Directions to My Favorite Southern Berkshire Restaurants

In my beautiful rural region, Columbia and Berkshire counties, straddling the New York/Massachusetts state line, there are many former dairy farms, now thankfully being reborn as organic farms, CSA's, goat and sheep farm/cheese making operations, wineries, and much more. I've heard restaurateurs describe Columbia County as the Napa of the Hudson River Valley. There is more open farm land and more great restaurants here than in any other part of the Valley.  Our restaurants take advantage of this and craft their menus around this wealth of locally grown products. One of my favorites, John Andrews Restaurant in South Egremont, even has a mid week Farmer's prix fixe menu which changes each week, and is created to showcase a particular vendor, whether it is the mushroom grower, the organic dairy, the cheese maker, or the home grown beef/lamb/duck, etc. The result is great food for you to enjoy.

Stage Coach Tavern in Sheffield, Massachusetts

Here is a map showing the way to my top five recommended South County restaurants. John Andrews and the Old Mill are in the Massachusetts town of South Egremont; Stage Coach Tavern is in Sheffield; and Fiori is in delightful Great Barrington which was just recently chosen one of 20 best small American towns by Smithsonian Magazine.




View Innkeeper's Top 5 Berkshire South County Restaurants in a larger map

Antiquing in Hillsdale, New York

Just a short drive from the Inn at Green River, there are two great antique shops in Hillsdale, New York, where my guests have found many a treasure over the years.

Red Fox Antiques, just north of the junction of Routes 22 and 23 in the center of Hillsdale, is run by Marilyn Simon, shown here with my guest who has found a teapot he decided needed a new home. Marilyn always has a good assortment of tramp art, paintings, furniture, china, pottery, and glass.



Just three miles down Route 22 from the Inn is Hillsdale Barn Antiques, run by Frank and Rose Marie Francis. You can't miss the large three story white barn set in the beautiful valley just south of Dodd's Farm where the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival takes place each July.

This shop specializes in American country furniture, folk art, hooked rugs, quilts, baskets, and stoneware, all artfully displayed. There is a red table displayed with red hanging shelves above it that is on my wish list!

So on your next trip to Columbia County, leave some time in your schedule for wandering our beautiful countryside, hunting for treasures, and be sure to ask me for a map and directions to my favorites!

Cheese Making Classes

Love cheese? Try your hand at making some.  Hawthorne Valley Farm, which is just a short drive from the Inn, is offering several cheese making classes taught by their cheese maker, Peter Kindel. This Saturday, April 28, from noon to 3 pm, you can experience the process of making Camembert, my favorite soft cheese! The class is $40 per person. Call 518-672-7500 x232 to register, or call the Inn, and I will register for you. And Saturday, May 19th,  another cheese class about making feta will be offered.

Our county is also home to another well known maker of cheese, Old Chatham Sheepherding Company. Their products include an award winning Camembert. Their cheeses are made from sheep's milk, while I imagine the Hawthorne Valley cheese is made from cow's milk.

You can visit the Old Chatham farm which is located down a picture perfect country road, and see the sheep being milked every afternoon at 3pm. And the beautiful red Shaker barns are worth seeing, too.

You can also schedule a mid week cheese making class through the inn with Twin Maple Farm in Ghent, NY. You will spend the morning with their cheese maker, and leave with a 1 lb. wheel of their award winning Hudson Red, which just scored 97.25 pts at the World Cheese Championships! See the Inn's Specials page for details.

Bicycle Auction Wives Enjoy Swap Meet Day with the Innkeeper

 
If you are a "Copake Bicycle Auction widow" - ie. your husband comes each year to the auction, and heads out the door at 5 am on Friday morning for the swap meet, and wants to spend the day wandering around and discussing bicycle parts esoterica with other guys - then you need to make sure you have booked a room at the Inn at Green River for the event! Here, the wives always enjoy a leisurely breakfast, then I drive them down to the swap meet to join their partners. This year, we started the morning with coffee and ginger scones at the inn, then moved on to breakfast at the excellent CrossRoads Food Shop in Hillsdale (my treat, of course). The scrambled, free range eggs and hominy grits were excellent.

 
Next we did a little shopping! First to the Hillsdale General Store, which offers all sorts of chic items for country living, with the emphasis on local. My guests came away with some wonderful local jam. One of those hand made brooms is on my wish list. Then on to Passiflora right next door.

Purchases here included candy, cards and this great hand knitted dog toy made in Kenya.

Having done our bit to help the local economy, we headed on down to the swap meet around noon, and found one husband, happy with both his purchases - this adorable (my word, not his) child's tricycle - and sales - he had sold a c.1890 adult's treadle tricycle.

The swap meet takes place in the field behind the auction house, and the participants drive their vans and trucks in at 6 am (although they have been waiting in line even earlier to get the best spots) and set up the items they wish to sell or trade.

Meanwhile the preview inside the auction house continues, and the actual sale happens on Saturday. This year, it was standing room only, and buyers from over two dozen countries were represented, either bidding on the phone, or in person.

It is the Copake Bicycle Auction, but includes all sorts of related ephemera. Here my guest poses with a fabulous French Art Deco poster she bought at today's auction. Hmmm, now how to get that home!

