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.

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!

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.

Village Diner

Ah, yummy family breakfast Saturday late morning at an all American style diner. Perfect. Another place in the North Country This Week's Spring Restaurant Guide that I had never been to gets knocked off the blog list.

The whole family went to look at a house we are now going to buy and we decided to celebrate by walking the short distance to downtown Potsdam's Market Square Mall for breakfast. This is a true mall with an indoor common space through which the entrances of the businesses are accessed. At 22 Depot Street it is quite small with only a few businesses including our dentist... and the Village Diner. The diner is only open for breakfast and lunch until 2 pm.

It is very pleasant and homey with a friendly and efficient wait staff. It was quite busy with a capacity crowd, but our orders were taken and served very timely. The girls (MJ and Julie) ordered the same meal from the kid's menu: 3 pancakes with a side of bacon and a side of mandarin oranges. My husband ordered the veggie omelette, so I balanced that by ordering the carnivore omelette! Sides of roasted potatoes with the omelettes were as delicious as the classic three egg concoctions. Very satisfying.

And, of course, I took pictures of our food and a shot of Julie with her scooter outside the door to the diner and never downloaded them before I lost my camera a couple of weeks ago. Life and eating goes on, hold the photodocumentation.