I'll have what he's having

Last week, I was on the road for work and spent a night in Syracuse. Harry, my road trip partner in crime, asked Alicia at the hotel check in desk, "Where is the best pizza in the area? Not necessary nearby. Anywhere in greater Syracuse. Where's the best?" She directed us to Nick's Tomato Pies and off we went.

Unfortunately, Nick's Tomato Pies must be running some kind of summer hours because they were closed when we got there. Nick's is in the Armory Square section of Syracuse and there are quite a few dining options. I had heard someone else at the hotel talk about Pastabilities and after looking around a little bit, we decided to give it a shot. While sitting at the bar waiting for a table, Harry noticed a sign that said "Guy Ate Here." So after we were seated we talked about it with our waitress. Turns out, there was and episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives filmed here. Which is a little confusing because having looked around the place, it clearly isn't any of those things.

After looking the menu over, we decided to try what Guy had. First up, their Spicy Hot Tomato Oil. As soon as you order, you are brought a basket of house made bread and a plate that is thinly covered with tomato sauce. If you want bread and a big bowl of tomato sauce, that's $5. You can also buy this sauce in jars at the restaurant, online and I think they said Wegman's too. Guy gave the sauce and bread combination the Triple D rating, "That's Craaazzzy." The bread was good, warmed up would have been better but it was good. And the sauce is tasty too. Got a little sweet, a lot of fresh tomato flavor, a good amount of oil and a slow after burn of heat that isn't overwhelming, just nice. It's a good sauce but I think you could make something similar at home. When eating it, I thought they had used a chili oil, but after watching the video they used a chili paste. It kind of looks like the Secret Dipping Sauce (SDS) that was going around on Serious Eats awhile back. 

Next up was the Duck Bacon Pizza. Here's the description:

Pasta's Duck Bacon Flatbread Pizza $15
house-cured smoked duck bacon, Humboldt Fog aged goat cheese, mozzarella, tart cherries, shallots,
pomegranate drizzle, cracked black pepper, on our bakery fresh pizza dough

Alas, no pictures. I tried to take one of this pizza and the flash went off like lightening in the middle of the restaurant. Then I tried to take some without the flash and it was too dark. But here's the photo-less pizza story. After we had each had a slice, our waitress stopped by to ask how we liked the pizza. We said it was good and I think she was a little offended. We were clearly supposed to have had our minds blown. To give credit where credit is due, the flavor combination of the toppings is absolutely inspired. The duck bacon (house cured and smoked duck breast) is something I will try to recreate in my kitchen someday. Who am I kidding, I'm going to try and copy the whole pizza some day. But when I copy it, I will only copy the toppings because that crust doesn't deserve to be in the same restaurant those those toppings. And if you watch the video you'll see why. At about 1:50 in the clip, they start to top a pre-made flat bread that goes into the oven for 12 minutes and then under a salamander to crisp up the top. Guy said, "The crust on this flat bread is righteous." While his looked better than ours, the crust was tough to chew and the bottom tasted like uncooked flour. I think their pizza dough is their bread from the first course pressed into an oval. It is better as bread. Guy goes on to say (of the toppings), "Funkalicious," "One of the best duck dishes I've ever had," and "You jackpot-ted on that one, girl." He's pretty much right. The duck pieces are fantastic and the flavors on top of that tough, hard to chew not-pizza bread are pretty spectacular. Sorry about that last dig on the crust.

Moving on to the main dish: Wicked Chicken Riggies. I'm not sure why Syracuse sometimes seems to try and steal from Utica. Sure, my affection for Utica is unhealthy, but this almost seems like sibling rivalry. In the video, it is described as "an Upstate New York dish" but if Wikipedia can be trusted, the first line of the Chicken Riggies entry reads: "Chicken riggies or Utica riggies is an Italian-American pasta dish native to the Utica-Rome area of New York State. It is a pasta-based dish usually consisting of chicken, rigatoni and hot or sweet peppers in a spicy cream and tomato sauce, although many variations exist."

