Fairly to Assume So: The Misplaced Technology, Present in Rhinebeck

Spoiler Alert: The next evaluation comprises spoilers for Ernest Heminway’s The Solar Additionally Rises (1926). In the event you haven’t learn this chronicle of the Misplaced Technology but and want to keep away from any plot particulars, please skip the next two paragraphs.

On the finish of The Solar Additionally Rises, Jake, the war-wounded hero, goes to Madrid to rescue Brett, who’s been abandoned by a younger bullfighter. Jake and Brett are in love, nevertheless it’s the unattainable sort, given Jake’s trauma (it’s in his down-belows) and Brett being Brett (a lady who seduces bullfighters). As soon as reunited, they head to the lodge bar and drink martinis. Three rounds of martinis. The pair then head resolve they want lunch. On the restaurant, they’re served roast younger suckling pig—Brett smokes whereas Jake eats—and Jake drinks 4 bottles of Rioja Alta. Amazingly, Jake continues to be capable of stroll, they usually head out into the road to hail a cab. (Ever surprise what a summer time afternoon in Madrid is like? Hemingway is aware of: “It was sizzling and vivid.”)

Within the cab, Brett will get sentimental about their star-crossed love: “Oh, Jake, we may have had such a damned good time collectively.” To which Jake replies: “Sure, isn’t it fairly to suppose so.” The road is a cynical cherry on prime of Hemingway’s early modernist basic. And, in case you’re questioning why all of the preamble, it’s additionally the title of a restaurant that opened not too long ago in Rhinebeck.

Fairly to Assume So reunites the youthful hospitality trio—Chef Mark Margiotta, Bar Director Madeline Dillon, and Normal Supervisor Eric Mushel are all of their 30s—behind The Dutchess, the key lodge and restaurant in Staatsburg owned by app developer Rameet Chawla. When The Dutchess shut down in October 2021, the group determined to set out on their very own. “Pure serendipity is the way it got here to be,” says Mushel. “A chef, a mixologist, and an entrepreneur met on a secret farm and found ourselves amidst nature, and Fairly to Assume So is the attractive results of that encounter.”

The restaurant is in downtown Rhinebeck, within the former barroom of Liberty Public Home. The area is unrecognizable, nonetheless, as a intestine reno has reworked the once-dark pub into a classy, minimalist eating room punctuated with touches of caprice, just like the fake taxidermied heads of bighorn sheep and antelope completed in ceramics. (A delicate reference to a sure novelist/massive hame hunter?) A lush, crushed velvet banquette runs the size of two partitions. Marble-topped tables seat 24 with room for an additional 12 on the bar. When full, the room could be loud, nevertheless it by no means crosses over to uncomfortably loud. It is a vigorous area that is fairly however not fussy. Your complete again wall is roofed in a delightfully busy black-and-white wallpaper that weaves collectively visible themes from varied Renaissance work.

Harrison Lubin

Lead Me to the Backyard is an herbaceous gin cocktail served with a sugar snap clothes-pinned to the the coupe.

Begin with a cocktail. The cocktails are extremely beneficial, as is the Instagram feed of Madeline Dillon, which tracks her course of in crafting a few of the most attention-grabbing drinks within the area. Whereas we waited for our personal drinks to reach, our neighbor was served a Depressing, Darling ($18), a black-as-night concoction in a collins glass made with white rum, grapefruit, lime, black peppercorn, cherry liqueur, and activated charcoal. Lead Me to the Backyard ($18), made with dry gin, snap pea shrub, herb liqueur, golden honey is herbaceous but restrained, and is cute as a button with a sugar snap clothes-pinned to the the coupe. The M ($20), Dillon’s tackle a Vesper martini, can also be a delicate winner. The booze is fat-washed in a single day in goat cheese and completed with goat cheese-stuffed olive.

There’s a 13-bottle wine listing (bottles: $70-$120; glasses: $15-$25) with some distinctive finds from women-owned vineyards. Each the Franck Besson 2021 Chardonnay ($80), a comfortable, citrusy, easy-drinking white and a vigorous and refreshing Nino Costao 2017 Roero Nebbiolo ($85) had been food-friendly with out being retiring. There are a handful of beers—Hudson Valley Brewery’s Amulet Bitter Ales ($13) amongst them—and three low ABV cocktails for the sober-minded.

