SARATOGA SPRINGS — Busy people can get healthy food at 9 Miles East. It’s just off East Avenue — the actual farm is … er… nine miles to the east of Saratoga Springs.
Or, those busy people can get healthy meals delivered. In season, 9 Miles offers CSA shares. They cater workplace and social events, and make a mean pizza using high-quality ingredients. Their simple meals draw inspiration from around the world.
The cafe sells eggs, homemade sourdough bread (half price for day-old) and is all-around worth a visit. Let me tell you about it.
I’d heard good things about 9 Miles East from my niece, who examines food closely. I followed her recommendations and did quite well.
They’re open every single day from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’m overwhelmed by the dedication of small business owners who work long hours.
The cafe is on Excelsior Avenue, half of a low gray building with all-glass garage doors in front and tables outside for the good weather.
9 Miles is one large room with blond wood tables and chairs nicely spaced out. The counter is on the right, near a cooler full of ready-to-go meals and a rack filled with products for sale such as coffee beans and local honey.
There’s not much decor and the room is painted white, but it feels open and welcoming. There’s a menu board on the wall and a roll of brown paper that lists the pizza choices each day. They’ll also provide you a paper menu.
You’ll see loaves of sourdough bread stacked on a table in the dining room. While we were there, several people found brown paper bags nearby and packed up a loaf to go. We could smell it from our table, which was quite pleasant.
Everything you need to go with your food is out — help yourself. There’s napkins, silverware, cutlery, etc. Bus your table when you’re done, if someone hasn’t already picked up your plate.
So: casual and Scandanavian simple, with a big emphasis on seasonal, local, high-quality ingredients. Lots of vegan and vegetarian options. Eat in or take out.
The daytime menu has both breakfast and lunch. There are bowls filled with vegetables, whole grains and greens. Try the steel-cut oats with local maple syrup, nuts, seeds and fruit ($11), or shakshuka made with poached eggs in spicy tomato sauce with feta and fresh herbs ($16).
Their winter salad features roasted beets, local feta, preserved lemon, toasted walnuts and greens with herb vinaigrette ($16). Add chicken, salmon or grilled steak for extra.
Sourdough sandwiches range from a minimalist egg sandwich with nitrate-free ham, cheese and ketchup ($9) to an Argentinian sandwich with grilled chorizo, chimichurri and crunchy vegetables on a sourdough roll ($16).
You can see by reading the menu that 9 Miles shows a dedication to procuring products from local farms and small butchers, which are always superior to food from a big truck.
There’s a dinner menu as well, and ingredients change with the seasons and availability. I might get the grilled rosemary chicken with garlic mashed root vegetables ($24) or local steelhead salmon with lime maple glaze and root vegetables ($28). All beers are local, as is some wine, available by the bottle or glass.
Points to them for using their leftover sourdough, in bread pudding with brown butter and creme Anglaise ($12) and to make crostini toasts, available for sale in small bags. I’d float them on my soup.
I was very pleased with the pizza, soup and side salad combo deal ($11) for lunch. The day’s soup was hot and sour, but I asked if there were others.
“Sure, pick one from the case and we’ll heat it up,” said the nice counterperson, waving her hand. I picked a container of chicken Super Soup and chose sausage pizza.
Sheryl ordered a pagnotelle egg sandwich with ham, poached egg, cheese, roasted vegetables and herb pesto ($9). What is a pagnotelle? It’s a small, filled bread roll, in this case homemade sourdough.
After you pay, choose a seat and they’ll bring it out when it’s ready. We picked a roomy table and sipped our drinks — hot green tea for Sheryl and homemade lemonade for me (both $3.74), an excellent, lemony sweet-tangy homemade concoction.
I looked around for a straw and Sheryl spotted them near the silverware. “I approve of this straw,” she said, handing over a brown paper specimen.
