Archive of ‘Lake Placid’ category

Lake Placid take 3

The 2nd part of our vacation brought us back to the Adirondacks, and this time we stayed in Saranac Lake. It’s still near Lake Placid and the High Peaks, but I had not stayed there before. We wanted to hike another High Peak, but I was nervous about my stamina (rightfully!) and we decided to do our first of the Saranac 6 peaks instead – Ampersand. Not a High Peak, but it was more difficult than the one we did last time, Cascade Mountain, and boy am I sore, still, 4 days later. It probably didn’t help my legs that we also did a 7+ mile rail bike ride the next day, which was super cool.

The peak of Ampersand Mountain

The peak of Ampersand Mountain

I was not expecting to have any bloody marys on this leg of the trip either, even if my favorite Bloody Bar is in Lake Placid, but I was wrong.

On our last trip, we thought there was a definite lack of places to sit outside and have some drinks with a nice lake view. The main street in Lake Placid goes right along Mirror Lake, with plenty of restaurants lining both sides, but while many/most of them have large windows to look at the lake, few seemed to have patios. Well that has changed now, with the Top of the Park, exactly what we were looking for.

Look at that view!

Look at that view!

Or look at that view!

Or look at that view!

Top of the Park had a great cocktail menu, a nice bourbon list (according to J) and a good mix of small plates. A few drinks options had captured my interest before seeing the bloody mary, and having to go for that (well at least, go for that one first!)

How pretty is that drink??

How pretty is that drink??

Definitely the prettiest bloody mary I’ve had in a long time, just looking at it made me excited to try it. Clearly it was made with care, garnished with a dilly bean, sun dried tomato, lemon, olive, and a bacon straw (that you can’t see). The garnishes were nicely placed and not just plopped into the drink, plus they were creative! Bacon and beans aren’t entirely unusual, but make the bacon into a crispy straw, and it’s a nice touch. The mix had a lot of visible pepper, and had a nice tomato flavor. It was pretty mild, but I didn’t ask for it spicy, and I wonder what they would have added if I had. It might have wrecked it, if it was a vinegary hot sauce. It was a good drink in a fantastic location. We proceeded to try a number of cocktails off their menu, and a few plates, and would definitely return there again in the future.

I thought that night in Lake Placid would be our only time in town, but we wanted to buy a few sweatshirts, so we drove back the next day. Enter my favorite Bloody Bar, The Breakfast Club. I’ve reviewed them twice before, so I didn’t think I needed to go back, but alas we needed breakfast, and there they were, drawing me in with their menu of bloodies…The struggle is real.

The Asian Mary

The Asian Mary

This time I went with the Asian Mary. I couldn’t remember if I had tried it on our very first trip there, I think I may have, but nothing wrong with revisiting it! Made with their house mix, the drink is made “Asian” with the addition of soy sauce, sriracha, and wasabi. Garnished with lemon, lime, celery, olive and pickled ginger with a salt rim, look how pretty this one was too! Again, the drink wasn’t just some booze and tomato juice poured into a glass with some citrus. It was very spicy and a tad sweet, with a hint of nose burn and from the wasabi. Delicious. Another great offering from The Breakfast Club.

Lake Placid, the reigning Queen of vacation bloodys!

Back to The Breakfast Club

May 2014 brought us back to the Adirondacks for Memorial Day, this time hoping for better weather than 2013. It was slightly better. We still got rained on but really only for a day and a half instead of 3, and the temperatures were better. No snow, and we didn’t have to venture into Lake Placid to buy pants and gloves.

But we did still have to venture in to go back to the Breakfast Club for a Bloody Mary again. I had to see if it lived up to the memory of “best ever”

tbcmenu

They had the same menu of Bloody Marys as last year and I ordered the Fire Mary with bacon vodka again – “house made recipe spiced up with red Tabasco, sriracha and green Tabasco”.

tbc1

Still served in the mason jar for $7, this time the bacon garnish was not served in a crisped up slice, but folded up and speared between olives. Not my ideal piece of bacon, as I prefer them to be super crispy well done but it’s still bacon. The Bloody was also garnished with celery, lemon and lime, the 2 olives and had a salt rim.

tbc2

It’s still the best Bloody ever. It has a smoky flavor, a great spice level from the tabasco and sriracha, and a nice liquidity. You’re not drinking ketchup, and it’s not tomato water. A+

We visited 2 other places this trip, which also had Bloody Marys so of course I had to try them.

Delta Blue was a New Orleans/Mardi Gras themed place on the main street through town.

deltablue

It was a pretty standard Bloody. Served in a pint glass for $8, it had an olive and lime garnish. Spiced with horseradish and pepper, it was a tad chewy from the spices, but it had a good liquidity and was drinkable.

A bit outside of town, we met up with some of Jason’s friends for an art opening at Pan Dolce. Bartender Ashley perfected her own Bloody Mary mix using Absolute Peppar and a touch of Mama Walker’s Maple Bacon Liquor.

pandolce

It was a good spicy mix and the maple liquor added a bit of sweetness which made it different than the usual. It had lemon garnish and a celery salt rim. And she posed for me!

First discovery of Bacon!

A big group of us rented a house in the High Peaks of the Adirondacks for Memorial Day in 2013, planning to do some hiking, cookouts, fires, etc. Being May and all. Only it rained for the first 3 days…I mean, r.a.i.n.e.d. Monsoon. The Ausable River, which the house was on, flooded and part of the street was impassable. It was also cold (it snowed 4 feet on Whiteface Mountain!). So we were generally unprepared for the weather, including pants and jackets for some of us. I tagged along with Jenn one day as she went in to Lake Placid to buy pants and we discovered The Breakfast Club, and more importantly their menu of Bloody Marys in the window. We detoured in and I discovered the #1 Bloody Mary on my list to this day.

breakfast club menu

I really wanted the Fire Mary since I like mine spicy but how could I resist my first opportunity to get a Bacon Mary?? The bartender overheard my dilemma and suggested a marriage. The Fire Mary with bacon vodka and the bacon garnish. Heaven!

Breakfast Club

I may be a weird Bloody Mary lover as I can’t stand celery or olives, they are wasted garnish on me, but give me that bacon! It was a nice crispy well cooked slice sticking out of the mason jar, with a great spice level. Oh my god, it was good.

We went back to the house for the night, but the next day brought another trip to the Breakfast Club with the group, because we (I) had to try more of the menu. Between the group we ended up trying the Mexican and Asian (and maybe the Smokey too) as well but nothing compared to the Bacon+Fire. Top ten! Top 5! #1!

Breakfast Club