We spent Labor Day weekend staying at Camptown, a hipster log cabin resort in Leeds, NY. The place just opened in April and everything is clean and fresh and as trendy as can be, like Williamsburg North. The pool and patio only came online a week ago or so. We enjoyed it a lot.
One of the best aspects of Camptown is its restaurant, Casa Susanna, a higher-end Mexican place. Open for dinner generally and brunch on weekends. The food here is really great, far better than one would expect, and is well worth going to if you’re a regular Upstater. Of course the wine list is mostly natural but it was easy enough to navigate around that.
Even better is the Tavern at Rivertown Lodge over in Hudson. This may be the best restaurant we have been to Upstate. Everything here was spot on, highly creative, and outright delicious. Strongly recommended. The wine list here is even more natural but we managed to find an agreeable by-the-glass white that worked for us.
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We’re spending the holiday weekend up in Hudson, and despite the 100-degree weather the place is crawling with Brooklynites like us. Hudson has really gone over the top and is swanky as hell now, not that I am complaining. It’s a treat to get away and luxuriate for a couple of days.
We are staying at the Rivertown Lodge and it’s comfy and friendly. They replaced the Tavern with a brand new restaurant called Pez, which opened just three weeks ago. Pez has the same chef, Efren Hernandez, as Casa Susanna over at Camptown in Leeds, and the food is even better than at Susanna. Pez has an almost entirely Mexican seafood menu and it is totally outstanding. Hernandez has been nominated for James Beard awards several times and deserves it.
We had the blue crab tostada, the bluefin tuna with bone marrow salsa macha (omfg), little gem salad with favas, snap peas with turnips and whipped queso fresco, maitake mushrooms with smoked almond mole seco, and the whole mackerel with red mole and served with corn tortillas to make tacos. Everything was amazing and I would happily reorder any of these dishes. $25 corkage, too, which is like impossible given the quality here. Amazing cocktails as well. Cannot recommend this place enough.
Tonight we will go to Serre located in The Maker Hotel, another high-end newcomer to this tony little town.
The new chef at Serre is Chris Roderick who was the chef at Charlie Bird for a good chunk of time during the pandemic. He moved on and took over the head job at Pasquale Jones and Bar Pasquale. Moved out to LA for a couple of years, but has been at Serre for a few months. I’m eager to get your take on it. Chris is a good guy. Look for the guy with the sandwich tattoo.
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Serre was excellent, high French cuisine at high French prices. The room is gorgeous, basically a large and very swanky and serene solarium that is radiant when sunny and romantic when rainy (we experienced both). Perfect touches to each dish, from the beautiful little olive and ham pintxo to the scallop Rockefeller, to the lamb chop with fresh pea cream. Beautiful plating all around. $45 corkage; we brought 1999 Pavelot Savigny Dominode, and the wine service was perfect. We loved it all but have to say that there was more excitement at Pez the night before.
The chef, though, is actually Jonas Offenbach since about April. The menu prior to that was Italian, and that must have been the responsibility of Chris Roderick.
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Chef Chris told me he was heading there in May. Wondering if he’s under Jonas?
Two other quick notes: we got sandwiches at Quinnie’s on the outskirts of Hudson, and they were fantastic. And Aba’s Falafel in Rhinebeck makes a mean sabich pita - we always stop there for lunch if we are in the area.