Anyhow, when Pastabilites says "Wicked," they aren't kidding. While those who are into spicy foods will enjoy this level of heat, I think it is more than the average person wants in an entree. It seemed a little to much for Harry, and he isn't a spice wimp. This version also had more cream than most versions I have had and all the spice was in the sauce - no chunks of pepper. While watching the sauce get prepared, Guy said it looked like "spicy tomato al Fredo" and that's a pretty good description of the sauce. After tasting it, Guy made a few guttural noises and then the cook said "Winner! Winner! Wicked Chicken Dinner!" and robbed of us of whatever bizarre combination of words Guy was about to share with us.

So we had what Guy had. Some of what he said was right on, other things he said were just hype. If I ever returned to Pastabilities, I might give the pizza another chance but I'd go with a different entree. There are better Riggies out there. I'd start looking about 60 miles due east.

Pizza Town, USA

Wouldn't you want to live there?

This past weekend My daughter Allison and I ventured to Staten Island for my nephew's birthday party. This was only half the family as my younger daughter Casey was running a fever. Before we left Staten Island for the return trip home, I asked Allison if she was up for a pizza adventure. She was game and off we went trusting a GPS on the dashboard to get us there.

It was a little disappointing to watch the "Arrival Time" on the GPS get later and later as we sat in some Jersey traffic. But the traffic lights seemed to get further and further apart and then the road turned into an actual highway. The GPS did it's job and we pulled into the parking lot of Pizza Town, USA.

I had first heard of Pizza Town, USA on the forums of pizzamaking.com. Then I read about it on the Slice portion of Serious Eats. And then I posted this video of pizza being made at Pizza Town, USA a little over a year ago. I really wanted to check this place out and was pretty happy my daughter was willing to go for the trip.

Before we got there, I had decided I was going to have everything in the Serious Eats write up. I wasn't sure I was going to make it back and I wasn't going to leave with regrets. I started out with 4 slices for the two of us. Two slices on per plate.

I'm really not sure how they do it. The crust had a definite crunch to it, but it was tender. How can something be crunchy and tender? Apparently there's a way. The crust had a great flavor too. I was so-so on the pizza sauce. It seemed a little sweet to me. But that didn't stop me from eating 3 of the 4 slices we ordered. Next up was the small calzone...which is fried, and pretty tasty.

 
After the calzone, we still had some room for pizza, so we ordered two more slices, one for each of us.

We could leave without dessert. Pizza Town makes zeppole, so we got a dozen. We couldn't come close to finishing them. Probably should have gotten half a dozen.

Like our local cider doughnuts, the zeppole would be better fresh. You could see they had a bunch made that the reheated in the fryers and topped with sugar. They we OK, but nothing extraordinary. If you could get them fresh when they are making the big batch of zeppole, I bet they are amazing.

For a slice joint, they had a handful of subs on the menu too...meatball, sausage, pepper&egg, eggplant and few cold subs too. A lot of people came and went while we were enjoying our dinner. Only one person got a sub to go with their slices. Looks like pizza is the king in Pizza Town.

 

Should you want to visit Pizza Town, USA it is at 89 US Highway 46 in Elmwood Park, NJ. pretty close to Garden State Parkway Exit 157. 

Vacation, all I ever wanted

Took a family trip last week. Some people summer at the Vineyard. Others prefer the Hamptons. I summered in Utica.

Tell someone you are going to Utica for vacation and wait for the confused look followed by one of the following questions:
“Why?”
“Seriously, Utica?”
“On purpose?”

Yes, Utica. While it might not be in its historic prime, Utica has a lot to offer a family. Here’s what we did.

Day 1: With lunches packed and the family truckster loaded, we got on the Thruway and headed out to Herkimer. Gems Along the Mohawk is right off NYS Thruway Exit 30. I had pre-bought Erie Canal tour tickets online ($19 for adults, $12 for kids ages 3-10). You might be able to find a cheaper deal if time an online coupon deal right.

We boarded the Lil Diamond 2 and cruised East on the Mohawk. Portions of the cruise tour are pre-recorded but the boat captain also provides a lot of the tour over a small PA system. In the middle of the tour, the boat goes up and down Lock 18 of the Erie Canal. If you have never gone through a lock on a boat, it's pretty freakin' cool. This lock provides about 20 feet of elevation change and made me want to take a Panama Canal cruise.

