Eat First

The Ultimate Fruitcake: Black Cat Cafe and Bakery

The handmade fruitcake baked by the thousands at the Black Cat Cafe and Bakery in Sharon Springs (Schoharie County) came to my attention on Facebook. They caught my eye because they are golden, studded with fruit and nuts and resemble my Mother's Lemon Extract Cake -- also known as fruitcake. I clicked like and shared the photo. Later, when Tony Daou, the restaurant's owner, asked if he could send me a sample, I said yes. I rarely accept or request food samples, but sometimes make exceptions for local products -- and this was an offer too good to turn down.

 

 

Two 10-ounce fruitcakes and a mini fruitcake arrived in the mail a couple days later. They were neatly wrapped in brown paper and also wrapped in cheesecloth. Stored at room temperature, the cakes will last for months, the package notes. I gave one to a fruitcake-loving friend who made several boozy Jamaican rum cakes at Christmastime, stashed one in the freezer and shared one with Robert.

 

Fruitcake gets a bum rap. I spent many years not eating it, before becoming a grown-up with an adventurous palate who also likes to bake. The fruitcake from the Black Cat is dense and buttery, like pound cake, and based on a British recipe handed down for generations. It's loaded with pecans and dried fruits, including figs, dates, pineapple, orange, apricots, dark and golden raisins. The cakes are made with brandy and Laird's Applejack (a blend of apple brandy and neutral spirits), but the booze is a really subtle note in the background -- unwrap the cheesecloth and brush on more liqueur if you like. Front and center is the sweet figs, which also add nice chew to the cake. The cake goes great with coffee and tea and I thought about having a slice or two of it with vanilla ice cream.

 

For 15 years, the Black Cat fruitcakes were known as Drunken Blonde Fruitcake. They've been rebranded as The Ultimate Fruitcake and that's fitting. Robert and I agreed we've never tasted a better fruitcake (aside from my Mother's). 

 

The Black Cat offers the cakes through March and they're on sale now for $22 each (with further discounts if you order two or more). So why not give your loved one or ones a fruitcake for Valentine's Day?

 

If your travels take you to Sharon Springs, the Black Cat Cafe and Bakery is at 195 Main St., across the street from the American Hotel. It's open seven days a week. Fruitcakes and other Black Cat products, like fig balsamic drizzle and Lebanese lemon dressing, can be ordered online. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION or call 518-284-2575.

Circa ce Soir, Manlius: a low-waste, farm-to-table restaurant

As a chef and restaurant owner, Alicyn Hart makes it her mission to waste as little food as possible. Ordering what she needs locally helps keep food spoilage to a minimum. And she doesn’t want to send more plastic and Styrofoam to landfills.

 

At Circa ce Soir, a new, mostly take-out restaurant in Manlius, Hart and partner Marco LoCicero have a request for their customers: Help us reduce our environmental impact and be kind to the planet. Bring your own reusable travel mugs for coffee, Mason jars for soups and covered storage containers for sandwiches, salads and entrees.

Hart and LoCicero opened the low-waste, farm-to-table cafe earlier this month. It's located in a shopping plaza on Route 92, just outside the village of Manlius. If you can't bring your own food storage or if you forget it, you won’t be turned away. But you will be asked to pay a deposit on jars and reusable vessels that can be washed and returned after use. Their goal is to not use disposable packaging.

 

Documentaries like "Wasted! The Story of Food Waste,'' produced by the late chef, author and TV personality Anthony Bourdain, have helped to bring attention to the millions of tons of useable food that restaurants in this country leave in the dumpster each year — and spark a conversation about what can be done about it.

 

So far, Hart and LoCicero say, customers have been receptive to their "waste not'' approach at Circa ce Soir. "People come in well prepared and it has been fun to see,'' LoCicero says. "It's time,'' Hart said last week. "It's our responsibility.''

 

Alicyn Hart at Habiba's Ethiopian Kitchen, Syracuse, 2019

Those who have followed Hart and her restaurant path in Central New York, beginning with Circa in Cazenovia in 2006, are familiar with her sustainable approach to food. Her menus are small and streamlined, change frequently and are aligned with what local farmers and producers have to offer in all seasons. LoCicero shares Hart's local focus and commitment to minimal waste. He's originally from Massachusetts and worked as a bank administrator before making a career change. He has always loved food and cooking and his wife, Laura, encouraged him to "go for it.''

