Roamers Cafe & Bar
2634 Main StreetThe second day of the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships was a pretty long one for us. B finished up the one event he started Monday night and he had both segments of his second event in the afternoon. L also had the first segment of one of her events and a practice for her third event.
J and L walked around at lunch time but I stayed and hung out at the arena. To be honest, I was curious to watch some of the younger ice dance pairs. My kids both do solo ice dance so I’ve never really seen how the younger kids do pairs patterns.
I didn’t really feel like walking anywhere for lunch when I got done with that. I walked out of the 1980 Rink and in to the main upstairs lobby area. I saw that the cafe was open and figured now was as good of a time as any to to grab a burger from there.
Roamers Cafe & Bar is inside The Olympic Center in downtown Lake Placid. It’s in the part of the building the connects the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena to the 1932 Jack Shea Arena. The main part of the cafe is kind of more like a concession stand it butts up to the 1980 rink. There are a couple of windows along the space that doubles as the kitchen. One of them is a pick up window while the one closest to the door that leads to the balcony outside is the order window.
There’s also a couple of other pieces to this cafe and bar. One of those pieces is an actual bar. It was open pretty much the same times that the main part of the cafe was open, but it’s separate from the concession stand like area and more in the middle of the large room.
The third part is I guess more of an actual cafe. It’s all the way on the other side of the room from the concession stand and it’s the first thing to open in the morning. This is where you can get coffee, pastries, and some limited breakfast items.
There really wasn’t a good menu anywhere. There was one TV screen that scrolled through it but you had to read pretty quickly. There were QR codes in a couple of different locations that would take you to the menu on their website. This was probably the easiest to make a decision before you got to the order window.
I was pretty much by myself when I ordered lunch and I thought everyone else was taken care of. I ordered myself a Bacon Cheddar Burger and a can of pop. The cost was around $22. It only took a few minutes for the burger to be cooked and passed out the window to me on a paper plate.
I grabbed the plate and headed for a table inside the large dining area that was between the concession stand area and the bar. There are large floor to ceiling windows that give you a really great view of the Adirondacks off in the distance.
I started with the fries because that’s kind of my MO. They were the frozen battered variety that I’ve mentioned many times aren’t my favorite. They were fine though and there was a pretty good portion on the plate. I didn’t notice the condiment station when I walked right by it or else I would have grabbed some mustard packets. That seems to be the way I really like these kind of fries.
The burger was a little better than I was expecting for a concession stand burger. I figured I was paying way to much at $18 but this was actually a pretty tasty smash burger with two patties, cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles on a brioche bun. For what is essentially a concession stand burger, it was actually pretty filling and had some nice crispy bits along the edge of the burger from the grill top. The bacon wasn’t super crispy but I’m ok with that. It still brought the flavor. I didn’t have very high hopes for this sandwich when I ordered….I just ordered it out of convenience…but I actually liked it.
The pop situation in pretty much all of Lake Placid made me chuckle a bit. If you know anything about me, you know I almost exclusively drink 20 oz. Pepsi bottles. None of the places had Pepsi. They all had ADK Soda and only in cans. It’s a product of Adirondack Beverages headquarted in Scotia, NY. I’m all for local beverages so that didn’t really bother me but I really wanted a bottle by the end of the week. I would also just order the Cola and pretty much every time they’d ask me “which flavor,” so not sure how I was supposed to order. Finally, one of the cashiers said, “oh a Coke.” I mean…sure. A Coke. It’s all pretty much the same. The Cola from ADK was a little bit sweeter but other than that, it was a good substitute for Pepsi all week.
As soon as I sat down to eat, J and B appeared. They weren’t even together at the time. They just both walked in to the cafe area at the same time. B said he was hungry and I asked if he wanted a cheeseburger. He said yes, so J went and ordered him a cheeseburger. This is a much simpler sandwich with just a locally sourced beef hamburger topped with American cheese on a brioche bun and served with fries. The cost is $13. He devoured the the burger and shared the fries with his friend. That actually happened a couple of times over the rest of the week. He ate the burger, she ate the fries. Win-win for everyone.
We ate at Roamers Cafe a few times over the week because it was convenient but they also have some pretty tasty food. The cost is a little bit inflated since it is inside an arena but it’s not awful. I know L got the Bacon Mac ‘n Cheese a few times so there were other options. This isn’t the kind of place you come in off the street to eat at but if you’re in the complex anyway, it’s a really good option so you don’t have to walk back to the restaurants on Main Street.
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