Agriturismo ~ Pine Plains, NY

Agriturismo
2938 Church street
Pine Plains, NY


(Phn) 518-398-1000
www.agriturismorestuarant.com


The term "agriturismo" refers to the tourist farmhouses in Italy that now also serve as culinary destinations.  Agriturismo Restaurant in Pine Plains is the latest entry in the local "farm to table" culinary explosion.  In much of Europe the phrase "farm to table" would prompt quizzical stares.  Where else would you get your food from?  Only in America did we need to invent the genre, as diners insisted on learning the provenance of their meal's ingredients, prompted by nationwide outbreaks of food born illnesses that raised questions about the processes and practices of large corporate farms.  Once we (re)discovered fresh local produce, there was no turning back. 
Mark Strausman's Agriturismo reopened this weekend, after a short winter break, and we stopped in Saturday night for dinner with friends.

Your new favorite "cocktail" ~ North Country Mimosa

Anna Bowers, Cocktail Wizard of North Creek

Champagne & Oysters. Peanut butter & Chocolate.  Certain flavors complement each other just perfectly.  This week we discovered a new one ~ Beer and Tang.  Tang you say? Actually, yes.  You remember Tang.  That stuff that powered the astronauts on countless TV commercial lift-offs in the 70's.  Last night we found a higher calling for the stuff. Actually not "we", but the folks at barVino in  North Creek.
You are probably wondering how things like this happen.  It is said that necessity is the mother of invention.  The need here was the desire to create a drink that would pass for a "cocktail" at a restaurant bar that has only a beer and wine license.  The opportunity was created by a confluence of events - namely Gore closed last weekend; it's mud season in the Adirondacks; and the crew at barVino was bored stiff.  (For downstate readers - mud season is the four week period between ski season and black fly season.)  Having time on their hands and apparently a supply of Tang with no particular dedicated purpose, the thinking caps went on.  

Billy Joe's Ribworks ~ Newburgh, NY

Billy Joe's Ribworks

26 Front Street

Newburgh, NY

845 565 1560

www.ribworks.com

There is something about the first days of spring that draws people to the river. It is a ritual with my Wednesday night dining companions that we visit the Newburgh waterfront around the same time that the first crocuses appear in the driveway. This year we had a new name to check out ~ Billy Joe's Ribworks, at the sight of the old “Front Street” location. As the name suggests the focus at Billy Joe's is on barbecue, which is something near and dear to your correspondent's heart. Their literature traces the genesis of Billy Joe's rub recipe to an outdoor BBQ stand near Galveston Texas, famous for their BBQ ribs. The owner shared the rub recipe with a traveling goat named Billy Joe, who brought it back to Newburgh. I'm not buyin' it. I was immediately suspicious of this story because they don't barbecue ribs in Texas; they make brisket. And then there's the talking goat. More likely the name sprang from the names of the proprietors – Joe Bonura, who brought you Shadows and Anthony's Pier 9, and his partner - local entrepreneur, Billy Kaplan. At least that's my theory.

Tasting Notes - Karma Lounge, Poughkeepsie - New Opening

Karma Lounge

202 Main Street

Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

845 473 4294

www.karmalounge.us

Open for Lunch and Dinner, 7 days

The flakes of roast rabbit were perched on a puddle of risotto, redolent of caramelized onions with an earthiness that made me think that there were also mushrooms in the recipe. (There weren't.) The rice was laced with wilted leaves of spinach, and spiked with salty chips of crisp bacon. On top sat a dollop of lemon crème, adding a wonderful sweet contrast to the savory dish. I washed it down with a glass of Layer Cake Primitivo, a Zinfandel masquerading as an Italian import from Salento. I had to remind myself that I was standing at a bar on Main Street Poughkeepsie, on a spot I had occupied many times in past years, but never eating like this.

This scene was unfolding at the Hudson Valley's new culinary mecca, in this case on lower Main, just below the bridge bound arterial. The Karma Lounge is the newest offering from Sally and Michael Rich, the couple who brought you Twist in Hyde Park .

Martha's Dandee Creme, Rte 9, Lake George, NY

Martha's Dandee Crème

Route 9

Queensbury, NY

Open 7 Days from 11 AM

There is no surer or more welcome sign of spring in the North Country than seeing the lights come back on at Martha's ice cream stand in Queensbury. Located on Route 9 just south of Lake George near Great Escape, Martha's has been a local summer destination for over sixty years. The Lafontaine family has been in the picture for thirty of those years. Dennis Lafontaine and his wife Beth recently repurchased the property from Great Escape, who had bought it from his parents in 1999. The ice cream stand was part of a larger complex that included a restaurant, motel, and cabins in an earlier age. All of this was built by the eponymous Martha and and her husband Carl Freiberger starting in the 1930's on an on old chicken farm. A holdover from the farm was a rooster named Charlie, who entertained the original patrons and is memorialized with Martha's iconic road sign, depicting a large rooster.

Adirondack Traditions ~ Maple Syrup “Sugar Shacks”

The thermometer may not yet suggest that spring has come to the Adirondacks, but a sure sign of winter's impending demise is the wood smoke rising from the local sugar shacks. Mid March usually brings the optimum conditions, when temperatures are still below freezing at night, but the daytime thaw gets the sap flowing in the sugar maples. A healthy mature maple can produce over a gallon of sap a day, and the sugaring season can run for a month or more. It takes a lot of sap to produce maple syrup, and the forty or so gallons that a tree yields each season will produce a single gallon of syrup. The sap, which should have a sugar content of something more that 2%, must be boiled down in an evaporator until the sugar content is 60% or more. Commercial producers use many different fuel sources to boil off the sap, but traditionalists insist that wood is best, in part because it adds a slightly smoky flavor to the finished product. I agree.

Red Brick Tavern ~ Rosendale, NY

388 Main Street (Route 213)

Rosendale, NY 12472

Phn 845 658-8500

www.redbrickrosendale.com

Rosendale is one of my favorite towns – a clutch of historic buildings seemingly surrounded by the Roundout Creek as it twists and turns on its way to the Hudson, seven miles north in Kingston. It is a picture post card of a place, and just a thirty minute drive from the Mid Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie (if you know how to avoid driving through New Paltz). It is also the home of one of our favorite haunts for Wednesday Boyz Dinner, the Red Brick Tavern. The tavern is housed in one of Rosendale's circa 1900 brick structures. Many of Rosendale's buildings are circa 1900; the "Big Fire" of 1895 being the reason. They also mercifully avoided the “progress” of 1960's urban renewal.   I suspect that is because few people knew where Rosendale was in 1960. The area was "discovered" in the post Woodstock era of Ulster County's gentrification, and has grown steadily with a healthy dose of New York City weekenders. Don't let that dissuade you from visiting. Some of them are actually quite nice.