CAPE VINCENT — This quaint river village is still pretty sleepy, even with the opening of several new restaurants.

Maybe it’s because the season is not yet in full swing. We thought we’d have a drink at Monahan’s Pub in the Roxy Hotel. The signs out front said “Yes, We’re Open,” but the doors were locked and the place was dark.

Down the block, there were a few cars at the well-established Aubrey’s Inn and even more at the new Breaker’s Restaurant.

But we were there to explore a place called BIN-427. It’s on Route 12E, which becomes Market Street in the village. We drove right past it on the way in from Watertown.

The restaurant has no sign — and in fact the sign for the previous place (Market Street Inn) is still there — so it’s helpful to know that 427 refers to the street address number.

A neon beer sign in the window drew our attention as we sped past for a second time. We hit the brakes and did a u-ee.

Entering through the front door, you find yourself in the sparsely decorated bar. The bar itself had an old-time look to it — we figured it had been there for at least a half-century. The wall behind was well stocked with an array of liquors. There was a small selection of wines at one end, strategically placed in front of a curved glass panel etched with “BIN-427.”

While the “BIN-427” name would suggest that wine would be a focus of the restaurant, it certainly is not. BIN’s offerings are mostly low-end, with names like Bully Hill, Red Cat and Flip Flop.

We tried the Flip Flop, a newcomer based in California, although its wines are sourced from various countries. Both the chardonnay and pinot grigio were better than expected (you can buy an entire bottle in a liquor store for about $7) and a good value at the restaurant at $3.50 a glass.

And the Flip Flop people aren’t pretentious. The label on the back of the bottle says that the wine goes well with pizza, sliders or eggplant Parmesan.

We spotted two bottles of liquor from the fledgling Clayton Distillery, the Flagship vodka, the other, Two Dog moonshine. At our friendly bartender’s urging, we sampled/shared a chilled shot of the 80-proof vodka, which was remarkably smooth. The 94-proof moonshine, not so much. Kind of like a cross between lighter fluid and paint remover.

Soon after, we made tracks for the spacious and empty dining room. Wendy, our server, welcomed us, guided us to a table near a sunny window and presented us with stylishly printed one-sheet menus. There was no wine list, and she confirmed that our choice was what we had seen at the bar.

Wendy gave us a little history of the restaurant, formerly the Sleepy Hollow, explaining that the previous owners left the facility in deplorable condition. Much cleaning and refurbishing was needed before they opened the doors in mid-May. You could tell the dining room walls were newly painted and hung with new art on the walls. Tables were set with placemats and paper napkins.

We started with appetizers to share. The choices were few, pretty standard and OK.

We were in the mood for wings. We had the choice of bone-in or boneless and sweet, mild or hot sauce. Wendy explained that the hotness could be adjusted, so we went for bone-in wings ($7.95) with medium-hot sauce and were pleased with what we got: meaty wings slathered in a just-right Buffalo wing sauce, served in the traditional manner with celery and blue cheese dressing.

An order of spring rolls ($7.50) was obviously a commercial product, uniformly long and thin and light on filling. They were crispy enough, served with a tangy/sweet dipping sauce, a modern version of “duck” sauce.

A dozen or so steamed clams ($7.50) were served with an unusually thick butter sauce. The clams were on the small side — about the size of a nickel — so once they were negotiated out of their shells, there really wasn’t enough clam meat to warrant sharing.

Wendy was pretty sure that the only entrée that came with a salad was lasagna, but since things were so slow, and in an effort to please us, she offered a small salad with any entrée we ordered.

The garden salad contained fresh greens, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced cukes, red onions and acceptable crunchy boxed croutons. A generous cupful of goopy golden Italian dressing was more than enough.

The small Caesar was truly a classic Caesar salad. The perfect amount of tangy, lemony dressing barely clung to the crisp romaine, just as it should; the salad was dusted with grated Parmesan and sprinkled with the crunchy commercial croutons.

The main courses arrived before we had finished our salads, so we performed a bit of a plate juggling act with Wendy to make room for the new plates.

There are only six entrees on the menu, so we figured the kitchen would do a nice job turning them out.

Shrimp scampi ($16.95) is a pretty easy dish to make. Sauté shrimp in butter, olive oil and garlic, deglaze with white wine and lemon juice, throw in a generous amount of Italian parsley, season with salt and pepper and there you have it.

