After we wrapped up our sales activities in Farnborough, with a small side trip to visit companies in Harwell, we found ourselves briefly back in London at Kings Cross Station, waiting for our train up to Leeds in West Yorkshire. On my last trip on the UK’s East Coast main lines (back in 2016, after our trip to the Faroe Islands), the trains were being run by Virgin Trains East Coast, but due to low revenue, Virgin returned the operations to the British Government, and they are now run by London North Eastern Railway Limited (LNER), a state-owned rail operation company. So this was my first chance to experience LNER trains and their meal service (on our first class tickets).

While there have been a few exceptions (mostly with Southern Railways), I’ve generally enjoyed rail travel in the UK; once you get used to the rather enormous set of different train operators (all partially coordinated through National Rail) and terminology, the UK has one of the better-run train networks, and it’s been a great way for us to travel around the country and do sightseeing, without needing to spend a lot of time driving rental cars. And most of the time, I’ve opted to spend the relatively modest sum to get a first class ticket, primarily since those tickets generally include food service. So this was a good chance to get a light meal and beverage as we took the ~2.5 hours to get up to Leeds from London.

LNER menu

Just a few minutes after pulling out of Kings Cross Station, and letting people settle in for the ride, our coach’s two stewards quickly walked through the cabin distributing small place mats (interesting, that was one place they were surprisingly strict: beverages were required to always be kept on the place mats; with four of us sharing one table between two benches facing together, this had the odd effect of all four of us trying to keep our beverages on the same ~A4-sized placement) and menus. For a reasonably-affordable and quick trip to Leeds, the menu was surprisingly good, they maintain both breakfast and lunch menus, with a handful of items on both menus available throughout the day. Nothing terribly fancy here, but the selection is serviceable enough: several pastries, sandwiches, salads, and wraps, with a few slightly more elaborate items, like a Smoky Bean Pasta.

Gin and Tonic

The beverage menu was slightly more extensive than what you’d usually find on an airplane flight: a good variety of teas, coffee, and soft drinks, with enough variety of spirits that you can get the same sorts of beverages you’d get on a flight like a Rum and Coke or a Gin and Tonic, and I opted for the latter: a decent Gin and Tonic made with a decent gin from Ellers Farm Distillery in North Yorkshire, and a pretty flavorful tonic from BritVic. Certainly a good drink to relax as we speed across the parched countryside up to Leeds.

Mumbai Chicken Toastie

Indeed, the smoky bean pasta (beans and pasta in a smoky tomato sauce) sounded good enough to actually order… but then found they had run out of it for the day. So I went with my backup choice: the Mumbai Chicken Toastie. Chicken, melted cheese, herbs, and just a bit of chutney, nicely toasted to order before service. I actually enjoyed this dish: some nicely tender and spiced chicken, a good cheese, and a nice chutney, and just enough toast on everything to make it warm and pleasant without being overly toasted. Not a bad item for a train.

Indeed, that’s the real take-away here: if you are looking at traveling on LNER Trains, consider first class: the seats are reasonably comfortable, the staff pleasant and attentive, and if you were wondering if you had to visit either a restaurant or store for securing a meal or provisions before your trip? I wouldn’t bother, the food on board the train was definitely pleasant and tasty, if not terribly elaborate.

After 3 long days at the Farnborough Air Show, we had to pack up to go to Leeds. But on our last evening, we decided to go into downtown Wokingham to find an interesting dinner. Wokingham is an old market town, and still has that basic layout at the town centre (Peach Place), so after parking, we found ourselves in the central market area of Wokingham looking at a handful of good options for outdoor dining. We ended up selecting an Indian restaurant, Bombay Story.

Bombay Story Patio

While Bombay Story had a very nice, elaborate dining room, the weather was phenomenal, so we opted to sit out in the patio. It’s a rather large patio, with sixteen or so small tables that can be reconfigured as needed, under two very large umbrellas that seem semi-permanent (I guess they might bring them in for winter, but it would be a lot of work). Despite being outside, the waitstaff very efficiently serves the tables, quickly getting us both cocktail menus and some recommendations for appetizers.

Delhi Old Fashioned

A pleasant surprise we had at Bombay Story is that they have an impressive list of about 20 cocktails. I went for their Delhi Old Fashioned, which was a straightforward take on the classic cocktail: Bourbon, Grand Marnier and a dash of Orange & Clove Bitters. The clove added a nice note here, and was a nice “Indian” complement to the various appetizers.

Bombay Cartel

My colleague went for a similar drink, the Bombay Cartel. A blend of Single Malt and Sauternes, stirred with Agave and a few dashes of tobacco and coffee bitters. This was a particularly good combination of both spirit (Bourbon) and sweet (Sauternes) notes, with enough bitters to round it out. And we were all intrigued by the nice dried leaf garnish as well.

Mini Papads

As we were enjoying our cocktails, they brought out our appetizers. Bombay Story has a strong appetizer game, starting with some crispy mini papads in assorted flavours, along with lotus root chips, served with house chutneys. The papads and lotus chips were nice and crisp, and both the mint and onion-pepper chutney quite flavorful; this makes for almost a perfect appetizer combined with some nicely spiced cocktails like the ones we were enjoying.

Chicken Papdi Chaat

Our second appetizer was a chicken papdi chaat: small chicken tikka pieces, with fresh coriander, date and tamarind chutney, beetroot, yoghurt and onions, served up on a crisped puri. The chicken was flavorful, the puri nice and crispy, and the yogurt and chutney a light, refreshing garnish. A solid appetizer.

Kaala Beef

For my main course, I looked over the menu. Bombay Story had a good selection of my favorite Indian dishes, but I in the house specialty section they had one that I don’t usually see on US Indian menus: Kaala Beef (black beef). Kala Beef is a robust curry made with tender beef slow cooked in a dark, flavourful gravy. The deep, smoky colour and rich taste come from a unique blend of roasted spices, grilled onions, and dry-roasted coconut. This was unusual for me, since in the US it is really rare to see beef in an Indian restaurant (the majority of US Indian restaurants are either run by Hindu folk, or patronized by them, and beef isn’t allowed, but you’ll occasionally run into muslim-owned places with some beef dishes). I really enjoyed this: the beef was tender, and the curry sauce smoky, spicy, and nicely layered with both herbal and pepper notes. I’d happily get this again.

Rajputana Lamb Chops

It’s not often at an Indian place that I have “menu envy”, but one of my colleagues ordered the Rajputana lamb chops: lamb chops, marinated in ginger, cumin, and aromatic Rajasthani sula masala, then grilled. These came out from the kitchen looking absolutely perfectly crisped and well spiced, and my colleague Jeff even was generous enough to share a bit: these had the perfect level of lamb flavor, spicy, fat, and crisping, and were incredibly good. I’d also not hesitate to order these myself.

Pistachio Tira Misu

But the biggest surprise at Bombay Story is that their desert game was at least as good as their cocktail and appetizer games. They had a lot of really great looking desserts, most of which weren’t Indian classics (although part of me was disappointed they didn’t have a good kulfi). I had this absolutely perfect pistachio tira misu, that was everything I like in a good tira misu: nicely soaked biscuits (soaked with a mix of espresso and pistachio liqueur), a nice cream, and composed with just enough time that it starts to soften without getting soggy. This was a solid dessert…

Chocolate Chai Brulée
with Amarena Sorbet

…but two others at the table got another dessert, the chocolate chai brulée with Amarena sorbet. I didn’t try it, but they raved about it. A nicely executed spiced chocolate custard with the perfect torched brittle top. Add in a nice Amarena sorbet, and both folks that ordered this loved it.

So… we all loved Bombay Story. All our courses, from cocktail and appetizers, to mains and desserts, were flavorful and well-executed. Spicing was nicely applied, and the dishes thoughtful in composition. Add in a very pleasant staff, and I can see why this place is popular (it had a waiting list by the time we finished up). I not only want to go back, I’ll probably go out of my way to return if I’m again in the area for work or pleasure.

After a busy Sunday morning, before heading out to Wokingham and Farnborough for business, my brother and I had a window of opportunity to grab lunch near his flat in Pimlico. I decided that this would be a great chance to do one of our Offbeat Eats Health Check re-visits to one of my favorite spots of 2019: Gopal’s Corner, located in Market Halls Victoria.