 

He worked alongside the late chef Yann Guigne in the S2 Bistro kitchen at the Scotch 'n' Sirloin in DeWitt before taking some time off for the birth of his son. When he was ready to return to work, he learned of an opportunity in the kitchen at Heritage Hill Brewhouse and Kitchen in Pompey, which Hart helped to open in 2018. LoCicero credits Hart with teaching him about composting and getting maximum use out of ingredients like meat and produce. When Hart departed Heritage Hill last year, LoCicero did, as well. After months of discussion and planning, their vision for Circa ce Soir started to take shape. LoCicero says the restaurant allows him to put his background in administration and finance to work while also pursuing his passion.

 

There is no printed menu, at least right now. Almost everything is made in-house, including stocks, sauces, soups, dressings and breads. LoCicero is especially fond of Italian food and loves to roll out fresh pasta and make fresh mozzarella cheese by hand. The owners are endeavoring to keep all forms of waste to a minimum. Things like chicken bones and skin and vegetable skins and scraps are saved for stocks. The butternut squash that stars in a bisque one day is used to make ravioli or gnocchi another day -- and so on until it has been used up. They seek out produce, meat, cheeses and other ingredients from sources close to home, like Local Roots Farm, Common Thread Farm, Lucky Moon Farm, Ithaca Soy, Salt City Coffee and others.

 

The menu changes daily and for now features eggs several ways all day, soups, sandwiches, salads and dinner entrees. There is always something vegetarian or vegan on the menu -- think mushroom Bolognese, chickpea curry and kimchi fried rice. Hart and LoCicero are starting out slowly and adding new menu items regularly. They're learning as they go what people want and envision adding more dinner items each day as they get established in the Manlius community.

 

 

The bulk of their business is food to go, but you can eat in at a long community table (above) made from reclaimed wood by local artisan William John Wischmann. I had the table that seats 18 to myself last week, when I stopped in at lunchtime and ordered Hart's winter version of a Nicoise salad (above). The salad ($10) featured Napa cabbage, olives, roasted beets, hard-boiled egg, olives and smoked salmon, all perfectly dressed with olive oil and vinegar. The only thing left on my plate was a few olive pits. I also ordered a square of warm focaccia bread studded with olives ($3) to accompany the salad and took half of it home to enjoy with a pint of black bean soup with ancho chile ($5) ladled into a Mason jar from home. 

 

When your travels take you to Manlius or Cazenovia, be sure to bring along a jar and container and stop in at Circa ce Soir to see what's cooking — so you don’t have to.

 

Circa ce Soir is at 8240 Cazenovia Road, Manlius, in the plaza that's also home to Gabrielle Chocolates and Ice Cream. Hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday. Visit Circa ce Soir on Facebook and Instagram for daily specials. Information: 315-655-8768. 

 

Photos by Margaret McCormick unless otherwise noted.

 

 

Dining out: A Mano Kitchen & Bar, Syracuse

Several restaurants have opened in downtown Syracuse in the last year or so and we're slowly getting around to checking them out. For my birthday earlier this month, I mulled the options and went back and forth over a few before finally settling on A Mano Kitchen & Bar, knowing that my partner would like it, as well.

 

The restaurant is owned by Anthony Fiacchi and his son, Alex Fiacchi, who is also the restaurant's executive chef. Alex Fiacchi has worked on farms in Italy and in some of the finest restaurants in Philadelphia and has a deep appreciation for locally sourced ingredients. His approach to Italian is not the "red sauce" Italian-American food that so many restaurants in Central New York are noted for. You could call it "modern Italian" or "elevated Italian.''

 

THE VIBE: Lively, friendly and a bit noisy. It's a big space with high ceilings. The Open Table reservation form suggests "business casual" attire, but plenty of diners were in jeans and sweatshirts. 

 

THE MENU: Not too big, not too small -- just right. There's something for everybody and every appetite -- from wood-fired pizza and salads to steak, seafood and chops. Pasta, pizza dough and breads are made in house each day and the menu changes seasonally.

 

LIQUID ASSETS: The seasonal cocktails sounded fantastic, but we consulted with our server and decided to share share a bottle of Dynamite Vineyards Zinfandel 2013 from California's North Coast ($38). It was full-flavored, jammy and smooth and I will be looking for it in local wine stores. 

 

THE FOOD: I started the meal with the misticanza salad ($9; above), a mix of baby lettuces, fennel and herbs, dressed with a light vinaigrette sweetened with local honey and topped with an oversized focaccia crouton. A bread basket containing housemade focaccia and cheese crackers arrived with the salad.

