Restaurants in Glens Falls

No matter how hard he tried, Kevin Brown couldn't shake the chef's hat. After years of working in restaurants and hotels throughout Connecticut and New York, he finally decided to leave the kitchen for good in exchange for a family-friendly job at GE. Once he retired, though, the siren song of the professional kitchen beckoned to him again, and he purchased a Cajun catering company. In no time, Kevin Brown was back in the kitchen at Café NOLA. As both the chef and owner, Kevin devises a menu that spotlights the distinct blends of herbs and spices that characterize Cajun food. As a result, the kitchen churns out gumbo and crab cakes, as well as sandwiches with a southern influence, such as the NOLA club and a grilled portobello sandwich. Diners sip on Louisiana specialty beers and glasses of wine while listening to live music several days a week. Sweet-tooth-sating desserts such as mississippi mud pies and traditional beignets end meals more authentically than eating chocolate-covered Mardi Gras beads.

The crunch of cracking peanut shells lends a steady bass line to the din of merry conversation and clinking pint glasses at Broadway Brew Biergarten. Servers in German-inspired dirndls and knee socks flit between hand-built picnic tables, ferrying plates of wiener schnitzel and Reuben sandwiches. Behind the wood-inlaid bar, taps unleash 16 German and Belgian beers, such as Duvel, Hofbräu, and Spaten. Bartenders also uncap 80 foreign and domestic bottled beers without even using their teeth and shake and stir cocktails. To complement meals, Broadway Brew Biergarten maintains a fleet of hookahs ready to unfurl plumes of smoke scented with mint, fruit, and other flavors.

After scouring the United States in pursuit of its finest barbecue, Memphis Smoke House's chefs embraced Tennessee's tangy and sweet flavors as their culinary medium. The barbecue aficionados eschew charcoal in favor of oak, hickory-apple, and cherry hardwoods to slow smoke their briskets, chicken, turkey legs, and ribs each day. They rub meats in specialty spices before smoking them, then douse the tenderized morsels in house-made memphis bourbon barbecue sauce. The staff serves each platter with cornbread and authentic Southern-style sides of Cajun hand-cut fries, hush puppies, or mashed-potato molds of Robert E. Lee. In their dining room, cool air wafts through the wall's colorful signs, and classic music resounds across an outdoor seating area beneath a red-and-white tent. Memphis Smoke House can also cater get-togethers ranging in size from 15 people to large events of 300.