West Taghkanic Diner Reopens With Danish Influences
Probably the last place one would expect a chef of Kristopher Schram's stature to plant his culinary roots would be in a diner kitchen. But that is what the Hudson native did when he decided to return home from Denmark.
Schram, former head chef at the James Beard Award-winning Napa Valley’s Terra and Copenhagen’s Manfred’s and Baest, purchased the West Taghkanic Diner and is now serving breakfast and lunch, with dinner to come in a few weeks.
Located just off the Route 82 (Ancram) exit of the Taconic State Parkway, the meticulously renovated 1953 Art Deco diner is one of four Chief Taghkanic Diners along the Parkway.
Schram, who cut his restaurant teeth at the now closed Route 23 Pizza Garden, starting with doing deliveries and later taking over the kitchen, says: “There are no rules in a diner as long as you make the classics. A diner is an open canvas.”
Ronnybrook yogurt and housemade granola is embellished with chia seeds, citrus marmalade and olive oil ($10). The breakfast sandwich ($10) — a compact mound of egg, stracciatella cheese, greens and smoked bacon on a sesame Kaiser role — is a medley of flavor and texture. Don Lewis’ Wild Hive Farms forms the basis of the porridge, which is cooked in a tea made from Earl Grey and garnished with a crispy buckwheat or quinoa and maple syrup. And, as a riff on the classic diner breakfast, Schram serves a scramble with local cheese and herbs, bacon, home fries and toast ($12).
“Fine dining is increasingly special occasion dining,” says Schram. “People can come here frequently and know what to expect but we can also make dishes that are as interesting and innovative as in more upscale establishments.”
Take, for instance, the clam chowder ($7/$12), which is where the new seven-foot hot smoker comes in. Unlike a traditional cream-based chowder, Schram’s chowder not only contains an umami-forward white miso but a clam broth that has spent about six hours in the smoker, giving the dish a pleasantly dusky taste. Accompanied by baker Kate Snider’s crackers — a cracker tour de force if there ever was one — it's a unique and quintessential dish.
“The smoker will be very apparent,” says Schram, possibly understating the serious transportation of his Danish restaurant influences to the diner. “We smoke water and salt and even the oil that we use to make the mayo for the turkey club ($13).
Served on sourdough toast, the mayo imparts a pleasant smoky taste to the sandwich. The pastrami, for the breakfast hash ($14) and the Reuben ($14), spends seven days in a salt and sugar cure and then is smoked until tender, about 12 hours.
Smoke is instrumental, as well, for the house bacon and the pork belly, a take on one of Schram’s favorite Danish preparations, the Flaeskesteg sandwich. The pork is brined, smoked for six to eight hours, chilled, its skin is removed and it's then sliced into bacon. The skin then becomes the basis for what can only be described as a luscious roasted pork belly sandwich ($13), the richness of the pork offset by salted apple and braised cabbage and the taste of which might make you hop on the next plane to Copenhagen.
Although he has (as of yet) been unable to duplicate Manfred’s Farm of Ideas, a restaurant-established farm where chefs harvest produce for the day, or Baest, where a herd of 15 restaurant-owned cows provide milk for the restaurant’s mozzarella, Schram is working out the logistics of sourcing. The Fitzgerald’s Locust Hill Farm provides the beef for the hamburger ($12), Jacuterie the nduja for the honey-brined wings from Yellow Bell Farm, and Sparrowbush Bakery the bread and rolls.
Open for just a few weeks, and with some tweaking of the menu still in progress, the West Taghanic Diner is quickly establishing itself as a go-to spot for Schram’s innovative interpretations of traditional diner classics.
West Taghkanic Diner
1016 NY-82, Ancram, NY
Thursday–Sunday, 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Reservations for parties of 5 or more.
(518) 851-3333
Please Support Rural Intelligence
We want to continue delivering the entertaining, informative and upbeat stories in the inimitable Rural Intelligence style, despite a pandemic. But we need your support to keep us going. Please consider making a donation; even a small amount helps secure our future. Support us now.
(If you prefer, mail a check to: 45 Pine Grove Ave., Suite 303, Kingston, NY 12401.)
Support Now