Jake Moon Cafe

I've mentioned Jake Moon before--and Sean was all, What's Up With That?  TJP suggested it back in my Miss Albany post, and J and I realized it's really not that far, and is on the way to Thacher Park. 

On a beautiful morning we first gave out water halfway through the Delmar Dash, then we ran our own little Albany Dash before washing up for brunch with D.  When people from DC or NJ ask me what living in Albany is like, after I tell them how my rent payments were slashed (HAPPY FACE) and how little traffic there is (GIGANTIC SMILE), I always tell them how it gets rural fast.  I leave Albany on Delaware Ave, I'm in Delmar in bebeh suburbia, then bam.  Hills, views of mountains, open fields, horses, a goat staring at me on the side of the road, you name it.

Jake Moon serves breakfast all day.  You know how I feel about that. They also have lunch, dinner, catering, and by the by, if you yak on to the waitress about how much you love the apply butter, she'll happily jar some up for you for less than $5.

First up is local cider.  I didn't ask whether it would be hot or cold, because I didn't care. I wanted it either way!  It was hot, served with a cinnamon stick.  Delicious.

I had the Red Flannel Hash - sirloin beef, roasted beets, corn, onions, potato, poached eggs, and sourdough toast.  My dining companions commented that it almost looked like chunky-style chili!  It was very good, but I think next time I'll try the corned beef hash.  The sourdough bread rocks, but I sort of wanted half sourdough toast and half cinnamon raisin.

J had sausage gravy and biscuits with over easy eggs and potatoes--the SOS.  He was feeling happy and somewhat southern.

D had the Bennet Hill scramble, with smoked Gouda, wild mushrooms, and herbs.  She's such a sweet friend that she let me have a bite--let me tell you, this kitchen knows how to make an egg.  How many meh omelets have I had recently? (Hint: too many.)  The gouda was awesome; when a dish has real flavor, you know it's composed of quality ingredients. 
 The place is full of charm, friendly service, delicious food, and apple butter that you want to bathe in.  Or maybe just I want to bathe in the apple butter; I really shouldn't put stuff like that on you.

This is the orange marmalade, which, while more pleasing to the eye, is outdone in nom-ability by the apple butter.


We didn't have any 'zerts, but maybe next time we will, just to round out the experience. 

Jake Moon Cafe
2082 Delaware Turnpike
Clarksville, NY

Postcard from Montreal

36 Hours in Montreal?  I had more like 27 hours (not to be confused with 127 hours, also known as almost 32 days).  When my sister said she'd be at a big conference just 4 hours up the road, I jumped at the chance to share the weekend with her.  The ride up took just under 5 hours because I was quite delayed at the border.  The lines didn't look long, but it took forever.  I zoomed back (with no wait at the USA gate) in 4 hours with one short stop.  (And no tolls.  Can you believe that, everyone?)

I've heard tons about Montreal bagels (even in 1987, when I was really too young to be thinking about it).  But I just didn't have time to eat one on this trip.  I know we'll be back this summer, but if I can't wait until then, I may just need to go to Mile End in Brooklyn (a Montreal-style Jewish deli that imports the bagels and smokes the meat in-house). 

Naturally, after parking the car, my first stop was Schwartz's.  The long line outside scared me a little, but it turns out that's for the restaurant.  Anyone can walk in and order at a counter, then either take out or head to the back where there are some tables and stools.  I won't lie, it was hot in there.  Besides the obvious reason (hi, they are smoking meat all up in there), I think it was hot inside a lot of places in Montreal because it was the first warmer day in quite a while after a long, cold winter.  I had the smoked meat sandwich, $5.90.  I didn't make any specifications (I think someone behind me ordered "lean"), and it arrived with a little mustard on rye.  It was delicious, and it smelled like heaven.