 

Both of us ordered from the pasta section of the menu. I had scoped out the menu in advance and was excited to try chef Fiacchi's Pumpkin Cappelletti ($20) because I like to order things I'm unlikely to make at home when we go out for dinner. The dish featured tender cappelletti pockets, stuffed with smooth pumpkin (with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg?) and dressed in a sauce of brown butter, crispy sage leaves and taleggio cheese. The chew of the al dente pasta was a nice contrast to the smooth pumpkin interior and buttery sauce. I could have cleaned my plate but tend to mentally divide restaurant portions in half and take some home to enjoy the next day. Robert ordered the spaghetti bolognese ($19), which was plenty meaty yet not as meat-dense as we've come to expect when ordering bolognese. He also ordered a side of broccoli rabe ($6; a somewhat bitter cruciferous vegetable that's similar to broccoli) and found it to be too crisp for his liking. It was returned to the kitchen for some extra time on the heat to soften it up (and was well-dressed with olive oil and garlic).

 

As a birthday bonus, the chef sent out a plate of francobolli, small, ravioli-like pasta with ruffled edges. It was filled with cauliflower, tossed with a light butter-dill sauce and garnished with poppy seeds, which added interesting texture to the delicately flavored dish.

    

DESSERT: Several choices were offered, including chocolate cake, cannolis and housemade ice cream. We shared a petite, photo- friendly apple crostada, served on a slate flecked with powdered sugar. The pastry shell holding seasoned apple slices was nicely browned yet tender and the dessert was topped with a small scoop of caramel ice cream and toasted walnuts. A few bites apiece was a just-right sweet ending to our meal.   

 

THE SERVICE: Our server was professional, helpful and present at our table regularly without being intrusive. She deftly managed several large tables (it was Friday of Parents Weekend at Syracuse University) while also checking in on our two-top, refilling wine glasses, offering a second bread basket, etc.

 

WHAT'S A VEGETARIAN GOING TO FIND: Wood-roasted cauliflower, burrata Caprese, Margherita pizza, roasted garlic pizza with wilted arugula (and several other pizzas that could be made vegetarian), mushroom fettuccine and the aforementioned francobelli dish, to name a few options.

 

THE DAMAGES: Dinner for two, with a bottle of wine, one salad, two entrees, one vegetable side dish and one dessert (including tax and 20 percent tip), came to about $133. 

 

THE NEXT TIME: Wood-fired pizza. We're definitely coming back for the pizza. 

 

DETAILS: A Mano Kitchen & Bar is at 344 Warren St., Syracuse. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Friday and for dinner only on Saturday. Phone: 315-303-1630. Parking is available on the street. The restaurant is accessible to the disabled.

 

Note: Reviews on this blog are based on one visit (usually) and are reflective of our budget and how we like to eat. It's not unusual for me to order two appetizers or an appetizer and a salad and save room for dessert.

 

All photos by Margaret McCormick unless otherwise indicated.

 

 

 

 

Farm to Fork 101 Community Dinner at Commonspace

Chef Sarah Hassler (background) and Farm to Fork 101 founder Mark Pawliw (back, left) speak to Commonspace residents at a community dinner in August.

If you've attended a Farm to Fork 101 event in Central New York, you're familiar with Mark Pawliw. He's the founder of the series of pop-up dinner events that shine the light on locally grown and sourced food and serves as a conduit between farmers, chefs and diners. He also works in the restaurant industry and is the coordinator of cooking events at the Wegmans Demonstration Kitchen in the Art and Home Center during the New York State Fair.

If all of that isn’t enough, Farm to Fork hosts dinners about once a month at Commonspace, a co-working and co-housing community on Jefferson Street in downtown Syracuse. Commonspace calls itself "a neighborhood in a building.'' The small apartments offer both privacy and opportunities to mix and mingle with other residents. Each apartment has a kitchenette and residents have access to spacious, fully outfitted kitchens on each floor. Commonspace's first apartments made their debut in 2016. The developers have since expanded the concept to two other historic buildings downtown.

Farm to Fork founder Mark Pawliw (left) and Eden chef Rich Strub prep for a community dinner at Commonspace earlier this year. (photo courtesy of Commonspace)

Mark invited me to attend the August dinner at Commonspace Jefferson, which was held on the rooftop of the building on a beautiful summer evening. Guest chef was Sarah Hassler, formerly of The Stoop Kitchen, who's now a consulting chef with her own business, Hassler Hospitality Group.

