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Food Review

For Your Indulgence

by B.A. Nilsson May 4, 2011

The executive chef at a world-class destination hotel walks a tricky tightrope. It’s a helm from which a significant reputation can be achieved, which invites the pursuit of innovative ...

The View at the Mirror Lake Inn

Little Astoria

by B.A. Nilsson April 27, 2011

My father grew up in Astoria, on Long Island’s western edge, in the 1930s and ’40s. Back then it was known as “Little Athens,” and most of his neighbors were Greek, which meant that he ...

Anton’s

Special Ops

by B.A. Nilsson April 20, 2011

I’m studying a steak, a 16-ounce slab of Angus sirloin, cross-hatched with grill marks. It lies atop a flurry of whipped potatoes, across which also are tilted a half-dozen ...

The Pentagon Restaurant

Raising the Bar

by B.A. Nilsson April 13, 2011

There are hints in the menu of Blu Stone Bistro that this is a hotel restaurant—at least, that it knows it occupies space adjacent to the Hotel Indigo and therefore ought ...

Blu Stone Bistro

It was my first-ever visit to this longstanding restaurant, and I felt as if I’d walked into somebody else’s house. Somebody very gracious, someone who’d been expecting me—but someone with a large, extended family who ...

1 comment The Redwood Diner

Confit for a King

by B.A. Nilsson March 23, 2011

Every so often, a Capital Region neighborhood collects enough of a variety of restaurants that it threatens to assert a dining-out identity. Cluster a bunch of good eateries together ...

1 comment Cafe Adam

Teppanyaki, Hold the Circus

by B.A. Nilsson March 16, 2011

With the surge in popularity of Japanese steakhouses, which offer a grilled dinner prepared teppanyaki style, complete with flashing cutlery, acrobatic carving and a number of comic effects, I ...

1 comment Kumo Sushi & Grill

The Art of the Sandwich

by B.A. Nilsson March 3, 2011

You can’t help wondering what would happen if the socially responsible were placed in charge of corporate entities. If we’re talking Exxon/Mobil, then it won’t be during my lifetime and probably not during yours, but ...

2 comments Rock Hill Bakehouse Cafe

Big Easy Charm

by B.A. Nilsson February 23, 2011

Recognized—at last! I maintain an impressive anonymity at this job, despite frequent in-print descriptions of my size and usual dining companions, not to mention a scattering of likenesses in the webosphere. But, compared to many ...

Cafe Nola

Welcome Home

by B.A. Nilsson February 16, 2011

How you’re treated at the door tells you almost everything about a restaurant. Most chain restaurants, for example, feature a scripted greeting that’s intended to make up for the soullessness of the functionary hired to ...

Valente's Restaurant

Courting Good Taste

by Amy Halloran February 9, 2011

Though I’ve never been presented with a heart-shaped box of chocolates (hint, hint), I’ve been wooed by plenty of food. Who hasn’t? I especially remember the meals that flopped. The presentation of coffee at midnight, ...

Cooking with Aphrodite

by B.A. Nilsson February 9, 2011

Ogden Nash, in “Reflections on Ice-Breaking,” epitomized it thus: “Candy/Is dandy/But liquor/Is quicker.” Chocolate and booze are distinguished staples of courtship, but sometimes you just want to hit the sack. Is there any grub that ...

Medium – Well Done

by B.A. Nilsson February 2, 2011

Journalists dislike coincidences. They are the stuff of the fictionist, desperate to tie together divergent threads of plot. Yet they do occur, and they must be dealt with. It is a coincidence that my review ...

Central Steak

Fresh Fusion

by B.A. Nilsson January 26, 2011

Two of the area’s most creative chefs have combined their talents to produce an unlikely restaurant. It’s in an unlikely spot, boasts an unlikely array of entrées, and is unusually inexpensive. Joseph Soliman opened the ...

sage bistro

Satisfaction

by B.A. Nilsson January 19, 2011

There’s a pattern I see played out every time I invite friends to my house for barbecue. When they arrive, the meat already has been smoking for many hours, typically started the day before. We ...

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que

Don’t Ever Change

by B.A. Nilsson January 12, 2011

You may think you walked into the wrong place, as I thought. It’s not that the Highland doesn’t look sufficiently restaurant-like; rather, it looks like you’ve entered an Italian joint from your parents’ childhood. ...

The Highland restaurant

Beyond Chow Chow

by B.A. Nilsson January 5, 2011

Who ever thought we’d have Nixon to thank for a good meal? His 1972 visit to China is credited with opening up a cultural exchange that included a wave of culinary adventure thanks to better ...

Ala Shanghai

Part of the Club

by B.A. Nilsson August 18, 2010

Cuisine: sandwiches, wraps, gourmet coffee Entrée price range: $5 (quiche) to $13 (Ultimate Jitter, a huge sandwich) Ambiance: colorful café "I know this business is supposed to be about turning tables and making money,” says Gina Prince, “but ...

Jitters Cafe

If It Fits in a Tortilla . . .

by B.A. Nilsson March 24, 2010

Cuisine: reimagined Tex-Mex Entrée price range: $2.50 (single taco) to $9.75 (huge nacho supreme plate) Ambiance: We don’t need no stinkin’ ambiance! I would enjoy a job that required me to answer the phone with ...

Badass Burrito

Avec l’amour

by B.A. Nilsson February 18, 2010

Cuisine: French-inspired Entrée price range: $10 (small plate of pork medallions) to $31 (rack of lamb) Ambiance: metropolitan bistro We survived Valentine’s Day. We ignored it or embraced it but we couldn’t avoid it. We thought that ...

Provence

True to Form

by B.A. Nilsson February 11, 2010

Entrée price range:$5 (pepper sub) to $15 (veal sorrento) Ambiance: diner What makes your favorite pizza place so good? How far do you go (geographically, I mean) for pizza? Locally, I’ve got three places to choose ...

Crepe Expectations

by B.A. Nilsson February 4, 2010

Cuisine: crêpes and wraps Entrée price range: $5 (salad) to $8 (roast beef sandwich) Ambiance: intimate Stroll the Jay Street pedestrian mall at lunchtime and you get a taste of what Schenectady could be as an urban destination. ...

Bring Out the Wurst

by B.A. Nilsson January 21, 2010

Cuisine: German Entrée price range: $7 (Homemade mac and cheese) to $13 (Schwabische Rindsrouladen) Ambiance: Oktoberfest Rotkraut. Gurkensalat. Kasseler Rippchen. And if that’s not enough, Schwabische Rindsrouladen: items far too absent from area menus, usually only found at ...

Of Aprons and Sportcoats

by B.A. Nilsson January 14, 2010

Any chef, whether a culinary-school grad or someone who worked through the ranks, has worked the various kitchen stations. For them, no manner of prep is unknown or undignified. I had stunning proof of this ...

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