A Fall Week in Ithaca- Trip Report

Last week, 22 years after finishing grad school and moving away from Ithaca, I returned to spend a week as a guest instructor at Cornell. My spouse accompanied me, and together we had ambitious plans to eat our way through the shining city on Cayuga’s shores. So few places remained from my time in Ithaca, but of course old standbys like Collegetown Bagels and the Greenstar Coop persist. What follows is an account of our adventures, as far as I can remember them, the good, the bad and the delicious. I’m not a fan of pulling out a phone during dinner, so there are few photos but I’ll paste in what I have from the week, even if many of them are not of food.


Our first night, we made the drive out from Boston and arrived famished and overwhelmed by the number of quick eats around the Commons. It was Saturday night and a number of places were crowded. My only requirement was bar height, as I needed to stand after 6 hours sitting in the car. We ended up at Red’s, which with “gastropub” as a description, lured us in. Unfortunately, this was our only real disappointment of the week. We both ordered burgers, and a brussel sprouts app to share. I admit, I didn’t really look at the brussels menu description that closely, but the soggy, sweet cranberry-laden mess we were served should have caused us to run the other way. Burgers took upwards of 45 minutes, and mine (ordered medium-rare) was charred to a puck and fries were cold. The bartender didn’t check back in til we were close to done, and when she saw my burger which I’d just nibbled at, she ran back to the kitchen to see if they could remake it, but returned and told us they were so backed up that it would be a long wait. Instead, she took it off the bill. My DC’s burger was mid-well, but not as bad as mine, and he might have inhaled it regardless. Luckily, it was all uphill (just like the Cornell campus :wink: )from here.

Sunday we explored the Farmer’s Market and had one of the single best things I’ve eaten in a while: the Cambodian pancake bowl is fantastic. It was similar to a Vietnamese banh xeo crepe, with diced chicken, veggies and rice noodles. My DC had a wide rice noodle stir fry bowl which was also really tasty. The owner of the stand also chatted with us while our food was prepared and we learned that he tried having a regular restaurant, but it was too much work and not enough sleep for him, so now they only do the Farmer’s Market. He was a complete character in the best possible way.

Our second night, we went to Mia’s on the Common. I had fond memories of Thai Cuisine in the late nineties, which was my intro to Thai food, and the owner of that restaurant has since opened Mia’s. It’s described as Thai tapas, but I’m not sure why. As at most restaurants, there is an assortment of large and small plates available. We really liked the house-made Thai sausage, and baby bok choi with truffle oil. A half duck was beautifully rendered and cooked, but the sauce was a bit sweet. Most of the sauces on most of the plates we tried were described as tamarind chili, and they did tend to the sweet for my taste overall. I would have liked more sour, hot, and salty, and less sweet. Desserts were excellent- a gluten free chocolate tart, and an espresso creme brulee.

Next up was Maxie’s Supper Club, which opened while I was in Ithaca and holds my loyalty as the site of many a fun dinner back when it was the hot new place. I had a special of blackened catfish with a potato cake and a cream sauce which was delicious. My DC had the fried chicken with grits and collards, which was tasty, but as it was white meat, was disappointingly tough and chewy. We skipped dessert and stopped at Personal Best brewing which has a fantastic sour on tap and a lovely beer garden. This was our favorite drink of the week and I’d love to explore more of their offerings.

For breakfasts, we alternated between coffee from Press, which was right across from where we were staying at the Hotel Ithaca, and Collegetown Bagels, which brews an excellent dark roast from Copper Horse called War Horse. My DC, who was working remotely, wandered over to the hand pie shop in the alley across from the hotel and proclaimed them delicious. I mostly took grab and go salads from Ithaca Bakery which are sold at CTB- I would dearly love to have a $10 salad option as excellent, balanced, and filling near me. Each evening, we wandered over to the Greenstar Coop and restocked on bars and snacks as my DC also spent serious time biking (around the full lake one day- 87 miles and some insane amount of elevation) so he needed to have quick portable calories on hand, and I needed a fun assortment of treats to bring for my students.

Tuesday, we dined at Moosewood, which one should always do when in Ithaca. I had a kale salad and added a piece of smoked trout, and my DC had a really excellent pasta with a mushroom sauce. An app of polenta cakes was noteworthy.

The following night, we sat outside at the Ithaca Beer Company and I had a very good dinner salad with grilled chicken added, and my DC had the fish and chips which were excellent, especially the sidewinder fries- a spiralizer cut that I will now be on the lookout for. The value here was really good, and the food was exactly what I would have expected - tasty, and hit the spot without being fussy.

