Photo by Whitewater Imagery
Heritage Food & Drink
Wappingers Falls
Opened: August 2017
$15 to $31 entrées​
By design, a restaurant that seats 250 guests must have some kind of mass appeal. Too often this manifests in establishments with generic menus full of uninspired food; occasionally, though, you’ll find a restaurant like Heritage Food + Drink that offers a fluid menu for a number of price points and palates.
With a formal dining room, lounge area, bar, private event space for up to 100 people, and outdoor seating, Heritage seeks to be everything at once while shedding labels of anything it’s not. Heritage is equally appropriate for a corporate gathering or for happy hour, the latter of which features select appetizers like black pepper mussels, $1 oysters, and smoked chicken wings at a discounted price. But you can and should order other killer apps to complement the slew of specialty cocktails, wines, local craft beers, and hard ciders — including a custom-brewed “Heritage” cider — from the bar.
Photo by Whitewater Imagery
Since opening his restaurant, owner Jesse Camac has emphasized its versatility. One of the staples of the Heritage kitchen is an Argentine-style, wood-fired grill capable of being lowered to rest on hot coals or raised to cook over open flames. This gives co-Executive Chefs Frank Camey and Max Renny a range of tactics for cooking items like the sweet-and-sour pork chop, fire-roasted half chicken, and strip steak. Camey, a Wappingers Falls native and Mill House Brewing Company alumnus, and Renny, a veteran of New York’s restaurant scene, work together to blend big city flavors with hometown comfort.
Bold, stylish, and dynamic, this Route 9 addition has something for everyone. Photo by Whitewater Imagery.
​Camac’s background at Fatty Crab and Fatty ’Cue in New York City shaped him into a decisive restaurateur. But it also laid the groundwork for his new endeavor. “I loved what we did at Fatty Crab,” says Camac, “but it was so specific: Southeast Asian food. It was very spicy, very acidic. I always wanted to open up a bigger place… to give good food to more people.”
With Heritage, he succeeds.