Back in our 2019 Visit, Gopal’s Corner (which is, itself, a little brother to the more famous Roti King, which since 2019 has itself grown to 6 locations) really impressed me with their Malaysian offerings, such as mak mee goreng (stir-fried egg noodles with a chile pepper and peanut sauce), their dosa, and, particularly, their sublimely good roti, served up with a bowl of Malaysian-style kari (curry). The combination of the delightfully flaky and crispy roti and the rich and flavorful kari made for a delightful, almost comfort-food deliciousness that was good enough that I made several attempts over the last few years to replicate the technique (and, during the pandemic, even taking an online course in replicating their technique offered by Gopal’s Corner as a fundraiser). It’s one of the best simple meals I know of, and I wanted to see how they were doing.

Market Halls Victoria

Arriving at Market Halls Victoria, I had pretty much the same experience at 2019: it’s still a “Food Hall” concept with about 9 different vendors selling food, and a centralized bar and seating area common to the restaurants. That concept has struggled a bit in the United States, particularly during and after Covid, but seems to be still quite vibrant at Market Hall Victoria, although of the current list of vendors, only two of them, Gopal’s Corner and Black Bear Burger remain from my 2019 visit; the rest have turned over (which is probably an overall success of the concept). So it’s good to see the place busy, and that many of the successful locations like Gopal’s continue to do well, too (there are now Gopal’s Corner locations at four different Market Halls, the others being Canary Wharf, Oxford Street, and Paddington).

Making Roti

Gopal’s Corner itself has changed very little since our last visit, aside from a freshly-painted new sign and tweaked logo. It’s basically an ordering counter (with a menu that, aside from inflation, appears unchanged from 2019), with an added attraction that you can watch them make their signature roti: each roti is rolled out from dough into a rough circle on an oiled sheet, and then flipped repeatedly like a dishrag to stretch it out into a paper-thin layer of dough, which is finally folded up and then placed on the hot griddle to cook. After crisping up, they take each roti and hand squish it to crumble it up a bit, and then serve it up with a fresh bowl of kari. It’s really fun to watch, although they make the process look far easier than it really is (I know, I spent much of the winter of ’21 trying to replicate these results, with only modest success).

IPA

Of course, I couldn’t resist getting the exact same order I enjoyed in 2019: Roti Canai with a side of Chicken Kari. While the guy making roti is almost magically fast, Gopal’s Corner usually has a healthy line, so we retired with our buzzer to the nearby table, enjoying a Camden Town Eazy IPA while waiting for our order. So that part of the Market Hall Concept is working well, too.

Roti Canai and Kari

Soon enough, the buzzer rang and we collected our orders. Mine was the exact same roti canai and kari that I enjoyed in 2019: the same flaky and sublime roti, and a Malaysian-style curry with a very rich and fragrant sauce. Honestly, if I was getting just the kari, I might think it was a little thin, but combined with the roti it’s almost a perfect combination, dipping the chunks of roti canai into the kari. This is exactly the perfect combination of spice and texture, and the sort of relaxed street food eating that hits “comfort food” levels of satisfaction.

Roti Canai

And that Roti Canai? This is simply some of the best roti I’ve ever had. This is a classic case of the magic being that there’s no real magic: no special ingredients, just flour, salt, a bit of sugar, a bit of condensed milk, and margarine (really, I have the recipe): it’s all in the execution of making the dough right, getting the gluten developed to get the right stretch, and mastering the tossing and grilling of the resulting roit. In other words: technique. And they’ve mastered it.

So yes, Gopal’s Corner is still one of my go-to places for London that’s nearly obligatory for each visit (and it helps that there are now multiple locations I can get to, I literally walked right by the Paddington location on arrival in London this trip). About the only thing that may cause me to not visit Gopal’s Corner is that I still feel a need to try one of the full Roti King locations at some point.

(Editorial aside: I got a bit out of order; I’ll resume Wokingham reviews in a few days)

Before I had to head out to Wokingham for my work trip, I went out with Dan and Sophie for dinner. We wanted a place with some interesting cuisine that was still a short walk from Pimlico, and Dan had just the place picked out Chinese food at Má Là Taste of Sichuan.

Má Là Taste of Sichuan Interior

Located in Westminster’s SW1P postcode at the corner of Great Peter and Monck Street, Má Là (the name is a call-out to one of the fundamental tastes of Sichuan cuisine, Má Là, otherwise known as Sichuan Peppercorn) is one of the more formal Chinese restaurants in this part of London: not a lot of takeaway, focusing on dine-in service with a fairly nice decor. This is primarily due to location: the sport is placed so it gets more than a little traffic from the local business and parliament crowd, as well as some of the higher-end hotels nearby.

Sesame Chao Shou Dumplings

Since there were three of us dining, that allowed us to do my favored approach for most non-soup Asian dinners: ordering serveral appetizers and main courses for the table, with everyone able to get a reasonable cross section of different dishes. Starting out, we had an order of their Sesame Chao Shou Dumplings: Chicken dumplings in a lightly-spiced sesame sauce. These had a nice chicken filling with a good slightly-sweet and slightly-sour flavoring, a nice thin wrapper properly steamed, and a light soy and sesame sauce. This was an enjoyable start to the meal, with nice tender pockets of flavorful and moist chicken in each bite.

Dry-Fried Green Beans

Next up, a classic Sichuan side dish: dry-fried green beans. Nicely fresh and well-prepped green beans cooked up in Sichuan peppercorns, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce, this is the perfect combination of crunchy grean beens, still firm with a lot of clorophyll flavor, but rounded out with the bold flavors of the peppercorns (with a lot of tingle), garlic, and ginger notes. This was a nice complement to the rest of the meal’s flavors.

Fried Morning Glory

Next up was a common-in-much-of-the-world dish that I wanted to order just because you don’t often encounter much in the US. The plant known in the UK as “Morning Glory” isn’t the flowery plant you are thinking. In Chinese it is known as “Ong Choy” or “Kong Xin Cai”, and in English is sometimes called “Water Spinach”, and it’s known for it’s hollow stem, spinach-like flavor, and somewhat firmer-than-spinach texture. It’s also a horribly invasive plant in much of the world, and requires a special permit to move across US State Lines, and is thus is very difficult to find in the US, and uncommon on menus there. It makes a good stir fry, however: it’s basically a slightly thinner and more delicate vegetable similar to bok choy, and the hollow stems and folds of the vegetable hold sauce nicely. I’d definitely get this again.

Ma Po Tofu

For our first main course, we had Má Là’s “Legendary” Ma Po Tofu. This was a very nicely done version of the classic silken tofu dish with spicy chili bean paste, ginger, and garlic, and the texture of the tofu and level of spice were both spot on.

“Fish Fragrant” Chicken Slivers

Next up was “Fish Fragrant” Chicken Slivers: Carefully slivered chicken served in a a blend of pickled red chillies, garlic, ginger, cloud ears and Sichuan chilli bean paste, this was a really good dish. There’s no fish in this, the name is because this spice combination is often used with fish, and that particular flavor, “Fish-fragrant”, yuxiang, is one of the 23 fundamental flavors used in Sichuan cooking. This was a surprise dish to me, I really enjoyed it, and I need to figure out how to replicate it at home.

So, I really enjoyed Má Là, the dishes were flavorful and spicy, the ambiance pleasant and enjoyable, and, by London standards, the prices reasonable. And the Yuxiang Chicken was a new dish to me, one that I enjoyed well enough to try to seek it out in the future.

While our group was attending the Farnborough Airshow, we staying at a hotel on the outskirts of Wokingham. This was convenient for our transportation to and from the Farnborough Airshow itself (Wokingham is about halfway between Heathrow and Farnborough), but the hotel itself was on the edge of town, so aside from it’s on-site pub (which, oddly, had beer from Shipyard in the States on tap), there wasn’t much in walking distance. However, there was one notable exception to this, The Oakingham Belle. So on our second night in town, we decided to walk over and check them out and enjoy some good, old-school English pub classics.

The Oakingham Belle Interior

The Oakingham Belle is one of those sorts of pubs I run into a lot once you get outside of the major cities: it’s a “new old” pub. The place dates only from 2019, being built at the same time as the nearby housing development, and it’s got what I call “village boozer” ambiance: a nice bar, a few dining rooms (one with a television), and enough seating to have a solid dinner service on busy nights. The name itself looks like a misspelling of “Wokingham”, but it isn’t, it’s a local-history reference: “Oakingham” is an older Victorian misspelling of Wokinghame, and the “Oakingham Belle” was a nickname for 18th-Century Molly Mogg, a famous barmaid.

