A best-kept secret, along with
hidden-from-view-and-gorgeous Dryden Lake, is the Dryden Hotel on the village’s
main drag, its pedigree dating back to 1844.
Over the years it has undergone many updates and
revisions, most recently in 2005, a while after a fire gutted the building.
Rebuilt with a pub and restaurant on the main floor and rentals above, it is a
cheerful gathering place for locals, but visitors are welcome there too, and
you never know who you’ll run into. Wait staff’s t-shirts read “Dryden Hotel –
from Bikers to Bankers,” and that pretty well nails it.
On our first-ever visit on a recent Saturday
evening, drawn by the offering of $12.50 prime rib, we ran into friends for
whom this is the neighborhood pub. One of them, as a veteran returning to
Cornell on the GI Bill, had lived in a $15-a-week room “above the pool table”
in his student days, and described being jolted to wakefulness by the sounds of
pool players’ breaking racks. It’s a much more refined joint these days. The dining room is surrounded by a wall-by-wall
mural, its softly colored images depicting life in the village. An embossed tin
ceiling is another reminder of the inn’s long history.
Attracted by that promised prime rib, we found a
dining room full of couples of a certain age double dating, and an assortment
of families with children. There was plenty of conversation, and wait staff
buzzed about seeing to everyone’s desires. In the bar the clientele seemed to
be 30-to-40-something guys and a few couples kibitzing over the games on the
bar’s multiple TVs.
The bar offerings included the requisite bow to
updated mixology, e.g. the Cilantro Rita, along with a selection of deep-fried
appetizers—mushrooms, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, wings, and a range
of fries, loaded and un-. We went for the deep-fried pickle slices, coated with
a spicy breading, popped into the fryer, then served with a side of thousand
island dressing. Somehow, they managed to retain their crunch.
The promised prime rib was a money’s-worth slab,
thick and juicy, medium rare, as ordered, and trimmed out with a baked potato,
horseradish cream sauce, and sour cream. A chicken parmigiana dinner came with
choice of spaghetti or any of a number of potato sides: sweet potato, steak,
shoestring, or brew fries. The brew fries, fried, breaded, and then refried,
were crisp outside, light and fluffy inside. The portions were more than
generous.
Our friends, aware of our mission, were happy to
let us sample their feta and tomato pizza, which was just fine. Pizza, by the
looks of elevated pies on family tables, is a popular selection there, from
build-you-own individual flatbread pizzas to large round and sheet pizzas with
a choice of twenty toppings.
We noted the substantial-looking dinner salads,
burgers, and fries being carried to patrons around us. We also noted many
doggy-bag containers being carried out by happy-looking patrons. Stuffed to the
gills, we joined their ranks, but not until we’d tried one of the four desserts
offered on the seasonal dessert menu, crafted by Dryden’s Wendy Martin, known
locally for her wedding cakes and cupcakes. We shared an apple cranberry tart,
perfect for the season, with pastry cream, hard sauce, and whipped cream.
Calories? Who’s counting?
Our friends paid homage to the Friday fish fry.
We’ve also heard plaudits for Thursdays’ Wing Night, and were tempted to return
for a Taco Tuesday. The place felt homey, the tab was surprisingly low ($52 for
two appetizers, two dinners, two glasses of wine and a dessert), and we left
full and happy.
The Dryden Hotel is open seven days a week for
breakfast, lunch, and dinner at 42-44 E. Main St., Dryden. Phone them for info
and takeouts at (607) 844-8293. For a comprehensive look at their menu, their
website is www.thedrydenhotel.com
