Cafe Adirondack - Pottersville, NY

Café Adirondack
8015 Route 9
Pottersville, NY 12860

www.cafeadirondack.com
845 494 5800

Winter: Dinner served Thursday through Saturday 5PM – 9PM
Summer: Open Wednesday through Sunday 5PM – 9 PM


If it’s Thursday, this must be Pottersville. Yes, Pottersville, NY. If you get off the Northway at exit 26, just north of the village on the west side of Route 9 you will find the Café Adirondack. It’s a tiny place, in what looks like an old summer bungalow. The parking lot is filled to overflowing because it is Thursday evening and if you live anywhere near Schroon Lake this is the place that you go to on Thursday evening. You enter through an empty screened in porch that reminds you that it’s really cold out. It is the off season and during the off season the owners offer a “Chef’s Tasting Menu” for $16.00. That is not a misprint. This is what you do in February if you own a restaurant in the Adirondacks. Adirondack winters are tough on restaurants, and restaurant owners.

Up here we have four seasons – tourist season which starts July 4th and ends on Labor Day, winter which ends on the first day of mud season, which ends on the first day of black fly season, which ends on July 4th. Traditionally fireworks commemorate the end of black fly season. If you own a restaurant, you have the eight weeks of tourist season to pay your bills. The rest of the year you accumulate bills. This explains why we see so many smallish restaurant operations up here, typically with hubby in the kitchen and his wife and maybe one more person running the dining room. If you own a restaurant, and you are lucky enough to be near a ski slope or snowmobile destination, you may see some diners during the winter, if we have the right amount of snow. Or you have weather like this winter, where you had no snow, no skiers, and no snowmobilers on most weekends, or weather like last weekend, where we had so much snow you couldn’t get your car out of the garage, and no skiers, and no snowmobilers. Most restaurateurs are looking forward to mud season. The restaurants that do try and stay open through the winter frequently offer spectacular deals to lure the few diners that are still here to eat out in February. This brings me back to why the parking lot at the Café Adirondack is full on Thursday night.

The said aforementioned tasting menu includes your choice of soup or a salad, entrée, dessert, and a coffee or soft drink. For $16.00. I once paid $160 for a Gray Kunz’s lunch tasting menu at Les Pinasse, not including the train fare to New York or the tip. For the record it was not ten times as good as this. (Better, but not ten times better.) But I digress.

Officially, you start with a soup or a salad. Officially, you do not start with a drink or a glass of wine because they do not serve alcohol. You fend for yourself, so to speak, and that is all I am going to say about that, except to report that a (wine and beer) liquor license is in the works, according to our waitress. But back to the soup. Last week’s offering was a she-crab bisque ($4 cup /$5 bowl), also a staple on the regular menu. I can’t remember the last time I have seen this offered outside of the low country waterfront. Pawley’s Island has nothing on this preparation – a velvety creamy texture with just an essence of sherry. The owners honed their kitchen skills in the Carolinas, and it is reflected in many of the menu’s offerings. Last week they offered a delicious carrot and ginger soup, or a cup of three bean chili, covered with fresh cut scallions and grated cheddar cheese. Wonderful stuff.

The house salad of mixed greens and home made croutons is offered as an alternative, and is included with entrees on the regular weekend menu. The tasting menu usually offers four entrée choices. Last night’s offerings included prime rib, with mashed potatoes and a medley of mixed vegetables. Pan seared chicken cutlets ($16 ala carte) , prepared ala marsala also came with a side of potato and vegetable. Last week one of the choices was a filet mignon ($21 ala carte), or Carolina crab cakes with a side of rice ($17 ala carte). The locals rave about the house’s signature dish – Bang Bang Shrimp ($8), offered as an appetizer, spiced as the name suggests after a coating of Japanese panko style bread crumbs. Recent entrée suggestions included sautéed beef tips, with garlic mashed potatoes, or grilled chicken breast layered with black bean cakes. A few samples stolen from my dinner companions’ plates were both quite tasty.