Guinness

Like a lot of pubs in England, the Oakingham Belle is a company pub (the building and license are owned by Marston, and that also ties a lot of the beer to Marston brews), vs a “Free House”, but they’ve got a reasonably good assortment of regional beers. But for this particular evening, and my final menu selection, I was in the mood for a Guinness, so I started the evening with a good, fresh pint.

Steak and Malbec Pie

One of my weaknesses when it comes to English pub food is that I adore meat pies (which seriously don’t get enough presence in the US), and decided that I couldn’t resist one of their house pies: a Steak and Malbec pie. A nice, rich, and flavorful steak and onion filling in a nice, dark Malbec sauce, this was a very nicely done pie, with a nice firm crust with a good crumb. Add in some nicely seasons fresh veggies and a nicely done mash, and this was the exact sort of meal that I like to enjoy with a fresh pint and a relaxing dining room.

Chicken, Ham Hock, and Leek Pie

My coworker opted for the similar Chicken, Ham Hock, and Leek Pie. Served up just like the Steak and Malbec pie, but with a different filling, he rather enjoyed this dish as well.

Fish and Chips

Another colleague ordered up the fish and chips, and this was an impressive display: a very large, nicely breaded filet of haddock (my preferred fish for a good fish and chips), and served up with an impressive pile of nicely done chips and a side of mushy peas.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

But then it was time for dessert. None of my colleagues had experienced “Sticky Toffee Pudding”, so I had to encourage them to order it. It’s always been a favorite of mine: British dessert flavors are built on a subtly different palate: golden syrup, toffee, and treacle tend to dominate where Americans tend to use chocolate, and Sticky Toffee Pudding is a classic: a moist, dark, sponge cake covered in a toffee sauce, topped with either vanilla custard or ice cream. And the version at Oakingham Belle was quite nicely done: a good cake with nice spicing, a good dark toffee sauce, and a nice ice cream.

Overall, we enjoyed The Oakingham Belle. A good selection of beers, a nice assortment of traditional English main course, and a particularly good Sticky Toffee Pudding. What’s not to love?

This July landed me an interesting assignment: the State of New Hampshire and the NH Aerospace Defense Consortium were leading a trade mission to the UK, with the primary goals of visiting the biennial Farnborough International Airshow and then doing a small side trade mission to West Yorkshire, focusing on Leeds. This was an excellent trip in itself (Farnborough is one of the best airshows in the world for both aircraft displays and having virtually every aerospace company in the West in attendance), but my trip also gave me a handful of days before and after the official trip to visit with my brother and sister-in-law in London. Shortly after arrival, Dan announced that we should go out for lunch, and had a specific destination in mind: heading out to Peckham for pozole.

Guacamoles

While London is one of the world’s best destinations for having a good diversity of world cuisines, it is a little weak when it comes to non-American, Western Hemispshere cuisines. Particularly, it isn’t exactly known for Mexican food, and much of the nominally “Mexican” offerings are actually offshoots of the various “Americanized Mexican” food, reformulated for milder British tastes. While the situation has markedly improved over the last two decades, if you are craving something particular and authentic like, say, a good traditional pozole, you’re going to have to do a bit of searching. Which brings us to Rye Lane Market in Peckham, home to many Latin American restaurant stands, one of which is Guacamoles. Originally starting as a pop-up in Hounslow, a few years ago, Guacamoles is the product of London Manolo de la Torre, better known as “Taco Manny”, whose family traces back to Veracruz, and who has been trying to create a place where people can experience traditional Mexican street food.

Arriving in Peckham’s Rye Lane Market, you can immediately find Guacamoles, it is at the center of the market’s food court area. You can tell immediately that this place has potential, since they’ve got the basics all in place: vertical spits for tacos al pastor, agua fresca bubblers, a big comal, Mexican flags… This stand would look right at home in Arizona.

Guacamoles’ Menu

Looking at the menu, which is a simple marker board next to the register, you can see that Guacamoles keeps all the basic Mexican fare available: eight different types of taco (including lengua, a favorite of mine), birria, quesadillas, chilaquiles… and most importantly, pozole. I adore a good, proper pozole with a rich broth and large chunks of tender hominy. Since I was still fairly hungry after a long flight from Boston, I ended up ordering a trio of tacos al pastor, a bowl of pozole, and some house-made jamaica.

Tacos Al Pastor

So, lets start with the tacos. These are traditional al pastor tacos, carved right off the vertical spit (complete with the tradition bit of pineapple at the top). Rich and tender pork with just enough sear to give it a good crisp, this was a great filling. Add in some obviously nicely hand-pressed tortillas (extremely rare for London, although I do prefer the frequent approach of US taquerias in double-stacking the tortillas to avoid “taco blowout”), and some nice fresh-chopped onion and cilantro, and these were perfect street-style tacos. I’d happily get these again.

Pozole

But the real star here was the pozole: traditional Mexican stew (Guacamoles uses the traditional pork recipe), made with hominy and topped with lettuce, radishes and avocado, and served with both red and green salsas on the side. This was the exact sort of pozole I enjoy, with particularly rich broth and flavorful hominy flavors just perfusing into the broth. Add in some fresh chips on the side, and this was a nice way to recover from an international flight.

So yeah, unlike a lot of my more disappointing experiences with “Mexican” food in London, Guacamoles delivers. The food is great, and authentic enough that if I were to order and receive these exact items in, say, San Diego, I wouldn’t be disappointed at all. The flavors and textures were spot on, the ingredients nice and fresh, and the staff very pleasant. It’s worth the trip out to Peckham if you really find yourself craving Mexican food, but in London.

As our regular readers know, we here at Offbeat Eats have been trying to avail ourselves of the various community meals that spring up around the region. Looking through the local Kearsarge Shopper as we approached the 4th of July holiday weekend, I noticed an announcement for Warner, NH’s United Church of Warner’s 4th of July Community Breakfast. Since we didn’t have anything planned for that morning, we figured it would be good to drive down to Warner and check it out.

United Church of Warner

The United Church of Warner is the result of a decades-ago merger of the Baptist and Congregational churches in Warner, and sits on East Main Street across from the Post Office. The 4th of July Breakfast is an annual affair, although it’s worth noting that it’s not always held on the actual 4th of July; like the rest of Warner’s 4th of July celebrations, many years if the actual 4th isn’t on or adjacent to a weekend, the entire slate of events moves to a more convenient weekend date. But this year, since the actual 4th of July was indeed a weekend day, this year they held it on the fourth, scheduled from 7:30 to 11am to allow folks to enjoy a breakfast either before or after the other festivities like the parade.

Church Basement

While I tend to use “Church Basement Breakfast” as a bit of a shorthand for these sorts of events, often holding events over in adjacent fellowship halls, United Church of Warner actually holds these breakfasts in their church basement, the big gathering room immediately below the sanctuary (which we did duck up and check afterwards, they’ve got some nice stained glass). The breakfast itself is run buffet-style: grab a nice spot (we grabbed a table near the door that turned out to have one current, and one hopeful NH legislator; such is the ways of New Hampshire), grab a plate, and head on through the line.

The Spread

The Warner breakfast has a pretty consistent line-up from year to year: pancakes with or without blueberries. waffles, sausage. sliced melon. scrambled eggs. home fries, and beverages. And of course, like any self-respecting Northern New England breakfast affair, the maple syrup for this breakfast real Warner-made maple syrup as well. Its quite a good spread, and the blueberry pancakes were particularly good this year.

After some great conversation (particularly about the history of Warner, and some encourage to do another visit to the New Hampshire Telephone Museum just down the street, which we have indeed visited and enjoyed in the past), we headed upstairs for a quick self tour of the church, and got on our way to visit the Farmers Market. All-in-all, one of the area’s better summertime breakfasts, and a good one to mark on next year’s calendar.

During our annual trip to Lake George, we usually end up going out for breakfast several times, exploring the area. One of our more regular destinations (one that somehow has managed to avoid a review to this point, probably due to lack of photos) is down in Queensbury: The Silo. The Silo is one of those roadside institutions that gives an old school aura, like farmland and its buildings were converted to a restaurant; That’s partly true: The Silo used to be a barn and, well, silo, but not in Glens Falls, but at a more rural location in Saratoga County, getting relocated here in the 1980s to make a restaurant and gift shop.

The Silo Interior

The net effect here is essentially “Like Cracker Barrel on steroids, but locally owned”. The Silo is at least as much gift shop as restaurant, and you do indeed enter and “exit through the gift shop”, but at least they’ve got some good, fresh-made cider donuts (which are the perfect snack if you find yourself with a long wait for a table, which is quite often on weekends, and is exactly what we did on our visit.

