#9 NEW YORK – French Toast With Ma Mere

I journeyed to Scotia, NY where I grew up and where my mom lives in a house way too big for her. I was there for a weeklong visit and figured I could kill two birds with one stone by finding a place to eat breakfast, and be able to check off New York as the ninth state on the Breakfast Across America tour. The problem was that most of the nearby breakfast places are in towns that I had visited at one time or another. This disqualified them because it did not meet one of my criteria that the breakfast place had to be in a city or town that I had never visited. After much searching, I located a diner about an hour’s drive away in a small village near the Vermont border. We got in the car and drove through the bucolic farmland of Upstate Eastern New York to:

Country Gals Cafe
Cambridge, New York

AMBIENCE:  Country Gals Café is the quintessential small town diner. It was very busy when we got there and I would guess that we were the only non-locals.  The room is long and narrow like the typical diner, but without the long counter. I’ve seen that there is an ongoing debate in cyberspace on the difference between a café and a diner, but even without the counter, this place said diner to me. In fact, it used to be called the Cambridge Diner and the old sign still sits out front. So I don’t know why they decided to call it a café.  I’m in the camp with those who believe a café has a limited menu, outside seating, pastries, and a certain amount of pretentiousness none of which apply to the Country Gals.

   

We sat at a table across from the kitchen pass-through window and it was tempting not to grab some of the dishes that showed up on the ledge.

The country gals must have been big New York Yankee fans as the room was covered with all sorts of knickknacks, photographs, newspaper headlines and stuffed animals related to the Yankees. A Red Sox fan may want to avoid this place.

4 out of 5 stars but then dropping it to 3 ½ stars because I am not a Yankee fan

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FOOD:  My mother, who was not acting as a very good proxy for The Healthy One, ordered one of the specials – Katie’s Famous Maple Glaze over Texas Style French Toast.

She gave it a big thumbs up.

I got what the menu called “The Mayor’s Special” which was Texas Style French toast with blueberries and strawberries and whipped cream. There was a choice between 6 slices and 4 slices and after my experience at Dot’s, I made sure to get the 6 slices.  I also paid an extra $1.50 for real maple syrup from a local business with the great name of the Shushan Sity Sap Shack.  I dare you to say that three times fast.

I should also mention that I kept my vow and ordered no pork products.

Mom quote: “Are you going to eat all that?”

Having both maple syrup and whipped cream was overkill. The whipped cream also tasted store bought. Nevertheless, the French toast was tasty and the berries were fresh. I finished it without any problem to answer my mom’s question.

4 out of 5 stars

We wanted to ask the waitress a couple of questions but she appeared way too busy to be interrupted. First, we wanted to know who Katie was and what made her Maple Glaze so famous. Second, we wanted to know why my dish was called “The Mayor’s Special”. We could only guess. I decided to pursue the question of “The Mayor’s Special” as a service to you, the blog reader. My speculation was that the mayor of Cambridge would often come to the Country Gals Café and always order the French toast, berries, and whip cream while mingling with his constituents. My plan was to get on the internet and find a picture of the mayor, who I envisioned looking a little bit like Santa Claus without the beard, putting it in the blog, and making a snarky comment about his weight and the breakfast dish he found so “special”. Turns out, the mayor is not a he but a she named Carman Bogle. This is her picture:

Seriously! This is a recent picture of the mayor of Cambridge NY! 

So much for my theory.

 COFFEE:  The coffee was “diner-like”- in other words, a notch better than mediocre.

3 ½ stars out of 5

SERVICE: The restaurant was woefully understaffed. Only one waitress worked the tables of about 35 customers. She seemed friendly enough, and perhaps was even one of the Country Gals, but she was running around like Derek Jeter running the bases.  We did get our food fairly quickly but she gave me the store bought syrup instead of the good stuff and it took a while to get that corrected. It took a while to get a coffee refill. Nevertheless, she did a pretty good job of keeping up with the demands of the customers and I bet she slept well that night.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

COST: $20.00 with tax and tip. You do get a lot of food and coffee for your money.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT CAMBRIDGE:  Cambridge is a pretty little village with a population of just under 2,000 people. It seemed to be a vibrant place as opposed to many of the economically depressed towns in Upstate New York. It has establishments that towns 10 times its size don’t have: an independent bookstore, an Irish pub, an excellent coffee house, and a number of galleries and craft shops. The population is made up of farmers, small business owners, craftsman, and artists (e.g. the late Maurice Sendak had a summer house in Cambridge)

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The area surrounding Cambridge is gorgeous farmland among lush green rolling hills. This is Grandma Moses country. She lived in Eagle Bridge just down the road from Cambridge. Grandma Moses was a folk artist who lived to the ripe old age of 101. Her paintings can be found in a number of museums across the country. One painting sold for $1.2 million in 2006. She didn’t start painting until she was 78 so there is still hope for old farts like myself. We happened upon a vegetable stand operated by one of her grandchildren and bought some corn.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          - Walked through the Saratoga National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

-          - Walked from Scotia to Schenectady and back.

