Let's do lunch: two spots worth a midday pause
Lunch can be a totally different experience depending on which restaurant you visit on any given day.
Here are two very different experiences, one at a rural diner outside Canton, the other at an established restaurant in downtown Syracuse.
THE MEADOWS
5855 ROUTE 27
CANTON
386-1139
It's a big building on a country road on the outskirts of Canton. If the sign out front didn't say "The Meadows, Home Cooking," you could have mistaken it for an oversized prefab home set back in a field.
Inside, it's wide open with well-spaced tables and a long lunch counter with lots of stools. We seated ourselves at a cozy window table, looked over the menu, and had several questions for our first waitress.
On the specials board, the soup of the day was boiled dinner soup. We weren't quite sure what this was, so we asked.
She had no idea what it was, so she hollered to the other waitress at the other end of the lengthy room, "Hey, what's in that boiled dinner soup?"
The entertainment continued when there was no response and she actually let out a long, loud whistle to get the other waitress's attention. From across the room came the answer: "Cabbage, potatoes, carrots, a little onion, all in chicken broth."
We took a few more minutes to decide on the rest of our order. Our waitress returned, and we had two more simple questions for her: Are the meatballs in the hot meatball sandwich homemade, and is the turkey in the hot turkey sandwich roasted turkey or deli meat?
She got the first question off to the experienced waitress who responded from way across the room, "They're homemade, but I'm not sure we have any on hand right now."
And rather than ask yet another question, our waitress started across the room and said, in total earshot of our table and everyone else in the place, "Geez, all these guys want to do is ask questions — why don't you just take them?"
Our second waitress turned out to be gem-friendly, accommodating, knowledgeable, experienced and serious about doing a good job.
She made several recommendations, which we happily took.
They roast their own turkey breast several times a week, she told us. So I got the hot turkey sandwich, a generous amount of flavorful roasted turkey between two pieces of white bread, smothered in a slightly peppery gravy, served with cranberry sauce.
You can get breakfast all day here (well, until 2 p.m., when they close). Eggs Benedict was on the specials board — a new menu addition, our new waitress told us — and very popular.
"Eggs Benny," as they call it, consisted of two perfectly poached eggs with runny yolks on toasted English muffins with smoky ham. They were covered with a white, frothy sauce with a subtle hint of lemon.
While we're used to a traditional buttery, egg yolky Hollandaise sauce, the white sauce was a nice, light substitute. The kitchen even took time to garnish the plate with two slices of orange topped with cherries.
Both meals came with a generous portion of seasoned homefries, possibly the best we've ever had. They appeared to be fresh-cut french fries, chopped up and browned in a skillet with onions, salt and pepper and paprika. Yummy.
We took a slice of Dutch apple pie to go. It was definitely homemade, with plenty of tender apples and a flaky top crust. The bottom crust suffered while sitting in the clamshell container for several hours, however. Our fault, not theirs.
Lunch for two came to $26 before tip.
The Meadows accepts credit cards. According to waitress No. 2, "Are you kidding me? With all the SLU kids who come in here, we HAVE to."
The Meadows is on County Route 27, outer Park Street, just a couple of miles past St. Lawrence University. They're open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day except Tuesday.
THE BLUE TUSK PUB & WINE BAR
165 WALTON ST.
SYRACUSE
472-1934
WWW.BLUETUSK.COM
I think I discovered the best sandwich shop ever.
It's the Blue Tusk Pub & Wine Bar in the restored Armory Square section of downtown Syracuse.
It offers deli sandwiches, specialty sandwiches, upscale quesadillas, slow-roasted meats hand-carved to order, soups and salads, cured meats and cheeses, patés and paninis.
And to wash it all down, there's a full bar with an excellent selection of wines, local ales, small batch bourbons, single malt scotches and 69 beers on tap.
The inviting bar greets you on the way in. There are lots of small tables lining the windowed walls; high-top tables fill the rest of the space.
The only confusing part is ordering the food. There are no waitresses. We sat at a table for nearly 10 minutes before figuring out the system by watching the regulars.
Here's the drill: You grab a menu from boxes placed around the room. You decide what you want, then go to a small counter and place your order. If you know what you want to drink, you order that too. You pay for your order and receive in exchange one of those little electronic buzzing/flashing pagers.
OK, we took care of that (and believe me, there are so many choices, it wasn't easy). Since our table was near the bar, we walked right up and ordered our drinks, several lovely glasses of wine, in particular a Paso Creek Zinfandel from California's central coast region.
We shared a delightful appetizer of shrimp and crab Parmesan dip served with tortilla chips, a generous enough portion for the three of us to enjoy.
Prosciutto and brie quesadilla was marvelous: prestige prosciutto di Parma, creamy brie cheese and cranberry chutney between two grilled flour tortillas.
The prosciutto was excellent — lean, no fat to gnaw through, not too salty
From the never-ending list of specialty sandwiches we chose the lobster BLT — knuckle and claw meat, bacon, Gruyère cheese, romaine lettuce, thin-sliced tomatoes and red onions on a croissant. We thought, for the price ($11.75), the lobster could have been more flavorful.
The first item under the panini category is Mediterranean veggie wrap, something new, we were told, a grilled wrap rather than the usual grilled Italian focaccia bread. But they offered to make it with the traditional bread, and I took them up on it.
This sandwich was absolutely great — with roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, red onions, banana peppers and a splash of balsamic vinaigrette. For a minute, it almost made me wish I were a vegetarian.
I'm over it.
Sandwiches and paninis run $7.50 to $12. You certainly get your money's worth.
If you're heading to Syracuse to do some holiday shopping in the coming weeks, I'd suggest skirting the malls and exploring the neat shops, boutiques, brewpubs and great restaurants around Armory Square.
You may also want to explore all the options at the Blue Tusk by going to its Web site: www.bluetusk.com.
The kitchen at the Blue Tusk is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday; the pub is open the same days from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
You can contact restaurant reviewer Walter Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
