Peruse a side order of art while you dine at these area eateries

By Tom Kahley

Like The Dude’s rug in The Big Lebowski, some things “really tie the room together.” But often when you dine out, the décor is arranged with the theme of the restaurant in such a harmoniously mute way that you’d hardly notice anything except the food on your table, let alone a far-out Persian rug on the floor. 

In contrast, some area eateries have taken a more passive approach to decorating. Not only do these venues feature lunch, drink and dinner specials, they also play host to featured artists and artwork that provide a revolving ornamentation to the dining atmosphere.

Or at least it stars in these haute, fromage-inspired recipes

The popularity of food-focused TV, devoted “foodie” bloggers and countless epicurean magazines has encouraged Americans to develop palates that desire lavish gourmet adventures. Dining out on extravagant cuisine is not always an option, but you don’t have to break the bank for a haute culinary experience—channel your inner chef and find inspiration in your own kitchen.

French in origin, ratatouille combines the garden’s bounty with savory herbs for a tasty stew

By Lorraine Smorol

The bounty of early fall produce is regrettably coming to an end. Time to use up your stock of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and eggplant and turn them all into a zesty ratatouille. 

While it’s tough to find it in area restaurants, there is hardly a cookbook that doesn’t have a recipe for this flavorful stew. Preparations range from sauteeing, broiling or baking the vegetables. The easiest method is to dice all the vegetables, place them in a roasting dish, swirl a little olive oil over all and roast at 425 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes until the concoction is tender.

It seems that every time you flip your calendar to a new month, there’s a different event that celebrates the age-old art of catching a buzz via liquid libation. October is no different. This month, the New York Wine and Grape Association (NYWGA) is sponsoring the inaugural New York Wine Month, an event that more than 250 New York state restaurants and 30 wineries are taking part in. And unlike St. Patrick’s Day or New Year’s Eve, the emphasis is not on how much you can quaff, but rather, where your drink was produced.

“The idea behind {New York Wine Month} is to help New Yorkers discover what they have in their own back yard,” says Jim Trezise, president of the association. “We’ve asked restaurants to put New York up front, whether it be a special card on the table elaborating on New York produced wines they offer, or recommending them with certain meals and offering samples to customers.”

Restaurants aren’t exactly the most green-friendly places. Dishwashers tend to run all day, ovens fry, bake and grill from midday until the late evening hours, and there’s always that ever-so-important light on in the bathroom.

But last July, Empire Brewing Company, 120 Walton St., proved that running on green power in an eatery is possible when it converted its energy-gobbling old-school setup to 100 percent New York-produced renewable energy. The transformation will reduce the amount of carbon produced and energy used by the brewery.

“There’s a tremendous sense of pride,” says David Katleski, owner and founder of Empire. “We’ve never done this before so this is kind of a test for us in an effort to be a little bit more conscious.”

Great North coffeehouse Tim Hortons makes its local

move on Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks

By Molly English-Bowers

For a while I was taking the kids several times a winter to Buffalo Sabres hockey games. No disrespect to the Syracuse Crunch, but there’s nothing like a major-league sporting event to get you to drive a few hours one way, spend a few hours on your butt and drive back the very same night. We three had a hidden agenda for the trek as well—the opportunity to get some Tim Hortons coffee before and after the game. But now that Tim Hortons has come to Syracuse, trips to Buffalo just won’t have that special something anymore.

“We have been in Buffalo for over 10 years, have been very successful in that market, and have been in Rochester since 2002,” says Rachel Douglas, speaking for Tim Hortons from the company’s Oakville, Ontario, office. “The next logical step to take the brand was to the Syracuse area. There’s healthy competition in Western New York, we still feel that we offer a unique value to customers. Beyond the great tasting coffee and quality, we are very focused on the customer. We want to enhance the experience daily, make Tim Hortons a morning ritual and create a connection with the customer.”

Fall’s local-produce harvest continues with

Concord, Niagara and Fredonia grapes

By Georgia Williams

We may have just missed this year’s Naples Grape Festival (damn!), but there’s no reason we can’t celebrate the yummy orb that is the source of so much culinary goodness. Since the festival is held the last weekend of every September, mark your 2009 calendar now! Meanwhile, check out local farmers’ markets, where early-season, seedless Concord grapes and their green brethren, Niagaras, are available. If you’re lucky you can find plumper and sweeter Fredonias.

While most U.S. grapes are grown in California, New York state boasts its share, so for all you locavores out there (and those of you who strive to eat more locally grown food), you should have plenty to see you through the fall. They weren’t always grown here, though. Grapes are one of the oldest fruits to be cultivated, going back as far as biblical times. Spanish explorers introduced the fruit to America about 300 years ago.

When economic times get tough,

Americans embrace home-based meals, including the classic spiced ham

By D.A. Kolodenko 

What’s the worst thing about the suckiness of the economy? More Spam. Not the stuff you filter out of your e-mail’s inbox; actual Spam, the stuff Monty Python sings about. The pink meat in a can, invented as a practical joke by scientists in white lab coats in 1937. It’s flying off the shelves again.

The uses for ketchup are almost infinite, as a new cookbook proves By Molly English-Bowers

In the mid-1990s, salsa replaced ketchup as the most popular condiment in America. While that subtle shift mirrors the blurring of ethnicities in this country, it’s interesting that tomatoes form the base for both red gobs. It would be no stretch to substitute salsa, which comes in a rainbow of varieties, for ketchup in all dishes you prepare and all burgers you top (in fact, veggie burgers splotched with ketchup just don’t fly). Your taste buds may rebel at first from the jumpier salsa (unlike ketchup, no sugar required), but they’ll adjust.

Still, if you remain adamantly anti-immigration—salsa is a decidedly Hispanic condiment, after all—you can still have your ketchup and eat it, too. And now there is a tome you can use in the kitchen, dedicated to that dark-red standard. The Heinz Tomato Ketchup Cookbook by Paul Hartley (Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, Calif.; 86 pages; $12.95/hardcover) celebrates the Pittsburgh king of the condiment, with nifty historic advertisements, interesting factoids and a surprising number of recipes using Heinz Ketchup.

Join in a wild mushroom hunt Sunday at Beaver Lake Nature Center

By Alexandra Kish

Some would rather not look at their chopped-up bodies stuffed under cellophane covers in grocery stores. Others flinch at the thought of tasting their flavor in stews or cream-based soups. But for those who love mushrooms, the fleshy fungi provide the perfect bold flavoring for meat and salads, a healthy source of amino acids and vitamins, and admiration (and fear!) of certain species’ poisonous properties. 

If you don’t harbor strong feelings toward mushrooms, September is a great time to begin a fungi fixation, since some marketing person somewhere decided to dub this National Mushroom Month. It’s also a perfect excuse for Central New Yorkers to learn how to collect, identify and celebrate the area’s vast collection of indigenous mushrooms.