Rae’s, the new restaurant anchoring Main Street in Margaretville, is a heartfelt tribute to family, food, and community. Opened July 11 by partners Alexandra Rosenberg and James Bailey, the restaurant takes its name from Rosenberg’s Bronx-born great-grandmother Rae Goldschlager, who summered in the Catskills. “Rae was warm, funny and a bit brassy, and always getting you to eat and eat some more,” Rosenberg says. “She had such an incredible spirit and such great values of care and good taste.”
The spirit of Rae lives on in the menu’s mix of elevated comfort food, regional ingredients, and playful nods to heritage. “All of the plates on our menu are intended to be shared,” Rosenberg says. “It is a casual-yet-elevated eating experience where there is just food on the table. It’s how we eat at home. We want to impart that joy and abundance to the people who come here.”
The compact, eight-dish menu includes a shrimp cocktail ($12), iceberg wedge salad ($15), and a vibrant market salad ($14) made with produce from Berry Brook Farm. “We have a number of classic standards on the menu but we do them a little differently,” says Bailey. “We have a little bit more fun with them.” Other dishes include a tuna melt on rye ($19), roasted carrots with Southwest spice ($13), and chile en nogada ($20), which reflects Bailey’s Texas upbringing. “The chile en nogada and the roasted carrot dish have a lot of Southwest flavor, so this is an example of where I’ve infused my roots with what could be called Jewish comfort food on our menu.”
A standout is the chopped liver ($15). “She was kind of famous for her chopped liver,” Rosenberg says of her great-grandmother. “However, the recipe we use is actually our playful take of my grandmother’s version of Rae’s original recipe.” Instead of mixing in gribenes (crisp chicken skins), they’re served on top like chips, alongside thick-cut griddled bread from the bakery Leavened in Gilboa.
The drink list is equally thoughtful. “All of the cocktails are playful takes on the classics,” Bailey says. Most are named for family members. “The martini,” he says, “named after Alexandra’s grandfather Bobby ($15), is like a normal martini, but we add a little fino sherry to it.” The New Kingston Negroni ($15) references where the couple now lives. Rosenberg contributed the Cel-Ray Spritz ($12), a nod to Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda, made with apple pommeau, cava, and thyme liqueur. All beers and ciders are from New York producers like Wayward Lane Brewing in Schoharie and Wayside Cider in Andes.
The wine list at Rae’s is compact but characterful, emphasizing minimal-intervention producers from across Europe and North America. Guests will find sparkling selections like the crisp Frizzante Rosé from Italy’s Alto Adige ($12/$48) and a dry Cava from Catalunya ($50), alongside whites that range from the playful Crazy Creatures #5 Grüner Veltliner from Austria ($13/$52) to the skin-contact Weinland Skin & Stones from Burgenland ($15/$60). Reds include the Loire-grown Eclat de Granite Gamay ($16/$64) and Ontario’s juicy Adora blend ($13/$52). “We wanted to pick wines that were fun and a little bit different, but still pairable with our menu,” Rosenberg says.
Rae’s occupies a former dive bar, and Bailey has kept traces of its past. “What remains of the Village Pub is the original bar, the light wood beadboard which covers the walls,” he says. Dart marks near the front door hint at its former life. The interior balances vintage and contemporary—faux tin ceiling, sea-glass plates, and a series of photographs by multimedia artist Azikiwe Mohammed that play with “the theme of memory and nostalgia; comfort food, on a backdrop of sentimental floral wallpaper.”
Rosenberg, a nonprofit arts administrator and performance curator, brought her community-minded ethos to the project. “My work has always been about creating communities,” Rosenberg says, “and that is certainly part of what we are seeking to do here.” Bailey adds, “We are proud to be a part of the next step of what happens in Margaretville.”
Rae’s is open Friday through Tuesday for dinner.
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This article appears in July 2025.
