I had the rack of lamb, which was succulent and gently flavored, a perfect fall evening dish.  It was delightfully augmented with tiny fried gnocchi.  Lonnie’s duck had a luscious sauce with cherries just bursting with flavor.  We were repeatedly cooing with pleasure.

Another great thing about Gentile’s is the service.  It has been so friendly and professional every single time we’ve been there.  We waltzed in fairly late without a reservation, and managed to get a seat at their gorgeous bar.  It was an especially convivial spot, and the bartender was incredibly sweet, friendly, and helpful.  Sometimes at fine dining places you get a certain reserved distance from the servers, which can be just fine and unobtrusive, but friendly repartee is a bonus to me.

Chef Kevin is incredibly skilled, and highly creative, two things that don’t always go together.  You can have a killer red-sauce Italian place and just crank out the 50-year-old classics ad infinitum, and many eaters wouldn’t have it any other way.  Since we’ve had that type of food since the Jefferson administration, we like things that are more bold.  The list of specials that night was almost mind-bogglingly inventive.

Someone commenting on Jim Johnson’s blog mentioned that Gentile’s will tweak a dish at a customer’s request, and though I have no need of that with Kevin’s masterful food, I have seen people do it.  So diners who are chicken picky less adventurous can make requests within reason.

There are quite a few Syracuse restaurants that are very good.  But very few can compare with Gentile’s.

Yes, this pepper does have an intriguing appearance, doesnt it? I didn't see this particular one at Chipotle.

Usually I’m too much of a snob to review chain restaurants, but this one is interesting. I had heard about their emphasis on fresh ingredients and positive reviews here and there. They are expanding so rapidly that there are two in the Syracuse area already. I tried out the one on Marshall St. on the SU hill, sporting my helpful two-fer coupon I’d received in the mail.

We are very interested in Mexican food, especially having visited there and eaten some incredible food, much of which doesn’t make it to the US except maybe at Rick Bayless‘ places. The first thing that struck me was the complete absence of any Mexican imagery in the restaurant.  Instead, they have opted for very hip modern urbanity, with metal surfaces and minimalist layered wood chairs and tables.    Though it has plenty of tables, it’s counter service without any waitstaff.  So the overall effect is like a very fancy take out place.  So you could eat pretty cheaply here.  The air conditioning was strong, and on that day I appreciated it.  Modern ambient music played in the background, which fit the decor.

Let’s Eat!

Taking advantage of the coupon, I got to try two types of burritos, the barbacoa and carnita, beef and pork respectively.  I was very impressed with the flavor, freshness, and quality ingredients.  Like many such places, they ask you a lot of questions on which options you want, so you can customize quite a bit.  I like spicy, so I asked for hot.  It was muy picante, quite hot!  So I’d probably do medium next time.  It’s good to know if a restaurant means hot when they say it, and good to have a choice as well.  The burritos and other meals run around 6 or 7 dollars.  I liked it, and I’d consider going back!  I remembered to ask if they had gluten-free stuff, and I was told that their corn taco fits the bill.

[I also photobombed some poor guy who was taking photos of the place from the outside.  It was great fun, and I wonder if he'll catch it.]

I had read awhile ago that Chipotle was having some difficulty sourcing fresh chicken.  I suppose that this is one of the problems that arises when you want to use quality purveyors.  I’m not sure what became of that, maybe one of you knows.

Other Places

We really like Ponchito’s, which does roadside South American style food, a concept that is like a more rustic variation on what Chipotle is doing.  Since they’ve expanded to the Valley Drive area, we miss seeing the original owner and his family here in Eastwood.  There’s also another company downtown that is attempting this general idea, and we dutifully tried it, but although the staff was friendly, the food really wasn’t so good.  You know you’re in for it when you’re looking at what seems to be a series of Sysco food trays.  So they’re not really worth mentioning.

So apart from being possibly having the most misspelled restaurant name around, Chipotle is quite good for a chain!

You'd be smiling, too, if you were to eat us!

Though cucumbers can be cool and refreshing when bought from the store, sometimes they can be a little waxy or uninteresting.  I decided to try something new.  The Poona Kheera originated in India, and it seems to think it’s a potato!  But looks aren’t everything – it’s very refreshing, and is the best-tasting cucumber we’ve found.

We got the seeds from Seed Savers, and planted them just a few weeks ago.  We put some string in the raised bed garden so the plants could climb easily.  Today we had our first ripe ones, and here they are.  They grow very fast, and pass through several color stages, beginning with bright yellow, and then gets gradually darker.

The cucumber seems alarmed that its counterpart has been sliced up. Oh oh! But I'd be lying if I didn't say, mmmm, yummy with a pinch of salt!