Corned Beef Hash Benedict

After a relatively short wait (around 20 minutes, mostly spent sitting on Adirondack chairs on the front porch), we found ourselves seated in a quieter corner and reviewing the menu. Silo is your classic, old-fashioned American breakfast-and-lunch joint, with a breakfast menu known for omelets, pancakes, Benedict, skillet, and other breakfast comfort-food staples, and a similar burger and sandwich menu for lunch. If you are looking for a good, solid, stick-to-your-ribs breakfast to tide you over to dinner, this is the place. Myself, I went for my regional gold standard for evaluating a place: an Irish Benedict with corned beef hash. This was a rather good version: a good crisp on the English muffins, some nicely-seared, house-made corned beef hash, nicely poached and a nice, creamy and tangy Hollandaise. Really, the Benedict itself was exactly what I hope for from this dish. Add in some home-fries (done what the Midwest calls Potatoes O’Brien, with green peppers and onions) were good, but not quite top tier. But certainly good enough to dab up the various bits of leftover Hollandaise that always result.

Classic Benedict

Meanwhile, Carol opted for the Classic Benedict. Basically the exact same dish as mine, but with nice, thick slabs and nicely-seared Canadian bacon in place of the CBH. Definitely a good version of the classic dish.

Overall, we like The Silo. We’re not alone, it’s the sort of place that we need to try to remember to hit on the quieter mornings of our annual Lake George trip, since a lot of other people obviously love the spot as well (it can often exceed an hour wait on Sundays, for example). But it’s some great food, friendly service, and hey, if you need a nice, fresh cider donut while you wait (or for dessert), you can get one hot out of the oil. What’s better than that?

Like most years, we spent almost a week in June attending the Ohana: Luau at the Lake charity even in Lake George, NY. Getting to Lake George always involves crossing Vermont East-West, which doesn’t have any truly optimal routes. This time, we decided to take a more southerly route, taking us through Wallingford, VT around time for a late breakfast. Which was good, since Wallingford has a new-ish (since 2023) breakfast option I had been wanting to check out: Bacon & Batter.

Bacon & Batter Interior

Located right on Wallingford’s Main Street at the crossroads with Depot/School Street (VT-140, that heads over to Mount Holly and Ludlow), Bacon & Batter is in a storefront that used to be some sort of light retail, and the space has been nicely renovated to showcase the wooden floors and wainscotted walls. There’s a fun little quirk: the ventilation system is located in the basement and ideally wanted more vents than could easily be accommodated with floor vents, so there’s a nice central painted vent coming out of the floor and distributed, tree-like, over the dining area. With a service counter in back by the kitchen, and several tables up by the windows, it’s a nice, pleasant dining space.

Bacon & Batter Specials

As one can imagine from the name, Bacon & Batter is a breakfast-oriented restaurant, with a particularly large number of items featuring bacon or pancakes (several varieties), an idea I can fully get behind. But the menu is a lot more diverse than that: several Benedicts, red flannel hash, omelettes, skillets, and the like, including several daily specials. I ended up getting tempted by one of the specials, the Reuben Omelette.

Reuben Omelette

While a bit unusual, the Reuben Omelette was exactly what it sounds like: three eggs, scrambled with sauerkraut, pastrami, and Thousand Island dressing. This actually worked really well. The flavor combination worked similarly to the sandwich, and combined well with the egg, making for a slightly tangy take on an omelette. The homefries were proper double-cooked homefries, although here I did find about a quarter of them were somewhat overcooked on the griddle. But overall, a great, unique take on a breakfast omelette.

Wild Turkey Hash

Carol got one of the more interesting items on the regular menu, the Wild Turkey Hash. Fresh roasted turkey with peppers, onions, mushrooms, potatoes, cream, and spices, topped with two poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce, served with sourdough toast. This was a very flavorful combination, but I found it a little sweet, mostly from the cream. I understand the textural reasons they added cream, but I’m wondering if this dish could be even better if they found a way to keep it a bit more savory. But still, a nice, novel dish.

Often, with a place like Bacon & Batter, we’d usually get a pancake on the side to try those out, but the relatively generous portions of our omelette and hash meant that we had to save that indulgence for another time, which I’m almost certain will happen. The interesting menu and good execution make this a breakfast place worth a reasonable detour. I hope to come back soon.

After a very pleasant hiking trip in Acadia National Park, we decided to have our celebration meal someplace that was on the way back towards NH and MA. We decided that Ellsworth, just outside of Acadia National Park. was a particular good spot to check out. Ellsworth started as a fishing site, then in the early history of our country grew into a major 19th-century lumber and shipbuilding powerhouse, before those industries started to shrink. Nowadays, Ellsworth is primarily situated as “The Gateway to Acadia National Park” and the “Downeast” region. Looking over the available options, we found a quirky one that sounded just up our alley: Josie’s Country Café, located inside Josie’s Country Store on Surry Road, just outside of downtown Ellsworth.

Josie’s Porch

To discuss Josie’s Country Café, you must first discuss Josie’s Country Store. It’s basically one of the example of the New England style “general store”: convenience store, light groceries, lottery tickets, and a random assortment of other items. And about a quarter of the interior is taken up by the food counter and kitchen. While you can order some sandwiches and the like from the inside counter to go, you’d be missing out on a lot of the greatness. Since the wraparound porch around the entire building is the dine-in seating for Josie’s Country Café, with a surprisingly extensive menu of dine-in options.

Thai Iced Tea

While the seating area with the nice views and breeze is awesome, that’s only a small fraction of the surprise. The second surprise was the menu. Sure, it has a great array of breakfast and lunch options from the classics of American breakfast fare. And some great sandwich options, like a Chicken Caprese sandwich. But it also has has a good selection of Mexican dishes (quesadillas, breakfast burritos, etc), Italian dishes (arancini, bucatani), Chinese dishes (Orange chicken, Char Siu buns), and even Filipino food (Lumpia, for example). Seriously, it’s one of the broadest menus I’ve seen in the region, and it gave me a lot of options to choose from as I sipped on my delicious Thai iced tea.

Lumpia

Then, it was time for some lumpia, because, hey, I so rarely see this on menus in New England. The thinner cousin to the more classic egg roll, Lumpia are a great little snack, with a paper-light wrapper and a very flavorful and spiced ground pork filling. The version at Josie’s Country Café was the perfect little appetizer to start off our brunch.

Biscuits and Gravy

When it came to order my main course, I was sucked in by one of my breakfast favorites: biscuits and gravy. Particularly since Josie’s makes it a order (with the menu having the oddly precise warning that this dish takes 17 minutes). This was a well-above average biscuits and gravy. The biscuit itself was fresh, and that makes a huge difference. Then add in a very nice gravy made with local milk and sausage (the French-Canadian heritage of the area results in a lot of really great tourtiere-style sausages, rich with sage and clove). This was a solid breakfast, and well worth the 17 minute wait.

Breakfast Burrito

For the rest of our party, they reported satisfaction with their dishes, in particular the nicely-crisped breakfast burrito, and a reasonably servicable corned beef hash.

Overall, Josie’s was a great find. A great location, a friendly staff, a pleasant dining porch… and a surprisingly diverse menu of well-executed dishes. It’s worth checking out if you are in the ara.

The majority of our trip to Acadia National Park was a hiking trip, and we had most of our meals either on the trail, or prepared in the campsite (despite camping, we ate pretty well, see my review of Fitpacking for the typical fare), halfway through our trip, we had planned an outing to one of the traditional Lobster spots around Acadia, because, well, lobster. Most people’s visit to Acadia involves at least one meal of at least moderate overindulgence in lobster, and why should we argue with tradition?

Beal’s Lobster Interior

What we would argue about is where to go for lobster. Much like the famous New Haven pizza loyalties, visitors to Acadia all have their favorite lobster “pounds” (Lobster joints where they keep a central tank of lobsters and cook them to order). At the top of most lists are the same two favorites, both on the less-tourist southwest end of the island: Thurston’s Lobster Pound (Bernard), and Beal’s Lobster Pier (Southwest Harbor). We were getting towards the prime dinner hour, so we let basic logistics be the tie-breaker this trip: we were already in Southwest Harbor, so we decided to go to Beal’s.

