Safe Travels: 6 small Upstate New York towns with big restaurant scenes

Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series that features things to do in Upstate New York while we still experience the Covid-19 pandemic. Before venturing out, please take proper precautions and check for any changed business hours or availability. Safe travels!

Population centers have their own dynamics that create buzz about them and what they offer. But, in a place as vast as Upstate New York there are many deserving small cities and towns that usually are fortunate to just wind up on a list of “hidden gems.” This is one such, a look at small Upstate towns with big restaurant scenes.

Here are six excellent examples in six different counties spread throughout this huge swath of geography running from the mid-Hudson Valley to far Western New York. They attest to the variety available to visitors, especially those anxious to begin exploring again after a year largely spent indoors.

Speaking of that, please bear in mind that as the Covid-19 pandemic rolls on, restaurant hours may be erratic, some venues still are limited to takeout and delivery, indoor seating will be at a premium, and all have rules about customer and staff behavior and procedures. Best to call ahead.

Downtown Jamestown

A view of Downtown Jamestown, N.Y. on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015.

Jamestown (Chautauqua County)

In New York’s westernmost county, “sparse” hardly describes the population. Its county seat, Mayville, has a headcount of barely 1,700 and Jamestown, its largest community, is only in the high 20,000 range. Nevertheless, it has a culinary scene that often goes beyond the zeitgeist one would expect in an area dominated by the mellow lakeside lifestyle (there isn’t a point in the county more than 20 minutes from open water, including Chautauqua, Erie, Findley, Bear, and Cassadega lakes).

Landmark Restaurant on West 4th Street has a white tablecloth dining room offering a large menu divided into such categories as “boneyard” (veal chop, beef Wellington, rack of lamb), “bowls” (steak, chicken Florentine, veggie, tuna sushi), and “seafood” (crab-stuffed haddock or salmon, sea bass, crab cakes, combo dishes). The Chop House On Main -- actually it’s on East 2nd Street -- is another white tablecloth spot, a steakhouse with a classic menu reflecting the genre. Downmarket, there is the Labyrinth Press Company, located in the historic Thurston Block on East 4th, that has evolved over the course of 14 years from being an espresso and live music bar to full-restaurant status, serving scratch-made vegetarian and vegan fare. It also operates the Brazil Craft Beer & Wine Lounge, with 18 rotating craft beer lines, upstairs. And, Lisciandro’s Restaurant on North Main Street is a popular breakfast and lunch spot that puts twists on familiar dishes -- sausage and eggs with stuffed hot peppers; pepperoni and provolone or meatloaf omelets; creamed potato and ham soup.

Downtown Kingston

What used to be the home to the local newspaper back in the 1920s is now the waterfront restaurant, Mariner’s Harbor. Serving all the classic seafood dishes such as lobster, fish and chips, and clams, you can dine with a front row seat of the historical waterfront.

Kingston (Ulster County)

The state’s first capital (1777) is located roughly 60 miles south of Albany and 90 miles north of New York City, a good location to blend cosmopolitan culinary sensibilities with a more relaxed vibe in a place of barely 23,000 souls.

Any self-respecting Upstate town has its share of good Italian restaurants and Kingston is no exception. (Frank Guido’s Little Italy, Savona’s Trattoria, Stella’s, LaFlorentina, etc.) But, it has so much more. Take Le Canard Enchaine, for example. It oozes French cafe ambiance to the Nth degree — classic posters, twinkling lights, tight dining spaces tucked into cozy corners, a good-sized bar, deft yet unpretentious service. And, best of all, wonderful French country dishes from owner/executive chef Jean Jacques Carquillat, 52, a second-generation chef from Chamonix, France. He promises “Beef bourguignon and cassoulet always available,” but do not miss his fricassé of escargot in a deeply flavorful mushroom and cognac broth flambé; worth the drive from anywhere. Located Uptown in the Stockade District opposite the historic Old Dutch Church at 276 Fair Street.

