Barnwood Restaurant – August 2020 - #213, covid #6 (dt)
6.84 – 7.25, 7.2, 7.2, 7.1, 7, 7, 6, 5

Barnwood is familiar to all of us – a pleasant, cut-above-diner, not-quite-fine-dining go-to for a relaxed time. The menu runs a wide gamut, with categories of appetizers, salads, bbq, fried chicken, pizza, sandwiches, burgers, and house specialties. And a bar of twenty tap beers (along with house wines) is good for the spirits.

Although Barnwood is listed with a Catskill address, I think of it as just before Leeds, with easy access from the “Bypass,” as we old-timers know SR 23.

Choices for the evening:

Karnes:
to share: the eight piece fried chicken, coleslaw and baked beans; the sweet corn fritter

Teator:
Deb: San Francisco salad
Don: baked scrod, with mashed potato and corn

Notarnicola:
to share: fried chicken with pasta, cole slaw, Caesar salad

Monteverd
Kriss: ordered chicken fingers & macaroni salad; got something else
Ken: sausage & peppers, pasta, garden salad

Average price per couple was $25-$35, including the tip, perhaps the inexpensive dinner of the decade, and another reason why Barnwood is packed.

A growler of Ithaca Flower Power IPA was shared, in addition to our own provisions. Chay’s small cooler is a good idea!

Dessert: Deb Karnes did it again, for the sixth time: a take-out dinner aluminum pan for each couple: three Lime Crème Brulee bars, accompanied by five Knock you Naked Brownies (chocolate chips, layer of caramel, topped with more brownie). No photo: my photo did not do it justice. Suffice it to say that dessert the next day was as good as the night before!

Pick-up was arranged with Don, with timing almost spot-on with a steady increase of customers.
The two downsides: unpleasant phone order for the Notars, and the wrong dinner for Kriss.
Driving time of twenty minutes means, of course, cool-down time, with a heated oven waiting at the Teator house.

Ambiance: the deck of the Teators, overlooking Deb’s cascading rows of flower gardens and pools and walks and lawns finished with the Catskills Escarpment on a sunny later afternoon, with light diminishing to dusk by dinner’s end.

Our strangely normal life of pandemic continues: much of life continues as normal, especially around our houses. Trips out are conducted carefully and with some pre-planning. Cooking at home or take-out for the most part. No large gatherings. Social distancing. Masks. And a regular reminder of the “alternative facts” culture of our political situation, unless one does not leave one’s house, talks to no one else, listens to no news, does not listen to social media outlets, read newspapers. Not sure I know anyone who fits that description.

Topics around the table: golfing, Mahjong, the Notar trip to FLX, wine-tasting protocol at the wineries, the Karnes upcoming trip to FLX, garden tending, Deb T painting, biking, Deb K’s Fridays at Ravine Farm, no country fairs, nature preserve trips to Stockport Flats, two hurricanes, weather, the re-paved Monteverd driveway, the sale of Copper Hill House is close at hand, the whereabouts of our other DP8ers, and more.

And the big topic was about DP8 future during the pandemic. This take-out stuff is an interesting diversion but is testing some limits. Long light and warm temps has allowed for social distancing outside in our backyards the last few months.
            Our trying to respect basic medical advice and our own levels of comfort clash with the pleasure of dining out as we have done for 18 years. And, if I have read the tea leaves accurately, it seems, until there is a working vaccine, there will be no return to restaurants, inside or out. And there is a discomfort with being inside house with company for a length of time. Which means we can salvage September and maybe October. And given the reluctance to eat alone with takeout food, the possibility of suspending DP8 November through April has raised its head. We agreed to think over until our September date. Ugh.