Beal’s 2.25 lb Lobster

Arriving at Beal’s just as it was starting to get busy, we got there in time for just a short wait. Like most good lobster pounds, Beal’s is a pretty simplistic affair: walking in, you’re immediately in front of the large lobster tank, with the lobsters already sorted by weight ranges. While Beal’s has a more elaborate menu than most of the other lobster pounds except Thurstons; they lobster rolls (for those that don’t want to tackle the whole lobster), steamed clams, mussels, haddock sandwiches, and a reasonable selection of burgers and non-seafood sandwiches. But the vast majority of folks coming into Beals are ordering the same basic thing: a steamed lobster (on this visit $20.99/lb for the smaller ones, $22.99/lb for the larger ones), often upgrading it to a “Meal” (starting at $6.99 for corn, coleslaw, and cornbread).

Beal’s Patio

Myself, I was definitely ready for a lobster dinner, quickly decided that a 2.25 lb lobster (shown here) was just about right (that size lobster usually yields about 8 oz of actual meat by the time you are done shelling the bug). Add in the basic “First Mate” meal (corn, coleslaw, and cornbread), and the lobster goes immediately into the boiling pot as I select my beverage and head outside.

Most of Beal’s seating is in the large outdoor patio, and on a nice day like our visit, that’s definitely the place to sit; just grab one of the picnic tables looking over the harbor.

Beal’s Blueberry Margarita

While I was waiting, the bar brought out my drink. Pretty much every drinking establishment around Bar Harbor offers up some sort of specialty drink featuring blueberries, and at Beal’s, it’s a blueberry margarita. For a nice, sunny day, it’s actually a great beverage to enjoy while waiting for your lobster to arrive.

Beal’s Lobster Meal

And when the lobster arrived? The lobster itself is pretty much perfection. Fresh lobster, cooked to just the perfect texture and sweetness. Beals is rather good at delivering the lobster with just the right amount of pre-cracking along the spine and the claws so that it’s really easy to get at the claw meat, and provides small forks for extracting the tail meat, so it’s easy to eat without being too overly fussy with cracking tools, but not overly prepped. The other “First mate” sides were reasonably good (admittedly, it was early in the season so you can’t have great expectations on the corn), but it rounded out the lobster nicely into a full meal.

While it’s a bit of an excessive meal, it’s certainly easy enough to see why the various lobster pounds in the area stay busy, and we really enjoyed our dinner at Beal’s. Next time I’ll have to try one of the other lobster pounds in comparison.

To rendezvous with everyone on our trip to Acadia National Park, we gathered at a hotel in Orono, ME, and needed to check out the local town for dinner. While Orono is primarily known as the home of the flagship University of Maine campus, it also has a small downtown alongside the Stillwater Rier, with older wood-frame and brick buildings house independent shops, cafés, restaurants, and bars. Here’s where we found a good little spot for dinner: Woodman’s Bar and Grill.

With both a nice indoor dining room and an outside patio (the latter of which was full; the weather was perfect for outdoor dining), Woodman’s is essentially a gasto-pub: your basic pub ambiance, a rather good assortment of regional beers, and enough of a broader dinner menu that you could come here for a nice family gathering in addition to just stopping in for a beer. In other words, perfect for a nice pre-hiking dinner. Getting quickly seated (and you could tell from the staff interactions that Woodman’s is family-owned), we relaxed with beers from nearby Orono brewing (mine was a Tubular, their standard IPA) while looking over the menu.

Chicken Marsala

While most of the menu was upscale pub fare, they had a few specials, and in my case, I went for the daily special: chicken marsala. The first thing I noticed here is that while a lot of places are downsizing portion sizes in response to food costs, Woodman’s is still serving up a generous portion; indeed, if I wasn’t on a hiking trip, I think would have been a bit more food that I usually like. As far as quality? This was an enjoyable dish. I’m more of a fan of sautéed chicken cutlets than breaded, but the version at Woodman’s was breaded. But it was a decently-executed breaded cutlet, the dish nicely composed, and the sauce pleasant (although I do like a slightly stronger Marsala wine flavor). Add in a nicely-done mashed potato base that was just the exact amount of lumpiness that I like, and I’d definitely consider having this if I ever find myself at Woodman’s again.

Bolognese

Two of the other diners in our group opted for the same item, the bolognese off of their usual menu. This was a classic preparation, made from a mix of veal, pork, and beef made into a nice ragu, mixed with campanelle pasta, and served up with a dollop of burrata cheese and some garlic bread. The pasta was nice, still slightly al dente and not overcooked, and the ragu really highlighted the flavors. This was a solid dish, and exactly what I want in a good restaurant ragu.

Tofu tacos

And our guide, Steve, usually eats vegetarian with a bit of a pescatarian lean. He ordered the fish tacos, but asked for them with tofu instead of fish, and the resulting tofu tacos were nicely done: nice crisp packets of breaded tofu, served up as tacos with some cabbage slaw, queso fresco, candied jalapenos, and cilantro-lime sour cream. A pleasant enough vegetarian option.

Overall, I liked Woodman’s. It’s the sort of small-town restaurant that really serves just about everyone: the folks looking for a quick dinner, people wanting to stop in for a beer and maybe a few snacks, and even the folks going out for a nice, more formal dinner. Add in a friendly and welcoming staff, and this is one of downtown Orono’s spots to consider visiting.

In early June, Carol and I did a short vacation to Acadia National Park with our Fitpacking friends. People always ask me if we go to Acadia a lot since “we live so close”, but the realities of both Northern New England roads and the scale of Maine itself mean that the more interesting parts of the Maine Coast aren’t exactly next door: Acadia National Park is a full 5.5 hour drive from our house, which means we’re stopping someplace mid-drive for lunch. In this case, several recent trips to Maine showed me that Biddeford (one of North America’s oldest settlements, and a former lumber and textile powerhouse) was a good place to stop. In this case, for a trip to Sacred Profane Brewery and Tankpub.

Sacred Profane Brewery and Tankpub

Sacred Profane opened just a few years ago in 2022, by brewers Brienne Allan (formerly of Notch Brewing) and Michael Fava (formerly of Oxbow Brewing), with the goal of providing a tight focus on Czech-style beers. And by tight focus, this means they brew only two beers: a pale lager and a dark lager (although they blend and age both of them, so they’ll often have several more lagers lists on the tap list). The beers are brewed in the traditional Czech style and technique: open fermentation, horizontal lagering tanks, and serving directly from overhead copper serving tanks. If you were wondering about the meaning of the “tankpub” in the name: that’s because they serve their beers up this way: the main serving bar has overhead tanks, and the beer is served directly from these, with the careful ritual of filling the glass with just the right amount of foam.

Beer Garden

Add in a well-rounded food menu of European-based food, and it’s a pretty good selection. For an added attraction, during the warmer months they’ve even got a nice beer garden outside for you to relax and enjoy your lager.

Beers

Starting off our meal was a pair of beers: My Smoked Amber (left) and Carol’s Smoked Dark (right). I really liked both beers. The Smoked Dark Lager had a nice, deep mahogany body, a thick, wet café-au-lait head, and a nice malty flavor with notes of rye bread, bread crust, and hazelnut. Smooth and enjoyable. My Smoked Amber was a slightly lighter and more refreshing variant of the same concept: a lighter brown with a nice wet cap of foam, and slightly crisper and hoppier notes than the Smoked Dark. Both really enjoyable beers, and worth going out of your way to get.

Mussels

For the main course, Carol went with the mussels. These were served up in the classic European style like I’ve enjoyed in Belgium: served up with a white wine-garlic sauce, and with a big pile of frites on the side. Unfortunately, this was a bit of a hit and miss entree: The mussels were generally good, but the cleaning on them inconsistent, which really put a damper on them, and the white wine and garlic sauce, however, was a bit more briney than either Carol or I generally cared for. But certainly not bad, just not quite the level we were hoping for for a $28 entree. The fries and aioli were top notch, however: nice, crispy exterior, fluffy interior, and the aioli had just the right amount of garlic bite to be pleasant but not overwhelm the rest of the flavors.

Schnitzel Sandwich

Myself, I went for the chicken schnitzel sandwich. Okay, this one was alsohit and miss, but when it hit… wow.

Let’s start with the chicken schnitzel sandwich itself. This starts off with a nice chicken thigh that’s been pounded, buttermilk-and-pickle-juice marinated, and breaded. This made for an outstanding schnitzel, with the perfect combination of flavor, texture, and exterior crisping. Add in a great garlic aioli (same served with the fries), some good pickles, onions, and a well-toasted brioche bun, this was one of the best chicken sandwiches I’ve had in quite some time. Seriously, this is a top notch sandwich.

