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Dining Intelligence
The Matchbox Café Strikes the Right Chord in Rhinebeck
If you find yourself heading north on Route 9 just below Rhinebeck and you’re feeling hungry, do yourself a favor and stop at The Matchbox Café. But be warned: don’t blink or you will miss the diminutive Café, housed in a little stone cottage, less than a mile from town on the right. Fortunately, there’s a distinct signpost: a billboard that implores you to “stay nice” and notifies you that burgers, hot dogs, and great cookies are close at hand, just ten seconds away. You’ll know it’s directing you to the Café from the unmistakable matchbox-on-fire logo.
Expect close quarters when you walk in; that’s part of the Matchbox Café’s intimate charm. The tiny fireplace, tightly spaced wooden tables, and soft lighting create an atmosphere of cozy comfort. Your gaze will be drawn front-and-center to the expansive countertop; it’s wide enough to display a delectable array of tasty baked treats while still leaving room for friendly neighbors to rub elbows and trade gossip, or for children to clamber up on the stools in front in order to perch and peer longingly at the goodies temptingly (and safely) arrayed under cake domes.
The warm greeting you’ll receive from husband-and-wife owners Joann and Sam Cohen further ups the charm quotient. Even better, they’ll remember your name on subsequent visits and graciously acknowledge your presence with large smiles and pleasant chatter. Return often enough and they can be counted on to recall your favorites from the broad but selective menu.
Joann and Sam – he’s the pastry chef of the duo – owned and operated a wholesale bakery and café, Dessert Delivery, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for two decades. However, they often talked about opening a restaurant in Dutchess County, where they’ve owned a home in Rhinebeck since 2005. One day, after having her mint-condition 1973 baby blue Carmengia repaired at M&M Auto, Joann asked the owner, Mark Van De Car, about the little stone cottage next door. When he said it was available, the Cohens’ vision of opening a high-quality, roadside burger joint began to come into focus.
One year – and many renovations – later, The Matchbox opened on Memorial Day, 2011. True to their goals, Joann says, “The burger is the cornerstone of the business,” and after tasting it, you’ll know why. This flame-broiled burger ($6.50 with hand-cut fries), made from local, organic, grass-fed beef, is so sweet and juicy you’ll wonder why you would ever eat another one anywhere else. “We believe in high-quality products and would serve nothing less,” says Joann, “so we are thrilled at how grateful our customers are when they thank us for being here.”
Of course, The Matchbox serves more than burgers and desserts. You could practically dive into a deep plate of breakfast nachos, piled high with bacon and eggs, plus cheese, beans, tomato, onion, and corn ($7.50); or try the buttery challah French toast with maple syrup and bacon ($6.75). For lunch, if you you’d like something other than that burger, try the juicy all-beef hot dog ($4.50; add chili for another dollar); it’s char-grilled to perfection with the dark, smoky flavor you usually only get from your own backyard barbeque. For lighter fare, there’s tuna or chicken salad on 15-grain bread with lettuce, tomato, and avocado ($7.00), or the slightly more decadent chunky shrimp salad on a top-loader bun ($9.75). All the sandwiches come with housemade potato chips – thin, crunchy slices of russet potato with just the right amount of salt.
Drive by in the evening and let yourself be lured in for a large square of housemade lasagna – one version for carnivores and another for vegetarians – both cheese-y and delicious with oozing layers of ricotta and mozzarella ($8.75); or fresh skillet-fried chicken ($6.50 with housemade cole slaw) with crunchy skin outside that is evenly matched in deliciousness by the juicy white meat within. Even if you’re counting calories, don’t skip those hand-cut, twice-fried, french fries; they’re the ideal complement to any selection, or perfect all by themselves ($4).
The great news is that no matter what hour you happen by, you can get whatever you want from the all-day menu, which is packed with the Cohen’s favorite comfort foods given a high-quality interpretation, including the use of local ingredients when feasible. It could be seen as ironic, then, that the small space they’ve chosen for The Matchbox limits their ability to make their own signature sweets on premises. Thus, while all their savory menu items are prepared in the tiny kitchen behind the counter, the Cohens continue to produce their delectable desserts in their Upper East Side bakery, which still serves corporate clients in Manhattan. Sam manages to bake and then safely shuttle his treats from NYC to Rhinebeck for lucky Dutchess County residents and visitors.
Speaking of those desserts, they’re all so appealing that it’s hard to choose. You can’t go wrong with the Red Velvet Cake ($5 per slice); selected by Oprah in 2011 as one of her Favorites, it also won the ‘Best Dessert’ award at Taste of Rhinebeck 2012. Or try the Schmoogie – two dark chocolate cake-y cookies filled with a not-too-sweet chocolate ganache, then also dipped into ganache; a better mood-elevator for just $2.75 cannot be found. The Marshmallow Krispy treats are chewy, gooey, and also a bargain at $2.75 since they are, according to one local five-year-old treat-seeker, “as big as my head.”
Which brings us to this warning: if you go with children, be prepared to pry them away from the baked delights that line the countertop, but also know that they, and you, will eat every delicious morsel of the savory dishes doled out by the Cohens – as well as the desserts. Now that the weather has warmed, you can always choose to keep them out of temptation’s way by sitting outdoors at one of the Café‘s picnic tables, nestled in a small grove of trees. —Colleen Challenger Schropfer
The Matchbox Café
6242 Route 9, Rhinebeck, NY 12572
845-876-3911
Summer Hours
7 days, 9:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Regular Hours
Tuesday – Saturday, 9:30 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Sunday, 9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Closed Monday
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Posted by Colleen Challenger Schropfer on 05/22/12 at 05:25 PM • Permalink
Cross Roads Food Shop is Hillsdale’s New Hot Spot
David Wurth outside his cafe and restaurant in Hillsdale, NY.
