The Spotty Dog Books and Ale: A perfect combination

Following a beautiful Labor Day weekend in upstate NY (and then waiting a week to settle in to teaching again) I am devoting the next two posts to a spotlight on Hudson series. The first locale to be reviewed is the Spotty Dog. The Spotty Dog is both an independent book store as well as a local bar and lounge. Since this is a culinary blog, I won’t linger on the literary aspect of this establishment but it is worth noting that the combination creates an intellectual bar crowd (something missing in many of the drinking venues of NYC).

Once you move past the entrance and become comfortable viewing shelves of books to your right and a bar lining the left you may focus on the beers on tap. Should you be like me and a fan of microbreweries, you will be pleasantly surprised by the local and relatively unknown (but very delicious) beer selection.

Like many bars, most of the food items are not prepared on site but as we discovered with their cheese plate, they are prepared by other unique establishments in the area.

In short a combination of books and beer provides an intellectual backdrop enabling literary curiosity while deepening your brewery knowledge.

The Ranking (for an explanation, see “Ranking Key”):

Drinks: 3 Straws (with good prices and a unique selection were I a resident of Hudson this would be my local bar).

Price: $$traw: Moderate (I’ll be honest I don’t remember the specific costs but the final check was far for what we ordered).

Atmosphere: With the growing emphasis on family items the atmosphere can seem somewhat contradictory. I can’t say its not a little weird to be sipping a beer with a baby crawling on the floor behind you ready for a change.

Overall: 3 Straws. A great Hudson establishment and an icon of the goodness that comes from the locally owned.

The Details:

Website: http://www.thespottydog.com/blog/

Location: 440 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 12534

Phone: (518) 671-6006

Reservation: No need.

Dress: Casual.

Hours:

Monday- Thursday: 10:00am- 6:00pm

Friday-Saturday: 10:00am- 9:00pm

Sunday: 12:00pm- 6:00pm

Tuesday Poll: Which App Do You Use?

I recently published a post on the relatively new Near+now app for the iPhone which acts like Pandora but for dining establishments near you. Today I installed Where onto my iPhone and am beginning to figure it out. The poll for this Tuesday, the first day of September is: Which iPhone app do you use when it comes to finding places to eat?

I personally use a few: OpenTable, Urbanspoon, AroundMe, Near+now, and WHERE.

What do you use? And though for me this is a question of iPhone apps it doesn’t necessarily have to be for everyone else.

Who Are You Marketing?

In college I focused my studies on comparative literature and though now I teach 7^th grade science, my desire to compare still comes out every now and then. This time I can’t help but question the latest advertising campaign by Starbucks. Ironically I am at a Starbucks while I write this using their free wifi when you register a Starbucks Card, but that is beside the point. The campaign in question consists of two sentence print ads in which Starbucks makes a bold statement regarding the quality of their product and concludes by introducing a change making it even better.

Naturally a company is going to suggest that their product is superior, after all they are in the business of selling. But in this particular case it is in the style of the ad that I become confused, almost offended. The ad is printed in a style as if to suggest it was printed on the side of a burlap sack (presumably one used to carry their superior coffee beans). Use such an image invokes a near organic sense in the consumer, the burlap sack being an image of the naturally, locally, and environmentally farmed product. Clearly the use of such an image is to counter the empirical image Starbucks has become known for. But in the humility of a burlap sack, the arrogance of the phrase is printed. This is the problem.

Now in preparing for this post I did some research on the ad campaign. The Times reported on it in May in the context that it was both a counter to the McDonalds ad campaigns as well as an introduction to the internet generation. Normally I wouldn’t care to comment on these ads, and if I did I would have done it back when they were advertising an ad search via Twitter and Facebook, but I’ve seen too many of them recently to let it go unsaid that these ads are overly arrogant and pretentious. Starbucks needs to make its coffee good again before it can say it’s the best again.

