Spring in the Hudson Valley is ramping up in a big way. What started as a hard-to-pin-down round-up of ramp dishes on the region’s seasonal menus evolved into this piece on of-the-moment, peak-of-spring dishes. Every farm-to-table restaurant worth its salt will have a spring greens salad on the menu—think watercress and pea shoots, radicchio and baby arugula. So beyond that, we’ve rounded up the special kids that highlight the bounty of this ephemeral moment with the disclaimer that most truly seasonal, truly farm-fresh and or foraged menus change daily or weekly.
Oliver’s
1564 Wittenberg Road, Mt Tremper
The onsite restaurant at Howland House, Oliver’s, is offering seasonally rotating menus that highlight Catskills’ goodness, both foraged and farmed. The current casarecce dish is a fresh, handmade pasta tossed with spring peas, asparagus, fiddlehead ferns, herb oil, and pecorino ($26). And while we’ve generally excluded salads from this round-up Oliver’s spring greens mix gets special mention for the thoroughness of its seasonal representation: purple asparagus adds color to watercress, fennel, arugula, pea shoots, and fresh herbs, topped with toasted almonds and served with a creamy tarragon vinaigrette ($19).
Tomorrow, April 26, Oliver’s will host a special single-seating Spring Dinner by reservation. The four-course menu includes asparagus soup, with spring pea, wild fennel, and peppery nasturtium for a pop of color; roasted field carrots with nettle puree, za’atar labneh, brown butter emulsion, spiced pistachio breadcrumb; a farro risotto made with morels, fava beans, fiddleheads, and parmesan; and to cap things off: strawberry cheesecake blondies.
Bia
22 Garden Street, Rhinebeck
Bia bills itself as a modern spin on Irish cuisine, though chef Rich Reeve gives himself creative license to play in any number of directions. For a starter try the English peas with local whipped ricotta, served with shavings of speck (cured pork), mint and toasted country bread, drizzled with olive oil ($16). As a side or for sharing, order the poached white asparagus with truffled fontina mornay sauce, speck, and toasted garlic breadcrumbs.
Butterfield
3805 Main Street, Stone Ridge
Hasbrouck House’s restaurant Butterfield has long had a commitment to incorporating foraged ingredients to their menu of dishes otherwise sourced from local farmers. Their seasonal pasta dish bridges the seasons well with a fiddlehead fern and spring pea cavatelli, made with nettle and pea beurre blanc ($28). The housemade ramp bratwurst is served with tender spring vegetables and onion gravy ($30).
Kitty’s Hudson
60 S Front Street, Hudson
Kitty’s chef Nicole LoBue is known around Hudson as a longtime promoter of foraged and farm-to-table dining. Under her the kitchen’s offerings have bloomed. For starters, try the sweet and savory roasted asparagus dish, with Tivoli mushroom escabeche and fresh strawberry ($26). For a heartier shoulder season dish, the pea shoot dumplings and fluffy pockets of goodness served with chili macadamia sauce ($26).
Eliza
582 Broadway, Kingston
Eliza is doing something with ramps we’ve not seen before. Their crispy ramp cakes are made by mixing chopped ramp leaves with rice flour and tapioca starch ($9). These deep-fried delights are drizzled with a tamari-rice vinegar sauce, and topped with pickled Thai chilis and pickled ramp bulbs.
Casa Susanna
800 County Road 23B, Leeds
Leave it to twice James Beard-nominated chef Efren Hernandez to get creative with his take on spring in the Hudson Valley. Casa Susanna’s new beef tongue dish is prepared with English peas, onion nicuatole, and a spicy salsa macha verde ($34). You can order it as a plated dish or in taco form. For a spring-forward dessert, try the rhubarb sorbet served with coconut Raspado and chile de arbol ($12).
Silvia
42 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock
Silvia dishes up consistently delicious meals, though don’t expect the menu of heavy hitters to change radically or terribly often. That said, seasonal stars do pop on and off the menu. Par example, just launched: a chilled asparagus dish served with a poached egg and gribiche sauce with cornichons, young celery, capers, and fresh dill, and a salty tangy parmesan crisp for scooping up all the goodness ($18).
Dandelion
212-220 McKenley Hollow Road, Big Indian
Dandelion, the onsite restaurant for Eastwind Oliverea Valley hotel, gets a prize for being the only restaurant we scoped that found a way to dish up ramps in liquid form. Their pickled ramp martini brings all the spicy, garlicky goodness of this wild onion to the bar. If you’re not feeling quite so adventurous, the ramp pasta is a stunning bright green dish topped with zucchini flowers.
Manor Rock Hudson
746 Warren Street, Hudson
Manor Rock Restaurant in Hudson sources largely from their own farm down the road, with menus that change near daily. So making a firm recommendation is a tough task, though the eating is always seasonal. If you get lucky, order the morels stuffed with wild nettles and green garlic and drizzled with preserved chestnut sauce ($28).
Well Nice Wine Bar
407 Main Street, Rosendale
The ever-changing pierogies at the newish Well Nice Wine Bar have been an instant favorite. The current offering mixes bacon and spring pea, drizzled with a ramp compound butter. The wine bar also recently started Chef’s Whim—a weekly five-to-seven-course tasting menu that combines items both on and off the regular menu ($35 prix fixe). It’s a place where they can showcase small-quantity, hyperlocal, hyperseason ingredients…like ramps, which will make various guest appearances on next weekend’s Chef’s Whim menu (May 2-4).
Also, roving pop-up Middleborough Pizza is using a big ramp haul as the basis for a special pizza menu, which they’ll offer at Well Nice on Saturday, May 17 from 4:30pm until sold out. Expect three to four different offerings featuring pickled ramps and ramp-walnut pesto.
Honorable Mentions
Shout out to Fantzye Bagels in Kingston, which just rolled out a ramp schmear that you can order with any bagel or sandwich, and Sonder, also in Kingston, which is served ramp butter for a limited time on the dinner menu. Gardiner Bakehouse is doing a focaccia special this weekend with ramp pesto.
It would have been very helpful to mention where all of these restaurants are located in your article!