Chopbiscuit Dining Review: Orange Cat Cafe - Glens Falls, NY

Welcome (again) to another delightful ad hoc Chopbiscuit inspection of some of the USA's most frequented saloons, dining halls, dive bars, food trucks, in-room dining and high end bistro's. At least one of your humble contributors is on the road virtually every week and luckily have the opportunity to dine at some of the finest institutions and loathsome watering holes known to man. Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, some deity would permit us to be pirates and savage our nutriment.

We like eating. It fascinates us. We sit and look at the food for hours. We often eat while laying down in my hotel room with a bib in my lap and my outlook calendar open. Eating is our tweeting, except it's much cooler. Food is often made into the celebrity of carnage, which makes us appear to be pompous and scarce in regards to the act of eating itself. You eat because you fuel. We eat because we're hungry. We eat because it's our job. We go out to these establishments to consume their lineups with arrogance.

I then judge it. (Mark Mcdonough style)

Orange Cat Cafe
21 Elm Street
Glens Falls, NY 12801

So it's Monday morning and I'm sitting at the Orange Cat Cafe getting some work done. I'm feeling giddy, yet at the same time a little embarrassed. My close friends know that this is not an unusual predicament for me to be in, but, be that as it may I am. Here's why: I spend countless hours reading, researching and learning about cities and the food they consume. Ironically, this little gem is a bike ride away from mi casa. I'm embarrassed because I continue to search high and low in my neighborhood for grass-fed, locally raised beef outside of my house and it's often difficult to find. Max London's isn't open for lunch, it's a seasonal thang.

But PONCHO hooked me up with a text recently, letting me know that his brother-in-law was running GFB's as a chalkboard special at his watering hole The Local Pub and Teahouse. So, several times in the last couple of months I've been able to get my fix Luckily now I have Orange Cat Cafe. My very own local joint that I can call home.

We live in a beautiful little community, but lets face it until very recently the culinary adventures in Northern NY have been just that; an adventure. An adventure to find, an adventure to get to because it usually involved pretty long drive and search. My wife Sharon and I had a Sunday afternoon lunch at the Orange Cat Cafe and was pleasantly suprised because the food was killer! A very large portion of the menu is organic, even down to the condiments.  I was able to order a half pound grass-fed burger with romaine, shaved white onions and buns from Ezekiel. The fries alone are worth the visit. As soon as the order is placed they place the potato's into the fancy fry cutter then they drop them into the hot oil. A few minutes later these golden rods appear at the table and when you place their organic ketchup on them....Bam, amazing flavor. These fries are some of the best I've ever had. Period. They remind of my buddy Chef Vito's place that he had in St Louis a couple of years ago called Big V's Burgers.  Vito has always done local humanely raised beef and his fries and burgers were amazing.

So, I'm sure that you will see many more articles from me about the food or unknowingly to you, I'll be working, writing or hanging out in my new local joint.

Be Well Eat Well & Live Well
~Mark

*Oh, and the big bonus: They recycle, compost and save scraps for the hogs. I'm right at home!

The Hotel Food Quagmire - We can only hope for the better

* A Mark Mcdonough commentary

Usually, when we travel for work we are eatin' pretty well. Generally 80's Rockstarish well. But, then again some nights I'm pretty content to just to hang out in my hotel room eating great food from the local market or eatery.  Last night I decided to pick up a kick-ass Chicken Burger, still warm from the oven, on a sprouted grain roll coupled with Late July organic chips with Virgil's Root Beer. 

Let's just start with the chips. Late July, for me its all about flavor first and Late July is not short on flavor. The multi-grain dude ranch chips I ate had a great grain flavor without over powering  ranch seasoning, which I thought was really flavorful. Great find! They are made by a very giving family owned company that has strong roots and takes their organic products very serious. The company donates 10% of their profits to the American Camp Association to provide summer camp scholarships to kids in need. HOW COOL IS THAT!

