Half Time, beer paradise in Poughkeepsie

There are several things to like about Half Time, Poughkeepsie’s beer mega store. First, of course, is the unbelievable selection of beer, over 1400 varieties. Second, is the mixed six pack policy; like a mixed case of wine except for a smaller quantity of beer. With so many varieties to choose from it’s nice to be able to do a little mixing and matching. Third and something that really sets Half Time apart is the availability of beer on draft for purchase. That’s purchase to drink at home not in the liquor store though it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a little tasting that goes on in the parking lot. This isn’t typical keg beer either. Its specialty brews from craft brewers, stuff you aren’t going to find in bottles even in a good liquor store. Here’s a list of examples from the Half Time website.

Here’s how that works: you buy a “growler” from Half Time, or you bring your own, and you fill it up every time you come in. A half gallon container costs somewhere between $10 and $20 depending on the beer and you thought there was no good reason to live in Poughkeepsie?

How do you shop in a store with 1400 beers when you live 100 miles away? You need a strategy; here’s mine. I look for a brewery I know makes a good product and that I can’t easily get at my favorite local liquor store and then I buy as many varieties as I can. This weekend it was Stoudt’s, a microbrewer from Pennsylvania. Taking advantage of that mix and match policy I picked up 5 different varieties in 2 six packs. Holiday weekend coming and I need to be ready. Only bought those 12 so don’t plan on inviting yourself over, okay?

I also picked up 2 four packs of the new Sam Adam’s historic beer collection. This looked interesting and like the kind of thing I wasn’t likely to find on every corner. Nice story about these beers here.

If you like good beer and you find yourself anywhere near Half Time be sure to make the trip. It’s worth a detour, even a lengthy one.

Half Time, 2290 Route 9, Poughkeepsie NY (845)462-5400

A Pepsi and a bag of Cheese Nips

Oh, the things we do for our kids. Last night was my 5 year olds dance recital. It was also Tuesday night, the night I usually go out for a quick bite after work. So there I was at Raritan Valley Community College in the auditorium with 979 other parents, grandparents, siblings etc. waiting to see my daughter perform for 5 minutes in a show that lasts 2 hours. Now this isn’t as painful as this:


However, when I consider that I could have been at the bar at Copeland having this:



I have to wonder.

What I did have was a can of Pepsi and a couple of Cheese Nips. I bought the Cheese Nips for my 2 year old who I knew would eat all the grapes I’d smuggled in to the auditorium before his sister even made it on stage. The Cheese Nips were the best of the worst of what there was at the concession stand, not too messy and lots of little bites. We watched my daughter and then spent the rest of the performance wandering the campus eating those little crackers with their unnatural orange color and artificial cheese taste. My son loves them. Doesn’t every little kid?

The Best Lunch in Florham Park

What I like: The Cuban sandwich
Where: Tasserts Restaurant, 176 Columbia Turnpike, Florham Park, NJ.
Phone: (973)822-3712
Website: Tasserts

The best lunch in Florham Park is at Tasserts, a restaurant tucked into the corner of a shopping plaza on Columbia Turnpike. The chef has high aspirations at Tasserts, just check out the ingredient list on the menu, but the thing that keeps me coming back is the Cuban sandwich. I can’t decide what I like better, the chipotle sauce, the caramelized onions, the Niman Ranch pork or the crusty bread made in house but this sandwich is a killer.






Now when you look at the pictures you’ll notice there’s no ham in the Tasserts Cuban. I guess this makes it less than authentic. Half way through one of these baby’s and you won’t care about authenticity. You’ll be reaching for water to cool down the bite from that chipotle sauce. As another blogger put it “f* the ham” and he hadn’t even had the sandwich yet. For $10 I can’t imagine a better lunch value and the sandwich comes with fries. You can substitute a small salad for those fries if you want. I do this sometimes; a little delusion I have about trying to eat in a more healthful way.





Looking at the menu I noticed they now offer a Kobe burger which I haven’t tried. The burger that used to be on the menu wasn’t listed as Kobe beef and it was good but not as good as the one at Copeland. Tempting as trying that burger is I’ll be hard pressed not to order that Cuban the next time I go back.

Scranton PA, Culinary Wasteland

“We didn’t come here for the food.” I say this to myself over and over like Dorothy at the end of the Wizard of Oz. “We didn’t come here for the food”. Say it enough times and it almost makes up for how horrible the food I had over the weekend in Scranton was, almost.

Well, we didn’t come for the food. We, and by we I mean my wife’s family, go to Scranton every spring for a visit. Her family is from Scranton; Dunmore actually, though an outsider would be hard pressed to tell the difference. We stay in the local Holiday Inn, go to a Red Barons baseball game, take a guided tour down memory lane, my father-in-law’s memory, and this year we had the unfortunate addition of scattering my mother-in-law’s ashes in the cemetery.

We’ve got six little kids in tow, ranging in age from 8 to 2, so we have to consider them when picking places to eat. Also, most of the family does not share my food obsession. They think I’m a food snob; maybe they’re right. Still when I think about what we ate this last weekend it’s a wonder the locals don’t starve to death.

We started Friday night at La Trattoria, 522 Moosic St. (570)961-1504, a red sauce joint whose claim to fame is all you can eat pasta. Eat 2 lbs. of spaghetti with meatballs in a sitting and not only do they give you the meal for free, they give you a meal a month free for a year. You don’t even have to eat the meatballs they told me, or the salad that comes with every entrée, you can take those things home. Just power down those 2 lbs. of spaghetti with a sauce so sickly sweet as to be the food equivalent of maudlin and you can come back 11 more times for more of the same. I’ll pass. Best thing about this place is the neon sign on the roof which spells out “Rasta Man” instead of Pasta Man. Maybe if you smoke enough weed you could eat those 2 lbs. of pasta.

What’s up next? A bad breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn, 200 Tigue St., Dunmore, (570)343-5171. Now, we had this coming. We’ve eaten here before and the food is never any good. The hotel is convenient and the kids love the indoor pool. Just don’t look around too closely, as my brother-in-law said the place is on its last leg.

Best meal of the weekend? No doubt here, it was hot dogs at the Red Barons game. Now this wasn’t good ballpark food, the hot wings I got were cold and those hot dogs weren’t the kosher dogs I would get at a Yankee game but they did have decent beer on tap and the people at Lackawanna Co. Stadium go out of their way to treat you well. They just opened a “party deck” over the left field fence and they were serving up carved roast beef, ham or turkey sandwiches for $7, too bad I found this after I’d eaten those wings and a dog.

What was the worst meal of the weekend? No doubt here either, Coopers Seafood House, is a landmark and is almost always packed. The décor is a mix of Scranton photos from years gone by, Americana kitsch and various marine life scattered about the restaurant in drawings or hanging from the wall. Where else will you find a cardboard cutout of Captain Kirk pointing you towards the restroom in the same room with a giant whale? The place has a certain charm, I guess but the food is awful and expensive. Scranton, land locked northern PA. Coal mining town and seafood restaurant don’t seem like a natural mix, do they? I had fish and chips thinking it was a safe bet. I was wrong.

All was not lost, however. Just before heading for home we stopped at the Krispy Kreme, 511 Moosic St. right across from La Trattoria for some doughnuts. I’m a big fan. I ate my jelly filled glazed doughnut as we pulled into our driveway. It was good to be home.