On a recent visit I thoroughly enjoyed a large bowl of scampi style seafood pasta, with healthy portions of chunked salmon, sea scallops and shrimp tossed with penne. Chloe’s chicken combines two sautéed chicken breasts, tomato and scallions with ranch dressing, melted cheese, and bacon. A similar preparation adorns Chloe’s home fried potatoes ($7), earning heart healthy honors for the tomatoes, and rave reviews for the cheese and bacon topping. Last week they offered a blueberry pie for dessert, included in the $16.00 fare, but I could not find the room after my prime rib dinner. We waited until we got home to fire up the espresso machine. On a recent visit the desserts included a cherry and pineapple cobbler served warm and topped with whipped cream, chocolate chip bread pudding with Frangelica, or key lime pie.

I just love the off season. You can actually get into places like Café Adirondack without too much of a problem for another few weeks, and then the snowbirds will start to arrive, demanding the seats back they willingly abandoned in October. Café Adirondack continues their winter menu and the Thursday night specials through March, and then they usually revert to their regular summer hours. Reservations are highly recommended, especially on weekends. The line will be out the door into the parking lot soon enough. Even at full fare, the consistently well prepared dishes at most reasonable prices continue to bring fans to this lovely hideaway throughout the year. We suggest you give it a try.

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Aroma Osteria - Wappingers Falls, NY

Aroma Osteria
114 Old Post Road
Wappingers Falls, NY 12590
845 298 6790

Lunch: Tuesday through Saturday
Dinner: Tuesday through Sunday
Closed Monday


I look forward to Tuesday’s. For many years I have met a friend of mine for lunch on Tuesdays and we always go to the same place – Aroma Osteria in Wappingers Falls. It’s a bit of a hike from his house in Lagrange and my office in Poughkeepsie, but we make the trek every week because we love the place. It is without question one of my favorite restaurants. I reiterate that my “favorite” restaurants are not purported to be “the best” restaurants, although Aroma most certainly ranks among the best restaurants that I have eaten at. Favorite status comes for a lot of reasons – the “atmosphere”, the food certainly, how the owners treat you, a basket of really good bread, the wine list if that is important to you, the people that work there – the whole package. I have eaten at Aroma on hundreds of occasions. If a place is still your favorite after that much time and familiarity, they must be doing something right. Aroma does a lot of things right.

Eduardo and Lucia Lauria are the proprietors at Aroma Osteria. They also have an interest in Il Barilotto in Fishkill. They opened Aroma in 1997 in what was then a basic ranch house on Old Post Road off of Route 9 that had a history of housing failed restaurants. There is little of that old facility still standing after an ambitious renovation a few years back. At the time Eddie told me that he wanted the building to reflect the same standards that he has for the menu. If you know Eddie you know exactly what he meant by that. Eddie and Lucy are passionate people. They are passionate about food and wine, passionate about their business, and passionate about making sure that everything about your experience at their restaurant is perfect. When you combine passion with talent and an incredible work ethic the result is usually success. Aroma is a thriving success.

When I was growing up we defined “southern” Italian restaurants as red sauce Italian restaurants and anything that served white sauce or beans was “northern” Italian. Now we know better. Aroma offers specialties from throughout Italy but if pressed for a specialty I would say that the kitchen favors the cuisine of Campania and Eddie’s hometown Naples. This is the region that brought us many Italian classics – spaghetti for starters (please no e-mails from Marco Polo fans) and traditional pizza – margherita, with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese and basil or marinara – mariner’s pizza – with tomato sauce and olive oil and garlic. Buffalo mozzarella hails from this part of the world, and shows up frequently on the menu. Octopus is also a Neapolitan staple, and is often front and center on the daily special board, along with other fresh seafood entrees like grilled gamberetti (shrimp) or baby clams, or calamari. Many of the dishes have a simple classic preparation – grilled with a little extra virgin olive oil, maybe a touch of garlic, and served with some sautéed greens – spinach or broccoli rabe (another Neapolitan introduction).

One of my all time favorite dishes is boccola – prepared salt cod. This is the food that fed the western world for centuries, that sent the Basques in search of new supplies in the fifteenth century. They found them in North America, some say before Columbus. Many cultures still prepare dried cod in their own traditional fashion, and it is very popular around the Christmas holidays. I still fondly remember a tin of boccola that was left in my mail box thirty years ago on Christmas Eve. It was from Adam Fiore, who was running the Mill House restaurant in Poughkeepsie at the time. I still think of that dish, and Adam, every Christmas. To prepare boccola the fish is rehydrated in water for a few days, breaded and fried, and then baked with olives, tomato, onions. There are different variations on this theme, depending on the origins of the recipe. The Basques, the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the Italians all have their own versions, but the dish that Aroma Osteria serves on Christmas Eve rivals any that I have had. Eddie attributes the recipe to his mother, who served it with their traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Her culinary talents have been passed on to her son, which is good for the rest of us.

