Otto's Kids' Club

If you live within a ten mile radius of Germantown, I'm guessing you've visited Otto's Market. You can do a good bit of your weekly marketing there. If you like to linger and chat, fabulous things come out of the kitchen for breakfast and lunch to encourage a sit-down. All this and the best coffee in the tri-village area (that's Red Hook, Tivoli, and Germantown if you're not from around here). You may even have spotted me at a little table in the window with my favorite coffee date.


What you may not know, is that Otto's has a Kids' Club. You may not know because it's a fairly exclusive little membership.


Otto, think avuncular grocer with a campy sense of humor, makes the invitations himself. There is an interview.



A photo is taken for the membership card. Yes, these are card-carrying members.



References are checked. The steering committee convenes (I'm thinking this is the Lays guy, a neighborhood cat, and Otto's accountant). If they smile upon an applicant, the reward (apart from the obvious thrill of carrying the card) is a dive into the treasure chest stashed under the register.

I tried to get my little guy to pick the clicky cricket toy, but after a brief dalliance with candy lipstick, he walked away with Smarties.

Go to Otto's. Take a kid. Have lunch. Clean your plate and hope for an invite.

Otto's Market is at 215 Main St. conveniently opposite Jim Lawlor's liquor store. Otto's is open Mon-Sat 7-7, Sun 7-3. Phone 518.537.7200.

Bubby's Back!

The little Burrito Stand is open again. You don't need me to tell you, unless you haven't traveled 9G on your way to Tivoli in the past couple of weeks.


It's a sure sign that Bard graduation will soon be upon us, when Bubby comes back home from Mexico and sets up the Burrito stand. All winter she and her husband run a cafe in San Miguel. Not a bad gig. But, in summer, she's all ours.


You can get your black bean burrito with guacamole or without, and there's a cheese quesadilla on the menu too. The most you could possibly spend for lunch is $7.50, so add this to your cheap date list.


If you hang around the stand to eat (which is the best part), just watch out for the chicken. She's a burrito-eatin' chicken, and if you are part of the under 3-foot crowd, she just might steal your lunch.


Bubby's Burritos is located at the Montgomery Place Orchards Fruit Stand on Route 9G just north of the light at Route 199. She's open Tuesday to Saturday from 12 to 5. And, she'll be with us until early fall.

Yard Yachting

Last Saturday was Germantown's Yard Sale Day, a minor event if there ever was one. Being a former Gtowner and quite partial to the place, I'm not one to criticize. However, it was few-and-far-between. That didn't prevent us from finding treasure. No sirree.


Dumped in a big floppy cardboard box along with some hideous old curtains, I found the mother load of vintage fabric.


I made a big pile of the stuff and tentatively asked how much, hoping I had enough to take it all. The answer, "Free." I guess when you're selling your husband's ex-wife's stuff, it's not worth a hell of a lot to you. Lucky me.


Which isn't to say I didn't lay out some cash. I, of course, needed a red Scotty dog door stop. Cost 25 cents. I did my bit.

A few of us have been of the opinion that this is the year to buy second hand. With every manner of vehicle parked on someone's front lawn this spring, it's a buyer's market. Snow plows, camo trucks (two of them), boats, campers, cars, motorcycles. I've even seen kids' bikes. Everyone's lightening their load and looking for cash. (Except in Germantown, of course, where they just break in and take it. If we still had local newspapers, you could read all about it.)

If you missed Gtown's Yard Sale Day, do not despair. Tivoli's own Sale-ing event is July 25th. Mark your calendars and come early. The Mayor will be handing out maps at the intersection. Gtown could learn a thing or two.