Offbeat Eats

Downtown Lake George is fairly busy and touristy during the summer, but there actually is a reason for it; Lake George itself is actually a very nice, scenic lake with several nice beaches, with nice vista of the surrounding mostly-undeveloped Adirondack mountains. At the end of the day, it’s enjoyable to find a nice restaurant with a deck overlooking the Lake, and soak in the sunset over a light dinner and a beer. However, it’s actually a bit difficult to execute that vision, since the nature of downtown Lake George’s development resulted in a lot of long, narrow alleys perpendicular to the Lake, so a lot of places just don’t have the real estate for a nice deck. But a notable exception to this is Christie’s on the Lake.

I’ve previously noted in my Lake George area reviews that there are almost uncountably many places to get breakfast in Lake George, but the quality is hit and miss, the prices are tourist-level, and sometimes it’s just nice to get a fresh view. Luckily, the Glens Falls area, about 15 minutes south of Lake George, is a lot quieter than Lake George, but it’s got a lot going for it. A nice, fairly vibrant downtown. Two breweries. A decent art musuem. And a good number of cheap, affordable restaurants. One that we had been driving by a lot in the last few years, just down the street from Common Roots, is the Peppermill Family Restaurant.

As I’ve mentioned a few posts ago, this was our 6th year attending and volunteering at Ohana Luau at the Lake, and that gives us quite a few opportunities to explore some of the dining options around Lake George, especially when we need to grab a quick bite. The immediate answer for this is the A&W Root Beer next door (yes, Lake George is a time capsule, including a still-functioning A&W, albeit one without car hops). But usually we’re craving something a bit more exotic, and just a short distance down the road from the A&W is one of the area’s hidden gems: the Spice Gyro & Kabab, tacked onto the end of the Sunoco station.

In addition to my regular reviews, I occasionally like to avail myself of the various community meals that spring up around the Upper Valley. Harvest suppers. Fire department fund raisers. Non-profit fundraisers. And one of the best categories, the church basement supper. Many of the area churches host community suppers throughout the calendar year, especially clustered around harvest season and mid-winter (the ne plus ultra of church basement suppers, the Hartland Roast Beef Suppper, has gotten several visits from Offbeat Eats, for example). And in late June, we spied in the newspaper (yes, we actually still get a print newspaper) that one of the Community Suppers I had been keeping my eye on was back: the Union Episcopal Church Annual Strawberry Festival and Norwegian Meatball Dinner in Claremont, NH.

One of the things I love about Northern New England in the summer is that many of the small towns have all sorts of seasonal “snack bars” along the side of the road that serve up a variety of burgers, hot dogs, fries, and ice cream. And sometimes even the occasional lobster roll as well. On my very first road trip (to Long Trail Brewing in Bridgewater, VT), I stopped at one such snack bar that remains a favorite of mine, the White Cottage Snack Bar in Woodstock, VT.

As I’ve mentioned in few of my upstate New York reviews, ever year I help operate the annual Ohana Luau at the Lake charity fundraising Tiki event. In addition to attending the event, we help with event logistics, and that means that at least twice a year we end up traveling to Lake George multiple time (usually once to stage everything, and then attend the event itself), and staying in the greater Lake George area several nights each June. Since we’re now in our 7th year of doing this, we’ve started to explore the area a bit more, and we’re starting to pick up a few favorites. One of these is about 15 minutes down the road in South Glens Falls, Common Roots.

Prost! Even a little bit of traveling around either Madison, WI or the surrounding Dane County quickly shows that Germans were the most numerous ethnic group to settle in Wisconsin (around the turn of the 20th century, almost a third of Dane County had been born in Germany), and their stamp is seen everywhere from the many breweries, churches (particularly Catholic and Lutheran), place names, and culinary traditions (I think Wisconsin eats by far more bratwurst per capita than anywhere else). But as time progresses and migration patterns continue, while the traditions are certainly strong, Madison doesn’t have nearly as many actual German restaurants and watering holes as it used to. While Der Rathskeller in the Wisconsin Union remains a staple for the University crowd, there aren’t that many other places around town; most are further out in Dane County. And one of the longer-standing ones, Essen Haus (itself a replacement for the earlier Hoffman House) is slated to close later this year and get turned into more apartments. But there has been a nice addition to both the German food and beer scenes in recent years: Prost!

I’ve always loved Madison, Wisconsin. It’s a very scenic city, with a downtown located on the isthmus between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona, and for a city of it’s size, it has always packed a good punch when it comes to good restaurants, bars, and other watering holes. I don’t actually get to Wisconsin very often (I did drive through it a few times on 2021’s trip to Minnesota, stopping at the excellent Ru Yi Hand-Pulled Noodle), but a week-long business trip for a conference gave me a good opportunity to explore a bit more. Several people I know had recommended Madison’s The Harvey House for dinner, and then a week before I left for Madison, The Harvey House was the location of one of the challenges on Top Chef. I decided it was worth a visit.

With many frequent trips to SE NH or Boston, we often find ourselves looking for dinner options around the greater Manchester, NH area. Manchester has a lot of great options, but a recent favorite of ours is actually brewery that’s been around a while, but only recently known as Candia Road Brewing Company.

Way back in 2008, in the early days of Offbeat Eats, we visited Robie’s Country Store. It was a particularly good and lavish breakfast, but in the years following that visit, the store started to struggle, the breakfasts weren’t as good, and while Robie’s Country Store stayed open, the food counter closed. A replacement store, Roots Community Table at Robies, was good, but also closed a few years ago. But then I got notice in January this year that a big shift had happened. The Robie family of Hooksett (which operated the General Store since the 1800s) was actually related to the Robies of the Robie Farm in Piermont, NH, which are pretty well known in the region for their farm-raised meats (it’s pretty common around NH and VT to see “Robie Farms” meats on high-end restaurant menus, and at the various consumer coops). They had refurbished the place, and re-opened as The Robie Store, a specialty product store, cafe serving breakfast and lunch, and a butcher shop providing farm fresh meats straight from the farm in Piermont.