At Clermont Cafe, The Space Is Casual But The Dining (And Wine) Is Fine
Tucked away in the back of Tousey Winery, this unassuming café is serving remarkable food.
The octopus starter at Clermont Café. (Photos provided by Clermont Cafe)
THIS RESTAURANT HAS CLOSED.
There are a lot of small restaurants around here that we love, and praise, and frequent because they are heightening simple, classic dishes by using the best fresh ingredients from local world-class farms. The tiny Clermont Café, in the back of Tousey Winery, is doing more.
With an address technically in Germantown, New York, the café is a classy but minimal space. Working with little more than a two-unit induction burner, chef and owner Mark Fredette is making the absolute most of it, taking those ubiquitous local ingredients and elevating them with great skill, creativity, and personality.
Fredette is a one-man band at the café, which opened last summer. A Culinary Institute of America grad, he’s spent the past 20-plus years as a journeyman chef in great kitchens from Boston and New Orleans to boats off the coast of Alaska. He became known regionally for his work at Sprout Creek Farm in Poughkeepsie. After gigging for other restaurants for so long, and now with a wife and two sons, Fredette finally decided it was time to headline. While the space and the man are modest, the dishes come out looking and tasting like those from the best and busiest establishments around.
“What I like about the space is it blends casual and fine dining,” said Fredette. “Being at Tousey was the attraction for me. Both elements influence each other. The food enhances the wine and the wine enhances the food.”
He says it’s a great, mutually beneficial relationship and, because folks are looking to eat well with their wine, it makes it possible for him to offer upscale items, from fresh seafood to great local meats.
Duck pastrami
“He’s quality-obsessed and also the most humble chef I’ve ever worked with,” said Tousey co-owner Kimberly Peacock. “It’s a beautiful addition. He’s keeping people here with his quality — and also because he’s so mindful and super creative.”
Fredette has also built close relationships with the farmers he sources from, like Dirty Dog Farm in Germantown. His creative curiosity leads him to often serve dishes showcasing underutilized cuts of meat or offal that the farm has trouble selling.
“The product I get is mind-blowingly good, so I like to do different cuts — stuff people don’t see,” he said. “It takes some confidence in yourself to to say, 'let’s see what we can do with that.'”
Last year, Fredette’s Rocky Mountain oyster Bolognese with house-made ricotta on hand-rolled pappardelle was certainly a standout. His friends at Dirty Dog Farm challenged him to offer up the bulls’ testicles and he rose to the occasion. Diners may have ordered the dish at first as a bit of a gag but it ended up un-ironically beloved. As funny as it was, Fredette’s continued commitment to nose-to-tail cooking is just as important as being farm-to-table.
Rocky Mountain oyster Bolognese
“I push it. That’s what being a chef is to me,” he said.
The menu changes often, with the season or just on Fredetta’s whim, and your plans are likely to be complicated by the appeal of a special. Currently, for dinner you could start with an offering of squab with blood orange confit and goldern turnip slaw ($14) or octopus with a mild chili rub, potatoes and mojo picon ($14). For mains try the local grass-fed skirt steak with honeynut squash, parsnips and pan jus ($28) or the Skrei cod with wild fennel, shallots and bamboo rice ($26). If you can't decide between these and the other equally enticing options, try a bit of it all with a tasting menu ($65). And, of course, it all goes well with a glass or bottle of wine from the tasting room next door.
The lunch menu features preparations of the octopus, steak and cod as well as snacks like salt potatoes with mojo picon ($6). Other items include flatbreads ($8-$12), a killer burger ($14), and sandwiches, including the understandably popular duck pastrami panini with pickled cabbage, house-made mustard and smoked gouda ($14).
“I have people who come in every week for that pastrami,” the chef said. “There’s nothing like it.”
You should also be aware that the burger on the dinner menu has the duck pastrami on top of it, along with pickled mustard greens ($17).
The term “hidden gem” gets thrown around a lot when describing regional out-of-the-way eats. The Clermont Café is an undiscovered diamond and Fredette deserves to be found.
Clermont Cafe
1774 Rt. 9, Germantown, NY
(518) 537-5577
Open Thursday 4-9 p.m.
Friday–Sunday 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