You start up here...

 and start sinking...

and sinking...

and sinking...

 and then cruise out the other end...

Then you do the whole thing in reverse. Fresh off the boat, we set off to our hotel which had an indoor pool. Universal truth: kids love pools. After a swim we headed out to dinner. I had always wanted to try Chesterfield Restaurant.

It was too dark inside to get good food pictures. Strangely, my family is starting to get used to me snapping food pictures. I went with Utica greens and chicken riggies and enjoyed both. They recently added a pizza oven. Our waiter said it was a few days old. The kids tore into a large cheese pizza and ate the leftover slices the next day. From the taste I had, Chesterfield’s is onto something very good pizza-wise. I’d definitely come back. We went back to the hotel and the kids pretty much passed out.

Day 2: I got up with the kids and brought them downstairs for breakfast (the hotel had a buffet). To sports fans, two-a-days means two workouts a day during pre-season training. When you’re on vacation with me in a hotel, it means kids go swimming twice a day. After breakfast, we changed into bathing suits and hit the pool. I remembered to bring these little sinking fish. The kids had a lot of fun diving for them. We woke up my wife, dried off and sunscreened up and then we were off to the Utica Zoo (found an online pass - $15.50 for a family of 4). Nice enough zoo. I thought the zoo in Syracuse was a little nicer, but we had a good time going around. The kids got to see a Gibbon take a piss and then a dump (they are 7 and 9 so this was quite hilarious to them). That whole Jurassic Park dinosaurs are birds theory...this crane made me a believer. It's creepy and makes it makes noises you wouldn't want to hear in the dark.

Somewhere at the zoo, we picked up Passport Coupon Flyer that had some coupons for places we were planning to visit. After our day at the zoo, we headed back for the second swim of the day and then we were off to the Franklin Hotel for dinner. I still really like this place. As recommended by Mr. Dave, I tried the fried hot pepper appetizer with a beer.

I really enjoyed the peppers and I’ll offer up this advice: When Mr. Dave endorses something, give it the benefit of the doubt. I’m still putting this rub he recommended on everything. We stopped at the pharmacy next door to the Franklin to pick up a few things. Most importantly, Birthday Cake Oreo Cookies. I don’t know why, but the kinds are under the impression that when you eat those cookies while watching a TV show in a hotel, that’s “a party.” Our room had two TVs. Putting them on the same channel was also mandatory at the party.

Day 3: We had to skip swimming and headed to the Utica train station after breakfast. We got on the Adirondack Railroad and headed north to Thendara. The ride was nice and the kids were excited to be on a train. The train had two passenger cars (I thought they were nicer than the Polar Express cars running out of Saratoga), a baggage car and a snack car. The baggage car was pretty cool. The doors were open to the air, but blocked off by a gate. A steady 40 mile an hour wind was flowing in and at times, you were close enough to touch the trees.

Once in Thendara, two school buses take you into Old Forge. We walked over to a place called Walt’s Diner. I wish this place was closer. Just a great, friendly little joint with good food. There’s a pretty big water park in Old Forge, but the layover wasn’t long enough to make it worthwhile. Next door to the park is a place called Calypso Cove. They have an arcade where you play games to win tickets that can be cashed in for little prizes. A handful of games including several rounds of skeeball netted us 142 tickets that got traded in for a slinky, a bracelet and a little plastic flip thingy. Calypso Cove has a few other things. There’s no entry fee. You buy $5 tickets that can be used for a zipline ridge, go karts, mini golf or bumper boats. That Passport had Buy 1, Get 1 Calypso Cove tickets.

After Calypso Cove, we headed back to town and did a little souvenir shopping. Then the busses took us back to the train. The train returned to Utica around 6:30 and the kids were a wiped out. We headed back to the hotel and had Franklin Hotel leftovers for dinner, followed by a quick Oreo party.

Day 4: We packed up and checked out of the hotel. Then we drove over to the Children’s Museum next door to the train station. (The Passport had an admit one child free coupon. Entry was $22 for a family of 4 with the coupon) It is a nice, quirky museum with some funky hours (make sure it is going to be open when you want to go) but it is all not-for-profit and run by volunteers. They had a plane the kids could sit in and move the flaps plus a lot of other nice exhibits.

