At Kingston Nord, the chicken schnitzel makes a persuasive argument for arriving hungry. The generously sized cutlet comes with mushroom sauce and potato salad, a substantial lunch before anyone starts passing the Swedish meatballs. On a recent visit, our table also made room for charred cabbage and pickled herring, the latter served on Danish rye with pickled red onions and egg. The herring was delightful; the cabbage deserved its own return trip. An aquavit Bloody Mary tasted so clean that I briefly considered classifying it as a health beverage. This classification has not been reviewed by a medical professional.
There’s considerable pleasure in a table like this: something crisp, something pickled, something warm and filling, with enough variety to keep forks moving between plates. That’s the experience co-owner Natasha Berlyne hopes to cultivate at the Nordic-inspired restaurant, which opened June 24—their 25th birthday—in the former Front Street Tavern spot at 63 North Front Street in Kingston. As the restaurant enters its first fall, Berlyne and their partner, chef Steffan Bailey, are refining both the menu and the way guests eat from it.
“I hope they feel as relaxed after, like almost like how you feel after a Thanksgiving meal without the stress of your family and the craziness that comes with that,” Berlyne says. “Just stuffed and relaxed.”
Family, however, is central to how Kingston Nord came together. Berlyne’s sister, Lauren Berlyne, and brother-in-law, restaurateur Ryan Speier, are partners in the business, along with longtime business partner Zi Lin. Lauren and Ryan support the venture’s finances and administration; Natasha oversees the dining room and bars, while Bailey runs the kitchen. The original family plan had been something closer to a cafe. Then a Thanksgiving visit brought Bailey into the conversation, and Speier found a restaurant space for lease.
“We started talking and we were all bonding over food,” Berlyne says. “We’re like, okay, so this is a team here. We’re gonna do something all together.”
For Berlyne, it was a considerable leap from the work that first drew them into hospitality. Raised on Long Island, they began working in cafes during college and discovered an appetite for specialty coffee and the relationships built across a counter. After finishing cosmetology school in New York City, they moved to New Paltz in 2024, following what they describe as a “gravitational pull” toward the area after visiting a friend.
They landed a job at Gunks Gaming Guild & Cafe and met Bailey on their second day. “We bonded over our shared love for the connection that we make with people through food and drinks,” Berlyne says.
Bailey, a 2020 Culinary Institute of America graduate, had already imagined a restaurant like Kingston Nord. For a final school project, he developed a detailed Nordic restaurant concept. His subsequent experience included serving as sous chef at Main Course and director of operations at Red Maple Vineyard. Speier arrived at the idea through another route: After culinary school, he worked at Aquavit in New York City, became interested in Scandinavian cuisine, traveled to Denmark, and worked on perfecting his Danish rye bread.
Their shared interest found a home in a region with its own agricultural abundance. Berlyne sees an affinity between Nordic traditions of preserving, fermenting, and foraging and the Hudson Valley’s seasonal ingredients. The kitchen also sources Scandinavian foods, including lingonberry jam, which turns up in sweet and savory preparations throughout the menu.
The fall menu invites diners to build a meal from small and large plates, with dishes arriving as they’re ready. Smorrebrod ($7), open-faced sandwiches on buttered housemade rugbrod, come topped with gravlax, pickled herring, chicken club, or curried egg salad. A smorgasbord ($22 for one or two; $38 for three or four) gathers rotating cheeses, fish, cured meats, pickles, and preserves with crisp knackebrod. Latkes ($9) come with lingonberry coulis and dill aioli.
Among the larger plates, Swedish meatballs ($20) arrive with pomme puree, mushroom sauce, pickled cucumber, and lingonberry jam. Bergen fish soup ($14) combines salmon, whitefish, and shrimp with carrot, leek, and cream. The Cabbage & Rye-sotto ($20) brings charred cabbage together with rye berries, brown butter, and aged cheese—a vegetarian dish with the heft to hold its place beside the schnitzel ($22). A ribeye ($35) gets a juniper–black pepper crust, while crispy pork belly ($25) comes with butternut purée and roasted cabbage slaw.
The range gives guests several ways to spend an afternoon or evening, from a sandwich and coffee to a tableful of shared dishes. Behind those prices, Berlyne says, Bailey continually works on kitchen efficiency and sourcing costs. The goal is food prepared with care that people can return for regularly.
The drinks offer another expression of that care, with considerably more whimsy. Berlyne and head bartender Manny Ramirez developed a fall list that carries the kitchen’s flavors into the glass. Pink Pumpkin ($16), subtitled “Swedish Girl Autumn,” combines Nordic spiced rum, pumpkin spice and carrot liqueurs, sweet vermouth, beet, lemon, and cardamom bitters, finished with roasted delicata squash.
Berlyne’s Secret Spice Martini ($20) began with a dream about turning the restaurant’s house spice blend into a drink. The finished version combines gin, Brennivin, Guinness, pimento dram, mushroom stock, olive brine, and Nord spices, with olives and goat cheese on a skewer. Its menu description: “a dirty martini’s Nordic cousin.”
Ramirez’s Mead of Poetry ($20) had a more specific assignment: Make a Negroni that Bailey, who usually dislikes them, would enjoy. Cheese-washed mezcal and coffee-infused Campari meet Vikings Blod mead, amaretto, and smoked rosemary, with knäckebröd and mezcal cream cheese as garnish. According to Berlyne, the chef was converted.
Kingston Nord’s considerable footprint includes a main dining room and bar, a rooftop bar, and a Viking hall for larger gatherings. Berlyne has plenty of ideas for the latter, but the immediate ambition is making the whole operation feel increasingly comfortable as the weather turns. After the hectic opening months, they’re looking forward to the season catching up with the food. “Anytime we’ve had a rainy day here or it’s been a little colder, I’ve just felt the overwhelming coziness of the space,” Berlyne says. At the table, the cabbage, rye, mushroom sauce, and pickles are already doing their part.
