Fairly to Suppose So: The Misplaced Era, Present in Rhinebeck | Eating places | Hudson Valley

Spoiler Alert: The next evaluation comprises spoilers for Ernest Heminway’s The Solar Additionally Rises (1926). For those who haven’t learn this chronicle of the Misplaced Era but and want to keep away from any plot particulars, please skip the next two paragraphs.

On the finish of The Solar Additionally Rises, Jake, the war-wounded hero, goes to Madrid to rescue Brett, who’s been abandoned by a younger bullfighter. Jake and Brett are in love, however it’s the inconceivable sort, given Jake’s trauma (it’s in his down-belows) and Brett being Brett (a lady who seduces bullfighters). As soon as reunited, they head to the resort bar and drink martinis. Three rounds of martinis. The pair then head determine they want lunch. On the restaurant, they’re served roast younger suckling pig—Brett smokes whereas Jake eats—and Jake drinks 4 bottles of Rioja Alta. Amazingly, Jake remains to be in a position to stroll, and so they head out into the road to hail a cab. (Ever marvel what a summer time afternoon in Madrid is like? Hemingway is aware of: “It was scorching and brilliant.”)

Within the cab, Brett will get sentimental about their star-crossed love: “Oh, Jake, we might have had such a damned good time collectively.” To which Jake replies: “Sure, isn’t it fairly to suppose so.” The road is a cynical cherry on high of Hemingway’s early modernist traditional. And, in case you’re questioning why all of the preamble, it’s additionally the identify of a restaurant that opened lately in Rhinebeck.

Fairly to Suppose So reunites the youthful hospitality trio—Chef Mark Margiotta, Bar Director Madeline Dillon, and Common Supervisor Eric Mushel are all of their 30s—behind The Dutchess, the key resort and restaurant in Staatsburg owned by app developer Rameet Chawla. When The Dutchess shut down in October 2021, the group determined to set out on their very own. “Pure serendipity is the way it got here to be,” says Mushel. “A chef, a mixologist, and an entrepreneur met on a secret farm and found ourselves amidst nature, and Fairly to Suppose So is the attractive results of that encounter.”

The restaurant is in downtown Rhinebeck, within the former barroom of Liberty Public Home. The house is unrecognizable, nonetheless, as a intestine reno has remodeled the once-dark pub into an elegant, minimalist eating room punctuated with touches of caprice, just like the fake taxidermied heads of bighorn sheep and antelope finished in ceramics. (A refined reference to a sure novelist/huge hame hunter?) A lush, crushed velvet banquette runs the size of two partitions. Marble-topped tables seat 24 with room for one more 12 on the bar. When full, the room will be loud, however it by no means crosses over to uncomfortably loud. It is a vigorous house that is fairly however not fussy. The complete again wall is roofed in a delightfully busy black-and-white wallpaper that weaves collectively visible themes from numerous Renaissance work.

Begin with a cocktail. The cocktails are extremely really helpful, as is the Instagram feed of Madeline Dillon, which tracks her course of in crafting among the most fascinating drinks within the area. Whereas we waited for our personal drinks to reach, our neighbor was served a Depressing, Darling ($18), a black-as-night concoction in a collins glass made with white rum, grapefruit, lime, black peppercorn, cherry liqueur, and activated charcoal. Lead Me to the Backyard ($18), made with dry gin, snap pea shrub, herb liqueur, golden honey is herbaceous but restrained, and is cute as a button with a sugar snap clothes-pinned to the the coupe. The M ($20), Dillon’s tackle a Vesper martini, can also be a refined winner. The booze is fat-washed in a single day in goat cheese and completed with goat cheese-stuffed olive.

There’s a 13-bottle wine record (bottles: $70-$120; glasses: $15-$25) with some distinctive finds from women-owned vineyards. Each the Franck Besson 2021 Chardonnay ($80), a mushy, citrusy, easy-drinking white and a vigorous and refreshing Nino Costao 2017 Roero Nebbiolo ($85) had been food-friendly with out being retiring. There are a handful of beers—Hudson Valley Brewery’s Amulet Bitter Ales ($13) amongst them—and three low ABV cocktails for the sober-minded.

