Three questions for a Lancastrian

First of all, I have no idea if a person from Lancaster (PA) is called a Lancastrian or something else. It seems reasonable to me but Google was not able to confirm this. We’ll just go with it. I met “Elle” at the Thistle Finch Distillery where she worked behind the bar. Elle may be her name but I don’t know for sure, she was a bit private when it came to that. So, we’ll just go with that too. However, the conversation was real and she shared a lot of interesting suggestions and recommendations in Lancaster and the local area. To me, she well represented the vibe of the city of Lancaster as opposed to the more well-known Amish County. Lancaster is not at all Amish, more like Brooklyn. We talked over a tasting flight of Thistle Finch spirits (Lavender Vodka, Pepper Rye, etc.) with the Talking Heads “Wild, Wild Life” booming in the background. The setting and Elle were cool!

J: Tell me a little about yourself.

E: I’m not from Lancaster originally but have been living here for like five years. I arrived on a plane and don’t really have a plan. But Lancaster is a really cool city, a cool little town. I’ve worked here at Thistle Finch for about 2 years and I was not really a rye person but I really like them here – I am spoiled being here.

J: What is something someone should know about this area, about where you live?

E: Well like food-wise there are a lot of really amazing places to eat here that I could recommend. Luca is really good, it’s not traditional or Amish. They’re Italian – they brought their pizza oven from Italy and it’s all phenomenal. And their pizza is outstanding and their cocktails too. They won a James Beard award and their cocktails are amazing. It’s a really good place. The Horse Inn is another really good place but you’ll never get in. I mean it’ll probably be like a two hour wait. They don’t take reservations, but they have a jazz piano, they have, like an alcove, like a little bar. It gets a little bit full but it’s really cool, it’s a really old bar, it used to be a speakeasy and it’s really good. Callaloo is really good, it’s a Trinidad and Tobago restaurant, it’s on Lemon Street. Callaloo means hummingbird, it’s BYOB just in case. Just walking around, you will see a lot of really cool stuff. You’ll see a lot of art and stuff today. Yesterday was First Friday which is like a big deal, every first Friday they do like the arts things so there’s that. Shot and Bottle is our sister restaurant right downtown. The Exchange at the Marriott, there’s like the rooftop bar that you can see out over the city, it’s the tallest building. Decades is a really cool little place, it’s like a posh arcade bar, it’s really pretty. Tomorrow’s Sunday so the Amish will all be at church so you’re not gonna see very many out. There’s like farm land and you can totally do that, like drive around and see the farms and what not. The farms are really, really cool don’t get me wrong. You will really enjoy the drive. Shady Maple is always fun, people always seem to really enjoy that. It’s like this big restaurant, like a buffet thing. It’s insane. Penny’s ice cream is phenomenal. It’s on Price Street and they have really good ice cream. Barbaret, they have really good pastries, like cute little pastries for dessert, but like really, really good ones.

J: What is something local that you like to eat?

E: Shoo-fly pie is a dessert, like sugar on sugar on sugar. People here seem to really like it. It’s too sweet for my personal taste. There’s two kinds, there’s a wet one and a dry one. They put molasses on the wet one and it soaks in sugar. And the dry one is the same amount of sugar but it does not soak in it. That’s a big deal around here, people like that. Apparently, people call it shoo-fly because they used to have to shoo the flies off of the pies. There is a shoo-fly pie place that’s out near Amish country. Look it up. I’ve driven past it and it’s like a cute little shop and they have other little knickknacks and tidbits and what not. I was at the annual Harvest Breakfast at the Central Market today and literally everyone was eating these cinnamon roll French toast things. The line for it was ridiculous. So instead I had bacon wrapped scallops for breakfast, fresh off the grill. They were amazing.

J: Tell me about a dream or goal you want to accomplish this year.

E: My plan is to make the fall cocktail menu here; it starts next week. I design it myself from inspirations I get anywhere and everywhere. We will have one called The Impeachment I got inspired from a story on NPR. It will have peach and mint in it. I didn’t go to mixology school or anything, just lots of years of experience, Hard Knocks University! That’s the plan.

Elle from Lancaster, PA