August 31, 2016

NEXT UP: Connecticut

#8 VERMONT – Oink

It was about time for some pancakes and what better place to have pancakes and maple syrup than in Vermont. When the idea of eating breakfast in every state first hit me about five years ago, Dot’s was one of the first restaurants I researched and put on my list of possibilities. Soon after I had done so, Hurricane Irene parked itself over Vermont releasing torrents of rain which caused widespread flooding and mass destruction. One of the victims was Dot’s and it was taken off the list. Dot’s did rebuild and 2 ½ years after the flood I was able to put it back on the list. Now the time had come and I was psyched.

Dot’s Restaurant
Wilmington, Vermont

AMBIENCE:  Dot’s will probably be the most famous breakfast restaurant I’ll eat at during the Breakfast Across America tour. Gourmet magazine called it a “national treasure”. On the Monday morning I arrived, the place was surprisingly empty except for a couple of locals drinking coffee.

Dot’s has been around since the 1930s but because it was refurbished after the flood, it had a very new and clean look, almost too chic for a traditional Vermont country café. Nevertheless it felt very comfortable. Recess lighting along with expensive looking hanging light fixtures brightened the room up. It had a nice long shiny wood counter for the lonely customers. The swivel stools were quite comfortable.  You could watch a large TV behind the counter if desired.  I was happy it was ESPN and not Fox News.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

FOOD:  I ordered the “Famous Berry-Berry” buttermilk pancakes with blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, and strawberry. I also ordered a side of bacon.

Ahhhh bacon. More pork. I will now have had some variation of pork in seven of the eight breakfast restaurants visited so far on the tour:

MD – bacon
DE – scrapple
NJ – hot dog and pork roll
RI – chourico
MA – loukaniko
NH – pork sausage and pork gravy
VT - bacon

Only in Maine, where I had corned beef hash was pork missing from my breakfast plate.

I made a silent vow that after eating this bacon, I would have no pork at my next breakfast stop in New York. 

It was time to get off the pork wagon. My nose was beginning to morph into a snout. A curly appendage was starting to grow out of my backside. I began to grunt when food was in sight. (Okay, so I was doing that even before the tour started.) I even began to go to farms and taunt pigs although these fellas were doing their best to ignore my shirt.

The bacon was great and I finished it off even before digging into the pancakes. And those cakes were fabulous. Very fluffy and chock full of fresh tasting berries. Every bite was a detonation of flavor. These were some of the best pancakes I have ever had.  Of course, I had to douse the whole magnificent stack with the infamous Vermont maple syrup. Dot’s maple syrup comes from the sugar house of the owner’s sister which sits a few miles away. It’s almost as good as the syrup produced at kettleridgefarm.com in New York. (full disclosure: I may be related to the owners of Kettle Ridge.)

 

5 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The coffee was excellent.

4 ½ stars out of 5

SERVICE: Being the only customer sitting at the counter, I received prompt and matter-of-fact service. I didn’t get that extra friendly service that the table of locals got but it was fine. I would guess that the waitress had worked there for a long time. She was a little intimidating. You could order one pancake, or two pancakes, or three. I was set to order the three. This is how the order went down:

Me: I’ll have the berry-berry pancakes.

Her: One might not be enough but I’ll bet you can handle two.

Me: Yes ma’am.

In retrospect, I think I could have eaten three (and then skipped lunch) but I wimped out.

4 out of 5 stars

COST: $13.55 with tax and tip.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT WILMINGTON:  You would never know that this small village of just 2,500 people had been destroyed by Hurricane Irene five years ago. It looked to be in pristine condition. 

Wilmington sits at the crossroads of two of the most scenic highways in Vermont: Route 9 and Route 100. For a small town, it has a substantial number of inns and eating establishments reflecting a tourism industry that feeds off skiers, leaf peepers, hikers, and boaters.

This is a picture I took of the North Branch Deerfield River that runs through the middle of the town and the building is Dot’s Restaurant as viewed from the back.

Here is another shot looking at the river from the Route 9 bridge and that Dot’s on the left. The river is 20 to 25 feet below the bridge.