The potato salad (ordered as a sub for the fries it normally comes with) was top-notch as well. A good potato salad really needs to focus on, well, potatoes, and these were nicely cooked to the perfect texture, with a light vinegar flavor to the potato, the mayo and egg merely supplementing the potatoes instead of just burying them. A light dusting of dill completed the plate, and this was just about the perfect lunch…

Except when it came to the bill. The sandwich itself is normally charged as $21, served with fries (and the fries, that we got with the other dish were indeed quite good, and served with the good aioli). But since we already had some fries, I wanted to substitute the potato salad. Both the fries and the potato salad, if ordered as a la carte sides, are both charged at $8. Since these are nominally the same price as sides, I’d either expect a straight up swap, or at most a modest upcharge for a basic substitution of otherwise same-cost sides, but that’s not how Sacred Profane does it. They charged this as “no fries” (no change in cost, so I was charged the same $21 despite not getting the fries.), and then charged the potato salad as a “side to schnitzel” at the full $8 cost. That made this combo a $29 lunch, and I just don’t think the quality was there. And I confirmed the charge with the server who told me this was “policy”. Even if this is policy, it’s a terrible one, and one they should have pointed out at the time of the order.

Brewing Tanks next door

So this was a great meal, but combined with the relatively pricey mussels, this made for a very expensive lunch, one that didn’t quite live up to the hype.

I’m not a Biddeford regular, but if I ever do end up returning to Sacred Profane, I’ll almost certainly be back, but I’ll definitely being a lot more careful about ordering.

We recently had reason to celebrate a major milestone on a Friday evening, and other obligations of mine already had me visiting Woodstock, Vermont the same day. Normally, this would have been a great opportunity to visit Oakes & Eveyln, which is my go-to for this sort of thing, but others obviously had the same idea: they were booked solid. So I decided to try another nearby spot that I’ve driven by hundreds of times in the decade since they opened, 506 Bistro, located inside On the River Inn. The name of both the restaurant and inn have subtly changed a few times over the years (for example, a few years ago the Inn was “506 On The River”, with the Bistro being “The Bistro at 506”), and I’m not really sure what the 506 stands for (it’s definitely not the address), but the place has been around long enough I decided that it was worth checking out.

506 Bistro Interior

Walking into the inn, the restaurant itself is located at the back corner of the inn. The spot is actually quite nice, focusing on a a nice dining room, with the sort of relaxing ambiance you expect in a high-end Vermont boutique hotel. There’s also the bar, which appears to be fabricated from an old apothecary shop, and a small but nice outdoor patio looking over the Ottaquechee River. One small detail I noticed as well was that despite the place being fairly full (this was a Friday evening, so a few weekenders staying at the Inn and a few other celebrants were about), I only ever saw one person working that evening: the same person was working as host, bartender, and server.

Point Judith Calamari

Starting off the meal, we shared an appetizer of Point Judith calamari, tossed w/ Sweety peppers and served with house-made marinara. This was a particularly good start to the meal: the calamari itself was cooked to the exact perfect texture, the breading was nicely crisped, the overall salt level exactly right, and the little teardrop-shaped Sweety peppers added a nice piquant note, too. Calamari is always a bit of a difficult dish, and they got both the level of doneness and the constituency of the breading exactly right. I don’t order seafood much due to my allergies, but if I was sharing another appetizer here, this would definitely be my pick.

Caribbean Salmon

For her main course, Carol got the grilled Caribbean salmon, topped with avocado, tomato, cilantro and red onion, served on yellow rice with asparagus. With a “Caribbean” name, I’m expecting either a slightly tropical flavor, a bolder Jamaican jerk flavor, or something similar, but the final dish was actually a bit on the subtle side. But the salmon was grilled perfectly, the flavors well composed, and the presentation nice, so we were happy with the overall dish.

Bistro “Steak”

For my main course, I opted for the “Bistro Steak”. Here was the weak point in the meal; quoting from the menu, “10oz Grilled Bistro Steak, House Made Chimichurri Sauce, Served w/ Roasted Potatoes & Seasonal Vegetables,” this sounded reasonably good, like a Chimichurri variant of a classic steak frites, so I decided to go for it, and ordered it medium rare. What arrived was not a 10 oz single steak, but approximately 10 oz of steak tips, cooked well into medium-well territory. This launched our table into a bit of a discussion of culinary semantics, but we settled on the idea that if something is sold as a “steak”, an equivalent weight of steak tips, even good ones, really isn’t quite the same thing.

Were these bad steak tips? No, although I think they would be been a bit better if they were actually served up closer to medium-rare or medium than the medium-well they were served, but these otherwise had a good overall texture and sear. With credit to the chef, the house-made chimichurri was quite good. I generally prefer a chimichurri made with the more concentrated flavors of dried oregano, and find ₩hen made with fresh herbs, it can often taste grassy, but this was bright and fresh, and actually quite agreeable. But aside from that, the rest of the dish was really lagging; add in some particularly sub-par roasted potatoes (literally, I’d call these just under typical parcooked fries in texture), and this entree wasn’t into “send it back” territory, but offered as “steak tips” these would have been much more reasonable, although with that name the $48 price may not have been. It was definitely a disappointment in an otherwise good meal.

Tiramisu

To the rescue, however, was a very nice shared dessert between the two of us, an above-average tiramisu: nice, rich coffee flavors, and just the right texture hovering between “soaked” and “soggy”. I’d get this again.

So, I found 506 Bistro to be a bit of a mixed bag. The ambiance is pleasant enough. The staffing is very light, but aside from little opportunity for follow-up the one server actually seemed to be keeping up with tables and doing a good job. The food was generally quite good, but not quite the level I was hoping for for this price point. Would I come back to 506 Bistro? I can definitely see that happening, especially with a relative paucity of fine dining options in the area (and 506 Bistro is one of the rare places in the Upper Valley open on Monday for dinner). Will I be a lot more careful and selective in ordering? Definitely.

A recent hiking trip had us passing through Claremont, New Hampshire during breakfast time. Claremont has a good selection of restaurants, but it also has several locations that just, for one reason or another, seem to be challenging for restaurants to find success. These locations have a rapid series of different restaurants back-to-back, while the local diners hope that at some point something finally manages to stick. One of those locations is on Washington Street, the main route between Claremont and Newport, next to the Burger King. This location has been more than a few restaurants in my years living in the area; of the ones I remember, it was a “flash-fired pizza” place run by Ramunto’s (which I actually liked), then vacant for a bit, and then for a few years it was Claremont Country Cafe (unrelated to the now-shutter Country Kitchen in Newport), then that changed into Fast Lane Diner, which only lasted for a few months before reopening as Odd Duck Diner and Donuts.

Odd Duck Interior

Stepping in to Odd Duck, the ambiance is mostly the same as it was at Country Cafe: a wood-paneled dining room with a little bit of country character, with some light decor on various duck themes places around the area (I suspect from the number of small rubber ducks that someone in the place is a Jeep owner). But it otherwise looks like a nice, established restaurant, and that’s for a good reason: as the restaurant transitioned from Claremont Country Cafe to Fast Lane to Odd Duck, it’s mostly been a change in ownership and vision, and not staff; some of the folks working here go back to the Country Cafe days.

Potato Donuts

Since Odd Duck has “Donuts” right in their name, we decided to order donuts to start. They have two very different types of donuts at Odd Duck, their “Duck Donuts”, which are traditional, large raised donuts in the shape of a duck. These looked quite good, but we went for the second option: they offered up potato donuts as well. I like potato donuts (see my review of Portland’s The Holy Donut from a few years back), since they have a nice texture and fry up to a very good crisp, and these were a nice start to the meal: a good texture, a perfect crisp, and a freshly-applied and not damp powdered sugar coating. A great start to the meal.

Shakshuka

While Odd Duck was still during their soft opening, the menu was a bit limited, but it more than covers the basics of breakfast and lunch, and even had a few unexpected surprises, such as the shakshuka that Carol ordered. The classic North African/Middle Eastern dish of spiced tomato soup with poached egg, feta, and toasted bread served on top, this was unexpected for Claremont, and actually quite good. I did find this a ittle more tomato-ish and less “pepper” and “spice” than I usually like, but this was certainly a good dish, and makes me interested to see what other non-traditional diner food they’ll be serving up in the future.

