Guest blogger Ted Mann here again.
Earlier this week, I made my first trek up to West Point. I’d long heard about how the U.S. Military Academy has one of the most stunning swaths of the Hudson riverfront, and the grounds are some of the most beautiful of any college in the country. What I didn’t know: Getting past Thayer Gate, in this post-9/11 world, can be a major pain in the butt. Aside from taking one of the official tours, there aren’t too many excuses the guards will accept. Fortunately, having a meal at the Thayer Hotel is one of them.
I came to try their Restaurant Week Lunch Menu, a $16.09 deal (anyone have a clue why they chose 1609 for the price?). There were about 30 or 40 other diners—hardly capacity for the restaurant, but still a decent showing for a mid-week lunch. The Thayer also offers a marginally more expensive lunch buffet ($18), but the offerings on the special menu still sounded better to me.
For an appetizer, I skipped the shrimp cocktail and smoked salmon, and instead when with the soup of the day: broccoli cheddar. Thick without being overly heavy, it helped warm me up from a long, cold day of exploring Highland Falls. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture.)
For my entree, I went with the sliced-steak sandwich (half-eaten, to the left), at the suggestion of my waitress. What came out of the kitchen, though, was a nice cut of meat on two slices of white bread. For a second, I wasn’t sure if this was some kind of joke. Though the steak was delicious, the bread quickly became a soggy mess and I dispensed with it altogether. The slightly undercooked side of wild rice and accompanying helping of puny asparagus didn’t help the dish much. In retrospect, the two other options—roasted salmon with chive butter and chicken rosemary—probably would have been better picks.
Instead of following my waitress’s advice again, and ordering the strawberry shortcake, I instead went with the house specialty Thayer layer cake. An ultra-rich confection, with layer upon layer of chocolate frosting, I loved every bite—even if I could only manage about three mouthfuls.
While the meal was hardly a homerun, the setting exceeded my expectations. Perched above the Hudson, with spectacular views, I’ll certainly be back when the weather warms, the outdoor patio opens up, and, hopefully, the soggy white bread is phased out.
The Thayer Hotel
674 Thayer Road, West Point
845-446-4731
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Dinner on Sunday was at Relish in Sparkill (Rockland County, not far from the Jersey border). It’s an interesting looking place, very casual and somewhat funky. We entered and were warmly greeted by the owner (Michael), who offered us our choice of tables (a welcome change from Equus, where we were relegated to an unpleasant table in the corner). Service was very friendly, yet professional. We were given menus and I was immediately disappointed to find that the cinnamon dusted duck breast was missing. I asked Michael about this and he said “oh, didn’t I tell you about that when we spoke†(he had called to confirm earlier in the day). It turns out they had run out on Saturday night and wouldn’t have it again until Wednesday night and had been warning people about this. This was a real disappointment for us (especially my son), but fortunately there were other interesting things to order from the menu. We were served sliced olive bread with some excellent olive oil while waiting for our food to arrive. In a nice touch, our server asked if we ate pork before bringing over the amuse, which was going to be something with pork belly. I had previously asked Michael what the appetizer delivered to a neighboring table was, and he told me it was the mozzarella with prosciutto, and I mentioned that we did not eat that. As a result, he alerted the server to check with us before bringing the pork amuse over to us, and we were given a vegetarian version instead. It was a gelee with fennel and some other stuff. It was interesting; not quite my cup of tea but better (for us) than pork belly.