Chef David Wurth has been living and cooking long enough in the Berkshires and Hudson Valley to know that a successful business must have crossover appeal. With the Cross Roads Food Shop, he has created the quintessential rural restaurant—a neighborhood hangout by day, destination dining by night—that attracts locals and weekenders alike. In the morning, you can linger over coffee and cornmeal pancakes ($5) or grab an egg sandwich ($5) to go. After noon, there are locally sourced salads such as Brussels sprouts, grated goat cheese, walnuts and wheatberries ($7), grass-fed burgers with fries ($10), and gentrified sandwiches like roasted pork with leeks and chile sauce ($8.50). On weekend evenings, the candles are lit, and Wurth serves deceptively simple but extraordinarily delicious plates such as steamed fish with tapenade, turnips and poached butter lettuce ($22) and spaghetti with spinach, mustard butter and baked tomatoes ($13/$18).
A charmingly neurotic and self-deprecating chef, Wurth has put his three decades of experience into Cross Roads, and his refined sensibility is evident in every bite. Originally from Rochester, NY, he started cooking professionally as a teenager on Martha’s Vineyard. After studying film at NYU and attending culinary school in Philadelphia, he landed a job at Savoy, a new restaurant in SoHo that was one of the first Manhattan restaurants to espouse a farm-to-table philosophy. As he got to know the farmers from the Hudson Valley who supplied the restaurant, he dreamed of living and cooking in close proximity to where his meat and vegetables were raised. In 2006, he was hired to be the first chef at Local 111, which serves locavore cuisine in an improbably chic former gas station in the heart of scruffy Philmont, NY.
After three years at Local 111, he was ready to have his own place, but he did not have a plan until his friend Cathy Grier (aka NYC Subway Girl) introduced him to Matthew White, a New York interior designer and Hillsdale weekender who had bought (with David Reude) a rundown building on Route 23, near the intersection of Route 22, which he wanted to renovate and turn into a general store and other retail spaces. “The initial idea was that I would have a small soup and sandwich concession in the general store,” says Wurth. “But logistically it wasn’t going to work and Matthew encouraged me to take on a bigger space and offered to design it, too.” The airy L-shpaed room has a partially-open kitchen, a communal table in one section, and a wall-size map of Hillsdale that has become a conversation piece. “The local folk love that they can find the street where they live,” says Wurth.
The renovation took much longer than anticipated, so while Wurth was waiting for his space to be ready he went to work for Bjorn Somlo at Nudel in Lenox. “Bjorn had worked for me briefly at Local 111 so I was happy to return the favor and help him open Nudel and see it take off,” says Wurth, who explains that his food is somewhat different than Somlo’s pyrotechnic cooking. “We both start with the same ingredients but my approach is more Alice Waters,” says Wurth. His roast chicken breast on a bed of wilted greens is simplicity at its most sublime—exceptionally juicy and flavorful. When asked why it’s so delicious, the waitress says, “I think they sear it in duck fat.” Wurth won’t confirm or deny, but it’s clear that he has more than few epicurean secrets up his sleeve.
On a recent Friday night, the dining room was buzzing, filled with familiar faces from Austerlitz to the north, Great Barrington to the east, Hudson to the west, and Millerton to the South. “This is exactly why I called it the Cross Roads Food Shop,” says Wurth. “I am glad it is living up to its name.”
—Dan Shaw
642 Route 23, Hillsdale, NY 12529
518.325.1461
Breakfast: Wednesday - Sunday 9 - 2:30
Lunch: Wednesday - Sunday noon - 2:30
Dinner: Friday & Satuday 5:30 - 9:30; Sunday 5:30 - 9
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 05/09/12 at 10:26 AM • Permalink
Alana Chernila: The Homemade Pantry from a Homegrown Gal
The best very best trips to the farmers’ markets are expeditions of discovery. There, amidst the familiar greens, beans, and tomatoes, sits a knobby root vegetable that you may have heard of – or even enjoyed in a restaurant – but you have no idea of what to do with it, much less the greens that sprout from it. Intrigued, you’re game to give it a go.
That’s where Alana Chernila comes in. A familiar face at the Great Barrington Farmers’ Market, Chernila cheerily hands out change and cooking advice from behind the tables at the Indian Line Farm stand, where she has worked since 2008 as part of her membership in the farm’s CSA. Thanks to her gentle encouragement, scores of shoppers are no longer scared of celeriac or timid with turnips.
Chernila so enjoyed dispensing simple vegetable preparation ideas during her farmers’ market gigs that she created a blog, Eating From the Ground Up, in which she shared recipes based on seasonal produce in our region. Though she literally grew up baking in the kitchen of the Turning Point Inn on Lake Buel in Great Barrington, which her grandparents owned before it was purchased and converted into a private home, Chernila explains that her approach to cooking stemmed from “…the need to feed hungry children when our wallets were relatively empty.”
Chernlla jokes that because she entered motherhood nearly as soon as she was graduated from St. John’s College in 2002, she had to figure out how to make a living right away. As a young mother she worked a variety of jobs, including forays into publishing, film, teaching, and secretarial work. (Her husband Joey is a Montessori preschool teacher.) But she found her passion, and a culinary challenge shared by many other parents, in the kitchen.