BIN’s scampi was a little less complicated, eight medium shrimp lined up on a moderate portion of fettuccini bathed in way too much butter/oil. There was no parsley in there, and if there was wine or lemon, we couldn’t taste it at all.

Chicken Parmesan ($16.95) was a breaded and deep-fried chicken breast covered with a very nice red sauce and melted cheese, served over spaghetti.

We didn’t know if we’d like the chicken deep-fried, but it was surprisingly crisp and the breading very tasty. Sometimes deep-frying isn’t as bad as it’s cracked up to be.

Although perch is not on the printed menu, it appears almost nightly on the specials board, we learned, for $14.95.

We asked if the perch could be pan-fried in butter, as a true fisherman would like his fresh catch prepared — simple and unadulterated.

The kitchen consented. We were expecting a little crispness from the frying pan, but instead, it was like the fish was poached. Not a bad thing, but it was darn near flavorless. It needed salt ... or pepper ... or lemon ... or garlic. Something.

It was served with coleslaw that wasn’t much more than shredded cabbage and mayonnaise. No vinegar and no sugar. It was bland, like the perch.

We were excited to see haddock, fried or broiled, on the menu, because it came with mac and cheese. We were disappointed when Wendy told us that the mac and cheese side dish was available only on Friday nights, noting that the owner really should have made that clear on the menu. No kidding.

OK, second choice: the only steak on the menu, a sirloin ($14.95), “buttered and charbroiled to your liking.” We’ll take it.

What arrived appeared to be the wrong order, one of the night’s specials, meatloaf. We summoned Wendy, who went to the kitchen to see where the glitch had occurred.

She returned and informed us, apologetically, that while the menu didn’t specify it, the sirloin steak was actually CHOPPED sirloin. What the ...? We didn’t want gussied up hamburger for the price of a steak!

She also told us that several people had ordered the dish previously, and nobody had objected to getting chopped steak. I’ll bet they don’t plan on coming back, either.

Wendy said she wouldn’t charge us for it, so rather than have the kitchen start another entrée from scratch, we picked at the burger, the tasty mashed potatoes and the basic corn.

There was only one dessert available, strawberry shortcake ($4.95). Here’s another example of something you can make at home better than we got here.

The strawberries were chopped very fine, almost a mush, and barely covered the cake. And if they were fresh at one time, they weren’t fresh by the time they made it to our table. Squiggles of fake whipped cream were squirted over and around the production.

Rather than a shortcake biscuit, it was served over a dense yellow cake. The cake was OK. It would have been better, perhaps, if Wendy hadn’t carried out a Saran-wrapped sample to show us at the start. Even better if it had been shortcake.

Dinner for four — three appetizers, four entrees (yes, we were charged for all four) and one dessert came to $116.33 before tip.

BIN-427 is a work in progress. And it shouldn’t be, since the owners operate other restaurants in Chaumont and LaFargeville. How could experienced restaurateurs open a place with no sign, no website, no presence on Facebook, no wine list, blatant menu errors and simple food that most customers could prepare better themselves at home?

Wendy did a stellar job in the face of adversity. In fact, she was the best thing about the place. She was helpful, kind and eager to make us happy.

Other than a good Caesar salad and a shot of local vodka, there’s not much at BIN-427 that warrants a drive out to Cape Vincent.

You can contact restaurant reviewer Walter Siebel via email: wsiebel@wdt.net.

BIN-427

427 Market St.

Cape Vincent, N.Y.

501-5001

A new restaurant in Cape Vincent at the Market St. Inn property, formerly Sleepy Hollow.

HOURS:11 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week

OUR PICKS: Caesar salad, chicken Parmesan, Flagship vodka from Clayton Distillery.

RATING: 2 forks

CANTON — Nearly 25 years ago, St. Lawrence County got its first Chinese restaurant.

A#1 Oriental Kitchen opened in downtown Canton at the corner of Main and Hodskin streets in the late ’80s. It’s still there today, with its white convex awning and neon window signs proclaiming “Chinese Food” in both English and Chinese.

Inside, the ambience could use some work. Faded pictures on the walls show their age, but perhaps that’s testament to the restaurant’s longevity — there aren’t too many restaurants in business for a quarter-century to allow fading to happen.

