Had a quick trip upstate this memorial day weekend. We checked out Galaxy brewing in downtown Binghamton. Cool place with a nice interior and friendly bartender. We were hopeful about the beer but it was average at best. My husband liked what they had on nitro but I’m not a fan of nitro. The Amber was notably bad.
On the way home we stopped for dinner at Main St Farm in Livingston Manor. This place is like a caricature of the Catskills for city dwellers who come up to the country rough it, but I still like it. They have both a store and a small cafe. The store has tons of local products, most very overpriced, but some hard to find and worthwhile things. If you go to farmers’ markets in Westchester you’ll find a lot of the names you’d see there-- Neversink farm, for one. They also have excellent Strongtree coffee which used to be sold locally but now is based out of Florida. I didn’t buy it because the packages didn’t say how recently the beans were roasted and when you order from their website they roast to order. The food is bordering on overly self conscious hipster but made with fresh local products and humanely sourced meat products. I had a killer spinach salad with pulled chicken and my husband had locally made prosciutto on a roll. The vegan peanut butter cookie that I turned my nose up at actually wasnt so bad.
We washed our dinner down with a flight at Catskill Brewery. A review on Yelp called the service “not unfriendly” which is pretty much spot on. There was a modicum of disdain in the bartender’s attitude that was not endearing but the beer was a notch above Galaxy. We both agreed the not overly hoppy IPA was their best offering. We had wanted to visit Roscoe Brewery but they were not open. We’re not likely to return to Catskill Brewery but it’s convenient to 17.
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Thanks for the review. Good to know about the Catskill Brewery. Sorry to hear that Galaxy was a bit of a letdown, but glad they were friendly. Is Galaxy anywhere near Lupo’s Char Pit in Endicott? Beer and a chicken spiedie sub sound sooo good this time of year. 
Haha yes we got our fill of spiedies up there for sure! Galaxy is right downtown so it’s not that close to Endicott. There’s a bunch of new breweries in the Southern Tier, though, so I’m sure you could find a local pint nearby!
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We stopped at Main St farm/café again and had a great lunch. After a weekend of heavy eating in Binghamton this place hit the spot and is convenient to 17 back to Westchester. Their sandwich offerings are all available in salad form so we went that route-- turkey, cheese, apple and cranberry for me , and prosciutto, mozzarella, and roasted red peppers for my husband, both over salad greens with a housemade vinaigrette. Also notable was the split pea soup with chunks of pork- could use an extra sprinkling of salt but other than that perfectly warming for a day like today. Some mulled cider and a vegan PB cookie rounded out the meal. This is the third or fourth time we’ve been here and it’ll probably remain a regular stop for us.
We also went to Rushing Duck brewery in Chester. Totally nondescript joint that is almost impossible to find but worth minor detour from 17. Their English brown was our favorite-- malty richness in a sea of (hard to find in IPA obsessed Westchester).
What a great idea! I wish more places would do that.
Yes! This place would be like twice as expensive in Westchester though. The sandwich/salads are mostly under $10 and for excellent locally sourced ingredients too!
Bareburger, though it’s a chain, does have a lot of flexibility with sandwich vs salad.
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Thanks!! I’ll have to check it out.
