Rogue's Harbor Inn

National Craft Beer Week in Ithaca, NY 13 May 2012, 2:05 pm

Chris Williams, Rogues' Harbor Brewing Co.'s Brew Guru

It's National Craft Brew Week and we love craft beer here at the Rogues' Harbor Inn. We love it so much we craft brew our own beer. And by we, I mean our brew staff. Chris Williams is our Brew Guru and Alex Schwartz is our Asst. Brew Guru. They plan, weigh, grind, boil, brew, chill, ferment, filter, carbonate and keg it all. Then we pour it right here. That's fresh beer; it's a wonderful thing.
We're celebrating National Craft Brew Week and our own craft brews by the Rogues' Harbor Brewing Company. When you stop in this week Monday - Friday, May 14 - 18, and order a Rogues' Craft Brew Flight we'll give you 50% off any appetizer! The flights this week have our: Cayuga Cream Ale, Route 34 Red Ale, East Shore Pale Ale and Brewer's Choice Black IPA. If you find a favorite, we pour pints and large 22 oz mugs, and... we even  fill 2 pint growlers to go. So take a growler home and watch a movie or even a Rogues' Harbor Inn short film about our microbrewery.
Chris is a talented brewer and film maker. I should say screen writer and director as well. He writes, films, directs, edits and stars in our Rogues' Harbor Inn videos. The first film talks about our flagship brews: Cayuga Cream Ale and Route 34 Red Ale. The second visits a New York State hop grower, Pompey Mountain Hop Farm. The fifth and most recent is my favorite. We lost a batch of beer earlier this year; and we're not sure what went wrong, but is was not good. So we filmed the funeral. Other staff members pitched in with writing and bit parts. We had a lot fun making the films and anxiously awaiting the final product- just like our beers, really.There are five so far. I hear there plans for more...
Rogues' Harbor House Beers
Rogues' Harbor Brewing Co. Brews with Local Hops
Making CO2 at Rogues' Harbor Brewing Co.
Brewer's Confession
A Brew's Last Rights
In honor of National Craft Beer Week have a Rogues' Harbor Brewing Co. beer flight and celebrate the independent spirit of craft brewing in the Finger Lakes. Share a half price appetizer to go with it. Maybe try a few other cool breweries close by. There are several good microbreweries to visit within 15 minutes of Ithaca: Rogues' Harbor Brewing Co., Band Wagon Brew Pub, Ithaca Beer Co, Scale House and Bacchus Brewing. That's one per day Monday to Friday. You can do it!

Cayuga Wine Trail Leads Right to the Rogues' Harbor Inn 8 May 2012, 5:28 am

Riesling Grapes on Cayuga Lake

Several Finger Lakes' trails lead right to our door. The FLX Beer Trail and the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail are our favorites. Even though we brew our own beer, we're pretty partial to Cayuga Lake wineries (our brew guru is too, shhh...).
We wear our favoritism on our sleeve right next to our heart. Our wine list features New York Sate wines exclusively (even our cooking wines are locally sourced), with a focus on the Finger Lakes, especially Cayuga- our home sweet home. The Cayuga Wine Trail is the first organized and longest running wine trail in the U.S. and follows the path of an ancient Native American trail. With 17 members (15 wineries, 1 cidery and 1 meadery) there's a lot to sample. We do love to sample; so Rogues' offers a Cayuga Wine flight with four tastes:  Sheldrake Point Riesling, Treleaven Chardonnay, Swedish Hill Cabernet Franc and Americana Baco Noir. All together, we offer 34 New York State wines on our list and 20 of them are Cayuga. We really do love them.
Our latest additions to our spring wine list are Hosmer's Lemberger and Goose Watch's Traminette. The Lemberger is a nice robust, on the dry side red. I like it with our Bleu Prime Sirloin or Wild Mushroom Ravioli. The Traminette is a little drier and spicier than a Riesling and I love it with our Finger Lakes Cheese Board. My personal favorites from Cayuga lake wineries are Sheldrake Point's Riesling and Treleaven's Chardonnay. They epitomize Finger Lakes' white wine for me: fresh, a little flowery, and very food friendly.
I've meandered to all 17 of the wine trail's members and it's a gorgeous journey.  Glorious vistas, friendly winery staff, world class wine- it's all so wonderful. May is Riesling Month and the Finger Lakes are known for their Rieslings. Riesling grapes thrive in our cool climate and glaciated landscape. There are several stand outs in my humble opinion: Sheldrake Point (obviously), Treleaven, Buttonwood, and Thirsty Owl. Take a drive along the Trail- it follows the Cayuga Lake Scenic Byway which was recently honored with a place in the Top Ten Road Trips in the US by Yahoo Travel. The top ten! and we're right there on the byway. Hooray! No one at the Rogues' Harbor Inn was surprised by this. We know we live in an  incredible region. The Heart of the Finger Lakes- glass of Riesling in hand, toes in the water...it's that good.

