April 2004 - Orchard Tavern
4.63 - 6.5, 5.5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 3, 2
A beautiful Spring evening, marred only by the
erratic and somewhat dangerous navigation (lets see, who
remembers playing bumper cars in New Scotland Avenue
) of
the back roads to The Orchard, an old, family owned restaurant
located at the end of the not so nice portion of Manning Blvd in
Albany. Be that as it may, with the old Freihofer factory
as our backdrop, we ventured into the friendly old dining
room to our table of eight. I think everyone who had
not been there before perhaps had in mind what the evening might
hold in terms of culinary pleasures, and I hope you were all
pleasantly surprised (since this was the choice of the
editors hubby). All in all, a good place to go for an
inexpensive meal with a very casual atmosphere.
The Up Side - I think we all
enjoyed our meal choices. A few slurped their way and
licked their fingers through a large platter of ribs. Beer
flowed by the pitcher (an oddity for this group not that
we cant drink pitchers of beer, but it isnt usually
an option for the restaurants we visit). Everyone looked
full and happy when the meal was over and, as usual, conversation
was lively and there was plenty of risque talk (What
do you think that means is it Freudian, or is it just that
we almost always are out to dinner together on Saturday night???)
The Down Side Service was
exceptionally friendly and the waitress was very attentive when
she was around. Unfortunately, she would disappear for long
periods of time when, of course, we wanted something.