Conestoga Restaurant and The Waterfront

Two restaurants cling to the banks of the meandering Conestoga River east of Lancaster. Both have big parking lots, spacious outdoor decks and tacky interiors. The Waterfront offers a “waterside dining experience of casual elegance”; Conestoga makes much of the fact that an inn stood there in 1741, even though the current building is cinder block and formstone. Both serve mediocre food that they pretend is haute cuisine. 

And yet, after six years of sampling, I have a clear favorite: Conestoga.

1. Better river views. Where the Waterfront sits low on a bare mud bank, the Conestoga overlooks a landscaped yard that slopes down to the arched East King Street bridge. In the spring, there is constant entertainment from swallows darting to catch fat mayflies rising from the water. In the evening, the deck is ringed by gas torches that make it cozy and sheltered from the street.
2. Less attitude. I’ll be honest: I haven't experienced great service in either location. If you go to the Conestoga during the 7 p.m. rush you may wait forever to be noticed, and again to get your food. But just an hour later and you could have the deck to yourself.
   
   
3. Surprisingly good food. It’s all about managing expectations. Conestoga promises less than The Waterfront and delivers more than expected. The thing that I often order is a gyro sandwich with a small Greek salad. The salad is fresh and comes with stuffed grape leaves; the gyro is pleasantly warm and spicy. Conestoga has a funny thing about putting meat on burgers (consider the Lumpy Bleu Burger which includes fresh lump crab meat and house smoked cherry bacon) but none of sandwiches are bad. I wouldn’t recommend the spinach pie or the “specialty drinks.”

http://www.conestogarestaurant.com/dinner.asp

   

The Loft

One of my treasured Lancaster dining moments was the evening that four of us were dropping an absurd amount of money on some nearly-deserving farm-to-table fare at John J. Jeffries, and the waiter was going on about how their red velvet cake is colored the authentic way—with beet juice—and after he left the couple beside us turned to our table and said conspiratorially, “The food is so much better at The Loft.”

Okay, look: they’re entitled to their opinion. But they’re wrong.

John J. Jeffries is the place that serves an amazing Korean-influenced small plate they call “Jim Bim Bop,” with spicy pork, rice, kimchi, seasonal vegetables, chili paste, sesame ginger soy sauce and a fried egg.

The Loft is a restaurant where you get a small vat of soft butter to go with your hard dinner roll, and just in case that weren’t enough processed fat, an equal bowl of sour cream with chives.

The Loft’s website says it’s “poised to be a contender for one of the country’s top restaurants.” 

Is it a typo? Do they mean county? C’mon folks—we don’t live in Trumpville. Just because you're brazen enough to say something outrageous doesn’t make it true.

The Loft was hot before Molly’s Pub was hot before Character’s Pub was hot. What’s the connection? Former owners George Centini and Gary Hufford. I don’t know what they’re doing now, but I bet it’s hot. 

In the meantime, all the restaurants they started float on like week-old helium balloons. You won’t die from eating there; you might even have a good time. But you probably don’t want to proclaim their culinary merits outside of Cracker Barrel.

http://www.theloftlancaster.com/menu/

Fetish: The Tasting Room

One night in 2012 educator Mike Simpson called Brandon Stetser from Crush Wine Bar. He had just tried some of Aaron Risser’s carefully crafted home brews, and he was excited. “We got to give money to this guy,” he said.

In retrospect, perhaps Brandon should have asked how many brews Mike had tried—but no matter. Three years later, Fetish Brewing Company has an underground following that confirms their, er, business instincts. They brewed in Aaron’s driveway in the dead of winter, distributed bottles to an elite group of club members, got picked up by bottle shops like the Fridge and restaurants like Pour, and, last Christmas, they opened their own, unmarked tasting room on Ice Avenue.

Let me tell you about these beers. Fetish started with Spelt, an easy-drinking ale that easily competes with Wacker’s kölsch (although kölsch is lager, so that’s really not a fair match) and a Ghost Pepper stout that is, shall we say, an acquired taste. Later they added a Peat that fermented among Laphroig-soaked oak chips for eight weeks. When I visited the Fetish tasting room in December, they were still serving a double IPA under its test name “Stunt 006.”

