Author: Margaret McCormick

In the mid-1800s, Syracuse was the capital of salt production in the United States, supplying much of the nation’s table salt and salt for other uses. The industry provided many with jobs and gave us our moniker, “The Salt City’’ (not to mention the salt potato). The area around the southern end of Onondaga Lake was home to thousands of solar evaporation sheds and hundreds of boiling blocks, where water was pumped from salt springs beneath the ground and evaporated to make salt. webbanki.ruSalt hasn’t been produced in the area in more than a century. But with feet planted in the present — and a keen fascination with the past — the father-daughter team…

Mike Countryman has been growing grapes and making wine in the Finger Lakes for more than two decades. But until recently, he never thought about putting wine in anything other than bottles. Countryman is the winemaker and vineyard manager at Point of the Bluff Vineyards, near Hammondsport, on the west side of Keuka Lake. This year, the winery, known for its Riesling and other European-style wines, added an enclosed concert pavilion up the hill from the tasting room. It’s a rustic venue with sweeping lake views and no seats; concertgoers stand on the floor and can purchase beverages and food at a bar. With summer sipping in mind, they also decided to add an unbreakable,…

How far would you drive for some exceptional ice cream? Twenty-five miles? Fifty miles? A hundred miles? Really good ice cream is worth going the distance. And The Spotted Duck, near Penn Yan, is home to some truly tasty, one-of-akind ice cream. The Spotted Duck has been drawing customers from around the country (and the world) since it opened in 2016. Co-owners Elizabeth and Daniel Hoover use milk, cream, sugar and duck eggs — no emulsifiers, stabilizers or artificial ingredients — to make a rotating selection of velvety ice cream (technically frozen custard), sold from the small stand that doubles as their production kitchen. The duck eggs come from…

“Bowls” have been trending at restaurants for a couple years now. They’re fast, fresh and easy to customize. At The Brine Well Eatery, a new restaurant in downtown Syracuse, plates are having their moment. They’re inspired by Rochester’s iconic Garbage Plate, but they are really their own thing. Brine Well owner Devon Hubbard, 31, worked with chef consultant Sarah Hassler (formerly of The Stoop Kitchen and Peppino’s Neapolitan) to create a short list of plates with an emphasis on local ingredients, like Hinerwadel’s salt potatoes, Hofmann hot dogs and Zweigle’s white hots (a Rochester favorite). A chalkboard inside the restaurant lists some of the local purveyors. Hubbard estimates that 70 percent of his ingredients are…

It is said that three’s a crowd, meaning that a third person offsets the ideal of a couple. It is also said that good things come in threes, and that is certainly the case at The Chef & the Cook, a restaurant in Baldwinsville owned and operated by three chefs. They’re young and ambitious, yet seasoned. You may have seen them make their TV premiere May 1 on the Food Network, with two other teams of three chef-owners. There’s chef Jason Jessmore, whose career in restaurants has humble beginnings at the former Golden Corral in Fulton, where he grew up.…

If your travels take you to major metropolitan areas, chances are you’ve dined in a food hall. Chelsea Market and Eataly in New York City come to mind, along with Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia (a food hall, of sorts, in one of the country’s oldest public markets) and Revival Food Hall in Chicago. Every big city seems to have one or more. And Syracuse is getting one, too. Salt City Market, a project of the Allyn Family Foundation, is envisioned as a place where people from all walks of life come together to enjoy food. The foundation, through a…

What’s a Cookiewich, you say? If you have to ask, you’re missing out on something tasty and local.

Spring arrived last week with sunshine, 50-degree temperatures and melting snow. Lindsey Jakubowski is stoked for a full serving of both spring and summer — warm temperatures, gentle rains and sun-soaked days — for digging and planting in the dirt. Jakubowski, 35, has spent the winter working her side hustle as a small-business consultant while daydreaming about warmer days, lingering over seed catalogs and preparing for a full season doing business as Catalpa Flower Farm, a new, flower-powered CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in Central New York. “I am so ready for spring!” Jakubowski said earlier this month. “It can’t come…

Owner Jamie Crouse is renovating former old-school dive bar The Remedy on Seneca Turnbike and bringing it back as The Night Drop.

Antonietta Vigliotti remembers the moment she decided to introduce a keto-friendly menu at her restaurant, Dolce Vita World Bistro, 907 E. Genesee St. After a long day at the Renzi Food Show in Lake Placid last year, Vigliotti returned to her hotel room and ordered a salad, with a special request: no tomatoes, no croutons and no bread on the side. The salad arrived with a half-loaf of Italian bread, which she strictly avoids as part of her low-carb way of eating. Frustrated, she walked down the hall and tossed the bread in the trash. On the drive back to…

Is Riley’s on Syracuse’s North Side a bar restaurant or restaurant bar? Who cares — the dessert is great! Learn more about the man behind the frosting.

Hot toddy is the general term used to describe a mixed drink that is served warm or hot. The hot toddy is said to have originated in Scotland or Ireland, both noted for dreary, cold and wet weather. At its most basic, a hot toddy is made with bourbon, honey, lemon and hot water and enjoyed before bed. Some people mix these ingredients up when they are fighting a cold. Others use them to fight winter. We live in apple country, and lots of places around here offer adult drinks based on fortified apple cider. The Cider Mill restaurant in…

The Hamlet Diner in Chittenango is known for its “designer” pancakes, fish fry Fridays, daily soup and meal specials and homemade muffins, cakes and pies. It’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week and is a go-to gathering place in the community. In recent months, the diner has been drawing visitors from places far and wide for its “Feel Good Bakery”: a bakery case stocked with cupcakes infused with CBD oil, baked on site several times a week by diner owners Dawn McCarthy and Alexandria Ciotti, Dawn’s daughter. On a recent weekday, the selection included German chocolate cocoa, chocolate- covered cherry, banana-strawberry with cheesecake filling and toasted coconut icing, Ferrero Rocher chocolate delight, red…

Christmas came early this year for Terry and Steve Andrianos. In September, they moved their Hercules Candy Co. out of its longtime home on West Heman Street in East Syracuse to spacious new quarters at 720 W. Manlius St., on the village’s main thoroughfare. The new storefront gives them several things they needed: greater visibility and more room for candy production, packaging and shipping. The Heman Street site, at 1,600 square feet over two floors, had felt cramped for some time. “We more than doubled in size,” Terry Andrianos says, “and sometimes it feels like it’s not enough. We’re really…

The holidays are here. You will no doubt be doing some shopping and selecting presents for family and friends. As you make your list and check it twice, be sure to shop small and support local. Here are 10 tasty buy local ideas with gift and stocking-stuffer potential. View this post on Instagram It’s a winter wonderland outside! PC: @aburgfoto ❄️ ☃️❄️ #winter #syracuse #snow #snowflakes #snowmen #brrr #cny #lakeeffect #comfortfood #salsa #salsacuse A post shared by SalsaCuse® (@salsacuse) on Nov 16, 2018 at 6:45am PST Sweet SalsaCuse Tina McPherson of SalsaCuse has added something a little…