A Winner All Around

By Sandra Scott

It had been several years since John and I visited Niagara Falls, New York. While it is impossible to improve on the falls–they are spectacular–we were really impressed with the Seneca Niagara Casino. What a wining addition to the area. It is not only the tallest building in the state outside of New York City, it has a great pool with a sundeck, a full-service spa, an amazing hair salon, and excellent dining locations.

We could see the spray of the falls from our room at the Seneca Niagara Casino and it was only a short walk to Niagara Falls State Park, America’s oldest state park, so off we headed. No visit to Niagara Falls is complete without a ride on the Maid of the Mist, and no matter how many times we have taken it, we are always impressed. It is fun to watch the first timers experience the wonder of the falls. Upon returning from the Maid of the Mist we almost bypassed the spectacular 40-minute presentation “Legends of Adventure” in The Niagara Adventure Theater. The award-winning movie covers the history and legends of the falls with incredibly realistic photography of people going over the falls.

The park shuttle took us to Goat Island where we walked the trail to Three Sisters Island. Watching the flow of the rapids as it approached the falls is also impressive. As night fell it was time to return to the casino where we became real winners. Not in the gaming room but in the Western Door Steak House, one of the few restaurants in Western New York to win the Four Diamond Award. Before dinner we decided to relax at the restaurant’s bar with one of the Frank Ryan’s winning cocktails. Ryan has been featured in Bartender Magazine and his cocktails have won first place in several competitions. He is the perfect bartender; he obviously loves his job, he’s a great raconteur, and he’s very creative. His vodka cocktails are especially popular because he creates his own infused vodkas. John and I had a hard time deciding which cocktail to try but finally picked Ryan’s award winning Seneca Sweet Heart. It was a great choice. Frank Ryan mixed Dekyper Watermelon Schnapps, rum, and pomegranate juice with a splash of apple juice. It was the perfect choice to whet our appetites for an award-winning dinner.

It is easy to tell why the Western Door Steakhouse is a Four Diamond restaurant. We had a choice of viewing the gaming floor or watching the chefs at work, but we opted for a more intimate and private salon-style cove seating that gave us privacy but with a view of the restaurant. Our dinner was a winning combination that started with Chilled Seafood Deluxe, an amazing array of lobster tails, shrimp, oysters, clams and Alaskan king crab with cocktail sauce and shallot mignonette. All seafood is flown in fresh daily. Luckily we ordered a small one so we had room to chose from entrees of the highest quality steaks, and something we hadn’t seen on a menu for a couple of decades, iceberg lettuce wedges. It was an updated version of the old favorite with marinated red onions and blue cheese dressing. The winner in our estimation was the dessert—the Snickers Peanut Butter Pie. After dinner we relaxed at the bar with another of Frank Ryan’s winning cocktail before testing our gaming luck but we already felt like winners.

Visit www.senecaniagaracasino.com.

Sandra Scott is a frequent contributor to travel publications and to Creators Syndicate
and has co-authored two books on local history. She lives in Mexico, NY.

Photos by J. J. Scott.

©CocktailAtlas.com

Contact Us: Editor Webmaster