“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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