We like them so much that we usually eat them by themselves, but they’d be great in a salad.   And they’re adorable.  We’ll be eating these for a few more weeks!

This is the type of deadly vegetable that gardens produce! If you have seen anything like this, call 1-877-Stop-Deadly-Oak-Park-Vegetables ASAP!

Get this – a woman who put a garden in her yard has run afoul of the law!  Cities often lag well behind positive practices for a variety of reasons.  But Oak Park is impressively clueless, and probably qualifies for some kind of award.

As I understand it, the whole thing stemmed from a neighbor’s complaint.  Of course, in many neighborhoods, the slightest show of individuality is problematic.  That’s the type of suburban neighborhood where I grew up as a kid – vast stretches of boredom and silence.  Oh well, at least it was basically safe.  Individuality upsets people, and lawns take on near-religious status among many, so this isn’t really surprising.  And of course, there’s the concept of upholding the letter of the law with no exceptions for any reason.  Whatever is the case here, the Oak Park government has decided to prosecute her, and bravely, the lady growing the garden is going to court instead of knuckling under.

Take a look at her garden and blog, and see if you think that her garden really is a manifestation of all things evil.  It’s definitely neater than ours.  While you’re there, donate if you feel the urge.  For additional interesting material from an urban gardener, check out this video:  Gardener’s Thoughts on Oak Park case

This rates at least a haiku:

Let’s live in Oak Park
Where they have a great campaign
No More Evil Plants!

And why not a limerick, too?

The Gang of Five Hacks from Oak Park
Were functioning like a dense narc
“We uphold the law”
“No matter how flawed”
“And show how our town jumped the shark!”

We were ordering late in the evening, and just went for a small meal and drinks.  The food was lobster mac and cheese, which I thought was a very nice idea, and it was as delicious as it sounded.  Bravo!  The rest of the menu looked very appetizing, too, and included some pretty creative selections.  Our server was extremely friendly and helpful.  We ordered port, and it was top quality.  Not a cheap meal, this is the Hyatt, after all, but very high quality and priced competitively with similar establishments, in our opinion.  Not only a nice place to eat while staying at the hotel, but it could be a nice option for a date, too.  The very center of Rochester’s downtown, which has suffered in recent years,  doesn’t offer much of this, so this is a welcome addition.  I’d typically recommend another neighborhood, such as Corn Hill, Park Ave., and so on, so it’s nice to have another choice.

We had breakfast the next morning in the restaurant as well, and enjoyed that, too.  We’re big coffee snobs, as anyone reading this blog will attest, but remarkably, their coffee passed muster.  When we read the name “Sustainable Omelet”, we laughed and decided to order it.  I was picturing an omelet held way up in the air by a giant crane.   I asked the server if it was really sustainable.  I must have sounded serious, as she simply said yes, even I thought I was pretty obviously smirking.  In any case, it was delicious, with some nice cherry tomatoes cooking lightly in oil, and very tasty herbed potatoes.

To me, the Hyatt brand implies a pretty fancy, posh hotel.  Indeed, you do get very responsive, even enthusiastic service.  The rooms are plush, with very high quality and color-matched decor.  Even the shampoo is really nice.  The customers are often well-dressed and cosmopolitan.  [apart from the kids that show up at breakfast looking stupid in their pajamas or other cheesy clothing, and I don't mean young kids, but ones that are old enough to drink and reproduce]  Given all that quality, I was irritated to find that this Hyatt did not offer free Wifi.  Even the cheapest motels offer this nowadays.  Yes, you can pay T-mobile for it if you want to.

I tried to imagine why they’d cheap out on this.  Possible reasons I thought of:

1. The economy sucks so bad that even high-end places are suffering.
2. Some bean counter just wants yet one more thing he can monetize, just like Barnes & Noble did until they got publicly pilloried.

Then it occurred to me that maybe the calculus was something like this:  nowadays “everyone” is using their IPhone/AT&T overpriced plan (or the like) to do their web surfing, so they aren’t using plain Wifi anyway.  In that scenario, maybe bean counters figure that if any outliers want to use it, Hyatt should spank ‘em for the privilege.  But wow, a Hyatt being stingy when they charge that much for their rooms?  I’ve got to believe that there are business travelers who might want to use their laptop for some work, research, surfing to look for restaurants, etc.

For the most part, though, we really enjoy the Hyatt when we’re in the mood to splurge and pamper ourselves.   Our kudos for the new restaurant.   I just won’t stay there when I need to do work, as I need access to the internet for that, and I don’t want to pay more than their usual fee for that.