By the time I arrived, Sister had already had French food several times, abysmal conference fare, and tapas. When we finally headed out to dinner we didn't feel like waiting too long for our dishes.  Yelp led us to some options for pollo a la brasa, often referred to as "Peruvian chicken" (although in Montreal one place explicitly said "Portuguese").  I remembered the drill from the good old days in Arlington at El Pollo Rico or Super Pollo, and I figured for a low price Sis and I would be chowing down on 1/4 or 1/2 a chicken and some sides.  That's exactly what happened.  We had super juicy tender chicken, potatoes, and decent slaw at Coco Rico. We tried Romado's first, but they close at 8pm--we arrived a little later, and they were actually out of chicken.  We grabbed some pastries from Presse Cafe on our way back to the hotel, which we served ourselves with tea from the lobby (because nearly every day of my life ends with a hot beverage).  The ginormo biscotti was dipped in delish white chocolate on one end and regular ol' chocolate on the other.  Sister happily guessed correctly that the danishy-twisty friend had apple in the middle.

 Is there anything like Diet Coke in a can?  So what if it'll kill me?  Not if something else does first.

 Sweet industrial decor.

Now on to the main event.  You and I both know what I was really looking forward to--brunch.  The fruit of the hen.  My favorite.

I read around on Yelp and elsewhere and decided we should go to Le Cartet.  We waited about 15 minutes, but we used that time wisely in their little shop.  You could definitely do some damage getting takeout and boxed/preserve treats for a picnic.  I stocked up on some made-in-Quebec treats for my best buddy back home, and obviously got a blueberry and chocolate spread that I finished alone in two short workweeks.

Lots of choices here for brunch--you could get anything from a pastry to an enormous plate with many things on it, and every option in between.  We opted for enormous plates with everything on them.  Sister had the Brunch de L'Atlantique: Eggs with smoked salmon (or lox, right Em?), half a bagel with all the typical accoutrements, greens, a little sweet potato and salmon cake, and fruit.  They weren't kidding about the salmon, I know.

I went for the Brunch de Sante: yogurt with granola and blueberries, poached eggs on greens, and grilled bread, cheddar sticks, and a fig.  And it came with coffee and juice, all for $15.  I highly recommend you go there and try it.  Illy coffee.  Luv.

Sigh, home sweet home.  For now.

Miss Albany Diner

This little diner is TFC.  The food is good, the service is friendly, and there are interesting things on the walls.

Exhibit A:

Downstaters/DCers, please take the above as a lesson in NY geography.  I live nowhere near Buffalo.  It's 5 hours away according to this very official signage.  Hawaii seems too close...

And the food.  So here at the MAD they toast your cinnamon bun.  Even though I usually wouldn't order one of these delectable definitely-not-breakfast (DESSERT) items, I was intrigued by the toasting.

Let's get close.

That's the stuff.  This is basically criminal.  For real. I'm pretty sure slathering it with butter will get you LWOP.  A little crunch goes a long way, particular because it's caused by a crispy bread outer layer AND the crackling of the thin, sugary film. 

Corned beef hash, over easy eggs.  Classic us.  Delicious.

Cool huevos with chutney, some mint and mango.  I liked it more than J did, so we ended up switching about halfway.  His plate was definitely cooler.

I need to remember to ask for my toast dry.  I really don't need the butter--the rest of my choices do enough damage, and I prefer jam or preserves to butter anyway.  SO FORGETFUL.

PS, this joint closes at like 2:15pm or some crazy time like that.  You can get there for late breakfast, but not J&A-style 4pm winter weekend breakfast...we lazy.

Here's to continuing our tour of the Capital Region's best diner breakfasts.  Happy Monday everyone!


Miss Albany Diner
893 Broadway
Albany, NY 12207 

Cafe Madison

We found a delicious and inexpensive brunch that we now crave all the time.  Let me be clear that by "found" I mean everyone else who has lived here for the past 40 years (according to the bartender) already knew--we read a lot of advice telling us to go there, and today we finally did.  And by "finally" I mean it took us 2 months.  I'm too hard on us.

