Mariner’s Landing: Olcott

As appearing in The Niagara Falls Gazette 11/25/19

Another weekend another restaurant. This time my wife, my buddy and I decided to hit up the Mariner’s Landing restaurant in Olcott. It had been about a year and a half since I had been there so it was about time for a return trip. They have been open for over 18 years at their present location. It is unusual for a restaurant to be open this long so they must be doing something right. We entered the restaurant and saw the décor hadn’t changed much since the last time we were there.

They had paneled walls, a couple fireplaces and ample windows that would let in sunlight during the daytime. They also had a nautical based motif with several model ships, lighthouses and sailor figurines on the high shelves that went all around the dining room. There were a few fish tanks with several small fish swimming around to add to the calming atmosphere.

The hostess told us to sit anywhere and we selected a table near the door. The table was set with real tablecloths but they ruined it by having paper place mats. I haven’t seen a tablecloth in a restaurant for several years and it was a nice touch. The server brought our menus and took our drink order. My wife had her usual water with lemon, Ed had a glass of wine and I chose a Coke with light ice (2.50) and she headed off to get them.

When she returned with our drinks, she took our order. My wife selected the fried oyster appetizer (8.95) for her dinner and Manhattan clam chowder (3.95). Ed selected the salmon special with a bourbon/maple glaze and sautéed vegetables. I selected the New England clam chowder (3.95) and the Fried Seafood Platter (23.95). This contained shrimp, scallops, a stuffed clam and a 10 OZ piece of Icelandic cod. I had an option of several sides and selected a baked potato with sour cream.

Shortly after we ordered, the server showed up with a basket of warm bread and some butter. The butter was soft which I highly appreciate

My wife’s Manhattan clam chowder had a robust tomato taste and her fried oysters were scrumptious. She also asked for a cup of cocktail sauce on the side. The oysters were moist and tender and the coating did not fall off of them. I could have eaten them all night.

My clam chowder was very creamy and rich with diced potatoes and chunks of clams throughout. Everything on my Sea Food Platter was delicious. Everything was cooked properly and I even had to bring some home for lunch the next day.
Ed’s salmon had a maple glaze that blew my mind. The pairing of the tender and flakey salmon with the maple glaze was phenomenal. I would have never thought that it would work so well. Ed pronounced it perfect. Dinner was delish.

Our server was the Lisa and was quite pleasant, quickly answering any questions I had about the menu. She stopped by frequently to see if everything was OK with our meal.

The food was great, the ambiance perfect and we had a good time. Prices were reasonable and portions were ample. We would have liked to have tried desserts, but we were too full from the meal. We are looking forward to returning and trying other menu items, but I will probably always order the clam chowder.

However there was one downside. I had occasion to use the men’s room and this is definitely not ADA compliant. The first door had a knob on it and when I turned it, it felt funny. As I opened the door I found out why. There was no latch mechanism or even an inside doorknob, just holes where they should have been. This door opened into a small vestibule with another door. When I tried to close that door, it kept hitting on the first door’s automatic closer arm, bad planning. When I opened the stall, the only way you could enter was to step over the bowl. Talk about the bathroom from hell. If you plan on dining there just, don’t plan on using the bathroom.

Mariner’s Landing;
1540 Franklin St in Olcott, New York.
Phone number is (716) 778-5535

Their hours are:
Wednesday and Thursday 4 – 9 PM
Friday and Saturday 4 – 10PM
Saturday 12 – 8PM.

I give them an 8 out of 10 spoons because of the bathroom.
I am looking forward to our next dining adventure.

Why parents are always late

It’s the second day of summer vacation and already we are hearing Nana, Papa “What can we do?”We try to limit their screen time so we made several game suggestions. They answer no, they didn’t want to play a game today. We suggested that they read a book but that was also met with scorn so we decided we would take them to the park after lunch. But then, shortly after we made that decision, it started raining. Cortana had told me it was going to be a cloudy all day and she was right, it was cloudy all morning but she didn’t say anything about rain. I guess we aren’t going to go to the park either.

I have the feeling this is going to be a long, hot summer. My wife took the rain as an indication that she didn’t have to put sunscreen on the boys. Applying sunscreen to a couple of active youngsters is just about as much fun as it sounds. It’s like trying to put an octopus in a shoe box.

We decided that we would either take them bowling or roller skating instead. Offering them a choice however was a big mistake. One of them wanted to go bowling and the other one wanted to go skating. After much complaining and whining and because we had some coupons, my wife made an executive decision. We were going to go bowling. The local bowling alleys have a “Kids Bowl Free” program again this summer where registered children all get 2 free games a day and we take advantage of this. All we had to do was rent the shoes.

So we began the long process of getting ready to go somewhere. It took a while but we finally managed to persuade them get their shoes on and walk out the door. My wife had just got both of my grandkids in the van and they were buckled up ready to head out when the sun broke through the clouds.

