Scott R.'s Profile

Best vertical drop and trails within a 2 hour drive from home: 5 stars

Friendly and conscientious parking lot dude who gave my big old hell-in-a-parking-lot F250 extended cab some preferential treatment:  5 stars

No lift lines on a Friday: 5 stars.

Reporting conditions as "groomed, packed powder" when really it was "thick yellow ice base covered with an ample, crunchy grape-nuts topping"  2 stars

$5 double espresso from coffee bar masquerading as a Starbucks: 1 star.

About what I'd expect from a mid-Atlantic ski hill, but perhaps a bit better than the others nearby.

I piled the family in the truck, and we drove 9 hours to hang with extended family and snowboard at Stratton ... and every time we stopped on the late night Thursday drive up, we smelled burning brakes. So after Friday's boarding got scratched (sick wife, etc), I took the down day to head into town to stock the pantry. And still smelled burning brakes. On a whim, using my iPhone yelp app - I found these Bourn's and stopped by to see if they could check out the truck. They were booked, it was 1:30 on Friday afternoon ... and they figured a way to squeeze me in at 2:30, in time to get parts if they needed to.

The mechanic smelled the burning brakes too - but after a good look, they decided it was some minor thing, and nothing to worry about. It cost me $20 for their time and my peace of mind. But really, they knew I was more or less a tourist, knew I wasn't coming back, the baby seat was in plain view  - how many shops have I (and you) dealt with where they'd have turned that scenario into a hard-sell (and totally unneeded) $1200 total brake overhaul?

I'm a fan. I hope I don't need to come back. But if I'm in the area and need a mechanic, I'm coming here ...

A great new addition to downtown. The shop soft-opened just a few days ago, and they're still just receiving the initial round of inventory today. Even though the shop is just getting stabilized, it already features a small but very interesting selection of wine picks - maybe 4 dozen or so total? - but each well labeled with hang tags and explanatory notes. I didn't see any high distro-supermarket stuff, and no cheap stuff  either - it seems to be all reasonably priced handpicked bottles in the $10-$50 range, give or take. The shop also features a few craft brews.

A local newspaper article suggests the owner will be tying into downtown restaurants, so you can have a glass for dinner, and then stop in here to take a bottle home. (That's a great idea!!)

Viniferous is off to a promising start.  Star count might go up in time ...

We unsuspectingly joined a rather large crowd coming here to stock up on Saturday afternoon as the so-called "Great Blizzard of 2009"  was starting. In spite of the crowds, we nabbed some very respectable comfort food from the deli - carved meats, potatoes, mac-n-cheese, breads - on which to feast all afternoon. They were all out of the vegetables (hmmm ... must have been really tasty, who runs out of vegetables first??).  

Yelp says 3 stars is A-OK ... and that's about right for what we experienced from the deli. I'd probably go 3.5 stars, but the bread was standout, so we'll round up .

So here we were in historic Bellmore visiting Grandpa, when his toilet broke, or at least the fill water wouldn't stop running. I get the call to glory to fix it ... but asking me to fix the plumbing is a bit like signing up Tiger to run the youth group's "purity pledge" program.  I have a quick look at the 1950s commode, note the ancient hardware ... and dreading the repair, set off with Grandpa in the snow storm for Home Depot, where I know I'm gonna have to wait an hour to find someone to answer some questions.

But Grandpa has a better idea, he knows "that young guy Roy who has his father's shop on main street." (Turns out Roy is 85). But we walk in, Roy's at the back counter, he points me right to the part I need (it's a broken fill tube), tells me how to exactly how to fix it, and he and Grandpa both extol the virtues of the brass replacement part ("since those cheap plastic ones aren't good for anything"). An hour later, following $8 for the part, some solid advice from Roy, and a good dose of the grace of God  .... the toilet's fixed.

Now Roy probably doesn't have everything you need. But he sure has a whole bunch of useful stuff crammed into this nostalgic little reminder of the days when hardware stores were little communities rather than big boxes.  So next time you're doing some home improvement, I'll recommended  you make your first stop here ...

Say you're a hard working stay at home mom who needs to take a break and get out for some tea with your girlfriends. This is your place. Or you're a local on the north end of Market, and you need coffee and a scone some morning. This is probably your place. Or you're the middle aged dude proudly sauntering up Market St wearing a mid-length fur coat on your torso and a gleam in your eye. This might be your place too.

But if you're a few working guys looking for a quick (but substantive) lunch to carry back to the office ... this is probably not your place.  We ordered 2 $8+ chipotle turkey sandwiches from the limited menu. We definitely admired the baked goods (scones, cookies, tarts, etc) while they prepared the sandwich. We carried a nice heavyweight brown bag (with handles) with our $8+ turkey sandwiches back to the office, where we pulled out some impressive white bakery boxes wrapped up all neat, which we then opened to discover a tasty $4.50 turkey sandwich, cleverly presented with a scant thimble of equally tasty carrot ginger salad.  

Tasty ... but next time, I think I'll stick with coffee and scones.

Had a business lunch here, ordered a salad featuring seared sesame-crusted sashimi-grade tuna on mixed greens in some vinaigrette (ginger?). Well done, with prompt service.

Definitely an interesting place, and it seems they have even upgraded from when I visited at their previous location.

All in all I it's a good place.  I've had very good coffee and espresso drinks here. I'd definitely recommend you stop in.

But I can't go more than 3 stars for two reasons:

a) Cost realism. Last time I stopped in I ordered a two shot espresso drink and a fairly standard cookie - and it was a few cents shy of $10. I've no hesitation paying for quality, and I understand the pressures on a small business ... but that would seem a bit pricey in NYC, let alone in these parts.

b) it was slower than dirt last time. Part of it was due to a nice crowd in the place. But part of it seemed to be an inefficient layout in the prep area. The staff were working hard, but it still took 15 minutes or so to get my espresso drink  with just a few people in line in front of me.

To my tastes, this is a decent local coffee house. I've been here a few times over a few years and had a good (not great, but solidly good) cup of coffee each time. Most recently, I had a nicely done espresso as well.  I'm betting it's probably the best coffee in the Deep Creek area, though the competition appears weak to nonexistent.

What I haven't had - to my regret - is any of the breakfast pastries and baked goods. If they taste half as good as they look they'd do well. Trader's also offers a small menu of breakfast sandwiches/wraps and stuff that's available all day.

As a bonus, you'll also find free wi-fi here. Worth a visit.

The pizza is still decent ... but we're downgrading due to a discouraging trend of over-charges in the past year. I haven't kept track,  but it seems there's been at least half dozen of them? The exact count doesn't matter. It's just happening far too often to be purely accidental ...

In the latest incident my wife called in an order directly from their coupon (buy a pizza for $x, and get free wings), told them she had the coupon, asked if she could upgrade the pizza from cheese to a few items and pay for the items, and they said, of course. She goes to pick up the pizza, and gets charged for the pizza at full price (not coupon price plus two items) plus gets charged full price for the "free wings."  "Sorry ma'am," they say, "the coupon says cheese pizza, we can't honor it - we're not sure who you talked to on the phone, because we'd never agree to that."

And so, we're not sure who's order they'll be taking next - but it sure won't be ours.