Yanni’s Too – August 2018 (dt)
6.53 – 7, 7, 7, 7, 6.5, 6.5, 6, 6, 5.75

A humid and 90° evening found DP9 (8 + Kriss’ sister Elaine) at its only waterside summer meeting – Yanni’s Too, in Coeymans (not counting the Notar pool). We agree: good food, a scenic & close view of the Hudson, and a relaxing spot, leading to our fourth visit here in four years.

To borrow a paragraph from a different year, “Yanni’s menu is a familiar one, with a wide-ranging, casual-river smorgasbord awaiting. Besides its star, calamari done six ways, diners can choose from two dozen starters of seafood, nachos, fries, wings, pizza logs; two soups; five salads, with six enhancements; a dozen sandwiches; six burgers; entrées offering fried seafood, half-dozen baked and broiled seafood, half dozen other house specials, and six pastas, with fifteen desserts finishing off the evening.”
            And the Specials insert added another couple dozen choices to the various courses.

Our choices:

• Grown-up Mac & Cheese – Joyce
• Potato Chip Encrusted Halibut – Don, Chay, and Mark
• Chicken Parm – Ken
• Fried Shrimp Basket – Kriss/Elaine share
• Seafood Salad – Deb T
• Lobster Roll – Deb K

Sides may have included pilaf, a couple snap peas, grilled zucchini, etc. Almost everyone thought the food was tasty and prepared well, with a couple of call-outs of excellent.

Joyce and Mark had already sampled the Bang Bang Shrimp and the Thai Curry Seafood Stew an hour earlier in celebration of Joyce’s birthday. (Happy Birthday, Joyce.) Preceding a couple of our entrées were a couple of ordered Caesar salads (salads were not included with dinners).

Dessert included two Peach Crisps shared by two each. Don/Deb and Kriss/Elaine thought it very good. Chay had a Sambucca, with a couple others enjoying a cup of coffee.

The drink menu consisted of three beers and several cocktails—a rare happenstance for this table.

Ambiance has been described before. A long, covered deck edges up to the Hudson River, fringed by thirty boats, backed by the flow of river, and backscaped by the wooded terrain looking toward Columbia County. A hazy late-afternoon orb faded gradually into pleasant dusk that we will recall fondly in a few months.
            The heat was ameliorated by the large fans gushing wind into our faces more copiously than DP8 has ever seen and all of it was welcome.
            The five looking outward saw the boats and river; the four facing inward saw the reflection on the window, as well as the goings-on inside.

Service was a mix. Most thought “Alice” was satisfactory-to-good in taking orders and delivering and clearing. However, there were mutterings of not being to write a separate check for three because the table are numbered a certain way, that the drink order was rushed, a less than receptive attitude, and the need to ask who ordered what. (Well, the last dinner was placed in the empty spot.)  Dripping iced-glasses induced us to ask for more napkins, and plastic cups sufficed for water. For $102 per couple, it seems some of us expected more. Snobs. Or, our company was good enough to overlook a few minor flaws.

Topics for the evening included: the Notars leaving the following day for three weeks in Italy and a cruise on the Adriatic, Don’s 500 mile bicycle jaunt the week before, Chay’s aches, Deb’s mom, this summer’s erratic weather, summertime catchup, Kriss enjoying Elaine’s stay, the rest of summer plans, comparing notes with Elaine, Dave Battini’s funeral service and memories, and gobs more.