Chernila’s children, now seven and nine years old, didn’t always want vegetables. But some foods they always did want, like granola bars, presented issues that trouble many parents, including expense, excessive packaging, and concerns about nutrition and the source of ingredients. Chernila channeled these concerns into a quest to make her kids’ favorite foods better – and cheaper – than the store-bought versions. The recipes that resulted from these pursuits made it into her blog, and Chermila’s readers applauded her kitchen forays beyond farmer’s market fare.
Recognizing a serious hunger for recipes for foods people normally buy in stores, Chernila wrote a book proposal based on her culinary exploits. “I felt like this book had to be written, and the agent in New York who took it on was my top choice.” This spring her book, The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying & Start Making, was published by Clarkson Potter. In its pages, home cooks can find out how to make everything from fish sticks to ketchup to mozzarella cheese to Chernila’s versions of Pop Tarts and peanut butter cups. Most recipes are preceded by a brief story from Chernila, which makes it seem as if an old friend is sharing some of her favorite things.
At 33 years old, Chernila is more than a working mom and newly minted cookbook author; she’s also the youngest-ever member of the Great Barrington board of selectmen. A Great Barrington native, Chernila says she got involved in local politics to combat her own sense of apathy. “I wanted to find a way to be a model of optimism and political action for my kids, and for myself, too.”
Chernila is certainly a model of can-do optimism in the kitchen, where she recommends taking on make-it-yourself projects that suit your specific needs. “For my purposes, the first staple was yogurt, because one of my daughters subsisted on it and I felt like I could make it better and cheaper and without so much packaging. That said, a great first from-scratch project is butter, because it takes five minutes and will never fail you.” Don’t believe it? Watch this.
Chernila also suggests that eager market-goers consider food preservation. “Often farmers have seconds,” she explains, “and besides canning, I think people don’t realize how easy it is to freeze vegetables.” Both techniques are covered in her book, with simple-to-follow instructions.
While Chernila plans to return to her post when the Great Barrington Farmers’ Market reopens on May 12, you need not brave Saturday traffic to get her cooking advice. She’ll be sharing her seasonal recipes on Rural Intelligence, so you can make the most of the local harvest. And if you’d like to stop wasting money (and other resources) on supermarket products that you can easily make yourself, you can check out The Homemade Pantry at a variety of events in our region (like the signing and cheese-making demonstration she held at the Chef’s Shop in Great Barrington, above, in April). Next up: Chernila’s launch party, at The Bookstore in Lenox on Friday, May 4, at 5 p.m. It’s a potluck party, naturally, so get in on the Homemade Pantry spirit and bring some food to share that you made at home, preferably something that you used to buy in the grocery store. —Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser
The Bookstore
Lenox, MA; Friday, May 4 @ 5 p.m.
Booksigning, reading, and potluck launch party
The Bushnell-Sage Library
Sheffield, MA; Friday, May 18 @ 6:30 p.m.
Booksigning and talk on how to get kids in the kitchen
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 04/25/12 at 12:15 PM • Permalink
Luna 61: Vegetarian Fare with Asian Flair
You don’t have to be a vegetarian to love vegetarian food, as cultural correspondent Bess Hochstein learned on a recent visit to Luna 61, any more than you have to be Italian to love a good pizza. Hochstein, a vegan who dines out often in all sorts of restaurants, can tick off the handful in our region whose vegetarian offering(s) are more than desultory concessions. Which is why Luna 61 came as such a pleasant surprise. Owners Debra and Peter Maisel (she bakes, he’s the chef) pack so much punch into every bite even a devout omnivore would tend to focus on what’s there and forget what’s not.
by Throw a rock in our region and you’re likely to hit a yoga teacher, reiki master, herbalist, massage therapist, or other holistic practitioner. Which makes it seem odd that vegetarian restaurants are so rare here. Many local dining establishments do serve up a meatless option or two – notably Chez Nous in Lee, where co-owner and pastry chef Rachel Portnoy, herself a vegetarian, has some sway in the kitchen over her traditional-French-chef husband, Franck Tessier; Swoon Kitchenbar in Hudson, one of the few local participants in the global Meatless Monday movement; and the Hudson branch of Mexican Radio, which goes so far as to offer not just faux meat but also dairy substitutes to accommodate both vegetarians and vegans. And, of course, the region’s Asian and Indian restaurants generally have a list of vegetarian dishes.
Those seeking a meat-free dining environment, however, are mostly out of luck. Even Kripalu added chicken and fish to its buffet a few years ago.
Fortunately for compassionate foodies, there’s Luna 61 in Tivoli, where husband-and-wife team Debra and Peter Maisel have been serving vegetarian meals after having relocated from Red Hook six years ago. Omnivorous diners who fear that vegetarian means bland beans, greens, tofu, and rice can happily take a seat in Luna 61’s cheery, chartreuse dining room without trepidation. A hearty, flavorful meal, prepared from organic, as-local-as-possible ingredients, awaits.
Chef Peter Maisel, who studied with Annemarie Colbin at New York’s Natural Gourmet Institute, mans the kitchen. He has a bold hand with spice and a keen understanding of balancing sweet, hot, salty, and sour flavors, which he puts to use in creative interpretations of international cuisine.
Debra Maisel runs the front of the house and does the baking, turning out homey, seasonal fruit pies, crisps, and tarts, as well as luscious cakes, many of which are vegan. She also prepares fresh fruit beverages, such as watermelon strawberry lemonade, refreshing on a recent scorching day.
