Done 
.
If anyone’s looking for kangaroo, check out Brasserie 292 in Poughkeepsie.
https://www.valleytable.com/sites/default/files/B292%20Nov%20HV%20WEEK%20MENU.pdf
They also have foie gras as an appetizer. Truffles available on one of the appetizers for a $20 surcharge.
And my post on the HVRW thread leading people here is still there! 
1 Like
My daughter ate at Cafe of Love last night with a bunch of her friends. She said the meal was excellent (with one exception), and since there were 9 of them I think they tried most things on the menu. The only thing that wasn’t great was the quinoa risotto, which said she was more like a salad and not as large a portion as she expected. We’re going next week with her and I think she’s going to get the chicken instead.
How are the prices at Cafe of Love? We haven’t been for years as we thought they were overpriced - how is it now?a
The regular menu is very expensive. (although less than it used to be – top entree is $39 and I think it use to be over $40). But then again so is Valley. That’s why we eat there for HVRW.
I thought so. It’s kind of how I feel about Winston’s. The food was good until we got the check and said - not THAT good!
We went to Winston’s last HVRW. The appetizers were great and plentiful (a full burrata with salad for me, a crab cake and spring roll for my wife). Entrees were small, which I had been warned about online, and desserts weren’t very big, either. For $30, it was a decent deal but it didn’t make me want to go back.
Hi - saw your post on the OTHER site about Valley and you mention James. Is that James who was at 121 (two times, actually) and Granite Springs Inn for a bit then went to Tavern? We have been looking for him since he left 121.
Yes, the same James! I did not know that he had been at 121 until he told me last week. Tavern (now closed) and Valley were owned by the same people (as are the golf courses). Tavern was their winter restaurant. Now Valley is open all year.
1 Like
I cancelled Kittle house and went instead with some friends for lunch at Inn at Pound Ridge, which I’ve been wanting to try for a while.
It took over 30 minutes to get there from Ossining. It’s a very unassuming building that we drove by accidentally the first time. The inside is gorgeously redone, and they kept many of the building’s charming original features while updating.
Service was rushed but fine, not particularly warm.
The menu is curious. There’s not much of the Asian influence we saw on the menu on Jean-georges’ eponymous restaurant in Manhattan. It’s definitely more American sort of comfort food. The RW menu wasn’t thrilling or very adventurous but we enjoyed the meal nonetheless. We agreed it was the healthiest restaurant meal we’ve had in a while… Which may be a selling point to some and not others.
The salad was beautifully composed with lettuce, apple, delicata squash, pumpkin seeds, fennel, and a yogurt dressing. Very in-season and fresh. We split a non-RW appetizer as well, probably the best part of the meal-- a housemade spaghetti with a creative pistachio pesto and Brussels sprouts. For our entrees we all got chicken which was very, very basic but nicely done, I thought. I liked the foamy mustard sauce but my friends thought it was boring. The chicken was moist and tender and it came with a melange of seasonal vegetables. This was not anything out of the ordinary but for $20.95 I really can’t complain. Dessert was a petite almond cake with caramel sauce and poached pear that was again nothing mind blowing but I really enjoyed it. My friend’s molten chocolate cake was also fairly ordinary but well done. We all had housemade sodas with our meals which were refreshing.
I would go back for lunch to see how the non-RW offerings are as these choices were pretty pedestrian and safe which is different from my experience at Jean-georges in the city. I guess he could be going with a safer, less adventurous menu given the area and clientele. I’m glad we tried it.
YAY! We first met James at Lexington Square Cafe. Then he was the best waiter I have ever had and he was at 121. Became the manager, left to open Granite Springs, which did not do well. Not sure what happened in between but he was back at 121 then suddenly left and ended up at tavern. Is he there every weekend? May go next week! Thanks so much!
Going a week from Saturday. James won’t be there this week. I’ll report back.
My husband and I had a fantastic impromptu RW meal Saturday night at the Cookery. I made a late reservation about an hour in advance. I love that their entire menu is the RW menu. There are so many options to choose from!
My first cocktail, one of their seasonal specialties, was so weak I suspect there was no alcohol in it. Gin and tonic with well liquor was only $9 and much more potent. Decent beer list as usual. The place was packed and noisy and playing fun eclectic music. It’s just a fun atmosphere.
As for the food, we had some old favorites, like the pig donut for my husband, which is a great combination of sweet and savory, and the stickabutta pie. We had some new-to-us dishes like the poached egg in polenta with unnecessarily copious amounts of fried chicken skin on top, the creative and delicious “deli wellington” which was there version of beef wellington but with pastrami and corned beef encased in the puff pastry instead of the typical filling, and their grilled sirloin market steak. The sirloin, though of course not the most tender cut, was a generous size and cooked exactly to medium rare as requested and very flavorful. With their crispy potatoes and some greens on the side, quite a good value I thought. Also new to us was the PB pot de creme with toasted marshmallow topping and gratuitous Fruity Pebbles. (They love their Fruity Pebbles there!)
This restaurant is full of personality and so unabashedly creative it is hard not to love it. As much as I love Fortina there is something more raw and less polished about the Cookery that makes it even more appealing to me. I would definitely go back for RW and will try to make it my business to get down to Dobbs more frequently in general for this gem.
I too love Fortina but I really want to get to the Cookery. It’s just that every time we think about driving down to Dobbs Ferry we think again. Oy, too old! I hear the Cookery is as loud as Fortina!! But I really need to try that pig donut!!
1 Like
How do you quote a person’s post to respond directly to them?
Yes, the cookery is loud. If that’s not your thing, I suggest going for an early dinner. Weeknights are better too. Saturday night at 8:45 it was pretty raucous and just got louder. Everyone else’s cocktails must’ve been stronger than mine. 
Highlight the text you want to quote and you will see it says “quote reply” or something like that right above the highlighted text. Click on that and the quote will be there for you to reply with
[quote=“ieatalotoficecream, post:54, topic:6729”]
es, the cookery is loud. If that’s not your thing, I suggest going for an early dinner. Weeknights are better too. Saturday night at 8:45 it was pretty raucous and just got louder.[/quote]
We were there earlier and it was still pretty loud. As I think I said, I hadn’t really noticed it earlier, but we’d never been there on Saturday night before but had read about it in several Opentable reviews. We were also sitting in the row of tables next to the bar, and near a speaker, which made it even worse. We’d only been there on Sundays or weekdays previously and it was much better than.
1 Like
Maybe that will be my plan!
1 Like