My Personal Favorite, Sheldrake Point Riesling on the "Rocks"

Return of the Black IPA 3 May 2012, 10:15 am

Black IPA from the Rogues' Harbor Brewing Co.

Last year when we brewed the Black IPA we were nervous about how it would be received. It's a tricky style that for some is nothing but a novelty. It has a lot of traction on the West coast but here in the East it hadn't gained the acknowledgment that other styles had. We wanted to take that challenge though and see if we could bring something new to the local brew scene that would challenge beer drinkers perception of what a dark beer can be. What surprised us was how amazingly well it was received. It was one of our fastest selling Brewer's Choice beers.

This year we decided we wanted to make it again. It has been asked for time and time again and we'd hate to dissapoint our fans. Even though it was popular we didn't want to rest on our laurels and we felt that there was some room for improvement. One area where we heard mixed comments was in the area of hopping. Some people felt it was a pretty hoppy beer while others felt it was a little under-hopped. Black IPA can be tricky as you do want a little bit of the malt character to come through. While some breweries use nearly flavorless dark malts to simply make a regular IPA black, the best examples have a touch of roast along with the big citrusy American hops that give it a deeper character. Too many bittering or flavoring hops can overwhelm the characters of the malt. Still we wanted to give it a note of something we felt was lacking.

This lacking element was aroma. The first time we made the beer it had almost no hop aroma and very little malt on the nose. This time around we wanted to fix that problem by generously dry hopping the beer. Lots of Cascade hops from Pompey Mountain Hop Farm were added in the brite tank (where the filtered beer gets carbonated and conditioned prior to kegging it). These hops don't contribute much to flavor or bitterness of the beer, but they help give the beer a bold hoppy aroma. Lots of pine and citrus notes that are characteristic of American IPA's. We think you're going to love it this year and we hope that you come in and give it a try. We begin pouring it Thursday, May 3. Get it while it lasts...

