GASTRONORMOUS

On Saturday we drove down to Sleepy Hollow and Tarry Town, leaf-peeping along the way–the views were beautiful despite the rain. We stopped for lunch in Tarrytown at Lefteris Gyro, right on the corner of Main St. and Route 9. We warmed ourselves up with some delicious soup and other comfort foods before heading over to Union Church of Pocantico Hills, a tiny church that unexpectedly features some amazing stained glass windows by Marc Chagall and a mod Rose window by Miro.  Later we headed over to the the Rockefeller Estate for a tour, which was terrific, and not just because our guide looked, sounded, and acted exactly like James Lipton. The resemblance was eerie. Well, actually more funny than eerie, but in any case it definitely added to the experience.

We then drove back up to Beacon to change clothes before heading farther upstate to New Paltz, where we had a really delicious meal at Beso. The restaurant came highly recommended by several people, so expectations were high, and it did not disappoint.

We arrived at precisely the time of our reservation at this duplex restaurant and were seated promptly. Their wine list was varied in region and price, with bottles ranging from $20 to $100. We ordered a bottle of the Earthworks Shiraz from Barossa, Australia. It was an ok bottle of wine. At first sip I liked it, but after a while I began to detect some unpleasant bitterness on the finish. But, it was one of the cheaper bottles at $27, so I shan’t have expected vini-perfection.

We started with an unusual take on the caramelized onion tart. The quite shallow puff-pastry shell was chock full of flavor: a layer of caramelized onions and beets, all topped with a brown and bubbling later of goat cheese. The beets added even more sweetness to that established by the caramelized onions. All this sweetness was well balanced by the buttery pastry, tart goat cheese, salty kalamata olives, and a reduced balsamic plate-garnish. I could overlook the overdressed greens that accompanied it, because the tart was spectacular.

This fantastic app was followed by a porcini-crusted filet minon special served with fried potatoes and asparagus. Pops-in-law pronounced it fantastic; perfectly medium-rare and flavorful. Moms-in-law didn’t have a huge appetite, so she went for butternut squash soup and a salad. The butternut squash soup was subtly scented with curry and tasted mellow and savory, not too sweet as many similar soups skew. I had the vegetarian shepherd’s pie, which was so much surprisingly better than its mashed potato-spinach-roasted-vegetables parts. It was by far the best entree I have had in months. So delicious. The Hubs had the artic char with brussel sprouts and roasted potatoes dressed in a dijon sauce, and it was excellent–perfectly cooked and perfectly dressed.

For dessert we all shared an apple bread pudding. It was very fall-appropriate and actually almost, to me, tasted more pumpkin-y than apple-y, which was odd but not objectionable. It was served with a scoop of delicious homemade cinnamon ice cream. It was so yummy that we ate a bunch of it before thinking taking the picture you see below.

Overall, it was a great meal with fine service, and if you ever find yourself leaf peeping in the Hudson Valley, I insist, you must stop at Beso.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Food musings, Restaurant reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.