It’s hard to emerge from this second year of COVID-19 without blurring memories from the past two years. As restaurants closed, reopened, reinvented, closed and, sometimes, failed to reopen, new habits began to feel familiar: We checked social media for recent activity and confirmed hours with a phone call after reservations had been made online. It would not be once or even three times that I arrived for dinner only to find a note saying too few employees had shown up to open that night. The struggle to staff and stay open has been real.
The year started in survival mode with takeout menus, dinner-and-drink combos to go and chef-prepared meal kits. It’s no surprise some of the year’s memorable meals were enjoyed at home. Then, with COVID in retreat (even as vaccination debates raged), the warm weather brought us back in droves. Canceled 2020 weddings and social events were back, sidewalk tables and parklets stayed in place, and we were out there slurping noodles, grabbing pizza and birria tacos, sipping cocktails and natural wine in the street.
But once restaurants had a chance to breathe, I was struck by the number of chefs who, after white-knuckling through, chose this moment to bow out. In Hudson, we saw chef Lauren Stanek depart Kitty’s and Lil’ Deb’s Oasis lose founding partner, chef and new mom Hannah Black, both citing the all-consuming nature of the work. At Post on Lark in Albany — where streamlined pandemic operations had resulted in a symbiotic pairing of casual food, cocktails and natural wine — the departure of beverage director Adelia Sugarman prompted its closure for an undeclared reinvention.
In Troy, Zoe Krumanocker, who stepped into the fray following the pandemic closure of the fine-dining Peck’s Arcade to lead the Lucas Confectionery and Donna’s Italian culinary team, reached the finish line only to depart at the end of October. And Quang Tran, a consummate server, host and unofficial sommelier who ran his Quang's Vietnamese Bistro in Troy as a one-man operation throughout the pandemic, has returned to his Michelin-trained roots as general manager of the new Sea Smoke Waterfront Grill, across the river on Starbuck Island. Perhaps 2021 will be remembered as the year when many reflected on their lives and seized the opportunity for change.
But 2021 was as delicious as any other year, in some ways because we sought the comfort of favorites we’d missed. In no particular order, here are 10 memorable plates of 2021.
The $20 mixed grill at Teta Marie's Lebanese in Cohoes offers a strong value, with a sampler of grilled meats, bowls of garlic toum, babaganoush topped in olive oil and sumac, lemon-spiked hummus and pillowy, steam-filled pita bread hot from the brick oven. (Photo by Susie Davidson Powell for the Times Union.)
Teta Marie’s Lebanese 93 Ontario St., Cohoes 518-326-8887 and tetamaries.com
The beef kofta, shawarma and chicken shish tawook are all memorable, along with the owners’ Lebanese pizza topped in za’atar, awaki cheese and meat seasoned with cinnamon and molasses. But the $20 mixed-grill sampler is an extraordinary deal, with grilled meats, fluffy garlic toum, eggplant babaganoush and lemon-spiked hummus served with a huge, steam-filled pita bread piping hot from the brick oven.
Carrot lox on a bagel with cream cheese at Take Two Cafe, a new venture from a co-co-founder of Square One vegan cafe in Schenectady. (Susie Davidson Powell/for the Times Union.)
Take Two Cafe 433 State St., Schenectady 518-280-9670 and taketwo518.com
The explosion of plant-based menus were among the biggest trends in 2021. In Schenectady, the garden-inspired interior and hand-painted sidewalk tables at Take Two Cafe served up the most comprehensive, intelligent vegan menu since Albany’s Shades of Green closed. The star is owner Chelsea Heilman’s carrot-ribbon lox which, after a 32-hour marinade in caper brine, miso, nori, soy and lemon, manages some sort of alchemical transformation worthy of a toasted bagel smothered in vegan cream cheese.
Banh mi with pork paté and pickled vegetables at Banh Mi 47, part of the redeveloped Kenmore complex on North Pearl Street in Albany.
Banh Mi 47 74 N. Pearl St., Albany 518-512-9762 and banhmi47.com
The arrival of Banh Mi 47 in downtown was nothing short of a revelation driven largely by the lightness of the perfect, homemade baguettes. Whether you choose silky pork sausage and smooth paté (cha lua paté), marinated grilled beef with scallion oil (bo nuong), meatballs (xiu mai) lemongrass chicken or tofu (ga nuong sa or dau hu chien sa), each is packed with cilantro, lightly pickled cucumber, carrot, daikon, sliced chiles and smeared in Kewpie mayo or Maggi seasoning sauce. Every bite is an unforgettable flavor riot. Best with their hot Vietnamese Nguyen coffee and sweet condensed milk.
Edible gold foil wraps a savory custard that is topped with caviar and bathed in crystal-clear bison consommé at Jack's Oyster House in Albany.
Jack’s Oyster House 42 State St., Albany 518-465-8854 and jacksoysterhouse.com
Jack’s is back, with 2021 giving us a meal worth waiting for after the arrival of chef Elliott Vogel at the historic, yet often oysterless, Jack’s. The standout star of a seven-course tasting menu was a savory custard in clarified bison consommé topped with Hackleback sturgeon caviar and 24-karat gold leaf. Inspired by chawanmushi, a savory Japanese egg custard with dashi broth, Vogel's version cuts the salinity from caviar with the passion fruit and muscat grapiness of a wine pairing with Alsace Hugel Gentil. Happily, the return of a weekend raw bar is worth an ice cold martini and a seat at the bar.
The mixed-grill platter at Chama Mama, a pop-up from a New York City restaurant of the same name that is now open at Mass MoCA. Chama Mama serves Georgian cuisine.