Over the years, A#1 has opened additional restaurants in Gouverneur and Potsdam. The owners also are responsible for the Asian Buffets in all three villages.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a little leery about the food on those all-you-can-eat buffets. Food that’s been sitting in trays on a steam table under heat lamps for hours doesn’t exactly scream, “Eat me.” And I’m pretty sure very little of it is made fresh to order.

But at A#1’s smaller restaurants, it’s pretty much all made to order.

The woman behind the counter in Canton has been there for as long as my friends can remember.

“Probably since she was 15,” they joked. Maybe they weren’t joking.

She’s polite and helpful, a friendly face that gives a feeling of comfort to the place. She knows the menu inside and out — well over 100 items — and is poised to explain the ingredients of dishes that have no description or photo.

Behind her, an expansive kitchen is commandeered by a single cook — surrounded by pans of meats, veggies, seafood and sauces — ready to whip lunches together in his wall of woks.

The menu/placemat is similar to those you’ve seen elsewhere. One side has all the numbered appetizers, soups, combination platters, chow mein and chop suey dishes, as well as endless varieties of dishes made with beef, pork, chicken and seafood by the pint or quart for takeout.

The other side is dedicated to lunch specials, 30 very reasonably priced selections ($5.39 to $5.99), all served with pork fried rice. It’s got all the stuff that’s been in Chinese restaurants forever, like General Tso’s Chicken, moo goo gai pan, chicken chow mein and more.

We were there for lunch and chose things that were a little out of the ordinary — kung po chicken, shrimp with lobster sauce and house special lo mein, each priced at $5.79.

From the appetizer portion of the menu, we tried steak teriyaki on sticks, three strips of skewered meat for $4.95.

I haven’t had to use “tough as shoe leather” in a long time, but the meat on these bamboo skewers was tougher than shoe leather.

I mean, you had to hack away at them with the little plastic fork that was supplied and you still got nowhere. If you tried to pick it up and gnaw on it, you still got nowhere and looked like a fool with this piece of meat hanging out of your mouth that you couldn’t begin to chew through.

The teriyaki sauce was thick and cloying, more like hoisin, bordering on annoying.

But things got better. A lot better.

Shrimp with lobster sauce is a favorite of mine, a kind of Chinese cuisine benchmark for me, and A#1 did a nice job with it.

Lobster sauce is a type of white sauce that does not contain any lobster. It’s typically made with chicken broth, a little garlic and ginger, coddled egg white and thickened with cornstarch.

While a bit gelatinous and not all that visually appealing, the mild sauce nicely complemented the perfectly cooked, good-sized shrimp — about eight of them — that literally popped as we bit into them.

The pork fried rice was excellent, small-grained yellow-hued rice that contained little pieces of carrot, peas and bits of seasoned pork. The rice was light and fluffy, the perfect foil for the lobster sauce.

Kung Po Chicken (more commonly Kung Pao Chicken) is in red ink on the menu, indicating hot and spicy. It’s a stir-fry of bite-sized chunks of marinated chicken, diced green bell peppers, crunchy cashews, sautéed onion and chunks of baby corn in a generally hot sauce. It’s pretty typical fast-food Americanized Chinese, tasty and solid with fresh, crisp vegetables. And while it claims to be spicy, it’s not. But if you’d like it hotter, it says on the menu, “We can alter the spicy according to your taste.”

House Special Lo Mein is a variation of the chicken or pork lo mein on the lunch menu. It combines chicken and pork as well as beef and shrimp. My friends have been patronizing the restaurant for years and know all the ins and outs of the menu. House Special Lo Mein is one of their favorites — crisp veggies, tasty proteins, filling noodles (Chinese wheat flour noodles that look like fat spaghetti) in a not-too-salty brown sauce. Very tasty.

Three lunch specials, three soft drinks and the skewered shoe cost $29.01 with tax.

We also took two items to go, a pint of hot and sour soup ($2.95) and Sezechuan-style bean curd ($8.95).

The soup was very good, containing lots of tofu, mushrooms and banana shoots in a dark, spicy broth.

The bean curd also was very good — long strips of tofu, cabbage, scallions and carrots in a moderately spicy sauce (not much different from the Kung Po). A hearty meal served with white rice.

A#1 is a good choice for fast, reliable and healthy Chinese food in Canton. The restaurant’s dishes have just the right amount of seasoning — not too salty, not too pungent.

