Last month I went and visited the Chimney Bluffs State Park in NY with my dad and stepmom. We had a lovely time and I highly recommend the park if you want to spend a couple hours in nature on a hike and to see something pretty cool. I didn't know we had anything like this in New York State so it was a pleasant surprise when Google Maps led me to it. But we're not here to talk about the Chimney Bluffs, maybe I'll do a short post on that by itself, we're here to talk about where we went after we worked up an appetite hiking around.
I'm a planner so I had already decided on Riley's before we headed out and sent my dad and stepmom the menu so they could see if it would be somewhere they'd like to eat. We were all in approval, so after our hike we got in our cars, downed some water (boy was it hot that day), and made our way to Riley's. I think it was around 5 or 10 minutes from the state park? So it was super close. A beautiful, wood, wrap around porch decorated with lights was inviting us to come sit down so we meandered in to get seated. A server greeted us with a smile and told us to sit wherever we wanted and she would be right over. We, of course, sat outside because even though it was hot, there was a beautiful breeze coming off the water and the one side of the porch was in the shade. It ended up being perfect.
Another waitress (who in my catching up with my dad and stepmom I totally forgot to get her name-I'm so sorry) came over with some menus, we ordered drinks, and off she went. She was very funny; my dad and I are jokesters and she jumped in and played right along with us which was awesome. For example, there are literal neon signs everywhere advertising beer brands, plus the umbrellas also have beer logos on them and this man in all seriousness asks "do you serve beer here?" To which I responded, "no, they just really like the light all these signs give off" and she jumped in with "well maybe he just wants to know the flavors, what flavor of beer or you looking for?" It was just very up our alley of a joke to make. Anywho. They do in fact serve beer, and my dad was very excited that they serve Yuengling. I guess he has trouble finding places that have it so if you're a Yuengling fan, know that you can get it here!
As for the food, my dad got a Bayou Blue Burger, my stepmom got one of the specials- 1lb snow crab legs and side for $22 (apparently this is a steal, so if you're craving snow crab I recommend checking out their Facebook page to see if they're on special that week), and I...was torn between three things. To be honest their whole menu, including the specials, all sounded good, so I was having trouble even landing on these three. I was stuck between the Bahn Mi Burger, Cajun Chicken Wrap, or one of the weekend specials- Lemon Pepper Haddock. I asked the waitress for her recommendation and she basically told me to go for the fish. I'm hit or miss with fish so I was nervous, but I kept going back to it so I put my trust in her and got the haddock.
Wowie zowie, I'm glad I did. It was flaky and light and tasted divine with the lemon pepper seasoning on it. It came with a lemon on the side, which I sqeezed heartily over the fish and even on my fries. Something about a pop of citrus on just about anything makes it better. That just made the lemon flavor of the seasoning deeper and the pepper still stood out too, so I didn't lose anything by adding it. I had meant to ask for the Cajun fries and forgot, but I think she magically knew and gave them to me anyway? If not then I guess their fries just come seasoned? I don't know, but either way they were good. Well seasoned and perfectly crispy!
The bayou burger was HUGE and my dad subbed the Cajun tots for the fries which he said were worth it. I tried one and these were also crispy and had great seasoning, although he thought it could have used a little more. He also really enjoyed the burger. Stepmom kept raving about the crab legs while cracking them open and thought the homemade bleu cheese dressing on the side salad she got was delicious. She said it was one of the best she's had. The chef also threw in a baked potato for her which was a nice surprise.
Then, it happened. As we were in the final stretch of our meals, our waitress brought out this absolutely heavenly looking piece of pie to the table next to us. At this point there wasn't enough food to save for later so we just finished what we had and...ordered that chocolate pie. YOLO right? It was well worth it, and with three of us sharing it, it didn't do too much damage. I'm not sure if it was homemade or not, but it was just as heavenly as it looked. It was like a thick chocolate mousse on top of a light crust that I actually liked (I'm a bit picky about dessert crusts), topped with silky pillows of whipped cream and finished off with rich chocolate shavings. Oof, I want another piece right now!
We finished up our dessert and headed next door to this little farmstand my stepmom wanted to check out. They had a cool array of vegetables, jams, spreads, pickled items, and some drinks and even accepted Venmo...which was good because I didn't bring any cash. Stepmom picked up some pickled beets, strawberry rhubarb jam, eggs, purple peppers, and a weird squash that none of us had seen before. I snagged some purple peppers too because I had never seen them before and some honey crisp apples. The peppers basically had a similar flavor to any other sweet pepper and those honey crisp apples? Ridiculous sweet. Like. Wow. I gotta get more when I go back here.
Next to that was a little brewery called Lunkenheimer, which has a bigger main brewery in Weedsport NY, so we had to check that out. It was cozy inside with a small bar area and around 5 or so tables with card and board games available on each one. Outside there were a couple of picnic tables with lights and umbrellas which looked pretty inviting, but we chose to sit at one of the high top tables inside. The bar had a really nice selection of not just beer, but cider as well and even a couple of wines. Unfortunately I can't drink beer because I'm allergic to hops, so I couldn't try any of their brews and had a Cider Creek cider instead- pineapple and coconut! It was really good, nice and light and refreshing and my stepmom got a blueberry cider that she really loved even though she's not a huge cider fan. I'm not sure why she chose to go the cider route but I'm glad that she found something that she liked. My dad did actually get one of their beers, he said it was a Belgian? Belgium? He compared the flavor to Fat Tire and really enjoyed it. I just thought the atmosphere here was cool and it seemed pretty laid back and relaxed, but I guess it probably gets lively at times because they do host live bands! I'd like to come back here when I have more time to spend and just sit back and relax for a little while. Maybe even enjoy the outside space.
You can find Riley's at
9960 Ridge Rd
North Rose, NY 14516
Thursday 11am-9am | Fri & Sat 11am-12am | Sunday 11am-9pm | Monday 3pm-9pm
You can find Lunkenheimer at
9644 Ridge Rd 8931 N Seneca St
North Rose NY 14516 Weedsport, NY
Thurs & Fri 3pm-9pm | Sat 12-9pm |Sun 12-6pm Thurs 3-9pm | Fri &Sat 12-9pm |Sun 12-6pm
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