The auction takes place each year in mid April. Next year, book your stay at the Inn at Green River, and I promise both bike collector and supportive partner will enjoy the event even more than before!

Innkeeper's Restaurant Picks in Southern California

During my quick getaway to southern California, I covered a lot of territory, and had some great food. Many of my guests have had the fantasy about wanting to run a bed and breakfast. Hand in hand with that fantasy is the one about owning a restaurant, one which I always had. I think what both fantasies have in common is the desire to design a space, create an atmosphere, and provide a great experience. Here were some memorable ones for me.

As the friend I was visiting is a long time resident of Laguna Beach, we had to have breakfast one morning at Zinc Cafe. I had also just had two guests from Laguna Beach several weeks before, and they, too, recommended Zinc. There are also Zinc Cafes in Solana Beach and Newport Beach, both of which I saw!

Our breakfast was simply two poached eggs on toast and a large latte bowl of tea, elegantly served with the tea bag attached to a sliver of wood that sat across the lip of the bowl. Here is a photo of that breakfast, lifted from the restaurant's web site. They also have beautiful pastries, food to go, and some enticing retail items. The interior was nicely designed with high ceilings, and the space is divided so as to provide different seating areas, yet still have an open, airy feeling.

On the other end of the spectrum, we had Mexican food one night at Adolfo's, a local favorite that has been run by the same family for 27 years. The staff is very friendly, the food is good, and the prices are quite inexpensive. There is a nice little outdoor seating area. Inside, the wall murals were done by the owner, and are quite colorful!

Another day we drove north to Pasadena. I had never been to that city, and really know of it only because of the Rose Bowl Parade. I was astounded at the beautiful homes in the older residential section near the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, and the beauty of the stark contrast between residential streets lined with tall palm trees, and the San Gabriel mountain range jutting up just north of the city.

I spied a little white and green awning shading an interesting sign, "Pie 'n Burger". We decided to give it a try. What a find! Turns out Pie 'n Burger is a Pasadena institution, in business since 1963, and really, nothing has changed.

Diner ambiance with formica counters, open kitchen with its enormous stove and grill right in front of you, the wooden painted menu signs on the wall, and the food which is still made the same way, 49 years later. The burger was really pretty great, cooked medium rare as requested, with grilled onions, cheese, bacon, lettuce, and thousand island dressing on top which ordinarily I don't like, but it all worked!

I am afraid we had no room left for pie. And I didn't indulge in an ice cream soda.  So I have an excuse to make another trip!

Hotel Del Coronado

Off on a busman's holiday, the innkeeper is enjoying a vacation in southern California, staying in Laguna Beach with a friend and former Inn at Green River guest. One of our excursions was down to San Diego and over a beautiful bridge to the peninsula of Coronado, where we met friends for lunch at the "Del", the famous Hotel Del Coronado. This wonderful c. 1890 resort hotel was made doubly famous as the setting for the shenanigans in the 1958 Billy Wilder movie, "Some Like It Hot" with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

We enjoyed a great lunch in the Babcock & Story bar/restaurant. From our table by French doors, we looked across the front lawn and gardens towards a little brown house called the Dutchess of Windsor,  which is now a private club. The house was apparently owned by the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor. Divorcee Wallis Spenser Simpson was from Coronado, and legend has it that the Prince of Wales may have first met Wallis at the Del. He later become King Edward VIII before abdicating the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis.

From that front garden, the Pacific Ocean is just a stones throw away, across a beautiful white sandy beach, and one can see Mexico to the south west. See the mountain range in the distance across the ocean? That's the Baja region of Mexico.

Although all bright white paint and red roof on the outside, inside, one enters the hotel through a grand lobby with an enormous chandelier lighting all the dark wood paneling and coffered ceilings. There is a sitting area with easy chairs and tables - reminded me of the Algonquin Hotel in New York City which I always thought was a great place to meet for drinks after work.

Quite impressive. I highly recommend a visit!

Cafe Le Perche Bakery & Patisserie in Hudson

Spent a lovely few hours in Hudson, New York, on Thursday afternoon. Located right on the Hudson River, the small city of Hudson is renowned for its many antique dealers and is just a 25 minute drive from the Inn at Green River.

I had lunch at Cafe Le Perche at 230 Warren Street.

This restaurant opened to great fanfare last year. The New York Times wrote about the genesis of the bakery. Owner Allan Chapin fell in love with the delicious local baguettes while visiting the le Perche region of northern France. He ended up purchasing and shipping home an enormous French oven and French made bricks to rebuild it in the carriage house behind a former bank building he owned in Hudson. The bakery and patisserie now turns out wonderful baguettes made with stone ground flour milled from locally grown grains, as well as a great assortment of other breads and pastries.

I enjoyed a wonderful, obviously home made tomato soup, and shared a beautiful small spinach, feta and mushroom quiche and fresh green salad with my companion.  We ate at the bar, but there is also a nice dining room in the back and a garden courtyard beyond that for out door dining. Note it is best to plan your visit to Hudson on Thursdays through Sundays, as many of the antique dealers are closed mid week.