I won’t try to speak for my generation, but for me and my friends, the way to advertise to us is not by suggesting you are both genuine and yet arrogant about coffee. But I guess that is their idea: We know coffee better than anyone and that’s why we’re the best. In the end I am curious to see if this ad campaign will work, I’d like to believe that our generation is more concerned with the sustainability and humility of our providers and not their quality assumptions. But then again we are the generation that birthed the hipsters.

*all photos courtesy of starbucks.com

Tuesday Poll: What is the BEST Frozen Yogurt Company?

So we’re a day late but not a dollar short for this Tuesday Poll. I needed that dollar when buying my frozen yogurt at Pinkberry. It was in this purchase of a delicious (and I guess somewhat nutritious) dessert that I began pondering the question of the frozen yogurt competition. It wasn’t too long ago that the Tasti D-lite franchise near me closed its doors and reopened as The Lite Choice. But then came my most recent visit down to DC this past weekend where I was fortunate enough to sample TangySweet. Anyway what this all comes down to is the poll question: Which company is the BEST?

I’m not going to pretend to answer this easily but as for my two cents on the matter, I think Pinkberry actually is the best considering the freshness and topping options. But its downfall is its outrageous price, with that consideration I may pick Tasti. But then again you get what you pay for and nothing tops that fresh taste of Pinkberry. Nothing.

Ducale: It Won’t Stay Empty For Long.

In the B. R. Guest dominated area surrounding the American Museum of Natural History it’s hard for a new restaurant to get a start. It would seem that that is the explanation for the scarcity of patrons when I dined at Ducale. But it could also be its location, on the south west corner of 79^th and Columbus, where an older restaurant establishment boasted a cigar bar on the second floor (which smelled like it was on the first) and a bad concept of how much bread to order per evening (always running out). After dinning there three times now I can attest to the fact that it is not their food that keeps patrons away. I always find it interesting to observe crowd mentalities, where diners would rather wait thirty to forty minutes outside Ocean Grill than be seated right away at Ducale (those followers are missing out).

Ducale features a more authentic upscale Italian menu including grilled (not fried) calamari, bronzino, and spaghetti with mozzarella di bufala. I have yet to try their pizzas but from a far they appear to be styled after the true Italian thin crust, brick oven style. The staff is very accommodating (even for complicated, substituting dieters) and the atmosphere is pleasant (though a little misguided between the music and the photos, they don’t really match up).

Overall if you are looking to dine on the Upper West Side and are game to try some place new, give it to Ducale.

The Ranking (for explanation, see “Review Key”):

Food: 3 Straws (A reliable Italian choice for the neighborhood).

Price: $$$traws, Average ($40-50 depending on whether you order pasta or entrée dishes).

Atmosphere: Casual and welcoming (The staff is very accommodating).

Overall: 3 Straws (A place I will return to).

The Details:

Website: N/A

Location: 392 Columbus Ave, at 79^th street.

Phone: (212) 787-7150

Reservation: No need. But they are on Opentable.

Dress: Casual.

Hours:

Daily: 11:00am- 11:00pm

Gratitude Day: What’s Next

Participating in the Neighborhood Gratitude Day yesterday got me thinking about what could be done with this concept in the future. I used the gratitude day as a reason to introduce my friend to Popover (who I might add wasn’t the most enthusiastic about the trip). Regardless we went anyway, I mean we had to, it was Gratitude Day. Upon arriving at Popover we were warmly welcomed by Carol Baer herself sitting outside the restaurant saying thanks and offering free popovers and lemonade to those who stop by. What really impressed me about what Ms. Baer was doing doing for gratitude day is that it didn’t require participants to spend money, it truly was a gesture of thanks alone. Unlike some of the other participants whose promotions were store wide discounts, popover was hosting a multi-prize raffle with free entrance, passing out popovers, and serving cold lemonade on a hot day; all with Ms. Baer herself welcoming guests.

Following our lunch at popover, and after thanking Ms. Baer and entering the raffle, we walked down Amsterdam Ave checking out the other participants. One in particular I wanted to stop by was West Side Kids, a toy store I knew fondly growing up. Most participants tied balloons outside and had signs describing the events, as far as I could tell it was only Ms. Baer who was personally welcoming guests.

