New Restaurant and Bar Openings in the Hudson Valley and Catskills (2024)

We’re officially wiping our memories of the weeks-long spouts of rain New York experienced over the past month. This sunshine is here and boy, did we need it. It also means we're daydreaming about little jaunts out of the city. Hudson Valley and the Catskills, just a short travel away, are brimming with new openings to keep an eye on, whether you’re coming up from the five boroughs or a local trying to branch out. This guide includes restaurants, bars, and bakeries that are on the way this season, as well as ones that opened not too long ago. Now's your chance to start pestering that one friend with a car for plans.

Matilda

Matilda

Opening: Memorial Day weekend

Address: 39 Goshen Road, Hensonville, New York

Matilda — the restaurant from the Wildair team inside the new Henson hotel — has opened its reservations starting Memorial Day weekend. Jonas Offenbach leads the kitchen. He has worked with Fabian Von Hauske Valtierra and Jeremiah Stone for some time, most recently building out the menu at Day June, a luncheonette with stellar breakfast burritos and cheddar chipotle pancakes in Windham, New York. It’s part of a trio of projects in the area for Stone and Von Hauske Valtierra, including Paracasa, a neighboring pantry shop. This is their full-service upstate dinner spot that’s sure to attract potential “best new restaurant” scouts.

Nansense

Opening: Summer 2024

Address: 2 Eliza Street, Beacon, New York

Nansense began serving food out of a converted mail truck in Chelsea, eventually winning a Vendy Award, a review in the New York Times, and becoming a fixture at the Queens Night Market in the process. Now, Mohibullah Rahmati, who goes by Mo, is opening up an Afghan restaurant in Beacon, New York — a town known for its easy access to the Metro North, and the Dia Beacon Museum.

Alex Staniloff/Eater

Bar Piscina

Opening: Memorial Day weekend

Address: 800 Co Road 23B, Leeds, New York

Casa Susanna, a modern Mexican Hudson Valley restaurant stationed inside of Camptown, a hotel in Leeds, New York, was named a Best New Restaurant for 2023 by Esquire, in a kitchen led by chef Efrén Hernández, an alum of the former Babs in the West Village. On May 31, the team will open Bar Piscina for the season, located in a gazebo at the Camptown property, serving fluke ceviche, aguachile, and several tlayudas, alongside frozen margaritas and paletas in flavors like blueberry-cardamom, per a spokesperson.

Pinkerton’s

Opening: Late summer 2024

Address: 8 Fair Street, Kingston, New York

James Beard Award-winning Pastry Chef Angela Pinkerton, an alum of Eleven Madison Park, closed her Bay Area bakery, Pie Society, last year. Now, she will open something new in Kingston: Pinkerton’s debuts this summer, building on the following she amassed for her pies (she will keep the Pie Society name and expand wholesale operations), adding danishes, cakes, cookies, and other “nostalgic American desserts,” to her menu according to a press release. There will be gluten-free and vegan options available, as well as lunch and breakfast. In Pinkerton’s announcement that she had purchased the Kingston Art Deco building, she included that it has lived many lives, as a gas station, bagel shop, and a previous bakery called the Cake Box, where the owner recently retired.

Circles

Opening: May 2024

Address: 502 Union Street, Hudson, New York

Circles began as a pop-up by chef Tepper B-T inside Hudson restaurant Lil’ Deb’s Oasis. Now, Circles will open as a standalone shop this season, with an expanded menu of sourdough bagels.

Moonburger

Moonburger

Opened: Spring 2024

Address: 2605 South Road, at Route 9 Mobil, Poughkeepsie, New York

Moonburger is a vegetarian burger spot that calls Alison Roman and Amiel Stanek, a Bon Appetit contributing editor, collaborators. Founded by owner Jeremy Robinson-Leon, it began as a drive-thru in Kingston, before expanding to New Paltz. As of this April, it added a location in Poughkeepsie attached to a Route 9 Mobil gas station, where cars lined up down the road during the opening. Moonburger has a slender menu — regular or cheeseburger (gluten-free buns are available), under $8, fries, and a couple of Oatly-based shakes. This month, a seasonal special includes strawberries blended with Belgian Lotus Biscoff cookies. In its branding, meatless is secondary — the owner says he just want to make a good, affordable fast-food burger. A Williamsburg outpost is on the way.

Vitsky Bakery

Opened: Last year; an expanded version will debut this summer 2024

Address: 3 Main Street, Wassaic, New York

Ariel Yotive, an alum of Grand Central’s now-closed Agern and the former head baker at James Beard-nominated restaurant Troutbeck upstate, opened a bakery last summer called Vitsky, inside Ten Mile Table, a market in Wassaic, New York. This summer, Yotive will take over the whole storefront, while the Ten Mile Table owner moves to open a wine shop. In the past, Vitsky Bakery’s pastries have included tahini chocolate muffins, everything-seasoned croissant knots, and danishes.

Winona Barton-Ballentine / Shelter Upstate

C. Cassis Tasting Room

Opened: Fall 2023

Address: 108 Salisbury Turnpike, Rhinebeck, New York

Rachael Petach founded C. Cassis, a black currant liqueur brand, produced in the same Rhinebeck, New York space, where, last fall, she unveiled a very charming tasting room. Here, she enlisted Katy Moore, an alum of Marlow & Sons and Gertie. A snacks menu, meant to pair with cassis, features salads, dips, and sandwiches (using bread by Mel the Bakery, another new area opening). There’s a retail area selling products like C. Cassis salted currant compote. It’s currently open Saturdays and Sundays from 12 to 7 p.m.

Josh Goleman/Eliza Bistro

Eliza Bistro

Opened: Fall 2023

Address: 582 Broadway, Kingston, New York

From the team that owns Ollie’s Slice Shop, a NY-style slice spot, and provisions store Fletcher & Lu, all on the same strip of Broadway in Kingston, comes Eliza Bistro. Chris Bradley, an alum of Gramercy Tavern, and a partner in Phoenicia Diner, leads a European-leaning menu that includes lamb tagliatelle, grilled octopus with fennel, and steelhead trout with white asparagus. The team just debuted their backyard patio for the first time.

The Meat Hook and Mel the Bakery

Opened: April 2024 and December 2023

Address: 322 Warren Street and 324 Warren Street, Hudson, New York

In a shared property on Hudson’s main strip of Warren Street, find a building that holds two major names: Nora Allen’s relocated Mel the Bakery, attached to the first upstate location of the Meat Hook, Brooklyn’s acclaimed butcher shop.

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