And you can’t beat their vegetables, which are cooked perfectly, still a bit crunchy.

The restaurant’s service and stability for so many years has helped business and commerce in downtown Canton. And if you’re looking for an inexpensive cooked-to-order lunch, how can you beat a plentiful main dish with a heap of fried rice for under six bucks?

You can contact restaurant reviewer Walter Siebel via email: wsiebel@wdt.net.

A#1 Oriental Kitchen

43 Main St.

Canton, N.Y.

386-3778

A restaurant that’s been around for 25 years, offering cooked-to-order Chinese food.

HOURS: Open seven days a week

11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday

11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Noon to 10:30 p.m. Sunday

Lunch specials are available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 3 p.m. Sunday

OUR PICKS: Kung Po Chicken, House Special Lo Mein, shrimp with lobster sauce, Szechuan style bean curd

RATING: 3 forks

CAPE VINCENT — Breakers Restaurant in this quaint river village was a complete surprise.

We hadn’t heard much about this little eatery that opened about a year ago. There’s no website. Their Facebook page has sketchy information and hasn’t been updated in months. Seems like it closed for part of the winter.

We stopped by on a damp and chilly pre-summer weekday evening. It’s a cute little place with an inviting façade. The parking lot was filled and cars lined the street in front of the restaurant.

Patrons were streaming in and out of the attractive building, so we joined the party. We walked through the front dining room set with six or seven tables, all occupied. The dining room/lounge to the rear of the building was a bit larger and even busier.

There were no open tables, so we grabbed four seats at the bar. The room has a nice feel to it; large windows all around that overlook the well-groomed neighborhood. An outdoor covered deck looked like a great place to be on one of those lazy, hazy days of summer ahead.

The bartender appeared to be waiting on tables, so that gave us a few minutes to peruse the good selection of beers geared toward summer in the glass-front cooler. Sam Adams Summer Ale. Jimmy Buffet’s Land Shark Ale.

And a new favorite: Summer Shandy from Leinenkugel’s brewery in Wisconsin, a light and refreshing wheat beer with subtle lemon overtones.

Finally the novice bartender/waiter arrived. Chuck Porto was quite personable, but clearly out of his element, unsure of where liquors were located behind the bar. New to the job? Thrown into the job at the last minute? (The place was getting slammed ...)

As it turns out, he owns the place, along with his wife, Carol, and Eric Derouin who runs the kitchen. Chuck was a little stressed at times, taking care of us as well as half the tables in the room, but we were in no hurry to eat, enjoying the festive feel of the place.

Carol was non-stop, dividing her time between waiting tables in the front dining room and assisting in the kitchen.

Chuck told us that they were having trouble finding good help. We asked a young waitress who didn’t seem too interested in working there to secure a table for us. But other customers waiting for a table quickly jumped ahead of us as tables opened up — a kind of free-for-all seating, and she didn’t do a thing to help us out.

So we asked Chuck (who we assumed had more clout) if we could grab the next available table. He was totally frazzled at this point, so we just got into the every-man-for-himself mode and slid into four warm seats as the next guests exited the building.

The two-page dinner menu is simple — a page of summer salads, nice offerings like grilled chicken/cranberry, Greek salad, mandarin salad and chicken Caesar, all with interesting ingredients like Craisins, Feta cheese, honey glazed walnuts, sundried tomatoes and more, and a hand-written page of enticing house-made entrees with an Italian flair.

We had been watching some beautiful entrees emerge from the kitchen throughout the night, so we bypassed the salads and went right to the main course.

Entrees come with a house salad or soup-of-the-day.

The salad was a fresh mix of crisp romaine, ripe red Roma tomato wedges and long carrot peels and a lovely homemade poppy seed dressing that tasted like it was made with a yogurt base.

The salad was very good, but the soup was exceptional — potato, bacon and broccoli — thick and creamy and delicious. The soup was served in classy square glass bowls; the salad was served on square glass plates.

The entrees we chose were excellent: Chicken Sicilian ($12.99), pesto haddock ($12.99), eggplant Milan ($12.99) and prime rib ($13.99).

The chicken dish is a modified version of chicken Parmesan, tender chicken breasts draped with slices of salami, covered with marinara, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, baked and served over pasta.

Eggplant Milan consisted of four slices of eggplant covered with a light tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, beefsteak tomatoes, sautéed onions, sliced homemade meatballs, melted mozzarella and parm. This tasty dish was a real winner.

