First Capitol

As a teenager I thought my hometown of York PA was dreadful. In recent years, I've learned its actually not such a bad place after all. York is a quirky place, full of Pennsylvania Dutch farms, highly successful industry, exceedingly beautiful parks, and a city - home to the garden variety of urban problems familiar to much larger cities. There's all sorts of endearing, albeit at times odd, attractions to see including Three Mile Island, York Barbell Weighlifting Hall of Fame, Harley Davidson, The Great York Interstate Fair and The Haines Shoe House. Not to be overlooked is York's national historical value as laying claim to being the Nation's first capitol – it was in York in 1777 that the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, forming the United States of America. Colonial historic York is also home to the Heritage Rail Trail where you can ride your bicycle from inner city York through pastoral farmland the whole way to Maryland. Plus as most Yorkers concede, the best thing about York is its proximity to everywhere else...

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An historic 11-story hotel, the Yorktowne is located in downtown York, one block from the city center square. The hotel is maintained with the flavor of hotels of the 1920s, when the Yorktowne was originally opened. The hotel''s guest registry includes Ella Fitzgerald, Richard Nixon, Frank Sinatra, and Margaret Thatcher. As the most elegant hotel in the city, many performers to the nearby Strand Capitol for Performing Arts are hosted by the Yorktowne during their stay in the area.

Rooms and suites are nicely appointed with period furniture. Comfy king size beds come with a surplus of 6 pillows for slumbering enjoyment. Since the hotel is the tallest building downtown, many rooms have excellent views of the Courthouse domes or Reservoir Hill.

The lobby retains its original elegance and leads toward the Commonwealth Room, a four-diamond restaurant with excellent Sunday brunches.

Situated downtown the hotel makes a perfect weekend base for taking in dinner and drinks on a Friday night, and the Central Market and Rail Trail on Saturday.

The Left Bank is really a surprising little gem for York -- definitely in terms of innovative cuisine, but also attitude and ambiance. If you have one chance to eat one dinner in York, go here. The substantial dinner menu offers lots of seafood and steak entrees -- clearly, the chef has paid attention to current trends in big city dining, but creates dishes with his own ideas as well. We ordered two appetizer specials - fried calamari with a fresh house chutney that was deliciously spicy, and enormous sea scallops prepared with an equally innovative and different pepper sauce. Even with a jumble of calamari, there was care taken in the presentation of the dish. For an appetizer, order the crab chowder. This particular recipe stands out from any crab chowder I've sampled in recent years, with plentiful backfin meat in the mix. Though I did not partake, the desserts looked great. The restaurant has its own dessert chef -- this is considered an unusual extravagance for places around the area. Also refreshing were enthusiastic waitpersons -- very politely encouraging us to consider specials, educated in the dishes and wines offered, but unobtrusive. This is, again, not the usual waitstaff you find here who might offer a grunt or two when faced with a question such as how is your bouillabaise? Lastly, the atmosphere is really nice. Historic building, hardwood floors, floor to ceiling bookshelves packed with old and random books, but with a contemporary urban feel with consideration to nice lighting and so forth. You can easily be convinced that you're dining in someplace much more sophisticated than downtown York. The bar is also a nice hangout alternative from the heavily sports-inspired or dive bars scattered around.

The Blue Moon Cafe has been around for quite awhile... their eclectic bistro with a 'healthy' menu (with things like veggie burgers and ratatouille) was actually considered revolutionary for the area back in the 1980s. Since the lunch menu hasn't changed much in the past 10 years, I've basically lost interest in the options. However, a first time visitor will find the menu selections better than average than the local heavy Pennsylvania Dutch diner type cuisine, unless you're into potpie and hog maw. Solo and group exhibitions of local artists' work, sometimes really bad, sometimes great, adorn the walls of this old converted victorian-era storefront. High ceilings, mismatched flatware, and good jazz in the background create a nice atmosphere inside. Occasional live jazz performances are held on weekend evenings. The highlight for me is the back patio area, which is overgrowing with wildflowers and herbs for the kitchen. This the best place in town to sit outside over a bottle of wine or conversation and beers --definitely reminiscent of terrace bars in Europe. If you go expecting a phenomenal meal you might be disappointed in that some of the dishes seem to be rote for the chefs, one of whom hails from France. Go for the atmosphere and try one of the daily specials. The Cafe does do a consistently good job with dessert. Salads and sandwiches are usually pulled off well also -- its the entrees actually, like pastas and rice dishes that have gone to the darkside of uninspired local cuisine.