In my mind, the “river” is really only a stream. But this is what 13 inches of rain in 10 hours can do to that stream.That’s water going over the bridge that I was standing on while taking the above picture.

This is what Dot’s looked like at the height of the flooding. 

Glad you came back from the dead Dot’s to make pancakes for people like me.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          Hike along Harriman Reservoir

-          Hike Bennington Battlefield

August 29, 2016

NEXT UP: NEW YORK

  #7 NEW HAMPSHIRE – The Leaning Tower of Lard

The healthy one headed home, not because she overdosed on yogurt and granola, but because she had a meeting to attend.  After dropping her off at the Manchester Airport early in the morning, I headed to Milford NH which was not too far away and in the direction of Vermont. 

It is not difficult finding a place to eat breakfast in New Hampshire. It seems every small town has at least one restaurant or general store serving breakfast. Milford, a town of only about 15,000, had three excellent options for breakfast:  Café on the Oval, Red Arrow Diner, and Riverhouse Café. I picked Riverhouse Café based on their excellent motto: “Love, Peace, and Bacon Grease”.

Riverhouse Cafe
Milford, New Hampshire

AMBIENCE:  The  Riverhouse Café is on the small size with about ten to twelve tables on the inside and five tables outside on the sidewalk. Being a Sunday morning, it was not surprising that all the tables were taken with a mix of locals and tourists. Fortunately there was a large counter with plenty of stools. That’s where I ended up along with a number of other lonely people and couples who didn’t want to wait for a table.

The first thing that caught my attention was the place setting. Instead of a napkin there was a washcloth!  I didn’t know whether to put it in my lap or wash behind my ears. My guess is that a local hotel closed down and the Riverhouse got a great deal on washcloths. I should have checked the tables to see if they were covered with bedsheets.

   

The walls were covered with framed pictures, and cute sayings. A large window in the back provided a beautiful view of the Souhegan River.

The place was pleasantly loud giving one the sense that everyone was happy and all was right with the world.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

FOOD:  I ordered the Pig Pile which the menu described as “local, house made sausage patty nestled between two cheesy hash browns, two eggs, sausage gravy, and fried onions.” I let out a little gasp when it arrived in front of me.  It certainly was a pile! The Pig Pile could have been named for the sausage or for the person who ate it.

Do I eat it from the top down? Do I topple the thing and eat it as one big mash? Do I deconstruct it and separate all the individual parts on the plate?  Or do I just stare at it?

I ended up laying the pile on its side (was I glad I had that washcloth) and going at it from both ends. It was sinfully good, especially with that sausage gravy smothered over everything. I was a little disappointed in the sausage patty, which was the size of a small burger, but lacked the spice I like in a sausage.

I was also sorry that The Healthy One had gone home. The Riverhouse had a dish called the “Compost Heap” which would have been perfect for her.  It was described as having roasted veggies, monterrey jack cheese, and tomato between two cheesy hash browns, topped with two eggs, organic pea shoots, avocado, and salsa verde. Maybe one of these days I will get over my aversion to eating vegetables for breakfast.

                                  

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The coffee was good but nothing special.

4 out of 5 stars

SERVICE: The service was adequate. The wait-staff was made up entirely of teenage girls dressed in black. There were plenty of them to handle the full house and for the most part one didn’t have to wait long to get an order placed and for the food to show up. My waitress was competent but not very friendly, but then again what teenage girl wants to give an old guy sitting alone a smile, especially if he ordered a Pig Pile. I did notice that the waitresses did more talking with each other than with the customers.

One thing you get to do when dining alone is to listen to other conversations while pretending to look at your smart phone. The man sitting next to me was having a really difficult time deciding what to order. His companion would say “why don’t you get such and such” and he would reply that he “didn’t feel like it” or that “it was too much food”, or that “I had that last time”. This went on for a good 15-20 minutes. The waitress kept checking in with him every three or four minutes. Finally, he ordered one blueberry pancake. The pancake arrived, he cut a piece and put it in his mouth, and then promptly spit it out with great disgust. He had gotten a chocolate chip pancake!

  

3 out of 5 stars

COST: $16.65 with tax and tip.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MILFORD:  Milford calls itself the granite town in the Granite State because it was once home to numerous granite quarries. The pillars of the US Treasury in Washington DC (which you can see on a 10 dollar bill) are made of granite quarried in Milford. The town, like many other river towns in New England, had textile mills that eventually moved to the South. Smack in the middle of downtown Milford is a green space known as The Oval. It is not an oval but a triangle. Go figure.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          Walked a trail along the Souhegan River.

