SARATOGA SIDEBAR
COMPTON’S BECKONS EARLY RISERS IN THE WEE HOURS OF A RAINY SPRING MORNING.
DINER DELIGHTS Saratoga Springs is an upstate mecca of fine dining. Chic bistros and nouvelle cafes are liberally scattered among midrange restaurants of every stripe. And proudly holding their own on the lower culinary rungs are a handful of traditional diners. Skidmore grads remember Compton’s, a Saratoga institution,
right on Broadway, that’s hardly changed over many decades. It still serves up bacon and eggs, burgers and fries—classic short- order fare, still sizzling from the grill and always just as your great-granddad would have wanted it. No arugula or chevre will jump out at you unexpectedly. And the prices wouldn’t raise your grandparents’ eyebrows either. With its early/late hours (roughly 3 a.m. to 3 p.m.), it’s a favorite of students, racetrack workers, and night-clubbers. For the full effect of the Compton’s experience, enter through its back door and down the ancient, corroded, industrial underbelly of its back stairs. Compton’s may be the most unpretentious, unreconstructed
eatery in town. But Shirley’s, on the west side, is a similar fixture from the old days. More a dinner than a breakfast spot, it offers heavy meatloaf, chicken and biscuits, and—my key litmus test for all diners—liver and onions. Everything is enough for three normal eaters, especially if you order it with the nationally uni- form, all-purpose diner gravy. The list of pies and puddings is as long as your arm. And the waitresses will call you “honey.” The Country Corner and the Kountry Kettle occupy opposite
ends of the diner spectrum. The Corner, on Church Street off Broadway, has quaint retro décor and does offer arugula and chevre, plus fresh vegetables, excellent soups (another indicator of good diners), and some of the best—that is, least sugary and most fruity—homemade jam ever. The Kettle, west of town on Route 9N, pairs ripped linoleum and dusty windows with deli-
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cious old-fashioned corned-beef hash and, if you’re lucky, truly divine roast-beef hash. Both places are open for breakfast and lunch only. The Saratoga (or Spa City) Diner, the one with the horse stat-
ue on the roof, has closed down. The Greek and American diner menu stayed vast and reliable—split-pea soup, marinated sou- vlaki, Reuben sandwiches to die for—even as the building mol - dered into disrepair, until suddenly one day the management locked the door and disappeared. Regulars were left reeling and bereft, and hoping that Shirley’s will survive better. Sarge’s Triangle Diner, down the hill from campus on Maple
Avenue, dropped “Sarge’s” from its name—and perhaps from its new management. Whatever the reason, moribund houseflies no longer bumble around plates of stale crullers on the sticky counter. The food is good, including, some say, the best butter- milk pancakes in town. (Maybe, but can they beat Country Corner’s thin, dense, fresh-fruit-on-the-bottom hotcakes?) Those still mourning for Leo’s Diner, on Route 50 near Ball-
ston Spa, will be consoled to learn that it was renovated and reconceived as a hybrid new-agey eatery by caterer Kim Klop- stock ’81. Called Fifty South, it mixes diner-style booths with bistro tables, just as its menu lists pulled-pork sandwiches and sweet-potato fries alongside maple-glazed wild salmon and champagne-vinaigrette field greens. It doesn’t serve all three meals all seven days, so checking ahead is crucial. There’s not one thing wrong with blackened ahi or balsamic
portobellos or artisanal ales. But after awhile it’s a relief and a treat to spend less than $10 and less than an hour for an old- style comfort-food squat-and-gobble. Just one more way that Saratoga has something for everyone. —SR
CHARLIE SAMUELS
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