All told, there are at least ten brews in circulation. The pride of 2015 is two varieties of sour Wild American ale that were aged in cabernet barrels from Demuth Winery for 18 months. The Wild American Dark enjoyed two helpings of dark cherries and came out smooth and complex, with just an edge of tartness. In December they were flying out the door.

I admit that adequate adjectives often fail me when it comes to alcohol. I end up saying things like, “Oh, that’s good,” and “Oooh, that’s really really good.”

So let me just say: we've got to give money to these guys. 

https://www.facebook.com/fetishbeer

Horse Inn

It was a snowy night in 2009 when my Lancaster guide walked me down Chestnut Street, steered me into a vacant alley and opened the door to a flight of steps under a weathered wooden sign that read “Horse Inn.”

The second-floor restaurant looked cool, and it was. Stalls lined two walls, tack hung here and there, and every time the door opened, a blast of winter made me think I had been exiled to the barn. We ate in our coats; I don't remember the food.

It took me five years to go back. Thankfully it was summer. But other things had also changed: a new owner and chef, a second entrance off Fulton Street, a cute back bar, a table with shuffleboard, and live music two or three nights a week. 

The food was excellent—simple, hearty and delicious. “Horse Inn used to have Dipco quality food at Pressroom prices,” said one neighborhood patron. Now it defies expectations with nearly every order.

Let’s start with drinks. In the weeks around the Kentucky Derby you can order a mint julep that comes out in a metal mug with a forest of mint leaves pushing up through the ice. If you happen to show up on October 21, 2015, you'll find a Flux Capacitor waiting. And in the winter Ben will make you a rye Holtwood that will knock your socks off—without offending your tongue in the slightest.

As far as eating, where should I start? The burrata is lovely. Order extra crostini. The fries are lovely. Bring extra friends. The cheeseburger is cooked to order—hey!—and will remind you why you’re still eating beef. 

Horse Inn is the first place I understood why people eat wings. The meat is ample, steaming and tender under crisp skin. The orange sauce is just hot enough to tingle your lips, and the dipping sauce is rich with soothing blue cheese.

Banh Mi is stuffed with succulent chicken meat and topped with house kimchi that is genuinely spicy. Shrimp and Grits are not as peppery as some restaurants serve, but there is nothing wrong with the temperature of the shrimp or the consistency of the grits. The Dutchie is a whimsical remake of local pork and sauerkraut. The hanger steak eats like tenderloin.

Chef Matt Russell and co-owner Starla Russell preserved the tips and toast that the Horse Inn used to be famous for. Now this Lancaster mainstay seems to be becoming famous for...everything else. 

http://horseinnlancaster.com/menus/food/

Rachel’s Cafe & Creperie

Early this year I visited the Skinny Pancake, a sort of bohemian creperie and performance space along Lake Champlain. I hope the shows are good, because the crepes don’t hold a Bunsen burner to Rachel’s Cafe & Creperie in Lancaster. Her skinny pancakes come out of the kitchen piping hot, satisfyingly chewy with lovely crisp edges, folded into neat cones, and packed with more than a dozen different savory or sweet fillings—but I would happily eat one plain.  

Rachel’s was smart to move from well-worn twin storefronts on Queen to a lovely window-lit house on Walnut. Their redesign features bright trendy chandeliers and wall coverings, a fenced outdoor seating area and off-street parking. Even though they added many more seats the lines just seem to get longer. In summer the host uses a buzzer system to call patrons to their tables.  

Even with these fine accomplishments, I would humbly suggest an improvement in each category above: 

• Food: With crepes this good, there really should be excellent coffee. The regular tastes bland to me, and the expresso drinks are hit and miss. Storm clouds are the only designs drawn in this steamed milk. Could French press be an option?  
• Service: My regular breakfast companion often mentions how promptly some restaurants bring water and take drink orders. It is a simple sign of welcome. The service at Rachel’s is not bad, but things fall through the cracks. People who have waited to be seated should not have to wait to get their morning caffeine.

