Trip date: February 2023
After a couple of days in Saratoga Springs, I hitched a ride with my friend John to Saranac Lake, which is where his company Rascal + Thorn would be putting on the dinner that I came to the area for. It was a gorgeous, snowy, 2-hour drive through the Adirondack Mountains.
We arrived at the Hotel Saranac and upon check-in they told me they had upgraded me to a bigger corner room. I would be working for the next couple of days so it was nice to have a proper desk and a great view of the town. And since the hotel is in the Hilton portfolio my status got me $15 credit per day to use how I liked.
The hotel has a very good all-day restaurant so some of the event group met there for lunch. Afterwards John took me on a drive around the area and to Lake Placid. What a gorgeous area, especially for snow sports enthusiasts! And I got to see the famous hockey rink where the Miracle on Ice happened in 1980!
Back in Saranac we walked down to the frozen lake to check out the construction of the Ice Palace. Each February, since 1897, Saranac Lake puts on a big Winter Carnival. It's one of the oldest in the country and there are lots of activities like parades, concerts, curling, dances, etc but the pièce de résistance is the Ice Palace that volunteers construct using blocks harvested from the lake.
They even had a small museum set up with photos from prior years. Some of the palaces were massive! I love small town stuff like this so I thought it all was very cool!
That evening John invited everyone out to dinner at Red Fox which is a super old-school American Italian restaurant. Big martinis, shrimp cocktail, prime rib, veal parmigiana, and a lot of fun!
Back at the hotel a few of us stopped into the Great Hall, the hotel's cocktail bar, where we found some really great prices on whiskey pours.
Besides its historical Winter Carnival, Saranac Lake is also known for it incredibly cold winter temperatures. In fact, it is regularly the coldest place in the Continental US. And when I woke up on Friday morning, that is exactly what was happening! It was -19F and -43 with wind chill. Holy shit!
I bundled up and braved the cold to make my way to Origins Coffee for a breakfast biscuit and latte. I was pretty much the only person outside!
My shopping trip around town got cut short after about 10 minutes of being outside as it was truly the coldest cold I had ever felt (and I've been north of the Arctic Circle IN WINTER!). I headed back to my cozy room and worked until it was a respectable time for happy hour. A hot toddy was absolutely needed that evening!
On the advise of John, I had dinner one evening at the Fiddlehead Bistro, which luckily was just a couple of blocks away. I sat up at the bar and had a great meal including some lovely local cheeses at the end.
It was -23F when I walked home! Actual temp, not with wind chill!
I took advantage of the hotel's spa the next morning and booked in for a relaxing massage and some time in front of their fireplace with hot tea. After warming up, I braved the cold again and walked down to the lake to see how the Ice Palace was coming along.
Unfortunately, even though it was currently crazy cold, the lake hadn't frozen early enough to harvest the amount of blocks needed for a large Palace, so the structure was pretty small. But still very cool!
Besides the Winter Carnival, Saranac Lake is also known as being the first place in America to open a tuberculosis sanatorium. Edward Trudeau opened the Saranac Laboratory in 1884, it's now a museum right in the center of town and right next to his old house.
Until 1946, when an antibiotic cure was found, the Saranac Lake Laboratory was the leader in research and administering treatment of fresh air and complete bed rest- the only known way to cure tuberculosis- to patients who came from all over. Dr. Trudeau treated many important people, including Robert Louis Stevenson.
Around town you can still see homes with large porches called "cure porches", this is where people would sit and take in fresh air to stay healthy or recover from TB.
It's a small and very interesting museum if you get a chance to go. And during the Winter Carnival there is a "pay-what-you-want" admission. Also the Trudeau name may be familiar to you as his grandson Garry Trudeau is the cartoonist and creator of Doonesbury.
Back at the hotel, I got ready for the reason for the trip; The Rascal + Thorn dinner!
The evening started with passed canapes of foie gras mousse in pani puri cups, caviar on sourdough crackers, and spiced lamb skewers. They were all absolutely fantastic! Hosts, John and Charles introduced the dinner team of Chef Erik Anderson , Chef Alex Lempka (from Hamlet & Ghost), and Will Wyatt (owner of Mister Paradise and Pretty Ricky bars in NYC).
We all found our way to our seats where a lovely cocktail awaited the first course. We would have 4 courses and dessert, each one paired with a cocktail made by Will.
The entire evening was just fantastic! There was a soft scrambled maple egg in its shell, some stunning raw steelhead trout with egg yolk and trout roe, roasted squab with shiso and caviar, perfectly cooked Mack Brook beef with potato cake, and burnt sugar and rosemary pudding for dessert.
The next morning I said goodbye to everyone and took a "local taxi" to Adirondack Airport. That means I got some names of locals with trucks from the hotel concierge and paid one to drive me. Small towns are very funny!
At the Cape Air check-in counter I had to provide my weight, as well as they weighed my bag and carry on. Turns out I was flying on a TINY 8 person prop plane to JFK! For those of you who don't know me personally, I'm actually an extremely nervous flyer so this sounded terrifying!
Add to that the airport couldn't serve alcohol until 10am (because it was Sunday), and my flight left at 10:30. I basically shotgunned a mimosa at 10:03am!
I still don't really know how all that luggage fit; they were putting things in the nose, the wings, etc! We weren't allowed to have anything in the cabin except for what you could hold in your hand (like a book or your phone).
We were seated so that the weight distribution was even and one couple was very upset that they couldn't sit next to each other. I mean we are in a minivan with wings and he was right behind her!
Luckily the weather was good so the 2 hour flight was pretty calm. It was crazy flying that low over the Adirondacks and into JFK though! I was very tense the entire time and was super happy when we landed!
Since I had a 4 hour layover in JFK, I went to spend some time in the TWA Hotel where for $25 you can lounge in their rooftop pool which is heated to 95F and overlooks the runway!
I had planned this, so I had my suit in my carry-on and a staff person locked my suitcase up in a closet for me. I had to change in the restaurant bathroom which wasn't great though. I kind of expected them to have a little locker room or similar. But it was super relaxing to take a soak and watch the planes.
The rooftop restaurant is like a ski chalet in the winter so I stopped in after for some lunch, but it was really basic food and wine. All served on disposable and very overpriced. Not sure if it is always like this or if this was a holdover from Covid. The space is super cute though.
And walking back out through the hotel to the main concourse was super fun with all the old TWA memorabilia, 70-style bar, and retail shops. There is even an old TWA plane that is now a cocktail bar but it wasn't open yet when I needed to leave.
I made my way to my terminal and checked out the newly opened Alaska Air Lounge real quick before boarding my flight from JFK to Seattle. I had used points for a First Class, always nice on a 6 ½ flight! This one even served little cans of Straightaway cocktails and containers of Salt & Straw ice cream for dessert!
It had been such a great trip! So fun seeing friends and great meeting all the chefs. Upstate New York is truly gorgeous... AND COLD!
All Saranac Lake photos here.
Previous post from this trip: 24 Hours in Saratoga Springs