Country-fried Steak and Eggs

Myself, I went a bit more mainstream, ordering one of my secondary standards when a place doesn’t have a Benedict (which Odd Duck didn’t, at least during the soft open): Country-fried steak. At a “diner”, this is often a pre-made, frozen breaded cutlet from Sysco, but a pleasant surprise at Odd Duck is that the “hand-breaded cubed steak cutlet” was indeed hand-breaded and fried to order: this was a particularly good country-fried steak. The gravy on it was a sausage gravy; I usually prefer a cream-style gravy, but this was a decent, house-made sausage gravy that worked well. Add in some decent scrambled eggs and some double-cooked home fries (par-cooked, and then finished on the griddle), although I admit I like a bit more of a sear on my potatoes. Overall, one of the better, satisfying breakfasts I’ve had in the area.

Really, I liked what Odd Duck is doing. The area is really short a few good breakfast options in particular, and this is a particularly good continuation of an existing restaurant with a nicely-updated concept. I’m interested to see how their full menu goes, and really want to go back soon and try one of the duck donuts.

Anyone that’s known me for a long time knows that two of my favorite sandwiches are the related roast beef sandwich, and the French Dip. As I discussed in detail with my review of Jamie’s Roast Beef in Peabody a few years ago, roast beef sandwiches are definitely a regional specialty, but the specialty is really focused on Massachusetts North Shore. While pretty much any town between Boston and the NH border has several roast beef sandwich joints to choose from, the density starts to roll off pretty quickly, and by the time you get to central NH, they are getting kind of thin. But a recent trip through the Merrimack valley had us passing right by an old favorite, Beefside in Concord, NH, and we decided to give it one of Offbeat Eat’s “Health Check” re-visits.

Beefside

You can read my previous review of Beefside from 2013 (which is practically another geological era, as the internet and blogging goes). A lot has actually changed in the almost 13 years since my last Beefside visit: In early 2020, Beefside founders Sue and Billy Ray retired after operating the staple for more than four decade, and long-time employees Lisa Taylor and Jay Corliss bought the place. While 2020 turned out to be a particularly difficult time to take over a restaurant, the place seems to have continued to flourish. And walking in the door, the interior of Beefside is pretty much unchanged since my 2013 visit: the same wood paneling, faux leather booths and tables, and the same fireplace with an ornate “Beefside” stained glass piece above it.

Beefside Giant

The menu had a bit of a retooling, but it’s mostly been some minor refinement. On a lot of my earlier views pre-2020, in addition to a French Dip (with straight up roast beef), they’d also have an upgraded version, the Prime Rib Dip, made from leftover prime rib. This isn’t a regular menu item any more (although a quick check of their socials shows that this is a regular menu special). Otherwise, the menu is almost entirely the same as I remember, focusing on roast beef sandwiches; the new owners have definitely focused more on “continuation” than “reinvention.”

Starting out my meal, I decided to go with an old school classic of the sort that Beefside is always good at: French Onion Soup. Served up in a cup filled to the brim, with a big slice of cheese melted over the entire top, and some large croutons, this is the exact some of classic presentation I visualize when I think “French Onion Soup”. And most times I get something like this, the overwhelming flavor is “salt”, but the version at Beefside is nicely well-rounded and not overly salted. This is the perfect start to a meal at Beefside.

But the main reason most diners come to Beefside is for their classic, North-shore style roast beef sandwiches. These are classically served, with thinly-sliced roast beef sandwiches, generous portions, and toasted buns. The classic roast beef is offered in three sizes (Junior, Giant, and Colossus), and two levels of dressing (plain, or as a “Super” with lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayo). And while they don’t have the vast array of toppings available, at, say, Jamie’s Roast Beef, they easily will add cheese or horseradish mayo to a plain sandwich as well. Carol opted for a Super Giant, and everything about this sandwich worked: nice, thin, and perfectly medium rare beef, piled high (there’s an art to piling this just so, instead of stacking slices). A good toast on the bun. And toppings that complement, and not bury, the beef. This is a solid, well-performing roast beef sandwich.

Beefside French Dip

But I didn’t come for the sandwich. I really was craving the next level up, a proper French Dip. Beefside’s classic French Dip is the same beef, and the same portion, as the Giant, but served up plain on a toasted French roll (better for dipping), with house-made au jus, and some fries. This was exactly the sort of French Dip I crave: each bit having a bit of rare roast beef, warmed up nicely by a beefy-but-not-salty au jus, and the roll having just enough toasting to hold up some crispiness through the dunking.

So, how is Beefside doing? Pretty much as well as they’ve ever done. They’ve got a solid menu of beef sandwiches, a good selection of seafood, some good appetizers (including hand-breaded mushrooms), and even a breakfast menu (that I need to come back and explore). It’s definitely worth a stop if in Concord, NH.

A recent trip over to Dover, New Hampshire resulted in us looking for breakfast options around the greater Hooksett area (the region between Concord and Manchester, NH, straddling the Merrimack River). Until very recently, this would have been an almost automatic choice of The Robie Store for breakfast sandwiches… but The Robie Store closed permanently a few weeks ago. So, after taking a look at various online reviews, I ended up picking Shirley’s Kitchen in Suncook Village as a good option. Their online media showed a mean-looking Benedict with some decent home fries, and I always have rather liked Suncook Village (just around the corner from Shirley’s is Oddball Brewing, which we’ve previously visited and enjoyed).

Shirley’s Kitchen Interior

As I learned recently, Suncook isn’t actually it’s own town in New Hampshire, it’s actually a village spanning the Suncook River split between Pembroke (N) and Allenstown (S). On their nice Main Street, across from a cool older clock tower, Shirley’s Kitchen opened in July of 2023. Owners Bonnie and Jae had nicely refurbished a Main Street storefront with new floors, walls, and decor, making a nice, airy, and welcoming dining room with plenty of seating.

Omurice

As I mentioned above, we had picked Shirley’s from many options since several people had posted some good pictures of pancakes and Benedicts… But when I picked up the menu, my plan of getting a Benedict went right out the window. Not because they didn’t have one; Shirley’s has quite a complete menu of classic American diner fare like omelettes, pancakes, and even Bendedicts, but they also have quite a few bAsian-inspired breakfasts on the menu, both classic dishes and American-Asian fusion. I ended up going with a Korean item on the list: the Omurice: a thin omelette served over fried rice. This isn’t my first omurice (it’s a not-uncommon breakfast dish in Korean and Japanese places), and this version had everything right: a perfectly-done thin-style omelette, draped over a nice fried rice with several veggies, some pulled pork, and finished with a gochujang sauce. Just the right amount of classic omelette, fried rice, and pork flavors to tie everything together.

Bulgogi, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich

Carol, meanwhile, decided to order one of the breakfast specials: a classic breakfast sandwich on Texas toast, but in this case, it was with bulgogi beef, egg, and cheese. A nice, flavorful, and well-composed sandwich, served up with some good double-cooked home fries. Another solid winner.

So, I ended up really enjoying Shirley’s, and was pleasantly surprised with their substantially broader menu than I originally inspected. I’ll definitely need to come back, if not for one of their good-looking Benedicts, for one of their other Korean fusion breakfasts, like the Gyeran Bap (Spam and egg scramble) or the Seoul Bowl (poached eggs and brisket over rice). It’s definitely a great spot.

Last month, we were looking for a good place to go to celebrate Carol’s birthday, and realized we hadn’t been to one of our area favorites for a while: Windsor Station in Windsor, VT. As you might suspect from the name, Windsor Station is in the former railroad station, and it’s one of the area’s best fine-dining options.

Windsor Station Interior

For some background, the current rail tracks in southern Vermont along the Connecticut river are run by New England Central Railroad (NECR), which was the successor organization after the Central Vermont Railway (then part of CN) broke up. This sign is a remnant from the Central Vermont Railway days. Shortly after Central Vermont Railway passenger service stopped (with the re-introduction of Amtrak’s Montrealer/Vermonter, there’s now one daily passenger train in each directoion), the main depot building converted into a restaurant and freight depot, and it’s been operating as a restaurant in one form or another since 1976. When we moved here, this was the “Windsor Station Pub”, a serviceable-but-not-remarkable pub, but in 2012 that restaurant closed, and after extensive renovation, local restaurateurs Stacy and Jon Capurso sold their well-liked place Stella’s in Hartland (now the Hartland Diner) bought the place, and embarked on an impressive renovation, reopening as the current Windsor Station.

Windsor Station Decor

Throughout the restaurant, they’ve decorated the place with what’s best-described as “relics of the golden age of passenger rail travel”, with suitcases, old train schedules, photos, and early 20th century decor. You get more than a little feeling that you’re sitting in a dining car while eating here. As far as menu, Windsor Station focuses on a combination of pub food (since half of the recent is a the beer and cocktail bar) and a varied American menu featuring house-made pasta, steaks, and entrees like grilled steaks. The bar is pleasant as well: they maintain a good list of cocktails, and as is almost obligatory in Vermont, having a list of 10 rotating beer taps, all featuring local craft beers.

