DINING

Don’t let Taverna Banfi’s somewhat banal looking interior fool you. It offers some of the best food in the Ithaca area. (Photo: Ash Bailot) Taverna Banfi: Serving Some Of The Best Food In The Greater Ithaca Area

By Henry Stark

Ihave a confession, of sorts: I’ve been eating lunch at Taverna Ban ’s for as long as I can remember and have never ordered lunch from their menu. at’s because their weekday lunch, and weekend brunch, bu ets, are so extraordinary.

Today, for example: I was tempted to order Shrimp Scampi ($21) from the menu. It’s served over angel hair pasta with herbs and pecorino and I’m sure would have been wonderful. However, for only a single dollar more, the Lunch Bu et ($22) included an appetizing, artfully displayed, and attractively presented selection of a soup, six interesting salad combinations, ve hot plate dishes, rolls and butter, and a dessert table with eight hard-to-resist cakes and puddings.

If this sounds a bit overwhelming, you can opt for a Soup and Salad Bu et ($18) which also includes the dessert table – or, you may simply choose the desserts ($10). e homemade soups are wonderful. I like all but the hot and sour chicken. e Cream of Mushroom has a lovely texture. It’s as if the cooks turned o the food processor at just the right time to leave tiny bits of mushrooms giving the soup the smooth texture of a bisque.

Recently the carvery featured a beautifully seasoned akey and moist salmon with a wonderful accompanying homemade dipping sauce.

Last Sunday the carvery o ering was Herb Garlic Roasted Sirloin with a homemade Horseradish Cream Sauce. I’ve never had a better steak. It was cooked rare and was incredibly tender and juicy. Another weekday, another carvery item: Flank Steak, beautifully cooked, rare and tender, accompanied by a homemade warm citrus BBQ sauce. Incidentally, if you’re not enthusiastic about the daily carvery item there’s always a hot plate with another protein choice. For example, the day I opted for the Roast Sirloin there was an Herb Seared Salmon in a Red Pepper Coulis and a Lemon Vin Blanc.

Another of the more interesting hot plates was Lemon Risotto Arancia Paste Cream which was molded into balls, breaded and fried.

You can usually count on a perfectly cooked Vegetable Medley with seasonal vegetables. Recent visits I enjoyed al dente carrot strips with broccoli and cauli ower orets; roasted cauli ower with pistachios and golden raisins; and broccoli, carrots, and red peppers. A nicely textured, and unusual veggie was Spaghetti Squash and Quinoa Cakes with Crème Fraiche Herb Sauce.

It’s worth noting that Sundays there’s a separate room for typical breakfast items with crepes made to order.

Weekday dinners are available a la carte only. e summer menu features three salads. Tuscan Kale included amazingly tender kale mixed with currants, pine nuts, radishes, Parmigiano-Reggiano, lemon, and a very mild extra virgin olive oil and Balsamic vinegar dressing, $12. ere are four pasta dishes: one of my favorites is Game Hen and Wild Mushroom Handkerchief Pasta, $28. It includes three pieces of tender hen with rappini, Boursin cheese, Is it worth a thousand words? Check our art reviews

AUGUST 10–20

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smoked mussel emulsion and natural jus. e hen was not “gamey”. Among the half dozen entrées I’ve always enjoyed Duck Breast. Many readers will recognize this dish by its French name, Magret de Canard used by many restaurants, although Ban ’s chooses to use its English name. It was served already sliced and accompanied a bed of quinoa with grilled peach, appropriately cooked al dente pole beans, red bell pepper, purple cabbage, parsnip puree and hibiscus agrodolce, $33. e award-winning wine menu is impeccable. Note: it’s presented on a scrollable tablet, but if you’re uncomfortable with that you can ask for a paper version.

Taverna Ban is serving some of the best food in the greater Ithaca area. e dish combinations are unique and creative, the presentations are always attractive, and everything is always cooked perfectly.

TID BITs: ere are many Gluten Free, Vegetarian and Vegan items, all well identi ed. e restaurant is owned and operated by Cornell University and is on the second oor of e Statler Hotel on campus. It can be accessed by a staircase or elevator. Reaching the hotel itself is more di cult. You can walk, if you’re already on campus, or try driving around until you nd a legal parking space. If you get frustrated, your fallback position could be valet parking, (probably by a student) which is available at the main entrance to the hotel.

Taverna Ban is located at 130 Statler Hotel Drive on the Cornell University Campus. It is open Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.; and on Mondays through Fridays from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. You can make reservations online at https://www.opentable.com/ taverna-ban or call (607) 254-2565.

ITHACA NOTES

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Each year Bike Walk Tompkins sponsors Streets Alive!, a day when cited city streets are closed to cars for a festival-like occasion of walking, biking, visiting, SPORTS and Nancy have been so involved for so continued from page 7 many years, and they have raised a ton of money. ey raised a lot again this year, and that’s the hard part. e swim is the easy part. I am proud of them.” Sara Worden is Hospicare’s Director of Community Relations, and she told me, “It has been an amazing couple of years. In 2020, we had a completely virtual event, last year we had a modi ed event— a lake swim with no spectators—and this year we surpassed our fund-raising goals, and it is so exciting to get back to normal.” 290 swimmers, 160 boaters, over a half a million dollars raised. What an amazing local story.

informal performances, and neighborhood safety and vitality. e Southside neighborhood hosts one in spring, and Fall Creek in autumn—or, actually, at the end of summer this year, on Sunday, September 18. Details (including volunteer opportunities) are available at www.bikewalktompkins.org.