From the museum, we headed to the FX Matt Brewery. There is also a Passport buy 1 adult, get 1 adult free coupon for the brewery and the kids were free. Each tour ticket comes with a voucher for 2 drinks in the tasting room.

I don’t think the tour guides really care about the drink tickets. So for $5, we got an interesting tour for 4 people, 4 pints of their soda, and 4 pints of beer. I’m not sure there is a better deal anywhere and the kids really liked having a soda tasting. Interesting little fact: The extra carbon dioxide generated during the beer brewing operation is captured and then used to carbonate the sodas.

On the way out, you can pose with Schultz and Dooley.

After the tour, we grabbed a few slices of tomato pie on the way out of town. We were off to my in-laws for an annual family picnic. And that was a good time too - except for shoveling out a barn, cutting down a tree and weed whacking a ditch, but you won't have to schedule that into your Utica trip.

Bottom line, if you’re looking for a relatively cheap mini vacation that doesn't require a ton of car time, check out Utica. You’d be surprised what the city has to offer.

Nice day for a walk

As luck would have it, I had to go to Long Island on Thursday for work. Done for the day and staying at a hotel about a mile from a train station, I set off with my co-worker Harry for a long night in New York City or New York City!?! like in the old Pace Picante Sauce ads.

The train took us into Penn Station during rush hour. Don't know if you have ever been there, but a shit-ton of people are there for the evening rush hour. Escaping to the surface, we began our walk. From Penn station down to MacDougal Street in the Village (about 1.5 miles). We had reservations for the 10:00 show at the Comedy Cellar. We were a few hours early so we headed up the block to Artichoke Pizza Basille. This is one of the pizzerias owned by two cousins that recently had a show on the cooking channel.  (I snapped this picture of the outside a few hours after we ate there)

The two guys working there were very friendly. One was pretty tired - he was working his way through school. The other was everything you would expect a New Yorker to be. Nice, but gruff and quick with a joke. They had stacks of flour up front. Exactly the same as the flour I picked up a few months ago at Restaurant Depot. Depending on the time of year and the day (NYU is a few blocks away), they use 4 to 6 bags on a weekday and 8 to 12 on a Friday or Saturday. Pretty sure mine will go stale before I run out.

Here's the artichoke slice they are famous for making.

It tastes like really good artichoke dip on top of really good bread. Delicious, but very salty. It should also be noted that there was "the soft glow of electric sex gleaming" in the corner.

I tried their Margarita slice too.

I enjoyed it. Also very salty and the crust is nothing like the crust on the artichoke pie. Overall, I'd say OK slices. There are probably better slices to be had in the city, and given the choice between this pizza or anything from Pepe's, Pepe's is better. Still, we certainly enjoyed Artichoke Pizza Basille. All my pizza nerd questions were answered: their ovens are set at 550 and I was encouraged to buy a wood fired oven for the house. Preaching to the choir.

Fueled with pizza and with hours to kill we walked down to the Freedom Tower construction site. Probably about another1.5 miles. Lots of nice architecture, the occasional breeze and some good people watching. Along the way I tried to tweet something to the All Over Albany site and manage to pull of my first Twitter failure. I saw this:

So I tweeted: Didn't know @alloveralbany had a restaurant in NYC.

Unfortunately, I sent the tweet without the photo.
 
Very confused, and apparently with no plans to open a restaurant in NYC, @alloveralbany simply replied: ?

Such a powerful piece of punctuation. Maybe I'm projecting, but the one character combines the sentiment of "I don't get it" with "Are you drunk?" I don't know how I managed to delete the photo, but I did and the tweet just became a confusing typo. I'd like to go on record for the 22 people that may or may not actually read my @JonInAlbany tweets, I was sober when I screwed that up. In my defense, it was hot and there was a lot of glare.

With my Twitter fail sent off into cyberspace, we continued walking until we were at the Freedom Tower. The building is beautiful.

We asked a security guard if there was a way to still see the memorial and he gave us perfect directions. We were allowed in with the last group of the day. The footprint waterfalls are hauntingly beautiful.  Several of the names along the rails had been recently visited with a white flower left behind.

