Doves Diner Opens in Ancram, Rebuilding a Perfect Parkway Pitstop

There are just a handful of early 20th century chrome diners left these days, regionally or otherwise. So when Doves Diner reopened in the former West Taghkanic Diner in Ancram on March 6, with a classic menu "elevated" only through local farm sourced ingredients and run by skilled kitchen pros, it's as meaningful to local food culture.

The bones of the place, its shine, its vinyl, the remnants of the original signage, even that retro-diner smell are intact thanks to an extensive, two-year renovation and revitalization by Doves co-owners Lauren Stanek and Emma Rosenbush. "Our joke is that it had been held together by Scotch tape and bubble gum for 50-plus years," says Rosenbush. "It just needed a lot of infrastructural support."

Stanek and Rosenbush both spent the bulk of their restaurant careers in the San Francisco Bay Area without ever crossing paths. Stanek cooked at Tartine and Chez Panisse before moving upin 2019 to open Kitties in Hudson, just before the pandemic. Rosenbush ran operations at cala, a Mexican seafood restaurant she opened in San Francisco with chef Gabriela Cámara, until it became a Covid casualty. She relocated to Germantown with her husband, winemaker Charlie Miller, to focus on their longterm project Dew East Farm Winery.

Over the past few years both wound up consulting separately for the building's most recent owners, Gigi Danziger and Albert Wenger, founders of the Spark of Hudson, a community hub and nonprofit in Hudson that pilots initiatives focused on radical generosity, economic stability, and creative collaboration. They found themselves excited about the possibility of saving the diner, even if it was going to be a lot of work. "I was like, ‘Wow, what a dream come true,’" says Stanek. Rehabbing the space brought things back to reality a bit however. "The kitchen was such a disaster."

Danziger and Wenger funded the renovation under a model Rosenbush describes as steward ownership. "It's a more European model of investing without the expectation of return," she says. "That's basically unheard of in the restaurant industry." Rather than taking ownership of the business, Danziger and Wenger renovated the property and leased it to Stanek and Rosenbush, a structure that lets the restaurateurs  run the business how they desire. "It was a really generous and amazing opportunity," Rosenbush says, "because we all cared equally about the space and the beauty of this diner."

What they built with that opportunity is a diner. Not a diner concept, not a diner-inspired bistro. It's a diner, with pancakes and turkey sandwiches and hamburgers and eggs. Stanek describes the menu development with characteristic directness: "I started a big spreadsheet. Anything you want to eat at a diner. But if you're making everything from scratch, you can't make it all, so you kind of have to decide." The list she and Rosenbush landed on isn't revolutionary. It was personal. "My diner order is: I always get a tuna melt, I always get pancakes. I love French fries, I love hamburgers, I love egg salad."

All these classic hits hit harder thanks to local sourcing from farms the diner has close ties to. Meat and eggs come from Northwind Farms in Tivoli, a small family operation Stanek has cooked with for years. Dairy is from Ronnybrook. Lettuces are grown year-round in a friend's greenhouse, which means a genuinely local salad even in February. Come summer, the specials will expand based on what's fresh. "We don't have a BLT on the menu now," Stanek says. "We absolutely will all summer when the tomatoes actually get good."

On the Menu

Breakfast centers on the egg plates, all served with a hashbrown patty, fries or fruit, and buttered toast and jam, ranging from a straight two-egg plate ($12) up to ham steak and eggs ($21), with corned beef hash ($16) and scrambles ($15) in between. The egg and cheese on a bun ($8), with Northwind kielbasa, bacon, or sausage if you like ($12), is worth getting off the Taconic for on its own. Buttermilk pancakes ($12) and French toast ($15) round out the morning.

The afternoon is sandwiches, served with those thick, crispy crinkle-cut fries or a salad. The cheeseburger ($16) is a dialed-in contemporary take on a classic: local beef, cheese, pickles, onion, sauce. The hot corned beef with sauerkraut and Russian dressing ($16) hits the same nostalgic chord. Tuna melt, cold turkey, egg salad sandwich continue the familiar tune ($10 to$15). A Cobb with fried chicken runs $16. Doves is attentive to allergies and sensitivities and has a gluten-free dedicated fryer. 

The bar continues another great diner tradition: cocktails. Bloody Marys, Garibaldis, martinis, mimosas, beer. For dessert, soft serve ($5), milkshakes with a cherry on top ($9), banana splits ($12), pie, cake, and sundaes.

The menu might seem unchallenging for a fine dining veteran like Stanek, but she insists the creative impulse that made Kitties popular hasn't gone anywhere; it's just found a different outlet. "When you work in fine dining, sometimes you're making things that are really beautiful, but are they the most delicious? Not always," Stanek says. "This menu is so fun to cook."

"Her food is simple, and I say that with love," Rosenbush says of Stanek. "It's almost like grandma's cooking, but it's just so delicious because it doesn't need the bells and whistles."

The women say their approach also reflects a responsibility of running a diner that people have been visiting for decades. "It's such an honor to have people come in who have been coming here for a really long time," says Stanek. Rosenbush frames it in terms of what diners, at their best, actually do. "As things are getting so much more online and digital and on the apps, and everyone's separated," she says, "being able to run a space that has history, and to get to steward that, is cool. We want this to be a place that is really a community eatery."

Doves is open Thursday through Sunday, 9am to 3pm. Private bookings like rehearsal dinners and parties are welcome on off-nights. And if you're looking for them on social media, be patient. "We're not trying to be an Instagram restaurant," says Rosenbush. They'd rather you just come in.

Doves Diner, 1016 State Route 82, Ancram. Open Thu–Sun, 9am–3pm. (518) 851-3333. Dovesdiner.com