When fascinated by find out how to outline the type of meals served at Fairly to Assume So, the uncooked bar throws you for a loop as a result of the remainder of the menu is so rigorously farm-to-table. Margiotta, a CIA grad who was govt chef at Brasserie 292 in Poughkeepsie earlier than spending two years working beneath Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park, is dedicated to Humm’s plant-first ethos. However let’s speak concerning the uncooked bar first.

David McIntyre

The eating room is small and stylish, with 24 seats at tables alongside a lush, crushed velvet banquette and 12 seats on the bar. Out of doors seating will quickly be accessible as effectively.

The uncooked bar at Fairly serves as each some extent of pleasure and differentiation. Certain, you may get oysters in Rhinebeck at Le Petit Bistro (on the half-shell with mignonette) or roasted Pernod herb butter at Willow at Mirbeau. However till now, you couldn’t get a seafood tower in Rhinebeck. At Fairly, there’s each the Royal ($175) and the Deluxe ($90). The Royal features a dozen oysters, six Little Neck clams, six shrimp, a lobster, and 30 grams of Pacific sturgeon caviar. The Deluxe is half of that and no caviar. There’s caviar service if you need it. The Marshallberg Osetra will set you again $300 for 100 grams. Whereas I didn’t attempt the seafood tower or caviar, the oysters I ate on two events—each East and West Coast—had been prime notch ($38-$48 per dozen). The pink peppercorn/white balsamic mignonette was quietly excellent.

Throughout a current dialog with Margiotta, he talked about that he’d spent yesterday planting his backyard, purpose-built for future menu objects. When requested what was going within the floor, Margiotta rattled off lengthy listing: 4 styles of eggplants; sizzling and candy peppers; Swiss chard; 16 styles of cherry tomatoes, many grown from seeds he is saved over time; the listing went on. However no greens. He will get his greens from Kyle Nisonger of Maple View Farm in his native Poughquag. “The pure terroir of the world could be very particular,” says Margiotta, “and so is the seasonality of what we’re capable of develop. I’m attempting to boost as a lot of our personal produce as I can and complement from native growers.”

In the event you do eat at Fairly to Assume So, you may probably meet the chef, because the restaurant is sufficiently small that he serves a good bit of the meals himself alongside the charming {and professional} wait employees.

Harrison Lubin

The duck for 2—a 14-day dry aged duck breast served with charred greens, celery root baked potato, rhubarb mostarda, and C alvados gastric ($90)—is Margiotaa’s signature dish.

Fairly to Assume So is fully gluten-free, and principally dairy-free, although you would not discover. The seeded butternut squash bread ($9), made with quinoa flour, is moist and comprises a touch of sweetness with out being cloying. Different starters embody caviar frites ($23) and the twice-baked truffle potato ($20), which is what a mean baked potato desires of being when it grows up. Served in a forged iron skillet, the potato’s pores and skin is thick and crispy, the inside fluffy, and a contact of creaminess added from celery root cream. All this in live performance with the chic earthiness of the truffle. The dish is giant sufficient to be a dinner portion.

A current particular was venison osso bucco ($32) served with Wild Hive polenta, sauteed spring greens, and grilled carrots. The tender venison was effervescently gamy, nevertheless it was the grilled carrots that stole the present. Not than my fingers, these orange beauties embodied the Platonic best of carrotness, enhanced by a considered utility of fireplace for a contact of char. (This makes me excited to return for the barigoule—basically a vegan cassoulet—as Margiotta switches substances with the seasons. The present iteration of the dish is carrot-focused.)

The duck confit ($29), served with pickled wild mushrooms, spring inexperienced salad, and duck fats sunchokes hit the spot, the acidity of the mushrooms and the greens working deftly with the the dish’s fattiness. The half hen ($30), served with romesco and pickled peppers, operates in the same, if much less attention-grabbing means.

One other particular we tried on a current go to—seared diver scallops ($38)—might be haunting me for awhile. I do not get excited by scallops as a rule, however I’m now formally begging Margiotta to place this dish on the common menu. It has been a very long time since I had scallops seared so effectively, the crust this excellent, the inherent sweetness of the mollusk so clear. Now take that divine morsel and stack it on a wedge of potato fondant with celery root, leeks, and morels wedged in between.
That is meals of the very best order—Fairly to Assume So has staked a declare as a restaurant to be carefully watched and visited recurrently.

Will Margiotta put the scallops within the menu? In all probability not, however is not it fairly to suppose so?