Now they wanted to go to the park again. I was now swearing at Mother Nature for the sliver of sun light that showed up just a few seconds after we were all in the van. We had finally gotten two kids out of the door, ready to go and I was not in the mood for the persistence of a couple of young children. We said no because the park would be wet. After a lot of “aws” and “you saids” we told them there were plenty of days to go to the park during the summer. They finally accepted his.

Just as we pulled out of the garage, one of them decided that he had to go to the bathroom. This was in spite of the fact we had asked them if they needed the bathroom just 10 minutes before we left. They have bathrooms at the park but apparently he couldn’t wait. My wife threw the van in park and said she would be right back. I think the boys were playing divide and conquer. After what seemed like 15 minutes, the other grandson decided he too had to go to the bathroom. So I shut the van off and took him inside.

Of course they had to take off their shoes to walk thru the house and we were back once again at ground zero. As I sitting there waiting for them to finish, I thought, this is the reason why parents are never on time. I have been unsympathetic toward people with children, criticizing them for being late all the time. Now here I am, once again, running back into my house for yet one more delay and there are always, always delays.

I looked at the clock as we finally left and realized that the last thirty minutes had been pure chaos. Today was a bit quicker than it has been on many other days. The yelling, the screaming and the hollering, and this was just Donna and I. This was just one day, one attempt to leave, and one of many reasons why it takes parents so long to go anywhere.

We all eventually got out of the house, in the car and buckled up. If it’s not a book that a child thinks can be started and finished in a matter of minutes, or asking for just one more minute to do whatever ‘Lego’ thing has to be built right that second, then someone who suddenly can’t tie their shoes or has to use the bathroom.

It struck me that forty years ago, I was dealing with the same problem with my own children. It seems that nothing changes when dealing with small children. It doesn’t matter how long ahead of time you start out, children always have an innate way of making you late.

But seriously, just what is it about us saying that it’s time to go that makes our children have to go?

Norb is a loving father and grandfather who lives in Lockport and is frequently late. He blames children.

Bathrooms

bathroom bulb comfort room doors — Photo by James Frid on Pexels.com

One of the issues that many transgender individuals face concerns restrooms. The best choice is to use a unisex bathroom if one is available. Unfortunately, most public places don’t offer unisex restrooms. However some places will offer a family friendly washroom where either gender is welcome. Target has added to the turmoil by allowing you to use the bathroom of the gender you believe you are.

A recent North Carolina civil act states that in schools and government buildings, people must use the bathroom that corresponds with their biological sex, defined as the one stated on a person’s birth certificate. If you think that the people in your “sex specific” bath room are always the same gender as you are, you are deluding yourself. It’s likely that few Americans even notice transsexuals as they use public bathrooms.

Over a hundred and twenty five years ago, Massachusetts passed the first law mandating gender segregated toilet facilities. Gender segregated restrooms in the United States and Europe are a remnant of the Victorian era where women’s modesty and safety were considered at risk and under constant need of monitoring. This means that much of the United States’ toilet related building codes reflect a Victorian era prudishness.

We have one bathroom at our house that is used by all the family members, male and female, and the only issues we have had is whether the seat should be left up or down, who left the sink a mess and which way the toilet paper should unroll.

There are very few transgender people in the United States. The 2010 census shows that only 89,667 adults had changed their names from one sex to another. That’s roughly 1 in 2,500 adults. Even the advocates of greater status for people who live as people of the opposite sex say that only one in every 400 American adults is transgender.

Some people think the “bathroom issue” is actually bigger than men using a woman’s bathroom or a woman using a men’s bathroom. With the exception of urinals, the bathrooms are basically the same. To my knowledge, there has not been a single reported case of harassment by a transsexual employee of other employees in a bathroom. In the 17 states and 200 cities that expressly permit transgender people to use whatever bathroom they want, there has been no increase in sexual assault of any kind. Bathrooms are places where we feel exposed, where we actually have our pants down, and feeling exposed is one step away from feeling fearful. If anyone is threatened in restrooms, however, it is transgendered people. There are stalls for privacy, use them.

There have been co-ed bathrooms and saunas for a long time in Europe and they don’t seem to have a problem with them. They’ve been around for centuries. They even date back to the Roman Empire. In Japan, they still have unisex public bath houses called a hitou (secret baths) in rural areas where men, women, boys and girls all share the same communal bath house.

People with profound physical and developmental disabilities or small children often need help while going to the bathroom and frequently their caregiver is of the opposite sex. Personal safety should be the top priority in these cases not what gender the caregiver is.

I have known a few gay men and I never was uncomfortable or fearful sharing a bathroom with them. In fact one of my childhood buddies was gay and he and several of the other boys from the neighborhood I grew up in used to go “skinny dipping’ in a local pond with him. It never worried us. I know other people that are gay or lesbian and it doesn’t concern me.

I don’t currently favor coed showers or locker rooms in schools though because of the nudity that is present in them. This would be especially problematic in these places because most people of that age haven’t developed the maturity to be in close proximity to naked members of the opposite sex. As society matures and we become more accepting of nudity like many other countries in the world, this might change.

The reason that I predict that mixed-gender multi-user bathrooms will one day be the norm is that the arguments against them are all baseless.