Oh also—the hash browns are silly. No one wants to pay a buck for three bits of grizzled starch the size of quarters.

http://www.rachelscreperie.com/menu/

The Pressroom

Lancaster's Pressroom restaurant is coming into its own. Again.

Outdoor seating in Steinman Park always felt nice, if a little forlorn: a brick courtyard with spotlit trees and water roaring at the far end. But now diners have a real reason to wind down the ramp to the waterfall—alcohol!  

The Park Bar, some two years in the making, opened this summer to nonstop business. Cut into a wall of one of the adjacent Steinman newspaper buildings, the industrial chic niche serves all the drinks and food of the restaurant inside.

Service is slow, but polite. Tables are self-serve, but often available. The food can be hit or miss, even for the same item (e.g. pork belly sliders). 

Yet overall, with a few strategic ventures like the Park Bar, the Pressroom has pivoted from tired, overpriced Fine Dining to a lively, comfortable restaurant with tasty variety. Sunday brunch is served, with a dangerous DIY bloody mary bar. Dinner items like the mahi tacos have flavor that's easy to eat, even if the soupy contents make them structurally challenged. Live music pops up in the park as well as the front window.

Surrounded by Steinman newspaper buildings, the Pressroom was never a press room. But it was once the nation's oldest hardware store. With regular tune-ups of the sort we've enjoyed this summer, The Pressroom will keep running on King Street for years to come.

http://pressroomrestaurant.com/

Crush Wine Bar

Carr's Restaurant has a wine cellar atmosphere with good grub. It's nice enough in the winter—an angular wooden bar cuts under the stairs that descend from street level and the colorful walls and comfort food make you forget any blizzard that might be raging above. But when summer light glows against the orange bricks of Central Market, you really should be upstairs, sitting along the sawtooth windows of Crush Wine Bar and enjoying a panorama of small-town street life.

Crush is a kaleidoscope-themed cubby-hole at the junction of Central Market, Lancaster Dispensing Company and a busy parking lot. It is part of Carr's Restaurant, and Tim Carr will prepare you the same mouthwatering burger and fries (or pork & sauerkraut with apple fritters) there that he serves downstairs. 

You will also have an intimate selection of unusual beers, including the latest offering from Lancaster's understated artisanal brewers, Fetish. Much of their product is distributed CSA-style, by invitation only, but Crush carries a handsome variety. You may even be served by one of the Fetishists, Aaron Risser, who occasionally tends bar.

Except for an after-work rush, Crush is often strangely quiet. Enjoy it—it won't last. Tim plans to expand his dining operations upstairs, taking over the former Tamanend Winery tasting room, and Crush will be mashed in the mix. 

Here's to hoping that the new blend of space keeps a bit of the lonely comfort and quirky personality of the old.

http://www.carrsrestaurant.com/winebar.cfm

 

Of Boys and Burgers (Belvedere and Jethro's)

Monday nights are burger nights for at least two Lancaster restaurants: The Belvedere Inn on Queen and Lemon, and Jethro's Restaurant & Bar on Ruby and First. I know this because a bunch of friends convene at one of the two sites nearly every Monday night.

Meeting the group for drinks is a lesson in rules and exceptions. They are mostly bikers—both motorcycle and bicycle. They are coupled to smart, beautiful women—but Mondays are "men's fellowship," and they're drawn to the Belvedere like dogs to ice cream. Conversation can be eclipsed by mechanical problems and dirty jokes, or it can explode in opinion about film, food and fashion.

One integrating theme is craft. These guys appreciate well-designed, well-made stuff. Which is why, in a town full of "best" burgers, I venture to say that The Belvedere and Jethro's are doing something right.

• The Belvedere Inn
  The Belvedere has a sparkly, dark interior with bars and table seating on two levels, including an outdoor deck. Jamie Hornberger is often behind the downstairs bar on Monday nights, and keeps the spot popular with quick service and generous pours.
  