Aroma’s wine list is expansive and focuses on promoting lesser known small producers. That makes perusing the list more of a challenge, or more of an adventure, depending on your point of view. No falling back on the Banfi here; many of the names will be unfamiliar to many patrons. As is often the case in good restaurants, it pays to trust their selections. The list includes over one hundred individual bottles, and also offers half bottles and a dozen or so wines by the glass. Often I’ll follow their lead and try something that I haven’t tried before. We have been introduced to many good selections, and the average bottle cost is less that $50.00. I’ll focus on the vine instead of the wine and try to match the grape and the plate. One of our favorites is a Morelino Di Scansano from Tuscany, priced at $35.00. Scansano is a village in Tuscany; morelino is the local name for the Sangiovese grape. The popular varietals all get space on the list: Campania’s anglianico, Chianti’s sangiovese, Piedmont’s nebbiolo and dolcetto. A few “Super Tuscan’s are on the list, the “Super” not a commentary on the quality of the contents, but on the blend of grapes used to make the wine. Not long ago Super Tuscan wines were considered heretical by purists because they (I think the Antinori’s tried it first) did not use Tuscany’s Sangiovese grape as the basis of the wine (as is the rule with Chianti’s) but instead used a French traditional Bordeaux base of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and cabernet franc. Jimmy Hoffa disappeared for a lesser infraction.

The restaurant menu offers a broad selection of antipasti, salads, pastas, and main courses – Secondi. They then complicate the process by offering a selection of daily specials that will reflect whatever Lucia is harvesting from the garden, or whatever charcuterie Eddie has prepared, or perhaps, a seasonal fish.

Last week the kitchen featured rabbit for lunch. Striped bass frequently appears at lunch served with a sautéed green such as broccoli rabe or escarole. At dinner we try to leave room for a pasta course and share a bowl. Ten varieties are on the menu but I rarely stray from my two favorites – Orecchiette Rustiche and Farfalle Deliziose, both priced at $18.95 for dinner. The orecchiette (little ear pasta) is tossed with crumbled fennel sausage, sun dried tomatoes, broccoli rabe, extra virgin olive oil and garlic. The farfalle (bow tie pasta) is served in a cream sauce with wild mushrooms and walnuts. If they ever take this off of the menu we will have our first argument. A few weeks ago Eddie insisted that I try something different and recommended the pasta special – served with braised leek and sausage. The leeks had been cooked down until all that was left was the flavor, then tossed with crumbled bits of sausage, and finished with a touch of cream. It was two weeks ago and I’m still thinking about it. Just fantastic.

If you behave you may be treated to an after dinner glass of limencello (another local introduction, from Sorrento), or a biscotti to enjoy with you’re espresso or cappuccino. The end of a meal at Aroma is like finishing a wonderful book that you really didn’t want to end. Thoroughly enjoyable, but you’re a little sad it’s over. The good news is, there’s always next Tuesday!

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The Basement Bistro, Earlton, NY

The White House is on the phone......

With Chef Damon Baehrel

Who do you want to bump - Arnold's party or Martha's?

The Basement Bistro, Earlton, NY

776 Route 45, Earlton, NY
Reservations: (LOL) 518-269-1009

I should start by telling you that you are probably not going to get in. I’m just writing this to whet your appetite and tell you what you are missing. My friend Steven has been trying to get a reservation at The Basement Bistro for two years. Two years! I’m not kidding. Blessedly, Chef Proprietor Damon Baehrel doesn’t put us through the orchestrated reservation groveling that some destination restaurants demand. To get into Batali’s Babbo in New York you need to call exactly thirty days prior to your target reservation day, at exactly 10 AM. Of course the phone is busy and after feverishly hitting “redial” for thirty minutes, someone will answer and inform you that all reservations have been filled for that day. This is the reason that I haven’t been to Babbo in years. No such pretense here at the Basement Bistro. You can call on pretty much any day (but no more than sixty days in advance), request a reservation for pretty much any day, and they will apologize and inform you that all seats have been booked. They will however be exceedingly nice about it. Chef Baehrel has actually called my friend Steven on occasion just to talk, explain that they are still booked for this month and next month, and promise that he will get in someday. I, on the other hand have been there twice, which aggravates Steven to no end.