Rogues' Harbor Inn is Obsessed with Finger Lakes Cheese 22 Apr 2012, 2:25 pm

FLX Cheese Board and a pint of our East Shore Pale Ale

Any guest looking over our new spring dinner menu would notice there's a lot of cheese. It's all local. It's all wonderful. But, there is a lot. We love cheese and it shows because we incorporate local cheeses is a number of appetizers, entrees, sandwiches and salads. I truly believe that few dishes could not be improved by adding a cheese component. How do vegans survive? Really. I could live without meat, but for me, life (and by life I mean eating) would be very dull indeed without cheese. Fortunately, I am not alone in my Finger Lakes Cheese obsession. There is even a Finger Lakes Cheese Trail which locates working farm artisan cheese makers large and small, near and far from all over the region. In fact, the Cayuga Lake "Trail" leads right past us. Yet another trail leading happy travelers right to our door. So, if you can't make every stop (there are 15), we're here for you.
We carry nine local cheeses and we're always thinking about more. We have the new FLX Cheese Board which has the Three Sisters Nettle Meadow, Lively Run Chevre and Harpersfield Dill Tilsit served with julienne dried apricots, fresh herbs and a toasted multi-grain baguette. Our Stuffed Skins are layered with bacon and New York State cheddar, comfort food. We have 4 more cheese lover appetizers: Mozzarella Wedges which are Empire Mozzarella triangles Panko breaded, fried golden brown and served with a spicy red pepper jam. We even melt the Empire Cheese Co's provolone over our French Onion soup. Keeley McGarr of McGarr Dairy Farm makes a Riesling washed soft rind cheese that is to die for. We serve it warm with local honey, almond slivers and crostini.  and...La piece de la resistance is our Arugula and Mozzarella Flat Bread. It features our own house made mozzarella made from farm fresh, local milk. We love cheese so much, we make our own mozzarella. That's dedication. Our mozzarella is featured in a dinner entree and a salad, too. Our really big burger, the one pound Red Beer'd Burger, features melted Bier Meck cheese from Finger Lakes Farmstead. It's a beer washed rind on a Gouda style cheese. It compliments the beer steamed beef and caramelized onions and apples perfectly. Our Rogues' Burger features New York state cheddar along with BBQ and bacon. Yum. My current fav's are from Lively Run Goat Dairy. They make the best Feta and Chevre on earth. The Feta is on our Greek Grilled Salad, a summer time favorite. I think that's nine...Three Sisters Nettle Meadow, Lively Run Chevre, Harpersfield Tilset, Empire Cheddar, Empire Provolone, Our Mozzarella, Keeley's Pond Hopper, Finger Lakes Farmstead Bier Meck, and Lively Run Feta. Yup, that's nine.
We're proud to offer so many local cheeses and we often venture out to visit the farms where they're made. We really enjoy meeting the cheese makers, seeing the beautiful farm, hanging out with the happy cows, goats and sheep... It's an incredibly scenic drive to nice friendly folks making really, really good artisan cheese. The Finger Lakes Cheese Trail  leads to the best cheese around, even in the most out of way places. So, follow the trail, it leads to every cheese maker under the moon (disappointingly not made of cheese) in the Finger Lakes- and you might just stumble upon us along the way.

Finger Lakes Beer Trail Brings Happy Travelers to Rogues' Harbor Brewing 18 Apr 2012, 7:24 am

Finger Lakes Beer Trail leads right to our door at the Rogues' Harbor Inn (#20)

So here we are again carrying on about brewing our own craft ales. We love, love, love brewing and appreciating well crafted beer so much that we just can't seem to shut up about it. The Finger Lakes Beer Trail shares our passion along with their 24 brew pub/ microbrewery members. It's a wonderful thing to have a map that will lead you to every brewer in the Finger Lakes area. Beer lovers can find even the most out of the way places...like us.
The Ithaca area is quickly developing their own craft brew scene, and it's looking and tasting pretty good. Within just 30 minutes of the Rogues' Harbor Inn, Restaurant and Microbrewery there are six really good places to visit, hoist a pint or two and talk beer, maybe grab a bite, or even stay the night! The first in the area was the Ithaca Beer Company. We pour a few of their brews here at Rogues'. I think their Flower Power is my favorite. Next in Ithaca was The Scale House. They serve pizza and beer. It's hard to go wrong with pizza and beer. Next on the scene and my personal favorite is Band Wagon Brew Pub. They craft some truly innovative brews and the food is A+. Then we happened along last year in 2011. We brew three signature, food friendly ales: Cayuga Cream Ale, Route 34 Red Ale, and East Shore Pale Ale along with a Brewer's Choice. Our Brewer's Choice is whatever our Brew Guru wants to brew and it's usually an out of the ordinary ale. We post the pouring schedule on our web site. The next up is a Black IPA which should pour sometime around the 23rd of April. We offer pairing suggestions on our dinner menu for pints and wine alike, so you can grab a bite and see how you like our humble suggestions. Cortland Beer Company expanded their brewery in 2011 and we sometimes pour their Industrial IPA. It's seriously good, uber hoppy. The newest brewery in the area is Bacchus Brewing in Dryden. We are currently pouring their Belgian Blonde. We like it; we like it a lot. A couple more good brew stops within 30 minutes of Ithaca and the Rogues' Harbor Inn are: Two Goats Brewing in Hector and Roosterfish Brewing in Watkins Glen. If you're heading over that way, you should definitely plan on stopping at Finger Lakes Distilling. Hands down the smoothest rye on earth (Mckenzie Rye).
It makes our day to see happy faces from near and far enjoying our craft brewed ales here at Rogues' and knowing that they are following the Finger Lakes Beer Trail right to our door. We even have a lot of overnight guests that stay with us because they love that we brew our own beer. Our own Finger Lakes cuisine, our own craft brewed ales and elegant lodging in a National Historic Landmark, it's an uncommon combination.
Life is too short to drink cheap beer...so follow The Finger Lakes Beer Trail it leads to the best stuff (us!) .