-          Walking tour of Keene NH and the campus of Keene State College.

-          Hike in Chesterfield Gorge State Park.

August 28, 2016

NEXT UP: VERMONT

#6 MAINE – Hash With Panache

We rented a nice apartment in Rockland, ME for a week.  It was a time to refresh, take a break from driving, and give my arteries a bit of a break.  Six out of the seven mornings I ate cheerios with fresh Maine blueberries and skim milk hoping that would atone for all the pork products I had eaten during the previous week. However, one morning was reserved for breakfast in Maine. We chose the place that Yankee Magazine in 2014 gave “The Best Breakfast in New England” award:

Home Kitchen Cafe
Rockland, Maine

AMBIENCE:  The motto of the Home Kitchen Café is “when you are hungry come Home”.  After eating Cheerios for a number of days, I was hungry. The medium sized establishment was busy but we were able to snag a table upon arrival. The clientele appeared to be a mix of locals and people on vacation. The room held lots of sunlight and had original artwork on the walls. It was a casual, nice restaurant. It was the type of place you could linger if you didn’t feel guilty about the line waiting to get in.

5 out of 5 stars

FOOD: The menu was large and stated that you can get breakfast all day which reminded me of a line from comedian Steven Wright:  “I went to a restaurant that serves “breakfast anytime” so I ordered French toast during the Renaissance.”  You also could order off the lunch menu for breakfast.

I think if I was asked what my last meal would be I would pick corned beef hash topped with a couple of poached fresh eggs.  For credible hash, you must be able to see and taste little chunks of corned beef which should taste like it came from Katz’s Deli. The hash should be grilled. I would puncture the poached eggs and mix it with the hash. I would be a happy man.

Some of the previous breakfast places on the Tour had corned beef hash on the menu but it just didn’t feel right. Here it felt right. They named their corned beef hash dish “Home On The Range” and I ordered it. For a change of pace from hash browns I got a side of home-made polenta.

It was amazing! I could have eaten three of these. It definitely deserves a Breakfast Across America Certificate of Excellence.

Home Kitchen Café is famous for its cinnamon buns. There are two types of buns to choose from:  Sinnies which have a cinnamon and white sugar glaze and Stickies which have a pecan and brown sugar glaze. I thought The Healthy One might go for one. She mentioned the possibility and had that wistful, far-away look of someone about to embark on an exotic adventure. Then we saw a bun go by on the way to another table. It was as big as a VW Beetle! This shook her back to reality and discretion being the better part of valor, ended up ordering yogurt and granola made with oats, cashews, almonds, and coconut.

That's yogurt on top, not vanilla ice cream. The granola had an incredible amount of cashews which she thoroughly enjoyed.

 

5 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  No complaints. Good quality coffee. It would have gone great with the unordered cinnamon bun.

4 out of 5 stars

SERVICE: It was gratifying to find such a busy place so well staffed. Our server was friendly, attentive and helpful. She took good care of us.

5 out of 5 stars

COST: $29.44 with tax and tip.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT ROCKLAND:  Rockland is not named for the rocky Atlantic Coast upon which it sits but rather for the limestone quarries that surrounded the town. I wouldn’t call Rockland one of those quaint New England towns but it is certainly thriving. If you want quaint you go a little ways up the coast to Rockport or Camden. Nevertheless, the downtown area has numerous shops, restaurants, and a world-class art museum.

Rockland harbor is a real working harbor with many lobster boats, a Coast Guard station, ferries to the islands, ship building and repair docks, and a limestone processing plant. Much of what we learned about Rockland and its industries was on a guided kayak tour of the harbor. We saw plenty of harbor seals and osprey among the lobster boats and yachts.

Vacation here, not in Branchburg NJ.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          - Walked out and back on the mile long granite breakwater to the lighthouse. I do not recommend doing this during hide tide and a full moon. My shoes are still drying out.

-         -  Hiked in Camden Hills State Park. The Ocean View lookout is spectacular.

August 24, 2016

#5 MASSACHUSETTS – The Wakefield Hoard Comes Aboard

My favorite sister put us up (or put up with us) for a night in her home in Wakefield, MA. Her family – husband, two teenage twins, and an 11 year old were all enthused about joining the Breakfast Across America tour for one morning so I searched for a place that was nearby and and that had received great reviews. Saugus MA was both close and a town I had never been to before, and it had a diner that people seemed to love. So on a sunny Saturday morning we piled into their SUV and headed to the:

Iron Town Diner
Saugus, Massachusetts

AMBIENCE:  When we arrived at the small shopping plaza where the diner is located, the parking lot was almost filled. People seemed to be waiting outside. Brother-in-law was not optimistic that we would get in until dinner time but by some miracle granted by the breakfast gods, our party of seven was seated right away. We were wicked lucky, because when we proceeded to our table I noticed that every other table in the place was occupied. When we left the restaurant there were about 25 people waiting to get in.

