Golden Russet Cafe And Grocery Serves Breakfast, Lunch, And the Best Ciders Produced In The Region
The market and café in an old general store outside Rhinebeck is a tasty new spot with a focus on cider.
House-made ricotta toast is a great way to start the day at The Golden Russet.
The modernized relaunch of an old country store and café by savvy city transplants has become a successful regional business model over the past decade.
Visiting The Golden Russet Café, the newest edition to the category in the backwoods of Rhinebeck, is a welcome reminder that this isn’t just some kind of niche trend. Revitalizing an underutilized old general store, like Jenny and Craig Cavallo have at the out-of-the way Clinton crossroads, is an earnest continuation and evolution of the agrarian community culture that’s drawn all stripes to the region for generations.
The building that became The Golden Russet in July has had different names and many owners over the past century as it serviced country residents and back road travelers. Now the Cavallos, who met in Brooklyn and married last fall, are keeping the tradition going with straightforward food made with ingredients from neighboring farms. They also have a growing supply of groceries, fresh local produce and a comprehensive selection of New York-produced beer and hard cider.
“We wanted to do something where we could work for ourselves,” said Jenny. “We are working harder and longer than we’ve ever worked in our lives but it’s rewarding because it’s our own project.”
The cider is a unique focus of the couple and the cafe. Craig, who worked in kitchens including the Yellow Magnolia Café at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and as a travel writer for publications including Saveur, is currently writing a book on cider and apples. The golden russet is type of historic heirloom apple first bred in New York.
“Cider’s been made here since the 1600s, and it’s a big, central part of what we are doing here,” said Craig, who's been building relationships with regional cider makers while researching his book. “We want to be a place for people to come who are looking for the best that’s being produced.”
While they met in New York City, the pair never saw themselves staying in the metropolis. Craig was raised in the Syracuse area; Jenny grew up on California’s central coast. Craig had been in the city for 13 years and Jenny just four, working in tech, but moving up to the country and getting out of the NYC grind was a shared dream.
“We wanted to not live in the city anymore and we didn’t know where we wanted to be,” Jenny said. “And a friend, truly a new acquaintance at the time, said ‘go live in my house for the winter and figure it out.' It happened to be a mile down the road from here.”
The Cavallos moved up and were working out the details to buy a different old general store across the river. They naturally became acquainted with the owners of the former Schultzville General Store & Café down the road and started talking shop. Brothers Cameron and Kyle Wells, offered to lease the space to the Cavallos and hand over operations. This moment of kismet meant an end to the more complicated plan in the Catskills and kept them in Clinton, where they’d already begun building their new life.
“This was going to be home base and we were going to commute back and forth,” said Craig. “As the option to leave the town of Clinton became more of a reality we thought, ‘wait, we don’t want to leave. We really like it here.'"
The original building was built in 1807 but mostly burned in 1929. It was rebuilt and added on to at different times through its life at the center of Clinton.
The aesthetic of the Golden Russet is clean and rustic. It’s cozy, but big enough for a crowd. There’s a great big wood communal table welcoming you to sit and make new acquaintances in the front room, or, if you prefer, there are some booths, too. A diner bar in front of the flattop stove is outfitted with classic built-in red vinyl stools. A back lounge offers sofas, free wifi and the promise of bookshelves to come.
The menu from the kitchen is short and cheap. Even using great local ingredients, breakfast sandwiches are just $5.50. A big piece of their super popular griddle banana bread is just $3. A cheeseburger with a side is $9 and the most expensive menu item, a beautiful fried chicken sandwich, is just $11. You can wash it down with some of the region's best cider.
“I worked in restaurants for many years and had the opportunity to eat all over the world, but when thinking about what we wanted to do I always came back to the classics,” said Craig, sitting near a table stacked with fresh produce from nearby Slow Fox Farm. “But it’s 2019, so given our experiences we want to take food that’s been around forever and execute it with a contemporary mindset.”
While they’re not starting a traditional dinner service there will be special occasions like weekly pizza nights. Craig said the previous proprietors left their pizza oven in the back so it’d be a crime not to use it.
Of all the revamped general stores RI has covered over the years, The Golden Russet might be the furthest off the beaten path. The usual narrative is one of folks from the city, who’ve already made a name for themselves in some other business, opening a store as a new chapter in their life. For the Cavallos, The Golden Russet is an early chapter, foundational to where their journey leads from here. Take a drive a little out of your way and say cheers with a glass of cider.
The Golden Russet Cafe
835 Fiddlers Bridge Road, Rhinebeck, NY
(845) 266-0888
Monday, Thursday, Friday, 7 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.