Finger Lakes Local Spring Dinner Menu 2012 11 Apr 2012, 7:47 am

Smoked Mussels with Summer Relish Appetizer

It's officially spring and it's my favorite time of year. Put away the wool clothes, open the windows and breath it in. Ithaca and the Finger Lakes have emerged from a pretty mild winter to wonderful sunny weather- a bone warming, soul dancing season. It's happiness deep down and all encompassing.
To celebrate we're serving our new Spring Dinner Menu. It features a lot of new locally sourced Finger Lakes ingredients complimented by spring sunshine, Finger Lakes wine and our own Rogues' Harbor Brewing Company's craft brewed ales. As always, we will be offering wine and beer pairings for each dinner entree which proved to be an appreciated suggestion on previous menus. Warm weather offerings for me are farm fresh, light and healthful. You can almost feel the nutrients being absorbed with every bite.
There are a few new appetizers. Smoked Mussels from Ducktrap River, Maine are being served with a summer relish of minced cucumber, onion, lemon, garlic, olive oil and ditalini. The mussels are sooooo..good. The contrast of the smokey seafood with the crisp freshness of the relish is just perfect. We are also adding a FLX (Finger Lakes) Cheese Board which features 3 new (to us) local New York State Cheeses: Three Sisters Nettle Meadow, Harpersfield Dill Tilsit (my personal favorite) and Lively Run Herbed Chevre along with a multi grain baguette and dried apricots served on a nifty personal sized cutting board. Just recently we started making our own beer batter with our own Cayuga Cream Ale. We loved it so much, it's on the spring menu; we dip our onions rings in it, and our haddock for fish n chips. They are super crunchy and delicious, addictive really.
New dinner entree offerings are tasting pretty fabulous too. Chef Luke has started making our own mozzarella cheese which has earned it's place in a few new dishes. The Mozzarella Stacked Chicken is a fresh, pan seared chicken breast stacked with our own melted mozzarella cheese, roasted red peppers, wild mushrooms, caramelized onions and a red pepper glaze, filling yet summery and flavorful. We're putting the mozzarella on an appetizer flat bread as well with a fresh arugula pesto. Another new local offering is a local, organic beef sausage from Berry Farms which we're featuring in our Northern Style Shrimp and "Grits." It's shrimp Cajun sauteed with peppers, onions, sausage,...served over Farmer's Ground local, organic polenta. There's a little heat in the sauce for the spicy food lovers (that's me). Our Greek Grilled Chicken Salad will be making it's triumphant return to the dinner menu. Grilled, marinated chicken resting on a bed of baby greens with olives, tomatoes and Lively Run feta cheese. We added one other salad as well which is going to be my summer Go To salad. The Sunflower Caprese salad is a twist on the traditional mozzarella and tomato salad. We're layering fresh tomatoes with our own mozzarella over mixed baby greens tossed in a local, organic (Berry Farm's) sunflower oil and basil vinaigrette dressing and raw sunflower seeds. Just add a glass of Long Point Vidal Blanc or a pint of our East Shore Pale Ale to go with and seat me on the porch, heaven.
Sitting on the  porch is the final jewel in the sparkling crown which is summer in the Finger Lakes. Our 19th century veranda is sunny in the early evening and shady during the dinner hour. It's just right for a couple drinks and a summery dinner. The sun sets off in the distance as you plan the Cayuga Lake Wineries and Finger Lakes Brew Trail stops for tomorrow. Summer in the Finger Lakes: eat, drink and soak it all in.

