Bounty of the Hudson this weekend

WARWICK -- Bounty of the Hudson, a food and drink event that moves to a different winery venue each year, will be hosted by the Applewood Winery this Saturday and Sunday.

The event will feature wine sampling from 16 Hudson Valley wineries, as well as food and live music. Advance tickets are $18, and are available online through Thursday. Participating wineries:

• Adair Vineyards
• Applewood Winery
• Baldwin Vineyards
• Benmarl Vineyards
• Brimstone Hill Vineyards
• Brotherhood
• Hudson Chatham Winery
• Glorie Farm Winery
• Millbrook Vineyards
• Palaia Vineyards
• Pazdar Winery
• Robibero Family Vineyards
• Stoutridge Vineyards
• Tousey Winery
• Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery
• Whitecliff Vineyards

Participating restaurants:

• Chumleys BBQ
• Jamaican Choice Caribbean Cuisine
• Raggae Boy & Girl Restaurant
• Cider House Cafe

Other participants offering samples and items to purchase:

• Rogowski Farm
• Zora Dora's
• Nobel Pies
• Bread Alone
• Acorn Hill Farm
• Grandpa Pete
• Mr. Cannoli
• Black Lab Naturals
• Luna Grown
• Bixby Chocolates
• Casa Del Caviocavallo
• T.C. Sauces
• Honey Brook Farms
• Big Guys Hot Sauces
• The Gourmet Exchange

Music by Jeremy Langdale on Saturday and Groovy Tuesday on Sunday. The event is sponsored by Hudson Valley Wine Magazine, Edible Hudson Valley, New York Life and Green Mountain Energy Company. It will run from noon to 5 p.m. each day.

Host venue Applewood Winery is located at 82 Four Corners in this Orange County community.

NYC water-only cafe goes molecular

NEW YORK -- Move over, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, you have competition.

It's a seven-step drinking water purification process that goes something like this:

Kinetic degradation fuxion), magnetic and catalytic, active-carbon-five-micron reverse osmosis, UV and ozone treatments.

Not exactly one word, but one descriptive phrase. It deals with what entrepreneurs Adam Ruhf and Alexander Venet go through with the only thing served at Molecule Water Cafe in New York City.

They maintain that what they sell is cleaner and healthier than regular tap water -- although the city regularly gets high marks for the quality of such, piped in from the Catskills.

The $25,000 purifying system is located behind the bar at Molecule, where it purportedly strips down city water to its molecular level. Patrons can add supplements such as vitamins, minerals and electrolytes to their drink at $1 per item. That's on top of the $1 for a cup of water, $2.50 for a 16-ounce glass bottle of it, $3 for a gallon or $10 for five gallons.

Molecule also delivers in the neighborhood. Ruhf maintains his product will find a niche with a society concerned over cluttering landfills with plastic water bottles and shipping water all over the world.

Molecule Water Cafe is located at 259 East 10th Street, off First Avenue. Phone: (646) 371-9025.

Farm dinner series in the Finger Lakes

The Finger Lakes are a popular tourist draw for Capital Region residents looking for an easy overnight or weekend jaunt.

For the most part, the big attraction has been the proliferation of wineries in that region, but in recent years the food scene has been ratcheting up.

The latest undertaking is "Harvest Dinners on the Farm, a series of fundraising dinners at different Finger Lakes farms. The set of five monthly dinners will benefit Healthy Food for All, a partnership between farms and Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County to make produce accessible to limited-income households.

You can get full particulars online, as well as make reservations there or by calling (607) 342-8845. Tickets are $75, and seating is limited.

The schedule:

• Thursday, July 26: Sweet Land Farm, Trumansburg -- A five-course vegetarian menu prepared by Hazelnut Kitchen, with beverages from Sheldrake Point Winery and Redbyrd Orchard Cider. A wine and hors d’oeuvres reception will begin at 5 p.m. in the fields with live music.

• Sunday, August 12: Stick & Stone Farm, Ithaca -- Dinner prepared by Red Newt Cellars Winery and Bistro.

• Sunday, September 30: Early Morning Farm, Genoa -- Dinner prepared by Aurora Inn and Bet the Farm Winery.

• Sunday, October 14: Remembrance Farm, Trumansburg -- Dinner prepared by Stonecat Café and Damiani Wine Cellars.

• Sunday, November 4: West Haven Farm, Ithaca -- Dinner prepared by Just a Taste Restaurant, Bandwagon Brewpub and Bloomer Creek Vineyards.

Schenectady County winery NYS's newest

The tasting room and store.

NISKAYUNA -- New York's newest winery has opened in a location that might surprise many people.

