Single-malt whiskies and triple-cream cheeses are the stuff New Yorks Hudson Valley is made of.
It is a tightly woven ecosystem that also extends to restaurants and hotels.
Being upstate has other advantages, too.
From left: Dan Suarez pours a glass of his Merkel cherry beer at the Suarez Family Brewery, in Livingston, New York; Dan Suarez and his wife, Taylor.Credit:Chris Mottalini
Here are five Hudson Valley makers behind food-and-drink establishments that are special enough to plan a weekend around.
It was $1,500 a bottle, he said.
Except he couldnt find anything that came close.
From left: The clubby bar at Tenmile Distillery; a copper-pot still at Tenmile Distillery.Chris Mottalini
So began LeVangias deep dive into whiskey making.
Today, two gleaming copper-pot stills shipped from Scotland greet visitors as they enter a converted century-old dairy barn.
(The distillery also makes small-batch gin and vodka.)
The converted barn at Tenmile Distillery, in Wassaic.Chris Mottalini
By Scottish standards, thats indecently young.
The Japanese have proved theres a market for doing this the right way, LeVangia said.
It forces us to focus on quality, and thats better for all of us.
From left: Freshly baked croissants at Mel the Bakery; Nora Allen, the owner of Mel the Bakery, forms a loaf.Chris Mottalini
It was airy and flaky and buttery: pure deliciousness.
She smiled at my evident pleasure.
We only make that one day a week because its so labor-intensive, she said.
From left: Nora Allen, owner of Mel the Bakery; a cinnamon roll at Mel the Bakery, in Hudson.Chris Mottalini
But in 2023, the landlord of her Lower East Side bakery put the building up for sale.
She relocated a few months later.
As I approached that morning, I had been able to follow my nose to her bright bakery.
From left: Rory Chase, the cheese maker at Chaseholm Farm; rounds of cheese aging at Chaseholm Farm Creamery.Chris Mottalini
It was humming with customers, who sat at minimalist concrete tables in the small park outside.
Thats a lot of croissants.
Now its probably one in a hundred.
From left: Chaseholm Creamery; the Yummy Kitchen menu at the Chatham Berry Farm Greenhouse Cidery.Chris Mottalini
There are other reasons to visit Chaseholm.
A farm shop sells its own grass-fed beef, raw milk, yogurt, and pork.
The man behind it was Joseph Gilbert, who had been given a 24-acre farm by his parents.
Picnic tables at the Chatham Berry Farm.Chris Mottalini
Children (and sometimes dogs) chase one another in a fenced-in yard nearby.
Joseph Gilberts cart has come a long way.
Suarez Family Brewery
Dan Suarez believes agood beershould linger.
His test is to take a sip and let it sit for 10 seconds.
Does it feel good?
Hell often flavor his beers with foraged ingredients like staghorn sumac.
Suarezs wife, Taylor, oversees the business side of the operation.
Suarezs brother and sister-in-law own a popular restaurant, Gaskins, 10 minutes down the road in Germantown.
No prizes for guessing who supplies the beers.
A version of this story first appeared in the September 2024 issue ofTravel + Leisureunder the headline Hands On.