On Thursday, we hiked up the Cascadilla Gorge trail, ending on campus and then winding back down through Collegetown. There are a plethora of Asian options, many Korean or Korean-influenced. Nobody felt like getting out a phone and trying to track down guidance or reviews, and my DC said he wasn’t in the mood for Korean, so we ventured into Xi An Street Foods and were rewarded with excellent hand-pulled noodles (wheat-based for my DC) and a spicy cumin lamb bowl for me. An amazing value, as lamb is often expensive, and this was a generous portion served over rice with various other toppings for $12. It was unseasonably warm for most of our trip, and we hiked back down precipitously steep Buffalo Street for our nightly re-supply at Greenstar, as well as ice cream at Cayuga Lake Creamery. Sadly, the soft serve window at Shortstop Deli was closed for the season. However, after his earlier bike ride, my DC felt that he needed a second dinner, so he had his inaugural Shortstop PMP with meatballs. I merely watched in awe of his caloric needs.

Our last night in town, we walked over to the Ithaca Baking Company and had excellent sandwiches, plus a truly delicious cream of tomato soup. I love that a little bakery can have such a great beer and wine list, and as much as I love Massachusetts, it makes me rue the cost of liquor licenses here. We loved our sandwiches so much, we returned the next morning for breakfast sandwiches on bagels, and lunch sandwiches wrapped to go for the road. Truly a full week of eating!

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Beautiful report, thank you!

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So sorry you had a bad experience at Reds. Cranberries in salad are an abomination (and I like cranberries). We ate there last winter and had a very good lunch in an uncrowded resto. think the owner was the only server. Idont doubt that they could misfire with such a complicated menu. IHowever. my unconventional cuban sandwich was super carefully made and delicious, husbands burger and beer likewise. In fact here is the sandwich

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Such a fun report, thank you!! I can only imagine what a buzz it was being a guest instructor at your alma mater!

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Everything about this report makes me happy (well, except for beef pucks).

I would make a pilgrimage to Moosewood in a heartbeat.

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I got the first Moosewood cookbook in graduate school in Northern Calif. in the very late 1970s, my grad school fellow students and I cooked from Moosewood and later editions for years. If I ever get anywhere near Ithaca, Moosewood would be a pilgrimage for me! I saved the oldest cookbook and it’s shelved next to a much later edition, where the dairy and fat in general is cut way back. I still have a deep affection for the first edition and the introduction to falafel and so many other amazing new-to-me foods. The handwritten recipes and illustrations added to the charm.

And spending my senior year at Boston area college at a co-op housing, we cooked from the Vegetarian Epicure often. That was an amazing time that I didn’t recognize was a brief splice, where vegetarian food was available in Harvard Square for about a few months!

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Looking at my week, I realize I forgot a few stops! Gimme coffee opened right around the corner from me my last year of grad school, and was my entree into the world of good coffee. Apparently, they expanded into NYC, then may have contracted again? Regardless, their flagship shop on the edge of Cascadilla Creek downtown was a necessary stop. They don’t brew a dark roast, so I had an americano, and their food selections were limited with no gluten free options, so while it was nice to see the old haunt, we changed it up for future coffee.

We also stopped at the Ithaca Cat Cafe, which had excellent coffee and a room full of cats who were playful, social and up for adoption. It’s lucky we don’t need another cat.

Finally, on my last day in Ithaca I took my students to the Cornell Dairy Bar, an on-campus tradition and a great place to get inexpensive high-quality ice cream.

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It’s funny, I never ate at Moosewood when I lived in Ithaca! I grew up with a mom who was an avid mostly-vegetarian cook, and felt like I basically ate Moosewood-style my entire life, so on the rare occasions when I was able to eat out, that was not the food I wanted. However, at some point I acquired the Sundays at Moosewood cookbook, which is divided by country and cuisine origin, and I used and still do use that one frequently although by this point, most of the recipes are ingrained to the point where it’s just what I cook. So actually eating at Moosewood restaurant was a bucket list item for me!

Regarding Red’s, one of my students vouched for it later in the week and I didn’t have the heart to tell her about our terrible meal. I don’t know what was going on that night- maybe it was a one-off?

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Thanks for the report! I went to college nearby and we went to Ithaca occasionally. I remember eating at a place called Aladdin’s several times… Doesn’t seem to exist anymore. I also remember a cute pub type place where we saw the lead singer from Counting Crows before we went to their concert at Cornell. Wish I could remember the name of that one.

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We like hawi for Ethiopian.

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If you have the time, a day well-spent can be found hiking the Watkins Glenn gorge, three Seneca lake winery tastings followed by dinner at stone cat. We have a a friend who was a sous chef at a famous nyc restaurant, he liked stone cat so much that they drove from Ithaca on consecutive days.

Best,

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One of the Chef’s that I worked with worked at Maxie’s for years before he moved to New York City. That place is legend for me.

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High above Cayuga’s waters there’s an awful smell
Some say it’s Cayuga’s waters we know it’s ……

Sorry I could not help myself. That Ivy League rivalry thing. I need someone to post about Yale now. :crazy_face:

Nice report. Thanks for sharing. With how close my grad school is to me, it’s sort of amazing that I’ve not been back in almost as long as it took you to get back.

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