The haddock was baked in a white wine sauce. A light coating of pesto and melted Provolone on top of the fish was just enough to add flavor without overpowering.

Prime rib was juicy and full of flavor and an exceptional value for the price. What we estimated to be a 12-ounce cut of slow-roasted beef was topped with a small puddle of rich au jus. Crisp potato wedges were a perfect compliment. A fresh vegetable medley was expertly sautéed and seasoned.

Portions were perfect, served on attractive square glass dishes. And the price was certainly right.

We enjoyed a bottle of oaky, buttery Chardonnay from Washington state’s Chateau St. Michelle vineyard to complement our meal, a favorite of ours, bargain-priced at $19.

Serving our table, Chuck did the best he could. At one point, we asked him a question about the food, to which he replied, “I have no idea, I just own the place.”

However, we learned that he’s in the construction business and responsible for the beautiful remodeling job at the restaurant. The plank floors he installed are spectacular as is the tile work in the bathrooms.

We assumed the pile of DeWalt power tools at the end of the bar were his, perhaps as a reminder that bartending and waiting on tables is not his primary job.

Chuck presented the bill before asking if we were interested in dessert. When asked what was available he said we’d have to go to the front dining room and view the pastry display case.

Carol does the baking. We decided on apple pie, carrot cake, lemon bundt cake and chocolate bundt cake. They were all excellent, priced at $3.99 each.

The apples in the apple pie were crisp; the cinnamon just right. Carrot cake was moist and flavorful with lots of sweet cream cheese frosting on top. Both bundt cakes were fresh and moist and bursting with flavor.

Dinner for four, excluding our beer and wine, came to $74.43 before tip. You definitely get your money’s worth here.

They also serve lunch daily with enticing offerings like prime rib Philly, corned beef sandwich, mile high BLT, tuna melt and their creative salads.

The overall atmosphere was a bustling café with happy and satisfied customers. Even though the service was very unorganized, we liked the place a lot and plan to return.

Things are just going to get busier as the summer progresses. We hope they’re able to get some help out front that will measure up to the excellent food coming from the kitchen.

TIDBITS

The historic Thousand Islands Club on Wellesley Island is open for the season. There are some new faces on staff ready and eager to please.

Owners Mike and Julie Chavoustie continue to upgrade the facility. What was a tired old building just a few years ago has a new lease on life, thanks to the vision and dedication of this local couple.

Chef Michael Madsen has returned for a second year, turning out some fantastic food. His chilled avocado soup was a winner. Try the calamari steak for an appetizer.

His polenta-encrusted sea bass is back on the menu, a popular entrée that he introduced last year. Maple-glazed duck breast is back as well, served with a wonderful mushroom hash and Anna potatoes.

For those of you paying attention to your gluten intake, there are a good number of gluten free items on the menu, clearly marked “GF.’

You can contact restaurant reviewer Walter Siebel via email: wsiebel@wdt.net.

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Breakers Restaurant

194 East Broadway

Cape Vincent, N.Y.

501-5050

A bustling little café serving excellent food.

HOURS: Lunch: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily

Dinner: 5 to 9 p.m. daily

OUR PICKS: Eggplant Milan, chicken Sicilian, prime rib, any of Carol’s desserts

RATING: 3½ forks

POTSDAM —There’s something about summertime that makes you want to have a hot dog.

As I was driving through Potsdam on a beautiful summerlike day last week, a shiny mobile hot dog cart with a big red-and-white umbrella caught my eye.

Rosie’s Hawg Dogs was parked on Maple Street between Martin’s Service Station and the building where Angelo’s Fresh Seafood used to be. It was 9:30 in the morning, so the proprietor and top dog, John Rose (aka Rosie), wasn’t quite open for business yet.

But I strolled up to his pristine stainless steel weinermobile and struck up a conversation.

Rosie has the gift of gab. And he knows a lot about hot dogs. And food safety.

Maybe he thought I was from the health department, or maybe he’s just proud of his product, but I got a complete tour of his portable eatery in less than 10 minutes.

He obviously has done a lot of market research, or taken some online courses at Hot Dog University, or both.

He offers two prestige brands of dogs, Nathan’s Famous Frankfurters from Coney Island in Brooklyn, and Glaziers distinctive red-skin frankfurters from nearby Malone. Both companies have been producing old world-style franks for nearly 100 years.

