Eating Good in My Neighborhood: Circa, Cazenovia, and the Red & White Cafe, DeRuyter
Posted by Neil Brody Miller on January 27, 2010
For sheer audacity, one can’t help but admire Applebee’s slogan that its customers are “eatin’ good in the neighborhood.” With 1600 restaurants in 49 states (one wonders who’s the lucky exception), Applebee’s not only has trademarked the phrase “There’s nothing like the neighborhood,” they also proudly proclaim “we’re everywhere you are,” apparently not noting the irony that neighborhood and being everywhere are near-perfect opposites, or that being “everywhere you are” makes them the Big Brother of casual dining.
In truth, I don’t harbor an animus against Applebee’s. What they do, they seem to do well enough, and I have plenty of friends, especially friends with small children, who look upon their restaurants as a godsend. But like so much of the marketing churned out by America’s industrial food producers, the idea that neighborhood and being everywhere are synonymous turns common sense on its head, and undermines the meaning of words and values that I hold dear. So while I will on occasion eat at Applebee’s if invited by friends, I draw the line at accepting their corporate redefinition of neighborhood.
Which brings me to my neighborhood, and to my two favorite local restaurants: Circa, located in Cazenovia, and the Red & White Cafe in DeRuyter. To better defend the notion that neighborhood is rooted in a sense of locality, I was joined by Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, author of the Cookin’ in the ‘Cuse blog and a writer for Edible Finger Lakes magazine, who has done as much as anyone to raise awareness of the many good local eateries, coffee bars, and food producers in and around Syracuse. We met last week for lunch at Circa, and then drove down to the Red & White Cafe for coffee and dessert. Together, the good food and company reinforced my belief that the community of local food producers, restaurants, vendors and consumers, like the idea of neighborhood itself, is inherently precious and worth defending.
If Circa didn’t already exist, it would still be for me the normative ideal of what a neighborhood bistro should be: funky, friendly, and unassuming, with an oft-changing menu that reflects the singular vision of a talented chef and the seasonal availability of fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Such is Circa.
Opened in February 2006 by chef Alicyn Hart and her husband Eric Woodworth, Circa bills itself as a “new American bistro,” that works “with local farmers and regional artisans to create daily specials and a seasonal menu that changes weekly.” An increasing number of establishments these days make similar claims, but Circa walks the walk as well as talks the talk. I regularly pester Alicyn about the source of various ingredients, and to the best of my knowledge, every ingredient I have inquired about came from a local or regional farmer, cheesemaker, or producer: lamb from Meadowood Farm in Cazenovia, fresh herbs from Fresh Herbs of Fabius, terrifically flavorful, free-range chickens from Ingallside Meadow Farm of Canastota, etc. Working with these fabulous ingredients, Alicyn combines a minimalist touch that allows the quality of the ingredients to speak for themselves, with a culinary artist’s sensibility, so that every dish, whether a bowl of soup or a dinner entrée, is simply prepared and yet more than the sum of its parts.
For lunch, Jennifer and I began with the cheese plate appetizer ($10.00), which featured very generous portions of Old Chatham’s Hudson Valley Camembert and Ewe’s Blue, a decadently rich, sheep’s milk blue cheese, two “Dutch-style” semi-soft cheeses from Dutch Girl, an artisanal cheesemaker out of Leonardsville, including an aged 100% goat’s milk cheese, and my personal favorite, a crumbly, full-flavored Tilsit from the Brovetto Dairy Farm of Harpersfield, NY, which was washed in Ommegang Ale.
For our lunch entrées, Jennifer ordered the daily special, a grilled panini sandwich of sliced chicken breast, avocado, and field greens served on home-baked bread ($7.00), while I ordered the cup of soup and 1/2 sandwich combo ($7.00) The soup, a parsnip and root vegetable purée, was thick and delicious, with a silky smooth texture. The chicken (I also ordered the daily special), was tender and flavorful, with a slight gaminess that immediately reminds you that free-range, farm-raised chicken tastes nothing like the flavorless, chicken-like product found in most supermarkets.
After lunch, we drove down to the Red & White Cafe in DeRuyter, a small town 15 miles south of Cazenovia on Route 13, about halfway between Cazenovia and Cortland. The drive, I promised Jennifer, was well worth the trip, as the cafe itself was not only physically beautiful, but featured some of best coffee and homemade baked goods to be had anywhere in Central New York.
The Red & White Cafe, opened in September, 2008 by Christine & Jeffrey Glave after a year-long remodeling, was once, as the name suggests, a Red & White Market. Christine, whose family were dairy farmers in Lincklaen, has deep culinary roots in the Syracuse area, having earned a degree in restaurant and hospitality management at Morrisville State College, and worked at the Hotel Syracuse, Pastabilities, and Syracuse University.
Jeffrey, a scenic artist working in television and movie production, did a remarkable job designing the cafe’s interior, which combines a small-town, rustic esthetic, including a wealth of vintage advertising tins, with modern lighting. The result is a large, homey space that invites one to settle in for an extended visit with a cup of the cafe’s stunningly good coffee (from Coffee Mania of Cortland), and a book or laptop (both Circa and the Red & White Cafe offer free Wi-Fi).
I’ve enjoyed a number of good meals here, especially the breakfasts, which include generous slices of Chris’s delicious home-baked breads. The soups are also particularly good. But what really makes this cafe unique, and what keeps me coming back again and again, is the coffee, which gives Sugar Pearl Cafe a run for the area’s best brew, and the baked goods. In addition to the breads – wheat, Italian, pumpernickel, white, rye, and cinnamon raisin – which are also available by the loaf, Chris turns out an impressive assortment of muffins, scones, pies, cookies, meringues, and marshmallows, all of which are homemade and freshly baked on the premises. Her brownies, which are made with Ghirardelli chocolate, are alone worth the drive.
Circa, which celebrates its four year anniversary this February, is open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday through Saturday, from 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM, and is located at 76 Albany Street in Cazenovia. In addition to selling locally produced eggs, cheeses, dairy products, meats, and vegetables as they are available, Circa also hosts a local farmer’s market, which will meet next on Saturday, February 27th, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon. For reservations or further information call 315-655-8768 or visit Circa’s website.
The Red & White Cafe, which is located at 1692 Albany Street in DeRuyter, is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week, Sunday through Thursday from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM. At present, the breakfast and lunch menu, as well as the daily specials, are served all day, although Chris says she is planning to add a dinner menu in the near future. The Red & White Cafe also features live music from some of the region’s best local artists twice monthly on Friday evenings. This Friday, January 29, the Serious Dudes, a local acoustic roots band will perform. For more information, call 315-852-2016, or visit the cafe’s website.
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3 Responses to “Eating Good in My Neighborhood: Circa, Cazenovia, and the Red & White Cafe, DeRuyter”Leave a comment, and if you'd like your own picture to show up next to your comments, go get a gravatar!
But Circa seems like a must-try! Thanks for a good description
both visual and literary!
I find it interesting how “big” companies try to position
themselves as “local.” Just the other day I saw a Lays Chips
truck and it said something about “locally grown potatoes”
and it just seemed so wrong!
Lindsay: According to EatingWell, the top three of its Top 20 food trends for 2010 are, respectively, “locally grown produce,” “locally grown meats” and “sustainability,” with organic produce coming in at number 12. Big box retailers and industrial food producers no doubt are aware of these trends, and are positioning themselves and developing marketing campaigns to capitalize on the “buy local” and “slow food” movements, the same way that they did on “organic” and “green.” So I’m not surprised to hear that Lays Potato Chips have gone “local.” Unfortunately, I think we will see a lot more of this baseless, manipulative marketing in the next year.