Few people have single handedly done as much to shape the Hudson Valley’s culinary scene as chef Zak Pelaccio. His career took off when he opened The Chickenbone Cafe in Williamsburg in 2002, becoming an early pioneer of the whole-animal culinary movement. A few years later, his Fatty Crab & Fatty ‘Cue chain of restaurants popularized bright, intense Malaysian flavors.
After moving upstate, he opened Fish & Game in 2014, which would go on to earn him a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northeast in 2016. At the restaurant, Pelaccio paired natural wines with hyperlocally sourced and meticulously crafted, fire-cooked fare. That same year, he launched the Peripheral Wine Festival, giving low-intervention wine a proper foothold in the Hudson Valley. (The festival returns to Hudson on October 28.)
In 2020, Pelaccio closed Fish & Game due to the pandemic, and ultimately moved west to Taos, New Mexico, though he has maintained a connection with the Hudson Valley, consulting on menus for spots throughout the area, including for Kingston-based Restaurant Kinsley and its sister spot Lola Pizza.
Last week, Pelaccio returned to the region for a dinner launching the new fall menu for the Kinsley. The menu includes nine new dishes and signals a shift toward the more adventurous. Mexican favorite Mole Negro makes an appearance, served with locally grown rice, celery, raisins, and pepitas.
While organic chicken has been a mainstay on Restaurant Kinsley’s, this season it is served roasted with creamy polenta and a cremini, shiitake, and oyster mushroom cream sauce to warm your bones in the crisp weather($33). If that sauce sounds to-die-for but you’re a vegetarian, opt for the gnocchi a la Romana, which includes a mushroom-based, non-meat take on ragout ($28). The charred, slow-cooked brisket is sure to be a fall favorite, served with salsa verde, black pepper, and potato fundido ($35). If surf is the order of the day, try the market price lobster roll—hot or cold—or for something more elaborate, the grilled hake, served in an herbed and spiced seafood nage (broth) with clams, squid, charred scallions ($35).
On the dessert front, churros are sure to be a fan favorite—made in house, rolled in cinnamon sugar, and served with a dark chocolate ganache ($14), it’s hard to go wrong. For a tasty execution of a season’s iconic flavors, the apple tarte tatin is served with local ice cream and drizzled in caramel.
Restaurant Kinsley is open for dinner Sunday through Thursday, 5-9pm, and Friday and Saturday, 5-10pm, as well as for lunch and weekend brunch.