Both are made with quality ingredients: Nathan’s are Angus all-beef dogs, while the Glazier dogs are made with beef and pork.

Rosie has a separate compartment on his rig for each of the dogs where they’re held in water at a temperature of 165 degrees. Once they’re up to temp, he then steams them in another compartment before serving. “Something magic about the ‘boiling’ then steaming process,” he said.

Other sections of his well-organized cart hold heated Michigan sauce, sauerkraut and nacho cheese sauce. There’s a container of relish and a container of freshly chopped onions, a large pump bottle of French’s yellow mustard and Heinz ketchup.

Small bags of chips are suspended from the umbrella upright. Cold Pepsi products are on ice in large picnic coolers. There’s a hand sink and liquid soap on the front of his cart along with two Rubbermaid containers for trash disposal.

Rosie makes his own Michigan sauce, a meaty tomato-based sauce that purportedly originated in Plattsburgh. Rosie says he got the recipe from a friend in Plattsburgh who makes the original sauce, but he adds a little something “extra” to make it “his own.”

He does not make his own sauerkraut, however. “It’s a tricky process that takes three or four months, so I just get mine from Price Chopper.” It appeared that his rolls were standard supermarket variety as well.

I killed some time and returned around noon to pick up lunch for me and several friends. I ordered a Glazier dog and a Nathan’s frank in each designation: kraut dog, cheese dog, Michigan dog and plain ol’ dog.

Rosie put on his latex kitchen gloves and began assembling our lunch. Then he asked, “Do you want relish, onions, mustard or ketchup on these?” Since he was the expert at this, I told him we’d take whatever he thought went best with each.

Each dog was individually assembled, wrapped in foil and placed in one of those paper hot dog holders. I got a bag of each of the chips that he offers: Lay’s Original Potato Chips, Fritos, Doritos and Cheetos, plus a small snack pack of Oreos.

Lunch time. We unfoiled our dogs, opened our chip bags and Oreos. Our frankfurter smorgasbord was underway.

The Glazier dogs were fatter than usual. Perhaps the boiling process had something to do with it. They seemed to have lost a little of their classic “snap” but still retained their signature garlicky spiciness.

Boiling the Nathan franks removed any trace of fattiness, although they are quite lean to begin with.

Rosie used just the right amount of condiments to enhance the dogs rather than smother them and create a soggy mess. The rolls were fresh and soft and warm from sitting near the heated compartments on the cart.

His homemade Michigan sauce didn’t really stand out, but again, allowed the flavor of the tasty dogs to take center stage. The various combinations of condiments that Rosie used on each dog worked out fine.

Prices are quite reasonable. Hot dogs average $3 each, chips are $1 a bag, soft drinks or bottled water cost $1.25. You can get all three, a “combo,” for about $5.

Lunch for four cost $28.

Rosie’s Hawg Dogs operates on Maple Street every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., weather permitting. On Saturdays he sets up at the Potsdam Farmers Market downtown between Main and Water streets. Check his Facebook page for any cancellations.

Rosie also has a passion for motorcycle riding. He’s a Harley guy (thus the “hawg” reference), and if there’s an important road rally, that may take precedence over serving hot dogs.

Look for the bright red-and-white umbrella and Rosie’s shiny cart. There’s no formal seating available, but you could just stand there chat with Rosie as he prepares lunch for you.

TIDBITS

I had occasion to spend a long weekend New York City recently and discovered two very nice restaurants.

In the theater district, Mont Blanc — www.montblancrestaurant.com — is a gem. It’s on West 48th Street between 8th and 9th, just away from all the hustle and bustle. It’s relatively small and quiet and specializes in European cuisine.

The food is excellent and moderately priced by city standards. Veal dumplings a la Viennese in wild mushroom gravy was outstanding. Veal scallopini Marsala was excellent, as was the wiener schnitzel.

It’s a favorite place of the guys in the on-stage big band of “Chicago,” playing in a theater just around the corner. If you happen to go there between a matinee and an evening performance, you’ll most likely find them there.

Bryant Park Grill, 25 West 40th, in tree-lined Bryant Park (behind the New York Public Library) — www.arkrestaurants.com/bryant_park — was a great after-dark find.

Floor-to-ceiling windows afford a spectacular view of the park at night with lights of the tall buildings in the background.