This bike trail is part of redeemed York for me. The rail trail is a 10-foot wide gravel covered path for biking, walking, and horseback riding. If you begin in York City, you'll see an interesting and quick natural progression from city to industry to farmland. The trail follows sections of the south branch of Codorus Creek and is also home to the Howard Tunnel, the oldest operational tunnel in the nation. Currently under restoration along the trail are several historic train stations. President Lincoln allegedly rode the railroad here on his route to deliver the Gettysburg Address. Elmer's Grocery, a quirky and cool general store lost in a time warp in Seven Valleys, PA is a good place to stop for a drink. Once you reach the MD line you can continue on Maryland's rail trail to Hunt Valley. It's especially beautiful in the fall, and less crowded too. If planning an overnight trip consider staying in the Artist's Garden Bed and Breakfast, a Victorian privately-owned house in downtown York. For more info, you can contact York County Dept of Parks and Recreation, 717-840-7440

A rich part of York's social and historic tradition is the tri-weekly Central Market. "Market Day" was originally established by the PA legislature as far back as the late 17th century. York's Central Market is housed in an enormous and beautiful century-old market house downtown. Beneath lovely fifty foot high wooden rafters, about seventy vendor stands grace the market floor which is supervised by an old fashioned "market master." Stands are run by local and longstanding family farms (often of the Mennonite order) selling fresh grown produce, poultry, meats, baked goods, etc. The market retains its old-fashioned flavor even with its newer additions of ethnic stands, offering Thai, Middle Eastern, and Spanish treats. Utz's Potato Chip stand serves hand-packed bags of fresh potato chips made down the road in nearby Hanover, PA. Stands often offer a smattering of homemade 'Pennsylvania Dutch' standbys: whoopie pies, hog maw, tripe, pot pie, pickled eggs, fastnachts, sugar cakes, etc. For produce, head to the Fitz's stand (I served a short stint as a Fitz farm strawberry picker one summer). For meats and poultry (and definitely the Thanksgiving turkey) try Myer's Meats or Twin Pine Farms. Serving excellent made to order french fries is the ubiquitous Bricker's Fries.

The market is open year round on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 6am to 3pm. Telephone 717-848-2243. On Saturdays, parking is free in the garage across the street on Philadelphia St. The Heritage Bike Trail starts right down the street! (In addition to getting a great and inexpensive picnic lunch here, you can also rent a bike in the Market Annex!)

A must see for shoe fetishists or kitschy Americana enthusiasts!

The Shoe House is a local architectural oddity with plenty of site history. The giant boot with windows fascinated me as a child, and honestly, it's still as intriguing to me as an adult because it’s just so strange. Strategically visible from Route 30, and with the official address of Shoe House Road (off of East Market Street, a.k.a. Lincoln Highway ), the footwear -inspired structure was the original marketing ploy of Mahlon ‘The Shoe Wizard’ Haines, a local shoe store proprietor. (Later, Mr. Haines went into development, hence the 'Haines Acres' region of East York). Built in the late 1940s, its initial use was supposedly for honeymooners (in addition to the hardly-subtle free advertising for the shoe store).

Throughout my lifetime it’s been an ice cream parlor, a foreclosed property, private home, and now appears to be open for public gawking during the spring, starting in May. I've actually never been inside -- somehow I resist fearing that it would dissolve some of the mystery, but it would be pretty curious to see how they fit three bedrooms in there.

If you're just doing a drive-by from the highway, keep your eyes peeled, if you drive in/out of town on Route 30 E or 30 W, it's right around signs for Hallam, PA, about 2 miles out of York. Or, you can just ask a local for directions to Shoe House Road.

Yorkers, despite being landlocked, and not exactly near the Chesapeake Bay indulge in the summer ritual of eating steamed blue crabs quite voraciously. Several little roadside shops come to life exclusively for the summer crab season, and local taverns and seafood stores begin steaming dozens of crabs to order starting around late May through September. The quintessential crab seasoning ingredient is Old Bay -- a piquant mixture of celery salt, cayenne, cloves, ginger, bay leaves, and paprika plus a few other random others. In addition, taverns usually add their own special ingredients, often generous additions of rock salt which add to the overall pucker to the seasoning.

This summer, Kelly's Inn located on Sherman Street hill, whose clientele largely appears to be those on shift breaks from the nearby Harley-Davidson factory, has become my personal favorite for best crab eating locale, based on strange ambience (i.e., quasi-biker bar) and best crab seasoning (plenty of rock salt!).

Prices this season are somewhat high, due to crab shortages in NC and MD, but most places offer some variety of sizes, such as 24s - 30s - 45s. In crab pricing lingo, this means a dozen for $24 will be comprised of relatively meager crabs, while a dozen for $45 will likely be monstrous in size and keep you busy for quite some time.

Eating hardshells is nothing like eating those one-shot deal stone crabs or jonah crabs in New England. Hardshells are meant to be eaten by the dozen, with lots of beer, as a communal event. Cultivating your own personal crab eating technique is also part of the ritual. For tools, generally a wooden mallet and dull knife will suffice, though creative use of your two front teeth is also recommended. In larger crabs there is plenty of room to discover delectable morsels in the legs, and most people are patient enough to spend time working on them (often teeth come in handy in this part). The general consensus is that the back fin is the best part, although lately I’ve heard arguments for the mustard colored goop instead… TO BE CONTINUED