Blue Hill at Stone Barns - Venturing Outside of Manhattan

This Sunday, my co-worker Veronica and I planned a group lunch at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

For those of you who haven't heard about this place, Blue Hill is a farm-to-table style restaurant that prides itself on sourcing all their ingredients from the surrounding Hudson Valley -- they even grow/raise most of the food at their own farm.

It is also a place that my roommate's co-worker proposed to his girlfriend and where another said he would get married if he had a wedding in the city.

Having heard these stories and since we made these reservations over a month in advance, we definitely had high expectations. Despite all the hype, we were not disappointed with our experience here.


Most people would say going to a restaurant doesn't really count as "travel", but for Manhattanites that rarely venture north of Central Park, it definitely counted as a trip in our book. Blue Hill is located within the Stone Barns Food and Agriculture Center, near the Rockefeller Park Preserve in Poncatico Hills (link to google maps for the map happy). It's a ~40 minute train ride from Grand Central.

(Of course, what's a great blog post without photos?)

My roommates: Janice (buying a ticket) and Tiffany

My co-worker Veronica and resident foodie Kyle

After the train and cab ride that felt like we were going to a rural retreat, we finally arrived! The place is really a collection of stone barns (covered in snow from last week's storms). I would love to return in the spring/summer since I heard the grounds are beautiful and there are hiking trails and places to explore/wander.

(Janice is testing the powderyness of the snow)

(We are trying to get our reflection in the window)

Upon entrance, you immediately feel like you were invited into a very cozy and subtly trendy boutique hotel. After passing a bar / lounge fully equipped with velvety armchairs and a wood burning fireplace, we entered into the main dining hall. The centerpiece of the room was a large table that showcased beautiful floral arrangements and that served as the home base for the waiters. This was also the place where the most delicious bread was sliced for serving (pictured below). I love bread, and I was very excited...

(see that huge chunk of deliciousness??)

 

 

After settling in, we were presented with a challenge: the menu, or lack thereof. Just as they said on their website, the "menu" is just a list of the best ingredients available during the current harvest. It was categorized into veggies, fish, meat, etc and we were instructed to consider any food allergies or preferences. After a few rounds of starring at our waitress and her telling us that she would give us more time to "consider" the menu, we realized that all we had to say was "no allergies or preferences, go ahead!" before we got started.

And now to the food! We were having the four course farmer's supper on this day and it started with a few pre-appetizer appetizers (is there a formal name for these?)

 

Baked red potatoes and dried kale chips on an interesting wood contraption

Close up of the kale weaved into the potato

 Mini beet burgers

 

Canadian bacon with fresh farm eggs and potato (reminded me of Tamago)

Beef jerky-ish type things (forgive me I forgot what they were!)

Delicious bread with perfectly spreadable butter

After we devoured the delicious pre-appetizers, we were presented with our first course! The waiters carefully orchestrated each serving. Three waiters would approach with two plates in hand. After simultaneously serving three (every other person), they would do a swift rotation, and place the other three down. This was quite entertaining. 

First up was one of my favorite dishes... scallops!

 

Maine sea scallops with spaghetti, tomato sauce, squash and mustard seeds with a citrus sauce

This was delicious! The tangy citrus sauce balanced the seafoody taste of the sea scallops and the mustard seeds also brought out another element when you bit into them in your mouth. Yum all around. My boyfriend Jing would have really loved this one.

After finishing this dish, we were surprised when our waitress came to our table with a glass nest filled with pastel colored chicken eggs. (I thought: are we going to eat these raw??) Fortunately, she explained that our next dish would use these farm fresh eggs. They were no ordinary eggs though. They were from Araucana chickens that laid eggs in all sorts of pastel colors. No need for watercolor during Easter, she said, because all you needed were Araucana chickens!

Araucana eggs with quinoa and dehydrated sweet potatoes/veggies

The egg was delicious and paired very well with the dehydrated veggies. When you mix it all and put it in your mouth, the egg gave the veggies life and all the flavors kind of pop out at once! The quinoa was interesting too and seemed like a cross between rice and couscous. And we loved the way it decorated the plate!

Next up was our "main" course. By this time I was already getting pretty full, but how could I resist my favorite meat (pork)?

Stone Barns Berkshire pork with Sauerkraut, Shelley beans and spinach from the field

When we got this one, Janice described our reaction best -- "I can't wait to eat the fatty piece!". The meat was extremely tender and the whole dish was super flavorful. After this one, I was definitely full.

But of course, we would never skip out on dessert, the fourth course!

Caramalized apple with vanilla ice cream, creme fresh and oatmeal

I never thought oatmeal would go well with a dessert but this worked! I usually also don't like fruity desserts too much, but the this was gooood. 

After we finished our dessert, we were excited to try our after meal beverages. Since I am still recovering from a cold, I opted for coffee while some of us got dessert wines and grappa.

Brazilian Daterra bean coffee poured out of a cool coal mining looking pot!

We concluded our experience at Blue Hill Stone Barns with some group photos. Thanks Tiff for the photos!

 

  

This was a GREAT experience. I can't wait to take my parents/boyfriend/friends here again in the spring / summer when we can enjoy more of the much talked about scenery.

P.S. For those of you who don't have an entire day to spend at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, the original Blue Hill restaurant is right in the heart of Greenwich Village! Although I have never been there myself, I heard the food is pretty awesome and has a more "speakeasy" vibe. If anyone has been before, I would love to hear how it compares to the Blue Hill at Stone Barns!

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Special thanks to Veronica for inspiring this trip, Kyle for helping me figure out all the ingredient names and everyone for the great company!

Total cost: For the farmer's lunch, it was ~$130-170 per person depending on how much alcohol you ordered ($85 is the base for the four courses, cocktails were $15 each)
Dress: "Elegant", but we got away with some black jeans, boots and sweaters too
How to get there: Metro North from Grand Central to Tarrytown, then take a cab to 630 Bedford Road. If you say "Blue Hill Stone Barns" the drivers will know.
For more information: http://www.bluehillfarm.com/food/blue-hill-stone-barns
Reviews:
Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/blue-hill-at-stone-barns-pocantico-hills
NY Mag: http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/blue_hill_at_stone_barns/
SeriousEats: http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2008/06/blue-hill-at-stone-barns-pocantico-hills-new-york-dan-barber-working-farm.html