If you have not heard about the Basement Bistro you are not paying attention. Located in the basement of the owner’s home in Earlton, the restaurant shares space with Chef Baehrel and his wife Elizabeth’s farm, their Sagecrest Catering operation and kitchens, and twenty or so acres of gardens, orchards, mushroom, and all things edible. Damon is to the “farm to table” movement what Alex Rodriquez is to baseball. If you don’t believe how tough this ticket is, go to their website www.sagecrestcatering.com. Look at the Reservation Backlog and “Report from the Chef” which reads “We are currently fully reserved for February 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 ,11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.” The only open dates are Mondays and Tuesdays. Oh, I forgot to mention that during the winter they’re closed Monday and Tuesdays . (Notice that he doesn’t just say “We’re booked”, he details every single day that is booked; I assume just to rub it in.) Yesterday the Albany Times Union reported on their website that the White House was trying to get a reservation for the Obama’s at the restaurant. I can only assume that the White House released that information in a desperate attempt to sway public opinion and perhaps influence Chef Baehrel to let the President and Mrs. Obama have dinner.

My personal experience at the Basement Bistro started with a phone call – out of the proverbial blue - from a friend inquiring if I would like to join him and some friends for dinner that weekend at the restaurant in question. I of course responded in the affirmative without checking my calendar, being perfectly prepared to cancel my papal audience if necessary. Don’t ask me how he came to have reservations. When someone calls asking if you would like to share his box at the Met to see Rene Fleming, you do not ask who is conducting, or challenge the provenance of the tickets. This is how I came to be sitting in a limousine heading south from Schroon Lake with ten assorted producers, directors, voice coaches, and other opera types from the Seagle Music Colony, heading for Earlton, NY, twenty miles south of Albany. Our host Joel had arranged the festivities and the transportation, and we were all giddy knowing that we had scored the hottest ticket in foodiedom. We were not to be disappointed.

We arrived slightly early for our 6 PM reservation. The restaurant schedules two seatings each evening, and suggests that you allow four plus hours for dinner. When we arrived Chef Baehrel met us just inside the front door at the entrance to a very small dining room. There was no one else there - no other diners, no other restaurant staff. My initial reaction was that they were closed and we had somehow gotten our nights mixed up, but Damon quickly welcomed us and explained that we would be the only people in the building that night. There would be no other diners (which was also the case on a subsequent visit). There would also be no other staff present. In addition to preparing our meals, Chef Baehrel is also the host, captain, waiter, runner, bus boy, sous-chef, sommelier, and dishwasher. He explained that he likes to work alone. I hope so. I guess that is one avenue to total quality management. This feat of multiplicity is only magnified by the fact that the chef not only cooks the food, he also grows it on the surrounding farm, preserves it, forages for the mushrooms and wild herbs, butchers the meats and fish, and then when you or I would be screaming for help, he gets to clean the bathroom. Unbelievable.

Chef Baehrel mentioned some of the courses that he would be preparing that evening, and encouraged us to take our time. The next party was not scheduled to arrive until 10 PM. They were flying in from Vancouver and would drive down from Albany Airport. He explained that they did this frequently, that they would actually be eating at a proper dinner hour by Vancouver time, and would arrive back on the west coast in time for breakfast. Same procedure for “Arnold” and his family when he and his family come to dine. I swear I am not making this up. Damon turned out to be a name dropper extraordinaire. “Martha” had just been in with her TV crew. “Jerry” was scheduled for the following week. I began to see why our space was at such a premium.

Our host encouraged us to sit down and enjoy a glass of wine. He opened a few bottles of Chanson Vire–Clesse, a crisp white burgundy from Macon, that I believe Joel had ordered for us in advance. He delivered a few baskets of bread and butter and I immediately knew that this was going to be an unbelievable meal. I love bread. Really good bread in the north country is very, very, hard to come by which is the reason I took up bread baking as a hobby many years ago after a weekend crash baking course at the Culinary. Restaurants that serve great bread go right to my favorites list before I even see the menu. This was one of the best bread baskets that had ever been put before me, accompanied by a butter that Damon had (of course) churned himself, explaining that the deep yellow color of the butter came from the marigolds that the cows had gotten into. If anyone else has ever heard that line in a restaurant I want to know about it. Even if it’s not true it’s a great line. The basket had two types of artisanal bread, a classic sliced peasant boule and a flatbread that Damon had baked with lavender and parsley from the garden. It really did present a quandary. Damon produced as many baskets of bread as you would ask for, but you also knew that we had not yet seen the first of the ten courses that we would be served that evening. Give me a loaf of freshly baked bread, homemade butter and a glass of Macon and I am satisfied for the night. It was really hard to stop and save room for the meal.

