Dining Out: Orange County Chopper's Café



More than bikes, beer and burgers!

I’ve got to be honest with you — hosting people at my home  terrifies me! So imagine my disdain when my parents recently came to stay with me for two whole weeks! I had no idea how to entertain them!

My usual form of entertainment is plopping down on my favorite chair with a hot cup of tea and a great book for the night! Something tells me my company wouldn't find that quite as riveting as I do...

Nevertheless, I had to figure out something to do for fun. That’s where Orange Count Choppers Café comes in. OCC Café is a great place to go when you want to grab some delicious food, catch some live music and bowl a couple of games.

For our appetizer, my mom, dad, Bill and I decided to share the house-made spinach and artichoke dip. When our waiter brought over our dish, we were all pleasantly surprised by the ample portion of dip. The dip was delicious; it just needed a dash of salt and a sprinkle of pepper. We gobbled up our appetizer in a matter of minutes.

For their entrée, my dad and Bill opted for the Buffalo chicken flatbread. The dish is comprised of tender, all white meat chicken tossed in the OCC Café’s own special Buffalo sauce, layered on top of a margarita pizza. The drizzle of bleu cheese dressing on top was just enough to cut the heat of the Buffalo sauce, but not so much that it overpowered the whole pizza.

My mom selected the chicken parmesan over spaghetti. My mom's portion was so large she ended up taking enough home for two more meals! My mom thought the chicken parmesan was delicious, although the sauce was a little sweet for my taste.


For my entrée I decided to go for something small since I knew I would be picking off everyone else's plate. I opted for the French onion soup. I have to say, this was probably the best French onion soup I've ever had... and I've had a lot (it's my favorite)! You could tell the soup was made fresh, in-house. The onions were coarsely chopped, just the way I like them. The melted swiss and provolone cheese on top was so tempting, but since I'm lactose-intolerant, I pushed most of it off to the side.

The dessert menu at OCC Café is an eclectic one. They offer everything from good ole Southern bread pudding to Italian staples like the cannoli. Naturally, none of us could come to a decision on which dessert to try, so we all decided to order something different and share. We ended up trying the bread pudding, cannoli, blueberry cobbler and chocolate cake, all of which were delicious.

After we finished with dessert, we headed over to the gift shop to look at all the amazing bikes the shop had built and to grab a few mementos. My family has always been huge fans of the Orange County Choppers TV show, so when I saw a sign advertising tours of the shop for only $5, I knew we had to go. The shop tour was so much fun. We got to see where all our favorite guys work on bikes and we even got to look at some “top secret” bikes that are still in production. The best part of the tour though, was stumbling into Paul Tuttle Sr. himself! He's a great guy and he even took a moment to pose for a picture with me and the family!

Brittany L. Morgan is the assistant to the publisher at Hudson Valley Parent.


Orange County Choppers Café

14 Crossroads Court, Newburgh, NY 12550
845-522-5222

 



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