Jessica Stingo and Craig Stafford, owners of the Flatiron American Restaurant and Bar in the center of Red Hook New York, are getting ready to celebrate their tenth year in business at the stalwart location. The husband and wife team — he the head chef and she the manager/wine expert — have transitioned the restaurant over the past decade from a traditional steak house to a modern Hudson Valley restaurant that reflects the influence of the community and region as much as the creativity and vision of its owners. It was a big change when the couple decided to leave the world of NYC fine dining for bucolic Red Hook and family life, but the town has become a huge part of their lives and Flatiron has become an equally huge part of Red Hook. My husband graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in '97, and he worked at the Inn at Poundridge. While working in the pastry department, [well-known chef] Waldy Malouf came in for dinner and said. 'Can I speak to whomever made this dessert?' Craig came to the table and Malouf offered him a job. So he went to work for Beacon. Then he worked at Giorgio’s of Gramercy and was promoted to executive chef. That’s where we met. I left the restaurant to work for Frederick Wildman, which is a small fine wine importer and distributor.
We decided we wanted to open a restaurant. First we were thinking Brooklyn but then we realized we wanted trees and grass, to be closer to the farms and just have a better quality of life. We found this location and opened in August of 2008, so this year will be our tenth anniversary, which is very exciting. On August 12 we are having a huge ten-year anniversary party. When we moved up here we looked around and said, 'what is this area missing?' So when we first opened up we were more of a traditional steakhouse but Craig got bored. He said, "I have to change this up more." So we slowly started to not focus just on the steaks. It’s very 'creative American,' in his style, all with produce that’s in season. It’s small town livin’ up here, which was a big shock for me at first — I’m originally from Staten Island. But now we know everyone in town. Red Hook is really great when it comes to camaraderie between the businesses. We try to support each other and I just think that is amazing. On a busy night on a weekend, I know 90 percent of the customers. It’s really a local place to go.
