Rogues Harbor Inn Blog

The month of May is a busy one for all the restaurants in the Ithaca area. It is a month that is looked forward to with high expectations and some trepidation. It's a profitable time, but not without stress. The transition from a sleepy Ithaca winter slow season to the busiest month of year is more than a little challenging. Hiring & training new staff, ordering extra dishes and silverware, developing new spring menu offerings, servicing equipment, email confirming hundreds of reservations, ordering enough produce & beef...not that we are complaining. We love to be busy. Busy is good. Busy, busy, busy. Staff wise, the seasoned veterans help out the newbies and management plugs away at their endless list of tasks to be completed before kick off. Mother's Day is the kick off for the month of May restaurant super bowl. Hundreds of friends & neighbors bring Mom out for dinner. Everyone in the restaurant seems to know each other; it feels like home. Then the last two we

We've loved the warm reception that both Cayuga Cream Ale and Rt. 34 Red hace received. We appreciate all the wonderful feedback that has been given, and of course it brings a big smile to our faces to see you coming back to enjoy more. Many people have asked about the process of making the beer, and exactly what goes in to it. It seems for all the beer that people enjoy they actually don't have much of an idea what goes on behind the scenes. Well today we're going to lay it out for you, dispel any myths about the brewing process, and give you a glimpse in to what the typical brew day looks like at Rogue's Harbor. First off there is the plan. The plan covers the setup, the brewing, and the clean up at the end of the brew. Before we get underway the first thing we need to do is get hot water ready as it's used not only for brewing, but for cleaning as well so we like to make sure that we have plenty on hand. We fill up our hot liquor tank (simply a large vessel wher

It's true. Beer to go is legal, and alive & well at the 'Harbor. You can take fresh draught beer home with you. A growler is a beautiful thing. In case you don't know about about growlers, here's the Reader's Digest version of their being. Apparently, drinking on the job preceded the 2 martini business lunch. Long before a can that could withstand the carbonated pressure of beer, beer was transported in covered pails. Prior to WWII kids used to lug these covered pails to their parents at work to have with their lunch. There are a few theories as to how they came to be known as growlers. One, is that their parents growled at them for spillage of their liquid lunch nourishment. Another is that the lid made a growling noise as CO2 escaped from the pail. My favorite is that the awaiting consumer's bellies growled because they were hungry at lunch time. No matter how the glorious glass container got it's name, it's utility remains the same. In the 1980&

Beer Steamed Mussels & Cayuga Cream Ale We might have mentioned (at least 100 times in the past 2 months) that the Rogues' Harbor Inn launched a new venture this year, the Rogues' Harbor Brewing Company. We joined the micro brewing revolution which has been sweeping the nation for the past 10 years and began craft brewing our own beer in March. Apparently, a lot of folks think this revolution is worth celebrating, Rogues' included, and American Craft Brew Week was born. It is being held next week, May 16 - 22 across the entire U.S. It was organized to celebrate the independence & diversity of the American craft brew scene a few years ago and it's mission is to celebrate the culture and community of craft beer. It's the 4th of July of brewing. Sounds great to me, but our nation has had a bit of a love- hate relationship with alcohol over it's history. We even broke up with beer and all alcohol for 14 years (prohibition). As in most fairy tales, lo

Rogues' Harbor Brewing Co.'s Cayuga Cream Ale FBD= Fermented Beverage of the Day.  A glass of a fermented beverage once a day is good for you - happiness in a glass, medicinal, spiritual, nourishing... It does the body & soul good to relax with a glass that was enjoyed by the ancients in celebration, in treatment, in worship, as a meal, and even exchanged as currency. We love our Finger Lakes' wine and local craft brewed draughts so much that we decided to suggest wine & beer pairings with our new spring menu offerings. This required a lot of careful research. My husband & I sampled new menu ideas with different glasses of wine & beer nearly every night. I've never had so much fun working. We tried the Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin with the dry rose by Long Point Winery, Ciera. Loved it. We also tried Ithaca Beer Co.'s Apricot Wheat with the tenderloin, another winner. Mediterranean Chicken was next. It's a fresh chicken breast pan seared in

The first Sunday in May usually brings sunny warm weather in the Finger Lakes, sometimes not always. We've been serving Mother's Day Dinner at the Rogues' Harbor Inn for the past 15 years. Our first year it actually snowed, disappointing. This year we're feeling optimistic- a sunny, warm day for an outing- dinner, a stop at a nursery for some annuals, dessert outside in the sunshine... If a nursery is one of your stops next Sunday, there are several really good ones just minutes from the Inn. I like gardening so I visit all of them frequently. I buy all of our herb plants and annuals at Bakers' Acres, ornamental grasses & native perennials at the Plantsmen, and indoor flowering plants and hand painted pots from Michaleen's. Between the three I am always planting something. We'll be here for dinner all day (noon till eight) serving our new spring menu along with some warm weather Mom's Day specials with wine and beer suggestions. Reservations recomm