Let's move to the chicken burger. My disclaimer is that I really only like beef burgers. Maybe lamb, and some great veggie options, but that's it.  There is something about poultry burgers that that just don't do it for me. But, that changed tonight when I ate the Coleman Natural Chicken burgers made by a subsidy of theirs called The Original Brat Hans. This patty had tons of flavor and I ate the fully cooked Uncured Bacon & Cheddar Burger, which was amazing. I'm glad that I grabbed my son Paden a few packs of these because they are top notch. Coleman claims to have been in the organic humanly raised meat industry since 1875. Guess that makes them one of the oldest of their kind, plus doing the right thing by treating their animals with respect makes it all the better. They really were great.

Now to the beverages. If you are a Root Beer lover and have tried Virgil's you can skip the rest of this paragraph. Virgil's is truly a root beer classic. They take making root beer very seriously. I've known good men that have died not taking their Root Beer seriously.

Last but not least for dessert I ate some of the Berkshire Bark chocolate. Dear Lord of all things sweet! I grabbed the white lightening bar from their product line and all I can say is that the rest of this chocolate will not make it on the drive home. These bars are hand made in the Berkshire Mountains with premium Belgian chocolate roasted cashews, fresh lemon zest and crystallized ginger. I tell you that this was one of the best pieces of cholocate I have ever eaten. Period.

Be Well Eat Well & Live Well

chopbiscuit 101 - The business of eating local

Editors note: This is a series of posts on food, cooking and sustainable eating habits. We will explore the culture around food in this country and the little steps we can make to secure a laudable future in the world of provisions.

As a food gobbling society, we've surely had some suspect systems when it comes to sustainable practices and procedures as we procure our nourishment. I've stated on this blog about the problems with centralized focus on food production and it's vindictive ways of forcing regions of our country and lower wage earners to buy food void of nutrition. As many of you have, I've read countless books, Op-eds and articles relating to how we can get back to a more provincial and civil way of relating to our local food eco-system. For awhile, eating local has been more of a personal attribute even though I work in the food business. Local had "no business" of being in business.

Until now.

When movements start, you never know where and when they are going to end. These types of reform often start from the fringe and eventually gravitate into the masses of centrics who may or may not pick up on the premise. The term "eating local" has for years, had this hippie, elitist vibe that drove many people away from it's banjo playing, save the world and anti-business model. The moderates never really understood the message because it was clouded by the persona the movement took. As I eat all over the country and talk to restaurant owners, operators and people in the business - Local has gained a stage, not because of it's actual model, but by the buzz the term "Local" has taken.

It's the buzz word all over the big retail food world. You see it on menus, you read about the farms on their websites and often see the term bastardized by some of the big players that want an initial lift in sales. Trends always come from the little guys that have the flexibility to take chances and have the creative, nimble opportunities not to let that chance blow up their business model. When I opened my first restaurant, we bought tomatoes and certain greens from a local farm near Syracuse, NY because they were just better. We didn't buy because they were local, because frankly, back in 1999 that term wasn't being shoveled down your throat at every corner. Local, fortunately was just the byproduct of buying from that farm.

New restaurant Entrepreneurs are flocking to local food, starting businesses devoted to producing and delivering food within their communities. This is a good thing for business and for social and moral avenues as well.  Just as consumers focus new attention on what we eat and where it comes from, farmers, restaurateurs, retailers, distributors, and processors are rethinking the business models behind it. It's about creating enterprise and a sound model for that enterprise to capture a movement that has finally solidified as a major player in our food culture. They want to create enterprises that will succeed in the long run and for local food to be more than just a fad for your hippie friend or a luxury for those so called "elitist" consumers.

So, don't dismiss these types of movements. The ones that resonate and have the staying power prove themselves out in the market place. Sometimes a room of MBA's cannot analyze the nuances of behaviors these models take and the potential impact of it's potential scale. It's a funny thing how these things just sneak up on you and make you do the "Right thing".

Sunday night festivus: Barbecue brisket

Local Beef - nice and tender

After hitting our local farmers market this past Saturday, Katie and I decided to make some comfort food Sunday evening while I was anticipating my Syracuse Orange seed placement as the announced they 2011 Men's college basketball bracket. I'm sure Katie was more excited about the food. The brisket we purchased was from a local farm in our area. Lewis Waite Farm raises grass-fed and grass-finished beef and pasture raised pork on land that is Certified Organic by NOFA-NY. The cattle are not raised in confinement or on an unnatural grain diet. According to their website, they are quite happy in scenic pastures.

