On Saturday, we took the Easiest Ever day trip up to Cold Spring. All you have to do is hop on the train towards Poughkeepsie at Grand Central, pay about $10 (one-way), and sit there for an hour or or so happily sipping on your hot chocolate from Financier Patisserie and watching the scenery rush by.
The best part? When you step foot off the train, the town (which is really just Main Street, but a very charming Main Street it is) is right there…and the Cold Spring Depot, which serves up very excellent fish ‘n’ chips, is about ten steps from the station. The Depot was originally a passenger and freight terminal, so every once in awhile a train roars by just a few feet away from the tables, which is actually quite cool.
If you go to the Depot, I insist that you, or someone in your party, order the big-enough-to-share steak sandwich (above, in front of Kendrick). It is the best one I have ever eaten: a whole, enormous, juicy steak dripping with cheddar and caramelized onions and sandwiched into a perfectly fluffy bun.
Above: 1) Where I want to live one day, cobblestones, red brick, and all; 2) The view north from our table at the Depot.
What Cold Spring is really known for is its antiquing (expensive, but excellent pickings). We spent a ton of time at the antique store pictured above, which has a wonderful selection of old wooden chairs (that can easily be rehabbed) hanging from the ceiling.
My favorite find of the day: a Blackberry Cabernet frozen fruit bar from Go-Go Pops, a new arrival on Main Street that creates homemade popsicles using 100% local, organic ingredients. To make the Blackberry Cabernet pop, they actually simmer local blackberries in Hudson Valley Cabernet until the alcohol boils off, and then freeze the mixture. Deliiiiiicious, and easy to DIY.
Aaand…my second favorite (maybe a tie) find of the day: a mini s’mores bar (with homemade pistachio marshmallows!) from Butter (found at the beautiful shop Bittersweet, where we also stocked up on Vosges Mo’s Bacon Bars).
In Archipelago Home, I found my future dining room table (for the day when our apartment is big enough for a for-real dining room).
Above, the aforementioned Vulcan Death Grip.
And finally, how our day ended: with a very long wait on line at Cafe Habana (made funner by proximity to Joseph Gordon-Levitt), followed by the discovery that the restaurant’s famous cotija cheese-and-mayo-drenched (and very, very spicy) corn can be found at the more casual outpost just next door.