What followed was three hours of Damon coming and going from kitchen, clearing and chatting, serving and chatting, filling wine glasses and chatting. Every dish had a story attached. A small copper serving dish appeared with three small cones – a tuile cookie - filled with reconstituted fava beans that the chef had put up the previous season. The top of each was dusted with toasted acorns that he had foraged last fall.
Each item was discussed in some detail. The details were much appreciated because most of us had never seen anything like it. One of the early courses was a wild Atlantic salmon “bacon”, presented with the comment that it was “Martha’s favorite dish”. I made the mistake of challenging Chef Baehrel about the "wild" Atlantic salmon part of the story, suggesting that Atlantic salmon were not allowed to be harvested in the wild, that he probably meant it was a Pacific salmon, or was it perhaps farm raised? He assured me that it was wild Atlantic salmon. I was not convinced, but I assured myself that I was not eating an endangered fish, and enjoyed every morsel. When the chef reappeared to clear the dishes he told me that he had called his fish monger, and had been reassured of the fact that they were indeed Atlantic salmon. My first thought was - Where is he getting commercially caught Atlantic salmon? My second thought was - Who is this guy that can reach his fish monger on a Saturday night at eight o’clock? It got better. The fish monger called back with the provenance of the fish- which it turned out had been netted by an Indian tribe in Labrador under an exemption granted to indigenous Inuits. Damon was satisfied, I was amazed, and forever more will be known at the Basement Bistro as the “Salmon Police”.

More plates showed up in carefully staged succession. A mushroom soup was constructed of wild wood ear mushrooms that had been collected in the woods surrounding the house, and were topped with kernels of corn that Damon had smoked with the apple wood trimmings from the last pruning. Following this? A platter of charcuterie soon appeared, with slivers of house prepared bresaola, venison speck finished with a light smoking after curing, and a goose and turkey sopressata. Damon also showed off his cheese making skills with a plate of cheeses including a local goat milk chevre, and a camembert.

The chef’s skill at preserving food, especially vegetables, was most impressive, and was what allowed him to serve “locally grown” offerings throughout the year. Corn is tough to come by in January. Rutabaga reductions are utilized in many of the preparations. Little or no sugar showed up in anything; instead Chef Baehrel grows stevia in the garden to be used as a sweetener. Our courses included heirloom carrots and tomatoes, snap peas, swiss chard, numerous squashes and roasted brussel sprouts. One single course included four servings of different meat and game – a confit of duck finished with a powder of wild sumac, a slice of pork loin wrapped in a venison cured bacon, lamb finished with lavender and caramelized onions. It sounds like a tremendous amount of food, but the courses were spaced out just enough to make you anticipate the next course. A sorbet intermezzo helped too, created using one of the dozen or so grape varieties that are cultivated on the property. We finished with another platter of homemade cheeses, a tray of pastries and a chocolate ganache served in oversized shot glasses.

To say dining here is a culinary adventure is not hyperbole. The only similar experience I have had in a restaurant was at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, NY. Similar but not comparable. The chef’s tasting menu is currently priced on the site at $105. (Blue Hill was $150) If you are able to secure a reservation, I assure you it will be a wonderful experience and worth every penny. I suspect that reservations might be “easier” to come by if you book the entire seating – with a dozen or more people. I really can’t imagine how the chef could orchestrate as much as he does if he had multiple parties in the dining room at the same time. If you do get in, please consider bringing my friend Steven with you. And me.

