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.
