Two diner discoveries worth trying
I love stopping at those little family-run, family-owned diners that dot the north country landscape.
Every town has one or two ... or more.
Here are two recent diner discoveries.
CHURCH STREET DINER
107 CHURCH ST.
CARTHAGE
493-0997
It's an older place. You can tell from the look of the tables and chairs and the dark paneling on the walls.
But Church Street Diner in Carthage is a cheery little place, clean and bright, with lots of light coming through the front and side windows.
The kitchen is visible from most every seat, sparkling with stainless steel and neat as a pin.
We arrived a little before noon. Renata was on us in an instant. I guess regulars know exactly what they want, but we needed time to look over the menu.
It was a good day for a hot cup of soup, and there were three listed on the specials board: New England clam chowder, cream of broccoli, and beef and barley, all homemade.
Perfect, one for each of us to try while we looked over the menu.
It's typical diner lunch food — soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers and homemade desserts. But if you want something from the breakfast menu, they'll make it for you, any time of the day. Same with the dinner menu (which has only about six items on it), even though they're only open until mid-afternoon.
Hot soups hit the spot. The clam chowder was good, with plenty of clams. Cream of broccoli was tasty, with identifiable pieces of broccoli in a thick starchy/creamy stock. Beef and barley was nice and hearty.
The Reuben sandwich was gooey good, with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing between two slices of grilled rye bread — so full of "stuff," we ended up eating it with a fork.
A bowl of chili with a side salad made for a good lunch. The chili lacked something — spices, maybe? It tasted like plain old spaghetti sauce with beans and hamburger. It had just been made that morning, so maybe it needed to simmer a bit.
Salad was fresh, a mix of chopped iceberg lettuce, chopped onions, chopped green peppers, tomato and a sprinkle of jack cheese on top, along with a nice little packet of Ken's Italian dressing.
Philly steak and cheese is on the dinner menu. You can get the gut-stretching foot-long portion, or our choice, the more modest 6-incher, consisting of lean steak sautéed with mushrooms, diced green peppers and onions.
It was a tasty, decent-sized portion, plated with french fries.
Desserts are always homemade and special at these little diners.
Strawberry shortcake was great. The biscuits were homemade; the strawberries had to have been previously frozen but were fine, and the whipped topping wasn't real whipped cream but a good-quality product.
Bumble berry pie was a mixture of blue, black and raspberries in a nice, flaky crust.
Pumpkin cream pie was our favorite, two contrasting colored layers of pumpkin mousse housed in a beautiful, flaky crust.
Renata was a gem of a waitress, epitomizing the diner's philosophy, printed right in the menu: "We're here for the enjoyment and pleasure of our guests, not the convenience of our staff."
And, true to the credo of a typical north country diner, the menu also states, "Never too late for breakfast, never too early for lunch, dinners served all day, every day."
Lunch for three came to $39.
Church Street Diner is open 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
VIA MAIN RESTAURANT
130 MAIN ST.
MASSENA
764-0463
As with Carthage's Church Street Diner, the interior of Massena's Via Main Restaurant indicates that it has been around for a long time. Brown paneling on the walls was the first clue. An old Formica lunch counter with stools screwed to the floor was the second.
Several of the staff greeted us with friendly smiles as we entered. For noon on a Saturday, they were quite busy, taking orders and delivering food nonstop.
The sign out front might say "restaurant," but the menu says "diner" all the way, with extensive breakfast, lunch and dinner choices, all reasonably priced.
Our waitress was very patient as we reviewed the menu. The regulars didn't even need one, but we sure did.
While not exactly hearty, the soups were good. Tomato macaroni had a very light chicken broth with celery, carrots and a surprise — lots of chopped cabbage. Clam chowder stock was thin, more like milk than cream, with chunks of potato along with corn, carrots and peas.
One of the least expensive lunch choices, at less than $3, was grilled ham and cheese. And I even got to choose my cheese, provolone. It was perfectly grilled with lots of butter to a dark golden color. Great to look at and even better to eat.
At $5.75, turkey club was at the other end of the price spectrum. The very fresh lettuce was a quick hint to the quality and flavor of the rest of the ingredients. Not a huge sandwich, as some are, but certainly good.
While we debated over dessert, our waitress arrived, pen and pad in hand, with more smiles and quick responses to our questions.
My eating associate ordered walnut pie. Our server asked if he'd like ice cream with that. Now picture that he's a rather large man. So I said, "Does he look like he needs ice cream?" to which she immediately responded, "Everybody needs ice cream, don't they?"
The walnut pie was great, a pecan base topped with very finely chopped walnuts.
Interesting. They could have just seated a number of walnut halves on the pie and still called it walnut. The highlight was the pie crust, light and flaky, probably made with lard. No ice cream necessary with this delightful dessert.
Chocolate cream pie was delicious, a similar crust filled with a dark, rich chocolate and lots of whipped topping. No way this filling came from a Jell-O pudding box.
Lunch for two cost $21.
Via Main is open seven days a week, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner between the hours of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily.
You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