The Iron Town Diner was the largest place we have been to since the Tour started. It had a combination of tables, booths, and stools. It was boisterous with customers carrying on loud, animated conversations in funny accents.  Our table for seven was in the back and perfect for our needs. It provided plenty of space for the multitude of dishes we ordered.

The décor was loosely based on the town's history and the Saugus Iron Works, where the American iron and steel industry was born in 1646. Signs and ornaments hanging on the wall appeared to be made of iron. The diner is only a couple of years old so regardless of the 17^th century theme, it had a new feel to it.

I’m not sure what this was doing in the front foyer.  I don’t remember anything said in history class about colonials walking around in steel armor.  Then again, Saugus has a giant orange T-Rex dinosaur out on Route 1.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

FOOD:  Apropos a diner, the menu choices were extensive. We each ordered something different.  Let’s go around the table:

I had the Greek Benedict with feta, tomato, and Loukaniko (Greek sausage) with hash browns. Loukaniko is pork sausage, (what a surprise) flavored with orange peel, fennel seed, and other herbs. The sausage was incredible as was the Hollandaise sauce and everything melded together to make just about a perfect benedict.

The Healthy One had Texas-style  (double thickness) French Toast with blueberries and said it was delicious.

Teen Niece had Texas-style French Toast and home fries which she thought tasted great.

Eleven year old nephew had the Belgium Waffle and hash browns.

Sometimes the internet amazes me. Believe it or not, there is a very long conversation on Reddit about buttering waffles led off by a guy who said it was “pissing him off about how hard it was to butter a waffle”.

This is a typical post:

I just spread butter starting from the center and breaking the cell walls as I spread out. Now the top of the waffle has broken walls while the bottom is ok. That lets it spread better and soak in a bit. It also helps the syrup soak in a bit as well, though I try to be more of a dipper with my syrup.

Eleven year old nephew seems to be one of those people who doesn’t want to destroy the neat little squares. He fills a small section of squares with syrup and then puts a dab of butter onto each square so that it’s perched on the raised portions just above the pool of syrup.

Teen Nephew had this for breakfast.

It did contain chocolate milk. It was gone my the time he got the camera. This order requires some explanation but first this is how the order went down:

Waitress:  “…and what would you like?”

TN:  “a chocolate milk”

Waitress: “and what else?”

TN: “that’s all”

Waitress: “are you sure?”

TN: “yes”

Teen Nephew has celiac disease and cannot eat gluten. The Iron Town diner did not have any gluten-free menu items. He didn’t complain. He didn’t seem to mind that everybody else was enjoying solid food. He’s a trooper. And he liked his chocolate milk!

My sister had the breakfast panini with avocado, tomato, and cheddar cheese and hash browns which she said was excellent.

My brother-in-law had the California omelet, hash browns, and toast which he also said was excellent.

5 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The diner serves New England Coffee, as our coffee cup logos made clear. It’s a company that has been around for 100 years. The coffee was excellent.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

SERVICE:  It was obvious that our server was a seasoned pro. A hungry table of seven didn’t phase her one bit. Coffee cups were continually filled. Food arrived promptly and correctly. She did a nice job on a busy Saturday morning. She did have that funny accent.

5 out of 5 stars

COST:  Unknown. Brother-in-law picked up the check. Thank-you!

A FEW WORDS ABOUT SAUGUS:  Saugus is a city of contrast. It has Saugus Iron Works, which was the first successful integrated iron works in the new world and is now maintained by the National Park Service. And then there is Route One which is bordered by some of the most hideous, memorable monuments to tackiness one could ever hope to see.  We took the low road and drove up and down Route 1. Unfortunately, a number of places have been demolished including Full of Bull, which may be my favorite name ever for a restaurant. Still there are a number of wonderful WTF? sights that can be seen. The Hilltop Steakhouse, which once served more than 3 million customers a year, has been demolished but a 68 foot high neon cactus on the property remains.

Other highlights included the 50 foot tall pudgy, bright orange T-Rex and Prince’s Leaning Tower of Pizza.

  

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          

      Walked to and around the Italian Festival in Wakefield, MA. I know. It’s hard to burn calories off at an Italian Festival.

August 20, 2016

NEXT UP: MAINE