Easter Dinner at the Rogues' Harbor Inn 2012 1 Apr 2012, 7:17 am

For Easter: Red Wine Braised Lamb Shank, served on the bone

We started blogging just over a year ago and one of our first posts was for Easter dinner 2011. It's sort of the anniversary celebration of our blog and the inspirational emergence of spring in the Finger Lakes. It's a happy time of year when everything gets a fresh a start. New duvets in the B&B, new breakfast offerings and service in the B&B, new microbrewery Rogues' Harbor Brewing Company, and a new spring dinner menu in the works...It's been a great year, in fact a record year. Sales were up on all fronts, lots of staff still here from last year (and several from the year prior, and even the year before that), and the addition of some wonderful new staff. We even started brewing our own craft ales (you may have heard us mention that once or twice over the past year):  East Shore Pale, Cayuga Cream Ale, and Route 34 Red Ale.
Well, it is time to revisit Easter (this Sunday, April 8!) and we've been working on the new spring menu as well some specials for Easter dinner. We'll be serving dinner all day from noon till 8 pm as always. The specials have been decided upon and for appetizers we're offering Cream of Asparagus soup and Spring Thyme Spring rolls with fresh herbs, carrots, zucchini and mushrooms with a roasted garlic dipping sauce. The entree special is a traditional Braised Lamb Shank in a rich red wine sauce served on the bone with carrots and onions along with our homemade mashed potatoes. I think our new addition to the wine list, Hosmer's Lemberger, would be a superior wine paring with this dish, or if you're feeling more like a pint, our latest Brewer's Choice is an Imperial Pilsner; a mighty, but food friendly brew. Our dessert special is the same year after year; I just don't think it can be more suitable for Easter or improved upon- Giant Carrot Cake Cupcakes with fresh cream cheese frosting. They're so good; we always bake a few extra so the staff (working on the holiday) and the boss (me) are sure to get one.
The new spring menu won't be quite ready yet, but we're working on it. A few wintry dishes will be taking their summer vacation: Empire State Flat Bread, Finger Lakes Beef Stew, Sausage and Butternut Risotto, spicy Mediterranean Seafood Ragout, Maple Butternut Salad... So "fare" warning, this is the last weekend they will be on the dinner menu till there's a chill in the air. We'll be offering some great new summery dishes featuring even more local Finger Lakes sourced ingredients like fresh arugula or ramp pesto, Cayuga Organics polenta, Lively Run Feta cheese, maybe even our own Rogues' Harbor homemade mozzarella cheese... Oh yes, we have found some great ingredients. We'll be offering New York wine and beer suggested pairings on the menu, too. That's been a big hit and I enjoy tasting everything for the pairings. It's a tough job, and happily I get to do it. We'll blog about it and post it all on the web site soon, very soon.
In the meantime, enjoy the last week of the cold weather menu and our Easter specials. Reservations are recommended for Easter dinner so call or email today: (607)533-3535 or Reservations@RoguesHarbor.com

Best Burger in New York State!!! 3 Mar 2012, 6:31 pm

The Rogues' Harbor Inn been known to grill a burger or two. In fact, one of the foods we're known for is burgers and more recently our own craft brewed beer. We love serving up good, fresh food prepared from locally sourced ingredients. So, when my husband found an article in the paper about the best burger in New York State contest sponsored by the New York State Beef Council, it seemed tailor made for us and we decided to design a new, really big burger just the occasion.
I hit Chef Luke with the idea and he loved it too. We decided to go with a one pounder topped with the best Finger Lakes ingredients and maybe some beer in the mix. Go big or go home...I asked Jerry, long time server, manager ,and talented writer, to come up with a name which embraced our roguish heritage and maybe mentioned the beer component. He did not disappoint.
E, Chef Luke, Jerry and our brewer, Chris make a  good team. Here's what we came up with: a one pound Angus burger steamed in our Route 34 Red Ale and topped with beer braised NY apples, onions, bacon, melted Bier Meck cheese (Finger Lakes Farmstead) on a pretzel roll. We're calling it the Red Beer'd Burger.
So, get in here and try it. You'll love it. We're hoping you'll nominate it for the best burger in the Finger Lakes on NYS Beef Council's submission site! (That's the link before the "!" You only have till March 15th).

