When Noah Michaels opened Dry Fly Coffee Co. four years ago, he thought of it as his “field of dreams.” He wanted to create the kind of place he wished New Paltz had and hoped that other people would want it too. They did. “The community has been really supportive,” says Michaels.
Dry Fly is serious about its coffee. Beans are chosen for their quality, bold flavors, and sustainable sourcing, with an emphasis on suppliers who return a larger-than-usual share of the purchase price to farmers. They are roasted weekly in the state-of-the-art, all-electric Bellwether Roaster, whose gleaming copper components catch the eye.
In 2025, Dry Fly’s Autumn Cronin took first place in the Best Barista category of Chronogram’s Readers’ Choice Awards.
A Serious Contender for New Paltz’s Best Food
Though you may have come for the coffee, don’t miss the food: toasts, bowls, beans and greens, jammy eggs. Describing Dry Fly’s menu, Michaels only half-jokingly refers to his beautifully composed dishes as slop bowls: food that is comfortable and nourishing, the kind of thing that could be eaten all week. “We try to make it healthy and interesting. I’m still cooking the same way that I was for my family when we were locked down. Whatever you were making, you knew you’d be eating it on repeat. I feel an obligation to make it interesting and healthy.”
The menu changes approximately seasonally. “In summer and fall we’re as local and seasonal and interesting as possible. We work with local farms when they’re growing really interesting things. I can now get local rice, ginger, turmeric, and other Southeast Asian ingredients. It’s exciting; 20 years ago no one would have been doing that. We try to get people excited about cultural shifts that are happening here. The sourcing has become a lot easier, especially for traditional Asian ingredients. [Nearby] Harana Market and Good Night bring a level of authenticity,” he says admiringly.
Dishes are inviting and familiar enough to make you think you could recreate them at home, but the layers of flavor, unusual ingredients, and preparations tell a different story. These are no slop bowls.
The menu, written on a chalkboard near the entrance, has about eight offerings, with vegan and gluten-free options always available.
The avocado toast, a staple, is artful, worthy of admiration before deconstruction. It arrives on a slice of lightly toasted Kingston Bread sourdough, 50 percent whole wheat, topped with half a finely sliced avocado, chili oil, and Meyer lemon puree, then finished with pickled onion and microgreens.
The autumn menu introduced the Scandinavian-influenced Trout Bowl. Michaels describes it as a Ploughman’s lunch. Plump smoked trout is accompanied by seedy buckwheat bread, a seven-minute egg, pickled onions and beets, a quenelle of cream cheese whipped with mustard caviar and chives, a swish of pureed goat horn peppers, and microgreens. Each item holds its own space, while together they create a palette of autumnal colors.
The yogurt bowl, always on the menu, is offered with whole-milk or vegan coconut yogurt. The gluten-free, house-made pistachio granola stands out for its surprise chunks of dark chocolate! Sweet, savory, crunchy, and creamy.
I always like to know what the chef prefers on his own menu. Michaels points to the Turkish eggs and hummus: “They’re really good, generally speaking.” The dish comes with two soft-boiled eggs, lemon-garlic yogurt, mixed herbs, chile, and za’atar butter, and a soft, steaming whole pita.
The same luscious pita accompanies the Spiced Mushroom & Hummus Bowl, a seasonal take on the beans and greens that is always on the menu. Spiced hen-of-the-woods mushrooms are drizzled with pomegranate molasses, scattered with mixed herbs, and finished with olive oil atop creamy hummus.
Dry Fly Did Not Start Out Making Food
Michaels, like many of the area’s chefs and restaurant owners, attended the Culinary Institute of America. His career took him to some of New York City’s most celebrated restaurants, including La Côte Basque, the now-shuttered French restaurant featured in Truman Capote’s unfinished novel Answered Prayers, and Jean-Georges. He also worked with Dan Barber’s catering operation at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
Despite his accomplishments as a chef, Michaels says, “I always struggled to make more of an impact than cooking for wealthy people.”
Seeing changes in consumer attitudes toward healthier food, Michaels continued his education with a master’s degree in food science. Seeking to affect change from the inside, he spent years trying to show large Consumer Packaged Goods companies what was happening in food and how to stay relevant with new consumers. His experience was that it went nowhere.
The Bakery Became a Restaurant
In the beginning, there were a lot of early mornings baking bread, but the model wasn’t sustainable from a time standpoint. Michaels also recalls, “I would be hurt by people coming in saying, ‘This is all you have?’ I’ve been here since 3:30 in the morning!”
“We pivoted about a year later to cook food. We make everything except the croissants and the bread. Eliminating bread baking saved 80 hours of labor each week.”
The open kitchen, intentionally designed to inspire good behavior in its denizens, is visible to the dining room and was built for baking. There is more oven space than any other cooking equipment, a design choice that informed Dry Fly’s inventive breakfast sandwich.
Michaels says, “We wanted to hit on all of the New York classic egg and cheese notes but a little more joyous with a wow factor.” Based on Japanese egg custard, eggs are mixed with milk, salt, pepper, chives, and butter, baked and then cut in squares.
Michaels says, “I love tamago and wanted it to be a little like that. It’s as custardy as we can get it without it squirting out of the bun when you bite into it.” Served on a sesame seed bun with an individual packet of sriracha, the sandwich’s textures, warmth, and surprise of Asian ingredients inspire what Michaels insists on for everything at Dry Fly: joy in each bite.
Sweet, Savory, and Second Chances
Dry Fly’s entrance leads to a glass pastry case filled with scones, sweet and savory. Savory fans will be happy to learn that the kimchi cheddar is making a comeback.
There are also three or four varieties of perfectly round, cake-like cookies. Their shape is another practical choice for the kitchen, allowing twice as many to bake at once. Cakes round out the selection, usually with a couple of gluten-free options, since cake texture lends itself particularly well to gluten-free baking.
And then there’s the twice-baked croissant, which reflects Michaels’ interest in making the most of ingredients, from soups made with stale bread to the broader tradition of poverty kitchen cooking: making something delicious from humble or leftover ingredients. “You get a shattery exterior, a rich and soft interior. These [croissants] might be better than they were fresh.” Orange blossom syrup and frangipane add to the pleasure.
Among the pastry, Michaels is most tempted by his sausage rolls when they first come out of the oven. “I’m usually here early in the morning and I’m looking for something substantial.”
What’s in Dry Fly’s future? The chef in Michaels would like to change the entire menu but the realist in him knows that it’s about building trust with his customers. “They come for the avocado toast, which eventually gets them to trust us with other things,” he says.
