Kelly’s Ice Cream
Kelly’s Creamery and Kelly’s Husband’s Truck in Dover Plains serve up the stuff childhood (and adult) dreams are made of. Located six miles south of the Wassaic train station, the two Kellys tag team timeless summertime pleasures with a whimsical ice cream parlor and, across the parking lot, a roadside burger shack food truck. The last days of summer are sweeter with their velvety chocolate soft serve or clean vanilla; the drive-in burger is crave-worthy; and the fries are piping hot and perfectly crispy. It’s a fun, family-friendly environment with picnic tables set out in the lot and a mini-golf course off to one side. In addition to the 30-plus flavors of ice cream and the 20+ flavors of Italian ice, Kelly’s also offers cereal ice cream sandwiches (think Rice Krispies Treats), choco tacos, and sundaes. Sweet tooth = satisfied.
Conover Club at Callicoon Hills
1 Hills Resort Road, Callicoon Center
The history of the Callicoon Hills resort in Sullivan County begins over a century ago in 1905, with what was then just a simple boarding house and gristmill on the banks of the Delaware River. Surviving the boom and bust of the Borscht Belt era, the resort still exists today, with a recent change of ownership leading to a tasteful renovation that brings the property into the 21st century. At the Conover Club, the onsite restaurant, diners can choose from true farm-to-table options, like the New York pan-seared pork chop, which is drizzled in a sweet-and-sour sauce made from locally foraged wild berries ($20). Other standout dishes include their wings ($11): cured, confited, dusted, and dried, for a crispy outside and a fall-off-the-bone inside. The steak is mushroom-rubbed, cured in porcini powder, then roasted with chimichurri and served with a side of herbed fingerling potatoes ($25).
Overlook Bakery
When a popular ice cream shop’s space became available in Woodstock, the opportunity was too good to pass up, and suddenly Rosie DeVito went from baking in her home kitchen to running a brick-and-mortar bakery selling classic cakes, cookies, and other sweet treats. In the few short months it’s been open to the public, Overlook Bakery has already become a Tinker Street fixture. In addition to DeVito’s own confectionary wonders and coffee from Mount Tremper-based HeavyFeather Roasting Co, the bakery also showcases products from fellow local businesses like drool-worthy stuffed bagels from Moonrise Bagels and flower arrangements from Eirene Woodstock.
Brigitte Bistro
In Red Hook, in the former Mercato space, you can now find Brigitte Bistro, dishing up classic French cuisine with seasonal Hudson Valley produce. An extensive buildout added an event space in one half of the building and an elegant bar in the dining room. A new, open kitchen overlooks the main dining area, which has been repainted in an elegant Provence blue. Expect classics: escargots in an garlic herb butter ($14); French onion soup, served here with gruyere $14); duck confit with mustard bacon dressing served over French lentils ($29); pan-seared Faroe Island salmon with pesto and ratatouille; and for the spendy—a steak frite dish with grilled rib eye and a red wine butter sauce ($40). Crystal chandeliers and white tablecloths give the new bistro a decidedly upscale vibe, while an oversized photo of the namesake Brigitte Bardot on a bicycle adds a touch of whimsy.
Culture Cream
Last year, the candy-colored storage shed-turned-ice-cream shack outside Back Bar was an instant Hudson hit. People lapped up the probiotic ice cream, made with fermented bases like kombucha and kefir. If you thought the shack was cool, you should see what performance artist, world traveller, spice collector, and ice cream maker galore Katiushka Melo has been able to do with a permanent brick-and-mortar. Opened in early July, Culture Cream’s new home on Warren Street is a sherbet-hued, endless-summer, tropical temple of ice cream with Midcentury stylings that will have you catching “Mad Men” feels. Exotic flavor pairings abound like the Capmari turmeric kombucha sorbet, the miso ice cream with honey-roasted strawberries, or the mango merquen (smoked chili) kefir ice cream. Even the tamer flavors have flare like the vanilla cardamom kefir ice cream. Order by the cup or cone, and don’t skimp on the second scoop.