  Belvedere burgers are unusual. They are miniature "Kobe" sliders on steamed bao buns with spicy chili oil as a dipping sauce. Those of you who have read Larry Olmstead's exposés on Kobe beef will know that what the Belvedere serves is almost certainly not real Kobe, and if it were, the chef would not be grinding it into hamburger.
  
  It doesn't matter—that sh*t is delicious! Plus, on Monday nights you get each mini burger for a buck—a third of their regular price. It's gotten so bad that Jamie doesn't bother asking what we want; we just give him a number.

• Jethro's Restaurant & Bar
  Jethro's is a comfortable neighborhood hangout with food a cut above. On Mondays co-owner Bob Esbenshade is behind the bar. Their drink specials—the Manhattan, the Hot and Dirty Martini and the unlisted margarita with mezcal—are special indeed.
  
  The Jethro's burger is not so much of a patty as it is a round. It arrives sizzling hot with a side of mixed veggies, oozing natural juices and flavor.
  
  The only mistake you can make is trying to eat it like a burger. The two dry slices of French bread that flank it are for decoration only. My one attempt at getting teeth around a Jethro's sandwich sent a fountain of hot grease and myoglobin flying across the table, nearly drowning my buddy's new iPhone.

Neither restaurant asks you what temperature you want your meat. This is a relief, since most burger joints will overcook your order anyhow.  

For Jethro's and the Belvedere, I take it as a sign of cockiness befitting a guys' night out. Like Steve Jobs said, "People don't know what they want until you show it to them."

http://www.belvederelancaster.com/menu.html
http://www.jethrosrestaurantandbar.com/menu.pdf

  

SukhoThai

One autumn just after Yom Kippur, I swear I heard someone at Prince Street asking how to get to Sukkot High.

SukhoThai is a Thai restaurant. To my knowledge, they are not kosher and have no tables al fresco. They do, however, make a mean mango smoothie, and the coconut soup comes with lots of nice fresh mushrooms and green peppers.

You can BYO Manischewitz.

I am not Jewish, so I like ordering the spicy pork sausages which come with an excellent sweet-hot dipping sauce.

My other improvised order is sticky rice with a little bowl of green curry. Just like you would do with ugali, mielie-meal and the like, pull a bit of the rice out of the basket with your (right) hand, mush it into a ball and dip it in the sauce. Always satisfying.

http://www.sukhothai-restaurant.com/menu.php

Ma(i)son

Here are some things you should know about Ma(i)son:

• When you come in the door you won't necessarily be greeted right away. 
• The "chef's table in the back" that is "a little more private" is actually the high bar at the end of the dining room that faces the kitchen.
• The menu is on a chalkboard that may not be legible from where you are seated.
• It is BYOB.

Here is the most important thing to know about Ma(i)son: the food is lovely. 

Chef owners Taylor and Leeann Mason delight in letting each ingredient be itself, delivering tight harmonies of seasonal vegetables and herbs featuring rabbit, cornish hen, beef, boar, pasta or seafood.

Ma(i)son burrata, January 2014

The menu uses words like burrata (squeaky white cheese), chevre (goat's milk cheese), sugo (Italian pasta sauce), escarole (a kind of endive) and haricot vert (thin green beans). In a lesser restaurant it would be pretentious. Here it's simply accurate.

For $14, the handmade burrata with cherry tomatoes, basil and smoked prosciutto (or with speck and roasted shallot and fig jam last winter) is as delightful to look at as it is to devour. 

While fast food chains busily pepper their websites with "artisanal" buzzwords (smashed potatoes, anyone?) Leeann and Taylor go shopping—and bring the best tastes home for us.

http://www.maisonlancaster.com/menu/ 

 

Pour

An unlikely contender has taken the lead in my mental ranking of best high-end restaurants in Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Pour.

I say unlikely not because it's not high-end—two people can easily drop north of $50 on a couple drinks and appetizers—but because it's more of a New York-style tapas bar.

