed hands by the time I had joined my sorority a couple of years later. Though it had closed its doors for a short while sometime over the past 20+ years since I moved back to town, it is still a standby for the local college scene. There are several good taps of craft beer and the pub-style menu is diverse. They do good renditions of the upstate New York regional specialty chicken wings... here served with homemade bleu cheese dressing that is so chunky its hard to call it dressing.

So it was that I was wondering how I was going to find a good "family time" situation to bring Julie here for our Project, McDuff's being listed in the North Country This Week's Restaurant Guide. I have stopped in a few times since moving back to town, but never occasions to bring a 10 year old along. I even came down St Patty's Day 2011... by myself... to get my corned beef and cabbage fix. This year I was prepared to do the same, but then I thought to invite a dear friend (sorority sister) of mine that lives a couple hours drive away. My friend Charlotte is well loved by Julie and it all fell into place that we could all go and it would be a great post for the Project!

Now in my day at college here, all the bars would open at 8 am on St Patrick's Day, whatever day of the week it was. The hard core ones would do 25 cent or even 10 cent "progressions". The first hour, draft beer was 25 cents, the next hour, 50 cents, the next hour, 75 cents, etc. I have a good story of one St Patrick's Day, 10 cent progressions, 8 am bar opening, 100 cups of green beer in the middle of a table full of friends, and a political science class midterm at noon the same day... But that wasn't at McDuff's and this is a family blog!

McDuff's did open at 8 am this day. However, I had no desire to indulge in whatever beer specials they may have had going, though the breakfast specials looked tempting. Irish French Toast gets a dip in Irish Cream, 3 egg omelets with filling options including sausage, asparagus and smoked salmon are served with potato loxey, and the corned beef hash topped with two eggs is homemade. But I was only concerned with going in the afternoon for lunch. I had my own Guinness at home for breakfast. I have to say my mother is full blood Irish and my father is French decent, so the "Irish French Toast" name struck a chord with me, because that is pretty much what I am! ... the toast part being up for interpretation.

We ordered drinks first. I got a pint of Guinness on tap, Julie got a Shirley Temple that came out green and Charlotte got a glass of water that came out clear (thank goodness). There were three lunch/dinner specials and we each got one of them. Julie got the Bangers & Mash, mashed potatoes and white link sausage topped with onion gravy. Charlotte got the Corned Beef Reuben sandwich with potato chips, a tempting option for me. But I had to go with the full on traditional corned beef and cabbage. Julie has never had corned beef, or doesn't remember it, so I traded some with her for some of her bangers. Then the two of us scrounged remains of the Reuben... some bits of corned beef that had blackened on the grill... mmmmm.

While we were eating I tried to explain some of the basics of recent Irish history and culture to Julie. It turned out that the limited information on corned beef and cabbage I told her was kind of wrong, so its a good thing she really doesn't listen to me. I was just pulling up what I had heard or inferred from my Irish-American grandparents because this is very much an Irish-American tradition and not from the homeland. I was more familiar with potatoes and their relation to the homeland and subsistence and the Irish potato famine, but it was a disjointed history I shared. Better to just talk about my grandparents and the fun we used to have on St. Patrick's Day with all of our green stuff.

Julie saw the pool table in McDuff's and wanted to play, as I had occassionally played with her on the tables of my old favorite bar in Hawaii, which was also the last place I enjoyed St Patrick's Day corned beef and cabbage and Guinness in 2010 before McDuff's in 2011 and this year. I decided against it. We had come for our feast, sat in our protected booth and were done with our mission. The college crowd wasn't very much as of yet, but it was having some rowdy outbursts, spurred in part by some March Madness basketball on the TV. I finished my beer and we used the potty before we headed out on a stroll down Elm Street to my and Charlotte's old sorority house. We reminisced along the way while the college student, spring-break stragglers, decked out in green, partied in small groups in front of houses, enjoying the beautiful sunny day.

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.