Mark and Sarah planned the meal in advance and Mark did much of the shopping/procurement of ingredients by visiting Graber Farms, Haas Farms, Main Street Farms and other vendors at the Central New York Regional Market. The ingredient list included kale, tomatoes, peaches, garlic and ethically raised chicken.

Sarah had done chef duty for a previous dinner, so she felt comfortable in the Commonspace kitchen. She kept her menu simple and prepared enough food for 15 people. Any leftovers are stored and left in the common refrigerator for residents to enjoy.

"It feels like cooking for family and it's good to do family-style sometimes,'' Sarah said. "It’s relaxed. You get to cook anything you want, which is pretty sweet.'' Besides, she added, "I like working with Mark. He’s chill.”

Sarah's menu for the evening: oven roasted tomatoes with garlic marinated zucchini, hot honey and fennel seeds (pictured at right); Filipino-style adobo chicken (simmered with vinegar, garlic and other spices); chickpea and kale stew with basmati rice; and peach crisp for dessert. Everything was prepared on site and carried up to the rooftop "dining room,'' where Mark had set a series of tables to create one long table.

Diners enjoyed both the food and the fellowship. Several Commonspace residents said their jobs keep them super-busy, so they "meal prep" on weekends in the common kitchen and enjoy "reheat and eat" meals in their own spaces during the week.

Past dinners have featured chefs from The Mission, Otro Cinco, Eden and other downtown restaurants. Mark gives each chef or chefs the opportunity to explain the dishes they've prepared for the evening and ends the meals with an invitation to meet up with him at the Regional Market on Saturdays.

Ethan Suttner, one of the first Commonspace residents, moved out recently to share a house in the Westcott neighborhood with two other former residents. During his time there, he said, he enjoyed the diversity of the chef-prepared community dinners organized by Mark. "There have been so many good dinners... it's hard to pick a favorite,'' he said.

"The one constant for the history of Commonspace has been the dinners once a month that Mark puts on,’’ Suttner added. “There are some people that I only ever saw at the dinners. That was one social aspect that I appreciated. And Mark is a great guy. He knows where all the best food in the area comes from.’’

Farm to Fork 101 has several events open to the public coming up:

• On October 28, Syracuse University’s Center for Sustainable Community Solutions, in partnership with Farm to Fork and LoFo, will host a zero-waste community dinner at Chuck Hafner’s Farmers Market and Garden Center in Liverpool. The event (6 to 9 p.m.) will team five local chefs with five local farms to create a five-course meal from gleaned produce (that is, produce that has not been brought to market or otherwise used by the farm). For more information and to purchase tickets, CLICK HERE.

• On November 11, Farm to Fork will host a community dinner at Eden, a new restaurant in downtown Syracuse that features foods cooked over a wood fire. The five-course tasting menu-style dinner begins at 6 p.m. For more information and to purchase tickets, CLICK HERE.

Note: Photos by Margaret McCormick unless otherwise indicated.

 

 

Fresh Herbs of Fabius

Clockwise from top left: Mahogany tomatoes; a Parisian carrot; lettuce leaf basil and a handful of white currants, all grown at Fresh Herbs of Fabius.

 

Like many farmers, Ken and Elizabeth Nevius grow a lot of produce for chefs. They started out growing herbs exclusively -- hence the name of their business, Fresh Herbs of Fabius -- but before long branched into microgreens, heirloom vegetables and some fruits.

 

They started out on a small plot of land at their home in rural Fabius, in southeastern Onondaga County, and have since expanded to five acres of tiered growing space on the hillside behind their home. They now grow hundreds of varieties of herbs and specialty produce.

 

A field of fingerling potatoes at Fresh Herbs of Fabius

 

I visited the farm on a recent weekday, in the prime of the growing season. Elizabeth showed me around in a golf cart and Ken walked the land. They pointed out a long field of fingerling potatoes, many of which will be used by chef Damien Brownlow at Kitty Hoynes Irish Pub & Restaurant in downtown Syracuse. I was introduced to short and stubby Parisian carrots and Mexican gherkins, which look like tiny watermelons but are said to taste like cucumber. There was so much to see: baby eggplants in various shades of purple, baby summer squashes, pole beans, peppers, heirloom cucumbers and heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and mahogany tomatoes slowly starting to ripen.

