“Over my dead body.”
That’s Judy Grunberg’s standard response to the many people who’ve offered large sums of money for her beloved Blue Plate, the Chatham, New York, restaurant she didn’t intend to buy in the first place. But in 1996, when the former owners put it up for sale, she, her friends, and fellow townspeople went into a funk. “We were all so disappointed and downtrodden,” Grunberg recounts. “I never wanted to have a restaurant. I just couldn’t stand the idea of losing the place.”
The Blue Plate Restaurant, on the pointed “ship’s prow” corner of Kinderhook Street, is one of those rarities that possess a definitive but indescribable essence—what’s known in Latin as genius loci, or “spirit of place.” The building was originally an old-fashioned meat market, then an upscale inn and restaurant that closed soon after it opened. “It wasn’t very friendly to the natives,” Grunberg recalls, noting that when John and Julia Gregory purchased the restaurant in the 1990s, they turned it into the casual, comfortable bistro it is today. “It was such an important meeting place,” says Grunberg. “It was the kind of place you could go to by yourself, on a date, or with a group, and feel at home. My intention wasn’t to change it; it was to preserve it and build upon it.”
The problem was that Grunberg, though an avid home chef, had no experience in the restaurant industry. A painter and textiles artist who moved from Manhattan to Chatham with her late husband and her three sons four decades ago, she found the learning curve a bit steep. First came a yearlong period of retooling, then a short-lived, mismatched partnership with a chef that the no-bull Grunberg characterizes as a “complete disaster.” She closed the Blue Plate briefly, then reopened as sole proprietor in 1997, with a new chef and much of the Gregorys’ original staff.
Although she always insisted on high-quality food, she quickly understood that it wasn’t the only consideration. “The food is important, but it’s only half of why a restaurant is successful,” she reports. “I pay a lot of attention to other things—the lighting, the feeling of the room, a welcoming atmosphere. The staff is wonderful at recognizing all the different customers. I remember my boys and me at home, sitting on my big bed together, watching ‘Cheers’ on TV. They got very tired of me telling them to listen to the lyrics to the theme song. That’s exactly where you want to go—where people know you and treat you like family—even if you have to sacrifice some other elements, like the perfect garnish on a dish.”
The original concept—eclectic “American bistro” food—has been retained, though the menu has expanded over the years, particularly under chef Leo Castellanos, who has been the bedrock of the Blue Plate for the past six years. “He’s great—really easygoing, and very creative and intuitive,” Grunberg says. She often has an idea for a dish, perhaps something remembered from her childhood or a meal she ate during her travels, and brings it to Castellanos for experimentation. Sometimes the dish makes it onto the menu; other times, Grunberg admits, it’s a recipe better left to memory.
Local and organic foods are hot topics these days, but the Blue Plate has ridden that bandwagon since its inception. Castellanos has crafted a menu focused on the rich bounty of Hudson Valley produce and meats, and has led the charge catering to the needs of vegetarians in the community. Along with the fried calamari, rack of lamb, and pappardelle Bolognese are substantial meatless choices like greens and cheese fresh ravioli with sage-infused brown butter sauce, soba noodles with stir-fried vegetables, imam bayildi (a classic Turkish dish of eggplant, bulgur, tomatoes, garlic, currants, and spices said to “make the sultan swoon”), and four different salads (the roast beet, orange, and fennel is superior). And of course, there’s the one dish that if removed would incite a riot: the Blue Plate meat loaf, a rich and spicy take on the classic, topped with bacon and served with garlic mashed potatoes and gravy.
The dessert menu, courtesy of multitasker Colleen Carpenter (who, depending on the time of day, can be found donning the hat of pastry chef, hostess, or server), is filled with sweet comfort foods: berry crisp, cheesecake, flourless chocolate torte, crème brûlée, hot fudge sundae, fruit sorbet, and biscotti, all for $5 or less.
The Blue Plate strives to offer fresh, local foods at reasonable prices. Grunberg initially resisted pricing entrees over $20, but with escalating fuel costs for food transportation (yet another reason to eat local, she can’t resist pointing out), this has become impossible. Still, only three of the seven main dishes cross that boundary, and Grunberg sometimes relegates the more expensive recipes to the specials menu to control costs while giving customers a taste of something unique.
