The weather was about as ideal as one could wish for on a recent Saturday afternoon when my wife and I met a group of old friends with whom we were way overdue for a visit. To make matters even better, the setting was one of the Philly region’s best spots for such an occasion and weather: Lambertville, New Jersey, which sits right across the Delaware River from the slightly larger, but also idyllic town of New Hope, Pennsylvania. Both are about an hour north of central Philadelphia and not much further from New York City.
Our lunch meeting spot was The Hawke, a restaurant on the edge of downtown Lambertville that is situated in what was initially a 19th century home. It was converted to an inn and pub during the 1920s and now bills itself as a casual steakhouse and bar.
Although the steaks and chops on The Hawke’s dinner menu were available, we all stuck with the lunch menu when it came time to order.
I decided to forego an appetizer, but a few other members of our party opted for a nice sampling of what was available. I didn’t photograph everything, as we were at a long table and it would have been awkward to keep getting up to take pictures of what those at the other end were eating. But I did manage to snap some highlights.
Mike and Lisa split a shrimp cocktail that arrived with dry ice fog rising above the plate for visual impact and featured some of the biggest shrimp I’ve ever seen at a restaurant. Lisa’s jaw seemed to drop a bit when she saw it, and I could hardly blame her.
Tom’s plate of Ahi tuna wontons was extremely colorful and looked fantastic.
The decision on what to order for a main course turned out to be a slightly difficult one for me, which isn’t something I’m accustomed to. I gave strong consideration to the burger, but its size – 10 ounces – scared me off. My wife and I had dessert plans for the ride home and I wanted to make sure I saved enough appetite for that.
I instead went for the filet mignon sandwich, which comes on a seeded baguette with Gruyere cheese and caramelized onions. I requested it without the horseradish crema.
While the roll’s texture was closer to what I’m used to when eating cheesesteaks than that of the baguette I was expecting, it still worked very well for its intended purpose. The cheese and onions were the perfect accompaniments to the filet, which was unfortunately overcooked. It was a much thinner piece of meat than is normally served when ordering a filet and the server didn’t ask how I wanted it cooked. It was tender, but well done and not very flavorful.
While the fries were likely frozen, they were the thin style that I prefer and very enjoyable.
Lisa did order the burger and you can see from the below photo why I was concerned about its size. That thing was massive, which didn’t seem to stop her from enjoying it.
One Mike ordered lemon shrimp, while another opted for Ahi tuna tacos. My issue with the filet aside, everyone seemed happy with their meals.
Following lunch, our group went outside to take advantage of the perfect weather with a walk down a path that runs next to the Delaware River. At one point on this path, there is the option of cutting through a bit of brush to walk out on a concrete jetty that stretches fairly far toward the center of the Delaware. A few of us took that option and made our way past a handful of sunbathers to the far end of the jetty.
We were roughly ten miles north of where General George Washington led his troops across the Delaware on that fateful early December morning in 1776, and the views were spectacular.
When it came time to walk back to where our cars were parked and say our good-byes, my wife and I set off on the long – roughly 90 minutes – drive home. But we had a pit-stop planned along the way to break up the ride. I’m referring to the dessert stop that I alluded to earlier.
With the exception of when we were on our Midwest roadfood trip in early June, we had done virtually all of our ice cream eating at home this spring and summer. The urge to head out and change that had been gnawing at me. And coincidentally, it just so happened that there was an ice cream parlor I had been interested in trying for a few years right along our route. We decided to stop there if we had the appetite, and not ordering an appetizer or the burger at lunch paid off.
I had driven past Uncle Mike’s Homemade Ice Cream in Warminster, Pennsylvania, on a number of occasions, but the timing was never right. The “Homemade” part of its name was enticing. In recent years, I’ve eaten a lot more soft-serve and frozen custard than regular or hard ice cream when out. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I had hard ice cream away from home until stopping at Uncle Mike’s.
My wife played it straight and ordered a waffle cone with scoops of lemon cookies and cream and raspberry-chocolate chip. She let me try the former, as I’m always interested when I see lemon ice cream. It was impressive – neither excessively sweet nor tart. There weren’t many cookie pieces in it, which was actually a bonus. I prefer lemon ice cream straight up without enhancements.
After also considering a cone, I settled on a sundae comprised of vanilla and butter-pecan ice creams with butterscotch topping and broken waffle cone pieces as well as the traditional whipped cream and cherry.
It was every bit as good as hoped for. Kudos to the young man who made it.
We were suitably full but also extremely satisfied as we left Uncle Mikes for the remainder of our ride home.
The following Friday, I finally made it to one of the two very good soft-serve ice cream stands in my area for the first time this season. My summer traditionally starts when I have my first vanilla cone with chocolate jimmies at one of them. It took longer than usual this year, but it was worth the wait.
My destination was the Richman’s Ice Cream stand that is just a few blocks off I-95 in Prospect Park, Pennsylvania, and which I’ve posted about at least a couple times. Richman’s has a handful of stands in the Philly region, and I’m a big fan of their vanilla soft serve and various concoctions.
On this occasion, I felt the need to satisfy my craving for a basic cone with jimmies. As expected, it hit the spot and then some.
It was great to get off the ice cream snide. I’ll probably manage to fit in at least another stop or two at either Richman’s or Barone’s – the other soft-serve stand in my area that I frequent – before the weather turns cool.
BZ Maestro Eats 