 

And then there are the herbs, too numerous to mention all by name: spicy bush basil, opal basil, Thai basil, lettuce leaf basil as big as your hand, which chefs like to use for beautiful wraps and roll-ups. Parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, chamomile, chives, cilantro, borage, fennel, oregano, lemon balm, lemon grass -- the list goes on and on. They also grow fruits, including tiny, tart red and white currants, sour cherries, white cherries, pears and apples etc. Last but not least, they grow nasturtiums, pansies, roses, bachelor buttons and other edible flowers to add color, flavor and artistry to plates.

 

Come fall, they'll have winter squashes and sugar pumpkins. They start everything from seeds in a small greenhouse and are able to grow and offer microgreens, salad greens and some micro flowers year-round. 

 

The Nevius' didn't plan to be niche growers for restaurants. Ken grew up in Connecticut and worked for many years as a manufacturing and production engineer at the former Philips Broadband Networks plant in Manlius. When the company shut down, he worked as a custodian for the local school district and he and Elizabeth researched how to grow herbs.

 

They launched their business in 1999, showing up at restaurants like the former Kettle Lakes Restaurant in Tully with beautiful micro greens and herbs. The late chef Brian Shore, who owned and operated Kettle Lakes and later served as executive chef at the Arad Evans Inn in Fayetteville, was one of their early customers. "He really was an advocate for local farmers and locally grown produce,'' Ken Nevius recalls. Shore helped to spread the word about Fresh Herbs of Fabius.

 

Both Ken and Elizabeth work on the farm and share in the marketing of their produce. Their list of clients includes many fine dining restaurants in Central New York: Defi Cuisine Corp. and The York in downtown Syracuse, and Mirbeau Inn & Spa, Rosalie's Cucina and The Krebs in Skaneateles, to name a few. Clients are emailed each week with a list of what's available on the farm. Produce is harvested and packed by hand, delivered to restaurants and often served the same day it's picked.

 

The Nevius' sometimes grow specific items for specific chefs and restaurants -- like the potatoes for Kitty Hoynes. Chefs are invited to take field trips to the farm and sometimes they do, when their schedules allow.

 

"We're focused on quality, not quantity,'' Ken says. "We grow things for flavor.''

 

For more information on Fresh Herbs of Fabius, call 315-683-5159.

 

Note: All photos by Margaret McCormick unless otherwise indicated.

 

Deep purple opal basil at Fresh Herbs of Fabius.

 

A food lover's day trip: Little Falls Cheese Festival, Utica Bread, Pho Mekong House of Noodles

Cooperstown Cheese Company display at the Little Falls Cheese Festival.

 

 

Do you like to fill your leisure time with food-related activities and pursuits? Check here regularly for Central New York- and Upstate New York-focused ideas and itineraries. And feel free to leave ideas for future visits/posts in the Comments, below. 

 

Destination: Little Falls Cheese Festival

 

The line was so long at the Jake's Gouda stand at the Little Falls Cheese Festival that it would have taken 15 minutes or more to get a sample and make a purchase. That's not a complaint as much as an observation: the annual celebration of New York State-made artisan cheese has become wildly popular.

The festival, now in its fifth year, is held each July on Main Street in the city of Little Falls (Herkimer County; about 65 miles east of Syracuse). This year's festival was on July 13. It featured hard cheeses, soft, spreadable cheeses, fragrant blue cheeses, cheese curds, cow, goat and sheep milk cheeses, yogurts -- and all sorts of things to complement cheese, including beer, wine, cider, crackers, breads, honey, maple products, spices and hand-crafted wooden serving boards. The festival covers about five city blocks and features about 120 cheeses from more than 20 cheesemakers.

 

These are not cheeses one finds in the grocery store, as a rule -- and that's the fun of the Little Falls Cheese Festival. I came home with:

 

• Cooperstown Cheese Company Toma Celena: a rich, Italian-style "table" cheese with a slightly nutty flavor.

• Three Village Cheese Co. dill havarti: A buttery, Danish-style cheese that looks lovely on a cheese plate and also melts nicely.

• Windy Hill Goat Dairy herb garden chèvre: a crumbly, slightly tangy, spreadable goats milk cheese.

• East Hill Creamery Underpass and Silver Lake: These European-style raw milk cheeses are recommended for cheese plates -- and melting on everything.

 

As for Jake's Gouda: I'll hunt them down some Saturday at the Cazenovia Farmers Market.

