It appears this heat wave won’t be breaking any time soon, and the best thing I can recommend is that you get far, far away from the city. I’m not suggesting an epic Eurotrip, necessarily. Just that you grab a rental car, a friend who can drive or an Amtrak ticket and head a few hours north. I promise it’ll feel at least twenty degrees cooler and exponentially more exciting than another weekend schlepping takeout to Prospect Park.
This list is dedicated to the people in my life who have driven me around upstate. I love you, I’m sorry I let my license expire and I thank you for your service.
Pierogi at the roller rink
To me, one of the happiest places on earth is a 2-minute stretch of Route 209 in Accord, New York. You’ll find Bluebird Wine & Spirits, a joyful little wine shop decorated with Grateful Dead dancing bears, and, a minute away, the new location of Harana Market, a daytime Filipino restaurant with perfect fried chicken.
Finally, there’s Skate Time, a longtime roller rink that was shuttered during the pandemic and revived by the popcorn company Bjorn Qorn. They have plenty of popcorn for sale, naturally, but there’s also classic roller rink fare: pizza, chicken tenders, a hot dog on a warm potato roll. The most compelling order has to be the pierogi from Helena’s Specialty Pierogies, made in nearby Kerhonkson, pan-fried and topped with sour cream, undoubtedly worth the hassle of renting a car.
I Heart Kingston, NY
Kingston is my favorite town in the Catskills, mainly because all of my favorite glassware, jackets and gifts come from Kingston Consignments. (I’ve spent so many hours of my life sifting through their beautiful chaos.) The second best thing in town is Chleo, which opened last year, a wine bar-ish restaurant with a big open kitchen and a wood-fired grill. What comes out of that grill is changing all the time: grilled radishes with green tahini, pork collar cooked in hay (!), charred broccolini with chermoula, all shareable and always special.
Boiled peanuts à la Contra
A visit to Hensonville, not quite a town but a hamlet, is kind of fascinating: The team from the downtown Manhattan restaurants Contra (now Bar Contra) and Wildair have basically cornered an intersection and plopped three restaurants and a store there.
It feels like an “if you build it, they will come” approach for the “what even is upstate?” crowd. Of the three restaurants in Contraville, as I’m calling it, my preference is the bar at restaurant Matilda, separate from the restaurant’s main dining room. You’ll find oysters, shrimp cocktail, a great bar steak and, my hyperfixation of the visit, a plate of sliced Delaware Fireball, a ball of smoked salami, served with a big pile of boiled peanuts.
Pastries to stay, and a few to go
The jumbo cinnamon buns at Fellow Mountain Cafe, in Hunter, have a bit of a cultlike following. But the other pastries and the excellent coffee also deserve their flowers. They’re all best enjoyed on the front patio of the big white house, situated at the base of Hunter Mountain, especially the cherry-walnut coffee cake, the scallion-Cheddar biscuits, and, yes, the springy, easily unfurled cinnamon roll with a swoopy toupee of frosting. All are worth stocking up on to make that long drive back to the city a little more bearable.
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