As a kid, Mikayla Summers would eat tomatoes like apples. She would wander farmers’ markets with her mother, seeking out whatever was ripe. Even now Summers will not put a tomato on a plate in February. Not on a deli sandwich, not tucked under garnish, not anywhere. It’s a personal conviction, but it’s also the foundation of how she cooks. Summers, the new chef at Isola Wine Bar in Kinderhook, treats seasonality as a way of life and it shows in the new menu.
Opened in October 2024 by Hillary Zio, Isola occupies a restored circa-1757 building in the center of Kinderhook. The wine bar focuses on small, independent, and organic producers from Europe’s islands and seaside regions, wines with minerality and character from coastal places that Zio, a certified sommelier, believes deserve more attention. The by-the-glass list shifts every two weeks, with recent pours including a Can Feixes Macabeo from Penedès, a Mastroberardino Falanghina from Campania, and a J. Mourat Gamay from the Loire Valley, most priced under $15 a glass. Designed by Anthony D’Argenzio, the space is all Moroccan tile, exposed beams, and warm light, evoking the trattorias of the Mediterranean.
The food program follows that same coastal European sensibility, grounded in Hudson Valley ingredients. Summers joined as chef last September, and this spring she is fully stepping into her own, building a menu that reflects the same level of care and intention as Zio’s wine list.
Summers came to Kinderhook via kitchens that took ingredients as seriously as she does. She grew up in the Bay Area, where her mother cooked at home and took her to farmers’ markets. By high school, she was already drawn to food, taking a job at a south Florida bagel deli that made everything in-house, from bagels to cream cheeses to prepared salads. She preferred the kitchen to the front-of-house, helping with catering and prep, and started cooking more at home, driven in part by how particular she was about what she ate. In college, she continued working in restaurants and French bakeries, less as a career path than as a way to explore and learn before eventually choosing culinary school over graduate school.
At the Culinary Institute of America, she had her first real introduction to the Hudson Valley. After graduating, she moved to New York City, where she cooked at ABC Cocina and ABC Kitchen under Dan Kluger before landing at Blue Hill under Dan Barber.
“I’ve never been in a kitchen like that,” she says. “All the cooks on each station did their own ordering, which is unheard of. We’d have lectures from farmers, product tastings on carrots to decide which varieties we wanted to grow. We had homework assignments, presentations to our colleagues on different subjects. It was like a master’s degree.”
At Blue Hill, produce varied from day to day and farm to farm, so the kitchen couldn’t rely on fixed recipes. “You’d have to adjust for starch, sugar, heat intensity, time—with everything you made,” she says. “It encouraged much more thought and comprehension of the elements you were working with. Best lesson I’ve ever had.”
After nearly three years there, Summers opened her own business as a private chef, spending seven years building a word-of-mouth client base in New York City. When she was ready to leave the city, a lead on a chef position brought her to the Hudson Valley. That opportunity didn’t pan out, but it introduced her to the region. She resumed her private chef business, picked up work where she could, and met Zio at a charity event. The two stayed in touch, and when Isola’s previous chef departed last summer, Zio reached out.
“I have so much admiration for Hillary,” Summers says. “She’s one of the few female wine professionals with a wine-focused restaurant. I love Kinderhook, it’s 15 minutes from my house. I just needed a focus and she was it.”
The menu Summers has built at Isola changes nearly every week, driven by what’s coming in from local farms, including Farmstead Hudson and Kinderhook Farm. She describes seasonality less as a preference and more as a working framework, a set of constraints that makes the creative decisions easier rather than harder. “I prefer to have a limiting box to work within,” she says. “It often kickstarts real creativity.” There are more than four seasons when it comes to food, she says, and committing to a static seasonal menu means you’re already behind.
A few weeks ago, she put rhubarb on the menu, only to realize the supplier listing reflected farms much farther south. It wasn’t available locally yet, so she pulled it. “I got ahead of myself,” she says. “I got so excited.”
For Summers, sourcing is inseparable from a broader commitment to the people growing the food. “Small farms have been struggling for a long time and right now even more so,” she says. “The more restaurants that order from and work with the producers in their own community, the greater that community prospers.” Working directly with farmers, often from seed to plate, and sometimes putting in requests for specific crops before the growing season begins, means she can talk about what’s on the plate with a specificity that carries through to the table. “It is such an honor to be able to collaborate with some of my favorite local farmers and then be able to talk about it to customers with such intimacy and investment,” she says.
The menu takes its cues from the same coastal European tradition as the wine list: lots of lemon, alliums, olive oil, and minerality. Recent dishes have included citrus-roasted carrots with herb yogurt, peppers, pepitas, and spiced honey; Manila clams with fregola and white wine; squash arancini with sage, lemon, smoked mozzarella, and chili honey; chicken liver mousse crostini with sage and buttered shallots; and house-made pappardelle with beef ragu. Specials move even faster than the regular menu, and regulars have started asking about them first when they come in.
Pairing happens organically. Summers tastes Zio’s new wines as they come in, keeping them in mind as she shapes new dishes. The guiding principle is simple: What grows together goes together. Zio’s list leans Mediterranean and coastal, with small producers and plenty of minerality, and Summers builds from there. When Zio wants to bring in a bigger red, she loops Summers in.
Isola’s spring and summer calendar is already filling up. On April 10 and 11, a guest chef pop-up with Jesse Ford brings a full tasting menu to the space. On April 22, a five-course Feria de Abril dinner pairs small plates with Spanish wines for $115 per person. A Spring in Sicily dinner follows on May 7, with a gallery opening for Jack Shainman on May 30. A Dia de Portugal dinner is scheduled for June 10, and an Italian Riviera dinner for August 15. Saturday Wine School classes continue monthly, comprised of 6 wines and a few light snacks.
“There are so many things that I want to cook, that I want to feature, that I want people to experience and introduce them to,” Summers says. For now, she’s letting the seasons decide what comes next.
Isola is located at 16 Hudson Street in Kinderhook. Full event schedule and tickets at Isolawinebar.com.
