A repast at the reopened Riveredge
Alexandria Bay — You may have heard that the Riveredge Resort in Alexandria Bay was closed for a few months this past winter to facilitate a change of ownership.
It’s open once again, and physically, not much has changed. Colorful flowers line the driveway to the four-story hotel. The lobby and the long, open, tiled-floor hallway that leads to the lounge and restaurant are attractive and inviting.
The restaurant is called Windows On The Bay. It can easily seat 200 or more and features floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides that offer beautiful views of downtown Alex Bay, historic Boldt Castle and classy boats docked in the marina.
Every table in the room was dressed with linen tablecloths and napkins, tasteful stemware and china. This certainly wasn’t necessary on a quiet Thursday before the big season hits, but definitely added to the ambience.
Mary Katherine was our pleasant waitress, having just started working in the restaurant two weekends earlier. She got the evening under way with a basket of warm, crusty dinner rolls, a round of cocktails and a menu full of creative preparations of chicken, pasta, seafood, steaks and chops.
Appetizers were all created in-house and all delightful.
A personal cheese fondue ($7.99) was served in a neat bread bowl, with a combination of melted Swiss and cheddar cheeses and a touch of wine, and plenty of bread cubes for mopping up the fondue. Great presentation.
Philly cheese steak rolls ($8.99) were tasty, creative concoctions, shaved steak with a trace of onion, green pepper and provolone encased in egg roll wrappers and deep-fried. Gorgonzola cream sauce was provided for dipping.
A fritter is a small, round, deep-fried “cake” made by combining a thick batter with crabmeat. The Riveredge fritters ($8.99) were more like ping-pong-ball-sized crab cakes, with little or no batter but lots of lump crab meat. There were four of them, topped with a dollop of zippy rémoulade sauce. Very nice.
Delicate escargot in puff pastry ($8.99) was delicious. Escargot, you know, is the French word for snail. A combination of diced mushrooms and small snails was sautéed in butter and garlic, combined with a tasty “Española” demi-glace and set atop puff pastry. The portion appeared relatively small, but being so rich, it was just enough.
Salads were not included with the entrées, but could be ordered from the menu. You can get a garden salad for $3.99 or a Caesar for $6.99. A chicken Caesar goes for $10.99. For a meal in itself, the King Caesar salad ($14.99) is topped with slices of filet mignon and fresh lobster.
Entrées were classy, creative and well-prepared.
Tortellacci in lobster sauce ($21.99) utilized a unique filled pasta in a sherry cream sauce dotted with fresh mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and chunks of lobster.
Tortellacci is like large tortellini with some extra curves. We’re pretty sure these were commercial pasta — the filling of “shrimp, lobster and cheese” was an unidentifiable food-processed paste. But the custom cream sauce was marvelous, making up for any flaw in the tortellacci.
Heart Island chicken ($19.99) was cleverly named and piqued our curiosity. It consisted of a chicken breast sautéed with fresh mushrooms, fresh asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes in a pesto cream sauce.
The combination of flavors was just right. It was served on a bed of wild rice, which was ordered as a side, even though the menu called for the chicken to be served on puff pastry. Perhaps a misunderstanding between us, our waitress and the kitchen.
Summer tilapia ($17.99) — tilapia being a mild, low-fat, farm-raised fish — was lightly breaded and topped with an outstanding combination of bacon, capers, tomatoes and caramelized red onions in a subtle lemon butter sauce.
The sweetness of the onions, the saltiness of the capers and the tart creaminess of the sauce made this dish a winner. Commercial seasoned fries were, well, commercial seasoned fries.
Filet mignon ($24.99) was a tender 6-ounce piece of beef that you could cut with your fork. It was grilled to a perfect medium-rare as requested. A savory, slightly thickened green peppercorn sauce was a flavorful accompaniment. Garlic mashed potatoes had just enough kick to them.
All entrées came with plain blanched baby carrots; not very flavorful but they added color to the plate.
Here are some interesting entrées that we didn’t get to try:
Shrimp madras — jumbo shrimp sautéed in creamy curry with fresh melons and bananas; chicken Marsala rags — sautéed chicken, prosciutto and mushrooms tossed with pasta “rags” (random shapes torn from a sheet of pasta) in a garlic Marsala cream sauce; twin pork chops grilled and served with sautéed Granny Smith apples, raisins, sauerkraut and onions and an apple demi-glace.
There’s even a vegetarian stuffed portobello — a large mushroom cap topped with zucchini, yellow squash, onions, mushrooms, Parmesan and marinara sauce, served over pasta.
We were a bit surprised that a top-shelf place like the Riveredge would offer prefab commercially made desserts. They were just OK with that “fresh from the box” taste.
Italian lemon cake was light, refreshing and flavorful, our top pick. New York-style cheesecake was dense and predictable. Chocolate peanut butter pie was just average. Caramel apple pie with its rubbery apples was definitely not worth the calories.
Coffee was fresh and hot, served in nostalgic bulb-shaped glass “hottles.”
Dinner for four came to $175, $17 of which accounted for two glasses of house wine and a mixed drink.
Service was a little tentative at times, but not bad considering the season is just getting under way.
We caught Mary Katherine more than once studying her order pad to make sure the right dish was placed in front of the proper person. Good for her. Nothing worse than a server holding plates in the air doing the food auction thing.
The Riveredge Resort’s Windows On The Bay restaurant is off to a good start, and it will only get better as the summer advances. We hope they’ll get the menu on their Web site soon so you can look it over in detail.
By the way, the second-floor Jacques Cartier dining room, known in the past for extraordinary fine dining, will be available for weddings and private parties only.
You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
Windows On The Bay at Riveredge Resort
17 Holland St.
Alexandria Bay
482-9917
1 (800) Enjoy-Us (800-365-6987)
www.riveredge.com
Classy, creative, well-prepared cuisine in a comfortable setting with wonderful views of Boldt Castle and the St. Lawrence River.
HOURS: Dinner: 5 to 9 p.m. seven days a week
Lunch: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. seven days a week beginning June 23
Breakfast: 7 to 11 a.m. seven days a week
APPETIZER PICKS: Escargot in puff pastry, crab fritters, Philly cheese steak rolls
ENTRÉE PICKS: Summer tilapia, Heart Island chicken, filet mignon
RATING: 4/5 forks
