Art & Dining = Blue Moon Cafe

Food and art go hand in hand. A glass of wine, a plate of cheese and crackers, and an oil painting says gallery opening to us. But what about adding a caesar salad, or salmon and cream cheese on a bagel? We can have it all… at the Blue Moon Cafe in Saranac Lake.

While the saying is “once in a blue moon,” we can enjoy this local dining favorite every day. At Blue Moon the art on the walls, which accompany our meals, feature many different artists’ work which might be mistaken for just delightful decoration, but there's a twist.

If we fall in love, we can take something home! Because this restaurant is also a gallery.

The Recipe

Smacking disparate elements together is something we excel at, here in the Adirondack Park. It is so easy to explore a trackless wilderness by day, and then indulge in the most devoted pampering by night. Hikers can breakfast like lumberjacks, lunch like survivalists, and dine as the most discriminating of gourmets. So it’s not that surprising to enjoy an eclectic bistro creation like a vegetarian Rueben (the “Ricky”!) or Mexican Shepherd’s Pie while sitting under a fine photo or ambitious oil painting. With our distinctive and delightful four seasons, we get used to things changing.

Key Ingredients

This is especially true when the air and leaves turn crisp. While in summer we seek dining experiences which are light and refreshing, now it is the warmth of kitchens which draws us in. We want our bagel, toasted and our chocolate, hot.

Our outlook on the world changes, too. When fresh snow is falling, the world is quieter. On “bluebird days” the sky and ground are both so bright we need sunglasses. This is how we promise our visitors a winter experience very different from the one they are used to having. In Blue Moon’s combination of bistro and gallery, we should be prepared for the spaces to surprise us. The stairwell displays photographs, posters for local events, prize certificates for excellent cuisine, and a duck decoy.

Time For Cordials

The funny thing about art is how it changes our viewpoints. Once we start looking for what will surprise us, we wind up getting surprised more often. Looking with “artist’s eyes” lets us find artistic touches everywhere. It’s not that the world has changed. It’s that we are now looking at it, differently. This is how the simplest things can become a little bit magical.

The art at Blue Moon Cafe can even be seen in its coffee mug selection. It might be far more accidental than the items on the wall, but it also has the ability to reflect a moment in time. A table of four comes in for breakfast, and a new batch of cups comes out of the dishwasher. Just like that, the pattern is different. The coffee cup tray at the Blue Moon is a kind of “found art.” Choose from the six different coffees always available, and then choose from the ever-changing variety of coffee mugs. Wear and tear and various sources keeps the coffee mug selection eclectic and colorful.

The display of art on the walls has its own movement as people come in, ponder, and then perhaps purchase. Wall space is not blank for long, as a series of lithographs takes up the vacated space. Sometimes there is a new little painting, tucked into a corner. Just right for a diner to sit, and contemplate, over coffee and a fresh muffin. If we have ever surveyed our steaming cup of coffee and perfectly dome-topped muffin, then remembered that mental picture after we have eaten… we have captured a moment. Unlike that muffin, this memory is ours forever.

If we wish to, we can pull that moment off the wall and take it home with us.