FIRST VISIT:

Anyway, we've been to a few diners, so there's no shortage of breakfast.  Our Sunday Times in tow, we headed to Cafe Madison post-spin class but pre-Williamstown adventure.  It was pretty packed; I spotted two seats at the bar, asked if we could eat there (sort of knowing the answer), and nabbed 'em.  A girl had just come outside to the doorway to tell her boyfriend that the wait was a half hour, that doubt in her voice about whether he'd want to wait.  Girl, whatcha waitin' for?  We LOVE to eat at the bar.  No wait (or short wait), it's just the two of us, and did I mention not having to wait???  Y'all know I love this tactic.  There wasn't quite enough room to spread out with the paper while we waited for our food (which actually took a while--longer than for the people next to us who arrived later and ordered shortly after us), but we huddled over the crossword puzzle together and made some moderate progress.

 [Strawberry Basil Mimosa?  Can you say T?!?!]

The breakfast specials looked great, but I went for the two + two--two eggs and two pancakes, a variety of choices.  I had apple walnut.  Y'all know I'm not huge on pancakes (usually).  If anything, after a long run I want something eggy + something bready, usually French toast.   But these pancakes were thick and fluffy, and you could taste the buttermilk.  My over easy eggs were a little less done than usual, but not in a bad way.  In all, it was so much food and I could not believe it was only $6.  I felt like a thief.  And I don't want extra toast and potatoes to come with my food--this was more than enough!  I couldn't even finish the last few bites of pancake.  Again, very unlike me, but I was stuffed.

J had the corned beef hash (obviously, one of us had to have it).  I had a few bites and what I noticed was that the hash itself was well done on the edges--it had a crisp.  YUM.  Just the way I like it.  J had a bunch of options for bread, all made in house.  He got cinnamon swirl, and it was so thick and delicious it almost tasted like French toast. It made other toasts feel embarrassed.

After this visit I was crushing on Cafe Madison.  I had visions of going almost every weekend with the same situation repeating itself, delicious and easy.

SECOND VISIT:
This past weekend did not play out the same way, so I'm updating this post to share with you.  J joked that Cafe Madison is great....if you have nothing else to do all day.  I joked that I could have finished the socks I just started knitting on size 1.5 needles while we waited.  [Haha knitting joke haha.]  At least five people sitting at the bar hung out there for 20-30 minutes waiting for a table before deciding they'd eat there.  They totally have the right to sit there without eating.  I was just dreaming of our first visit, and wished I could sit at the bar and order food instead of watching them sitting and not ordering food. 

Let me be clear: I'm ok with a wait when I know it's happening.   Remaining at a crowded restaurant is consent to wait patiently with a smile.  But the 15 minutes our hostess told us turned into 40, no space opened at the bar, and after we sat down we ordered within 2 minutes--no need to think.  Our food took another thirty minutes to arrive.  Pancakes, hash, toast, eggs.  And this isn't a place where you get a roll or a muffin.  We were late to pick up a friend at the airport, but beyond that, we were starving.  Starvation and lateness guilt meant we scarfed down our food in about 6 minutes, not exactly savoring.  We paid the bill while cleaning our plates and rushed out.  It's not that I believed the hostess that it would be 15 minutes, it's that I was hopeful that even if the wait was an hour we'd be sitting at the bar in less than 10 minutes. 

Our food was delicious, and for the quality it is dirt cheap.  J's pancakes were well-done the second time, and I liked them better with some crisp.  The cinnamon toast is really a cinnamon bun pretending it's toast, aka awesome.  Service is friendly and coffee is quickly refilled.  I just think that if there's a wait--any at all--and you are really hungry or have somewhere to be in less than two hours, then you need to sit at the bar within 10 minutes or go somewhere else.  Otherwise you will have what I call Delicious Yet Least Relaxing Brunch Ever. DYLRBE.  Which you may notice, starts with DY aka die aka I thought I was going to die because I was so freakin hungry.

P.S. Brunch is 7:30am til 3pm Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 


Cafe Madison
1108 Madison Ave
Albany, NY

Art & Soul

Chef Art Smith, former personal chef to Oprah and proprietor of Table Fifty-Two in Chicago, has been wowing DCers left and right since Art & Soul opened about two years ago.  I had no idea how close it was to Union Station--it's a little hidden, connected to the Liaison Capitol Hill hotel.  What a name.  It's asking for trouble.