The drink menu regularly lists 20 domestics and 20 imports in bottles and ten taps from Pennsylvania to Denver, Germany and Belgium. Six reds, six whites and sparkling wines are available by the glass or bottle, and there's a healthy cabinet of port. Pour consistently mixes the most surprising and nuanced cocktails in Lancaster, playing games with Jefferson's Reserve bourbon, Blue Coat gin from Philadelphia and Thistle Finch white rye from six blocks away.

In the evening, diners spill out of a lively courtyard onto Prince Street's gallery row. Inside, cascading metal wine racks and colored lighting make the bar feel comfortably upscale—like your aunt's "modern" house on Staten Island.

But the food menu is what really astounds. In a town where frozen pastries pass for hors d'oeuvres (see "Culturas"), Pour serves exquisite morsels of perfectly paired quail, duck, swordfish and pork butt.

No, the portions aren't big. You won't take home leftovers. But the food will be worth tasting the first time.

Slow down for once. Look at your food. Take a bite. Try to identify the ingredients. Then take a drink. Then continue your conversation. This is what eating out should mean: an experience very few of us can create at home.
 
In truth, Pour may be misnamed. Even if they didn't serve drinks, you could get drunk off the food.

http://pouronprince.com/

 

Commonwealth on Queen

My brunch date and I stumbled onto Commonwealth on Queen the morning of their invitation-only soft opening. As we apologized and turned to leave, the man behind the Square register invited us to stay, as long as we gave the kitchen a little grace.

We gave them grace. After five minutes of staring at a tabletop, we learned there was no table service, so we went back to the counter to look at the menu. When my exotic breakfast order arrived looking a lot like scalloped potatoes with paprika, I held my tongue. Nor did we complain when the coffee came midway through the meal. 

It was, after all, their soft opening. But I did secretly wonder whether Commonwealth was some kind of church ministry. Nobody seemed to have restaurant experience.

Months passed. An article was published. We went back.

I ordered the Barn Burner. My date ordered the Big Ol' Breakfast Sandwich and a French press. We signed with our finger and found a table outside. 

Five minutes went by, then ten. I got up, thought about grace and sat back down. Five more minutes went by. I went inside. Sandwiches were coming toward me, so I followed them out to our table. They were cold.

Still no coffee. I was done with half my sandwich when the French press arrived. The server explained that she was in the middle of making it when they got a rush of customers. She gave us silverware.

I asked her if Commonwealth was part of a church ministry. She said not. We drank coffee. As we got ready to leave, she came back with sugar.

Commonwealth on Queen says they are a "farm to fork" cafe. Friends, local is no longer quaint, and it is no excuse for poor service. I can name half a dozen other restaurants that feature local foods, and none give me the impression they are waiting for the hens to lay before they make my omelet.

Tho' your big windows and sculpted chairs beckon me, yet I will not be a citizen of your commonwealth.

http://commonwealthonqueen.com/menu/

Checkers Bistro

Chef Daniel Quishpe was my first neighbor in Lancaster. On the sidewalk one day he told me to check out Checkers Bistro. “We’re doing something a little different,” he said. 

I did check it out, and Checkers was different. The restaurant seemed to be run through the ground floors of several former townhouses. Each dining space was appointed in a different style, from wallpaper to stucco, and the whole contraption was given a glass entrance and wood-trimmed bar. It was odd.

The food, though, was simple and delicious. You could taste the tuna in the tuna po’ boy, the beets in the beet salad. When I mentioned it was my birthday, a small complimentary cake appeared with congratulations written in chocolate syrup.

A year ago Lancaster heard Checkers would be moving into a renovated warehouse space on Harrisburg Pike. They would double their seating and adopt an existing kitchen. In a town where you can leave your neighborhood by walking down the block, I wondered if they would keep their clientele. 

To be honest, the jury is still out for me. The new space is beautiful—simple, dark furniture; theatrical lighting; photos and equipment from the Champion Blower and Forge Company that manufactured fans, drill presses and other tools there until the 1960s. 

But the menu, ostensibly a “unique blend of French, Asian and American cuisines,” just reads like glorified bar food to me. The dinner menu lists steak frites, tuna frites and sweet potato frites, as well as pomme frites, potato gratin and housemade “smashed” potatoes. And fish & chips. 

