Jul
16

Crazy, Pickles and a Duck Race

Angel:
There we were, in Syracuse, 2 days behind us, 2 days ahead of us.

Sean mentioned that he had some surprises planned for tonight and tomorrow. Knowing my surprises are much scarier to him then mine are to me, I went along with the day.

First stop, Herkimer, NY. It was still a bit early for lunch, so CCrazy Otto’s Empire Diner was deserted and anything but crazy. The caboose style dinner, covered in license plates, movie posters and other fun stuff, kept our eyes busy and our conversation steered towards the decorations covering the walls.

Sean:
Adhering to the nomination list, we sat down and ordered a basic cheeseburger (and a couple of coffees) with sweet potato fries as the side.

Outside of the modern movie posters, you’d think you were in a stereotypical old diner. The staff is incredibly friendly, everyone is enjoying themselves, the prices are reasonable, the servings are large, and the smells of the grill waft through the air… and they are famous for once creating the world’s largest omelet, so there’s something to be said about that.

Before long, the burger arrived and it looked as we had expected. A basic cheese burger atop a sesame seed bun. The only highlight of the burger was the meat which had a good taste to it, but it was a tad overcooked and somewhat dry (although that could be considered a good thing as the thin bun wouldn’t be able to hold up it if were juicy). Overall, the burger was enjoyable, but average in practically every way.

With one burger left in the competition, we headed out and hit the road one more time.

Angel:
Growing up in the suburbs of NYC, I forget how big this state is. When I see shots of wide open farm land or a road that you can see ducking and diving through the hills for miles, NY is not the first state that comes to mind, and yet that’s where we were. There it was, a long road, trickled with farms (and even hay bail art) in NY. Then we hit Depauville, a “one stop sign” kind of town with a note-worthy burger stop, the Pickle Barrel Cafe.

Happy and honored enough to be asked by the NYBIC to judge, I now felt pride for recognizing this small place up against big giants like David Burke’s in NYC.

Excited to see how they stacked up, we walked inside… to exactly what we expected. A limited seating, diner/ home style place with small town country pride. Pictures rich in local history adorned the walls and white lattice separated the kitchen from the rest.

A grandmotherly waitress greeted us with menus and a warm smile. After reciting the specials (which all sounded amazing), she took our drink order. Sean could barely contain himself as he ordered the milkshake of the month and I asked for a root beer.

Upon first look at the menu, I had to order fried pickles. A rare find to begin with, but when in a place with ‘pickle’ in it’s name, how could I pass them up?

A closer look and we saw the winning pickle barrel burger. For $6.45, we thought it was a good price. That is, until we saw that it was a FULL pound of beef!?!? …and there was a double burger (2 full lbs) being offered on the menu.

Sean:
Angel’s root beer arrived first in what I could only describe as a full stein of root beer. Huge, with a commanding handle, I tried to stifle my snickers as I watched Angel fumble clumsily with her oversized drink… and then she looked over my shoulder and cracked a smile herself. I didn’t even have to look. I knew what she saw and I was already dreading the inevitable. The milkshake, was also served in the same sized glass. With roughly a liter of fresh, delicious and homemade ice cream shake before me, I was glad that we decided to split everything once again. Although, with a full pound burger, I wondered if that would even help.

Angel:
The pickles came soon after. Accustomed to the typical fried pickle slices, they looked a bit odd, but I dove in. They were AMAZING! They also looked odd since I’m accustomed to more of a bread crumb coating and these tasted like it was a yummy pancake batter. It worked perfectly.

The ginormous burger came next. I almost broke out in to beef sweats just cutting it in half.

Sean:
A full roll, lettuce outwardly reaching on all sides, a fresh tomato slices, and a giant slab of cooked-to-order ground beef, like the drinks before it, taunted us with it’s daunting size. Even cut in half, this burger was a decent portion.

Angel:
Other then the size, the burger went down easy. Warm and gooey crisp and mouth watering. All of a sudden I realized my half was gone. While there have been better burgers on this trip, I was happy that this landed on a high note.

As we walked out, a local asked if we finished the burger. With a smile I said, “my half” and, with that, we said our good byes.

Sean:
With the 10 finalist burgers tasted and rated and our criss-crossing state burger bonanza trip coming to an end, it was time to have a little fun and take Angel to the last stop, a surprise I had been keeping secret from her, Camp Oswegatchie’s Annual AdironDuck Race, a charity event where all proceeds go to support the Summer Camp at Oswegatchie.

Unlike typical races, this race involves a few thousand rubber duckies being dumped (in glorious fashion) into a river at once and whichever ones float to a designated spot downstream the fastest, are the winners. It costs $5 to sponsor a duck and, not only is it a great cause and an incredible spectacle to behold, but there are some amazing prizes to the top 25 finishers.