When fascinated with learn how to outline the sort of meals served at Fairly to Suppose So, the uncooked bar throws you for a loop as a result of the remainder of the menu is so rigorously farm-to-table. Margiotta, a CIA grad who was government chef at Brasserie 292 in Poughkeepsie earlier than spending two years working underneath Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park, is dedicated to Humm’s plant-first ethos. However let’s speak in regards to the uncooked bar first.

The uncooked bar at Fairly serves as each a degree of delight and differentiation. Positive, you may get oysters in Rhinebeck at Le Petit Bistro (on the half-shell with mignonette) or roasted Pernod herb butter at Willow at Mirbeau. However till now, you couldn’t get a seafood tower in Rhinebeck. At Fairly, there’s each the Royal ($175) and the Deluxe ($90). The Royal features a dozen oysters, six Little Neck clams, six shrimp, a lobster, and 30 grams of Pacific sturgeon caviar. The Deluxe is half of that and no caviar. There’s caviar service if you need it. The Marshallberg Osetra will set you again $300 for 100 grams. Whereas I didn’t attempt the seafood tower or caviar, the oysters I ate on two events—each East and West Coast—had been high notch ($38-$48 per dozen). The pink peppercorn/white balsamic mignonette was quietly very good.

Throughout a latest dialog with Margiotta, he talked about that he’d spent the day past planting his backyard, purpose-built for future menu gadgets. When requested what was going within the floor, Margiotta rattled off lengthy record: 4 types of eggplants; scorching and candy peppers; Swiss chard; 16 types of cherry tomatoes, many grown from seeds he is saved through the years; the record went on. However no greens. He will get his greens from Kyle Nisonger of Maple View Farm in his native Poughquag. “The pure terroir of the world may be very particular,” says Margiotta, “and so is the seasonality of what we’re in a position to develop. I’m making an attempt to lift as a lot of our personal produce as I can and complement from native growers.”

For those who do eat at Fairly to Suppose So, you will probably meet the chef, because the restaurant is sufficiently small that he serves a good bit of the meals himself alongside the charming {and professional} wait workers.

Fairly to Suppose So is solely gluten-free, and largely dairy-free, although you would not discover. The seeded butternut squash bread ($9), made with quinoa flour, is moist and comprises a touch of sweetness with out being cloying. Different starters embody caviar frites ($23) and the twice-baked truffle potato ($20), which is what a median baked potato desires of being when it grows up. Served in a forged iron skillet, the potato’s pores and skin is thick and crispy, the inside fluffy, and a contact of creaminess added from celery root cream. All this in live performance with the chic earthiness of the truffle. The dish is massive sufficient to be a dinner portion.

A latest particular was venison osso bucco ($32) served with Wild Hive polenta, sauteed spring greens, and grilled carrots. The tender venison was effervescently gamy, however it was the grilled carrots that stole the present. Now not than my fingers, these orange beauties embodied the Platonic splendid of carrotness, enhanced by a considered utility of fireside for a contact of char. (This makes me excited to return for the barigoule—primarily a vegan cassoulet—as Margiotta switches elements with the seasons. The present iteration of the dish is carrot-focused.)

The duck confit ($29), served with pickled wild mushrooms, spring inexperienced salad, and duck fats sunchokes hit the spot, the acidity of the mushrooms and the greens working deftly with the the dish’s fattiness. The half hen ($30), served with romesco and pickled peppers, operates in an analogous, if much less fascinating approach.

One other particular we tried on a latest go to—seared diver scallops ($38)—might be haunting me for awhile. I do not get excited by scallops as a rule, however I’m now formally begging Margiotta to place this dish on the common menu. It has been a very long time since I had scallops seared so properly, the crust this good, the inherent sweetness of the mollusk so clear. Now take that divine morsel and stack it on a wedge of potato fondant with celery root, leeks, and morels wedged in between.
That is meals of the best order—Fairly to Suppose So has staked a declare as a restaurant to be intently watched and visited often.

Will Margiotta put the scallops within the menu? In all probability not, however is not it fairly to suppose so?