As you approach, depending upon the light, it may strike you as an English country house on a summer afternoon, lifted from the pages of a novel by Henry James or E.M. Forster.
It is, however, a restaurant: The Club Grill, the Sagamore resort’s steakhouse atop its Donald Ross golf course.
Built roughly the same time as the golf course, the building is now nearly a century old, and it wears its age well: venerable, seasoned, its edges softened and muted by time.
The interior, echoing the building’s architectural influences, is likewise unaffected by fads and fashions. It is a metaphor for understated taste, stability and continuity.
“As soon as you enter the restaurant and see the portrait of Donald Ross over the fireplace, you know you’re in a place with its own, distinctive character,” says Tom Guay, the Sagamore’s general manager.
According to Guay, the restaurant is open to the public and the resort’s guests five nights a week, from Wednesday to Sunday.
For many guests, visitors and local residents, the Club Grill is a welcome contrast to the busy hotel and crowded streets of Bolton Landing.
“The Club Grill provides people with an opportunity to get off Green Island and the lake and up the hill, with its spectacular views. For the resort, the Club Grill serves a valuable function. When guests say they want to try a restaurant ‘off property,’ we are able to tell them, ‘we happen to have a very nice one,’” said Guay.
According to Guay, the restaurant “is small by design.”
During the summer, when the sunroom and screened porch are in use, the restaurant can seat as many as 70 people.
There is also a bar, “tiny but inviting,” according to Guay.
As Guay modestly notes, “the quality of the service and of menu have been very well received.”
The service and the menu are, appropriately enough, also unaffected by fads.
Rather than chasing culinary trends, the kitchen offers a well-considered version of the classic American steakhouse, emphasizing prime beef and carefully prepared seafood, accompanied by familiar side dishes.
Diners can choose from a dry-aged New York strip, filet mignon, cowboy ribeye, veal chop, Kurobuta pork chop or an impressive 36-ounce porterhouse for two. Wagyu specialties—including filet, short rib and even Wagyu meatballs— are contemporary touches that do not undermine the menu’s classic identity.
According to Tom Guay, the restaurant will maintain its summer schedule at least until early October.
For year-round residents, the Sagamore’s decision last year to open the restaurant for New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day and Easter made for a welcome – and much needed – escape from the abbreviated days and oppressive chills of an Adirondack winter.
For Club Grill reservations, call 518-644-9400.