Among the Starters, Scallion Pancakes present a surprise; rather than the flat disc served at Chinese restaurants, they’re upright cones of crispy flatbread wrapped around fresh vegetables. The Vietnamese Salad Roll is a more faithful rendition of the classic summer roll, with a suitably spicy peanut sauce, which, like all the restaurant’s sauces and dressings, is made from scratch. The appetizer menu is full of creative rolls, such as the Maki 61 sushi roll with shiitake mushrooms and avocado, or the Galaxy, bite-sized 
cones made from a tortilla wrap filled with portabellas, mock Canadian bacon, and veggies. Notes Debra, “Our customers often make a meal of them.”
You could also make a meal of the menu’s hearty salads, such as Roasted Root (beets, carrots, and onions over field greens); Land and Sea (arame, daikon, carrots, red cabbage, and scallions over mesclun); and Wild Mushroom, Potato and Kale Salad. A globetrotting list of sandwiches includes the Cuban Press (panko-crusted portabello, roasted red peppers, and sautéed spinach, with goat cheese or tofu), the Curry Roti Wrap, falafel, burrito, and a tempeh reuben.
Peter’s Asian culinary inclinations shine through in the main courses, with fiesty, filling dishes like Bangkok Curry Tofu, Pad Thai, or Laksa Noodlepot, and a nightly special, such as the Korean Kimchee Noodlepot—with house-pickled cabbage and daikon – available on a recent visit. Vegetarians can indulge without fear of hidden, animal-derived ingredients, like fish sauce or shrimp paste, that are common in Aisan cuisine. Debra points out that the sweet potato enchiladas and the ravioli—which changes daily—are also perennially popular. “We try to change the menu,” she says, “but our customers always complain when we take something off.” That doesn’t stop them from coming up with new seasonal temptations, like a current plate of raw cheese from Pine Plains and local peaches on a bed of arugula with pumpkin seeds and lemon basil vinaigrette.
Portions are generous and Peter’s irresistible sauces may compel you to lick the plate clean, but you’ll definitely want to leave room for one of Debra’s desserts, even if you take it to go, which we recently did with a slice fresh peach pie. After tearing through that humble vegan dessert later the same evening, we seriously regretted not having ordered two slices.
Debra explains that about ninety percent of the menu is vegan, or can be made vegan by leaving out cheese. She also claims it’s not an issue for the majority of her clientele, which draws heavily from nearby Bard College. “About seventy percent of our customers are not vegetarian,” says Debra. “And why should that be surprising? You don’t have to be Chinese to go to a Chinese restaurant. You don’t have to be Mexican to a Mexican restaurant. People come here for good, clean, organic food.”
She and her husband initially gravitated toward a vegetarian diet for health reasons; Peter lost his mother, his father, and other close family members to cancer, and he has the Ashkenazi genetic predisposition to the disease. As Debra describes it, the couple used to be “hardcore macrobiotic,” though they’ve loosened up over time. Still, health is not the only reason they’ve chosen to eat and serve vegetarian food. “We don’t like killing animals,” she says. “We’re animal lovers.” They’ve got four adopted dogs and four cats at home, plus a bevy of feral cats that Debra cares for, to prove the point.
Even gluten-free vegans will find a warm reception and a good meal at Luna 61, though, perhaps surprisingly, Chelsea Clinton and her now-vegan dad did not stop by on the lead-up to Chelsea’s recent wedding in nearby Rhinebeck. But Debra notes Luna 61 did get some business from the former Clinton administration during the nuptials. “Madeleine Albrigtht stopped for our banana cream pie,” says Debra. “We’re famous for our banana cream pie. We always have to have it on the menu.”
Luna 61
55 Broadway
Tivoli, NY
Dinner: Monday,Tuesday & Thursday, 5 - 9 p.m.; Friday & Saturday 5 - 10 p.m.
Brunch: Sunday 9:30 - 4:00
845.758-0061
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Posted by Bess Hochstein on 08/23/11 at 05:17 PM • Permalink
PanZur: Tapas and Then Some in Tivoli
by Peter Davies
Sometimes serendipity is the best guide. While walking up the main street of Tivoli a few weeks ago, we passed a rather understated place called Pan-Zur. We had never heard of it. On its front patio were a number of diners who seemed quietly satisfied. After consulting one of its menus, we were more than surprised by its offerings and more than eager to take our place on the patio.
And we are certainly glad that we did. It’s rare, maybe only once or twice a year, that we both come away from a restaurant fully satisfied by the quality of the meal. In the case of Pan-Zur it is fair to say we were both exhilarated. The menu was original, the execution of the dishes virtually flawless, and the staff, one of them, co-owner Kim Peraza, the chef’s wife, were personable, attentive, and well educated about what was on offer. We were particularly excited to find a chef who not only appreciates black pig but also knows how to make the most of it.
The menu reflects the Catalan origins of the family of chef/owner, Rei Peraza. Indeed, the name Pan-Zur is a tribute to his grandfather, a chef who had some fame in Barcelona. While much of the menu is Spanish-influenced, the offerings are much more varied…in toto, a very original presentation of dishes not usually seen on menus, Spanish or otherwise. This is not a restaurant of the big, bare, elegant plate with a tiny pyramid of food and lots of artistic squiggles, but one in the Mediterranean mode of celebrating food in all its natural deliciousness and bounty.
