On a beautiful May Day evening in the Lake George/Saratoga Springs region, good eats, at our fav, go-to, downtown Glens Falls eatery, Bistro Tallulah – just the way I like it, a quiet night. Happy Anniversary!!
Archive for the ‘Good Eats & Fav Places to Eat’ Category
Happy Happy May Day!
Wednesday, May 1st, 2013Here’s a List of Favorite Places to Eat in the Area
Thursday, June 14th, 2012I wanted to post a list of our favorite places to eat, to help the visitor who reads my blog and would like to get a local perspective on where to eat from what is a huge selection of places in the area. Where I have pics, I’ll post them along w/a web site link (click on the highlighted hot link), if they have one (many don’t). I’ve posted detailed blogs on most of these places before, which you can find by clicking on the “Good Eats” Category link along the bottom right side of my blog and scroll through the postings.
Lets start with the first meal of the day, breakfast. I’m not going to be a lot of help here as my wifey generally doesn’t care to go out for breakfast. I’m certain there are other interesting places that you will have to seek-out on your own, but anyway, here are my 3 breakfast recommendations –
We visited Bolton Beans this last February/March when Bolton is basically deserted, as you can see by how slow they were on a Sunday early afternoon. Their menu offers some variety to the typical breakfast offerings and good coffee.
The Silo, at Exit 19 in Queensbury, is where I meet my passengers for my flights, and is a local fav for breakfast and lunch. They offer a typical hearty American style breakfast, that is good quality and quantity.
In downtown Glens Falls, The Chocolate Mill Cafe is a quality offering for breakfast, or just a cup of good coffee and a sweet treat anytime they are open.
Next up will be lunch offerings, and our absolute favorite is near the Vermont border in Salem, NY, Steininger’s. Steininger’s only does lunch Tuesday thru Saturday.They have fabulous soups, sandwiches, lite entrees, wonderful desserts and fine hand-made chocolates, all done with a European flare by the owners.
On the water lunch spots worth visiting are The Algonquin on Lake George in Bolton Landing, and The Docksider on Glen Lake in Queensbury. Another favorite spot of ours is up in Chestertown, the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor.

The retro ice cream parlor in Chestertown is worth the drive for good grub and old fashioned ice cream desserts.
Two brew pubs in Glens Falls that make for good lunch and dinner offerings are, Davidson’s in downtown, and Coopers Cave, which is a little out of the way but easy to get to.
Now for the main meal of the day, dinner. Our absolute favorite place to eat is Bistro Leroux on Rt 149 in Queensbury. Right behind that would be Bistro Tallulah in downtown Glens Falls. Saratoga Springs has a large selection of very good restaurants. Our current favorites in Saratoga would be Maestro’s and Capriccio Saratoga. A good place for a drink in Saratoga would be The Wine Bar, and the Adelphi Hotel in their outdoor courtyard. Also, the Parting Glass is a good Irish pub worth the visit while in Saratoga.
Other good offerings that I can personally recommend are Rene’s on Elm St in Glens Falls, the Farmhouse at Top of the World, which offers interesting farm-to-table style meals, that for us, have been some of the best food we’ve had in the area, to just so-so. And, the view from the top of the mountain is spectacular. 132 Glen Street Bistro in downtown Glens Falls offers good food at moderate prices, Raul’s Mexican Grill in Glens Falls offers an upscale version of Mexican without high prices.
I know that there are other great places to eat in the area that I just haven’t been to recently like The Gristmill in Warrensburg, the Ridge Terrace on 9L Lake George, I’d like to try Max London’s down in Saratoga, Sperry’s in Saratoga was great the one time we went under the new ownership. One Caroline has been ok, plus offers live jazz in the main dining room, Hattie’s is a Saratoga institution, and frankly, there are more but I’m running out of patience with the length of this post. I’m done!
Weekend Doings
Sunday, March 11th, 2012Saturday, wifey and I headed out to Washington County to visit some of our fav places for eats, take-outs to bring back home, and some of the best maple syrup available. A trip like this takes us out to some places that I’ve written about before, out toward Salem which is near the VT border. We stopped at the Battenkill Valley Creamery, on County Route 30 near Salem, for some of their fantastic ice cream for an evening dinner party, and fresh eggs for our Sunday morning breakfast. Next, we headed for Salem and lunch at Steininger’s. This place is our fav go-to place when we feel like a drive out into the country and lunch you typically don’t find in a sleepy town like Salem.
Next, we headed out toward Vermont to get some good maple syrup, at the Mountain Valley Maple Farm, on State Highway 153 in West Rupert VT. Sorry, but I don’t have any pics of their sugar operation. They weren’t boiling sap when I got there because the temps were too cold that day for sap to run. Anyhow, these folks make the best maple syrup, get yourself some.

On the New York/Vermont border. Sign says West Rupert was chartered 1761, truly small town Americana at it's best.

Golden goodness, that was very yummy on my blueberry pancakes that wifey made for us on Sunday morning
Recent Doings
Thursday, March 1st, 2012Last Sunday was a beautiful day for a drive up around Lake George and the southern Adirondacks. Wifey and I stopped by a really cool retro diner in Bolton Landing, Bolton Beans. The diner, as well as Bolton Landing were very quiet, but it didn’t affect the mood at the diner or the food.
We drove north on Rt. 9N toward The Hague, and stopped at the the overlook at Sabbath Day Point on Lake George.

Historical marker, on the history of Lake George and it's two Centuries of battles along the Great Warpath.
I’ve been reading a great book, “Conquered into Liberty” by Elliot Cohen, that tells the history of the most fought over part of America, the “Great Warpath” between Albany NY and Quebec in Canada, which much of flying area for my balloon rides is part-of.
Trip to Lake Placid
Friday, September 30th, 2011Last week, wifey and I took a trip up in the mountains to check out Lake Placid, the fall foliage and how the area did after the floods from Irene. We took the drive up the Northway to exit 30, then up Route 73 through Keene Valley to Lake Placid. You could see in spots where 73 was cut by the Ausable, and other brooks and streams by their flood waters. Downtown Keene musta been a river itself with 2 brooks and the Ausable meeting at the 9N and Rt 73 junction in the center of town.

At the junction of 73 and 9N where the Ausable, Jones and Cascade brooks all come togehter. The building to the right was flooded and off it's foundation.

A pulled chicken w/blueberry bbq sauce and slaw for me and a smoked turkey panini for Tani, topped by a local Porter on my side and a nice Malbec for wifey.

The interior of the restaurant. You might also want to check-out The Mirror Lake Inn's, The Cottage on the lake for lunch.
Trip to Stumpf Balloon
Saturday, June 11th, 2011On Friday, wifey and I headed over to Weston VT to hook up with good friends Rick Pollock and Paul Stumpf. Paul had built an experimental balloon for Rick. Rick came down from Shelburne to pick-up his new balloon, and the two were heading off to the Experimental Balloon Meet over in Amherst MA for the weekend. Since it was a nice day and my afternoon flight didn’t meet until 6 PM, we decided to drive over just to see it and them, and have lunch before they left for the meet, and I had to do my afternoon flight.

From a prior trip over to Paul's shop to help cut-out the panels for Rick's balloon. That's Rick on the left and Paul on the right.
That’s it for this post!!
Samantha’s Cafe for Lunch
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011Today, met wifey and sister-in-law Marie for lunch at Samantha’s Cafe at Union Square. Samantha’s is a funky kinda place that’s in an old, turn-of-the-last-century industrial building, that’s been redone and turned into a mix-use, commercial space building. There are around 5 or 6 different businesses housed within the building.
The Algonquin
Monday, May 30th, 2011Since 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.