Frank's Diner

Name: Frank's Diner
Location: 428 Court St., Binghamton, NY 13904
Phone: (607) 238-1900
Cuisine: American Diner
Price: Around $20 for two

Review:
When putting together a Google Map of all of the area restaurants we've reviewed, I noted that one area of town that our blogging exploits have mostly ignored up to this point has been Binghamton's East Side. For whatever reason, we rarely find ourselves over there. Perhaps our distaste for East Side's Cortese Restaurant has led to some subconscious bias. Seeking to remedy the situation, we plan to visit each of the diners on Court St. in the near future. We started with a trip out to Frank's Diner, one of East Side's newer establishments.

Even though Frank's is somewhat new, it takes over the location vacated by the Robin's Nest, one of Binghamton's most popular diners. It's my understanding that Frank, the owner, is a longtime restauranteur in the area, and he appeared to be patrolling the grounds during our visit.

I would classify Frank's as a "family restaurant" variety of diner. It's a reasonably sized place with probably 15-20 tables scattered throughout its dining room. It was evident that the chairs, tables, and floors were newer and cleaner than at most area diners. We went around 12:30 PM on a Saturday, and decided to try both breakfast and lunch. I was in the mood for breakfast food, while Megan ordered from the lunch menu. The breakfast menu was fairly typical, with several egg combos, pancakes, and omelets, but what caught my eye was the offering of several versions of frittata, a quiche-like dish. My mother used to make an egg, bacon, and cheese frittata for special occasions and I always enjoyed it, so I was excited to try out Frank's. I decided to try out the Italian Sausage frittata. Megan was in the mood for a burger and fries, so she went with a Bacon Cheeseburger.


Where to start on the frittata....hmmm... Let's just say, I don't think whoever made the dish I was served had any idea whatsoever what a frittata is. Frittata is a self-contained food like an omelet or quiche. What I was served was a scramble, not a frittata. There were scrambled eggs, sausage, onions, peppers, and home fries, all of which were quite tasty elements. I enjoyed my breakfast quite a lot, but to call it a "frittata" would be completely inaccurate. Not a huge deal since the food was good, but be forewarned.


Megan seemed to enjoy her burger well enough. In her words, it was "passable," yet nothing to get too excited about. On a better note, I tried some of her fries and they were pretty delicious, the crispy, golden-brown variety. Solid.

In the end, my opinion of Frank's is that it's pretty much middle of the road as diners go. Certainly it's one of the cleanest ones in the area, service was fast, and it's the kind of diner where you never have to ask for a coffee refill. The food was satisfying, but I reckon that I was mildly peeved that I didn't really get what I ordered. If we lived in the area, I could see us making Frank's a somewhat regular stop in our dining rotation, but it's not a place we're likely to go out of our way to visit again.

Grade: B-

Ithaca Ale House

Name: Ithaca Ale House
Location: 111 N. Aurora St., Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: (607) 256-7977
Cuisine: Burgers/sandwiches/desserts/BEER
Price: Likely around $20+ per person

Review:
The Ithaca Ale House has caught my eye often on my more recent trips to Ithaca, as is the case with most things involving "ale" in the name. Located just off the famous Ithaca Commons on Aurora St., I'd never been before the other day, when Megan and I found ourselves in Ithaca around lunchtime in search of a place to eat. Thankfully, I had recalled a post I'd read on the Big Hungry Shelby blog, which pronounced the Ithaca Ale House 2010's Best Restaurant in the entire area. With such lofty expectations going in, the Ithaca Ale House couldn't possibly live up to such great heights, right?

Wrong. This place is awesome.


One of my main motivations for going was to sample the latest Ithaca Excelsior! Series brew, their Thirteenth Anniversary Ale. This is a beer released only very recently, since the beginning of the new year, and I am a fan of all of Ithaca's Excelsior! offerings. The 12th Anniversary is a nice Belgian-style Abt, while the Brute is probably the brewery's most famed offering, a golden sour ale made with champagne yeasts which is positively delicious. The Thirteen is best described as a wheatwine, an extra-hoppy version of a wheat beer. Imagine a hefeweizen on steroids, brewed with lemony Sorachi Ace hops and Citra hops with slight pineapple notes. DELICIOUS! When it came time for Beer #2, it was time for another carrot-juice lookalike Thirteen. Yum.

