College bar, Malone café add to menus

There’s a college bar in downtown Potsdam now serving lunch, and a café in downtown Malone now serving dinner.

We recently visited them both and filed this report.

McDuff’s

McDuff’s has been a fixture in downtown Potsdam for quite some time. It has a reputation as a college bar, but new owners Jody and Heather Wenzel are making a valiant effort to upgrade its image and its offerings.

They’re now serving lunch seven days a week, and it’s much more than cheeseburgers and chicken wings (although they’re there if you want them).

It’s calamari, taquitos and kabobs. It’s homemade chili in a bread bowl. It’s taco salad, chicken ranch salad and hot steak salad.

Mexican burgers, veggie burgers and portobello burgers. Pulled pork sandwiches, fish sandwiches and grilled chicken sandwiches.

And neat monthly specials like a corned beef Reuben, a turkey club and potstickers with ponzu.

Taquitos are small tortillas rolled around a filling and deep-fried. At McDuff’s, you get three for $6 — beef, chicken or portobello, or any combination of the three.

We got one of each, all crisp on the outside with tasty fillings inside. They’re served with salsa and sour cream or chipotle pesto dipping sauce.

Kabob plate ($6.50) changes each month. We had chicken teriyaki, two grilled skewers with lightly seasoned chunks of chicken between pieces of green pepper and onion, placed over a bed of plain white rice. I could have used an extra squirt of teriyaki to moisten it up a bit.

A grilled chicken sandwich ($6.50) was very good, nicely seasoned with cracked black pepper, served on a fresh kaiser roll with ruffled lettuce, tomato and slices of red onion with a side of potato chips. We added their homemade fruit salsa for an extra $1.

Mixed-berry pie à la mode ($4) from nearby Miller Farms was good, too — lots of dark berries with a nice crust.

Service was cheerful and efficient. We learned that the cook called in sick at the last minute. Whoever took his place did an admirable job.

While McDuff’s is still a popular spot for 20-somethings at night, its lunch clientele consisted of a working crowd on its lunch hour, some picking up orders to take back to the office.

St. Lucia’s Café

St. Lucia’s Café opened in downtown Malone a little over a year ago — a stylish bistro serving great food for breakfast and lunch.

We heard that they extend their hours on Fridays, augmenting their regular menu with several dinner specials. But when we arrived, we learned that they were going to offer a complete dinner menu beginning the following week.

The challenge: How do we try something from the new menu without telling them what we’re up to? (Remember, we travel incognito.)

We started at the bar, which serves beer and wine. While sipping on a slightly oaky Solaire Chardonnay ($7) and a smooth Mark West Pinot Noir ($7) from a compact wine list, our friendly bartenderess showed us the new dinner menu.

Pasta dishes like shrimp and scallop pesto, mussels marinara and pasta carbonara. Chicken three ways: piccata, cordon bleu and Monterey. For beef, New York strip steak and prime rib. For seafood, there’s shrimp scampi, scallops with artichokes and tilapia fish fry. And lighter fare with salads, sandwiches and paninis.

Armed with the impending dinner menu, we went to our table next to the fireplace. There’s great ambiance here — exposed brick walls, hip contemporary lighting, granite bar top, light wood cabinetry — a tasteful, warm and inviting environment.

We told our waitress that we were excited about the new menu and wondered if chef Jamie Dupra might be able to prepare a few of the new items.

A quick trip to the kitchen and back, and the word was, “If he’s got the ingredients on hand, he’d be glad to.”

Two appetizers fell into that category, portobello blanc ($5.50) and shrimp Parmesan ($7.25).

The portobello was a medium-sized mushroom cap topped with artichokes, roasted red peppers and melted provolone cheese. Gooey good.

A number of medium-sized shrimp were swimming in a soupy sauce of tasty marinara and melted Parmesan and provolone. Another gooey good starter.

We got to try two soups, a cup of their French onion ($2.50) and cup of tomato macaroni beef ($2), the soup of the day.

The onion soup was traditionally presented, a mild, beefy broth with sautéed onions supporting croutons that were in turn supporting melted provolone.

Tomato macaroni beef is a north country favorite, a comforting soup that would have done grandma proud. St. Lucia’s version had a well-seasoned, hearty tomato-based stock with bits of ground beef and perfectly cooked macaroni. Very flavorful and very comforting.

For entrées, the fish fry ($9.95) was a must. A crispy, nongreasy piece of deep-fried tilapia was nicely complemented by fries and a creamy coleslaw. The coleslaw appeared homemade, green cabbage with bits of purple cabbage in a slightly sweet dressing.

The 10-ounce New York strip ($12.95) was a beautiful steak with bold grill marks. It was cooked a bit more than our request of rare, but still enjoyable. We chose a baked potato with sour cream and chopped chives to accompany, no problems there. But we believed the medley of vegetables was of the previously frozen variety. Too bad.

A very creative dish was chicken Monterey ($14.95). A lightly breaded and sautéed chicken breast was smothered with an ample amount of tomatoes, onions and artichokes. A subtle basil butter sauce bathed the vegetables and the chicken.

No bread was served, and salads are à la carte.

For dessert, we had an attractive strawberry mousse creation called “Cupid’s Arrow” ($4.95). Alternating rows of whipped cream and strawberry mousse were piped over a dome-shaped cake. Quite light and quite delicious.

A commercial “fudge lava cake” ($4.95) hit the table with its yummy warm center, decorated with piped whipped cream. A great dessert for the chocolate lover.

St. Lucia’s Friday night dinners offer a lot of choices and a lot of potential. The ambiance alone is worth the trip … the service and food make it a must. They’ll be serving until 9 p.m. on Fridays.

Breakfast and lunch are served 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays.

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