I’ve always enjoyed dressing up. It’s never been an occupational requirement as much as a gratifying choice. But life Upstate is a helluva lot more casual. Well, everywhere is after COVID, but this region’s pervading informality predates the pandemic. In fact, when we bought our first home in Spencertown, NY two decades ago, the first thing my husband would say when people asked what was so different about living here was that “Hal will still be wearing on Sunday what he’d had on Friday night.” It’s not that style is no longer a priority in these parts; it just doesn’t demand constant reinforcement. In Manhattan, it’s not unusual to make costume changes several times a day. Upstate, however, I often seek out places happy to accommodate me in whatever I’ve pulled over and zipped up to trim hedges, sweep out the garage or decorate for Christmas. Happily, the landscape boasts a roster of treats. 

Dan’s Diner

There are dozens of eateries in Rhinebeck. Church Street in Lenox, MA can claim its own Restaurant Row. But I reside in a virtual gastronomic desert. Though the New York State tourist board labels Spencertown “a pastoral hamlet,” it’s barely a town at all; just a Presbyterian church, Town Hall, Post Office, the obstruse Spencertown Academy, one perpetually vacant motel and a fully renovated General Store that’s been empty for the last five years. Other than Sunday churchgoers, street traffic is as nonexistent as Democrats at an Elise Stefanik dinner party. However, just a mile east of this dilatory “downtown” is an unassuming epicurean roadside Valhalla.

Dan’s Diner is a modest, yet lovingly refurbished 1925 dining car, transplanted from Durham, CT, boasting handsome wood cabinetry, a vintage black and white tile floor, an impressive, arched wood slatted ceiling and an impressive short order whiz named Austin McComb. When skilled and focused, short order cooks are as mesmerizing as watching percussionists during a performance of Aaron Copland’s Fanfare For The Common Man. Dan’s all-counter seating puts McComb center stage, and though his back is usually toward his audience, you can’t take your eyes off of his fluidly choreographed focus, at least not
until your food arrives.

But when it does, McComb’s griddled fare is equally distracting. It’s both bountiful, ridiculously priced (way too affordable) and disarmingly original. A perfect pancake topped with a spiral of cinnamon glaze. The Mountain is a daunting heap of breakfast: two fine biscuits, buried under a pair of lean, tasty sausage patties, 3 thick strips of bacon, and a towering mass of scrambled eggs, topped by sausage gravy and cheddar cheese. It sounds almost vulgar, no? Tell me that after you lick the plate clean (for those fainter of heart, the Molehill is half the size). His chicken sandwich is a jaw widening filet, far juicier than Chick-Fil-A and served without the dispiriting homophobia. Onion rings are fresh, french fries even better, the crisply seared smashburger outranks more upscale and complex gourmet versions at twice the price. Though the coffee is fairly weak, the fruit infused lemonades that arrive in small buckets are irresistible, the milkshakes even more fun. 

In this compact space, service is friendly and efficient. However, for those socially skittish, be forewarned that because seating is tight, Dan’s Diner often serves as an impromptu, yet convivial town meeting. I’ve yet to eat there without engaging in a spirited conversation with another local sitting at the counter. If you prefer to disengage from strangers, there are plenty of accommodating places in Rhinebeck and Lenox. But I happen to like my neighbors, so score one for my hamlet.

DAN’S DINER
1005 Route 203 Chatham, NY 
hours: 7 days a week. 7am-2pm
518.392.3267
dansdinerny.com

Governor’s Tavern 

Trendy bars in Hudson have become more plentiful than antique stores. The Hereafter was cited in our last issue, but there’s also the sleek new Return, Hudson and Union Street Breweries, the mid-century appointed Bar Bene, the expansive Suarez Family Brewery and more coming in the future. But a block west of Warren, Hudson’s Main Street, on 7th Street, is a pub that’s been around for more than 150 years, yet still maintains a chic-resistant, divey hangout vibe with pride. Governor’s Tavern is where you drop in when you’re in no mood for the airs of The Maker or Farmer & Sons and your parched throat would sooner be soothed by an $8 draft beer than a $22 artisanal cocktail.

On the site of the original State Grill, which opened in the late 19th century, renamed The Iron Horse in the 1990s, Governor’s current owners, Renee Ortega and Brian Dykeman, have stayed true to the location’s heritage by offering a dozen beers on tap and at least that many options in bottles and cans, plus a few spiked ciders. I like beer fine, but the more portent allure of the Tavern is its knowing and sometimes novel twists on bar food.

If you’re looking for a fine passel of chicken wings, come right in, but first decide if you want them liberally spiced with old bay seasoning, Cajun style, with garlic and parmesan or in a mango habanero glaze. The pretzel is as crisp and salty as (and far superior to) Auntie Anne’s. Popper Roulette (five jalapeños and one habanero) is very clever and very scary. The rich clam chowder is so dense with chopped mollusks, bacon and potatoes, it’s more like a stew. I’ve always considered nachos tasty slop, but Governor’s reimagines them as wonderfully crispy wontons, delivered in an immense portion, buried in ground beef. Don’t believe its menu placement under “Bites.”  This is a main course you’re unlikely to finish unless you share it with others or if you’re coming off a two-day fast. There are six ways to savor a damn fine fried chicken sandwich, but the house favorite is rightfully the briskly spiced Nashville Hot with pickled jalapeños. Its only drawback is the portion of buttermilk coated thighs is so thick there’s no way the Texas Toast can stay intact until the last mouthful. There are also six ways to savor the as-good-as-a-bar-burger-gets burger, but you can’t beat ‘The Dirty Bastard’ with its spiced coffee rub, barbecue sauce, crunchy spray of fried onions and fried pickles. A Beyond Burger is also available but is that really why you came here?

