Story and Photographs by Lorcan Otway
GRAND GORGE — A new restaurant opened in Grand Gorge today. Time will tell if it is a pop up, or a long standing culinary institution which will become part of the family memories of generations of diners in our Catskill town. It is a partnership between sisters and cousins of a well loved and much needed business which serves this motoring hamlet. We all know the vital part cars play in our daily existence in this part of the world, and as the commercial says, "tires are the only part of the car which touch the road. Emmm... whoever wrote that commercial never rode in my SUV, but I digress. This is not a story about rust and rocks, rather, it is a tale of young entrepreneurialism and epicurean expertise.
I asked Susanna, one of the three young ladies who established the new venue, how long the restaurant was open, and she replied, "since the tire shop opened." Hmmm. I expect she meant that morning, not when the tire shop first opened altogether. I spent many years checking my patron's IDs at my late tavern, but even with the best ID, I would not have risked serving her a drink. Though we did have a very short actor in a play in our theater who played the Olsen twins in the production. She'd have an aftershow drink in the bar, and I do admit, it caused me to do a double take several times, but, no. I thought it best to check with her mother and grandmother on the date of the restaurant's opening. Bob Cronk's Grand Gorge Tire will have been open "thirteen years in November," Susanna's grandmother, Amy Cronk tells me. "Fourteen years," Olivia Cronk, Amy's daughter corrects her. So, I expect they meant this morning, not fourteen years ago.
The three "Lemon Girls" are artists creating impressionist, often three dimensional pictures of bunnies. They might well get their artistic talent from Jacob, the father and uncle. Besides being an artist, matching tires to all kinds of vehicles from farm equipment to road stock of every description, Jacob is the Frederick Law Olmsted of Grand Gorge. Olmsted, who created parks from Tompkins Square to Central Park, had a much bigger city in which to work. Jacob has transformed a similar portion of Little Grand Gorge, landscaping the path up to the old railway right of way, now the Catskill Scenic Trail. With natural stone steps and planned gardens, benches by the stream under the railway bridge, it is the perfect place to sit and relax while your tires are being fitted, or simply to sit and put the cares of the world behind you. Certainly it is the perfect place to have a lemonade and lemon pound cake and mix comfort food with carefree natural surroundings.
I always appreciate a restaurateur who is honest about their products, as Susanna informed me, "It's not fresh squeezed..." However the presentation made the product and it was more than pleasantly palatable. The chief mixologist, Susanna's Mom, makes a fine Lemonade, Strawberryade, and the third delight a Strawberry Lemonade. All equally good and just the thing on a hot Catskill day.
They also served lemon pound cake and chocolate pound cake. Yes, it is not your imagination, the menu is very lemon forward. There were also doughnuts on the menu as well as cupcakes, which I will have to try some day. Not surprisingly, the name of the establishment is "The Lemon Girls." Now, I'm not the one to ask about popular culture, but I have heard of "The Spice Girls... " an Indian restaurant perhaps? I'll have to ask my "in crowd friends" at dinner tomorrow evening.
Susanna tells me she is eight and had either her little sister or her little girl, Lily with her in the pram, depending on who in the staff you asked, Lily didn't have much to say. "You're actually nine!" The cousins correct her. I am beginning to see generational trends here. I explain that I am seventy one, but I am often off by a year and my better three quarters, Genie then corrects me as well. The other two restaurateurs were Susanna's cousin Penelope who is turning 8 soon, who pointed at Abigail and said, "This one is six."
The three restaurateurs did say that they didn't read the Mountain Eagle, but their parents and grandparents did. I expect they might from now on for the restaurant reviews.
The next day Genie and I went to another fine restaurant, The Print House, in Fleischmanns. We were meeting a crowd from my old life in theater, Andrew Bauer, who once owned Under Saint Marks Place, a little theater down the street from mine which could fit on my stage, and yet did ten times our business. Most credit the success to Erez Ziv, a powerhouse theatrical manager. Much of my job as the owner of Theatre 80 Saint Marks was stopping folks from walking past our box office to try and walk down the basement steps looking for Andrew's theater. I would lead them across the avenue to show them the small sign by the steps down to Andrew's little gem. He was there with his wife Angelika, a former supermodel turned businesswoman with supermodel looks. They now define the Halcottsville year round in-crowd after decades of commuting to NYC.
I did forget to ask them about "The Spice Girls." I am fond of Chicken Tikka, so if anyone knows if that restaurant is near the Catskills, do write in. Wanda McCormack and Gideon Brand of Fleischmanns were there as well. Wanda is in the process of writing her next play to be performed in NYC, while Gideon is in the food industry (I must introduce him to Susanna, Penelope and Abigail to expand their menu.) Leslie Middlebrook Moore, Opera singer and comic actor was there as well, fresh from her triumph in the Man Who Came to Dinner (yes, there is a food forward trend in this piece, I suppose.) Leslie lives in Manhattan, an eleven mile long island off the coast of the Catskills - flatlands with an extreme elevation of 265.05 feet. They do try and catch up with Delaware County however, building towers as high as 1776 feet. Good try, Mount Utsayantha is 3,214 feet high, in the Mountain Eagle's Stamford (take that, New York TImes!!!)
The service was fast and friendly without us feeling rushed. Which was greatly appreciated as the evening was made even more special by the Great American Songbook presentations of Ex Indigo, the Catskills wonderful band. Tom Fetterman, Tim Mukherjee, Molly "Maggie" Parent, and Bonnie MacSaveny are also four of the seven members of Sue's Garage. Tom introduced this evening's band as Sue's Garage. "Ex Indigo! " the three other members of the band shouted at him... I am looking forward to the day both Sue's Garage and Ex Indigo play at the Lemon Girl's establishment.
I hope my editor will forgive a personal plug, my wife and I are working on establishing a boutique art museum and gallery in Grand Gorge. The Lemon Girls presented us with two pieces of Bunny Art. We are placing these pieces on our wall next to some of our modern masterpieces by an artist Walasse Ting, whose paintings are in the permanent collection of the Met along with the master of Bunny Art, formerly of South Kortright, Hunt Slonem. Now I know some wag out there will think I have written this tongue in cheek. I assure you, I am just looking for a bit more lemon pound cake that might be lurking there.