We enjoyed just cocktails at the friendly bar the evening we stopped by, but the food going past us looked spectacular: Moroccan lamb tacos, mussels in Thai coconut sauce, English pea risotto, grilled stacked mahi mahi, organic boneless spring chicken and more.

You can contact restaurant reviewer Walter Siebel via email: wsiebel@wdt.net.

Rosie’s Hawg Dogs

Maple Street

Potsdam, N.Y.

244-7011

A mobile hot dog cart open Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Maple Street and Saturday at the Potsdam Farmers Market.

HOURS: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

RATING: 3 forks

POTSDAM — There’s a new restaurant in town that specializes in gourmet burgers and upscale beers and bills itself as a sports bar.

Between the Buns opened in early April in the building on Elm Street that formerly housed La Casbah, a Moroccan restaurant that closed last year. It’s the brainchild of Marc Morley and Megan Martin, who also own the Hot Tamale restaurants in Potsdam and Canton.

It has been redecorated. The tin ceilings throughout have been painted a rich bronze, as have the age-old pipes that hang from the ceiling. Many of the walls are accented with brick — brick wallpaper, as it turns out (we had to get up and touch it to find out). The dining room floor sports impressive new tile; the barroom floor is original wood that has been sanded and polished.

It feels more like a restaurant than a sports bar. There are numerous TVs hanging on the walls in the bar area, but they were so unobtrusive that we hardly noticed them. We were there for lunch, so maybe they don’t crank them up until later in the day.

The full bar offers a modest selection of craft brews on tap and plenty of bottled beers. Kevin, the bartender, is friendly, competent and unflappable.

The menu is simple: a good number of house-made appetizers, a dozen creative burgers, gussied-up hot dog choices and a handful of unusual sandwiches.

There’s plenty of seating at new tables and chairs, although the tables were rather plain — no placemats or silverware or condiments of any kind. Not even salt and pepper shakers.

Our server, Will, handed us menus along with forks and knives wrapped in paper napkins. He was quite well-versed with the menu, able to answer our questions and even offer some astute advice.

After placing our order, he started us out with complimentary bread and butter pickles, made in-house and cleverly served in a small mason jar. Since there were no plates to put the pickles on, we merely passed the jar around the table and ate right from the jar with our forks.

They were quite good — on the sweet side, as they should be, very crisp and certainly a different and fun way to begin the meal. If you want more pickles, as well as house-cured carrots and marinated olives, they’re on the menu, priced at $5 a jar.

The mac and cheese appetizer ($5), while touted as “creamy,” was a little on the dry side. While it may have been made with four cheeses, it was surprisingly not very cheesy. The panko breadcrumb crust added a nice texture, but the rosemary tomato sauce on top didn’t seem to go with it.

We couldn’t figure out why it was served cold. Was that intentional or an oversight?

I like boneless chicken wings ($10/dozen) because they’re actually made with breast meat and your fingers don’t get all sticky because you can eat them with a fork. Here they’re coated in a buttermilk/panko batter, then fried. They were moist and tasty.

The usual sauces are available, but we tried the “BTB signature sauce,” a non-offensive combination of hot and sweet. Some at the table thought it was a little dull, but for others who would rather taste chicken than a burn-your-face-off hot sauce, it was quite enjoyable.

Steamed clams ($12), attractively served in a tall cone-shaped metal pail, were tasty, good-sized littlenecks steamed in white wine, garlic and fresh parsley. They were good quality domestic clams from Rhode Island, according to the menu, served with a side of clarified butter and lemon.

How could we not try a burger named “the Hangover” ($12). As with all Between the Bun’s burgers, it’s an 8-ounce patty made with “a custom beef blend from Philadelphia.”

The Hangover is topped with a sunny-side up egg, cheddar cheese and perfectly cooked, flavorful applewood-smoked bacon. It came on a nicely toasted bakery-made brioche bun that was richer than a standard bun because it was made with eggs.

They have a color coding system for the doneness of their burgers: red = rare, pink = medium, brown = well. We ordered the burger “red,” but the order was entered as “pink.” Unfortunately, the “pink” burger came out as “brown.”

Regardless, there was enough fat content in the meat to still make it relatively juicy and a really tasty burger, especially with all the good fixin’s on top.

