Photo courtesy of Café Mutton
The New York Times and Bon Appétit are both raving about one particular restaurant in the Hudson Valley. Can you guess which it is?
Admit it, foodies of the Hudson Valley: you’re spoiled. No matter what kind of cooking you’re looking for, you needn’t leave the Valley to find it—from Albany to Westchester, our region boasts some of the most impressive cuisine in the country. We even have the Culinary Institute of America in the heart of our region, with many graduates settling (and then, serving up deliciousness) in the area.
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The New York Times just released its list of the 50 best restaurants in America, and unsurprisingly, one Hudson Valley establishment made the cut. Can you guess which restaurant was included on the list?
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It’s Hudson’s very own Café Mutton!
In her write-up, Times writer Nikita Richardson highlights chef and owner Shaina Loew-Banayan’s commitment to the craft. “If there’s anything upscale about this restaurant,” Richardson asserts, “it’s the careful attention paid to turning otherwise pedestrian items like fried bologna sandwiches, crepes, and rice porridge into the very best versions of themselves.”
The popular Columbia County eatery also received a nod from the food publication Bon Appétit. Well, more than a nod—its food editor, Elazar Sontag, dubs it one of the 10 best new restaurants in the nation. In his review, Sontag describes Café Mutton as “an anti-trend rebuttal to social media–driven cooking” and “a home for indulgent, ferociously local meat-heavy cooking.” The overarching culinary theme at Café Mutton is celebration of the underdog, and Loew-Banayan allows oft-overlooked ingredients to play a leading role in the restaurant’s dishes.
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But you already know that if you’re a reader of our sister publication, Valley Table, in which a feature on the restaurant appeared this past March. In using those “underappreciated” ingredients, “we’re making our food system whole,” says Loew-Banayan within. That means less food waste, achieved deliciously. Café Mutton proves that the “lesser-known cuts” that comprise its menu can give your filet mignon a run for its money.
Related: 5 Hudson Valley Chefs Are 2022 James Beard Award Semifinalists