As you will see, we are unabashed food adventurers. With my years of living and traveling in the Middle East I have developed a very open mind and varied tastes where food is concerned, a predilection shared by Mark. So when potted pig’s head was suggested as a special tapa we went for it (delicious), as well as black fried squid (garbanzo crusted squid cooked in ink aioli, smoked pepper drizzle), also a hit, followed by a perfectly spiced shrimp ajillo—all reluctantly shared. The only tapa of which either of us voiced any disappointment was a “sandwich” of fried green tomato and pork belly. With my gluten allergy, I chose to pass on the bread part and found the fried green tomato and pork belly delicious, but Mark, who fortunately for him, does not share my gluten allergy, felt the filling was overwhelmed by the bread. We ended happily by sharing a “plate”: Octopus (with garbanzo beans, baby fennel, chorizo, citrus, mint, saffron, & vinaigrette). An octopus enthusiast, I was pleased to see it in yet another delicious incarnation.
The menu offers a variety of possibilities for constructing a meal, but the big challenge for us was how to eliminate some of the many enticing dishes. While often in most restaurants I find it difficult to zero in on something I would like to try, at Pan Zur I find myself in a quandary, being pulled in so many directions. Do I want to start with the creamy eggplant-garlic soup with roasted lemon and crème fraiche)? Or, from the “Snacks” category: chip & dip: (crisp pig ears with saffron yoghurt)? Or from the “Tapas” category as described above. Or the Charcuterie category lomo iberico (100% acorn-fed Iberian pig loin), about the tenderest most melt-in-your-mouth morsel you can imagine; or chistorra (grilled sausage, saffron pickled cabbage slaw). While chef Peraza does homage to locavore tastes when possible, he quite rightly turns to Spain for many of his ham and other pork products.
Pork dishes abound in several categories (not for nothing is the corporate name of this restaurant Porcus, LLC). On one recent evening the menu included, in addition to most of the pork dishes mentioned above, a tapa: migas (1 yr old Ozark ham, mushrooms cheddar, poached egg, red eye gravy vinaigrette); heritage pig belly (sherry-cherry molasses glaze), citrus-garlic braised pork (red cabbage slaw), and jamon Serrano (dry cured 9 months, Spain).The pork piece de resistance is a special order 7-hour roasted suckling pig prepared to serve 8 to 10 people. We have not yet found the sympathetic crowd to try this with.
A pork abstaining friend of ours who took our recommendation on Pan Zur observed that if you don’t eat pork you might find yourself feeling a bit hard pressed to assemble a meal. But she managed, and she and her husband loved the meal so much they returned a few nights later for the Wednesday night Prix Fixe menu El Toro Loco (the crazy bull), a meal centering on beef in homage to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.
For those not inclined to the pork dishes and other exotica, the regular menu in the Plates category offers wild striped bass, New York Strip steak, and roasted Amish chicken. Even these more standard dishes are seasoned and garnished in highly original (and tasty) ways.
We only regret that we did not sit down and write our restaurant review after our first visit, as now we need to append a full disclosure. On our first visit to Pan-Zur our enthusiasm was utterly free of conflict of interest, but by our second visit, we were proud suppliers of several pigs heads, several pounds of back fat, and pigs feet and tails from our farm’s Ossabaw Island Hogs. We couldn’t be prouder that Chef Peraza found our product worthy as ingredients in his very creative cuisine.
Pan-Zur Restaurant and Wine Bar
69 Broadway
Tivoli; 845.757.1071
Rural Intelligence’s AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 08/12/11 at 09:22 AM • Permalink
West Street Grill, A Hardy Litchfield Perennial
by Angeline Goreau
Back in May of 1990, long before locavores were thick on the ground in Litchfield county, James O’Shea, formerly a figure in the New York food world, and Charles Kafferman, a businessman, made up their minds not to settle for the woebegone vegetable specimens offered by the local grocers. Their new restaurant, the West Street Grill, would use the freshest ingredients, which, ironically, were hard to find in the midst of Litchfield’s expansive pastoral landscape.
Twenty years on, the gastronomic terrain of Litchfield County has altered radically, and the pioneering Grill has become the beloved eminence grise of West Street.
James O’Shea, a native of Ireland, was already a veteran of the New York City restaurant scene when he and Charles began to shape the idea of creating a sophisticated but laid-back venue for dining in rural Litchfield. James had managed restaurants and written a food column for The Daily News. Charles Kafferman, a veteran of the fashion trade, brought considerable business experience—as well as a delightfully friendly presence—to the table.
Like so many Litchfield residents, each of the partners had moved here in increments, taking a small bite, then a bigger one. In the city, O’Shea, far right in the photo (courtesy Litchfield County Times) had lived next to the offices of Arthur Carter, who, at the time, owned the New York Observer. When Carter bought the Litchfield County Times, it made a splash in the New York press. Intrigued, newshound O’Shea began reading the Connecticut paper. Before he knew it, he had rented a weekend house there. Finally, he bought one.
As for their restaurant, they wanted it to marry the classical with the experimental, sophistication with simplicity, city with country. They wanted to apply the discipline of the French tradition to a truly American cuisine. But, even as they grappled with these lofty and potentially contradictory ambitions, just addressing the basics was an uphill battle. “The only lettuce available locally was rancid iceberg. It was primitive,” O’Shea recalls. Undaunted, he bought a van and drove down to Hunt’s Point and the Fulton Fish Market in the wee hours of the morning. Later, he converted other restaurant owners in the region to his plan, then talked the New York markets into sending trucks out into the countryside with fresh ingredients the restaurnts would share. It took O’Shea a year of determined persuasion to close that deal.
