Community ties run deep now, with involvement in the town’s First Friday events – with music, street performances and tastings. “The community likes having the merchants available,” Silver says, appreciating the hands-on spirit of the local business owners. “People want to see you here: the owner in the store.”
The commitment to the community extends to working with local food producers to offer the best of what’s available close by. “The farmers know us,” Silver says: a good thing. They provide ideas by offering their seasonal best: Story Farm of Catskill, Migliorelli’s of Tivoli, Montgomery Place Orchards of Red Hook, Northwind Farms (a Tivoli source of sustainably raised poultry), Meiller’s of Pine Plains for meat and more. Silver is always at the farmstands and farmers’ markets for inspiration. “Foragers knock on our door with ramps and mushrooms, too,” she says. “Parts of Miss Lucy’s menu change every day. It means the chef’s inspired.”
But each day’s menu has a vegetarian option, a pasta dish, a seafood dish. Pan-roasted scallops are perennially popular, so usually there in some form, accompanied with a seasonal risotto. As this column was written they came with summer squash, balsamic reduction and white truffle oil ($26). Also on the menu were a crispy salmon Wellington with cauliflower hash, local mushrooms and saffron tarragon butter ($24), and a pan-seared duck breast with creamy corn polenta, grilled squash and local apricot gastrique ($24), as well as a crispy spicy pork belly with smashed Red Bliss potatoes, roasted carrots and sriracha honey glaze ($24).
There is also a menu of basic kid-favorites for $5. “We’ve been kid-friendly from the beginning,” Silver says, explaining how as parents themselves (their kids are now 12 and 15), she and Propper like to encourage families to come out to eat and not have to worry about a sitter. “We’re casual.”
For the adults, there are beer and wine: a big list of selections available by the glass or bottle, many from France; plus a list of creative cocktails ($10), as well as changing specials.
The “everything from scratch” menu means that bread, ice creams and sorbets are crafted in-house, and extends to a mutable dessert menu, orchestrated by Silver, who is executive pastry chef. “But we try to always have one chocolate thing, especially in summer when there’s so much fresh fruit,” she says.
The homey-but-elegant desserts are popular for the weddings that they cater, which are now so popular that they are often scheduled a year or more in advance. Some couples do a token cake for photos and order, say, a hundred Mason jars of assorted layered desserts. Recent offerings included a vanilla bean buttermilk panna cotta with black raspberry gelée and blueberry lavender sorbet, a vampire plum brown butter tart with candied lemon ice cream and an apricot bread pudding with orange blossom pistachio brittle ice cream.
‘Cue is the couple’s newer venture down the road (www.cueshack.com, address 136 Partition Street) that is in its third season. The informal, live-music-on-weekends kind of place features barbecue with homemade sauces, as well as rotating draft microbrews and wine, and is modeled after such shacks on Cape Cod, Silver says.
The ‘Cue truck’s movable kitchen means that the food for weddings is “restaurant quality, not catered food,” Silver says, with menu options that include the best of both eateries’ kitchens. “The food truck was the best thing we ever did, and we’re always evolving. That’s kind of the point. Our philosophy hasn’t changed.”
And then there’s that love… The place is named after Silver and Propper’s daughter Lucy, and there is love to spare for customers, and staff as well. “It’s not a one-man show in a restaurant,” says Silver. “We have a great staff.”
Find Miss Lucy’s Kitchen at 90 Partition Street, at (845) 246-9240 and at www.misslucyskitchen.com. It is closed Monday and Tuesday.
Read more about local cuisine and learn about new restaurants on Ulster Publishing’s dinehudsonvalley.com or hudsonvalleyalmanacweekly.com.
