6 Hudson Valley Hotspots for Food and Fun in One Place

These six destinations offer something to eat and something to do, all in the same space—perfect for our multi-tasking times.

Hair Saloon & Café

Scarsdale

When Danielle Settembre worked at Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa, the number one question she got was: What can I eat while also being pampered? So, when this beauty veteran decided to open her own business, both food and spa services were front and center.

As for the beer, expect constantly rotating brews on tap, many of which lean local. There’s also cider and wine.

Her full-service spot, where you can get a haircut, color, a facial, makeup application, skin enhancement, waxing, sugaring, lash lifts and tints, and conditioning treatments, is part hair salon, part spa, and part bar.

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The inviting space, with six bar seats, two loveseats, and a couple of tables, has a full liquor license with cocktails like the Honey, I’m (Not Coming) Home, made with Tito’s, fresh lemon, and a splash of honey, along with wine, beer, Scotch, and Sambuca.

Take your self-care day to the next level with a beauty service and a drink at Hair Saloon. Courtesy of Hair Saloon.
Take your self-care day to the next level with a beauty service and a drink at Hair Saloon. Courtesy of Hair Saloon.

Food, supplied by a local vendor, runs the gamut from wraps to paninis, salads, and small bites. To add to the girly vibe, the space is available for private parties.

The Spotty Dog Books & Ale

Hudson

Books and beer? That’s the theme at this oozing-with-charm bookstore located in a decommissioned firehouse.

Spotty Dog
By FX Schram Photography.

This historic space, where the utmost care was put into preserving its architectural elements (think: period-appropriate doors, chandeliers, and a bar surface made from a reclaimed bowling alley), features more than 10,000 books.

Now a buzzing bookstore and bar, The Spotty Dog retains design notes from its firehouse days.
Now a buzzing bookstore and bar, The Spotty Dog retains design notes from its firehouse days. By FX Schram Photography.

Husband-and-wife Alan Coon and Kelley Drahushuk opened its doors in 2005 and named it for the spotted dogs associated with firehouses and because it sounded like a proper British pub. At the time, the two were operating an art supply store so that’s how their back room, stocked with pastels, oil paints, canvases, and sketchbooks, came to be, making this technically a three-in-one destination (four, if you consider the film screenings, book readings, and musical performances they host).

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Gunks Gaming Guild & Café

New Paltz

Rob Gamble and Amanda McDonald came up with the idea for their game-oriented café during the pandemic when lockdown meant days filled with board games. Curbing screen time made their family closer, which is how the idea turned into a business. With McDonald being a coffee roaster, that also meant drinks.

“I think the best thing about coffee is how it connects people,” she says. “In our heads, board games and coffee go hand in hand.”

Gunks Gaming Guild, which opened in 2022, boasts coffee sourced from all over the world. They also roast their own and are planning a coffee subscription service. Brunch is served on weekends, and there’s also tea, a rotating beer list, hard cider, and an occasional mixed drink.

But it’s the games—Monopoly, Terraforming Mars, Scythe, Root—that are the star of the show, as well as events, which rotate every Friday and could be paint and sip, Karaoke, or Bookish Banter, a reading party in which guests bring their own book, read at their own pace, and chat about everything in between.

oHHo the Old Firehouse

Bedford

Picture this: Pizza, wine, and coffee, plus flowers, sofas, tables, pillows, and wellness items (CBD oil, anyone?), all under one roof. That’s the repertoire of this fullconcept shop which opened last July in the old Bedford volunteer firehouse. Garage doors lead to a breezy front patio filled with tables, chairs, and heaters to keep that hygge cozy vibe going. It’s also where Pizza Girls NY, an artisanal pizza company, is set up with their wood-burning oven.

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Food includes cheese boards, tin fish boards, pastries, pizza, salads, coffee, wine and beer, and ice cream.

Nicola and James Stephenson knew they wanted to stay true to the integrity of the building when their wellness company oHHo (which stands for the chemical compound of hemp) outgrew their prior space. The result is a stunning 60-seat destination that’s part upscale furniture store, part neighborhood coffee shop, part café, and part homeopathic gift shop—where everything is highly curated. Along with coffee table books, you’ll also find self-care lotions, oils, CBD gummies, and pantry items such as olive oil and marmalade.

Camp Kingston

Kingston

Remember those lazy, hazy summer days of camp? Of dips in the lake and scary stories by the campfire? Samuel Shapiro remembers every bit of it—his family owned Sullivan County’s Camp Sequoia for 75 years and he grew up among those memories. So, it makes sense that he wanted to recreate that nostalgic vibe when he opened his combination bar-café-market-communal mess hall, appropriately called Camp.

Camp Kingston
Courtesy of Camp Kingston

Open since November 2023, the community space, which he refers to as a “social gathering space/food and art collective,” features three distinct rooms designed with a focus on fun and activities ranging from arcade and vintage board games, a pool table and bar, plus several seating areas. Anything and everything goes when it comes to hosted events, like meet-up groups, holiday markets, and dance parties and drag shows.

A café by day, Camp transforms into a bar and community hotspot at night.
A café by day, Camp transforms into a bar and community hotspot at night. Courtesy of Camp Kingston.

Pair all that with chef-led breakfast burritos, sandwiches, and salads, plus coffee and tea drinks, beer, wine, and liquor, and what you have is best-summer-ever camp—kids and grownups alike.

The Vinyl Room

Beacon

Stepping into The Vinyl Room, aka TVR, feels a bit like you’ve time traveled back to the ‘70s. Not only is this a restaurant/bar with lots of loungey couches, traditional tables, and a cozy corner room cushioned in plush red velvet (and appropriately called The Velvet Room), but it’s also a record shop and arcade.

Add to that a certain level of kitsch, thanks to dinerlike booths, a life-size cutout of Michael Jackson by the DJ booth, and a variety of vintage signs, including one straight out of TV land that reads “On Air.”

Approximately 3,000 records are located behind the hostess stand spanning genres like jazz, classic rock, and some “weird obscure stuff” that owner John Kihlmire, an avid vinyl collector, has handpicked.

A host of small plates, like Korean nachos, pretzel bites, sandwiches, salads, and flatbreads, are set against a playful musical backdrop.

Records are also stacked on shelves behind the bar and, as you might expect, there’s a medley of song-titled drinks like Purple Rain and Sip Me Baby One More Time, which involves coffee-infused Campari, sparkling rosé, and grapefruit soda.

Related: What to Do in Brewster: How to Spend a Winter Day in Town

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