New Malone restaurant is 'upscale,' not intimidating

Malone — Donovan Reyome has been in the kitchen of just about every north country restaurant over the last decade or so.

No, he hasn’t cooked food for them. He’s supplied food to them.

A former salesman for one of the country’s biggest food purveyors, SYSCO, Donovan has opened his own restaurant on the outskirts of Malone, the town where he grew up.

Donovan’s Steak & Ale is in the space occupied for many years by Gordy’s Gazebo. They’re serving upscale food (although Donovan’s wife, Dana, is hesitant to use that word) and filling a culinary void in the Franklin County seat.

It’s a free-standing building on Route 37 toward Fort Covington. Good-looking gardens and walkways with benches guide you to the entrance. A quick jaunt through the welcoming bar/lounge area and we were seated in a busy dining room.

“Upscale” doesn’t have to mean “intimidating.” The restaurant has a relaxed look and feel, a professional yet personable wait staff and a chef who definitely knows what he’s doing.

Dan McFarland most recently cooked at Maxfields in Potsdam. Before that he was part of the kitchen magic at the prestigious Lake Placid Lodge. He gives special attention to every component on the plate — not just the protein, but the starch and vegetable as well.

First impressions mean a lot: White tablecloths. Real napkins. Candles on every table. Clean, easy-to-read menus. A waitress with a never-ending smile.

A basket of warm, crusty rolls accompanied by not one, but two flavored butters — cinnamon honey and Parmesan — got us off to an exhilarating start with a nice twist and treat to the taste buds.

Another treat was Saranac pomegranate wheat beer on tap, golden straw in color with a slight tart but refreshing finish.

Despite a party of 25 in the private banquet room and table of 10 in the center of the busy dining room, Laurie, our server, had no problem putting our appetizer order in before our entrées.

Twin crab cakes ($7.99) were very impressive, in size and in content — no skimping on lump crabmeat or flavor here. And not just thrown on a piece of lettuce, either, but served with a slightly spicy cucumber salad as well as a mayonnaise-based rémoulade.

Large smoked barbecue beef ribs ($8.99) — again, not one but two — filled the plate, doused with a sticky, tasty house sauce and served with onion rings — real from-scratch, beer-battered onion rings, a treat in themselves.

Here’s another nice twist. They call their shrimp cocktail “colossal cocktail” ($8.99) — “not jumbo — colossal shrimp,” according to the menu. Four perfectly cooked and chilled shrimp had that perfect snap as you ate them, accompanied with a cracked pepper-laced, ketchup-based sauce.

I must admit, the word “colossal” mentally prepared us for larger shrimp than we received. I’d prefer one less shrimp on the plate and go one size larger on the shrimp scale.

Lobster bisque with Madeira cream ($5.99) was spectacular — thick and rich and creamy, small pieces of lobster, large on flavor, and no doubt a loss leader at this price. Additional cream swirled in added to the richness and the presentation.

Salads come with the entrées, a choice of garden salad or the retro-now-trendy wedge of iceberg. Both utilized crisp greens and a nice assortment of fresh vegetables. In the future, homemade dressings would be a nice touch, but the raspberry vinaigrette, for a light commercial dressing, was pretty intense.

Applewood bacon-wrapped filet of pork ($15.99) was exceptional, with a smooth, smoked flavor, moistened with a sauce of caramelized onions. It was served with fried mac and cheese, an updated preparation of an old favorite, absolutely complementing the dish.

When we ordered the crab-stuffed trout ($17.99), Laurie used the perfect choice of words to let us know that the fish is served with its head on, but the kitchen would gladly remove it, if we would like. She also informed us that there are some small bones in the fish, and we’d have to remove those ourselves.

Head on, please, and we’ll deal with the bones.

The trout was butterflied, so its eyeballs were checking out the plate, not us.

The bones were a bit of a bother, but we were able to pick them out. The crab stuffing was very good, but the trout meat itself was a little on the mushy side.

Laurie told us the kitchen recommended the duck breast ($19.99) cooked medium, taking the guesswork out of someone not sure how to answer “and how would you like that cooked?”

We ordered it medium-rare, and it came out exactly that, a healthy-sized breast, sliced and glazed with a balsamic reduction, accompanied with tasty herb-roasted potatoes.

Steaks on the menu include grilled Delmonico, sirloin, prime rib, tenderloin and our choice, New York strip ($18.99).

It was a generous portion of top-quality meat, cooked perfectly and topped with brandy mushroom sauce. An interesting and yummy side, a piece of potato pie made with bacon, cheddar and scallion, was a nice touch.

Sautéed zucchini and summer squash, colorful and seasonal, was an integral part of each entrée presentation.

Desserts, some created in-house and some from a commercial supplier, were all first-rate and delicious, all priced at $4.99.

Strawberry shortcake, a huge, sliced homemade biscuit that looked like it was made from whole wheat, supported gobs of whipped cream and fresh strawberries. A portion was easily big enough for two.

Raspberry-blueberry crème brûlée was very different. Whole blueberries were baked in raspberry custard and served in a small soup cup rather than the traditional ramekin.

Root beer float brought back memories around the table. A scoop of vanilla ice cream was covered with root beer from Saranac Brewing Co, the bottle with the remaining soda served alongside the fancy drink glass.

Some commercial desserts available today are so good, it doesn’t pay to make your own. Such was the case with the New York cheesecake — supplied by SYSCO, we assume — tall, creamy, unadorned and absolutely wonderful.

A most enjoyable dining experience — excellent food, stellar service, attentive owners, comfortable setting — cost $144 before tip.

There’s a very thoughtful wine list with quite a few offerings by the bottle for under $20. It also runs the gamut, with a few reds around $100. Good by-the-glass choices, too.

Donovan’s opened in early July and, already, unquestionably has its act together. We wish Donovan and Dana Reyome much success with their new venture.

TIDBITS

Traveling around to do some leaf-peeping this fall? Here are two restaurants we hit recently while on the road:

■ In Finger Lakes wine country just south of Geneva, we experienced Belhurst Castle, a real castle built in 1889 serving real fine food. We enjoyed a mesquite-fired veal chop with mushrooms in a pancetta/Marsala demi-glace, and bacon-wrapped pork filet with apple, walnut and date chutney.

■ In Kingston, Ontario, Chez Piggy, the restaurant that set the standard for dining excellence in this city decades ago, continues to draw large crowds. We recently had lunch on the patio and enjoyed oysters on the half shell, corn chowder, salad niçoise and steamed mussels.

You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.

Donovan’s Steak & Ale

5199 Route 37

Malone

212-9228

A new “upscale” restaurant just outside the village, with well-prepared, nicely presented and generously portioned dinner fare.

HOURS: 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday

5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday

3 to 8 p.m. Sunday

APPETIZER PICKS: Jumbo lump crab cakes with cucumber salad; lobster bisque with Madeira cream

ENTRÉE PICKS: New York strip steak with bacon, cheddar and scallion potato pie; bacon-wrapped filet of pork with caramelized onion sauce and fried mac and cheese.

DESSERT PICKS: Strawberry shortcake, New York cheesecake

RATING: 4 and one-half forks