451 Bryant Ave Kitchen Remodel!

Sometimes you have a house for sale and there's one thing keeping it from selling. This happened on our listing on Bryant Street. Great location in Tipp Hill, where so many people are looking. House was fully remodeled, newly painted in decorator colors. Kitchen came with all appliances and had miles of counter space. But there was one problem. A chimney came through the middle of the kitchen. I would take people through the house and they would go "What is that????" Tour over, on to the next house.

I'm happy to report that the dreaded "thing" in the kitchen is gone, gone, gone.

Please give me a call if you'd like to come check out the property!  315-908-2287

Click the link below to get more info about the house.

451 Bryant Ave, Syracuse, NY 13204, USA - TIPP HILL

BEFORE "What is that??"

AFTER "Nice kitchen"

AFTER "Look at all the counter space!"

Strong cider

I'm at colemans bar and I noticed the Woodchuck from Woodchuck cider has had it's little woodchuck arms removed and replaced with rubber muscled tatooed arms.

Prime TIPP HILL Location!

Tipp Hill Street

Early spring when everything just seems so green.

St Patrick's at Colemans

St Patrick's at Colemans 002, originally uploaded by Melsky.

They have a big tent and people drink outside and it spills out onto the street. I didn't go, I was waiting for the bus and it stops right in front of Coleman's. I'm not into big drunken parties like that for myself but it was interesting to watch for about the ten minutes it took the bus to arrive. Then I went downtown and had a quiet dinner at Pastabilities - with a few cocktails! There's more photos of Saint Patrick's Day at Coleman's on my flicker page, just click on the photo to see the rest.

Walking up Wilbur Street

You can see the spires of St. John's Ukrainian Catholic Church in the background.

Steve's or Beans - Tipp Hill's secret Mexican Restaurant - part one

Would you guess there was a Mexican Restaurant in there?

Last spring I went to a small get-together down the street from my house. We all lived in Tipp Hill and the talk turned to local eateries. Someone said there was a Mexican restaurant down the street. What? Yes, in a sports bar on Milton Street there is a secret Mexican restaurant and it's great. Wow.

So we went there the next Saturday. There's a bar and next to it is another door that looks more like a restaurant entrance. So we went in. Place was pretty deserted. "Can I help you?" says a man. We told him we were looking for the Mexican Restaurant. He is the owner and cook, named David. The restaurant is still there but only open on Thursday and Friday nights. He is nice enough to bring us a few samples of food while we have a drink at the sports bar.

Flash forward a couple of months and we go there with my friend Adina. First I called for reservations, as David recommended. We get there and sit down, the waitress is pleasant. We get our menus and order margaritas. They were good, not great on the rocks style margaritas. I'm not much of a margarita drinker so I just had one.

David (the cook) walks around the restaurant and he heard my friend Adina talking about vegetarian food. There's no vegetarian entrees on the menu except for quesadillas (grilled cheese sandwiches made with tortillas!) and he said he has a vegetarian special. So she got that. (Why is it not on the menu?) I can't remember what Dave and I had but it was good. Sorry, it's several months ago! But I did take some photos.Looking at these photos the food looks kind of terrible! But it was great.
You know you're in Syracuse when the Margarhitas come in Bud Light glasses!

My friend's vegetarian platter was tofu strips with tortillas, beans, rice etc. She really liked it.

Part 2

So it's August and we decide to try it again, just me and my husband. I called and asked if they had room for two people. Yes! Do we need to make a reservation? No! So we ambled on over there. We are seated right away. Then two large parties show up!

I'm a huge avocado fan, being a transplanted Califronian and all. I ws disapppointed they had just run out of guacamole. Oh well. I was super hungry so I ordered a quesadilla ($2.50) with just cheese, no meat. All the entrees come with your choice of pork or chicken or (secret) fried tofu which is not on the menu.

Since I'm not that into margaritas I got a glass of Pino Grigio and my husband got a glass of house red, which he said was exactly the kind of wine he wants as house red, not too sweet or dry.

The quesadillas came pretty quick. They were filled with a generous amount of mild cheddar and some type of spiciness- maybe a little chili powder. They came with a cup of salsa and a little scoop of sour cream, and they were pretty tasty. They disappeared pretty fast at any rate, and my husband doesn't eat cheese!