Meanwhile, he had begun to work with local farmers in Litchfield, Falls Village and Washington, encouraging them to grow to kinds of vegetables and herbs he wanted. And he began to grow things in his own garden at the back of his house, which these days, he says, rivals the size of the restaurant’s dining room.
As their first chef, the partners had the good fortune to hire Randy Nichols, a Native American, whose mix of talents included a passion, picked up as a child, for foraging foods from the wild. Similarly James could draw not only on his glamorous New York experience, but also on a childhood spent in the Irish countryside. “I grew up on a farm,” he says, “where centuries-honored practices were continued. Our farm extended up a hillside over Kenmare Bay. Streams and a river nearby ran to the coast. We could see what was happening on the shore”, where people collected what the shoreline offered. “There was a family who made a living picking periwinkles; others gathered mussels, dug for clams in the sand, fished off the old stone pier where small boats would land their catch.”
James’s grandfather and great-uncle collected seaweed to fertilize their land, spreading it over the rhubarb beds and under gooseberry bushes. Even in those days, before the dangers of industrial fertilizers were fully recognized, his family was acutely aware that any chemicals they put on their hillside would run straight down to the sea and poison the environment. Besides, a fall application of seaweed produced unsurpassable rhubarb in the spring.
In Ireland, there’s an ancient tradition of hospitality going back to the early Gaelic period. James explains that the old Brehon laws, thought to be some of the oldest in Europe, dictated that anyone who comes inside your doors must be welcomed. O’Shea’s Irish roots have informed the feel of the West Street Grill. Both Charles and James wanted the Grill to feel like home to the people who dine there. Most nights, they can be seen greeting guests and moving from table to table to chat. Yet one never feels that chatting is obligatory. The West Street Grill is famous for the famous people who go there because they can count on the house’s discretion. From the beginning, the superb food combined with the low-key atmosphere has attracted celebrities such as Sam Waterston, Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols, Meryl Streep, Wes Anderson, Mia Farrow, Philip Roth and the late Arthur Miller. One memorable afternoon, Milos Foreman came in with the playwright and Czech president Vaclav Havel, whose bodyguards cooled their heels on the Litchfield green.
Never resting on their laurels, James, Charles and their brilliant young chef Jimmy Cosgriff, left, continue to experiment. Cosgriff’s considerable powers of invention are very much in evidence in the perpetually changing menu. “We change, re-arrange, re-interpret,” James says, “but always return to and rely on simplicity and the perfection of ingredients.” If a customer expresses an interest, the partners will ask for opinions on what works and what doesn’t work, what improvements might be made in a dish they’re tinkering with. The pleasure they take in pleasing their diners is palpable.
This season chef Cosgriff has surprised diners with a summer peach and Marcona almond soup infused with mint. Though it seems creamy, the soup hasn’t a drop of cream or butter. This is but one of a large selection of popular vegan soups that lots of diners order with a decidedly non-vegan 
accompaniment of the irresistible parmesan aioli grilled peasant bread, left, that the West Street Grill has been serving since it opened. A main course might consist of fresh wild striped bass with baby patty pan squash, local corn, roasted tomatoes, all in an aromatic fennel broth. The Grill also does delicious braised short ribs with a gratin of sweet potatoes in a filo crust. For dessert, there is a choice of vegan sorbets in a variety of flavors, a citrusy lime tart (“not for the faint of heart,” James says), or a classic over-the-top Irish banoffee pie—toffee, banana and shaved bittersweet chocolate. In addition to the desserts that regulars expect to see on the menu, the chef might experiment with chocolate cake bursting with fresh blackcurrants or local white peaches poached in basil syrup.
It’s no exaggeration to say that if the West Street Grill hadn’t existed, the citizens of Litchfield County would have had to invent it. A score of years after its founding, the Grill is woven into Litchfield’s center as inextricably as the green itself. Over those two decades, as other restaurants have come and gone, it has endured, evolved, prevailed.
West Street Grill
43 West Street, Litchfield
Lunch & dinner daily.
860.567.3885
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 08/09/11 at 02:06 PM • Permalink
St. Andrew’s Café, Greener and Sharper Than Ever
By Kathryn Matthews
For all appearances, St. Andrew’s Café at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park is one of those restaurants where time-stood-still, with décor that features carpeted floors; a brown-and-ochre color scheme; floor-length floral curtains; and white-clothed tables. The student servers sport collared, long-sleeved white shirts, ties, black vests and pants. It all feels very 1980s.
But, as my husband and I discovered on a recent visit, there is nothing retro about the St. Andrew’s menu.
In 2009, St. Andrew’s became a certified green restaurant—the first in Dutchess County to do so in accordance with Green Restaurant Association standards. Their green practices include sourcing locally and regionally, reducing food and product waste, recycling, composting (leftover food), monitoring water efficiency, and eliminating all Styrofoam products and individually wrapped condiments.
Last December, Dwayne LiPuma, an assistant professor of Culinary Arts and formerly the teaching chef at Caterine and American Bounty, two other restaurants on the CIA campus, took over as St. Andrew’s executive chef. A CIA alumni, LiPuma had worked at several iconic New York City restaurants, including Park Avenue Café, The River Café and Aureole, before joining the faculty of his alma mater. Under his leadership, St. Andrew’s once predictable casual-fare menu (pizza, burgers and meatloaf) has been transformed. “My goal was to create a more sophisticated and upscale farm-to-table menu,” he says, “but one that would appeal to a broad range of visitors.” He now refreshes the menu seasonally—more frequently in spring and summer when produce is abundant. In summer, about 80% of the menu is locally sourced; in winter, about 50%.
