4 Best Restaurants in The Finger Lakes, New York

A spectacular view of Keuka Lake awaits you at this breezy patio café, part of the Bully Hill Vineyards. The food is eclectic: Maryland crab cakes, buffalo burgers, or sage-and-prosciutto-stuffed chicken breast with three-cheese fettuccine. Lunch includes sandwiches and salads. Bully Hill wines are available, of course.

The chrome-trimmed diner, run by the Caratozzolo family, serves nothing except tasty comfort food. Eggplant Parmesan, linguine with clam sauce, and liver and onions are popular dishes. The lasagna is made from an old family recipe. The homemade pies—especially the coconut cream and raspberry—are glorious. Connie's is 3 mile west of Seneca Falls.

Five beers—two lagers, and a red, pale, and dark ale—are brewed on-site throughout the year. Each season brings one or two specialty brews. The kitchen incorporates Thai, Southwestern, Mexican, Caribbean, and Italian influences, among others, in dishes such as pork osso buco, Jamaican jerk chicken, a salmon fillet glazed with the brewery's D'Artagnan ale, coconut-battered shrimp appetizer. Sandwiches and burgers are also available. Beer suggestions accompany entrée descriptions.

The original 1807 tavern, rustic compared with the elegant dining room, is perhaps the best place around to experience Old Skaneateles—meaning pre-1980, when the village was more of a cozy bedroom community for Syracuse than a vacation destination. Menu favorites include traditional Yankee pot roast and crab cakes with scallop mousse. Seasonal offerings might be seafood bouillabaisse or chicken-and-biscuits. An enclosed porch lined with windows is open in warm weather.