An Old Friend in Albany

How does one give a visitor the best impression of Albany?  My oldest friend ADS decided to come up from Washington D.C. for Yom Kippur.  It’s a little odd, but then again so is he.

Last time he was here, I did a passable job at showing off our culinary landscape.  There was Fish Fry, Capital Q, wings from the old Scubbers and the Ale House (back to back), Dewey’s Diner, Bella Napoli donuts and pizza from Marissa’s.

Regrettably one of the days we have together will be spent fasting, but that just means the rest of the days are all the more important.  I thought since you all have been so giving recently that I would share some of my thoughts, and see what you all had to say.  Perhaps I am overlooking something.

ADS has been hearing a lot about cider donuts recently.  And he’s never had one.  So that is on tap for later today.  I’m struggling with which place to take him.  I know you all have your favorites, and that is what the tour is hoping to figure out.  We could also get lunch should we go to Indian Ladder.  But at Golden Harvest we can get applejack.  It’s a tough call.

Before we go for the sweets, though, he is interested in some kind of late breakfast.  If I didn’t have a kid in tow, I might want to show him the Miss Albany Diner.  But Little Miss Fussy is a passionate girl, and she may not be the most welcome in that most civilized dining car.  Dirty Dan’s may be a solid choice in Albany.

But I’m also kind of thinking about making it a Schenectady-focused day.  We could get some eggs at Peter Pause and then pick up some tomato pie from Perreca’s before heading south to Altamont Orchards.

Somewhere along the way ADS has also expressed intertest in getting some chicken parm, preferably in the form of a sandwich.  A while back there was a conversation on the form over at Table Hopping.  I will need to parse that list and figure out if one of the places mentioned rises above the rest.

Sunday I’m hoping to get to Washington Park for a bit of the Local Harvest Festival.  Hopefully you caught my post in support of this on All Over Albany yesterday.  And then there is a Yelp event up in Saratoga.  There won’t be a ton of time, but one needs only a few minutes to pop into Mrs. London’s and pick up a world-class pastry or two.

When all is said and done, and ADS leaves town again on Sunday, I’m hoping that once again he’ll have a skewed perspective on Albany food.  If I did my job well, he’ll think the food here is all really this good.

But if there’s anything else worth considering, I’m happy to try and work it into the itinerary.