The practice of rotational grazing encourages the growth of native forage and the recycling of nutrients making for healthier soils. Our mixed breed pigs are happy pigs. The animals live a low-stress life. They run and root around, eating an amazing amount of forage from the pasture. They even enjoy preening, rolling around in mud and taking sunbaths in the middle of the field.

We have been lucky enough to try many of their cuts and are satisfied each time we eat. We accompanied the slow roasted brisket with a special dry rub with Katie's homemade baked beans, biscuits and honey (from a local honey farm) and a nice glass of nice red blend from Thumbprint cellars from St. Helena, CA.We loved their blends so much, we became part of their Wine Club and anticipate our wine delivery every three months.

It was a great meal to say the least.

What does "eating local" really mean?

I am a gastronome. No, not the glutton with no sense of restraint, whose enjoyment of food is greater the more plentiful and forbidden it is. No, not the fool who is given to the pleasures of the table and indifferent to how the food got there. I like to know the history of a food and of the place that it comes from: I like to imagine the hands of the people who grew it, transported it, processed it, and cooked it before it was served to me. I do not want the food I consume to deprive others in the world of food. I like traditional farmers, the relationship they have with the earth, and the way they appreciate what is good. The good belongs to everyone: pleasure belongs to everyone, for it is in human nature.”

Carl Petrini – Food Enthusiast

Contentment and food. How many of us enjoy a cooked dinner at home with unabashed bliss? Do we enjoy the food because it facilitates family discussions and remembering? Does the food at the dinner table bring you back to a joyous time during your formative years? For whatever reason, the joy of food has been persistently enjoyed with happiness for millions of fortunate families over the course of mankind. The quandary over the past 50 years is that we’ve enjoyed the giving’s of provisions so much, that we have become lethargic on how the food has arrived at your dinner table. How did that plump turkey disembark on your table for thanksgiving? Was he eradicated on someone’s farm during bow season, or was he raised in a processing mill in Kansas in which he –or- she never saw the light of day until he was inhumanely slaughtered by a minimum wage employee working the morning shift - listening to Eminem on is iPod. If it was the later, your turkey may have been slaughtered, drugged, processed, packed, frozen, shipped and bought for you to enjoy the holidays with your family. Does that affirm “good times” to you? See where I’m getting at here – all around you, people are starting to grasp what eating locally purchased products and sustainable farming can do for your health, habitat and community.


The term “local” has been getting hurled around more than a midget little person at a Howard Stern book signing. If I truly want to eat local, what does it mean? Does it mean, eat at my local Chipotle. Does it denote that I buy cheese from a regional supplier 200 miles away in Vermont. Does my favorite, independently owned local restaurant even “buy local”? So many oxymoron's in the term “local”, wouldn’t you concur?

Let’s try to ultimately define, disect and analyze what eating local means – so that the majority of Americans can interpret for themselves and their families. Again, we are trying to sway your habits away from centralized food production that are friendly retailers are united with, to a local sustainable food economy that benefits you with health, wellness and community.

Let’s quickly chat about what local means in terms of eating.

So, when did this local food movement in the U.S begin to take shape. Was there an overseeing noble, that cast his or her brilliant analogy of this appalling food agribusiness in our society and said “Enough is Enough”? Did the movement actually come to fruition in America, or did it start overseas? It’s truly thorny to pinpoint when this cause came to light, but we know of many regions, organizational groups and wonderful personalities that eventually came to being from it. I personally have been in the food business since the age of 16 - over 20 years, and just recently woke up to this enlightenment.

There’s often discussion on how the local food or “slow food” movement began. Most people who are well-informed will denote this honor to Carlo Petrino. Petrini, an Italian, strived to preserve ethnic and regional cuisine after foreseeing the international expansion of the fast food industry into his native land. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, slow food styling’s strive to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristics of the local ecosystem. It was the first established part of the broader Slow movement. The movement has since expanded globally to over 100,000 members in 132 countries. Its goals of sustainable foods and promotion of local small businesses are paralleled by a political agenda directed against globalization of agricultural products. Wiki; slow food movement

The objectives, as stated on the organization’s website, promotes an ideology of linking the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment. Well, that sounds pretty appeasing, I believe most people could buy into that right?

'nuff said