Turkey burgers can be pretty bland, but not the one at Buns, a pretty good value for $9. The ground turkey had a pleasing blend of seasonings, with sage taking center stage. It was served with a pile of perfectly grilled sweet red onion, melted smoked provolone and a delightful basil aioli that brightened every bite.

Both burgers came with a pile of good-tasting french fries that could have been a little crisper and coleslaw that was sweet, creamy and crunchy. Will placed a small bottle of Heinz ketchup on the table as he delivered the burgers.

A Reuben hot dog ($6) was a Glazier dog from Malone with house-made sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Islands dressing tucked into a nice brioche roll. The kraut had great vinegar overtones. The combination of ingredients worked well together on the fancy roll.

When we ordered their fish sandwich ($11), Will was quick to make sure we knew what we were getting. “It’s not a fish sandwich like you’re used to,” he said. “It’s ahi tuna that we grind and shape like a burger.”

The menu indicates that the fish/burger is sesame seed-encrusted and comes with pickled ginger, cilantro slaw and wasabi vinaigrette. Thin slices of pickled ginger were there and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. But the slaw was identical to the side of coleslaw that came with the other burgers. And where was the wasabi vinaigrette?

Bottom line: The tuna was dry and lacked flavor. And we couldn’t figure why would you’d want to grind up nice Ahi tuna, either.

Here’s where we all agreed there should be a selection of condiments on the table. Salt and pepper, for starters. Frank’s hot sauce. Sriracha chili sauce. Worcestershire. A-1. Mayo. Mustard. Maybe even some wasabi.

The Cuban sandwich ($10) was disappointing. It was just wrong.

A Cuban is a variation of a ham and cheese sandwich. It’s a pressed sandwich that calls for ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese, dill pickles and yellow mustard.

Very little about the sandwich was classic Cuban, from the untoasted bread to the dry and tough pork, the bacon instead of ham, sweet pickles rather than dill pickles, whole-grain mustard rather than tangy yellow mustard.

It probably wouldn’t have been bad if they hadn’t called it a Cuban, but it certainly wasn’t a great ambassador for this wonderful sandwich introduced to our country by early Cuban immigrants.

We ordered a Southwest burger (haystack onions, smoked bacon, battered and fried jalapenos, provolone, barbecue sauce) to go. Rather than showing up when the bill did, it arrived in its Styrofoam container along with the other burgers and sandwiches and sat next to us for the remainder of lunch.

By the time it reached its destination, the haystack onions were soggy, as were the fries. There was a lack of sauce that would have helped moisten the burger and add a blast of flavor. For $12, and considering the tangy ingredients, it seemed rather ordinary.

Will should have put the “to go” order in later than he did.

Desserts were disappointing commercial products.

Five chocolate chip cookies ($6) came straight from the microwave, all mushy and gooey, but chocolate has a way of saving most anything, especially with the plate and the cookies painted with additional chocolate syrup.

The apple tart, more like a galette, really should be avoided. Another microwave special, the dough was soft and flavorless, as were the apples. It was tough paying $9 for this misguided confection.

Food for five eating lunch at the restaurant cost $99.51 before tip. The menu is the same for lunch and dinner, served from 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Our waiter was friendly and accommodating. He did a good job of keeping our water glasses full, but missed out on making sure we had replacement silverware and extra napkins.

We were happy to hear him say they were still working out the kinks, because they certainly were.

It was well over an hour-and-a-half lunch from start to finish. Granted, they were busy, but nothing on the menu is really that complicated.

The management should be aware that, in the middle of the day, there were no paper towels in the men’s room (or electric dryers). And we’re told there was absolutely no paper in the ladies room — no toilet paper, no towels.

The owners have created a great concept with Between the Buns. Running a restaurant takes a good deal of know-how. There are some glitches here; hopefully it will come together in time.

Between the Buns is a welcome addition to the eclectic and flourishing restaurant scene in Potsdam. We certainly want to see it succeed.

You can contact restaurant reviewer Walter Siebel via email: wsiebel@wdt.net.

Between the Buns

6 Elm St.

Potsdam, N.Y.

265-8888

A new restaurant in town that specializes in gourmet burgers and upscale beers and bills itself as a sports bar.

HOURS: Food is available from 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., bar stays open later.

OUR PICKS: Bread and butter pickles, boneless wings, steamers, Hangover burger, turkey burger, Reuben hot dog

RATING: 3 forks