LEBANON - The Fun Haven Recreation Center, located outside the charming rural landscapes of the hamlet of the Town of Lebanon along Lebanon Road near the intersection of Reservoir Road, has re-opened for business with a planned 7 day a week schedule and a new menu.
    Fun Haven will be serving food including lunch and dinner items, ice cream, live entertainment on Friday and Saturdays for the entire family, regular Flea Markets on Fridays and Saturdays hosting local vendors, an arcade, volley ball, horseshoes, a family focused minature golf course, a banquet room and space for business meetings, a large screen TV and video accessories for meetings or conferences, internet access, after school and summer activities for children, specialized events featuring acoustic, live bands and DJs.
    Dining will be offered outside and inside and there will be game nights, card nights, horseshoes and volley ball nights.
    Fun Haven can be reached to schedule an event or find out more information at (315) 837-4107.
    Fun Haven has long been an historic site of regional dancing and recreation, dating back to the days when the farm family of Frank and Muriel Musician started the dance hall with weekend dances that were quite popular with locals as well as Colgate students, and at one time, the facility had a rope towe and ski hill for winter months as well.
    Fun Haven has had several owners since but Jeff and Elaina Morgan have been operating the facility for the last decade, hosting supervised teen weekend events and offering quality banquet or reception services for residents from a five county region - Madison, Chenango, Onondaga, Cortland, Oneida and Herkimer/Otsego counties at times. Teens would attend from throughout the region to the popular weekend programming.
    The program was so well thought of that Elaina and Jeff were presented an award by the Madison County Mental Health Community Services Board for their work several years ago in helping to prevent teen alcohol and substance abuse by offering this carefully supervised alternative programming that was utilized by children and families from throughout the region.
    Fun Haven has hosted many community programs with a public service focus including the Lebanon Bicentennial Kickoff celebration in February of 2007 and the Lebanon A-Faire, held last summer by the Lebanon Historical Society, heralded as a big success by town officials in bringing the community together.
    Lebanon Supervisor Jim Goldstein promotes the facility as the ideal location for business to have a welcome rural retreat to discuss strategic planning, sees it as a wonderful family focused facility that offers a number of game activities for the entire clan, a great source of entertainment,  and is encouraging all residents of the region to pay the facility a visit and experience the classic, rustic building in the coming weeks and months.
 
 
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Before you know it Mother's Day will be here.  This year we honor Mom on May 9th and she will be expecting something special.  Why go to the same old place in Utica or Syracuse for brunch or dinner when Madison County has so many great restaurants to offer.  Many of them will be offering special mother's day brunches or menus.  We will detail the ones that we know about after the jump.  So come along and plan your Mother's Day brunch right here in Madison County.
 
 
The Post Standard's Don Cazentre featured the Brae Loch Inn's Screaming Scot in his mixology blog today.  Here a video of how to make it.
CNY Signature Cocktails presents the Screaming Scot
 
 
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The Colgate Inn in Hamilton will partner with 12 breweries, the New York State Brewers Association and many others to put on its inaugural "Seeds to Suds" Brew Review.  The event takes place at the Inn on Sunday October 11, 2009 from 1-6pm.  The event will feature educational elements on craft brewing, home brew kits from Foothill Hops of Munnsville, and great information to go along with awesome brews all afternoon long.  To top it off in the tent from 5-8 there will be a BBQ featuring New York State products, live music from "Blueprints" and a showing of Beer War Movie, a documentary about home brewing.  For more information or to secure your tickets call the inn at 315-824-2300.  You can also open the PDF below to see a larger version of the poster with all the details. 
glbnoctnov_pdf.pdf
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It is a fall event that people all over Central New York look forward to and it is the rare event that combines great food, fabulous craft beers, entertainment, education and history into 3 exciting days.   It is the annual Hop Fest sponsored by the Madison County Historical Society and it kicks off tonight with a paired brew dinner at the Copper Turret restaurant in Morrisville. 
Executive Chef John Wisinewski has prepared a four course dinner with each course paired with an appropriate beer.  The menu looks fabulous.  This year's dinner is sold out so make sure you make plans to attend in 2010. 
The festival part of Hop Fest kicks off Saturday at noon with the Taste of Hops.  In this event, local chefs are given a beer and they prepare a dish using that beer.  The food is then sampled with the beer from noon until 2.  Participating restaurants include the Landmark Tavern, Copper Turret, Colgate Inn and Meyers Chocolates of Oneida.  Tickets can be bought today for $15 at www.mchs1900.org or you can buy them at the door tomorrow for $20. 
The craft brew tasting begins at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon and features some of the best craft brews in North America.  Participating brewers include Saranac-Matt, Dogfish Head, Smuttynose, Cooperstown, Ithaca, Middle Ages, Southern Tier, Magic Hat, High Falls, Ommegang, and many more.  Tickets can be bought today for $25 or tomorrow at the door for $30. 
On Sunday, the annual Hop tour commences, with an expanded stop list this year.  The bus will travel to historical Hops locations in Madison, Oneida, and Otsego counties while also stopping for lunch at the Colgate Inn.  Limited seats are still available for the tour by calling the Historical Society at 315-363-4136.