Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [57]
Mr. Card told us that his chicken recipe is no secret; in fact it is well known throughout the southern Finger Lakes. “It’s your basic Cornell chicken,” he said, referring to a formula developed by Cornell professor Dr. Robert Baker back in the early 1950s. Dr. Baker’s tomato-free vinaigrette, enriched with eggs and shot through with poultry spice, is now used as a marinade and/or basting sauce by cooks throughout the region.
While nine out of ten customers come to Phil’s for a half or a quarter barbecued chicken, there are plenty of other square meals on the menu, including pot roast, meat loaf, grilled ham, and steak. There’s a lunch buffet every day and a breakfast buffet on weekends.
Red Rooster Drive-In
1566 Route 22
845–279–8046
Brewster, NY
LD daily | $
Although a roadside archeologist would definitely categorize the Rooster as a drive-in, there is no car service and there are no carhops. Still, there is a vast parking lot and plenty of people eat in their cars (or in one of three improbably small two-person booths in the cramped interior), and the service, cuisine, and ambience are pure mid-twentieth-century America.
The hamburgers are especially satisfying: not too big, not odd in any way, just fine handfuls fashioned by proprietor Jack Sypek or Andy the grill chef from freshly ground beef that is sizzled on a smoky charcoal grill. We are particularly fond of cheeseburgers gilded by an order of onions grilled until limp and slippery. They are served on tender buns—deluxe, please, with lettuce and tomato!—and accompanied by French fries, milkshakes, ice cream floats, or expertly made egg creams in a variety of flavors beyond the traditional chocolate.
In nice weather, customers can choose to eat at one of several picnic tables spread across the lawn in back. Adjacent to this open-air dining room is a miniature golf course where kids and carefree adults while away pleasant evenings in the Red Rooster’s afterglow.
Schwabl’s
789 Center Rd.
716–674–9821
West Seneca, NY
LD | $$
Now operated by former waitress Cheryl Staychok and her husband, Gene, Buffalo’s best-known beef house didn’t miss a beat when the Schwabl family left the business. Here is a definitive version of that glorious Buffalo specialty, beef on weck. The beef itself is superb: thin, rare slices severed from a center-cut round roast just before the sandwich is assembled. The pillow of protein is piled high inside a roll heavily crusted with coarse salt and caraway seeds (known as kummelweck, German for caraway seed), the roll momentarily dipped in natural gravy before it sandwiches the meat. The only thing this package could possibly want is a dab of horseradish, which is supplied on each table and along the bar.
That is all you need to know about Schwabl’s, except for the nice hot ham sandwich on white bread in a pool of tomato-clove gravy, served with warm potato salad. The ham is an interesting alternative to the beef, although it has none of the famous local sandwich’s authority.
Schwabl’s is a casual, well-aged eatery, attended by business people at noon and families at suppertime. “We Cater to Nice Homey Family Trade,” the menu announces, and a dry, nonalcoholic birch beer with the faint twang of spearmint is always available on draught.
Sharkey’s
56 Glenwood Ave.
716–729–9201
Binghamton, NY
LD | $$
Larry Sharak’s father started making spiedies at a cookfire in the window at the family’s tavern over fifty years ago. Skewered, marinated hunks of lamb were cooked on a charcoal grill and served with broad slices of bread. The custom was to grab the bread in one hand and use it as an edible mitt to slide a few hunks off the metal rod, thus creating an instant sandwich. Spiedies are still served and eaten this way at the bar and tables of Sharkey’s. Lamb has grown too expensive, however, so today’s spiedies are made from either pork or chicken. When you bite into a piece, it blossoms with the flavorful juice of a two-day marinade that tastes of garlic and vinegar,