The Beacon, Orleans

The Beacon is an interesting place. It used to be a little breakfast/lunch nook, in "the old days", but now it is a lunch/dinner resturant. The foods are fresh and the cook is QUITE good. Even with the little things. The prices run $5-$15 for lunch, and low 20s for dinner.

It is a light-filled place and has a cheery atmosphere. There is a funny cat that "owns" the place. Sometimes he lies on the welcome mat, so you have to step over him to get into the resturant. He'll stare at you with the utmost relaxed, uncaring look that ever was. Other times, he'll lay in the middle of the gravel parking lot, all sprawled out like Bacchus, the gluttonous god of food and wine. We've seen him climb onto the top of a car with an open sun roof and peer down into the insides, sticking his paw down as if to grab something he simply MUST have. Very funny. Customers will walk by him, and scratch him. He's rather hard to resist, and surely must be the Buddha reincarnated. I imagine folks kneeling down before him, begging for spiritual advice. Our waitress told us he had a special heated bed in the cellar.

At the Beacon, I myself prefer the lunch menu, being lighter and somehow fun. The idea of getting dinner fare with smaller portions for lunch, has always tickled me. There is nothing outrageous or really different on the menu, but the food so far, has always been delicious.

You can sit at the bar and have appetizers if you like, if you are not up to a full blown dinner. My sister and I have done that, getting the Calamari jalapeno poppers with the special dipping sauce. Kinda fun.

The only thing I would comment negatively on, would be most of the food is on the very RICH side. It doesn't exactly help the digestive system, you know? Highly recommended but not everyday unless you want coated arteries.