The Tavern isn’t a big space, but they’ve made room for a massive, slightly faded black and white vintage photo of 7th Street hanging at the back of the bar, as well as three flat screens, each tuned to a different sport, so cheering and cursing is frequent and to be expected. Also, no matter how much you eat and drink, expect a bill so reasonable you’ll think the house miscalculated. But also, expect a side effect. The next time you show up at one of those impossible-to-get reservations you finally snared on Resy and order two of the hot spot’s $22 artisanal cocktails, don’t be surprised if those signature libations taste a little bitter, because how do you overlook that, for that price, you could have had two brews and pigged out to bliss at Governor’s. 

GOVERNOR’S TAVERN
14 South 7th Street, Hudson, NY
hours:
Sunday, Monday & Thursday 12 PM-12 AM
Tuesday & Wednesday Closed
Friday & Saturday 12 PM–1 AM
Tel: 518.697.5609

governorstavernny.com

Blueberry Hill Market Café

When it comes to the first meal of the day, people are often creatures of habit. My husband has oatmeal every friggin’ morning. (It’s the only thing he has ever cooked). Popular food carts in Manhattan boast extended lines of workers patiently waiting for their “usual” before heading to one of their few days a week at the office. Your favorite barista at Starbucks knows your order and scrawls something close to your name on a cup the moment you walk in the door. I get it. It’s too soon in the day to have to think. So, if it’s your first visit to Blueberry Hill Market Café, it’ll probably send you into a tailspin. 

This modest building (painted blue, of course) on an otherwise barren stretch of US-20 at the north-easternmost tip of Columbia County hardly looks like any place that could throw a newcomer a curve. But once you step inside and walk up to the counter to place your order, you’re likely to experience temporary paralysis because the posted menu lists a migraine inducing array of options. What Eataly is to Italian food, Blueberry Hill is to brunch. I don’t know how the kitchen doesn’t take up half an acre, because all you want, and so much you never thought of, is made fresh. 

I counted more than 70 possible choices, not including an eye-darting variety of baked goods, daily specials and what to drink. While most classic, though rapidly disappearing, New York City coffee shops feature an eight-page menu with everything from BLTs to Lobster Thermidor, unlike the uniform mediocrity served at these urban outposts, Blueberry Hill excels at whatever you crave. Every time I go there, I deliberately order something else and have yet to taste a clunker. Not only is the food fine, flavorful and unfussy, portions are so generous, half the patrons leave with to-go boxes, because you want to finish their formidable breakfast burrito, but you just can’t. Chicken and waffles or bacon stuffed waffles with blueberry syrup will satiate you for the day. Bagel and lox comes smothered with savory goat cheese. Strawberry French toast is a cheery keeper. None of the multiple variations of omelets disappoint but if you’ve had a rough night, go for eggs with the hangover hash (there’s also lamb hash, and corned beef), a sufficiently sobering alchemy of chorizo, peperonata, onion jam, gruyere and red beans. However, should you believe in hair of the dog, Blueberry Hill has a full bar, featuring a wickedly potent spicy Bloody Mary and even better bourbon/bacon Bloody Mary. 

Should lunch be what you’re hungry for, I recommend the pastrami, roast beef, chicken salad and pulled pork sandwiches, plus one called the Rachel that starts with oven roasted turkey and builds from there. Then, there’s chili, double smashburgers, house made chips, fresh onion rings, sweet potato fries, parmesan and garlic fries, mac and cheese and a roster of salads. My favorite baked goods are: red velvet cake, the better-than-any Oreo riff, double chocolate cream filled cookie, apple tart, carrot cake, chocolate cake, chocolate croissant bread pudding. You think Starbucks’ caffeine roster is impressive? Blueberry Hill has almost two dozen different kinds of lattes, plus a similar array of coffees and teas, fresh squeezed juices, smoothies, lemonades and seven kinds of milkshakes. I rarely craft a restaurant review to read like a laundry list but it’s the most effective way to convey the staggering smorgasbord Blueberry Hill offers.

If this cornucopic display of abundance has any hitch, it’s that temptation will seduce your eyes to be bigger than your stomach. On our last visit, I left with four to-go boxes. In fact, as I’m typing, I’m eating the rest of a blondie and the last half of an oatmeal raisin cookie. They’re really good.

BLUEBERRY HILL MARKET CAFÉ
515 US-20 New Lebanon, NY 12125
hours: Wednesday – Sunday 8am-4pm
Closed Monday & Tuesday
Tel: 518.794.2011
blueberryhillmarketcafe.com