Eat First

Chef Alicyn Hart joins Good Nature Brewing

When the newly expanded and relocated Good Nature Brewing opens its tap room to the public later this month, it is certain to be a magnet for lovers of craft beer -- and especially craft beer made with local ingredients. The new facility, on five acres outside the village of Hamilton, will allow co-founders Carrie Blackmore and Matt Whalen to brew more beer, can beer and welcome far more visitors than their small tap room in downtown Hamilton currently allows.

It will also allow them to serve food. So it's fitting that the brewery with a focus on "farm to glass” would hire a head chef with a passion for farm-driven ingredients and food. Heading up the restaurant team will be chef Alicyn Hart, well known for her eight-year run as chef and co-owner of Circa New American Bistro and Market in Cazenovia. Hart closed her restaurant in 2014, citing escalating rent and lack of improvements to the small space on Albany Street (Route 20). She has "popped up" as a chef at events, worked as a chef at the Foggy Goggle at Toggenburg Ski Center and at Labrador Mountain and helped the owners of a restaurant in Vermont get it open and on its feet. The Vermont job took her away from her 10-year-old son for long stretches, so she's happy to have a position close to home.

Hart's next chapter is unfolding in rural Madison County, at the big and brand new Good Nature Farm Brewery facility on Route 12B, south of the village of Hamilton, and she says it feels like a good fit, true to her brand and values. She remembers Blackmore and Whalen walking in the door at Circa to pitch their beers and have dinner and says she and the brewery owners have a shared vision and commitment to locally grown and sourced ingredients. The brewery has a small open kitchen with a wood-fired oven and the tasting room will have space for about 85 guests inside -- and many more outside in warm weather. Blackmore describes it as a casual beer garden, with long tables for visitors to have a beer and a bite.

Hart is still working on the menu, which will likely include a local cheese and meat plate for sharing, seasonal salads, wood-fired flatbread pizzas, grassfed beef burgers, gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and hand-cut frites (French fries) with homemade condiments, including hoppy beer mustard, brown ale gravy and housemade maple ketchup.

"We are, first and foremost, a craft brewery,'' Blackmore says. "The restaurant is going to be an extension of what we already do, a small, locavore menu that changes as the seasons change. We're going to source from local farmers whenever we can. We were thrilled when we saw Alicyn's name come up... She already works with many of the farmers with whom we plan to do business.''

 Menu items will make liberal use of Good Nature's line-up of all-natural ales and the menu will likely suggest beer pairings. "Cooking with beer is a really hot thing right now,'' Hart says. "I need to educate myself more.''

In addition to being locally sourced, some of the ingredients will be grown on site. The Good Nature property, formerly owned by Colgate University, is home to the Colgate Community Garden, which will supply produce to the kitchen and be used in beers.

The Tap Room and restaurant's hours of operation are likely to be 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.Thursday to Sunday, with the kitchen serving until 9 p.m. Guests will order food at the bar and come to the counter to pick up their food when it's ready.

Good Nature, launched in 2010, has developed a loyal following for its line-up of year-round beers in kegs, cans and bottles like the signature Good Natured Blonde and American Brown Ale, as well as seasonal and specialty beers. The laid-back Good Nature Tap Room in Hamilton, a destination for beer by the glass, beer flights, growler fills and local music, will stay open -- and receive a makeover down the road, Blackmore says. 

More information on Good Nature Brewing: website Facebook

 

 

Please don't mess with my Byrne Dairy store!

You know you're from Syracuse/Central New York when (among other things)...

You have a sense of loyalty to Byrne Dairy, the hometown brand. You down a Byrne chocolate milk with a Hoffman hot dog at Heid's, on occasion. You consider the appearance of Byrne's pale green mint milk in March to be a sure sign of spring. You know the words to the catchy Byrne Dairy milk advertising jingle ("Byrne Dairy Milk is mighty fine / chock plum full of vitamine"...). You know that Byrne got its start bottling milk during the Great Depression (1933) and still sells milk in glass bottles.

 

If you've lived in Syracuse a long time, you've no doubt frequented one the quaint dairy stores that dot the city and suburbs -- and appreciate knowing they're close by to save you a trip to big grocery store when you need basics like milk and eggs. I frequented one of those stores in DeWitt; it closed in 2013 after 50 years in the same spot. A small store in Eastwood closed last year after more than 40 years at the corner of James Street and Midler Avenue. Perhaps the sweetest and smallest Byrne Dairy store of all is on West Genesee Street, at Lowell Avenue.

 

Another Byrne Dairy store anchors Butternut Circle, on the North Side of Syracuse. I walk there every Sunday morning (unless it's pouring rain or too icy to walk safely) to pick up the Sunday newspaper. The store is immaculate, and the staff, especially Karen at the front counter, is friendly, and greets me and my dog. The store is a couple blocks from Grant Middle School, and a sign on the front door lets kids know that just two students can enter the store at a time. I was surprised to walk to the back of the store at Christmastime and discover a small tree with colored lights and decorations. The store serves a changing neighborhood, home to a growing immigrant population, where many customers arrive on foot for a cup of coffee, an ice cream treat or a lottery ticket.

 

It's no secret that Byrne is closing these older, "outdated'' stores to meet the demand for large convenience stores, with gas pumps, groceries and amenities like pizza made on site. The big and snazzy new Byrne convenience stores on Route 11 in Mattydale and on Thompson Road, in DeWitt, come to mind. The proposed transition/makeover of an old-fashioned Byrne Dairy store on Onondaga Hill has caused a quite a kerfuffle, pitting residents who approve of the change against those who want things to stay the same. If a big Byrne convenience store with gas pumps comes to pass at the former Denny's site on West Genesee Street in Syracuse, the tiny Byrne store across the street would close.

 

As anyone who has been to the Byrne Dairy store on Butternut Street knows: There's no room for expansion and gas pumps. Things change and time marches on, but I think I speak for many on the North Side when I say: Please don't mess with my Byrne Dairy store!