I love Ithaca, despite the explosion of mass-market near-monopolies like Lowes and Walmart, its still a pretty quaint town. This weekend we had the chance to visit some of the new restaurants in Collegetown and we had a great time. I wish they had been there when we went to school, and that we could have afforded them!

Collegetown hasn’t changed too much, The Greek House is gone, the quaint flower shop I never visited has become a Subway, and there is some new stuff up on College Ave, but now there is The Plum Tree, on Dryden road, next to where the Greek House used to be, and The Carriage House, on Stewart Ave across from the ABC Cafe and Chapter House.

Plum Tree had some absolute best sushi I’ve ever had, even compared to some of the places I’ve been in Boston. The menu is full of non-standard ‘special’ rolls, all of which sound delicious and worth trying. You must try the 007 roll, and the Supersonic roll was very good too. The standard sushi fair we had was all very good too, including the Kanpyo and Shitaki rolls, as well as the Yellowtail maki, which was amazingly soft.

When I was a student, the old wodden-doored garage across the street from the Chapter House looked like it was on the verge of falling down, but always looked like it had great promise for the right person, and now it has been beautifully restored by the owner’s of the new Carriage House restaurant.

I’m not sure if The Carriage House is a restaurant or an upscale cafe in the evenings, but on Sunday’s they serve an incredible brunch, the Brie-stuffed French Toast was deadly good, I almost ordered a second. The barista puts incredible designs on the tops of his cafe au lait, and there is a great 1925-26 Cornell winter sports season ticket mounted above the urinal in the men’s room. Its great reading material, seriously.