My beef Bolognese was forgettable.

I will be going back—to sit at the angled cement-like bar and try something from their handsome wine cellar—but this time I will not brace myself for “different.”

http://checkersbistro.com/

Roburrito's

Good burritos. Rude staff.
Try Neato Burrito.

http://www.neatoburrito.com/

 

Thistle Finch Distillery

Lancaster County is thrilled to have its "first whiskey since Prohibition." We're even more excited that it's good! 

In fact the first batch sold out before many of us knew it existed. By the time the distillery officially opened—an impromptu affair on Christmas Eve 2013—neighborhood patrons were carting off half-cases of white rye as gifts. 

It's hard to overstate the charm of Thistle Finch. Its name is the English version of distelfink, a familiar motif in local Pennsylvania German folk art. The bottles are elegantly designed. The 14-foot-tall copper still was hand built by a few of owner Andrew Martin's skilled friends. The warehouse it lives in—hidden down an alley off Charlotte Street—was renovated by a legion of other friends and now includes a spacious tasting room where first samples are free and mixed drinks like the "Martin Mule" sell for $8.

To hear Martin tell it, the whole enterprise was cobbled together from Google searches and IOUs. 

The whiskey tells a different story. Multiple local restaurants now feature Thistle Finch cocktails. (Among the best are Lee Noble's creations at Pour.) On Bourbon and Oak, Tim Doty writes:

On the nose Thistle Finch White Rye has a strong corn scent with some fruit notes and a subtle cedar aroma. On the palate [it] delivers an amazing burst of flavors. Corn is the most noticeable flavor with lemon, apricots, ginger, cherries, and wood and grain notes in the background. ... The finish is long and smooth with the same familiar corn flavor with some warm vanilla and tart cherry flavors lingering. This is an excellent whiskey.

http://www.thistlefinch.com/

Aussie and the Fox

I happened to be in a Lancaster City Council meeting in 2013 when Mr. Fox presented his proposal to open a classy restaurant in the first block of West King Street with his new Australian son-in-law. This was not, he stressed, going to be a bar. 

No one on the council had any objections. Thirty-eight West King was a beautifully neglected old storefront, and with more people coming to downtown Lancaster for music and theater, Lancaster could easily support another quality restaurant.

But later that year—after my friend and I choked down an exceptionally dry rendition of chicken and waffles and our server intimated that people in Lancaster might not be ready for what Aussie does—I objected.

The restaurant looked beautiful. There were high-backed orange benches along raised tables in the front display windows, a handsome U-shaped bar in the center, a faux fireplace in the back and exposed brick walls throughout. The brown paper placemats were hand-stamped with the snappiest logo in the city. The servers greeted you with careful poise. And yet the food was, uh, nothing to write home about.

But it’s hard for me to stay angry at brunch, so every time On Orange was full I ended up at Aussie. Now I’m pleased to report some more sunny encounters:

• Both Australia-branded offerings are unusually colorful and flavorful. The Aussie Brekkie is a healthy pile of wild mushrooms, creamed spinach and boursin cheese under poached eggs, and the Aussie Burger, an improbable stack of beef, pineapple, onion chutney, pickled beetroot, smoked Gouda and over-easy egg on ciabatta. (Note: do break the yolk before you take a bite.)
• I rarely jump at sweet, bready breakfasts, but a short stack of Honey Crisp Apple pancakes went down light and easy with a bit of maple syrup & butter.
• A reliable source informed me that creamed chipped beef in homemade black pepper gravy is an important part of this nutritious Fox Breakfast: two eggs any style; homefries; choice of bacon, sausage, ham or chickpea sausage with toast or English muffin.
• There is an eye-popping array of (apparently natural) striped fruit drinks that come out of the juicer, and the recommended green apple/celery/ginger and carrot/celery/lemon creations taste as healthy as they look.

Finally, although I haven’t braved it, fried chicken breast is now served with “apple cider honey mustard & red onions in between a sweet cream waffle.”