But, yeah, on to the items our readers probably care more about than beer. In addition to a solid beverage menu, the Ithaca Ale House has a great menu full of gourmet burgers and sandwiches, each marked with a style of beer that would serve as a tasty complement. Megan ordered the "Perfect" burger, featuring lettuce, tomato, onion, bacon, cheddar cheese, ketchup, mustard, and mayo on a grilled roll. Sounds perfect in theory; hopefully it would stand up to the taste test. I elected to try out (on blogger buddy Shelby's recommendation) the French Dip, shaved prime rib with provolone on toasted French bread with au jus on the side. I had high hopes for this sandwich beforehand but after downing half of my 8.9% ABV wheatwine, expectations were at a fever pitch.


Luckily, these expectations were not just met, but exceeded. This was pretty much a perfect sandwich in every way. There is no way it could be improved upon. Served with fries on the side, I was in foodie heaven throughout the consumption of this delicious sandwich. On the downside, the fries were not bad, but not my favorite style, the crispy golden variety that you find at diners and the like. I like the "homestyle" variety that are more "potato-skin-esque" in flavor and texture. But that's just like, my opinion, man. The bigger deal here was the French Dip, which was amazing.


Megan's burger was equally fantastic, perfectly cooked to order. She got it with their "salad of the day" which she also enjoyed, but she has since commented that she won't be able to eat another burger for a while, since it will almost certainly pale in comparison to this one.


When it came time for dessert, we knew we had to try the Fried Oreos, proclaimed as Best Dessert of 2010 by the aforementioned Shelby. Served with whipped cream, a few smears of caramel on the side, and HOT CHOCOLATE for dipping (I can't make this stuff up, people!), this was a very tasty finish to the meal. Not nearly as good as some of the desserts I've had recently in Binghamton (English Toffee Pudding at Tranquil springs to mind) but for pub food, pretty amazing both in theory and in execution.

If you like great burgers and sandwiches, or if you're a beer connoisseur (some would say "snob," I prefer "geek") like myself, do yourself a favor and check out the Ithaca Ale House. For a restaurant of its ilk, things really don't get any better than this. Thanks, Shelby!

Grade: A

The Galley Tavern

Name: The Galley Tavern
Location: 409 Hooper Rd., Ste. 5, Endwell, NY 13760
Phone: (607) 748-6544
Cuisine: American pub food
Price: Around $10-$15 per person

Review:
One kind of restaurant that has not received a whole lot of fanfare on this blog has been the "bar and grill" variety. I'm not sure if that's because the styles of food normally found at such establishments does not appeal to us as much as others, or if we view these places more as "bars" than as "grills," but whatever the reason, we have yet to visit and offer our opinion on many of these sorts of places. And there are literally dozens to choose from throughout the Triple Cities.

Of the pub food scene, the only ones we've reviewed so far are Kelly's Sports Bar in Endicott (home to popular Wednesday night Team Trivia that we have been known to frequent), Vestal's Ale House (a review which admittedly was more of an excuse for me to talk about snooty beer than about food), and JC's Treaty of Versailles-predating hot-pie haven The Oasis. Oh, and Hurricane Rylie's in Endicott, which I think fancies itself more of a restaurant than a bar anyway. Some places I'd like to try out include Binghamton's South Side Yanni's, Harry Tuft's in Endicott, Tom & Marty's in downtown Binghamton, among others. After all, if we're going to Taste Binghamton, it's not always going to be about fine dining. Sometimes, you just want a half-dozen wings and a good burger, and so we headed to The Galley in Endwell to see if they could fulfill that desire.