Arancini

We decided to start out on an Italian note, getting the arancini. I always enjoy a good arancini, especially since doing these right takes a bit of skill: you need to get the interior rice ball nicely flavored without over- or undercooking it, while simultaneously getting the exterior to just the right level of crispiness. Windsor Station did these flawlessly, and served them up with a nicely-seasons tomato-vodka marinara. A great little appetizer.

Station Master Salad

Next up was a pair of salads. A lot of places these days seem to have appetizer salads as a bit of an afterthought, but Windsor Station still puts a lot of thought into composing some good salads: we both had the Station Master Salad, with fresh baby lettuce, dried cranberries, crumbled blue cheese, walnuts, and maple cracked-peppercorn vinaigrette. This was a nice combination of sweet and savory notes, with the blue cheese adding the occasional bite of sharpness.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

For my main course, I went for the spaghetti and meatballs. while nominally a fairly plain dish, I had remembered on a previous visit that Windsor Station makes their own pasta in-house, and does a really good job at it (the bucatini of a previous trip is one of the best pasta dishes I’ve had ever). For my spaghetti and meatballs, everything here is spot on: house-made, perfectly al dente spaghetti with just the right amount of tooth, and just the right amount of salt. Combine that with a really rich, concentrated, but not overly salty marinara. And some really nicely spiced and lightly seared meatballs, and this was about as good as “spaghetti and meatballs” gets.

Chicken Parm

Carol, meanwhile, went for the Chicken Parmesan. This was the same excellent house-made spaghetti and marinara as the meatball dish, but topped with a very nicely done breaded chicken cutlet and topped with cheese. One of the better breaded chicken breasts in the area, this had a nicely cooked and tender interior, a nice crumb to the breading, and was crisped to perfection. Combining this with the marinara and cheese made for a particular good Parmesan.

French Silk Pie

Finally, for dessert, we had loved the sound of their daily special pistachio cake with chocolate ganache… but our relatively late seating meant that the table before us has finished off the last serving. Instead, we got the French Silk Pie, which was a very well-executed version of the classic: a good, rich chocolate pudding filling, a nice cracker crust, and a good real whipped cream topping.

I can definitely see why Windsor Station remains popular (on a Saturday night, the place was packed: reservations are highly recommended). The food is excellent (and the pasta is the second-best I’ve had in Vermont, just slightly behind Trattoria Delia, which I still need to revisit), the service friendly, and the prices still pretty reasonable in these times of extreme inflationary pressure. If Windsor was just a tiche closer to my house, we’d probably come a lot more often.

We recently had to do a short day trip over to the Adirondacks in New York, and that left us looking for a new place for breakfast on the drive over. We’ve had a lot of great little spots on this drive, like Sugar and Spice and Big Apple Diner, but on this particular trip our timing lead us to wanting to explore Fair Haven and Castleton a bit. We ended up going to downtown Fair Haven, where we found The Wooden Soldier.

The Wooden Soldier Interior

The Wooden Soldier is located at the end of the main commercial block in Fair Haven. Fair Haven itself is quite interesting, with much of town dating back to the town’s heyday as a center for slate quarrying, with a large central square surrounded by Victorian homes, and the large commercial block that forms most of the downtown of Fair Haven. An L-shaped row of three- and four-story commercial blocks, this makes one of the more developed and compact small-town business districts in Northern New England, and at the south end of the row is The Wooden Soldier. The Wooden Soldier has been in operation since 1950 when it was a soda counter for the Roberts Bros Hardware store, becoming the Wooden Soldier in 1965 (with the same owner since 1976). The first thing you realize walking in the door is that The Wooden Soldier still looks like a diner and family restaurant that’s been running since 1950: a few wooden booths, a long service counter that’s seen a lot of use over the decades, and hand-painted signs throughout (including a nice sign detailing the top tourist attractions of 1950s and 1960s Vermont). This place is seriously old school in character (it reminds me of the now-shuttered Polka Dot Diner in White River Junction), and you can tell that it’s got its own set of clients that similarly have been coming here for decades.

Irish Benedict

Sitting down at the worn wood counter, the owner quickly came over and got us set up with cups of fresh coffee and hand-lettered specials signs for the weekend specials. The menu at The Wooden Soldier isn’t particularly extensive, but covers the basic American Diner fare quite well, including pancakes, omelettes, Benedicts, and even a few old school items that you don’t see much any more like creamed chipped beef on toast. While I almost got the chipped beef, I went for my “usual” these days, an Irish Benedict. This was a very nicely done Benedict: proper house-made corned beef with nice large chunks of potato and corned beef (one of the better I’ve had) with a perfect sear, a good Hollandaise on the tangy end, and perfectly poached eggs. A great Benedict, and some nicely-done, double-cooked home fries alongside. A nice overall breakfast, and a great way to break up the drive.

The obligatory wooden soldier.

I loved The Wooden Soldier. It’s the sort of place where you can practically taste the history, and it’s not just ambiance that’s driving the place: the food was good, the service very friendly, and the other clientele friendly and welcoming. It’s definitely worth a stop for breakfast or lunch if you are in the area.

Back in 2021, one of my favorite breakfast spots, Country Kitchen in Newport, NH, announced that they wouldn’t be reopening after Covid-19 closures. I miss that spot; it was definitely a bit of a dive, but the food was good, the prices quite affordable, and they really had a nice selection of locals that were always dining there. But the place wasn’t closed for long, in 2022 it was announced that the building was reopening, this time as Jalisco Mexican Bar and Grill.

Jalisco Mexican Bar and Grill

One thing to get out of the way up front: This is the place in Newport, NH, and not the similarly named Casa Jalisco down the road in Claremont, which opened around the same time, and that I reviewed (and enjoyed) in 2024. Doing a bit of digging on online LLC filings, these appear to have different, but overlapping ownership, so there’s some commonality between this “Jalisco”, the Newport “Casa Jalisco”, and the small Mi Jalisco chain down in Keene, Peterborough, and Milford. So, while I like the “other” Jalisco in Claremont, I’m treating this as its own place, and it’s actually quite nice to see the renovation. Country Kitchen had some “small town charm”, but was also starting to get more than a little warn: Jalisco did a very nice renovation of the place, installed some booths, divided the place into an updated bar and dining room, and really gave the place a decent makeover.

Jalapeño Margarita

Like most of the Mexican places around here, Jalisco has a rather extensive list of Margaritas, ranging from the house Margarita, to various upgraded liqueurs, to a few flavored varieties (and one of their more popular specials is getting a flight of the flavored Margaritas). Their house Margarita is one of the better ones in the area, but this time I went for one of the flavored varieties: the Jalapeño Margarita with Hornitos Plata, jalapeño juice, and a very generous load of pickled jalapeños. Very spicy, but also refreshing on a nice day.

Combo Platter

For the main course, Carol opted for their basic combo platter, with rice, beans, a mole chicken enchilada, and a chile relleno. I find a chile relleno to be a good gauge of a Mexican place, since there’s a bit of execution here. You need to start with a decent poblano chile of the right size, stuff it with a reasonably good cheese mixture, bread it, and then cook it up so that the interior is crisp and not soggy, and the interior is nicely warmed through. The version at Jalisco is one of the better ones in the area, and the chicken mole enchilada had a reasonably good mole sauce as well. Overall, a good combo.

Chicken Chimichanga

For my dinner, I did my usual order (that goes way back to my childhood in Arizona, going to Macayo’s, which I should really review at some point), which is chicken chimichangas. Like a lot of New England Mexican places, these are served up as pair of smaller chimichangas, and open-ended instead of burrito-wrapped. I generally like the smaller portion size, and this approach allows you to mix and match flavors if you like, but at times I do find myself craving a larger, single chimichanga. Served up with some fresh tomatos and a rather good guacamole, these were crisp and flavorful. The accompanying Mexican rice was nicely flavored with a lot of jalapeño, which made for a nice side.

I’ve not yet experienced either the dessert menus, nor any of the brunch items (Jalisco opens at 11 and has a few brunch-oriented items on their lunch menu, like a huevos rancheros), but I’ve certainly enjoyed the rest of the menu we’ve experienced. While I’m still sad that Country Kitchen is gone, I’m glad it has been replaced with a spot that’s still popular with the locals, offers up good food, and has reasonably good prices. I suspect they’ll be here for quite a while.