 

Destination: Utica Bread

 

  Utica Bread was scheduled to be a vendor at the Little Falls Cheese Festival but canceled at the last minute, leaving festival organizers and attendees disappointed. I didn't know that when I made plans to go there. If you've ever had the pleasure of dining at The Tailor and the Cook in Utica, you've probably sampled Utica Bread. A basket filled with several varieties of bread from the bakery makes a great first impression at dinner. The bakery is owned by The T&C's owners and is next door to the restaurant. With a menu that includes baguette, brioche, sour dough, ciabatta, sesame Italian, deli rye, raisin walnut and multi-grain loaves -- plus croissants and other pastries -- it's a carb lover's dream.

 

I arrived at the bake shop about an hour and a half before closing time and the bakery shelves and case were close to empty. Just a few baguettes and a couple loaves of ciabatta and multi-grain bread remained. But I was in luck because I had planned to purchase the multi-grain bread anyway. It's a dense, moist loaf, with seeds on the outside and the inside, giving it a really nice texture and chew. It makes excellent toast. Slather on the butter and fruit jam.

 

Utica Bread is at 106 Genesee St., Utica, in the Bagg's Square neighborhood. It's open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday. Get there early for best selection.

 

Destination: Pho Mekong House of Noodles

 

Usually when we have noodles in Utica, they're the Italian variety: a big plate of pasta or "hats,'' enrobed in tomato sauce or vodka sauce. I wanted to try something different.

 

The menu at Pho Mekong is extensive, with rice dishes, vermicelli dishes and 12 varieties of pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), among other things. To start, I settled on an order of fresh spring rolls, stuffed with lettuce, mint, cucumber, vermicelli, shrimp and chicken, served with a thick peanut hoisin sauce for dipping.

 

The drunken noodles, a specialty of the house, will long linger in my memory. The dish features fat, wok-fried egg noodles, tossed with onion, peppers and Chinese broccoli (bok choy) and a chili-garlic sauce that's full of flavor and mild heat. I ordered the dish with minced chicken, but it's also available with beef and without meat.

 

I headed home with enough leftovers to serve as supper for two the next day -- and a Vietnamese iced coffee to keep me cool and wide awake on the ride home. If you've never had Vietnamese iced coffee, it's a tradition and a treat: a strong brew tempered by sweetened condensed milk, served with lots of ice.

 

Pho Mekong House of Noodles is at 601 John St., Utica. Hours are 11 to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. Information: 315-797-7171.

 

Note: All photos by Margaret McCormick unless otherwise indicated.

 

 

 

 

Happy first anniversary, Defi Cuisine Corp.

The 200 block of West Water Street in downtown Syracuse is usually lined with cars parked on both sides. On May 19, the street will be closed to traffic to accommodate an enormous tent housing a series of tables set for dinner.

Defi Cuisine Corp., a restaurant at 208 W. Water St., will celebrate its first anniversary with a five-course “long table’’ dinner that day. Chef-owners Cody Dedischew (on left, below) and Nick Salvetti have received a special permit from the city for the street closure and hope to welcome 200 guests to the table. The public is invited to attend – with a ticket, of course. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Defi (pronounced de-FEE) is French for challenge. Defi the restaurant opened on May 14, 2018. It's an intimate, 40-seat room with an open kitchen at its center, allowing diners to converse with the chefs and see their meals being prepared. Cody and Nick chose the name Defi because they want to challenge people and their perceptions of food and dining out and because they want to challenge themselves to do and be their best. Their goal: Give people an experience, not just plates of food.

What's in season and available in Central New York shapes the menus at Defi. The chefs use a good amount of produce and pastured pork, chicken and other meats from Grindstone Farm, an organic farm in Pulaski, as well as produce, greens and grains from other area farms. They estimate that 70 percent of the ingredients used at the restaurant are sourced locally. That includes local cheeses from 2 Kids Goat Farm, Tumino Cheese Company and other small producers, artisan salts from Syracuse Salt Company, coffee from Skytop Coffee and local and regional beers, wines and spirits. (Below: Spring Ramps Farro Grits with Gulf Shrimp)

In summer, the percentage of local sourcing rises to more than 90 percent. Both chefs like to visit the Central New York Regional Market on Saturdays and walk a block to Clinton Square on Tuesdays during the summer to pick up fresh ingredients to spotlight in dishes. "Everything we do is geared towards farms,'' Cody says. "A lot of farmers come right here to our door,'' Nick adds.