Some other options in the city: The chic Lola debuted on Fair Street last year, with a modern Italian menu (potato croquettes with a lemon-oil-garlic Sicilian sauce, short rib ragu over pasta, smoked brisket pizza) and imaginative cocktail list; the historic, stone-walled Hoffman House Tavern, recently purchased by its longtime chef Francisco Diaz, has antecedents in the 1670s and attitude in the 1970s (bacon-wrapped scallops, clams casino, London broil, steak au poivre, chicken francaise); chef-owner Albert Bartley got a James Beard Awards semifinalist nod last year in the non-Big Apple “Best Chef: New York” category for his work at Top Taste, a classic Jamaica eatery on Hasbrouck Avenue (escovitch style — fried then doused with pickling sauce — snapper or kingfish, brown stew chicken, ackee and saltfish, cowfoot and red beans or butter beans); Mariner’s Harbor, on the west bank of the Hudson River at the foot of Broadway in a former newspaper building, offers a comprehensive seafood menu plus its own brand-new in-house ice cream shop.

The Crystal Restaurant

The Crystal Restaurant opened in 1925 at 87 Public Square in downtown Watertown, N.Y.SYR

Watertown (Jefferson County)

The population rapidly thins out as you drive north from Syracuse (population 143,000) to Watertown (population 25,000), about 70 miles away. Nevertheless, there is plenty of transitional activity from tourists heading to spots in the nearby Thousand Islands and along the Black River about five miles east of its mouth at Lake Ontario — and, of course, there is the sprawling Fort Drum military reservation and its 10,000-14,000 rotating inhabitants. All of which provides a solid customer base to support a culinary scene anchored by some long-running venues.

Entering the city’s oldest eatery, the Crystal Restaurant on Public Square, is like walking into a lovely architectural time capsule (tiled floors, tin ceilings, dark wood booths and bar — essentially a polished version of what it was when it opened its doors in 1925 but with a menu reminiscent of the 1990s (finger food apps, a dozen salads and cold plates, basic burgers, standard sandwiches ... although the pies are a bit more imaginative, including strawberry rhubarb and raspberry). The fourth generation of the Sboro restaurant family operates a pair of long-run eateries — Art’s Jug on Huntington Street that opened in 1933, and Sboro’s Restaurant & Chop House on Coffeen Street that opened in 1992. Both offer pizzas and other Italian dishes, along with such grace notes as ribeyes, rack of lamb, and roast duck. Less venerable but still popular: Spokes Craft Beer & Tapas, an atmospheric Public Square tavern offering just what its name advertises; the Bad Apple Saloon on Arsenal Street with a “vittles” menu that should be the envy of every drinking establishment anywhere (fried green tomatoes, bacon bleu cheese chips, battered banana pepper rings, duck bacon wontons, smothered flatiron steak, chargrilled St. Louis ribs, Rueben hot dogs, etc.); Coleman’s Corner on Lawrence Street looks more like an upscale rustic country inn than the Irish pub it is, but it has the tongue-in-cheek attitude of the genre (the menu offers the likes of a “Four Course Irish Dinner: 3 draft beers and an order of fries”).

Cohoes (Albany County)

A year ago, I wrote a story headlined “Taking a ride on the Cohoes culinary express,” chronicling the ongoing restaurant expansion in this small Hudson River city (barely 16,000 population) tucked into the northeast corner of the county that keeps drawing attention despite being geographically squeezed by popular dining scenes in Albany to its south and Troy to its east. Since then, the boom has only gained momentum, particularly on bustling Remsen and Ontario streets.

During such growth, one might expect duplication, but that is not the case. The newcomers range all over the place. A few examples: The Tiny Diney a shiny new version of a 400-square-foot greasy spoon that has been around for a century under various names; the Bye-i Brewing Craft Beer & Taproom that offers its own brews plus food brought in from neighboring restaurants; Cafe con Mel, a daytime cafe that is an outgrowth of the caterer D&L Hospitality, with a wildly global evolving menu — Filipino turo-turo buffet, Korean cream cheese rolls, Puerto Rican dishes, locally-made bagels; Teta Marie’s Lebanese, a traditional spot whose locally born-and-raised chef/co-owner, Brenda Hage, learned the recipes of her Lebanese mother-in-law and turns out the likes of beef kofta and shawarma, chicken shish tawook, meat and spinach hand pies, and pizzas topped with za’atar, awaki cheese.

