One thing about getting older and eating so poorly throughout my 40 years on this earth is that my memory is far worse today than it used to be. At least, I’m going to blame it on my poor dietary habits and my old age. Genetics probably has a thing or two to do with it, too. Or maybe it’s just that I’m incredibly busy. Who knows? Whatever the reason, whatever the source, Johnny’s Kitchen in Lodi made it onto the list of places I needed to get to one day.
I have someone who works for me who is incredible. Her name is Lindsay, and I would not be able to exist the way I do today if it were not for her. One of the things Lindsay handles for me is managing my availability, the new videos I need to make, and the list of restaurants I need to get to. So when we were traveling out on Seneca Lake one day, Lindsay saw that Johnny’s Kitchen was in the area and scheduled us for a visit.
Now, when we pulled up to Johnny’s Kitchen, I will admit that I may have made a joke or two. Maybe not a joke so much as an observation, or a question about where in the hell I was going.
You see, Johnny’s Kitchen doesn’t look like much from the outside. You pull up to what you’d expect to be an old-school, country-style breakfast spot. If I just looked at Johnny’s Kitchen from the outside, I could make a pretty solid guess about what the menu would look like inside, what the people would be like, and what the food would taste like. And 85% of the time, I’d probably be accurate with those — well, let’s call them what they are — judgments of the restaurant. But if there is ever proof that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, Johnny’s Kitchen is that proof.
I walked in expecting to meet an older couple slinging eggs with home fries and toast for $8.99. Instead, I found a younger couple putting extreme effort into the food they’re serving.
I expected to see vintage Coca-Cola advertisements, and instead I found a nook filled with cookbooks from world-renowned chefs and pastry experts.
It’s maybe the most unassuming place I’ve ever set foot in. The only other place that pops into my head as being such a complete shock to my system is the Barking Dog Saloon, my favorite chicken wing spot, located inside a junkyard in Potsdam.
The crew at Johnny’s Kitchen selected a few of the items I was going to try, but there was one thing I was really passionate about experiencing: the johnnycakes. I know, these aren’t pancakes delightfully named after the restaurant. Johnnycakes are the New England version of pancakes — pancakes made with cornmeal and melted butter. They’re incredibly crispy around the edges, sweet and hearty at the same time. Pancakes that, for some reason, almost seem healthy, even though they’re no healthier than a regular pancake. Johnny’s Kitchen makes them every Sunday for brunch.
The crew at Johnny’s Kitchen prepared their OG Smashburger, their chicken Parm sandwich, and the johnnycakes for me. I would put all three at the top of a list for the best of that thing I’ve ever had in New York State.
Now, just a quick aside:
I do hesitate to tell you about the things I’d put on my list of the best of the best. I mean, let’s be honest. I don’t have an official list of my top 10 favorite cheeseburgers or top 10 favorite chicken Parm sandwiches in New York. Maybe I should create that someday. I’m just someone who is incredibly passionate about food, and I’m a huge fan of people who make delicious food and put such effort into their craft. I get really excited when I go to a restaurant and try something that surprises and delights me. Maybe I’ll post the unedited version of me trying their Smashburger, and you can see me pause for two minutes as I genuinely consider whether this is the best Smashburger I’ve ever had in New York. Now, let’s get back to the blog.
Let’s start with the OG Smashburger.
Johnny was so excited to tell me how locally he sources everything — he even made a point to tell me the onions come from a farm just up the hill. His wife does the baking, and she makes the brioche buns in-house, from scratch. The ground beef is sourced locally, and it gets a picture-perfect sear, crispy on every square inch of the patty. He toasts the brioche lightly before putting a perfect swirl of their house sauce on each side of the bun. Then he takes the most perfectly diced pickles and spreads a layer of them on the bottom bun, then takes the most perfectly diced white onion and spreads a layer of those on the top bun, before adding the smash patties with their melted cheese and shredded lettuce.
The result is an almost perfect burger. It’s juicy. It’s salty. It’s crispy. It’s meaty. It has these perfect ratios in every bite because he covers every square inch with everything. There isn’t a bite lacking pickles or cheese or beef or lettuce or onions or sauce or bun. You get everything in every single bite.
Then there’s the chicken Parm sandwich.
The same dedication that goes into the brioche goes into the focaccia, which they also make in-house. You get a perfectly golden-brown focaccia that’s light and airy on the inside and crispy on the outside. I’ll be honest: the chicken cutlet is not as thin as I’d typically like. I’m a sucker for very thin chicken cutlets. But this one is still delicious. It’s juicy and meaty and yummy. The red sauce they use on the cutlet would make any Italian grandmother proud. It’s thick, mildly acidic, and has a substantial amount of basil in it. The cutlet gets a very heavy hand of shredded mozzarella before going under the broiler to get nice and toasty and melted. Then it goes onto that house-made, toasted focaccia. The result is somewhat magical: a chicken Parm sandwich that could be used as the model in any culinary school. That is, if they teach you how to make chicken Parm sandwiches in culinary school.
The point here is that a trip to Johnny’s Kitchen should be on the bucket list for anyone who cares about food in New York State. Whether you live in Buffalo, Rochester, the Finger Lakes, New York City — anywhere, really — I can’t recommend enough that you carve out time in your schedule to go to Johnny’s Kitchen. If it were me, I’d give myself enough time to go for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, even if that means making a weekend of it and visiting over multiple days. A visit to Johnny’s Kitchen is an absolute must.