Chama Mama x Mass MoCA North Adams, Mass. chamamama.com
The pandemic saw more New York City chefs take summer-long residences upstate and in the Berkshires. Among them, Georgian restaurant Chama Mama brought a slim-line menu to Mass MoCA, adjusting their flavorful bread dough so it could be oven-baked, and working with feta, mozzarella and ricotta to approximate regional Georgian cheeses. We feasted on lavash flatbreads and khachapuri — pillowy breads stuffed with cheese — and khinkali soup dumplings filled with mushrooms, lamb, pork and beef. Simply seasoned, skewered meats on an outdoor grill replicated the traditional outdoor summer kitchens of the Caucasus region. And they’ll be back in summer 2022.
Susie Davidson Powell finishes a noodle dish with beef in a delivery meal kit from Xi’an Famous Foods in New York City. (Provided photo.)
Xi’an Famous Foods Delivery Hand-Pulled Noodle Meal Kit xiankits.com
Missing trips to New York City and hand-pulled noodles in Chinatown, I discovered Xi’an Famous Foods shipping ready-to-pull wide bang-bang noodles meal kits with beef or cumin lamb and their own chile sauce. We unrolled noodle sheets, stretched and slapped dough to arms’ length and tore noodles at the seam. With the cabbage chopped, scallions sliced, beef sauteed and sauce heated, dinner was ready in less than 15 minutes and gave us a taste of Chinatown when we needed it most.
Harvest Smokehouse pitmaster Andrew Chase previously ran the restaurant The Flammerie in Kinderhook.
Harvest Smokehouse 3074 Route 9, Valatie 518-821-5771 and harvestsmokehouse.com
The pandemic put us in touch with farms that seized the day with onsite eateries to feed a public desperate for fresh air and open spaces. A more perfect union was hard to imagine with the opening of the seasonal Harvest Smokehouse at Golden Harvest Farm apple orchard, where Harvest Spirits is also based. A chef duo formerly of The Flammerie in Kinderhook flamed meats utilizing the apple wood, cider and spirits available on site. We ate brined St. Louis ribs basted with blackstrap molasses barbecue sauce and misted with apple cider for a gorgeous, lacquered bark. Brown-sugar-brined organic chicken drumsticks, pork butts smoked for eight hours, smoked jerk chicken thighs and snap-skinned bratwurst were all part of the feast, along with springy cornbread, house slaw and a smoked potato salad sweetened with “apple honey,” a syrup made from a reduction of apple cider vinegar, hard cider, chile and bay leaves.
Avid hiker, bird watcher and professional baker Eliza Hunter named Ovenbird Baking after a bird that makes an oven-shaped nest.
Ovenbird Baking Troy @ovenbird_baking
A slew of cottage-industry bakers specializing in dumplings to bagels to doughnuts sprung up during the pandemic. But Eliza Hunter, a baker with an art degree who apprenticed with Yann Ledoux at famed artisanal bakery Maison Kayser in Manhattan and Paris, stood out after launching her Instagram-based business selling all-natural, leavened sourdough bread. Her sun-drenched photos and videos handling fresh loaves, tapping their hollow bottoms and slicing them to reveal impeccable crumb are hard to resist. Sourcing flour from New York farms and millers, she hand-mixes her dough, baking just two loaves at a time in flavors like herbes de provence or chocolate and toasted pecan, and occasionally adding the French cake kouign-amann. Few things were better this year than the simple pleasure of slathering a slice of Ovenbird bread with good salted butter.
Food from La Capital Tacos in Troy. (Photo by Konrad Odhiambo/For the Times Union.)
La Capital Tacos 161 Fourth St., Troy 518-244-5132 and lacapitaltacostroy.com
Like delivery pizza, takeout tacos became a pandemic bestseller, and Troy became taco central with the opening of three new taco shops early in 2021, and by the end of 2021, the addition of two more. In trending Tijuana-style birria tacos, shredded braised beef brisket soaked with red braising broth is served with a cup on the side for dipping. Opinions on the area “best” vary widely, but La Capital wins the popularity contest thanks to the graffiti art in the former taxi rank and their fresh birria, al pastor and Baja-style fish tacos from chef Yair De La Rosa, a native of Mexico City.
Plates of shareable Southeast Asian fare, vivid with fresh herbs and bold flavors characterizes the food at Good Night in Woodstock. It is a sibling of the Nordic-Asian-fusion restaurant Silvia, also in Woodstock.
Good Night 15 Rock City Road, Woodstock 845-684-7373 and goodnightwoodstock.com
A late addition to the dining scene, having only opened in December, Good Night, from the team behind Silvia’s in Woodstock, nailed the mood with people wanting to gather in a beautiful setting to share comfort food with family and friends. The result is food to spoon and share, a selection of Southeast Asian dishes in a parade of spices in notes of lemongrass and lime leaf with prickles of chile and a brass section of basil, perilla and cilantro galore. But it was their pristine, briny Sassy oysters paired with a fluffy cream of whipped chile lime leaf and coconut that still lingers in my mind. A half dozen and a beautifully balanced cocktail in the stunning dining room that evokes old Hollywood glamor makes this one of my favorite dining experiences of 2021.
Award-winning food and drinks writer and longtime TU dining critic, Susie Davidson Powell, has covered the upstate dining scene for a decade. She writes weekly reviews, a monthly cocktail column and the biweekly e-newsletter The Food Life. Susie has received national awards for food criticism from the Society of Features Journalism and served as a 2020 James Beard Awards judge for New York state. You can reach her at thefoodlifeTU@gmail.com and follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefoodlife.co