Ithaca: Adventures in a

One of the best-known restaurants in America, the Moosewood Restaurant has spawned some 10 cookbooks and is credited with popularizing the vegetarian cooking movement. Thirty years after this unpretentious restaurant opened on a side street in this quaint college town, it has remained modest. Cookbook author Mollie Katzen has moved on, but the restaurant remains a local cooperative where you'll often see the 19 owners themselves waiting and busing tables.

The photocopied and dated menu changes twice a day (lunch and dinner) and features 5 or 6 entrees. The menu also offers starters, a daily special and kids' plates. Local and organic wines and beer are available. The Sunday night menu is dedicated to a particular ethnic cuisine.

The restaurant has entrances on Cayuga and Seneca streets. The Cayuga entrance (its legal address) can be found by entering the DeWitt Building and going down to the basement level. We had to ask a passerby where the restaurant was since there we didn't see any signs once we entered. C'mon, folks--if you can publish cookbooks, you can provide a sign and arrow pointing downstairs! Since my last visit 10 years ago, the restaurant has doubled in size with a dedicated bar, ample indoor seating and an outdoor covered patio (at the Seneca entrance). Decor is attractively done in golden Tuscan shades. A wall display offers the popular Moosewood cookbooks and T-shirts for sale.

My party of six, including three children, visited for lunch one recent day. We were seated promptly on the patio. Our menu that day included White Bean & Sun-dried Tomato Spread Pita ($5), North African Split Pea Soup, Country Moussaka, and Ragout Provencal (vegan). Kids' choices included Cheese Toast (a toasted cheese sandwich), peanut butter and jelly and a pasta. All the children's entrees were $4 or less.

Our meals arrived promptly and our waitress/owner cheerfully allowed two of us to split the moussaka entree and thoughtfully brought an extra plate. Serving sizes were adequate. Everyone enjoyed their meals, although the teen didn't like the "natural" peanut butter on her sandwich, declaring it "sticky".

Overall, the food is much like its cookbooks: practical and accessible, but not very adventurous. Spices were at a minimum--the moussaka seemed a little bland, for example--as it seems the menu is designed to serve the largest possible population.

The total for six (without beverages) came to $27.

My recommendation? Visit it once to support its worthy cause of supporting local farmers and healthy organic foods. Then go to some of Ithaca's better restaurants.

Menus and other details can be found at the Moosewood's website: www.moosewoodrestaurant.com.

If you're feeling guilty about buying products made by people earning only pennies, here is a solution. The Ten Thousand Villages store supports artisans worldwide by giving them a fair price for their goods. At the same time, shoppers get beautiful and unique crafts.

The attractive store, one of several around the country, is located on The Commons, Ithaca's pedestrian Main Street. The shop is colorful, with brightly hanging decorations like the silk sailing ship decoration and a hammock that I saw in August. Goods are priced very reasonably, starting at $5 or so. Displays around the store give snapshots of the artisans and what this project means to their lives. Even the candy at the counter is free trade -- giving farmers a fair price too. To keep prices down, the store is staffed by volunteers.

My suggestion is to shop here for the colorful linens, woven baskets ,and holiday decorations. This is a perfect place to buy ornaments, menorahs, and stocking stuffers--the Nativity sets at Christmas are especially beautiful. And what a great place to buy gifts for the office!

You can even order online, and learn about its mission, at www.tenthousandvillages.com.

Ithaca Commons is a name given to the thriving downtown pedestrian mall that is covered like a Monopoly board with shops, restaurants, a mini-playground and people to watch.

Covering two blocks, this tree-covered area is the heart of the city of Ithaca and appears to have been lifted from Greenwich Village. Where else are you going to find a downtown with virtually no chain stores or chain restaurants? This downtown features not one, but two local bookstores, cuisine from no fewer than 10 countries and dozens of shops from a hemp clothing store to American crafts shop and a bike shop.

What's really nice is that if you have a non-shopper in your group, you can park him or her on one of the park benches and go your merry way. Ithaca is one of the best cities in the country for people-watching: its crazy-quilt collection of people represents snooty colleges (Cornell), local farmers (everybody outside of Ithaca), hippies (Cornell grads) and the growing population of vintners who have discovered the incredible grape-growing possibilities of New York's Finger Lakes. A mini-playground at the heart of The Commons offers a place for the kids to get out of their buggies and burn off energy between shopping expeditions.

Since it's a pedestrian mall, parking along the edge streets (Cayuga, Aurora, Green and Seneca) is at a premium. If you find a spot, prepare to feed coins: 2 hours will cost about $2.50. Downtown parking garages are your best bet. Leave your car and enjoy the scenery!