Ms Albany Diner best ,bester ,bestest

Best breakfast...get it now or buy the diner soon...893 broadway in albany (madeggs@nycap.rr.com)...Jane has owned it with her husband for 20 years but it goes way back...jeanne had pecan pancakes...I had an egg white garden omelet with horseradish sauce(sorry i ordered the fresh baked soft prezels from the beer garden next store or ate so many peanuts...but glad we walked seven miles along the Hudson on the Corning Preserve trail). How did we manage to dine at the Rhinecliff Inn for sunset over the Hudson just a few hours later? Must have been the celtic sounds of the FRIENDS OF FATHER CHARLIE COEN.

a night out in deposit and environs

It rained on the Oquaga Lake near Deposit NY(see lake photos but the Chestnut Inn ,a mini Mohonk,had too much charm to dampen our spirit....though Scott's on the same lake dates back to the 1869 and that was too long ago to prevent mildew, yet it is still suited for time travel and a vaudeville/Trapp family kind of evening and Model A Fords and a 1900ish bowling alley(see photo).

La Villa still the choice for pizza and pasta marinara fix

Jeanne says my blog should be less anonomous. Hi Jeanne!

Everybody's Cafe is Val's Cafe

We all worked with Val on children's issues in Albany many years ago. She has moved up the ladder and still fighting the good fight. Lunch on route 20 had great sandwiches and the wonderful Val.

oh Shay,can you see?

Or ,that's why they call it Stone Park.

rachels and barbes and The Gate. Tipica comida and nocha in park slope

Rachels on 5av has fat burritos and soft colorado pollo tacos and barbes still has The Jug addicts once a month and jeanne,lisa,bill,tim,frank,and tim joined in for much of this summer in the slope Saturday

Beachwood BBQ west coast guest pick

Next time you are in long beach (recommended from an Italian wine distributor I play tennis with, he goes there 3-4x a week, and swears it's the best pizza in LA...:

http://www.laparolacciausa.com/

see Beachwood BBQ pics attached!
(Mini Lamb Corn Dogs with Habañero-berry “Katsup”,
Wild Boar Meatloaf...$16
W/ Blueberry gravy)
see menu at: http://www.beachwoodbbq.com/pdf/menu.pdf


voted top 10 beer bar in the world by Beer Advocate:
http://www.beachwoodbbq.com/about.html
here is their 'hop cam,' updated everytime they change a keg...
http://www.beachwoodbbq.com/beer.php

note to self: make res Kefi; Greek 84th and Columbus ...ask for Gianni (thanks Gladys)

Heidelberg Vundarbar .Das Schloss mit das beer

1969 octoberfest like gathering in a biergarten on the river with the castle above next to the Kamping...since then there was an umpah place near Thornwood or Hawthorne ...and definitely the triangle Hofbrau(Jamaica Avenue near Hillside) headed by the Four family who had their own game farm upstate ...and there was Luchows and the Sacher House? (on 86st) and Ridgewood
had Gebhardts and Yorkville had many such places and bakeries and turnvereins...oh i remember Father Foerst from St Barbaras,
but most of all I remember Mrs Foerst a Bavarian farmer's daughter, neighbor in Bushwick, a housekeeper mentor who taught me about kindness and generosity and...potato pancakes (kartufelflaks?) mit apfelsaus. Latkes. And so Heidelberg on 2nd av and 85st
still standing after all these years was an opportunity for memory revival,not nostalgia but great hand rolled soft pretzels ,potato dumpling and pancakes and spaetzle and cabbage and sauerbraten and beer. Great beer.Picture of the Schloss on the wall. No "is das not the glackenspeil" but still a song in my heart.

Flex Muscles is an invite,not a command

Oysters and many kinds of muscles(try Thai). Wine and a party vibe. 82st between lex and 3rd Manahattan(the other boro). The shiny silvery pot opens steaming(the photo I missed).

bushwick redux..ne kingdom and robertas

pizza at robertas could be an anthony bourdain adventure, Just amazing setting for great strawberry salad and verdichio and pizza...and so cool(261 moore st/bogart). then to north east kingdom on Troutman and Wykoff for beer and cheese soup and cockles two ways and a blackboard list to live by. All would be too exotic if I hadnt grown up there and got a lift from louie who knew the pretzels and the fish and chips and ices of my youth. Louie is at Bushwick Car Service and he is the salt of the earth and the essence of all things i am always searching for in people.

Stone Park BEEN Berry good to me

Red Hook by Ikea ferry and O'barone

Itlo-Austrian newby on Van Brunt welcomed Stuart, Karen, and Jeanne and I. i resisted mentioning Grandpa being in Franz Josef's personal guard...the maturity that just precedes senility. We ate well. All dishes except for the basel dense pesto worked. Pork cutlet,spaetzel and speck, edible flowers with ricota, veg streudel. If you dont live in bklyn take the ikea ferry(free on week ends).