Spring through summer and all the glorious produce that goes with it, it's time to head to the Hudson Valley to eat.
LessThe dreamy, made-for-Instagram farmhouse is a restaurant and also home to owners Elizabeth Starks and seventh-generation Catskill farmer Jacob Sackett. All the ingredients on the four- to five-course menu are plucked from area farms. The cooking reflects the area's wild game: Hare braised in garlicky sherry vinegar with celery root puree, for example. Beers—crisp lagers and oak-aged ales—are also home-brewed. The couple even built the farmhouse and much of its furniture themselves.
At 5 p.m., hotel guests and nearby residents start encircling the firepits adjacent to the restaurant to catch the sunset and sip spiced pineapple-mezcal cocktails. The idyllic modern farmhouse dining room, inspired by the area’s Dutch colonial architecture, is the work of restaurant partner Taavo Somer. The menu focuses on Italian-Mediterranean cooking with dishes like house-made rigatoni flavored with chili flakes and bottarga, alongside braised short ribs over polenta.
Wildflower Farms, the lavish new property from the Auberge Resorts Collection, is a destination getaway. Chef Rob Lawson uses the property’s six-acre farm to supply his seasonal New American restaurant Clay: fresh eggs for the benedict, broccoli rabe for the grilled porterhouse (serves 2-3 and costs $210); and fresh tomatoes for the Japanese milk bread. In support of all that’s local, sommelier Vanessa Price’s Empire State-focused wine list is stocked with reds, whites, rosés and ciders.
The all-day, sun-drenched restaurant overlooking the Catskill mountains is influenced by the way “a person in the French countryside would eat,” executive chef Ryan Tate says. That means rustic and hearty dishes like maple-glazed French toast and grilled squash on house-made focaccia during the day. The $115 three-course dinner tasting menu includes Japanese and European accents in dishes like beef tartare with aged soy and shiso, and roasted duck breast with fermented corn and foie gras.
New York-style, kettle-boiled bagels feature at this takeout-focused breakfast and lunch spot in a wood-framed building on West Bridge Street. The upgraded sandwiches are made with local ingredients, including the components of the bacon, egg and cheese, here known as the Bagel Don Dada, and the Pastrami Mami, garnished with spicy mustard and dill pickles. The juicy grass-fed beef burgers are a highlight.
This rustic dining spot from chef Efrén Hernández highlights his Mexican heritage at this earth-toned, log cabin-esque space with dishes such as blood-sausage tamale and steelhead trout in a crispy tostada with epazote cream. His menu also includes dry-aged ribeye with bone marrow salsa and whole grilled mackerel al pastor that pair well with a bitter-orange margarita.
After years of cooking at northern California restaurant Chez Panisse, chef Molly Levine now runs Troutbeck’s kitchen. The menu features seasonal dishes that give a nod to Italy’s small-plate aperitivo culture. There’s a particular focus on produce, with shaved celery root and kohlrabi crowned with boquerones and golden beets in a tahini crème fraîche. Larger plates include a confit chicken with an Italian fish sauce vinaigrette and ricotta gnocchi in brown butter with a hazelnut gremolata.
With its sparse and unfussy aesthetic, Café Mutton landed on noteworthy new-restaurant lists like Bon Appetit’s when it opened in Hudson two years ago. It’s the first restaurant for author and former Prune sous chef Shaina Loew-Banayan, who plates a short menu that emphasizes meat and offal. It’s “a tangled-up mess of nostalgia and gluttony,” says Loew-Banayan of her daily changing bill of fare, which could include stuffed chicken necks with polenta one day, and head cheese toast the next.
Former Eleven Madison Park pastry cook Robert Howay has made Kitty’s one of the best places to grab a bite in Hudson. During the day, customers line up for La Marzocco-pulled espresso-based drinks, excellent baked goods like the malted oat cinnamon bun, local eggs and produce, and squishy egg and cheese sandwiches laced with sauerkraut. At night, the space features inspired comfort food, such as lemon and miso-dressed broccoli Waldorf salad and pork schnitzel.
Husband-and-wife team Nick and Sarah Suarez revamped a century-old former grocery, maintaining an original brick wall and historical wood floors, adding banquettes and a marble bar for modernizing touches. Their family-friendly menu is deceptively simple: The grass-fed burger’s sesame seed bun is baked inhouse, and the buckwheat pappardelle, tossed with ’nduja, ricotta salata and spinach, is made fresh daily.
The rather sleepy town of Pine Plains is home to one of upstate New York’s breakout hits. Owner and executive chef Clare de Boer of the beloved SoHo dining spot King runs the show. The 250-year-old space is outfitted with antique furniture and wrought iron candle stands. Dishes are fired on a massive, wood-fueled central hearth. Dishes include scallops with green garlic butter, and rabbit and tarragon pie.
This cozy, unfussy New American bistro dedicates a section of its menu to kids, with standards like a fried peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and macaroni and cheese. The roast chicken is studded with dried cherries and accented with tarragon butter, and there’s an old school-feeling, sweet-and-sour Asian pork belly served with shishito peppers. A retractable front garage door, during warmer months, leads to a patio.
The Alpine-inspired Little Cat Lodge is from the team behind Manhattan’s Black Seed Bagels, Noah Bernamoff and Matt Kliegman. The meat and cheese-rich menu evokes the kind of food you’d find at a European ski town: pork schnitzel, mushroom and crème fraîche-laced rigatoni and local flank steak blanketed in a rich raclette Mornay sauce. The space has a tavern-like feel, with its ’50s-era rustic wood walls and sturdy maple furniture.
The combo boutique hotel and restaurant has a ground-floor tavern that’s become one of the area’s top dining spots. Chef Efrén Hernández's plates pair well with the small-producer focused European wine list. Cocktails lean more local and feature New York state distillers with an emphasis on bitters. Try Gossips of Rivertown (gin, grappa, white vermouth, bittersweet aperitivo) alongside house-made rye sourdough pasta.