Thanks to an imaginative fundraiser, more bowls will be filled

Kudos to the folks who first came up with the idea for the Empty Bowls fundraiser in Michigan in 1994. More cheers to the wise ones around the country who picked up the ball and ran with it, galloped, really, to states east and west and south, because hungry people are everywhere. My dear wife…

Kitty Hoynes, you saw it with that Guy

I had lunch this week in downtown Syracuse with my great friend Jim McKeever, author of terrific blog Irish Investigations. As we usually do for our sessions of catch up on life with my dear wife Karen and his great girlfriend MG and our offspring, which leads to memories of our years together at the…

At Festa Italiana, folks eat it up

Even the name sounds delicious. Festa Italiana. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it? Well, sure, downtown Syracuse has its share of festivals that declare their devotion to the culinary. The Crawfish Festival is named after the bright red mud bug dug so much down New Orleans way, and in May, Clinton Square welcomed folks…

There will be roast beef with cheddar and horseradish for lunch

Once upon a time there was a joint in Syracuse that was known for a roast beef sandwich with meat so tender, rollss so fresh, cheddar so sharp and horseradish so hot. Clark’s Ale House was its name, and it sat on a street flanking the Landmark Theatre. Oh, yeah, it had a an ample…

Don’t let the weather-beaten appearance fool you

You have to want to get to the Sesuit Harbor Cafe. The first time my dear wife Karen and I tried to follow up on the recommendation of Julie and Lisa four years ago, all we could find were boats being worked on in a big parking lot. Garmin was telling us to turn in…

Great Cape food, strolling, and a drink that could have laid me out

The first time my dear wife Karen and I snuck away from Syracuse to Cape Cod, she told me that Julie and Lisa said we should have breakfast at The Pancake Man. I loved the suggestion as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. Every single thing that unfolded inside the doors backed up…

Dinner with Daryl and Tony Graziano, too

With my dear wife Karen’s son Daryl quite content working the overnight-and-weekend shift at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y., our dinner get-togethers come on Wednesday or Thursday nights. His late-winter move some 25 miles from Syracuse and closer to the job has further complicated schedules. Last night we celebrated his birthday…

A bright buffet: Now you can see Althea and her parents

During Syracuse dining week in February, I wrote about the fine dining meal that my dear wife Karen and I shared our friends David, Theresa and Althea at 317 at Montgomery. I was bummed because the lighting was too dim for any of the pictures I took of our dining partners to be usable for…

A dinner fit for a bowling kingpin

Sometimes the meal is just right. After all that dissing I had to do about our awful first dinner at the Syracuse Cheesecake Factory last weekend, it’s only right that I point out how good dinner was last night at Spinning Wheel in North Syracuse. The occasion was our yearly bowling banquet, where all 60…

Awful lived between good bread and great cheesecake

The Cheesecake Factory adventure played out at last as we celebrated my wonderful daughter Elisabeth’s birthday this past weekend at the Syracuse mega shopping, dining and entertainment complex Destiny USA. We’d been waiting to experience this new franchise, the four of us, since our failed attempt to eat dinner there the Saturday of its opening…