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Mountain Brauhaus, Gardiner, NY

Mountain Brauhaus Restaurant, Gardiner, New York
www.mountainbrauhaus.com
845 255 9766
Lunch & Dinner, Wednesday through Sunday
Closed Monday and Tuesday

The business texts frequently suggest that a family business is often destroyed by the third generation. The Mountain Brauhaus, nestled on the corner of the approach to Minnewaska at the intersection of Routes 44 / 55 and 299, is a happy exception to that rule. It has flourished, even improved with each new generation, now on its third. I have been dining at this family owned and family oriented restaurant since 1976, which actually opened in 1955. It is the quintessential neighborhood restaurant. Sometimes it seems that everyone in the place knows each other; that anyone who walks in the door is greeted by the rest of the dining room and the bar patrons. You get the feeling that you walked in on a big birthday party but you’re not sure who the guest of honor is. By the end of the meal the wait-staff, all of whom dress in too cute traditional German garb, will make you feel like you are.

The restaurant has the look and feel of a traditional German Brauhaus, and takes advantage of the locale to accent the flavor with pictures of local climbers tackling the Gunks. The restaurant has a separate bar room with a few tables for those (of us) who like to sit close to our beer. In days of yore this restaurant was one of a few “Bavarian style” restaurants in the area that could always be counted on for traditional German fare – Arno’s in Esopus, The Brauhaus on Main Street in Poughkeepsie, The Swiss Country Inn up the road in Gardiner. The Mountain Bauhaus’s competitors are now all a distant memory, but the dishes we craved are not, they’re all still here - rouladen and sauerbraten, kassler ripchen and knackwurst and bratwurst and bockwurst and schnitzel platters brimming over with red cabbage and sauerkraut and spaetzle. We’re talking real homemade spaetzle here, fried and finished with a rich brown gravy. Wonderful stuff. Served with a basket of pumpernickel and a glass of wheat beer and there is no way you are leaving hungry. Those traditional dishes are still on the menu, and still wonderful, but the offerings - particularly the daily specials - are now much more expansive. A long list of black board specials now accompany the menu, and the kitchen stretches far beyond its Germanic roots.

I am fortunate to have a group of friends in the Hudson Valley that have dined together every week for many years. The membership travels from both sides of the Hudson, so we try to alternate destinations on each side of the river. Frequently our “right bank” destination will be the Mountain Brauhaus. We dined there last Wednesday evening. Leslie, our usual waitress, greeted us with her usual “Hello Boys!” as we gathered at the bar. We will usually share a bottle of wine as we wait for everyone to show up. The wine list here is limited but well chosen, and sensitive to the family restaurant’s price point. A Drouhin Beaujolais Villages will go well with just about anything. Also offered are a Clos de Bois red zin or chardonnay, a Rosemount Estate merlot, a Nino Franco prosecco, the requisite collection of German reislings and an Alsatian gewurtztraminer.

By 6 PM the dining room was filling up – as it does most evenings. We positioned ourselves to avoid the tables with young children (so as not to offend any families with our table talk), and nestled in for a long winter’s night. Our usual modus operandi would be to order different entrees and share – one arctic char, a platter of schnitzel, one schlatte platte of mixed sausages, but there is something about a braised pork shank that growing boys (growing horizontally) seem to find irresistible. We started with a salad topped with a home style vinaigrette topped with grated blue cheese, and the said aforementioned basket of pumpernickel. This alone should be enough for any normal appetite, but since we ordered appetizers before we saw the Flinstone size pork shank, we of course ordered another course. One of the house specials on Wednesday was a plate of duck breast, cured with pastrami seasonings. A novel preparation to be sure, but quite delicious, and highly recommended. The roast shank was fabulous, topped with a rich brown gravy and a pile of crispy onions, and nestled on a platter of homemade spaetzle. ‘Twas the diet special, no? Well, just pass the Lipitor.

At lunch on Tuesday a restaurateur friend of mine confided that when he and his wife manage to steal a night away from their own establishment, they go across the river to The Mountain Brauhaus for a meal. He described it as “real” - totally honest food. I couldn’t agree more. We will add it to our favorites too.

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Dining Out at my Favorite Restaurants

My Favorite Dining Destinations


This will be a list of my favorites - not to suggest in any way that this is a list of what I consider to be “the best.” A classical definition of “the best” - a Michelin Three Star or NY Times Four Star restaurant would no doubt serve dishes that are way too complicated, or require expensive ingredients that are only available via next day air, with wait staffs that outnumber the number of diners, and wine lists that include verticals that start with a comma in the price of the youngest bottle. Haute cuisine or nouveau anything are not what this space is about. You won’t find any dishes accented with a crustacean foam and a mango dipping sauce, or that perfectly matched the Petrus 82. We’ll take the sweetbreads and the Beaujolais please. The list is a work in progress. I’ll add to it as often as possible. I’ll also add comments on destinations that are worthy of a positive mention. Picks, no pans.