The Galley is located on Hooper Road in a small plaza between Watson Blvd. and Country Club Rd. It's really kind of two restaurants in one, a bar to the right and a dining room (cleverly named "Galley Too") to the left. I'd advise opting for a table in the dining room rather than the high-top tables with uncomfortable wooden stools in the bar area where we sat.

The menu has all the usual pub food--burgers, sandwiches, pizza, wings, fried appetizers--which was exactly the kind of thing we were looking for this evening. I opted to go with a half-dozen medium wings and the Black and Bleu burger (peppercorns and crumbly bleu cheese) and Megan ordered the BBQ Burger (BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese, and bacon) with curly fries. We were given complimentary popcorn (somewhat reminiscent of Tully's on the Vestal Parkway) to start the meal which tied us over until our entrees arrived.

The wings were decent, certainly nothing to get too excited about. They had good flavor but as far as wings go, they were on the small side and overall inferior to those at Kelly's in Endicott. The burger, on the other hand, was much better. With a little A-1 sauce to complement the peppercorns and a healthy portion of crumbled bleu cheese, this was a tasty burger and certainly one I'd order again. Megan was also happy with her burger and fries; I tried the BBQ burger and I think I liked it even more than the one I got.

Since The Galley is a bar also, I should also mention the beer tap selection for those who care about that kind of thing. Mediocre at best. I saw a tap with Smithwick's and one with Sam Adams Winter Lager, but for those seeking a quality microbrew, this isn't the place to find one.

Service at The Galley was friendly, but somewhat spotty. It took us forever to get straws for our drinks, and service toward the end of the meal was a little slow. But overall, I'd have to say that The Galley was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be: a good place to come and have a couple drinks, grab a burger, watch some sports, and hang out with friends. It's not hard to believe that they've been in business since 1972. Don't expect anything transcendent from a culinary perspective, but for pub fare, The Galley generally gets the job done.

Grade: B

Hurricane Rylie's Cafe

Name: Hurricane Rylie's Cafe
Location: 113 Nanticoke Ave., Endicott, NY 13760
Phone: (607) 754-2999
Cuisine: Sandwiches/Burgers/Wraps/Bar Food
Price: Around $10 per person

Review:
We headed to Hurricane Rylie's, located near the corner of Main and Nanticoke in Endicott, for dinner on a Wednesday night with no real expectations in mind. Armed with a coupon for "buy one, get one free" burgers, sandwiches, or wraps (thanks Kyle!), we figured it would be a low cost opportunity to check out a place we'd never been. We arrived around 7:00 PM and gave it a shot.

Rylie's is a deceptively large restaurant, with some seating available in a front room that includes the bar, and a dining room in the back. We quickly noted the ambiance, which was tropical in nature and vaguely reminiscent of Cosmo's Tiki Bar in Johnson City.

A quick perusal of the menu left me feeling uninspired by its combination of bar food (the usual suspects: fries, wings, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, etc.) and various sandwiches and wraps. Since Hurricane Rylie's doubles as a bar, I noted its beer selection (as is my wont to do) and found it to be equally lackluster. Megan elected to try out the Chicken Club Wrap with their side of the day, a Mexican pasta salad. I went for the Blackened Chicken Wrap, featuring chicken, roasted red peppers, lettuce, and ranch dressing, and got fries on the side.


Service was relatively quick as we got our meals just a few minutes later. I have to say, I was not impressed with my wrap. On first bite it was OK, but there were a few grisly strips of chicken in there and the warmed-over ranch dressing was mildly nauseating. It was edible, but nothing I'd order again. The fries were the shoestring variety and inferior to those you'd get at Mickey D's. Megan had somewhat similar feelings about her meal, which she thought was OK but nothing to get excited about.

In the end, Hurricane Rylie's was pretty much the definition of average. The food was passable but nothing more. The ambiance was light, fun, and slightly tacky in their attempt to milk the "hurricane" theme as much as they can, and service was quick at first, but it took us a while to get our check at meal's end. With the coupon the check came to a mere $10, and honestly, I wouldn't want to have paid more for such mediocrity.

Grade: C