Lorenzo's
The Copperfield Inn
Main Street
North Creek, NY
518-251-2200
We had dinner last night at Lorenzo's, the Tuscan themed main dining room at the Copperfield Inn in North Creek. We joined friends from Wells, who occasionally drive over from Lake Algonquin to meet us. North Creek is midway between Schroon Lake and Wells, so we find ourselves there occasionally.
Lorenzo's is the latest reincarnation of the main dining room at the Copperfield Inn, which also houses the more informal dining space at Trappers Tavern. Lorenzo's is an honest effort to offer traditional rustic Italian fare in an upscale setting.
We arrived a few minutes early for our 6 PM reservation, and stopped in down the hall at Trappers for a cocktail. Lorenzo's does not have a bar within the restaurant. We brought our drinks back to the dining room with us, and were immediately offered a table. We started with an investigation of the wine list, which offers a nice mix of Frederick Wildman inspired offerings. Wildman's north country distributor, Greg Taylor was formerly the proprietor of the Friends Lake Inn in Chestertown. He knows his wines, and his selections are usually a safe bet for diners looking for a good choice. I ordered a Michel Torino “Don David" Malbec from Argentina ($54), and a Suhru Pinot Grigio $(28). The Suhru also has a local story. Suhru hails from Long Island, and the wines are made with North Fork and Finger Lakes grapes. Suhru winemakers Russel and Susan Hearn have a place in North Creek, so their wines are highlighted on the list here, and also across the street at Bar Vino. The wine store at Bar Vino also offers them retail. The Pinot Grigio is well worth a taste. The wine has a crisp clean balance with good acidity; fermented in stainless with no barrel aging. We enjoyed it with our salads and appetizers before moving on to the Malbec with our entrees. Other offerings include a Cakebread Chardonnay for $29, and a Torino Pinot for $28. My personal favorite, a 2005 Antinori Tignanello ($180), should not be ordered unless I am there to taste it with you. Please. Seriously, if you are celebrating, this is one of the best wines I have ever tasted, and the wine list price represents less than a two to one markup.
We arrived a few minutes early for our 6 PM reservation, and stopped in down the hall at Trappers for a cocktail. Lorenzo's does not have a bar within the restaurant. We brought our drinks back to the dining room with us, and were immediately offered a table. We started with an investigation of the wine list, which offers a nice mix of Frederick Wildman inspired offerings. Wildman's north country distributor, Greg Taylor was formerly the proprietor of the Friends Lake Inn in Chestertown. He knows his wines, and his selections are usually a safe bet for diners looking for a good choice. I ordered a Michel Torino “Don David" Malbec from Argentina ($54), and a Suhru Pinot Grigio $(28). The Suhru also has a local story. Suhru hails from Long Island, and the wines are made with North Fork and Finger Lakes grapes. Suhru winemakers Russel and Susan Hearn have a place in North Creek, so their wines are highlighted on the list here, and also across the street at Bar Vino. The wine store at Bar Vino also offers them retail. The Pinot Grigio is well worth a taste. The wine has a crisp clean balance with good acidity; fermented in stainless with no barrel aging. We enjoyed it with our salads and appetizers before moving on to the Malbec with our entrees. Other offerings include a Cakebread Chardonnay for $29, and a Torino Pinot for $28. My personal favorite, a 2005 Antinori Tignanello ($180), should not be ordered unless I am there to taste it with you. Please. Seriously, if you are celebrating, this is one of the best wines I have ever tasted, and the wine list price represents less than a two to one markup.
The menu at Lorenzo's offers a good selection of rustic Italian fare, with many dishes not typically found inside the blue line. We started with beet salads, made with golden and red beets, local goat cheese, and topped with mixed greens. A prosciutto and fig jam is a classic combination and nicely done here with a generous portion of sliced ham. A variation on that theme is an offering of northern Italy's speck, billed on the menu as “similar to prosciutto di parma”. I'm sure that a Parma macellaio would cringe at that comparison. After a traditional salt and air dry cure, sometimes with pepper and herbs depending on the village, speck gets to spend some time over smoke. The resulting “smoked prosciutto” is more of a German style ham than Italian. But still delicious.
I had the scampi for an appetizer, nicely finished with a garlicky bath for dunking the basket of bread that is served with your meal. On other visits we have sampled the roasted olive and herb plate ($5), the white anchovies ($7) simply plated with a little olive oil marinade. Very tasty.
On my last few visits I have ordered the polpo - really polipo del bambino – baby octopus. Roasted in a clay crock with tomatoes, this is a classic dish in much of Italy, and one that I actually ordered on my last visit to Lorenzo's too. The kitchen does a great job with it. The polpo is tender and flavorful; the tomato braise could be a meal in itself. A side dish of broccolini, grilled with a touch of olive oil, was a little past its prime. We were enticed by the strands of freshly made pasta hanging from drying racks in the exposed kitchen. The ladies ordered plates of linguine with clams ($9). The dish was presented exactly as the menu suggested, linguine with clams, as opposed to linguine with clam sauce. A healthy portion of linguine is served surrounded by a dozen or so steamed, too large, cherrystone clams. The pasta had no discernible clam sauce, or clam flavor at all. It was tossed with olive oil, and then plated with the clams as an accompaniment. They need to work on that one.
At last summer's Adirondack Museum Campfire cook-off, chef Stephen Topper shared top honors with his rendition of braised rabbit with balsamic, a delicious dish which is also offered on the menu at Lorenzo's. On prior visits I have enjoyed the osso bucco ($18), braised veal shanks, and the rack of lamb ($27), roasted with rosemary and sea salt. I think of those as winter dishes, and I'm sure they are popular with the ski crowd from Gore that stay at the inn. Finish your meal with a lemony version of tiramisu – “heaven in the mouth” - created by sous chef Denver Grover. It could have been the best part of the meal.
Lorenzo's high season starts after the slopes get busy, but they seem to be struggling to find an audience with the locals during the balance of the year. The dining room will close for a month during the fall until the snow flies and the skiers return. The restaurant's one drawback – at least to me - is the space. The restaurant is a hotel dining room, and unfortunately you really do feel like you are eating in a hotel dining room. The efforts to highlight the exposed kitchen - the bright lighting, the high ceilings, the wide open sight lines - also expose everything else. Everything and everyone ends up on display. To me it is not a warm cozy room with a fireplace in a ski lodge, which is what I think people expect when they visit for the first time. The food is worth the trip however, and the well thought out menu offerings are welcome north country additions for fans of Cucina Italiano. Buon Appetito!
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