Back to the Hudson Valley

A Kingston, NY church graveyard put us in a very Halloween mood.

Kingston is one of Cafe Drake's favorite towns in the Hudson Valley, especially its historic downtown district. This time around we express lunched on bustling Wall Street at Vincenzo's (305 Wall St., Kingston, NY 12401), sampling the Meatball Hot Sub, a terrific deal at $5 . . .light flattened orbs of ground beef and breadcrumbs, seasoned (like the drenching marinara sauce atop the entire sandwich) sanely without the usual overkill of salt and garlic. The bland interiors of Vincenzo's may clash harshly with the much of the surrounding century + old architecture, but the menu (Sicilian style antipasto platters and seafood salads, Neapolitan pizzas) and quality belies the drab decor.

Dinner was across the bridge in Rhinebeck, NY at the ever-popular restaurant, Terrapin (6426 Montgomery St., Rhinbeck, NY 12572). Dining with Cafe Drake friends and area residents Ruth and Mark, we loved the Vanilla Sidecars (icy cold and decorated with confetti of vanilla bean scrapings), the perfect herbed fries, potato gnocchi in a rich cream sauce with shaved black truffles and excellent fish and chips. A happy surprise was an expertly dressed salad of Belgian endive spears, candies pecans and local Bleu cheese.