attractions
classifieds
coupons
DUI lawyer
DWI lawyer
events
gift certificates
homes for sale
houses for rent
insurance
ISP
jobs
local bands
neighborhood
nightlife
recipes
restaurants
transportation
web hosting
work

Remember that money I laid out for promotion for an upcoming concert at your establishment a few years ago, you had given your word you would pay for the transportation expenses for the radio appearances, which you ended up not doing, well I guess this just goes to show you! Integrity and a mans word is his most valuable asset, when you lose that you have nothing!

What this place needs is for someone from The City who is sick of that rat race and who has the background, the track record, the know-how, and last but not least the bankroll, to rescue this place from impending doom. Upstate Wannabee’s don’t bother – it ain’t gonna work. A coat of paint and a happy face on the new logo won’t fool anybody. This place has needed some serious surgery for a long time. Two aspirin just won’t do it.

I hope the joint is resurrected. But I won’t be putting any money on it. Anytime soon that is.

The food was hit or miss. My wife had a salad that she enjoyed very much, and the kids liked the chicken quesadilla that they shared (note there is no kids menu). I had the Three Meat Combo, consisting of barbecued beef brisket, pulled pork, and St. Louis-style ribs. The brisket was good, the pork below average, and the ribs horrible. I usually agree with Mr. O'Connor's reviews, but it is a travesty to put Van Dyck's barbecue in the same league as Dinosaur's. I lived in the South for seven years--long enough to learn a thing or two about real 'cue, and unfortunately, the Van Dyck doesn't come close.

Service was very slow, and there were many faults with the establishment: broken soap dispenser in the restroom, no paper towels in the restroom, out of large take-out boxes, out of spicy barbecue sauce.

I want to like the Van Dyck, I really do. To have high quality, freshly brewed beer in Schenectady is great. But a brewpub cannot survive on beer alone. Management needs to improve the food and the service to bring them up to the level of the beer, and fast, or this incarnation of the Van Dyck will not last long.

The Schenectady Steam Beer (hey - we made locomotives here before California was discovered) at first had a funky nose and flavor the first few sips. Then I remembered like a dope I had a Cherry Coke in the car on the way over. By the time I got it half way down though I realized it was one of the best “Steam” style beers I’ve had with a nice complex malt and pungent hop nose and palate – maybe too complex but making it very long on the aftertaste. This beer grew on me and I would have poured a few more down my gullet but I had to sample the other wares.

The Nott Bad Raspberry Wheat was very familiar to me. I’ll let you figure out where you’ve had it before. But with that said, you can give me your grandmother’s lasagna recipe and it just ain’t gonna taste the same. This version was all fruit in both the nose and the palate, but ultra clean, especially for a wheat (albeit it looked filtered).

The Union IPA is a hop-head’s dream - all Cascade and it bites you right in the nose and then again on the palate. The first sip was perfect, and in fact I wrote “perfect” down three times in my notes. This was easily one of the top three IPA’s I’ve ever had. The brewer definitely hit this one right on the head.

The Mohawk Imperial Stout comes in a small glass (good thing), and is all alcohol in the nose. The coffee comes first but the palate gets a nice coffee/toffee treat as it flows across it. This beer is a nice winter warmer and it finished quite well.

We had a nice chat with the owner before we left. I’m not sure what direction the business is going, but I did try a sample of their purported new-menu “bar-b-que,” and I must say it stacks right up with joints like Dinosaur and Redbones. I’ll make a phony excuse to come back by telling other half about the food. But for me, this place is now on the radar screen as a “must stop” destination. Happy hours I believe start at 3:00 with $1.50 pints, and go up .50 or so every hour until they top off at $4.00.

The servers had no clue where the beer came from (It used to be from the Big House). One entire set of taps is contaminated from varnish that was used during remodeling. The IPA out of that tap was oxidized and barely made the Pale category with no hops present at all. Out of the "good" tap it wasn't too bad with a high-hop nose as was as a highly hopped palate. I can't believe it was the same beer, but I had been warned about the taps. The Amber out of the "good tap" was overly malty, stale, and also oxidized.

This is a beautiful building with potential, but I don't see this place going anywhere soon (except out of business). And I took a good look around the neighborhood when I left. Oh boy. If you don't get a parking spot right out front or in the lot on Erie, keep going.