food & drink
Michael Kelly serving diners outside at Liberty Street Bistro in Newburgh. Photo by Mary Kelly
WINTER IS COMING
Restaurants Prep for a Cold, Cold Season By Melissa Dempsey and Marie Doyon
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s outdoor dining comes to a close for us, we are at the mercy of the public and their willingness to follow guidelines for safety in our dining room this winter,” says Michael Kelly, proprietor of Newburgh’s beloved Liberty Street Bistro, striking a grim tone to match the ominous uncertainty of this winter’s dining scene in the Hudson Valley. Opened 2016, the restaurant draws on Kelly’s experience working in some of Manhattan’s finest kitchens to dish up masterfully executed, memorable, French-influenced fare in an elegant but laid-back environment. Before COVID, takeout was never in the plans for Kelly’s elevated establishment, which subsisted on a bustling stream of Sunday brunchers, happy hour regulars, dinner date duos, and festive groups. But over the past six months, he’s had to find ways to evolve his business model while staying true to the bistro’s brand. “The financial strains of this moment are unparalleled; we have never been well-geared toward takeout dining, and making that pivot continues to be a new and challenging frontier for us,” Kelly says. “We have completely revamped our menu to be more approachable to as many guests as possible.” He has also ventured into catering, once a far-off possibility that was fast-tracked thanks to the pandemic’s financial pressure.
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Last year, Kelly expanded into the nextdoor space (formerly Cafe Macchiato) to up the restaurant’s capacity from 44 to 70—an increase that proved crucial in this era of socially distanced dining. Assuming Kelly is statesanctioned to do so, he is planning to keep the indoor dining room open through winter at reduced capacity. While he can enforce PPE, cleaning, and safety protocols with his staff, the customers are the big question mark. “I’ve learned quite quickly not to have expectations,” he says. “But our ability to operate—even in this small capacity—correlates directly with the dining public’s adherence to rules and safety guidelines.” Kelly’s hope-and-a-prayer mentality is about the only option available to restaurants planning to host indoor diners this winter—that and temperature checks and sign-ins sheets for contact tracing. Right now, chefs and restaurateurs across the Hudson Valley like Kelly are wrapping up the end of their busy season while trying to prepare for the expected cold-weather downturn. Winter is always a slow season for upstate restaurants, but with COVID uncertainties, the next few months are a total crapshoot. Stretching the Outdoor Season Other area restaurants, like Essie’s, are focusing their short-term efforts on extending their outdoor
dining season as long as possible. Essie’s chef/ owner Brandon Walker just recently started to get back into the swing of his typical service, and he’s not about to give it up. Located in Poughkeepsie’s Little Italy district, this eatery falls squarely in the farm-to-table, New American tradition with a nod to Walker’s Caribbean and Southern heritage. “In the beginning, we modified our menu to more of a quick-serve model, such as dinner combos and sandwiches—it went well and it got us through,” Walker says. “Since we’ve been allowed to have both outdoor and indoor dining, we’ve been able to slowly revert back to a more a la carte menu. We’re currently consulting with our local fire professionals as to what outside heaters are suitable for our setup, and with city officials about what additional structures we could use as the weather changes.” Similarly, in Hudson, Kat Dunn is busy buying space heaters for the patio of her pop-up restaurant Buttercup. The veteran mixologist, who designed the cocktail program for Fish & Game, Backbar, and Rivertown Lodge had been planning to open her own “fast-casual cocktail bar” in a former factory building in Hudson’s Prison Alley this summer, when lockdown foiled her plans. In early June, Dunn decided to pivot to a pop-up with a crowd-pleasing menu of summer’s quintessential guilty pleasures, from lobster rolls to loaded hot dogs to cocktails.
