photo: Shannon DeCelle

Cross This Path
By B.A. Nilsson

The Black Cat Ale House

5 White St., Cohoes, 235-3199. Serving daily 11:30-10. AE, D, MC, V.

Cuisine: pub food plus

Entrée price range: $9 (meatloaf) to $22 (surf and turf)

Ambiance: classic pub

It’s a combination of a restaurant in Hyannis (called the Black Cat) and a bar in Manhattan. It’s just off the main street of Cohoes, where it has quietly built a following during its three years. The Black Cat Ale House is the brainchild of Terry Frederick, who has had a hand in other area hotels and restaurants but finally, with this place, got to create the kind of neighborhood pub he enjoys as a customer.

There’s a comfortable ambiance that goes beyond the pleasant nautical theme of the decor. Neighborhood folk have discovered the place and made it their own; people also drive in from towns near and not-so-near. Not surprisingly, there are good brews on tap and an impressive variety in bottles, but what knocked us over was the quality of the food, all of it handmade.

Superior pub fare is elusive these days. I’m forever seeking out-of-the-way joints where there might be magic in the kitchen. Too often—most often—I find what I found while driving through the Catskills recently, impressed enough with the facade of an Irish pub to try it for a solo dinner. The overpriced fish and chips I was served were a disappointing combo of breaded, frozen patties and undercooked fries.

Compare that to what’s served at the Black Cat. It was a Friday night special, for $14, featuring a tremendous strip of whitefish that was freshly batter-dipped before hitting the hot oil, surrounded by crisp steak fries. Although it’s not on the regular menu, you’ll find plenty of other lunch and dinner items, the latter served nightly after 4 PM and all day on Sunday.

Sandwiches are the lunch staple, running the classical gamut from grilled cheese ($3.75) to a $7.50 “Philly style cheese steak canoe.” Roast beef, corned beef, Reubens, pastrami—and note that the turkey listing boasts itself as “fresh-roasted daily in-house. NEVER any ‘pressed stuff.’ ” Those canoes also come with sausage and peppers, or a parmigiana preparation of chicken or eggplant. And there’s a list of burgers (a half pound of Black Angus) culminating in the Black Cat’s Cat’s Meow, topped with bacon, cheese, mushrooms, peppers and onions and priced at only $7.

Appetizers are what you’d expect, lots of fried stuff, of which we sampled an order of chicken wings ($5.50) cooked Cajun garlic style for some unusual but appropriate flavor (the celery and blue cheese is included in that price). The soup of the day was cream of mushroom ($3.50/$4.50), and it had an unexpectedly good texture and flavor.

Steamed clams are a house special, market priced. Our dozen cost $7, which was more than reasonable, and won the approval of our friend Gary, a Rhode Island native and clam aficionado who insisted that the true steamer has to be an Ipswich, but who could find no fault with the littlenecks he was served.

Although I’m rarely intimidated by an unfamiliar menu, it’s always nice to have an escort. Our server, Colleen, proved to be exceptionally knowledgeable about the food and how to match it to our various tastes. So it was that Gary, his eye on the crab cakes ($16) or the meatloaf ($9) was steered to the $17 Delmonico steak. Not what he planned to order, but still a satisfying choice because it was a good cut of meat that sported the distinctive flavor of the charcoal grill. I don’t know the weight of the cut, but it was formidable enough to also warrant a take-home container.

I could have gone with the pork chop dinner ($11), but I detected a note of concern in Colleen’s voice when I asked her about it. Next thing I knew, she was rhapsodizing about the surf and turf, never a big favorite with me; divining which, she eased into the subject of steak alone and persuaded me to go with another special of the day: a slab of prime rib the size of a small apartment building, for the amazingly low price of $16.

“It’s really good tonight,” she confided, “and you can get it really rare, if you like.” I did so. She was right.

The entrées include dinner salads, a better-than-average array, and the plates are finished with a not-overcooked vegetable and a potato choice, which prompted a hail of baked potatoes at our table.

Rounding out our dinner selection was another Colleen-recommended item: Jamaican chicken ($9.50), a less-intimidating way of identifying jerk chicken. Although in this case, the meat doesn’t marinate in the spicy sauce but instead picks up the flavor from its gravy. While it wouldn’t persuade a Jamaican, I can see it as a way of introducing the flavor to the timid, and my wife, who too often numbers among that group, was pleased to be able to regulate the amount of spice heat that way.

Too stuffed to even consider dessert (one of the listings of which is the ever-changing “chocolate something,” $4.50), we nevertheless lingered over coffee and the remains of our beer and wine because the outdoors were chilly, the company was good, and the restaurant couldn’t have made us feel more welcome.

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