The space at Art & Soul is sleek and sophisticated but doesn't feel stuffy at all.  It's funky! I also like the outdoor space. We recently went for brunch, because, you know that's how we roll. 

 And now, I give you this pull-apart monkey bread, hot, sweet, and sticky out of the cast iron pan.  Now THIS is how we should all start our days.

My corned beef hash was unlike some of the past (in Pittsburgh,  Denver, DC, and Brooklyn), these were one-inch cubes of corned beef and thin slices of potato, none of that chopped up shredded situation.  So delicious, so filling, and also--I'm sure we can agree--so beautiful.

Corned beef hash

ohlord mac & cheese

Ohhh the mac & cheese.  I've been wanting it ever since I saw it on the TV (either Best Thing I Ever Ate or 101 Tastiest Places to Chow Down: Presidential Edition), in all it's cheesy bubbly cast iron glory.  It was as good as I wanted it to be.  Let's go again!

Now for J's chicken & waffles.  Soooo delicious.  The chicken was awesome--crispy, meaty, slightly sweet, and piping hot.  The waffle was great, a little crispy on the edges and pillowy elsewhere.  The portion is also extremely generous.

J2 went a little light with the lemon ricotta pancakes and a side of fruit--named after Gayle King.  This prompted a lively discussion about whether Gayle is indeed Mayor Cory Booker's ladyfriend beyond casual state dinner date.  I say he's married to the Brick City.  I thought these were okay from my bite, but I'm not the biggest pancake person to begin with.  Unless it is covered with stuff.

I really liked Art & Soul, and I feel like it's a place I can add to the "no-fear" recommendation list.  It will be good, I don't have to worry.  And for an upscale but reasonably priced brunch the portions are more than generous.  They are downright huge.  And how about that monkey bread?  A complimentary little muffin or something goes a long way in customer happiness when this customer is concerned.  AND they are open for brunch on Saturday, unlike some other places I know.  I will be back for sure.

Art & Soul
415 New Jersey Ave NW
Metro: Red Line to Union Station

CommonWealth Gastropub

PRE-POST REMINDER!  Top Chef DC (TCDC) starts TOMORROW, and I'll be providing recaps that contain spoilers, guesses, judgments, and flip-flops on the previously mentioned judgments all season long.  Bravo, Wednesdays at 9pm (not 10pm, thank goodness).  They aren't paying me to tell you about it, I just love it that much. 

Back in May, when it wasn't 90 gazillion degrees, people enjoyed eating outside.  We are those people.  We'd been meaning to go to CommonWealth for a while--we love beer, burgers, fish & chips, etc.  It's a good fit.

The beer offerings will suit most palates.  I was feeling summery and wheat-y, so I got a flight reflecting those choices.  Mmmm.  I made it a habit to take tiny sips of each one after another and contemplate aloud about the fruit flavor or floral accents.  Because that's cool! Also: these little glasses are adorable.  That's reason enough to get a flight.

J got one normal beer in a normal sized glass.  Not a teeny tiny cutie patootie one.

LAMBURGER!  Cutest name of a food ever.  And that would be pesto.  DELICIOUS fries (chips).  Well seasoned, perfectly cooked, and delicious.  The bun is more of an English muffin--it didn't bother me, but it seems noteworthy.

Fish and chips!  Very very good.  J says "very high quality, almost as good as Eamonn's."  I agree.

This meal wasn't complicated--we ate outside, pretty quickly, didn't order that much, and I don't even think we saw the inside of the restrooms.  But it happened: we picked a place in which to spend our hard-earned cash.  We had a nice time at CommonWealth.  The service was efficient (if not a little brusque), food was as we expected--piping hot, tasting great.  As it should be.

I'd really like to go back for brunch.  And it looks like they have Saturday brunch!  Happy - it can be hard to find, you know.  Basically, I want to try the popovers.  Has anyone had them?  Are they delicious?

CommonWealth Gastropub
1400 Irving St NW
Metro: Green and Yellow Lines to Columbia Heights