Sergi's

Officially, it is Sergi's Italian Restaurant Pizzeria & Banquet Hall. It has been around in the exact same location at 10 Market Street since my college days in the mid 80's (originally established in the 60's I believe), in historic downtown Potsdam, NY. I swear I had taken a picture of its storefront the previous fall with my camera that is now lost, but this one of my kids in our yard with the paper placemat map of Italy from our visit will have to do (taken with new cheapo camera). That's Julie, of the Julie/Mom Project, on the left. I remembered I had my new camera with me after we already walked home. It is fun to look at the picture now, in the bleak of winter and remember fondly the fall weather that I love so much.

We actually went here for the Project on October 16, 2011 and I have just been too darn lazy to write it up yet. This is a "no rules" blog and that's just the way it goes. We originally started it to do restaurants listed in the North Country This Week's Spring Restaurant Guide, but since they just published a similar Fall Restaurant Guide, we'll just slide on into that. I think the Fall Guide has added some new places, but Sergi's is in both. The nearby town of Canton, NY also has a Sergi's.

I decided to take the girls out before I had to leave for out-of-state work and Sergi's was their choice. They have eaten here before and knew exactly what they wanted. I was feeling a bit under the weather and not really so hungry. I love their pizza, but haven't really tried much else. There are two sides to the restaurant... the banquet hall side, with some fancy chandeliers and nicer furniture (as I recall) and the diner style side that we sat in, with informal booth seating in two rows down the length of the skinny room to the kitchen. Beer and wine is served, though I was having none of that this day.

The girls both ordered the stuffed shells which comes with bread and a house salad, MJ's with no dressing and Julie's with ranch. MJ got her usual root beer and Julie a Diet Coke, not that the "diet" part of her beverage was going to save her much in the calorie total with this meal! I ordered water to drink and appetizers, bruschetta and the sampler platter which consisted of breaded, fried zucchini, mushrooms, mozzarella sticks and buffalo style chicken wings. All these appetizers were pretty standard and there truly is not much one can do to improve on such basics. But the bruschetta was average and has potential for improvement. It was just a mix of olive-oil seasoned chopped tomatoes, red onion, grated parmesan and garlic on toasted bread. The dried basil sprinkling was not very prominent, but the bread itself is home-made and the strongest part of this item. Julie enjoyed it, but was able to discern the considerable difference in quality with the bruschetta she made herself at home.

MJ picked through her salad, removing the tomato wedges and the cucumber. She doesn't like fresh tomatoes, but she loves cucumber. She said that the cucumber "tasted funny" the last time she ate them here. I ate them and they tasted fine. She ate the large, thin slices of carrot as well as the black olives and the bulk of the salad which was chopped head lettuce. She picked out the sparse gourmet greens including spinach and red lettuce, which I thought she liked. Strange kid. Julie picked out her tomato wedges and I ate them. She likes tomato, but I think is spoiled by the home garden ones we had from recent harvest.

Julie shared the appetizers with me and MJ ate one mozzarella stick, the only item palatable to her. Julie still needs to learn how to eat chicken wings like a New Yorker. She leaves too much meat on them. Usually they serve one wing each of the various spicy grades in the sampler platter, but I got them all mild so Julie wouldn't get surprised. She'll work up in the heat scale as she grows, I'm sure. She already does pretty well with spiciness. Julie loves mushrooms and had several of these breaded ones, but didn't venture into the fried zucchini. I bat clean-up and finished her salad as well as all remains of the appetizers. I wasn't very hungry to begin with and I was stuffed now.

Speaking of stuffed, the stuffed shells looked delicious in their boat dish filled with sauce and cheese baked to bubbling and slightly browned. The portion was quite large of such rich food and although MJ claimed to have eaten one of the stuffed shells, I couldn't tell that she had eaten any. Perhaps just not in a growth spirt at this time, since it wasn't like she had filled herself on appetizers. Julie, who had eaten appetizers, but purposely limited them to keep room for her main course, ate noticably more of the shells. Of course, she is stuck in growth spirt mode! All good. They leftover quite nicely and there was no waste.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Sergi's pizza rolls. Though this is not intended to be a food critic blog, I can't help myself. Sergi's makes their pizza rolls in the deep frier. They have a huge amount of fried dough at their conically tapered ends which results in a very tiny pocket for the filling. The last one I had (brought to me take-out by my husband) was very skimpy on the pepperoni and sauce filling and struck me like a fried dough sledgehammer. I love fried dough, I just wish they could get less of that and more filling. Love you, though, Sergi's! You make really good pizza and your business space is comfortable and friendly.