As for our meal, the bread delivered to our table was baked fresh that day by CIA baking and pastry students. Other items made in-house? “We buy whole hogs from which we’ll make our own pates, terrines and sausages, too,” says LiPuma.
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I started with a frisee, endive and watercress salad ($8). The frisee and watercress with a Cabot cheddar dressing were artfully stacked on endive, and garnished with a pretty splay of toasted hazelnuts and house-made bacon lardons. My husband had another beautifully composed spring salad ($8): local greens, flavored with a mustard-shallot vinaigrette, mounded on asparagus spears, encircled by roasted red baby beets and delicate chunks of nutty-flavored Toma Celena (from Cooperstown Cheese Company).
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My husband had the sautéed sea bass ($14), warming and substantial, paired with house-made sausage, fava beans and artichokes in a pool of Chardonnay broth. I opted for the pan-roasted Stone Church Farm duck ($14, right), which, I later learned, is St. Andrew’s top-selling dish. I can understand why. Slices of duck breast, perfectly pink and tender, rest atop a curry-spiked grain salad, a toothsome mélange of barley, wild rice and couscous (all from Wild Hive Farm in Clinton), enriched by a warm drizzle of Lenz merlot sauce.
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Satisfied and full, we heroically made room for dessert: pound cake with strawberry compote, strawberry ice cream, and a dollop of crème fraiche.
Judging from the nearly full dining room—and our own meal—LiPuma has achieved both of his goals, to reach out to the adventurous, while still satisfying the tame. You now can have a lovely, sophisticated meal here. And you can still get a burger—a barbecue burger ($10) is the current offering—but now the beef is grass-fed, the bacon is house-smoked, and the cheese is local. There’s a pizza margherita ($9) with house-made tomato sauce, basil, mozzarella and ricotta. You can even have meatloaf ($12), the Meiller Farm meatloaf comes with an herb and Bulich Farm mushroom gravy and roasted garlic whipped RSK Farm potatoes.
Now that the menu has been successfully up-dated, CIA will be gradually moving toward a more eco-friendly, up-to-date décor, replacing carpets with wood floors, tablecloths with bare tabletops.
St. Andrew’s Café at The Culinary Institute of America
1946 Campus Drive, Hyde Park
Monday - Friday, lunch only, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Reservations required: 845.471.6608
All CIA restaurants have been closed for summer recess; they reopen Wednesday, August 3.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 08/02/11 at 09:15 AM • Permalink
Smoked: Downhome Cookin’ with an Uptown Twist
by Jacque Lynn Schiller
Food labeled “southern comfort” often leaves the diner seeking consolation in the medicine cabinet—deep-fried and swimming-in-sauce does a number, even if it is finger lickin’ good. So when the brightly painted but unfussy hideaway just off Kent’s green arrived on the scene, we were both curious and a bit skeptical. With the promise of American regional fare and the scent of its namesake in the air, we expected, well, the expected.
We were pleasantly surprised to find a touch of the urbane on our plates of homegrown fare at Andrew Hayes and Elizabeth Owen’s hotspot, Smoked.
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The couple, who, we later learned, met in the kitchen at Danny Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern in New York, both grew up working on their grandparents’ farms—Andrew growing blueberries outside Jackson, TN and Beth in Sherman and Pawling, where she cultivated the garden and “put by” pickles and jams. When they got in a family way, they decided to take the rural route and open a place of their own in a pastoral area brimful with aggie bounty.
“We are not a traditional roadside BBQ joint,” says Andrew. “We both come from a fine-dining background, but have always had a love for BBQ and Southern food. The concept at Smoked is to serve delicious food (as local as possible) in a refined but casual environment.”
And they’ve pulled it off. The BBQ process at Smoked starts with whole pigs, courtesy of Mike Meiller in Pine Plains, butchered in-house—handy, since every piece of that animal ends up somewhere on the menu. “We use the shoulders for our pulled pork sandwich, which is seasoned with our dry rub and slow smoked for 12-14 hours until it’s falling apart,” Andrew says. “Then we finish it with a Carolina sauce that contains cider vinegar, mustard, and brown sugar.”
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There’s also belly of the oinker, left, glazed in a sweet mustard sauce and served with local vegetables from Marble Valley Farm. Deviled eggs? Check. But the bacon crumbles have been replaced by a crispy sliver of guanciale (cured pork jowl, bottom picture). Small twists such as this abound on the brief but enticing menu. Fried green tomatoes show up on both a trout BLT (above) and Beth’s burger, which is also topped with homemade pimento cheese. There is rub on the ribs—and on the fries, which are served with green goddess dip rather than the red stuff. Andrew puts his own (apparently, very popular) spin on classic shrimp and grits, adding sea urchin, lobster and basil.
“We love seasonal food. We live for tomatoes and corn in the summer; pumpkins, apples, and pears in the fall,” he says.
That’s even evident in Beth’s pastry creations. We appreciated the savory rosemary hit in her olive oil cake; likewise, the fruit at their peak in a simple but sumptuous shortcake.
When asked what he’d like diners to take away from their experience at Smoked, Andrew said with a laugh, “Hopefully, they leave happy and full.”
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Done and done.
Smoked
1 Landmark Lane
Kent
860.927.7141
Wednesday, 5 - 9 p.m.
Thursday, noon - 3 p.m. & 5 - 9 p.m.
