14850 Dining

A-1 is a long-standing family restaurant near the intersection of Routes 13 and 38 in Dryden, and a glance will show it's expanded several times. They serve pizza and Italian dishes, steaks and chicken, and some Greek fare, as well as a good diner-style breakfast.

This restored old building in lower Collegetown has been turned into a beautiful eatery with gorgeous event space upstairs that features live music on some weekends. During the week, stop in for breakfast, brunch, or lunch Tuesday through Sunday, but be prepared for a long wait on weekends. The brie stuffed french toast is decadent, the steak and eggs the best in town, and the burgers, made from local beef and served on ciabatta with homemade sundried tomato puree, are out of this world.

This non-profit, volunteer-staffed cafe on the corner of Routes 13 and 38 in Dryden is open Monday through Saturday for breakfast and lunch, plus has a weekly Thursday night all-you-can-eat pasta night. Stop in for coffee or espresso drinks using beans roasted by Cortland's Coffee Mania; fresh pastries or breakfast sandwiches in the morning; and soups, quiches, sandwiches, and paninis at lunchtime. Check their Facebook for daily specials.

The Dryden Queen is a clean, simple diner, with friendly service, good food, and reasonable prices. What more do you need? Crispy corned beef hash? Yep, they do that pretty well, too.

For delivery, carry-out, or to eat in, check out Jack's Collegetown Grill on Dryden Road, offering burgers, cheesesteaks, generous breakfasts whenever they're open, and Ithaca's only vegetarian wings, as late as 4am on weekends. It's an oddity at an eatery that serves so many burgers, cheesesteaks, and actual chicken wings, but vegetarians will appreciate the tofu wings. They expanded in the summer of 2012, with a new bar area so you can enjoy your food with a pint of beer and the game on TV.

On the north edge of Cornell University's campus, Louie's Lunch has a history that dates back almost a century to a Greek immigrant named Louis Zounakos who pushed around a food cart. These days it's more of a diner on wheels, open lunchtime to late night on Thurston Avenue near the north campus dorms, with breakfast sandwiches, burgers, wraps, sandwiches, and even salads. During the summer and other school breaks, Louie's is just open for lunch.

[This eatery is closed, but the page is left here for archive purposes.]

The State Diner opened in 1936, and has expanded from their early lunch car days -- with lots of booth seating as well as counter seats along the grill. When I think diner, I think breakfast, so an early morning weekday visit or even a late-morning weekend visit probably means blueberry pancakes, or even an omelet. Diners also draw us in late at night, and the State Diner gladly serves up plenty of 2am greasy goodness. We were surprised that a friend's "cheese fries" were really a plate of french fries with two slices of American cheese on top, slightly melted.

Is it the simplest restaurant concept ever? In the space best known as Juna's, Waffle Frolic features handmade waffles, from basic to buckwheat to gluten-free, with a wide variety of toppings including fruit, Nutella, bacon and eggs, and even all-natural, free-range fried chicken. There are also variations on the grilled cheese sandwich theme. A meal gets expensive fast, but it's a fun treat. The coffee, roasted by Coffee Labs in Tarrytown, is top notch. Our biggest concern is that the often-confused service better matches the food's simplicity than its price.