As is my nature I always jump to thinking about how this can be improved next year, and in so doing I realized the biggest problem with it is that there was no third party hosting the actual day. Perhaps we don’t need a third party to do it, but we need then at least one of the businesses to step up and run it. What we need is to make a community day out of it where all the local businesses will have their own events going on with a central group, or committee of volunteers, organizing the participants, locations, and events of the day. Something like this annually would be so much better than the crowded, not locally run, traffic disrupting street fairs.

Just my thoughts for next year. Popover was still excellent for lunch.

GRATITUDE DAY! Go out and be loyal!

Today is Gratitude Day on the Upper West Side.

Visit the local businesses on Amsterdam Ave and enjoy the festivities.

Review to come tomorrow. Today, let’s all enjoy our local hotspots!

Info at Coffee Straws.

Guest Post at Westside Independent.

Original Article from New York Times.

-Huysmans

Tuesday Poll: How do you eat a Black & White?

In shopping for my 1940s themed dinner party this past weekend at Zabar’s I came across the baked goods section. Now my job was to select cheeses and sausages for an appetizer plate (all French themed as my character was a French sausage seller and we were celebrating the end of the war), so to end up in the baked goods section was not part of the plan. But the box of Black & Whites caught my eye and I made the daring assumption that these little delicious pieces of New York probably existed back in 1945 and I could feasibly rationalize their presents at a celebratory dinner in France as paying homage to the liberators (without sounding too patriotic). This got me thinking.

So I researched, and though I love Wikipedia I wanted something a little more substantial.

I ended with this Times article from back in 1998 (when Seinfeld was still on).

So this all brings me to today’s poll: When given a Black & White cookie how do you eat it?

*Photo courtesy of Zabar’s.com

My answer: The middle is the best part, so I start with the chocolate side (a few bites), move to the vanilla side (again just a few bites), and save the middle for a glorious end.

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen!

Check out my recent guest post at the Westside Independent. Come out and support our local businesses on August 19th!

Upper West Side! WAKE UP! This is a call for Loyalty

News pertaining to the effects of the Recession are in no short supply, every day the New York Times is filled with segments on the fallout of this major economic disaster. But one article from yesterday stood out with me and this blog. Popover Cafe’s founder and owner, Carol Baer, fell victim to Bernie Madoff’s devastating fraud. Ms. Baer is one of many to feel both the sting of Madoff’s despicable lies and the loss of a consumer base from this lingering Recession. But the article, by Susan Dominus in her Big City column, is not sad or depressing. Rather Dominus’ article focuses on the gratitude Ms. Baer feels for the support she has been given by her patrons.

Too many times now we have seen restaurants and other businesses fold on Broadway do to higher rents and greedy developers. I am still morning the loss of Prestos, Time, Carne, Aix, and Docks (the last of which closes in part because of this most recent Recession) as chains and banks replace them all (except for Carne which was replaced with an excellent restaurant: Toast). But Amsterdam is holding on.

Which brings me to the point of this post: We, as the Upper West Side, MUST NOT LET OUR NEIGHBORHOOD FALL! On August 19th Popover Cafe, and others, will be hosting a Neighborhood Gratitude Event to thank us for our patronage.

The list of involved businesses include:

• The Popover Cafe
• Good Enough to Eat
• Darryl’s Boutique
• The Robert Stuart Salon
• Super Runners Shop
• Avventura

Upon visiting any of these establishments on August 19th you will be welcomed to various gratitude events including free giveaways and raffles.

The message to take away here is the importance of local establishments and the responsibility of us, as a community, to protect them by patronizing them. We cannot let the Upper West Side become a branded super mall. In the spirit of You’ve Got Mail, we must save the Shop Around the Corner.

So please join me in supporting our businesses and come out on August 19th.

Lastly if you are aware of other participating establishments or perhaps a website devoted to this event please let us at Coffee Straws know by commenting to this post.

Here is to a locally run Upper West Side.