New York Restaurant – November 2016 (dt)
7.10 – 7.6, 7.5, 7.2, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6.5
An early-winter (mid-November!) evening found us sauntering along Main Street, Catskill, poking our heads into New York Restaurant. We recalled it being Firehouse years ago, and struggled to remember anything earlier.
Whether the menu reflects its name is up for discussion but New York Restaurant provided a cozy ambiance and interesting range of choices, especially the Polish connection (owner, menu items). A dozen appetizers, a dozen entrées, several sandwiches and salads and flatbreads each, ten soups and salads, a dozen craft beers on tap, a range of wines, and a limited dessert selection awaits.
Arriving a few minutes after our seating, two baskets of flat crackers with an accompanying ramekin of hummus exemplified a welcome change-up.
The appetizer round included:
Entrées:
We came hungry; still, everything was good.
There was a long pause after the entrées so by dessert decision time, we abstained. We had been asked about dessert, we begged for a minute, but after fifteen minutes, we were ready to head home, even though the chocolate torte, and others, might have succumbed if given ten fewer minutes.
The drink order found at least three opting for one of the craft beers, complemented by a couple of soda sippers and a half-dozen red wine imbibers, and a couple mixing. A French Cotes du Rhone and a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon satisfied the red drinkers.
The final bill of $96 per couple, reduced somewhat by the absence of dessert, fit in our average range. And we were pleased by NYR’s efforts, after which we entered the darkness and back into the wind and snow flurries.
Service by JJ, a former C-D student for some of us, was attentive and efficient. After a minute of reconnecting and memories of school, JJ ably and personably took orders, gave more info, checked coffee, cleared plates, and the other usual. Only a long wait after entrées felt out of place.
Water was serviced by two carafes already placed on the table.
Ambiance is a cozy, attractive fit. Once a fire house, the restaurant still keeps its two bay structure. Upon entering and facing the the greeting station, we turned leftward. On the right, however, is a wall-length bar, with a tv or two playing sports.
Our side had a capacity for about fifty people, divided amongst a mélange of a dozen tables. Our space was a combination of two tables, each a sturdy construction of five six-inch planks butted together, five or six feet long, held together by a sturdy frame. The knife and fork set, wrapped in a dark linen, were placed in the water glasses, puzzling a couple of us.
The maroon ceiling tiles and walls make for an almost dark atmosphere, with one exception. Those sitting facing the brick wall looked at a multi-part mural portraying a Catskills-esque escarpment silhouetted against a light sky. Those sitting facing the bar had the larger scope of tables, dividing wall, and bar wall and TVs. The floor is the old-style hexagonal small tile blocks. A quirky feature of the evening was seating heights. The banquette seats seemed to be six inches taller than the seats, allowing Mark to look even with Deb K.
Plating was four-side and white, with three-quarter inch sloping rims, of different sizes depending on the order. Even the soup! Very clean, very NY?
Music was playing in the background but nothing distinctive enough for us to notice much (a good thing!).
Ambiance was further enhanced by our weather, with some medium snow flurries on the way down, with wet roads predominating until Catskill. No snow or barely a dusting overlay our trip, although we knew of many places close-by blanketed under a half-foot of snow. A cold driving wind made Dennis reconsider whether he would eat outdoors. ha. That and finding another person to join him.
Being a stay-close-to-home group pick, we did not pre-convene. The two most distant drivers, the Karneses and Teators, rounded up the others, switching back seats on the way back.
Conversations at the table and in the car covered a wide range, with a couple of big topics, especially trips.
Dennis’ 18,000 mile, three month adventure in his truck to Alaska, through Canada, through Yellowstone and other parks, to Texas for family, and back was, is, and will be good for many a tale and review of photos. Did I hear 8,000 photos?
And the Karneses took almost a week to visit Savannah and Asheville, with all their scenic attractions, of historic Savannah, the Biltmore, and in between, with stories of forest fires and questionable behavior on the airplane.
And Deb T is still coming down from her ten day in France for her art trip.
Joyce was absent because of a visit to her mother. (We extended our support.)
Otherwise, topics included: two days of weather—Saturday feeling more like October and today (Sunday) like December; C-D HS principal’s exploits; the Monteverd trip to Florida and back; Ken’s weight loss and effect on his underwear modeling; Kriss’s meeting with Trudy and daughter, and encounter with Don at Hartmann’s; bicycling; Brian’s second broken collarbone; a look ahead to DP8 Christmas; the first day of deer hunting; the whereabouts of our other DP8ers; nuclear engineering training; health of parents; Thanksgiving plans; ski season; and more.