It sounds juicy. 

http://www.aussieandthefox.com/menu/dinner/

Rice & Noodles Restaurant

Rice & Noodles catered my wedding. I'm serious. It was delicious—and affordable. Even my aunt enjoyed it.

There are two kinds of restaurants in the world: the ones that are all atmosphere with no substance—like musical theater with great sound and bad singing—and the ones, consistently understated, that grab your attention with the first bite.

Rice & Noodles is this last, best kind of restaurant. Regardless of the crush of people picking up to-go orders or waiting for a table, you can expect delicious, fresh, healthy Vietnamese food—"just like we eat at home," says Vy Banh.

In addition to the phở ( listen), banh mi, coffee and egg rolls that have become American standards, Rice & Noodles makes their own flan, ice cream and impossibly complicated macaroons. 

It all goes back to Vy's grandmother learning French pastries in Saigon. The family had 13 restaurants in Vietnam until Saigon fell in 1975, and started again with three restaurants in New Orleans until they flooded in 2005. 

Now rumor has it there will be a second location in Lancaster on Orange and Prince. I don't know how to say it in Vietnamese, but ¡Que le vaya bien!

http://riceandnoodlesrestaurant.com/dine-with-us/

Carmen and David's Creamery

In college David Hommel majored in ice cream. 

Well, not exactly. But he did take Penn State University's renowned Ice Cream Short Course.

The result has been a dazzling parade of 30 exotic flavors through downtown Lancaster display cases, in every season of the year. Kind of a frozen fireworks display, before Frozen meant spellbinding princesses with big eyes. 

David's "standard" flavors are molasses, toasted coconut, dark chocolate, cherry vanilla and ten others. Which should give you an idea of the rotating flavors—things with names like Zombie Nuts, Aztec Hot Chocolate, Spicy Praline, Holy Mole—and actually those are just four signature recipes that marry something spicy hot with something cold and sweet.

Yes, they also have vanilla, strawberry and milk chocolate. Collectors editions. And "we always have one peanut butter flavor, one sugar-free flavor, three sorbets and three sherbets," they say.

As Margaret Mead might say with her mouth full, "Never doubt that a small collection of exceptional dairy products can change the world."

http://carmenanddavidscreamery.com/

Hunger N Thirst

When I tried H-N-T's asparagus fries I was transported to a firelit cabin in pine woods with snow falling. Yes, they were that good.

The pork belly melted in my mouth. I had a rye Manhattan that made ordinary cocktails seem like Smirnoff Ice.

Was it young love, or beginners luck? Subsequent trips have not fared as well. The pork belly was too salty. Asparagus fries went away for the summer. The popular "Cuban cigars" tasted like diner food.

I keep going back, mostly to sit at the curved copper-top bar. Two dozen beers on tap, and always something interesting. 

In July bartender Steve Wood saw my restless post-gin expression and asked if he could make me a whiskey drink. I said sure. Turns out he's a bit of a wunderkind with the beer cocktail (see Fly magazine). The impromptu concoction he delivered was a delicious stout-laced twist on what he called a boulevardier. 

The intermittent reward is a principle of behavioral conditioning. With occasional treats as good as Wood's cocktail, I'll keep walking in the door.

http://www.hungernthirst.com/

On Orange

When I moved to Lancaster, On Orange was called Wish You Were Here. "Wish My Food Were Here," my friends quipped. "Wish I Were Elsewhere."

When Melissa Watro took over in 2010 I tried it again—and haven't stopped going back. 

On Orange is the best kind of brunch place:

• Friendly service
• Coffee brought promptly
• Familiar food with a twist

In Central Pennsylvania it is one of the few places you can get a spicy breakfast dish. Two, actually: the Indian omelet and the chilaquiles.

There are sunny seats upstairs, cozy corners downstairs and tables on the back patio in warm weather. 

The hearty whole-grain toast alone is worth the trip.

Some restaurants are all attitude and no good food. Others just give you what you pay for. On Orange impresses with simple quality. It's the perfect start to a Lancaster weekend.

http://onorange.wordpress.com/menu/