New In Copake, North Star Points The Way To A Seafood-Centric Menu
Now the Alander Lodge has an onsite restaurant that’s open to the public.
Not quite two years after deciding to purchase and reinvent the onetime Johanna’s Motel in Copake, Jason Seiler and Reid Kendall have launched North Star. The new restaurant serves up seafood and creative New American cuisine in an upscale-casual, intimate setting nestled strategically between the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley.
“When we found this property, we noticed that it came with a restaurant and a bar and a commercial kitchen,” says Kendall. “It instantly became a major plus for us and then just got our gears turning about what that could be. I think the previous owner used it just to make quick meals for motel guests, but I don’t think she ever thought about using it as a stand-alone restaurant open to the public. We wanted to do something that would welcome the whole community.”
The first order of business, though, was turning the 12-room economy motel into The Alander, a modern boutique lodge serving fresh, cozy cabin vibes with rain showerheads, French press coffee makers, smart TVs, charging stations, and luxurious linens.
“My background is in boutique hotels, doing food and beverage in New York City and Seattle, and Jason spent over 20 years as a flight attendant,” Kendall says. “Plus, we love to travel — we’ve been to 30 countries on five continents together. So we’ve spent an enormous amount of time in hotel rooms — and we love to eat.”
They started with gut renovations on all 12 rooms, done “with our own four hands,” says Seiler. They got the first two rooms open in September 2021, and by June 2022 all 12 were open for booking. Out back is a giant fire pit where guests can toast the s’mores using kits that are provided for each room.
With the lodging component being well received, it was time to transform the bar and dining room. They aimed for something equally fresh and cozy with warm wood tones, Windsor chairs, vintage sideboards, and gleaming glassware catching lantern light on open shelves — a casual, classy country feel.
The couple got lucky finding a chef. Cape Cod native Daniel Clifford brought 30 years of experience to the table, mostly in the Providence and Boston markets, from casual to fine dining. “He knows what to do with fresh local seafood, and people are loving it,” Kendall says. “He recently relocated down here for family reasons, and we were really pleased to find him.” The menu features New England clam chowder, lobster bisque, and an appetizer of PEI mussels in Dijon cream lager, caramelized onion, shallots and grilled baguette. Entree choices include a pan-seared Atlantic salmon, a 16-ounce New York strip with jumbo tiger shrimp, roasted duck breast, and a Moroccan stew with acorn squash, chickpeas, sweet potatoes, jasmine rice and pita that an online review described as the most satisfying dish the vegan in the party had ever encountered.
Ingredients are as locally sourced as humanly possible. “Most of our hotel guests are from Brooklyn or Manhattan, and there’s a certain expectation they bring in terms of dining,” says Kendall. “But we didn’t want to create a restaurant that was strictly focused on that clientele — we wanted locals to feel equally welcome, and to have menu items that were vegan and keto-friendly. Three weekends so far, and it feels like we’ve struck the right chord — it’s been received the way we’d hoped.”
Plans for the future include building collaborations with surrounding farms, adding a weekend brunch menu and weekday cafe offerings, and more room. “We want to double the dining space; we’re putting in a 40-foot pergola for outdoor dining. And we’ll be adding a pool this summer, too. We’re enclosed in a wooded glen with beautiful sunsets, but intimately enclosed by really lush trees,” says Seiler, “The plan is to do string lights and vine plants in the outdoor dining pergola, just create a really dreamlike feel.”
This is the couple’s chance to dream, honing the design and hospitality experience they’ve accrued and using it in service of their own project. “I’ve had the honor of building the concept for a number of restaurants, creating them for clients from the ground up,” says Keller. “So this isn’t my first rodeo, but you know, it’s a different ride every time. And this is my first chance to collaborate with my beloved husband and build something completely for ourselves. We’re loving the adventure.”
The North Star is open Thursday through Sunday evenings for now. Reservations are recommended for the dining room, but walk-ins are welcome to grab a bite at the full, carefully curated bar.
