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In a building dating back to around the 1870s, the Wells family has operated the Red & White Cafe for nearly 40 years. Owner Chuck Wells tells us the business and building are for sale, and for now, the cafe will remain open, offering fish fry dinners and sandwiches, burgers, and subs available weekdays for takeout.
The Wells family took over what had been Jake's Red & White from Jacob "Jake" Geldwert around 1985, Chuck tells us. Jake, a holocaust survivor from Poland who passed away in 2016, had bought the former Luccarelli's about 20 years earlier. Wells believes the building was one of several Market Basket grocery stores in Ithaca in the 1930s and early 1940s, right along the route teams used to carry lumber between the Cascadilla Mills at the east end of Mill Street, now Court Street, and the boatyards on the Cayuga Lake Inlet.
The Red & White Cafe has served generations of Ithacans. 14850 Photos by Mark H. Anbinder.
These days, the Red & White Cafe is open late morning to late afternoon weekdays, mostly catering to a lunch crowd that knows to stop by for hearty sandwiches and, especially, the famous fish fry. They’re now operating just for takeout after a few years with counter service but plenty of seating.
The Red & White has a range of third-pound burgers cooked to order, with the usuals — plus creative combos like the Cowboy Burger, topped with BBQ sauce and onion rings. And the Surfer Burger, with swiss cheese, teriyaki sauce, and a grilled pineapple! Roast beef, turkey, or tuna sandwiches and subs, on a variety of Ithaca Bakery rolls. Cheesesteaks or chicken parm subs.
But it's that fish fry we mentioned that keeps people coming back. Fresh haddock, battered and fried, as a sandwich, a sub, or a platter. Plus oyster or shrimp po’boys, scallop or clam strip dinners, enough seafood variety for a seaside town.
The fish sub on an Ithaca Bakery sub roll, plus sweet potato fries.
Plan on spending $10-20 on a takeout meal. Find the Red & White Cafe at 402 West Court Street, just west of GIAC, open 11am-5pm weekdays (until 6 on Friday), or give them a call at 607-273-5233 and tell them you heard about them here.
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