Downtown Trumansburg

Hazelnut Kitchen and other Main Street businesses use color to show off pretty architectural details.SYR

Trumansburg (Tompkins County)

This tiny, picturesque town southwest of Cayuga Lake has a year-round population of barely 2,000, but it has plenty of tourist traffic — people moving through the Finger Lakes, traversing the Cayuga Wine Trail, attending one of several annual major music festivals in non-pandemic times, visiting Taughannock Falls State Park (home to one of the tallest free-falling waterfalls east of the Mississippi River) — that helps support a healthy restaurant scene.

The upscale Inn at Taughannock Restaurant on Gorge Road boasts 180-degree views of Cayuga Lake from its airy dining room and offers an American-Mediterranean fusion menu, and it even has a food truck called The Black Diamond Express, named for the flagship passenger train of the old Lehigh Valley Railroad that carried passengers to Trumansburg via its Buffalo-New York City run from 1896 to 1959. Conversely, Atlas on West Main Street is the town’s version of the growing popularity of “activity eateries” and vegan-friendly venues found in most of our major cities. Visitors can bowl on seven renovated ’60s-era lanes and dine from a menu that ranges from burgers, grilled shrimp or salmon, shepherd’s pie, steaks, to a range of vegan- or vegetarian-sensitive dishes. In between those two polar opposites are such spots as Hazelnut Kitchen on East Main, a farm-to-table venue featuring local wines; Brews & Brats at Autumn View, a German restaurant on Route 96 offering locally sourced food, beers, wines, and ciders; and, the aptly-named Creekside Cafe breakfast and lunch spot sitting along Trumansburg Creek on West Main, offering numerous touches from other cultures such as a kimchi-gruyere panini, a Cubano sandwich on house focaccia, a shitake-black bean cheeseburger, and breakfast tacos and burritos.

Downtown Owego

Carol's Coffee & Art Bar on Front Street serves coffee, bagels, soups and salad, and sandwich platters such as The Van Gogh, Picasso and Monet. Walls are filled with local art, there are live music offerings, open mic nights and art classes.SYR

Owego (Tioga County)

This Southern Tier county seat village is on the western fringes of the Binghamton Metropolitan Statistical Area (population 240,000), but it’s a tiny part of that population center with a headcount of only about 3,500. However, its bucolic setting just off the Southern Tier Expressway (Route 17) makes it a convenient pause-point for motorists heading to or from the Finger Lakes or the many colleges in Central and Western New York.

The Owego Kitchen on Lake Street is a comparatively recent addition (November 2015) to the local food scene, but the building has been around since 1872 as a saloon, gaslight company, photo studio, grocery, and more. It’s a breakfast/lunch/catering operation with an imaginative sandwich list (rosemary chicken, Jamaican tuna, jalapeño popper turkey BLT, etc.). The Cellar Restaurant & Bar On the River overlooks the Susquehanna from its Front Street perch. Menu highlights include a variety of smoked meat dishes, classic preparation styles for filet mignons and New York strips, and old-style surf-and-turf. MJ’s Bar and Restaurant, another waterside venue on Fifth Avenue, is a multi-cultural casual spot with a menu featuring such things as Greek saganaki, Mexican street foods, Vietnamese pho, Jamaican jerk dishes, and so on. The River Rock Diner on Route 17C slings standard diner fare along with Mediterranean dishes. Carol’s Coffee And Art Bar on Front Street has a plethora of original artwork displayed on bare brick walls, setting an inviting mood for its menu that features sandwiches all named for classic artists.

William M. Dowd, a longtime journalist, is the author and publisher of Notes On Napkins, a food-and-drink blog covering the Greater Capital Region and western New England, with seven zoned Facebook editions.

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