Both chefs say their first year with Defi has brought them challenges and joy. They started out serving lunch as well as dinner, but pretty quickly dropped lunch to focus on dinner service and special events. They are pleased with how diners are receiving their food and their approach to it and especially pleased with the number of people who choose the four- or six-course "Defi'' option, where the chefs consult with diners to determine their tastes and needs and create custom meals in the moment using what’s in season and what's at hand in their kitchen. Menus change with the seasons and often change again within a season as more produce becomes available.

For the May 19 event, Defi's chefs are planning a five-course tasting menu ($85 per person) that includes pre- and post-dinner cocktails and wine pairings. The menu will depend on what's in season and available, but is likely to include spring things like asparagus, rhubarb and fiddlehead ferns. The event will begin at 3 p.m. with a cocktail hour, with dinner courses beginning around 4 p.m. 

"I love the idea of doing a long table dinner,'' Cody says. "It's going to be fun.''

Defi Cuisine Corp. is at 208 W. Water St., Syracuse. The restaurant is open for dinner Wednesday to Saturday. Phone: 315-907-0202

Website Instagram Facebook Ticket information

 

Kasai Ramen, Syracuse

It was sleeting sideways when I visited Kasai Ramen for a late lunch in late January -- perfect weather for a pot of tea and bowl of steaming hot ramen.

 

I am not super familiar with ramen. I know that it's a staple of college life and sometimes the subject of jokes. Some people call ramen "College Soup.'' Open the dry noodles, add boiling water, wait for them to cool down a bit and presto! -- instant dormitory dinner. I also know that ramen is a Japanese cousin of pho, a broth-based soup with meat, noodles and other ingredients that's commonly eaten in Vietnam.

 

Kasai Ramen takes ramen to a whole other level: elegant, yet casual, sit-down meal. Tables are dressed with black linen cloths and set with linen napkins, soup spoons and chopsticks. The menu is tidy and your server will be happy to explain anything you're not familiar with.

 

I kept it simple, ordering the shoyu ramen ($13), made with pork and chicken broth, soy tare (or seasoning), dashi, chat pork roll (braised pork belly), six-minute egg, enoki mushrooms and baby bok choy.

 

I also ordered a spicy miso "flavor bomb,'' ($1), which is just what it sounds like. The condiment is delivered on a small plate, and my server said to add it in small pieces to the broth, until it reaches the level of heat you are after. Everything is made in house, from the savory broths to the six-minute eggs to the noodles. Ramen is surprisingly rich -- so rich, in fact, I couldn't finish the bowl and took some home to enjoy later.

 

Kasai Ramen opened in October. Chef-owner Kyle Mastropietro describes his restaurant as a ramen shop with "Salt City attitude.'' The menu also features kimchi smashed salt potatoes, steam buns (airy, bread-like pockets that hold a variety of fillings, including mushrooms, marinated pork and fried shrimp), a beet and lotus root salad, a double-battered fried chicken sandwich, several varieties of steamed dumplings and Kasai's take on meatballs. Specials are offered each day. The restaurant recently received its liquor license, so guests can now enjoy beer, wine, spirits, cocktails and flights of sake, Japan's signature wine.

 

I look forward to returning with a lunch/dinner mate and sharing a variety of things. You might consider giving Kasai Ramen a try during Downtown Syracuse Dining Week(s), which starts February 18 and continues through March 3. If you're curious about Kasai's steam buns, Mondays are a good day to visit. All buns are $3 on "Monday Bunday.''

 

LEARN HOW TO MAKE RAMEN:  Farm to Fork 101 and chef Kyle Mastropietro are teaming up for a class on how to build a ramen bowl with ingredients sourced from local farms. The class costs $70 and will include how to make ramen noodles, broth, dashi, tare and how to properly prepare vegetables for ramen. Class size is limited to 12. Participants will get a tour of the kitchen, meet the chefs and take home recipes and chopsticks. REGISTRATION INFORMATION

 

Kasai Ramen is at 218 Walton St., Syracuse. The restaurant is open six days a week (closed Sundays) and features a late-night menu, served until 3 a.m., on Fridays and Saturdays. Information: 315-310-8500, WEBSITE

 

 

Destination: La Patria Cafe, Syracuse

It's easy to fall into a pattern of frequenting the same restaurants or types of restaurants all the time. I'm on a mission in 2019 to try new places, new-to-me places, places that might be off our collective radar in Central New York.