Mouth-watering, One pound, Red Beer'd Burger

Rogues' is addicted to Chopped!!! 25 Feb 2012, 6:39 pm

I don't watch a lot of TV since I work evenings and have a million other things I'd rather be doing. But late at night when I'm too tired to do anything else- Chopped is the best! I'm not even a fan of the food network: Cupcake Wars, Bizarre Foods, Grillin' and Chillin', 30 Minute Meals...I hate them all. I'm more of an Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations type of foodie and yet I find Chopped quite addictive.
I am not alone in my Chopped addiction (the best way to be really). Most of the staff at Rogues' loves the show. Chefs and servers, aka the back and front of the house, agree that it's a blast- and they generally don't agree on anything in any restaurant. We all commiserate on the impossible ingredients of market baskets and the brilliant or disasterous way in which they are utilised. And let's be honest, even with double the amount of time allotted to prepare each course, we still would struggle with merely identifying some of the ingredients...never mind creating something edible and delicious. I remember one basket in particular for an entree round which had creamed cod, scotch, candy coated fennel and some odd root vegetable. Really... and the chef that won that episode made a truly ingenious entree in 30 minutes. I love the odd combinations that they get: octopus and animal crackers, grape jelly and smoked herring....feta cheese and a strong herb for dessert....The gross uber packaged foods are amusing as well: hard lemon candies, Kraft mac and cheese, soda, icky packaged cookies...But, the best are the ingredients that stump me- and I know my food. That's what I do. How many folks know that the beautiful red skin of a dragon fruit is inedible? How many chefs have prepared duck testicles in their restaurant? The answer is none. I'm certain. In fact, a duck testicle special would never be a big seller. Selling just one would be nothing short of miraculous. The judges are a wee harsh too. I enjoy criticizing their scathing comments. Even better, I like patting myself on the back for picking the winner early on. Many of the chefs have inspiring personal stories. It seems the greater their struggle in life, the better chef they become. When life gives them lemons, they make rosemary lemon sorbet or when Chopped gives them Scotch, they use it as a pickling agent. Clever and tough as nails- my kind of folks.
Our Chef, Luke, wants to audition and I think he should. He comes up with some striking flavor combinations. But, Chopped loves their organ meats, weird processed ingredients and uber strange combinations... good luck with that. It definitely takes a whole lot of talent and a little bit of luck to win and that's why I love it!

Wine & Chocolate for Claws & Paws- a Tompkins County SPCA Benefit 2 Feb 2012, 6:24 pm

It's time to announce our third annual fundraiser for the Tompkins County SPCA. Save the date Thursday, February 23, 6 - 9 pm. We call it Wine and Chocolate for Paws and Claws for obvious reasons. We have 10 local wineries and a chocolatier come and offer tastings right here in the historic ballroom at the Rogues' Harbor Inn. We offer dessert samples from our own kitchen as well. All ticket proceeds ($20/person) are donated to the SPCA and we also offer an extra incentive to stop by. We will donate 10% of our dinner sales from that evening as well. Last year in 2011 we raised over $2,000! That's a lot food and medical supplies for a shelter that prides itself on their "no kill" policy. Every healthy, adoptable pet stays till they are adopted. Makes me tear up just thinking about it. So many dogs and cats waiting...thankfully, they are very well cared for while they wait.
Some of the generous participants for the event are: Sheldrake Point, Dill's Run, King Ferry Winery, and Americana. Along with several other Cayuga Wine Trail members they will be offering tastings of their world class wines. Life's So Sweet Chocolate brings the very best chocolate truffles on earth. One of their dark truffles and a glass of Americana Baco Noir and I'm in heaven...
We think the SPCA is so important, that my family adopts all of our pets from the shelter. The beagle, Daisy, was adopted 9 years ago and the boxer, Jazzy, was adopted 3 months ago. They've become good friends and beloved family members.

Please join us for a wonderful evening- dinner then wine and chocolate for dessert in our 19th century ballroom-all to raise funds for an urgent cause.