Steve's (Bean's) Mexican Cantina is in the back of a sports bar. The walls are fake wood panneling with numerous pictures - southweatern art, 1920s wedding photo, Mexican blanket, and photos of chili peppers. You basically know that you are in a New York State sportsbar from the Yankee game televised on the wall opposite, and the fact that everyone yells when the Yankees score or something happens in the game.

I got chicken enchilladas with a side of beans and corn. It comes with a salad bar too but the waitress didn't mention it to us and I forgot to ask until I was too full to have the salad bar so I guess we didn't need it anyway. It's not the greatest salad bar, lettuce, tomatoes and dressing in bottles from the supermarket. It would be easier just to do side salads.

Anyhow, back to our orders, my husband doesn't eat cheese or tomatoes. He asked for a burrito with only rice, beans, and pork, with a side order of salsa (yes I know salsa has tomatoes my husband is crazy). He asked for no sides or sauce. When his order came it was a regular burrito covered with red sauce and cheese. But it was no problem to send it back and his replacement came within a few minutes and the waitress could not have been nicer about it.

He was very happy and gave it high marks.

I enjoyed my enchiladas. I also liked the beans. But the corn and peppers side dish was canned corn, not my favorite. I still ate it though and enjoyed it.

The beans remind me of New Mexico Mexican food. They are pinto beans and have different spices than the beans I am used to from California.

I do miss Mexican food from California! This somewhat fills the need. The closest thing I have found to what I am used to is still Alto Cinco.

But I am really glad to have this place within walking distance to my house and will continue to go there.This is our dinner
(Quesadillas not available because I ate them before I remembered to take a photo!)

PS
I guess I should explain about BEANS. When I've told people about this place, some of them have corrected me. "Oh, you mean BEANS Mexican restaurant." And it does say BEANS on one of the walls. Several people have told me in no uncertain terms that the name of it is BEANS. But the menu says Steve's Cantina & Grill!

Tipp Hill Irish Festival at St. Pats (and a little bit of Ukranian Festival)

Last weekend I attended the Tipp Hill Irish Fest at St. Patrick's Church. This was after our trip to the Erie Canal (it's funny I just wrote that as Eire Canal and had to go back and correct it. I guess I have Ireland on the brain today.) Anyway, I had seen signs for this festival for weeks and had wanted to go. My husband was to tired after the canal trip so I had to walk down there by myself. Luckily it was not far and I enjoyed the walk despite being sore and tired from my long walk earlier that day.

I was tempted not to go, though I had wanted to go I was tired and it would have been easy to stay at home. So I looked up the festival and found out what band was playing. It was The Town Pants, and I read about them and decided to go see them.

I was surprised that a lot of the festival was taken up with gambling. They had roulette, a lottery, what looked like a poker game.

They had tents to sell alcohol, but sadly for me only beer and Mike's hard lemonade. I am allergic to hops so I can't drink beer! Hard lemonade is made with malt, and malt beverages give me a headache. So I didn't spend any money at the beer tent, and I am not exactly a gambler. But I do like Irish Music! I did enjoy the Town Pants, they were a fun band. I love traditional Irish and Celtic music and this is one of those bands that have it as a strong influence. They were also funny between songs, with a lot of friendly patter and joking around.

Here is a video I took!

The band took a break and then the Irish Dance School Dancers came out. I've seen the same dancers doing the same dances at several other Syracuse events but they are still enjoyable. I think it was the Butler-Sheehan school of Irish Dance and I think someone will correct me if I am wrong.

I wanted to stay for the second set of the Town Pants but I really was tired so I walked home and went to bed!

The Ukrainian Festival was on that night at St John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church which is close to my house. They had music too, and there was a point where I could hear both festival's music playing at the same volume when I was walking home.

The next day in the afternoon, we went to the Ukrainian festival. I wanted to try some Ukrainian food. My husband doesn't much care for Eastern European cuisine of any type except possibly Sausages but somehow I convinced him to go. Well the joke was on me because they were totally out of Ukrainian food and just had Sausages and hamburgers! I did have a sausage. I was very hungry and it was incredibly good. They also had a bake sale and my husband bought us several different sweet things to share which I enjoyed, some sort of apple bread, chocolate cake, and chocolate chip cookies. I don't think they were necessarily Ukrainian, but they were delicious.

