Photos by Rebecca Fogg Studio
With a prime location on Warren Street, Thyme & Co. uses micro-seasonal flavors to craft dishes that make beautiful work of the Hudson Valley’s produce.
When’s the last time you stopped and savored your food?
We’re not talking a simple, “hey, this is good” moment. Instead, we’re thinking about a time when you actually sat down at a table (no standing at the counter!) and enjoyed each and every bite of your meal. As you relished one morsel after the next, perhaps you pondered where the ingredients originated or how the flavors harmonized as they sautéed. Perhaps you just ate, loving every minute of it.
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Drawing a blank? It wouldn’t be surprising, considering how rapid-fire the hours from breakfast to dinner are. Anything more than a quick scarfing down of a breakfast bar or a takeout container at dinner feels like a luxury amid the rush of errands, family, and the 9-to-5 grind.
That’s why Thyme & Co. prioritizes the little things. Led by Chef Carrie Fogg-Shaw, the Hudson café makes an effort to create relationships with farmers, compose menus that are just as healthful as they are delicious, and ensure that its space is open and inclusive for all.
“We strive to be a positive force within our community and believe in working with as many small farmers and producers as we can,” says Rebecca Fogg, Thyme & Co. co-owner and Fogg-Shaw’s wife.
Together, the pair opened the Warren Street eatery in December 2018 after falling in love with the Hudson Valley’s farm-to-table movement and relocating out of New York City. Fogg-Shaw, a longtime chef, got her first true taste of the region’s locally rooted cuisine at Blue Hill at Stone Barns when she completed an externship there in 2012. Although she spent a number of years working for catering companies and restaurants in New York City, she struggled to accept the rigid classicality of their kitchen structures. When forced to do something the way it had to be, she felt a severe lack of the creativity that had drawn her to cooking in the first place.
“Carrie wanted to create a concept that could honor the positive aspects of the classic kitchen while trying to improve on the negative areas that have been far too widely accepted for far too long (i.e. sexual harassment, verbal abuse, overworking, etc.),” Fogg explains. “She wanted to create a concept that would place importance on collaboration and, instead of forcing her style on everyone else, open the conversation to see what her team could collectively come up with.”
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With this mindset at the forefront, Fogg-Shaw partnered with her wife, a marketing and design specialist with eight years of experience in the jewelry industry, to bring Thyme & Co. to life. Since debuting in Columbia County, the eatery has carved a niche for itself as a true community destination in the Hudson Valley. Upon stepping across the threshold, visitors feel as if they’ve stopped by a friend’s house, one in which the food is just as approachable as the atmosphere.
Fogg-Shaw specializes in giving staples like meatball sammies and B.E.C. handhelds a farm-fresh twist with hyperlocal ingredients and thoughtful preparation. She sources through Hudson Valley-based Farms2Tables and cites Common Hands, Letterbox, and Fat Apple Farm as a few favorite producers in the region. By tapping into the seasonal variety, she creates an ever-changing menu of breakfast bites, sandwiches, salads, and wraps that work just as well for a quick meal as they do for a drawn-out luncheon with friends. Depending on the season, diners may dig into anything from roasted beet and blue cheese salad with fennel and orange vinaigrette to a mouth-watering meatball sandwich with Fat Apple Farm pork and garlic-braised greens.
“Our collective attitude and attention to detail on otherwise ‘simple’ dishes sets us apart,” Fogg observes. “When you come into Thyme & Co., you’re coming into our very small, strange, exciting, and fun world where we’re always excited to welcome everyone.”
Since community is critical to the backbone of Thyme & Co., she and Fogg-Shaw plan to make even more of an inroad into the Hudson Valley food landscape in the new decade. On top of taking time to foster relationships with customers and fellow business owners in Hudson, the duo is also expanding Thyme & Co.’s catering program to craft more farm-to-table dining events in the region. After all, a memorable meal is all about the experience.
Thyme & Co.
437 Warren St, Hudson
518.828.4100