I like simple meals, usually with “ethnic” origins, served by friendly, capable, knowledgeable wait-staff (in that order). Meals that are considered staples in any bistro. Recipes that rural families would hand down for generations, but did not need to be written down. Osso bucco with home made crusty bread to spread the marrow on, a confit of duck in a cassoulet that spent all afternoon – ideally yesterday afternoon – in the oven; a paella big enough to feed the whole room, from one pan, served with a crisp white Albarino, a prosciutto that has been hanging since last October wrapped around… well, wrapped around just about anything. Eddie Lauria’s mother’s boccola. (This is worthy of its own post.) These are my favorite dishes. My favorite dining destinations serve these types of dishes - simple bistro style dishes accompanied by a well chosen list of well made but affordable wines.

For many years I wrote a restaurant review column in the Hudson Valley and was asked to report on any and all restaurants in the area. I have the luxury of not doing that here. This is also going to be a list of favorites, not “picks and pans”. With this as a premise, I can never be wrong. You may disagree with me, but I’m still right. It’s one of my favorites, so there! If I don’t think it is worth a visit, you won’t hear anything about it here. We will also not limit ourselves to restaurants but any dining destination in upstate New York, from the Hudson Valley to the North Country of the Adirondacks that deserves mention could be included. We also get lost often and end up in Montreal or NY City, so we may share our experiences there too. It might not be a restaurant in the classic sense. It could be a county fair, or a winery, or my personal favorite - the BBQ pit at a local Fish and Game Club, often with your’s truly playing Pit Master. Comments and suggestions are more than welcome. Drop me a line anytime at NorthCountryJoe@gmail.com


My favorites, in no particular order:
Some for the fare, some for the atmosphere, some for value.

Aroma Osteria, Wappingers Falls, NY (845) 298 6790
The gold standard for Italian bistro fare. Few can compare.

Cafe Adirondack, Pottersville, NY (518) 494 5800
Among the best values in the North Country, especially the Thursday night prix fixe.

Le Pavillion, Poughkeepsie, NY 845 473 2525
Claude Guermont left the CIA’s Escoffier classroom to open this French classic twenty years ago. He hasn’t lost a step.

36 Main Street, New Paltz, NY (845) 255 3636
A home away from home. Great food and wine at great prices.

Bistro Tallulah, Glens Falls, NY (518) 793-2256
A Parisian bistro, flavored with New Orleans spice. Just fantastic.

Le Canard Enchaine, Kingston, NY (845) 339 2003
Jean Jacques Coquillat’s very French, very fun Hudson Valley original.

Il Cena Colo, Newburgh, NY (845) 564 4494
Introduced classic “northern” Italian food to the Hudson Valley. Thank You!

Il Barilotto, Fishkill, NY (845) 897 4300
A jazzier Aroma Osteria with a New York atmosphere.

Crave, Poughkeepsie, NY (845) 452 3501
Newest Hudson Valley newcomer from the crew at Lola’s Catering. Well worth a visit.

The Owl at Twilight, Olmsteadville, NY (518) 251 4696
Rich and Joanne are back and we are very glad they are. Will make you feel welcome.

Friends Lake Inn, Chestertown, NY (518) 494 4751
A North Country classic, with atmosphere, and a wine cellar, and a really nice room.

The Deer’s Head Inn, Elizabethtown, NY (518) 873 6514
Well prepared traditional fare, in a warm welcoming roadhouse atmosphere.

Caterina de Medici, Culinary Institute, Hyde Park, NY (845) 452 9600
Just remember this is a classroom and you will enjoy every minute.

Pubs, Tapas & Wine Bars

The Beechtree Grill, Poughkeepsie, NY (845) 471 7279
A cross between Cheers and Night Court, with great pub offerings

Bar Vino, North Creek, NY (845) 251 0199
Really good tapas menu and a well thought out, reasonably priced, wine list. Opens at 4PM. Gore closes at 4 PM. Get there at 4:01 or stand.

Flanagan’s Pub, Schroon Lake, NY (518) 532 9096
If you can’t have fun with Penny you should stay home. I’ll be the tall one with the glass of Pino Grigio.

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