They had Ukrainian music at the festival, and children dancing. I liked it but it didn't do it for me like Irish music and dancing does.

Next year I'm going to the Ukrainian festival on Saturday so I can eat Ukrainian food.

A short walk through my neighborhood

This is Whittier Avenue, the street I live on in Tipp Hill. It's a pretty quiet street, with mostly single family homes and a few duplexes.



The next photo is the Pass Arboretum. It's a park with many varieties of trees.







Then we walked by the Myrtle Hill Cemetery but didn't go in.

Syracuse Style Cut Pizza

Syracuse Style Cut Pizza, originally uploaded by Melsky.

It's popular to see pizza cut this way here. Supposedly it started at one place (Twin Trees pizza in Solvay) and other places started copying them. I like the triangular slices better because you get crust on all of them, it seems more even.

This pizza is from Gregorio's Pizza on Genessee. It's good, not the best pizza but worth getting again. It's a thinner flexible crust, which I like. A lot of people around here like Twin Trees Pizza but I'm not very keen on it as it's that bready kind of foccacia-like pizza and I don't care for that style.

Having a Pint at Coleman's Tipp Hill

How to eat at Coleman's

Right when we moved to Syracuse, several people told us not to eat at Coleman's. Have a drink there, but don't eat anything, the food is awful, they said. We didn't listen, and had lunch there. It was a mixed bag - the fish and chips was great, my husband's chicken was dry as the Mohave desert and nearly burnt. The Irish Soda Bread was stale. We should probably have sent them back but my husband hates to make a fuss. I'm not much of a fusser either, even when it's warranted. The drinks were good though, and reasonably priced. I could see why people told us not to eat there though, and we didn't for a long time.

The second time we went back was when we were house hunting. I decided to get my tried and true fish and chips. They were very overcooked! at the edges the fish had the texture of dry chicken, very chewy. The coating managed to be dry and greasy at the same time. My husband got a shephard's pie and it was alright. But the drinks were still good.

Then we moved to Tipp Hill, and live only two blocks away from Coleman's. So it's tempting to go there for a few drinks. Occasionally the drinks turn to dinner. And surprisingly, we have had a few good dinners there. The first time, my husband ordered the Sea Bass special, though I told him it was probably going to be horrible. Actually it was exquisite and I wished I had ordered it. I got a steak and it was good, but not as good as the sea bass. Husband refused to trade.

We went the other night and had a steak from the specials menu, it was very good. My husband got the fried haddock special, and it was also very good. There I go again, very good. I should find some better adjectives or descriptions. The steak was tender and had a sort of garlic/herb butter on top that was very tasty. The colecannon potatoes I got as a side dish have cabbage in them and probably a lot of butter and cream because they were extra delicous and went very well with the steak.

The fried haddock was well prepared, moist and tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside without being too greasy. My husband enjoyed it.

So, I think that it is possible to have good food at Coleman's. But I only eat there during mealtimes, like right at lunch or for an early dinner. And at dinner, we have had a lot of luck ordering off the specials menu. I think these things are what the chef really wants to make and it shows.

Our bad experiences were both eating there in the mid-afternoon, not at a meal hour and I think they must have had someone inexperienced in the kitchen. So if you have to eat there at an off time, try getting so drunk that you can't taste how overcooked everything is, or order the Guiness Stew which I've heard is very good and probably hard to screw up.
Photographs:

The first one is the front of the building. It's a nice old building, very well kept up inside and out. Inside has lots of photos on the walls, a tin ceiling, and lots of interesting stuff and nick nacks. But you'll have to take my word for it as I didn't take any pictures of the inside decor.

The second photo is my husband's appetizer of Chicken Fingers. I didn't write about them in the main part of the review. He liked them. I'm not a big fan of chicken fingers, and these had black pepper in the batter which I don't like. I did eat most of the fries though. They are round fries, and sometimes a little thick. I like thinner fries. These were fine though.

Third photo is our table, with fresh flowers. Bonus points for fresh flowers!

Fourth photo is the tiny door at the entrance for leprechauns, and the fifth photo shows the tiny phone booth for leprechauns. I think they might be distracting the cooks during the off hours and burning the food.

Postcript - Coleman's gets very crowded. If you are eating dinner or seeing a band get there early.

Syracuse Cat

The photo I had linked to on this post originally was removed from Flickr, so here is a photo of my neighbor's cat!