One New York Life

We finally got to Belhurst Castle in the early evening after getting completely turned around and lost in the terribly weird traffic circle structure at the north end of Seneca Lake. That image from the link — it really is that nice on the outside. The “information folder” that’s always in a hotel room came with a cool little bit of history on the building. It was used as picnic land for the people of Geneva until a rich, snobby woman from New York City traveled north and purchased the land with her husband’s money. She then promptly divorced her husband and married someone else. Soon after, she commissioned a four-story, gigantic, castle-like mansion be built with stone and such imported from Europe. I’d have to check some history books, but it might be the first “Hey Upstate Farming/Mining Hicks — Check Out How Much Money I have” home built in Upstate New York’s history. It was later bought and spent some time as a speakeasy and casino. Cool stuff.

After check-in we brought our stuff up to our suite. It was named “The Billiard Room” but sadly lacked Yvette. Since the castle is 100 years old, there are no niceties like “elevators”. This meant I had to carry all 348 pounds of PLR’s luggage up two flights of stairs. But, God love her, she saw that there were only two rooms in the castle with private balconies and, since she knows me well, got one of them. The room (virtual tour available) was very much like a small studio apartment without a kitchen. The funniest thing about this room was the $400 CD/MP3 stereo contrasted with the 22-inch, standard-definition television with a VCR/DVD player from 1999 hooked up to it. The piece de resistance of the room, though, was a small stairwell behind the bed that led up to a private balcony. While the balcony does face the parking lot and the building next door, there are decent lake views to the right.

Since we were finally done driving for the day, we decided to do our third wine-tasting (complimentary per day with the room). I have to admit, by this point I’d had so many wines that I couldn’t really differentiate anymore. It was fine here but I don’t think we ended up buying much. I’m pretty sure we bought something that was in a cool bottle for my mother and that was all. One oddity of this place was that even though we checked in on a Wednesday, there was some event going on. It kind of made us feel uncomfortably underdressed. It’s a little weird to be dressed like a tourist walking around with people in formal attire. At least for me. I felt like I had a fanny pack on. I hate fanny packs. If they had been in period attire, I might have run screaming for my life.

As that was the case, we ended up calling in room service for the evening and eating on the bed. We split the New York Cheese plate for an appetizer. PLR went with an incredibly tasty clam and roasted corn chowder in a bread bowl. Is there any better soup than a dairy base in a bread bowl? I don’t think there is. I don’t think it’s possible. I got a Monte Cristo.

Aside, I blame Bennigan’s for completely ruining the Monte Cristo for me with their absurdly awesome version of the sandwich. Take everything that makes a Monte Cristo awesome and then deep fry it, dust it with powdered sugar, and serve it with some kind of raspberry cocaine sauce. The bonus — it came on wheat bread so it was clearly low-cal and good for you. Now they’re gone from New York entirely. As a sad second aside, it seems Bennigan’s has removed their Wheelhouse Burger from existence. The Wheelhouse was a cheeseburger except that the cheese was a gigantic mozzarella stick patty. No one cared less about “healthy living” than Bennigan’s and God bless them for it.

The cheese board was a bit boring. It was a block of New York Cheddar with a group of things to pair it with. Grapes, mustard, pepperoni, and crackers. It was a fine little appetizer. I guess when I go to a restaurant (or have them bring me food) I expect a little more than a Hickory Farms Gift Basket.

As for the Monte Cristo — the turkey was kind of dry and bland and I found the bread to be a little meh (I’ve become really spoiled by City rolls and bagels), but the cranberry relish that came with was the 2nd best Monte Cristo topping I’ve ever had (the aforementioned raspberry cocaine sauce is #1) and I was in love with the deep-fried pickle. A solid 6/10 meal and a superb 9/10 on the room-service scale.

PLR decided to retire soon after dinner and I may or may not have crushed a bottle of wine on my own between 11 pm and 1 am. Who’s got two thumbs, a complimentary robe, a bottle of wine, and no sense of what might seem creepy to outsiders? This guy right here. The night was just a bit too cold to be out in shorts and a T-shirt but the robe was enough. After the weird formal group disappeared, it was very quiet. Like creepy quiet for someone who’s become used to being surrounded by noise. Angled correctly you could look down into and across the lake and ignore the rest of the landscape. I had a great time just sitting and chilling while PLR slept. Something I’ve always found fun about places like this (super old places that haven’t changed in a century) is thinking about what’s gone on in the area and about the people that came through there. Like, did the woman who commissioned the house be built in the late 1800s think that people would be sitting on her balcony drinking wine in 100 years looking down at the lake? What would she think of it? Would she hate all these strangers in her house? Strange, I know.

Up next: The Seneca Lake Wine Trail.

Related posts:

• TravelDL: 10 Final Thoughts On Finger Lakes Wineries 2009
• TravelDL: Finger Lakes Wineries 2009 – Glenora Wine Cellars
• TravelDL Snob: Finger Lakes Wineries 2009 – Seneca Lake Wine Trail
• TravelDL Snob – Finger Lakes Wineries 2009: Cayuga Lake Wine Trail
• TravelDL Snob – Finger Lakes Wineries 2009: Seneca Lake Wine Trail