Some background From Rhonda Cayea, Hammertown Rhinebeck Manager -
Cafe Le Perche’s Chief Financial Officer, Rachel Hyman and her husband Gentry and daughter Kia have been coming into Hammertown Rhinebeck for a long time. They do all their gift shopping with us and Kia loves our kids kitchen and thinks of our store as her second home. I was really touched that Rachel came to us with this project.  After all, the cafe is in Hudson and there are certainly home furnishing stores there.  The crunch was that they needed furniture right away because they would literally be opening in 2-3 weeks.  Thankfully, we stock a lot of furniture  so they were in luck.

I enlisted the help of Wanda Furman and off we went to the Cafe to help them figure out what we had that may work in their space (which was still under construction).  They wanted to create a casual spot to sit in the dining room by the fireplace and the Odette Sofettes were a natural choice with the French style they were going for. We had a wonderful old farm table that really worked for the communal dining table they wanted and we also stocked chairs and rugs that worked well too.  Joan had some great mercury glass hanging lighting at the Barn that worked for the bar area.

They loved our ideas and Rachel and General Manager, Jennifer Houle (formerly the manager at Le Pain Quotidien in New York), then came to the store to see the pieces and fabrics we stocked everything in. It’s great when you stock the best decorating touches and furnishings. It was a fun project and Rachel and Jen could not have been nicer.  They clearly loved what they were doing and believed in the project.

* * * * * * * * *

From Joan:

So…flash forward to this past weekend.   You know the old saying “the proof is in the pudding” — in this instance the proof was in the bread.  Auntie M and I decided it was time for a visit to Cafe Le Perche.  Jennifer greeted us at the door and showed us around the space.  It was incredibly impressive and it was so satisfying to see how well everything from Hammertown worked in the space.

We also got the chance to sit and talk with owner, Allan Chapin who, until he experienced the “baguette that changed his life” in Le Perche, France had no idea he’d be the owner of a French bakery/cafe near his weekend home in Claverack.  Allan brought David Lambert, the famous baker of that baguette, to Hudson from France to teach pastry chef Lisa Brickman (who Jen found at  the world renowned Charlie Trotter’s restaurant in Chicago) how to recreate his bread.  Allan also bought a huge bread oven in France that had to be disassembled there then shipped here and reassembled in Hudson).  One of the interesting things  Allan shared with us pertained to the flour used in the bread at Cafe Le Perche.  When Lambert, who speaks very little English, arrived he was not at all impressed with any of the flour he found here.  Eventually, they went to Don Lewis of Wild Hive Farm in Clinton Corners.  Though neither one of them spoke the others language, Don and Lambert came up with the right grind and right proportion of bread to pastry flour to create the authentic French baguettes and breads that you now find at Cafe Le Perche.

Even though Cafe Le Perche’s baker, Lisa, was an experienced pastry chef, she was thrilled to be learning these baking skills from Lambert.  She doesn’t speak French either but it seems that bread has it’s own language; touch and feel and sometimes sheer intuition.

So…how was everything?  DELICIOUS!!  The baguettes are out of this world; the other breads are fantastic too.  I brought home a whole wheat loaf of bread that was amazing.  The pastries we tried (sour cherry tarts & apple fritter-like pastries) were phenomenal and THE COFFEE alone was worth the trip.

Get thee to Cafe Le Perche.  It feels like you’ve taken a short trip to the French countryside!

Click here to visit their Facebook Page (website is under construction)

[click photos to enlarge]

“Meet the Chefs” Farm-to-Table Brunch gets a big plug from Tim and Nina Zagat.  Also featured in this video is John Harney of Harney Teas who will be at the Brunch demonstrating how to make the perfect cup of tea. Better get your tickets NOW!

Green Peas TV Presents Meet the Chefs: A Farm-to-Table Benefit Brunch will be held on Sunday, July 24, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., rain or shine, outdoors, under tents at No. 9 Restaurant, 53 Main Street, Millerton, NY.

Admission is $40. Seating is limited and tickets must be purchased in advance; no walk-ins, please. Tickets may be purchased online and by phone at number9millerton.com, 518.592.1229, and neccmillerton.org, 518.789.4259.

The event is a fundraiser that has been organized and produced by filmmaker Jane Watson, founder of Green Peas TV, to benefit the North East Community Center Farm and Food Education Program. This unique event is being filmed as an episode of Green Peas TV (greenpeastv.com).

Green Peas TV is the new Internet cooking show for the Berkshire and Hudson Valley regions. Their road trip episodes place top chefs in unusual settings, at unusual events, and then take side trips to the farms, the grain mills and the distilleries where farm-to-table chefs are sourcing the food for their creations.

Meet the Chefs: A Farm-to-Table Benefit Brunch will be prepared by the Hudson Valley’s top chefs and sourced completely from local farms, wineries and distilleries.

We’re proud to say, four of the six participating chefs are *Hammertown Choices:

• Tim Cocheo, No. 9 *

• Michel Jean, The Stissing House *

• Sara Lukasiewicz, Red Devon *

• Peggy McEnroe, Back in the Kitchen

• Josephine Proul, Local 111

• Noah Sheetz, Chefs Consortium

• Mark Strausman, Agriturismo *

In addition, the event will include a demonstration by master tea blender John Harney, founder of Harney & Sons fine teas, and a special presentation by an artist from the Wassaic Project.

About Green Peas TV

Green Peas TV, founded by filmmaker Jane Watson, is a stew, a bouillabaisse, of culinary tourism and the farm-to-table movement. With an entertaining yet instructional style, Green Peas TV strives to promote the concept of supporting and buying from local food sources. Their aim is to create a greater demand for locally produced food by gradually making the public aware of the true cost of buying food that is shipped from across the miles, both to their own health and to the community. Current and upcoming episodes of Green Peas TV include dinners prepared on a bridge overlooking the Hudson River, on an island amongst the ruins of a castle, in a lighthouse during a nor’easter storm, and a harvest feast at the historic and very private Astor Estate. For more information, visit greenpeastv.com

No. 9 will be having a special brunch on Sunday July 17th!  The Joint Chiefs will be playing and you can enjoy a outside brunch! Call 518.592.1299 for reservations!

]]> http://www.hammertown.com/2011/07/no-9-millertons-finest-farm-to-table-restaurant-a-hammertown-choice/feed/ 2 http://www.hammertown.com/2011/06/good-news-for-foodies-in-pine-plains-agriturismo-will-now-be-serving-dinner-on-thursdays/ http://www.hammertown.com/2011/06/good-news-for-foodies-in-pine-plains-agriturismo-will-now-be-serving-dinner-on-thursdays/#comments Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:03:48 +0000 Joan http://www.hammertown.com/?p=28072  

More good news for us foodies.  We’re so lucky here in Pine Plains.  In addition to the wonderful Stissing House being open Wednesday through Sunday for dinner,  we just heard from our friend, owner/chef Mark Strausman that his restaurant, Agriturismo, will now be open on Thursday evenings for dinner.

Until now, Agriturismo has only been open on Fridays and Saturdays for dinner and a Sunday Breakfast, Brunch & All Day Menu.  Now that summer’s here and the restaurant is busier than ever, Mark decided it was time to expand their hours to include Thursday dinner.

Agriturismo
2938 Church Street
Pine Plains, NY
518.398.1000

The Stissing House
Route 199 & 82
Pine Plains, NY
518.398.8800

 

 

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