 

First stop: La Patria Cafe, in Syracuse's Hawley-Green neighborhood. It opened in mid-October in an old house on Green Street, a few doors from Thanos Imports and across the street from Laci's Tapas Bar. You might remember it as the home of Laci's Lunchbox and 83 & Company. Aren't the lizard door handles cool?

 

Owner Clara Cadena describes the food she serves as Latin Caribbean and Latin American, reminiscent of the dishes from the Dominican Republic that she grew up on, but also focused on other cuisines, flavors, spices and styles of cooking.

 

For now, the restaurant serves lunch only. The menu features about five varieties of empanadas -- deep-fried dough pockets filled with shrimp and vegetables, steak and cheese, vegetable curry and even spinach and ricotta cheese. Plantain chips are served with a savory garlic dip. Also featured are a trio of salads and pressed sandwiches, including a Cuban sandwich (a meaty treat, with roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, mustard and mayonnaise). A soup is offered each day and on Tuesdays and Fridays the restaurant offers a "plate of the day.'' On the Tuesday I visited, the plate was three-bean chili with pork sausage, plantain chips and white rice.

 

My server, Clara's daughter, described the empanadas and said she herself is a fan of the shrimp empaneda and oftentimes enjoys one during her shift or takes one home with her. That was enough to sell me. The empanada was fried to a golden brown and cut in half, to show off its filling of shrimp, onions, red pepper and I'm not sure what else. It was delicious.

 

I could have easily eaten two empanadas but decided to try the avocado salad, which looked and tasted so refreshing on a gloomy January day. The salad is built on a bed of crispy shredded fennel and red onion, tossed lightly with a lime dressing that didn't overpower it. A perfectly ripe avocado was sliced on top.

 

La Patria is comfortable and homey. If I hadn't been on my way to an appointment, I would have lingered with a "cafecito,'' or cup of coffee. And on a visit when I'm not dining solo, I might share a salad and sandwich, or an order of plantain chips and a plate of the day.

 

I don't want to tell you too much about La Patria because I also plan to write about it as part of my local food coverage for the Syracuse New Times.

 

The restaurant is at 115 Green St., Syracuse. It's open for lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday.  On Saturday, January 26, La Patria will be open for a special four-course lunch. Some seats are still available and reservations are REQUIRED. For more information or to reserve a seat, call 315-299-8011.

 

 

Maggies Trackside Diner, Liverpool

I was happy to see recently that the little diner near the railroad tracks and Heid's, in the village of Liverpool, is open again -- and called Maggies (sic) Trackside Diner.

For a long time, this was the home of the American Diner, which served up Conservative politics along with eggs and bacon and earned a reputation as "maybe the most politically incorrect diner in the Empire State -- and possibly the nation'' (Fox News). 

 

The American Diner closed in July and its replacement, Maggies, debuted in late August. I stopped in on a recent Sunday, newspaper in hand, and took a seat at the horseshoe-shaped counter. The new proprietor, Maggie (Giacovelli Voultsios), wiped the counter, greeted guests and poured coffee. A gentleman seated next to me remarked that the place has been cleaned, painted and "spruced up.'' It's now decorated in a railroad motif, with train art and graphics. In addition to the counter seats, there are about 12 tables.

 

The menu is short and sweet, with the usual diner line-up: eggs every way, pancakes, waffles, omelets, etc. If you're super hungry, you'll also find things like a mashed potato omelet, biscuit and gravy bowl and giambrotte -- which the menu describes as a "Utica favorite,'' with eggs, hot and sweet peppers, home fries, Italian sausage, cheese and Italian toast. On another visit, I bet I can convince my usual diner mate to try it.

 

I ordered what has become my diner breakfast go-to: two eggs sunny side up, meat, hash browns/homefries and toast ($6.95), with coffee. In this case, the meat was Gianelli Italian sausage and the potatoes were hash browns, nicely crisped. The place was pretty packed, but it didn't take long for my food to arrive -- I was still working on the front section of the newspaper. Everything was cooked to order and hot.

 

I love diners and the diner tradition in America -- there's something quaint and comforting and Norman Rockwell-esque about them, with people from all walks of life bonding over breakfast out, prepared by someone else. I drive through Liverpool often and will definitely stop in again for my "usual'' -- and some conversation at the counter, hold the politics.

 

Maggies Trackside Diner is at 214 Oswego St., Liverpool. Hours are 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., seven days a week. Breakfast is served all day, and lunch specials feature comfort foods like meatloaf and macaroni and cheese, with rice pudding for dessert. Information: (315) 802-6696, Facebook