“You don’t want to price anybody out,” Grunberg comments. “You can definitely get a good, nutritious meal here for under $20. You get to sit down and have a wonderful ambience, and you don’t have to spend $50. … But you can if you want,” she laughs.
The by-the-glass wine list is rather abbreviated, but for bottles diners can choose from four sparkling, 10 white, or 12 red wines, the majority lower-acidity, food-friendly varieties from California and Italy. For non-wine drinkers, 14 beers and ales are ripe for the picking, and vary from the familiar (Amstel Light) to the funky (Sam Smith’s Taddy Porter).
One of the main reasons customers—both regular Joes and Janes and the slightly better-known likes of Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, and Al Roker—have been flocking to the Blue Plate is the sense of welcome provided by the mostly young and uniformly J. Crew catalog-pretty staff. In an industry where turnover moves notoriously fast, Grunberg acknowledges the “great gift” she has in manager Marcia Curran and her other employees who have stuck around for three, four, and more years. “They’re so close, they’re like a big family. The Blue Plate is like a home for them,” she relates. “Sometimes one of them will go through a difficult time, but the others really rally around in support.”
Case in point: A few years back, when the bartender’s brother developed a serious illness, her coworkers put together a benefit dinner to raise money to help defray some of his medical costs. “It was a huge event, and an amazing success,” says Grunberg. “The staff ran the benefit for two years in a row. It was so successful and they raised so much money that he was able to get the treatment he needed.” Once bitten by the community-service bug, the staff opted to continue the benefits, choosing the Columbia-Greene Humane Society as the subsequent recipient. The Blue Plate also hosts regular brunches and receptions for local nonprofits.
Grunberg credits her staffers for their above-and-beyond efforts and their daily work. She herself is the ultimate role model, having long served on boards or otherwise supported a long list of Hudson Valley and Capital District organizations, including Close Encounters with Music, Time & Space Limited, the Columbia Land Conservancy, the Chatham Real Food Market Co-Op, and WAMC Northeast Public Radio. In the village of Chatham, she not only owns the Blue Plate, but also founded PS/21 (Performance Spaces for the 21st Century), a new live performance venue, and initiated Re-Wraps, a consignment clothing store, the proceeds of which benefit PS/21.
Is it any wonder that Grunberg takes the greatest pleasure in sharing food, the world’s primary social conductor? “The most satisfying thing is just going in there and feeling that we’re making people happy, even just for a couple of hours a day. Watching people enjoy themselves together—what could be better?”
Shortly after opening the restaurant, Grunberg thought it would be nice to put a piano in the downstairs dining room, then recruited renowned jazz pianist Lincoln Mayorga and bassist Otto Gardner to play. She later branched out, inviting an intriguing selection of mostly acoustic folk, bluegrass, and jazz performers. The live music has been a Wednesday-night Blue Plate tradition for years, but still, says Grunberg, remains the best-kept secret in the area. The room may be too small to allow for louder forms of music, but on some slower winter Wednesdays customers have been known to slide back the tables and use the space as a dance floor.
Grunberg, who has taken a spin or two, has an infectious energy that belies her senior status. But with each birthday, she’s been ruminating on the future of the restaurant. “I’m trying to find a way to have the Blue Plate live on in perpetuity. I mean, I could be run over by a tractor tomorrow,” she offers. “This is Chatham, after all. We want to keep our tractors.”
If she seems preoccupied by what might happen, shall we say, over her dead body, it’s only because she loves the restaurant like she would a child, and wants it to endure. “I’m trying to work out all the legal details,” she allows. “It’s complicated. I know there will be changes, but I don’t care. Changes happen because people are different. I still think it would be interesting to see how long it could go into the future.”
The Blue Plate Restaurant is located at 1 Kinderhook Street in Chatham, New York. Dinner is served Tuesday through Thursday from 5-9:30pm, Friday and Saturday from 5:30-10pm, and Sunday from 5-9pm. (518) 392-7711; www.chathamblueplate.net.
This article appears in September 2007.