 

We started working our way back to the Comedy Cellar. The show was sold out so we were going to have to get there early to preserve our seat reservation since there was a stand-by list. So after another mile and a half, we were back at the club. With a little time to spare, we went into the Olive Tree. It is the restaurant above the Comedy Cellar.

When we walked in the bar, two musicians were in the middle of playing a TV theme song medley. We enter to the theme from The Greatest American Hero (I loved that show), it was backed up with the Golden Girls' Thank You For Being a Friend, the theme from Cheers and then they played one more before taking a break. The name of the group: The Jewbadours.

We took seats at the bar next to The Table. The table is a comedians only table. There are a lot of stories that revolve around The Table.And now there is a weekly podcast recorded at The Table. Would you like to see the majesty that is the myth, the legend, The Table? Here it is:

Nice, right? Another view for you: 

After a nice conversation with the bartender and one of the restaurant managers (and a Scotch), we headed out to check-in and get in line for the show. I went to get in line and Harry went to check in. Harry was asked if he wanted to sit up front and he said, "Yes." Now, I've sat close before. Up front at the Comedy Cellar is UP CLOSE! Like, my feet could touch the microphone stand. At one point, during one comedian's set, my feet were kind of getting tangled in the mic wire. When Sherrod Small bent over and looked at me, I think he was about a foot away from my face. There were 6 standups and a host. Everyone had some very funny stuff. Dave Attell was there and had to deal with a drunk lady that seemed to throw him off. He seemed torn between destroying her and trying out some new material. Then he kind of did both and didn't seem happy with his set. Judging by his offstage scream, he wasn't happy. I'd never heard of Nick Griffin and he was hilarious. It was a great time. Tickets are $14 and you have to buy 2 things in the club. They could be drinks or food. We spent $70 including tip. Really not much more than going out to a movie and a few drinks. Given the option, I'd definitely choose the comedy club over most movies.

The show ran a little long, so we started double timing it back to Penn Station. If we didn't catch the 1:01 train, the next one left after 3:00. After a few blocks, we realized we were heading in the wrong direction and hailed a cab. Perfect.

Plenty of time at the station to get our tickets and roam the station a little. Did you know you can get good beer to bring on trains? I knew you could get eh beers, but one place had a ton of beers on tap. It was like $6 for a 20 ounce Bass Ale. Got back to Long Island, walked the mile back to the hotel and went to bed around 2:30.

Got up the Friday morning, spent most of the day collecting data from a bridge site (which required a few miles of walking) and headed home. Slept in on Saturday. I'd do it again and I'll have to check out our local comedy club too.

My Watertown Adventure

Last week I got/had to spend two nights in Watertown. I had only been once before and my impression wasn't that good. While it is true I have not explored Watertown thoroughly (it is tough to get around town when your only vehicle is a big box truck and the hotel didn't have a shuttle), the area surrounding the Salmon Run Mall - Exit 45 of of I-81 if you are keeping score at home - is Everytown, USA or Generica. Every store was a chain store. Sure, some of the chains were smaller than others, but chain stores.

The gym in the hotel was an elliptical and a bad treadmill. I'm not sure if it is operator error, but the belts on treadmills in gyms don't seem to slip on me while almost all treadmills in hotels do. Nothing like feeling you are going to blow your knee out while jogging. All the roads around the hotel were wide state highway type roads, not exactly fun to jog on. I noticed a Planet Fitness across the parking lot and stopped in to ask about a day pass. They said sure, it's $20. I said isn't that the same price for a month? They said, yup. I said, buh-bye and hit the roads.That just seems ridiculous to me.

Workers at the site we were visiting recommend the Texas Roadhouse and the Tilted Kilt for dinner. I didn't want to go to a chain steak house so we set off walking the half mile to the Tilted Kilt.

This place is like, well, it's like going to Hooters except probably offensive to some Scottish people. All the servers women and they wear a short kilt, short top/bra. The few men that work there are also wearing kilts. If the staff is going commando under their kilts, I've got to hope it is a health code violation. Here's the uniform proudly displayed on the menu.

