City Guide: Lancaster, Pennsylvania
The Horse Inn, LUCA, Passenger Coffee, Pizzeria 211...
Welcome to City Guides, featuring personal recommendations for my favorite neighborhood spots for drinking and eating around New York City and beyond. City Guides is a Friday paid-subscriber exclusive.
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Today’s LAST CALL dispatch is free to all readers thanks to the generous support of See the Elephant Amaro.
Produced in Agropoli near Salerno, See the Elephant Amaro di Rucola is made using local, regional herbs and botanicals—including the signature rucola (“arugula”)—and is considered a “zero kilometer,” farm-to-bottle amaro with all the key ingredients sourced from the Cilento Coast region of southern Italy.
It’s an ideal, Italian-born “gateway” amaro for those just starting to explore the amari category—it’s flavorful, sweet, bold, and complex, with just a touch of bitterness. Enjoy it neat or over ice, or in creative cocktail applications like the Black Manhattan, Espresso Martini, or a seasonal Flip. You can give it a try in the Big Ears (recipe at the end of this dispatch), a rum Negroni twist from bartender Bruce Shultz.
As See the Elephant Amaro di Rucola continues to expand their distribution, you can find it at select bottle shops, bars, and restaurants in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
You can also order a bottle online. Shipping is available to 46 states through the See the Elephant website and use promo code “BTP” to save $10.00 off any order through Tuesday, October 31, 2023.
The New York launch party for See the Elephant Amaro will be held at Amor y Amargo on Monday, October 23, from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., featuring See the Elephant Amaro founder Kyle Harder and cocktails from Bruce Shultz.
(95 Avenue A. New York, NY 10009 | RSVP via Eventbrite)
City Guide: Lancaster, Pennsylvania
I’ve been traveling to Lancaster at least twice a year since the summer of 2017 and I keep an alway-updated “LANCASTER” file in my Drafts folder for friends who are similarly inspired to discover why I’ve become so enamored with this small city in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country.
While most people I know in New York favor getaways to the Hudson Valley, I’ve found steady comfort and a welcome return to Lancaster, known for its regional foodways, restaurants, bars, distilleries, and breweries. And each time I head back to Brooklyn, my weekend bag is filled with pretzels, regional potato chips, spicy mustards, and a small smokehouse’s worth of the area’s signature bologna and smoked meats. And lest you think I’m flashing my Johnny Food Guy card, I’m also thrilled that Lancaster is home to a Waffle House, Sonic Drive-In, and 17 Wawas (in Lancaster County)—three things I can’t get but think about often here in NYC.
From New York, Lancaster is just under a three-hour journey on Amtrak’s Keystone Service. It’s a fairly walkable city with okay-but-not-great ride-share offerings (I think there’s only one Uber XL for the whole county). If you do drive to Lancaster you’ll have more options to explore some of the farm stands, markets, and other offerings outside of the city proper. I'm lucky to know some locals who will drive me around to off-the-beaten track ice cream shops and honor-system farm stands, but there are enough restaurants, bars, boutiques, and shops to keep you more than busy downtown.
I usually stay at the Lancaster Arts Hotel, a boutique hotel in the renovated 1881 Falk and Rosenbaum Tobacco Warehouse, but the Cork Factory Hotel, another modern hotel built in the former home of the 1865 Conestoga Cork Works. My Airbnb experiences have been less than spectacular save for the North Mary Street Townhouse, which I highly recommend.
Lancaster Fun Facts!
Lancaster was the capital of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1812.
Lancaster served as the temporary capital of the United States for just one day during the American Revolution.
The first Conestoga wagon was built in Lancaster.
Birthplace of James Buchanan, the fifteenth President of the United States. His estate is is one of Lancaster's most popular attractions (I’ve never been).
And the former home of Robert Fulton, who designed and operated the world's first commercially successful steamboat. Lancaster’s Fulton Opera House, the oldest continually running theater in the United States, is named in his honor.
The oft-maligned Easter (now year-round) confection Peeps were invented by the Lancaster’s Rodda Candy Company in the 1920s.
Sam Born, the man who invented the first ice cream “jimmies” lived in Lancaster.
The Hamilton Electric 500, the first battery-powered watch, was released in 1957 by Lancaster’s Hamilton Watch Company.
Now on to the food and drink of Lancaster! A reminder that this isn’t everything you should check out or know about, but a curated list of my personal favorites.
Drinking & Eating in Lancaster
Lancaster Central Market
