Staff Picks
Larissa Ryan
Business Manager
Upstate Bar & Grill
Conveniently located just outside of Cooperstown on State Route 28, the Upstate Bar & Grill is an excellent restaurant offering American-style dining.
It’s also a great place to catch a sports game on the televisions throughout the restaurant and bar area.
The food offerings include steak, salmon and everything in between.
I recently ordered the Cobb salad and enjoyed its toppings of bacon, corn, egg, avocado and honey mustard. The egg, corn and bacon made for a rich blend of flavor and texture that I will definitely be ordering again.
Upstate Bar & Grill
5418 State Route 28
Cooperstown
www.upstatebarandgrill.com
607-282-4225
Tara Barnwell
Publisher
Golden Guernsey Ice Cream
The Golden Guernsey in Oneonta is so much summertime fun!
Like eating dessert first, here you have to start with the fries! They are fried to golden perfection. Get them loaded with bacon and cheese sauce.
I tried a hotdog that I’d never had before, the Texas hot, with raw onions, homemade Texas chili and mustard. Great combination!
The ice cream selection is about the best around. They have the best hard ice cream that has bits of coconut in it, but my favorite is still the brownie with vanilla ice cream, then smothered in hot fudge sauce. You can’t go wrong with that!
Golden Guernsey Ice Cream
15 Main Street, Oneonta
607-432-7200
Greg Klein
Editor
Richfield Springs Community Food Cooperative
I wanted to wait until after his primary election was over to say I got to visit the Richfield Springs Community Food Cooperative and I am so impressed with what Dan Sullivan had put together.
Sullivan moved Upstate to buy a farm decades ago and Otsego County has been better for it ever since. His venture at 140 Main Street in one of the quaintest parts of the village, is a storefront for local foods and a showcase for local farmers. You can get pretty much anything grown locally, at the RSCFC. I remember marveling at the shelf of locally grown spices, thinking I have to come back with a proper list. You can get proteins, dairy, fresh fruits and vegetables and lots of jams and local honey.
There’s prepared food, too, with specials based on the season. Watching the RSCFC Facebook page, I sometimes wish I was closer at lunchtime! Plus there are t-shirts and artwork for sale, along with books from local authors or about local history.
As I said, the Richfield Springs Community Food Cooperative really blew me away and I wish every small town had something so special. If you love locally sourced food and are anywhere near the northern part of the county, you should make the trip to Richfield Springs and stop in at the food cooperative.
Richfield Springs Community Food Cooperative
140 Main Street,
Richfield Springs
www.rscommunityfood.org
315-858-7023
Kevin Limiti
Reporter
Danny’s Market
I keep eating the “oh, yeah”
from Danny’s on Main Street in Cooperstown and I continue to love it. It’s a roast beef sandwich with cheese, sautéed peppers and onions, with an awesome garlic pesto dressing. This sandwich is top quality. I’m not someone that usually likes peppers but it meshes really well with their sandwich overall. They also have great Reubens.
Danny’s overall is just one of the best delis I’ve been to. Highly recommended.
Danny’s Market
92 Main Street,
Cooperstown
607-547-4053
Kathleen Peters
Graphic Designer
Red Shed Brewery
Red Shed Brewery in the town of Middlefield is a New York State Farm Brewery, meaning they use at least 60% beer ingredients and hops grown in the state.
The food truck, just outside the bar, makes all the food onsite, also using local ingredients.
One of the best parts of eating here is that you can sit inside if the weather is uncooperative. They also have a large outdoor beer garden with plenty of seating, some under tents, some with Adirondack chairs and small tables out in the field, and great views all around.
Even better, you can bring your dog! (This is true only if they are well behaved dogs, unlike my two.)
Better still, they have live music out there sometimes.
The husband is not a fan of outdoor dining, so we sat inside, which is equally pleasant. He had the shed burger, which is a local grass-fed beef burger with American cheese and shed sauce; and a Bent Nail Black Lager.
I had the Jack’s BBQ, a grilled chicken breast with Jessica’s Red BBQ Sauce, bacon, cheddar and onion rings; and a Weathervane Farmhouse Ale.
The food menu is not all that large, but there is enough variety that you should be able to find something to suit your taste. There are a few vegetarian choices, and a mac ’n’ cheese that sounds fantastic, made with golden ale gouda cheese.
The beer menu is all that large, and there are some local wines and hard ciders as well, even Adirondack sodas, if you’re not a drinker.
Red Shed Brewery
709 County Route 33
Middlefield
www.redshedbrewing.com
607-731-6454