Foxy Roxy

Foxy Roxy is a little diner open for breakfast and lunch at 124 Market St, Potsdam, NY. It was early June, school was still in session winding down Julie's last year in elementary (4th grade) and she had a science exam to take. Her teacher had told the students to eat a good, high protein breakfast to prepare their brains best for the test. So, we decided to knock this place off the list and make test preparation a little more fun at the same time.

Its a cozy, clean, little place with small booths in addition to the tables. The decor is hunting and fishing theme with outdoor scene pictures on the walls. The menu is typical breakfast and lunch diner fare. I noted something called "stuffed french toast" that didn't describe what it was, and also blueberry bagels that sounded good. I'm very particular about my bagels and we have a bagel restaurant in town (coming up next blog), so I am wary of the quality of this particular item since The Bagelry doesn't make blueberry bagels. I would be sadly disappointed if it was of the "Lender's" style mass produced drudgery. I will ask first before I decide to try this in the future. Should ask about the stuffed french toast, too. I also noted grilled cheese and bacon as well as the Foxy Roxy Sandwich: a grilled swiss, bacon and turkey. Mmmmmm... bacon.

We both got the special, 3 eggs, home fries, choice of meat, toast and coffee. I ordered my meal with bacon, eggs poached hard, and hold the toast. I always order my eggs cooked hard to be sure that the white is thoroughly cooked and not because I don't like soft yolks. I just hate it when the white is still runny. These eggs had a slightly soft yolk, which was just fine. The home fries are large size potato chunks. Julie ordered hers with sausage patties, scrambled, and hold the coffee! She got a glass of orange juice to go with her meal and I got a glass of water for thirst quenching purposes.

It was a big breakfast and Julie couldn't finish hers, so we put the remains in a box and I brought it back home to her Dad, who doesn't eat meat (I finished her sausage) but has an insatiable desire for fried potatoes.

We did our ongoing lessons of percentages to figure out the tip. I make Julie do it, having showed her how easy it is to calculate ten percent then add another half of that to get fifteen or double it to get twenty. We usually always leave twenty and never leave only ten percent. Part of the tip lesson is the reality of waiting tables as a very low-paying job premised on the expectation of tips. Food is life and so is making a living serving it. The gratuity is all about the gratitude we have for our blessings.

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.

Hot Tamale!

Our first destination in the North Country This Week's Spring Restaurant Guide, as mentioned in our first post, was the "Hot Tamale". We hatched our little idea to blog about all the restaurants in the guide after already stopping here for lunch while out for a bike ride in downtown Potsdam, NY. There is also a "Hot Tamale" in the village of Canton 10 miles to the east. The one in Potsdam is in the heart of downtown at 34 Market Street.

Julie had eaten here a few times before with her father, but I had never been. It is a fast-food, assembly line style place where you order at the counter and watch as your meal is prepared. It is very clean, the ingredients are fresh and the prices kept reasonably low due to the informal dining setting.

Though I was tempted to try the namesake, the tamales are an appetizer and I was quite hungry. I went for the "Sizzling 'Stoners" Fajita Burrito", which was billed as a much more suitable option for my appetite at the time. I chose the steak as my meat, which was "sizzled" ahead of time and not put on a fajita pan in front of me as is the traditional and more expensive way to do it. The meat was seasoned with my choice of a barbecue sauce and put into a flour tortilla with rice, my choice of pepper jack cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo, grilled onions and peppers and sour cream. It was very large and hit the spot deliciously.

Julie went with her old standby, the Kid's Meal. She chose the chicken and cheese quesadilla, and sort of changed it up a bit as she has always gotten just cheese quesadilla in the past. It comes with a small drink (diet Coke) and a choice of brownie or small pre-packaged ice cream treat. Julie chose the Chocolate Sundae Bar.

We like this place as a fast, good and inexpensive option. It is open very late on Friday and Saturday nights to accomodate the late night college crowd.