Road trip: Farm-to-table in the Berkshires
Some of New York City's great chefs are opening up shop two hours north in the Berkshires.
“It wasn’t so long ago” that ambitious New York chefs looking to launch a world-class restaurant considered even Brooklyn too remote a locale, said Julia Moskin in The New York Times. Today, some of city’s great talents are opening up shop two hours north in the Berkshires. The move makes sense: Luxury rural dining has a long history in Italy and France. Besides, the farm-to-table cooking that today’s urbanites crave is easier to practice in a vacationland like this, where every chef’s kitchen is surrounded by farmland.
Fish and Game Small-plates pioneer Zak Pelaccio recently departed New York City to launch this venture in the upper Hudson Valley. The interior is “a fever dream of luxury and rural kitsch,” a welcoming space where the $68 set menu might include whole duck roasted in an open fireplace. 13 S. 3rd St., Hudson, N.Y., (518) 822-1500
Bell and Anchor Mark Firth co-founded Diner in 1999, when Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was just becoming a food destination. He and his family now live on an 82-acre farm, raising pigs and sheep that turn up on his new pub’s “superbly engineered menu.” 178 Main St., Great Barrington, Mass., (413) 528-5050
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The Heron Paul Nanni, who worked under Marcus Samuelsson at Aquavit, opened his Hudson Valley restaurant last fall. Though the staples-packed menu is “studiously nonthreatening,” Nanni buys only fresh-killed poultry for his fried chicken and makes his own buttermilk blend for dipping. 40 Main St., Narrowsburg, N.Y., (845) 252-3333
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