On to the food! To start, my wife had the beet and goat cheese salad and my son and I both ordered the “Fish in Chipsâ€. The beet salad was excellent, there were pistachios mixed in with the diced beets. The fish was less thrilling. The portion was 3 breaded pieces that looked like Mrs. Paul’s. Inside, it was a potato-fish mixture and I didn’t really taste much fish. The best part was a spicy dip that accompanied it. It reminded me of cod cakes they serve at the Portuguese restaurant in Ossining. In retrospect, we should have ordered just one of the fish and also gotten the special soup, which was cream of roasted mushroom, but the fish sounded better than it turned out. For entrees, since there was no duck to order my wife got the flatiron steak, my son had the short ribs and I had tilefish, which was a new addition to the HVRW menu, replacing the aforementioned duck. The steak came with a combination of roasted potatoes and shitake mushrooms, and the sauce was a kim chee puree (nice and spicy!). My wife thoroughly enjoyed it. My son’s short ribs came with mashed potatoes and halved brussel sprouts and was topped with a cornmeal crusted onion ring (based on the number of these I saw being delivered to tables it appeared to be the most popular item). While my son really wanted the duck, he enjoyed this. My tilefish was sitting on a bed of sliced bok choy and soba noodles and was served with a soy ginger sauce. It was wonderful. The fish was sweet, moist and flaky, and reminded me of black cod. The sauce was so good that one of the servers saw me struggling with the extra sauce at the end and offered to bring me a spoon; the owner brought over more bread to soak it up.
For dessert, we each decided to try different desserts, so we ordered the chocolate cake, crème brulee and goat cheese panna cotta. They were all amazing. The chocolate cake was served warm with pretzel ice cream. The panna cotta was topped with dried cranberries and walnuts. It had an interesting flavor to it (I guess it was the goat cheese); it was a denser than the version I had at John Michael’s (but not nearly as heavy as the version at Equus) but was quite good. The crème brulee, allegedly chamomile flavored (replacing the Earl Grey version they had last week) was really amazing. I consider myself a crème brulee snob, having been spoiled by Peter Kelly’s amazing preparation, and as a result, I do not order it unless I am sure it’s going to be a worthy contender. This one was. While I did not taste the chamomile (well, maybe once, slightly), it did have a wonderful vanilla flavor and was light and creamy, and the burnt sugar topping was perfect.
The nice thing about the HVRW menu at Relish is that it is representative of their regular menu (unlike places like Equus where they serve you unexciting food that is nothing like their regular menu). They certainly had the widest choice of appetizers and entrees of any menu I seen on the HVRW website. And when you leave here, you can honestly say that you enjoyed the meal because of the food and not just because of the low price (as we did at Equus,). With the exception of my appetizer, we’d be happy eating this food on a return visit.
Added bonus: on your way to or from dinner, drive down Route 303 into Northvale, NJ and you can get gas for much less than in New York ($3.09 on Sunday night). It’s only 5 minutes or so from the restaurant, but you’ll want to have directions or better yet, a GPS to find your way there, since it’s not obvious.
PS to Liz: Michael said you were there Friday night and took lots of pictures. Where’s your review?
Next stops: Stoneleigh Creek for dinner on Wednesday, then Tavern for lunch on Thursday and Valley for dinner on Friday.
went to jackson and wheeler last nite because it was open on mondays. if you like nothing else about the place you will like the guys who run it. so personable and friendly. but there is a lot more to like. their tasting menu did not have a lot of choice but it all came from their regular menu which was super. paul, our guy, told me he made the best cosmo and it was delicious – and huge. same with my husband’s martini. i thought i would have to call a limo. they also were the only place we have gone to that had a vegetarian choice on the restaurant week menu which i thought was really smart. my husband had the short ribs – i guess it’s the season because he had them at another place the other nite. they came with a home made slaw that my husband thought was terrific. unfortunately they had a salmon with risotto on the regular menu and since i can’t resist either, i strayed. cucumber risotto – who woulda thought. both the salmon and risotto were perfectly cooked. we had a lovely time. looking back on the fare, the really good drinks, the generous pour of the wine it occurs to me that this is a great place for guys to try. they also have brunch which might be fun. not as pricy as some of the other places we tried doesn’t hurt in this economy either. we will go back.
I believe they used 1609 to celebrate the year that Henry Hudson sailed up the (now) Hudson River and “opened it for business”.