Seasonal restaurants in the Thousand Islands region along the St. Lawrence River are getting ready to open once again.
Some may have new menus. Some may have new cooks. Some may have new wait staffs.But there's one very popular restaurant that's already open for the season with a tried-and-true menu, a chef/owner doing the cooking and employees who have been there for years.
It's The Clipper Inn in Clayton. Chef Mike Simpson grew up in the restaurant business in Alex Bay, 10 miles down the road from the Clipper. Years ago, he figured out that some area restaurateurs are just out to make a fast buck on unsuspecting tourists.
But here we were, a week ago Saturday night, sitting in the middle of the sprawling Clipper dining room, which was filled to capacity, and there wasn't a tourist in sight.
Mike has found the formula for success, earning a loyal local following that has ensured his success for more than two decades. The food is excellent, the employees are great, and the dining room - rooms, that is - are comfortable and relaxing.
The Clipper lounge was the designated meeting place for the WDT Reviewing Team. I was first to arrive. The bartender lady with a big smile poured me an honest drink. It's refreshing to see a congenial bartender. I encounter too many grumpy ones.
I grabbed a menu and headed to a tall table. Before I knew it, my happy bartender was there with a bowl of bar munchies. And a few minutes later, a hostess came out of nowhere with a napkin and silverware setup, assuming I was dining there.
Now that's impressive service.
With the team in place, we were seated in the back dining room, a room that has been added to in recent years.
The menu looks great - a good variety of appetizers priced right, entree choices that include seafood, steaks, chicken, veal and pasta dishes. Most are classic preparations that withstand the test of time, plus some more adventurous ones from the creative chef/owner.
Appetizers were nicely portioned and very exquisitely presented.
Sauteed scallops ($8.99) impressed us; they were lightly seared to give them a perfect look and were swimming in a zippy lemon-butter sauce. The plate was delightfully garnished, appealing to the visual senses as well as the taste buds.
Smoked salmon ($6.99) had a nice light, smoky flavor - not too salty - and was attractively presented with thinly sliced red onion, tangy capers, cream cheese and toast points, all carefully placed over a large leaf of romaine. A lot of oohing and aahing from the person to my left who ordered this one.
The stuffed portobello ($6.99) was a large portobello mushroom cap topped with caramelized onions, herbs and blue cheese, the full-flavored mushroom working well with the stuffing.
I love terrines and pates, so it was a tough decision between the chicken liver pate and the seafood pate. The chicken livers won, and I was in heaven.
A slab of the made-in-house pate could have passed for an entree portion; it was spiced just right and accompanied by colorful piles of finely diced red onion, hard-boiled egg and roasted red pepper. Toast points completed the plate, all served over a bright green romaine leaf.
All the appetizers were thoughtfully and appealingly served on doubled-up glass plates separated by a doily.
Salads - mixed greens, grape tomatoes, little piles of shredded carrots and red cabbage, Mandarin oranges, minced black olives and two thin slices of pepperoni - came on chilled glass plates and looked much like a painter's palette.
We asked our waitress if the dressings were homemade, as I did about the pate. The answer, both times, was, "EVERYTHING is homemade."
The dressings were delightful, and thankfully not served in those little plastic containers. We tried creamy garlic and, of course, Thousand Island. Raspberry vinaigrette was fruit-forward, light on vinegar flavor. Italian with blue cheese crumbles was excellent, too.
Almost forgot. A cutting board with two small, warm, torpedo-shaped loaves of bread arrived earlier. I'm glad we didn't ask then if they were homemade. I think I know the answer.
Entrees? Right up there with everything we'd enjoyed so far.
Stuffed shrimp ($18.99) consisted of four impressively large shrimp, butterflied and baked with a tasty stuffing of bread and minced seafood with subtle lemon overtones. The plate was all dolled up with fresh fruit. The side dishes were more than apologetic plate fillers. Roasted potatoes were beautifully seasoned and cooked till the centers were creamy; carrots still had a good bite to them.
Rack of lamb ($27.99) couldn't have been any better, a full eight-rib New Zealand rack encrusted with all the right herbs, juicy and tender, and cooked as ordered to a perfect medium-rare. Wild rice and steamed broccoli drizzled with bearnaise accompanied; more fresh fruit completed the plate.
More oohing and aahing from the guy on my left.
Frogs legs ($17.49) were sweet and tender, with the delicate meat practically falling off the bone. A half-dozen pairs of legs were neatly lined up as though they marched directly from the saute pan onto the plate. There's no dainty way to eat these little delicacies - you just have to pick them up in your fingers and go at them.
Portobello-stuffed duck breasts ($19.95) were offered in the special insert menu, which offered this description: "Two hand-pounded duck breasts, rolled and stuffed with a portobello mushroom and pine nut duxelles, one served over a red wine-accented brown sauce; the other over lingonberry sauce." Duxelles is a mixture of finely chopped mushrooms, shallots and herbs, slowly cooked in butter, and in this case, studded with buttery pine nuts.
We don't often order "specials" for fear you'll head to the restaurant and they won't be there. But this one looked too good to pass up.
It was a masterpiece, a rolled, sliced breast on each side of an oval plate, plentiful duxelles oozing from their centers, tasty brown demi under one, red berry sauce under the other.
A beautiful garnish down the center of the plate consisted of kale covered with a thin, lengthwise slice of pineapple and accented with red grapes.
Our waitress told us that you could request anything from a previous specials menu. The kitchen will be glad to make it for you as long as it has the ingredients on hand.
Hey, I'm running out of space and I haven't gotten to the desserts yet.
In a word, magnificent. Or as one member of our reviewing team put it, "To die for." And there was no skimping on the portions or presentations, either.
A full-color photo menu displayed at least eight tempting desserts created by pastry chef Francis Winters. It was hard to narrow it down to four.
A large slice of pecan pie with finely chopped nuts and a hint of chocolate was garnished with whipped cream and a large sliced strawberry. Plain cheesecake topped with chopped fresh strawberries was heavenly. The Napoleon was outstanding, with its paper-thin layers separated by a creamy filling.
There goes the guy next to me oohing and aahing again. He got the creme brulee - rich, creamy custard, perfectly caramelized sugar crust on top, served in a bigger-than-normal ramekin.
Service was professional and polite. Two ladies shared the chores at our table, each one putting the proper dish in front of the proper person throughout the meal. The pace was very relaxed, allowing ample time for good conversation around the table.
And as if Chef Simpson didn't have enough to do after sending 200-plus dinners out of his kitchen, he made time to go table to table meeting and greeting and thanking his customers. Just another key part of his formula for success.
Our tab for four totaled $147 before tip, desserts accounting for $20 of that.
The Clipper Inn offers top-quality food with a low-key staff in an unpretentious atmosphere. It's a busy place, and the summer season hasn't hit yet. Be sure to call ahead and make a reservation before you go: 686-3842
You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
The Clipper Inn
125 State St.
Clayton
686-3842.
High-quality unpretentious dining in the Thousand Islands region, created by chef/owner Mike Simpson.
HOURS: 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.
Days of operation will expand with the onset of the summer season
APPETIZER PICKS: Scallops sauteed in lemon butter, smoked salmon plate, liver pate plate.
ENTREE PICKS: Stuffed shrimp, rack of lamb, portobello-stuffed duck breasts.
DESSERT PICKS: They're all great - creme brulee, cheesecake, Napoleon, pecan pie.
RATING: 5 FORKS
