Notes from the lunch patrol
We were happy to see that Oswegatchie Coffee Co. on Main Street in Gouverneur is open once again.
And we were very happy to discover Johnny D's Casual Dining in the Paddock Arcade in downtown Watertown.
We stopped at each of them for lunch recently and filed this report.
JOHNNY D'S CASUAL DINING
PADDOCK ARCADE
(1 PUBLIC SQUARE)
WATERTOWN
782-6108
The last time I was in the Paddock Arcade it had all the appeal and cleanliness of a subway station below Times Square.
Not so anymore. It's bright, it's clean, just about every storefront is occupied and there are people there shopping and eating. Strings of festive miniature lights run the length of the arcade. Lots of Easter decorations tell you that someone here cares.
If you enter the Arcade from the front, Johnny D's Casual Dining is the last business on the right. Tables with umbrellas and planters out front guide you to this hideaway eatery.
Inside, the décor is comfortable, with lots of antiques and knickknacks hanging from the walls and ceiling. It's not a huge place, but there was plenty of seating for a busy weekday lunch crowd — obviously quite a few people know that Johnny D's has been open for more than a year.
The menu covers all the bases, and the prices are right. Appetizers, generally deep-fried stuff, average $4. Homemade side salads (potato, macaroni, cabbage, chicken) are around $2; full-fledged salads go for a little over $6.
Hot sandwiches and burgers are in the $4 to $5 price range; cold sandwiches about a dollar less. And there's a great selection of Italian specialties — spaghetti with meatballs, linguini with sausage, manicotti, chicken Alfredo and chicken Parmesan — that fit into the $6 to $9 category.
And I like a place with a sense of humor. Like the Mr. Ed burger — "One pound of ground round. Big enough to choke a horse."
Michelle was our eternally smiling, effervescent and efficient waitress. She was taking care of the entire room all by herself without skipping a beat. Everyone got their food in a hurry, got a "how is everything?" from her, and got back to work with time to spare.
The chicken salad sandwich was great. The chicken was shredded and mixed with good-quality mayo. We didn't even miss the lack of diced celery.
Homemade cracked-wheat bread was moist and dense and plentiful, cut so thick you nearly had to unhinge your jaws to eat the sandwich.
Pulled pork came from a restaurant supplier. Michelle said it was really good, so we tried it — and it was. The barbecue sauce was a little on the sweet side, but the pulled pork had all the right seasonings and was delivered on a sturdy hamburger bun.
The coleslaw was pretty puckery — lots of vinegar, light on sugar and mayo. The noodles in the mac salad were cooked perfectly al dente. It was dotted with minced green pepper and small peas.
We didn't get to try the desserts, several commercial and several assembled in-house like their strawberry shortcake and brownie sundae.
Lunch for two came to $14.55 before tip.
Johnny D's is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. On weekends, their mobile catering wagon is available for parties and special events.
OSWEGATCHIE COFFEE CO.
117 E. MAIN ST.
GOUVERNEUR
287-0704
WWW.O-RIVERCOFFEE.COM
Oswegatchie Coffee Co. is open once again. It was closed for most of last summer and fall, but reopened under new ownership just before Thanksgiving.
If you were there in the past, nothing has changed inside, as far as the look of the place goes. It's a spacious, warm and welcoming room, filled with old couches and tables. It's an attractive setting, with sanded pine plank floors, an original tin ceiling and walls painted cranberry red with mustard-yellow accents.
If you're a first-timer, the ordering process is a little hard to understand. Coffees in their various configurations and sizes are listed on a huge chalkboard on the wall. A smaller board listed a pecan and pear salad and macaroni and beef soup.
Is that all there is for food? Do we order at the counter? Will a waitress come to our table?
We went up to the counter and were about to ask some questions when we spied the little laminated menu tucked between the cash register and the napkin holder. Problem solved.
The food offerings matched the size of the menu: soup of the day, chili, house salad or specialty salad and cold-cuts sandwiches (turkey, ham or roast beef) — and various combinations thereof.
Once we got the hang of the system, we were on a roll. The nice lady behind the counter answered our questions, took our order, helped make our order and delivered it to our table.
Pecan and pear salad was smashingly good, a lot more to it than its bare bones description on the chalkboard. A nice mix of field greens and fresh romaine was tossed with chopped pecans, Craisins and blue cheese crumbles, doused with raspberry vinaigrette and topped with thin slices of pear.
It came with a thoughtful ciabatta roll, fresh in the center, but the outside would have benefited by spending a few minutes in a hot oven to develop a nice crust.
The mac and beef soup was served excruciatingly hot. That's probably why the macaroni blew up like balloons, taking up most of the room in the bowl. The stock was weak and greasy. Ground beef and a few pieces of canned tomato took up the little remaining space.
Turkey sandwich was fine, not overstuffed by any means, using breast meat roasted in-house. The wheat bread was fresh, as were the lettuce, tomato and red onion.
A roast beef sandwich was equally good, with very tender meat on the rare side and fresh veggie accompaniments.
The counter is filled with sweets of all sorts — cookies, scones, pies and cakes — and little chocolate filled tart-like filled pastries that were yummy. My favorite was a right-out-of-the-oven carrot cake with a buttercream frosting that allowed the subtle spices in the cake to shine.
Lunch for two cost $25.68 before tip.
Like most coffeehouses, half the seating was taken up by people reading books, playing on their laptops or sipping lattes or smoothies for hours. I don't understand how the place can make any money. But they must know more about business than I do.
Oswegatchie Coffee Co. is open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
