Since it was a beautiful afternoon, and as expected, many of the weekend visitors have or are leaving, so we decided to drive up to Lake George and have a late lunch on the deck at the Algonquin, just south of Bolton Landing on Rt 9N. The Algonquin has a large outdoor deck area for alfresco dining and beautiful lake views. You go to the Algonquin for the view on the water, not the food, which is ok, similar to other eateries of this type in the area, including some that I’ve written about earlier, like the Docksider on Glen Lake, and The Cave at Cooper’s Cave Brewery in Glens Falls.
Archive for May, 2011
The Algonquin
Monday, May 30th, 2011Mollie’s Mason Jar in Lake Luzerne
Saturday, May 28th, 2011Went over to Lake Luzerne today to have lunch at Molie’s Mason Jar, actually it’s in Hadley which is right next to Luzerne. Wifey and I have been trying to find this place because of the owners wife – Ling Ling, who before moving over to Hadley/Luzerne, owned and operated the best, and I do mean the best bakery ever over near me in Queensbury, Bakers Dream. We were anxious to try it out in hopes that Ling Ling was doing some baking. Chatted a bit with her on the way out, and she unfortunately said she pretty much has relegated herself to hosting duties and whatever needs to be done in the background, not baking:-( This girl was magic in the bakery. By moving she probably saved my cholesterol. Anyhow, the food that we had for lunch was good for what you might expect from Hadley. Since she’s not baking, we decided we’d rather either head north to the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor in Chestertown or our fav lunch/brunch place, Steininger’s over in Salem. The food is just as good or better and the drive is much more interesting. I’ve bloged on both of these places earlier.
Maestro’s at The Van Dam
Friday, May 27th, 2011On Wednesday, wifey and I went down to Saratoga Springs to check-out the new digs for what’s been our fav Saratoga place for good eats, Maestro’s. Maestro’s used to be a small, intimate bistro that had a European flare and great food – I did an earlier blog w/pics from the old Maestro’s last year. Now, it has moved just a couple of buildings down Broadway into a much larger space, that at one time was the Rip Van Dam Hotel. While we loved the intimacy of the bistro style, I understand the wishes of the owners to move into a much bigger space. Now, Maestro’s at The Van Dam has morphed into another upscale Saratoga Springs type of eatery. The old hotel sports a rather large, long balcony typical to the day when the Rip Van Dam Hotel was in it’s heyday. It makes for a grand, but noisy location to dine alfresco. We decided to eat off the Prix Fixe menue.

Tani's Wild Salmon was fantastic, while my Hickory smoked espresso glazed BBQ 1/2 chicken was so salty I couldn't finish it. I did enjoy the baked beans that came with it?

For the Dessert Course, we selected one of each that was offered on the Prix Fixe menue. Lemon Cheese Pie and White Chocolate Cherry Bread Pudding. The Bread Pudding was the better of the two.
While we were a bit disappointed with the new look, I’m sure they will do fine as Saratoga is definitely an upscale kind of place. We’ll be back, but probably won’t make it our default Saratoga place to dine. Saratoga offers a number of options for good eats.
Space Shuttle Endeavor
Monday, May 16th, 2011Back in 2008, the fam got together for a gathering at the brother’s place in Vero Beach FL. Part of the trip was a schlep up to Kennedy Space Center for a tour, just before the launch of STS 126-Endeavor, which just made it’s last launch to the International Space Station today. We drove up north to Satellite Beach, just north of Melbourne to watch the night launch of Endeavor on 11/14/08. It was quite a spectacle, even being about 15-20 miles south of the launch. I’ve posted on my facebook page a video I took of the launch, if you are interested in seeing it, click the highlighted hot link. There were tons of people crowded on the beach and other pull-offs to watch the launch. When it was done, the traffic back-up heading back to the main-land was unbelievable. Fortunately, we just headed down A1A with no traffic.
The Fam tour of Cape Kennedy