Friday, noon - 3 p.m. & 5 - 10 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. & 5 - 10 p.m.
Sunday brunch: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.; lunch & dinner, noon - 9 p.m.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/26/11 at 11:47 AM • Permalink
Rising in Millerton: A Farm-to-Table Restaurant (and a Soufflé)
This is a story about a soufflé. But as with any soufflé, you know it comes at the end and you will have to wait for it.
Less than two short years ago, Rural Intelligence heralded the arrival of Chef Tim Cocheo’s No. 9 restaurant in the village of Millerton. Now on the eve of the No. 9’s second anniversary, RI returned to find a thriving and innovative farm-to-table restaurant that has become the talk of the region.
Chef and co-owner Tim Cocheo and his wife Taryn opened No. 9 in Millerton after gaining experience with their acclaimed Bottle Tree restaurant in Ancram, NY. 
Chef Cocheo’s considerable experience includes training at the legendary French Culinary Institute, and in the kitchens of famed New York City restaurants including Wallse and La Caravalle. No. 9 opened to rave reviews in 2009, and quickly found an enthusiastic audience not only in Millerton but throughout the Hudson Valley. The restaurant brought “fine dining to a new level in Millerton,” Joan Osofsky, owner of the Hammertown Barn stores, told Rural Intelligence. “It really is a farm-to-table deal with a very experienced chef.”
The Cocheos have taken full advantage of the agricultural riches which surround rural Millerton, sourcing their meats from nearby Herondale Farm, vegetables from Sol Flower Farm, and countless small growers in the nearby countryside. The result is an inventive, constantly changing menu stocked with fresh-from-the-farm local ingredients. Another result in that to get a seat, diners find they need to book a table well ahead, especially in summer.
Now, about that soufflé. It may well be that Chef Cocheo is the only chef in Dutchess County who goes the distance to offer the famously difficult, old world dessert classic . Depending on when you visit (and what’s in season) it may be a strawberry soufflé. Or a raspberry rhubarb. Or corn. Or pumpkin. But don’t take our word for it, watch the video. The soufflé is at the end. As it must be.
It’s worth the wait.
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Posted by Dan Shaw on 07/12/11 at 03:57 PM • Permalink
Celebrity Chef Lydia Shire Debuts at Tanglewood
by Sally Helgesen
Lydia Shire has been to the Boston restaurant scene what Alice Waters was to Northern California: a creative force, influencer-in-chief, modernizer, experimentalist, provocateur and muse. Now Shire brings her outrageously delicious cuisine to the Berkshires as guest chef at Tanglewood’s opening night Gala at on Friday, July 8. It’s the first time the BSO has asked a celebrated chef to design the menu and oversee cooking at one of its event. We can only hope this establishes a tradition!
For the all-Italian program in the shed—excerpts from Bellini’s Norma, Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Verdi’s I Lombardi and Respighi’s symphonic Pines of Rome–– Tanglewood asked Shire to put together an all-Italian feast. A dedicated Italophile when it comes to food, she responded with a Tuscan-themed menu as sumptuous and irresistible as the music.
Passed hors de’oeuvres include tiny lamb ribs (the kind known in Florence as scottaditi, or burn-your-fingers) fried squash blossoms, and a notable Shire invention she calls “elephant ears walking” –– a semolina cracker grilled with tomato and smoked scamorza cheese. The first and main courses feature crabmeat with a pepper crust and Tuscan melon puree, thinly sliced crisp duck with port, roast sole, and ravioli with tomato and kale.
Dessert promises to be truly operatic, with the encore guaranteed in advance–– served following the meal and then again post-concert. Housemade cannoli (hardly Tuscan, but who cares?), zabaglione with berries and melon shots, plus a whole gelato station will be accompanied by coffee, chocolates and limoncello.
Shire, who achieved culinary fame with the ground-breaking Biba in 1989, has multiple Boston restaurant credits to her name; her present home in the city is the award-winning Scampo (right) in the Liberty Hotel. She also serves as executive chef at the historic Locke-Ober, where she offers updated versions of Boston classics (JFK lobster bisque, who could resist?) in the gorgeously restored Boston institution that famously declined to serve women in its main dining room for 100 years.
Shire is known for her extravagance (she once opened a kilo of caviar when Julia Child came to her house for dinner), her passionate style of cooking, and her love of brilliant color, which makes her restaurants a multi-sensory delight and gives her a highly distinctive presence—flame colored hair and Pepto-Bismol dyed chef’s “whites”. Her damn-the-expense (and often the arteries) approach has not always been in sync with our recession-hobbled era, but Shire’s 35 years as an innovator who thrives on challenge gives her work currency whatever the zeitgeist.
Her success came against the odds. As the divorced mother of three at the age of 21, she pawned her engagement ring to put herself through Cordon Bleu in London while living in a $9 a night room at the Y. Returning to hometown Boston, where her children had been with their paternal grandparents, she landed a series of ever-better positions at famed dining spots such as The Parker House, culminating in her being named executive sous-chef at Jasper White’s influential Seasons. With the opening of Biba, her sassy but meticulous style of nouvelle New England came into its own, spelling the end to a restaurant scene often focused reverently on chowder. She inspired a host of local acolytes, including Jody Adams of Rialto and Gordon Hammersley of Hammersley’s Bistro. By the 90’s, Beantown had been transformed into a food destination.
Times change, but Shire keeps on cooking. Bravo to Tanglewood for bringing her our way.
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Posted by Marilyn Bethany on 07/04/11 at 07:47 PM • Permalink