I couldn’t have been more pleased with my meal, starting with the crisp-bottomed, flour-dusted pizza. A fork scraped across the bottom of the slice let Sheryl hear how crisp it was. The sourdough crust is blistered and bubbled, the sauce is tangy and there’s just enough, and the sausage is sourced from a butcher.
I ate the whole slice before I touched anything else. The lovely sausage was finely ground, seasoned and not a bit chewy. I wanted it to last much longer. Wow.
Next, I moved on to the small green side salad, which was plenty big and topped with pumpkin seeds. Thank you, 9 Miles, for tossing your fresh greens in the kitchen. They were glistening with sweet and tangy herb vinaigrette and I ate them all. Very fresh and tasty.
There wasn’t much room left so I brought the soup home. Not before I dunked the pizza crust into the broth, though, which I highly recommend.
During the last snowstorm I made a pot of conventional chicken soup with carrots, onions and celery. It was lovely, but the chicken Super Soup at 9 Miles East had a whole lot more going on.
First thing I noticed was a bit of heat from cayenne. It was chock-full of vegetables like mine, plus yellow and green squash and tiny squares of potato, plus chickpeas and brown rice. Turmeric gave the white-meat chicken chunks a slightly yellow color. Speaking of chicken, I think they’d be better off with dark meat here because it was a bit dry. However, I get that most people want white meat.
I’d get it again; I liked the flavor and appreciated the effort that went into neatly cutting all the vegetables. That made it easy to eat and added to my enjoyment.
Sheryl ate her egg-stuffed bread but not with as much enthusiasm. “They need sharp knives,” she said, showing me, “it takes a lot of elbow grease to cut the bread.”
For the record, there are sharp knives available. Ask at the counter.
It was toasted and tasty, and makes a big sandwich. The ham had dark edges that made me think it was honey or Virginia ham. “It’s thin,” Sheryl reported. “I’ll tell you this,” she added, “this ham is delicious.”
There were cooked onions and a soft-boiled-level poached egg, sweet potato and herb pesto. “This could have been cooked more,” she said, holding up an orange chunk on her fork.
“I like all the ingredients,” she answered when I asked if she’d recommend her meal. The ham and the pesto didn’t quite go together, she thought. She said it was “very good,” though.
We shared a big chocolate chip cookie made with rye flour ($4), which came recommended by Ann Marie, who loves their pizza. It’s a sturdy cookie with big chunks of semi-sweet chocolate, harder around the edges than the middle. It took two hands to break pieces off, but it was delicious. Just don’t expect an undercooked, chewy-style cookie. Desserts are made there.
The tab for our lunch, with sandwich and pizza combo, two drinks, a cookie, tax and tip, came to $40.43.
Eric ate the last of the cookie and for dinner enjoyed the beautifully packed and colorful Poblano Go Pro Box ($13) with sliced chicken I brought home for him while I went out to book club.
Most of it was gone when I got home. It’s not the kind of thing he usually eats, but he said, “I felt a lot healthier after eating this.” There was lots of thick slices of juicy white-meat chicken plus fresh greens, shredded red cabbage, corn, rice and pumpkin seeds. The dressing had plenty of flavor, he said, and it was nice and light.
Busy people can get 9 Miles meals delivered to their homes, too. Check the website for a tutorial on signing up, selecting a plan and choosing menu items. They deliver in the Boston area as well.
Eat in the cafe, bring it home or get it delivered. You’ll be pleased by the emphasis on freshness, flavor and healthy ingredients. Their food tastes good and you’ll feel healthier after eating it, too.
9 Miles East
WHERE: 64 Excelsior Ave., Saratoga Springs; 518-223-9872; 9mileseast.com
WHEN: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily; closed Thanksgiving day and Christmas Day
HOW MUCH: $40.43 with tax and tip
MORE INFO: Credit cards: all major; ADA compliant; parking lot
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At The Table: Saratoga Springs' 9 Miles East offers tasty, healthy options - The Daily Gazette
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