Capoccia Vineyards & Winery, located at 2820 Balltown Road in this Schenectady County community, is a project involving Domenic Capoccia, owner of Northeastern Contracting, and three sons, Nick, 21, Justin, 18, and Michael, 15, that is an outgrowth of a longtime family hobby of making wine.

The new enterprise's tasting room and store sells seven varieties of wine, all made from New York grapes. Three varietals are grown on three acres here, the rest sourced from the Finger Lakes.

The tasting room is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. The seven wines it stocks were made from the 2011 harvest -- Cabernet Franc, Vignoles, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Traminette and Rosette. They are priced from $12 to $20, depending on varietal.

Muscle Maker Grill moves into Upstate

Chain founder Rod Silva.

WHITE PLAINS -- Is there really any way to reduce the bad stuff in that great American classic the bacon cheeseburger, while preserving its taste?

A growing restaurant chain named Muscle Maker Grill, which has just opened its first Upstate New York location, thinks so.

Among its many healthier offerings include one with turkey bacon, reduced fat cheddar cheese and zero-carb signature sauce.

It also offers low-carb wraps, low-fat turkey meatballs, reduced-fat cheeses, zero-carb and zero-fat salad dressings, brown rice, etc. You can go online to see the chain's comparisons of its ingredients and those of competitors'.

The new Muscle Maker Grill is located at 51 Court Street. Among locations soon to get a Muscle Maker Grill are Newburgh and Yonkers.

Earlier this year, chain founder Rod Silva announced plans to expand the franchise system from 50 to 100 units. It already has locations elsewhere in New York, as well as in Pennsylvania, Texas, California, Oklahoma and Florida.

It's official: Dinosaur picks Buffalo site

The selected site.

BUFFALO -- The famous Dinosaur Bar-B-Que brand soon will stretch from one end of New York State to the other.

Founder John Stage on Monday announced selection of a site for a Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Buffalo that he hopes to open early next summer.

The site is a former film storage facility at 301 Franklin Street in the downtown entertainment district.

In addition to the original Dinosaur in Syracuse, there are others in Troy, Rochester, Harlem and Newark, NJ, with others scheduled to open in Brooklyn and Stamford, VT, early in 2013.

Another Finger Lakes restaurant week set

Sixteen restaurants were involved in the inaugural Finger Lakes Wine Country Restaurant Tour held in June.

After serving more than 1,000 special-offer meals, they didn't want to wait a year to try it again. Thus, a second restaurant week has been scheduled for October 22-29 this fall.

"The chefs were excited to use the early summertime ingredients like asparagus and strawberries. When considering the dates for our next Restaurant Week, we knew it had to take place in the fall," said Morgen McLaughlin, president of the Finger Lakes Wine Country Tourism Marketing Association. "The bounty of the fall harvest in late October will provide the chefs with a new, exciting challenge with a completely different flavor profile."

In the June week, patrons were offered special three-course $30 dinners or $25 lunches, with the option of a $15 flight of Finger Lakes wines to pair with the meals. Details about the October tour will be available online as they become available.

Cazenovia Beverage Trail in its infancy

Artist's sketch of Owera tasting room.

CAZENOVIA -- The number of stops on the new Cazenovia Beverge Trail should double before the next 12 months go by.

Of course, that number needs to be put in perspective.

The state's newest beverage trail presently includes only Good Nature Brewing and Harvest Moon Winery at Critz Farms. Later this year, the new Owera Vineyards is expected to open and in the new year Empire Brewing is expected to join.

This charming small town on the south end of Cazenovia Lake, south of Syracuse, is best known for its B&Bs and antique shops. The creation of the beverage trail now gives it an extra cachet for tourists.

Owera Vineyar, Madison County's first commercial winery, located at 5276 East Lake Road, is putting the finishing touches on its wine room and pans to open to the public in September. It features cold-weather grapes from Minnesota.

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ON THE WEB 
• Cazenovia Area Events Calendar

Dannon goes into the restaurant business

The new venture on opening day.

• From Crain's New York Business

NEW YORK -- On Monday the Dannon Company made its first-ever-anywhere foray into the restaurant business, opening The Yogurt Culture Co. shop, a lunch and breakfast eatery at 125 Park Ave., between East 41st and East 42nd streets.

Instead of the mass-produced yogurt it has supplied to markets around the country for decades, the White Plains-based company's restaurant is offering only small-batch premium yogurt paired with fruit purees and other toppings.

The store also sells yogurt-infused sandwiches, muffins and salads (with yogurt-based dressings) as well -- of course -- as frozen yogurt for dessert. Located in a space formerly occupied by a pizzeria just a half-block below Grand Central Terminal, the shop also offers limited seating.

 [Go here for the full story.]