Classy, right? I should have gotten a burger. I knew the burger was the way to go. But I had eaten a burger the night before. I asked our server for a recommendation and she suggested the Gaelic Chicken dish. It was one of the house specialties. I'll say this about the Gaelic Chicken dish...the chicken was tender. I've got nothing else good to say about it. It was boil-a-bag boneless-skinless breast with a weird white sauce poured over powdered mashed potatoes.

I think the weakest aspect of this chain of all things Scottish is that they didn't have anything Scottish other than wall decorations. They had posters for McEwan's Scotch Ale but they don't serve it. You could get Dos Equis though. The Scotch selection was weak too. They had more Irish Whiskey than Scotch.

Yelp informed me of a dive bar (and I mean "dive" with nothing but respect and love) called the Time Warp Tavern. My phone said it was another mile and a half up the road. What the hell, we didn't have anything else to do. So we set off up Arsenal Street. About halfway there, I saw this.

We left town on the 21st and I wonder how the party went. Think the police got called?

The Time Warp Tavern isn't the dive-iest dive bar, but a place with good character and everyone there knew everyone else. Beautiful, old wooden bar. A hockey game was on and we were having a good time. Before we left, we heard about a local band playing in the bar the next night and started our 2 mile trek back. Walking back, we stopped in at a bar with Frog in it's name. I can't find it in YELP. They had a lively ladies dart league going having a inter-bar match. In this bar I got to see a guy spit up a little on his way to full blown retching in the men's room. Don't worry about him, he kept drinking once he came out of the bathroom. From there, we finished the hike back to the hotel and called it a night.

The next day, we got up, headed to the site and came back to the hotel around 6:00. We washed up and started our two mile trek to the Time Warp Tavern. They had a small menu and we thought we'd give it a try. They were running a $2 pounder special ($2 for 16 oz. cans of a handful of beers). I ordered some wings and a beer when I noticed a bottle of Basil Hayden behind the bar. I switched the beer order to a bourbon. A very healthy pour of Basil Hayden was $5. I'm home.

For wings, they had the standard flavors - Buffalo, bbq, a few different glazes and one called Black Betty. We were told it was a local favorite. Black Betty style wings are fried, coated in a combination of bacon fat thinned out with a little ranch dressing and then grilled for a little char. Holy shit these were good. I tried to get a picture but it was too dark in there.

Full of wings and bourbon we started the long walk back. The NBA game 7 was still going on so we popped into the Buffalo Wild Wings next door to the hotel to watch the end. There we met two Olive Garden waitresses that had just gotten off their shift. Hearing their take on their customers was interesting. Older couples are cute, a lot of people that throw temper tantrums in there, and the kitchen apparently has absolutely nothing to do with unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks. And just to make me feel old, one of these waitresses was born in 1989, the year I graduated high school.

But my favorite part of the conversation was when one of the waitresses declared the talent level of Weird Al Yankovic was equivalent to Kim Kardashian. Sure she's wrong, but  my co-worker Harry is a fan and recently met Weird Al. I plan on reminding him of her declaration regularly. I'm laughing just thinking about it.

Franklin Hotel

I recently I found myself in Verona around lunchtime. A co-worker asked, "You guys have time for the Franklin?" I've always got time for the Franklin (side note: the restaurant isn't in Verona, it's in Rome). There's something about the place I just really like. Like most restaurants, some things are better than others. When I'm there, I always look for something seems like a Utica area standard. But just look at this place. It oozes history.

Here's an SAT flashback:

Franklin Hotel : Rome :: Ralph's : Albany

It's that kind of place. If you grew up near it, it would be the first place you wanted to go when you came home. Personally, I prefer it to Ralph's, but I didn't grow up near either place. The guys I was with went for some of the day's specials. One got manicotti and sausage.

The plate was a little nicer before one of the mannicotti was slipped onto this plate of eggplant parm

I went with one of the "Franklin Favorites." Greens, beans and sausage.

I really enjoyed it. Would have been a bit better if they were using my sausage, but that isn't their fault. I don't sell it. This is the kind of dish that would make a crappy winter day better. It is also very filling. I didn't eat anything else that day and I pretty much passed out on the ride back to Albany. Should you find yourself in Rome, check it out.