COURTSIDE CULTURAL CLASH

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Anita Stewart’s abstract basketball court, strongly geometric, both delineates and opens the playing space, shi ing in mood under Alberto Segarra’s evocative lighting; history, place and tempo are provided by the video projections of Dylan Uremovich along with the astute sound design of Kathy Ruvuna (thankfully both believe less is more), a few bright props, and the bright splashes of color in Nicole Wee’s costumes.

As Yee put in in an interview “Somebody described the philosophy of basketball to me as people trying to create enough personal space around them for them to make the shot.” e Hangar makes the shot, brilliantly, as it caps a diverse and strong MainStage season. e Great Leap by Lauren Yee, Hangar eatre through Aug 20 (hangartheatre. org)

PRIMARY ELECTION PREVIEW

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Association, and Cornell Democrats, along with the Tompkins, Otsego, and Tioga Democratic Committees, and many more.

Riley’s platform calls for revitalizing the economy by ending bad trade deals and directing more funds to infrastructure projects in Upstate New York, protecting an individual's right to vote by reenacting key protections of the Voting Rights Act, overhauling campaign nance laws by overturning Citizens United, and eliminating loopholes in the tax code that prevent the wealthy and big corporations from paying their fair share.

Riley also believes that our healthcare system must be reformed to prioritize patients over pro ts by allowing Medicare to use its purchasing power to negotiate for lower prescription drug costs, expanding Medicare for seniors to cover dental, hearing, and vision care, and capping the cost of critical drugs, like insulin, at a xed monthly price.

He recently told e Ithaca Times, “it's a combination of deep local roots, being a product of this community, and also experience taking on big ghts on the national stage, that's gonna let me hit the ground running on day one.”

According to OpenSecrets.org, Riley’s campaign has raised a total of $1,211,484 with 86.87% or $1,052,413 coming from large individual donors and 9.37% or $113,473 coming from small individual donors. He also received $36,600 in PAC contributions.

Cheney's campaign has raised a total of $519,048 with 76.14% or $395,213 coming from large individual donors and 3.63% or $18,835 coming from small individual donors. She has also self- nanced her campaign to the tune of $100,000 and received $5,000 in PAC contributions. e winner of the August 23 Primary will move on to face Republican Marc Molinaro in the general election on November 8th. e old 19th district has a partisan lean of R+4, according to Five irtyEight, while the new 19th district has a partisan lean of R+1.

State Senate Primary: District 52

Finally, the Democratic primary election for State Senate District 52 will have Lea Webb running against Leslie Danks Burke.

Lea Webb is a former Binghamton City Councilmember, an educator at Binghamton University, and a national trainer with Vote Run Lead, an organization that teaches women across the country how to run for elected o ce. She has positioned herself as the progressive choice in the primary, with endorsements from the Working Families Party, 1199SEIU, and state Senator Rachel May, among others.

Webb’s platform calls for creating a single payer health care system in New York by passing the New York Health Act, Passing Good Cause Eviction legislation to protect tenants’ rights, and supporting initiatives such as the Green Workforce Corridor—to link Binghamton and Ithaca to Elmira, Syracuse, and Rochester—to train workers at all levels for green jobs of the future.

According to Webb, “As state senator, I will bring investments that generate goodpaying jobs and lead to a better quality of life for residents…. Our state must prioritize investing in housing opportunities and establish protections against retaliatory evictions.” She continued saying, “Upstate New York is full of natural beauty, and I will work with lawmakers to protect our natural resources and nd new ways to develop a plan to reverse the course of climate change on our environment.”

Leslie Danks Burke is a lawyer, public advocate in rural education and healthcare, and the founder and president of Trailblazers PAC, an organization that mentors candidates for local o ce and focuses on getting money out of politics. As Chair of the regional Planned Parenthood advocacy arm, Burke also helped lead the e ort to codify Roe v. Wade into law in 2019. She is also positioning herself as a progressive choice and has been endorsed by State Senator John Mannion and State Comptroller omas DiNapoli, among others.

Danks Burke’s platform calls for cutting regressive property taxes in half by getting rid of unfunded mandates and passing single payer healthcare, investing in affordable housing and mass transit, and expanding access to rural broadband.

According to Danks Burke, “Folks are getting shoved out of the middle class. And it's because our property taxes are deeply regressive. No other state in the country handles property taxes the way we do. And it's creating a wealth disparity that is simply un-American.”

According to campaign nance reports released in late July, Danks Burke raised over $281,479 while Webb raised $137,428. Both candidates have roughly the same number of donors, but Danks Burke has a higher average contribution. e winner of the August 23 primary will face Republican Richard David in the general election. Based on the composition of the district, whoever wins the primary will likely be the rst Democrat in recent memory to represent New York’s 52nd District in the State Senate.