The Meat Hook and Mel the Bakery Team Up to Revive Classic Hudson Diner
Brent Young and Ashley Berman bring a Hudson institution back to life with well made simple fare, and cocktails.
The stainless steel shell of Hudson’s historic diner—formerly the Diamond Street, then Grazin’— gleams again with new life. Now called, simply, Hudson Diner, the nostalgic space has been revived by two popular industry pros and friends: Ashley Berman, co-owner of Mel the Bakery, and Brent Young, famed butcher behind The Meat Hook.
“It’s the dream, right?” Berman says of the opportunity to save the landmark. She met Young in Brooklyn, where he opened his flagship shop in 2009 before launching his Hudson location in 2024. Berman’s partner, Nora Allen, opened the first iteration of Mel to much acclaim on the Lower East Side during the pandemic and took over the former Warren Street location of Bread Folk in 2023.
“There’s hardly any of these left in the world,” he says. “And it’s right in the middle of town. Diners are community hubs. It couldn’t possibly be a better space for us.
Berman and Young had long talked about opening a restaurant together. Earlier this year, when the family behind Grazin’ was ready to sell, the rare opportunity to reopen the culturally significant diner presented itself.
“She just needed a facelift,” Young said of the 1940s 60-seat diner car, in an interview with Eater, to which he has been a regular video content contributor. “The bones were there.”
Through connections in the local agricultural community, Young and Berman reached out to the owner before the property even hit the market. “They really liked what we were trying to do,” Berman says. “They wanted to sell to someone with the same mission.”
That mission is rooted in the local food system. The Meat Hook has championed whole-animal, pasture-raised meats sourced from Northeast farms like Kinderhook Farm and Gibson Family Farm. Young ensures that nearly 50 cents of every dollar goes directly to farmers and that every cut is traceable and ethically treated. Meanwhile, Mel the Bakery mills local grains onsite—including rye, einkorn, barley, and sorghum, baking naturally leavened breads and pastries with Scandinavian influence, sourcing flours from farms like Farmer Ground and Small Valley Milling. While the food here has excellent provenance it’s far from pretentious.
“It’s food I really like—things that are comforting and familiar,” Berman says. She’s been running the kitchen herself since soft-opening earlier this month for dinner.
The menu combines diner classics and some less conventional additions, all taking advantage of the high quality ingredients sourced from The Meat Hook, Mel’s and local farms. Shareable starters—shrimp cocktail ($16), steak tartare ($18), and chopped liver ($14)—stand alongside wedge, Greek, Caesar, and mixed-greens salads ($12–$16). Main plates range from chopped steak with peppercorn sauce, peas, and onion rings ($25), to a half-Greek chicken with tzatziki and salad ($29), burgers ($18), spaghetti pie ($18), triple-decker patty melts ($18), and tuna melts ($18), all served on Mel the Bakery breads. Desserts—banana cream pie, chocolate sheet cake, Atlantic beach pie—and rotating fruit pies round out the lineup.
Lunch will follow in a couple of months, with breakfast down the road. The goal is to serve all day, every day. “There’s no pretension here,” Berman says. “We want to be that place where you come for bacon and eggs—and come back for dinner and drinks.”
Drinks are served from a new barroom Berman and Young added right in the front of the diner. “I grew up going to diners in New Jersey that had a full bar,” Berman says. “We’ve got martinis, piña coladas, cosmos—it’s fun.” There’s a bit of a “Night Hawks” feel, spilling out the windows after dark—if Edward Hopper had painted his diner packed and bumpin’.
