There’s really no bad time to hit up a Hudson Valley eatery; there are, however, best times. Here’s a guide to specials, happy hours, and handy spots for a drink and a bite, loosely organized from northwest to southeast.
WEST OF THE HUDSON
BIG INDIAN
Drop in at THE PEEKAMOOSE for the latest lowdown on their slow-food yummies. Open till midnight on Friday and Saturday; the kitchen is open till 10. They have the fire going year-round for roasted marshmallow fun! 
PHOENICIA
At the SPORTSMAN’S ALAMO CANTINA, you can indulge your Mexican or pizza craving in style alongside ice cold craft draft. Taco Tuesday’s is the day for $1 tacos and $3 and $4 margaritas.
THE PHOENICIAN serves up fine steaks, seafood, and Italian. On Sundays, they serve up a house-ground burger and tasting flight; Wednesdays are steak house nights (save room for homemade dessert), and Thursdays they make a zuppe de pesce for two.
TAVERN 214’s extensive menu of small plates—always made with fresh and seasonal ingredients—goes exceptionally well with their smart wine list, craft beers, and artisanal cocktails. Every day is special here.
MOUNT TREMPER
Stop in at the CATSKILL ROSE for the latest in seasonal and artisanal and/or a little something from the bar. They’ve got starters like tomato bacon fondue and Moroccan-spiced lamb meatballs.
The Emerson's new WOODNOTES GRILLE is inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's literary work "Woodnotes" and the forever wild Catskill Park. Woodnotes Grille is a beautiful casual restaurant that believes in serving responsible healthy food with a focus on local and craft food and beverages. They also have an awesome "Happier Hour" with $2 Tallboys, $4 drafts, $6 wine and mixed drink specials and $5 appetizers including Sopes and Fried Chicken (like your Mom WISHED she could make)! Monday-Friday, 5-7 p.m.
WOODSTOCK
Every hour is a happy hour at the COMMUNE SALOON. How could it be any other way? They’ve got it all right here, from a gorgeous patio with picnic tables where you can nibble naked cowboy oysters around a fire pit. There’s often something special going on too.
Experience the legacy of the legendary Dutch Pull coffee at ORIOLE 9, where Jessica keeps the blackboard bursting with fresh-from-the-garden specials. It’s a loungy, laid-back place where you’ll probably catch the latest art show and other surprises.
YUM YUM NOODLE BAR (Woodstock) serves gluten-free Asian street food on a Catskills bluestone patio. Customize your noodle bowl with noodle, broth, and protein choices, then do the same with your beverage at the Bubble Bar. Strawberry rhubarb seltzer, anyone? How about passion fruit prosecco?
SAUGERTIES
Check out the daily seasonal market menu at MISS LUCY’S KITCHEN. They’re constantly coming up with creative new blends of local ingredients. Check misslucyskitchen.com for daily specials, the drink of the week, and current menus.
The creators of Miss Lucy’s are also behind ‘CUE, a seasonal outdoor barbecue shack. Come on down for sticky fingers, saucy faces, and big grins washed down with a rotating list of microbrews. Here, too, the menu adapts to bring you all the local farmy things at their peak of perfection, and there’s free live music on Fridays and Saturdays.
Head in to Black-Eyed Suzie's for delicious, healthy choices for brunch, dinner, sweets, and special drinks. Dine in the cozy, sun-drenched seating area at the new cafe, stock your fridge from the family-style takeaway menu
KINGSTON
CHEESE LOUISE is a foodie haven. Here you will find a wide selection of the planet’s finest cheeses (several are on special and available for tasting each day) and other gourmet edibles, like fresh soups, smoked fish, fine oils and vinegars, and more.
THE HICKORY BBQ and Smokehouse has happy hour every weekday from 4-6:30pm, with $3 Bud or Michelob, $4 craft brews, and bottle and drink specials accompanied by a bar menu featuring treats like BBQ nachos, rib tips, and sourdough onion rings.
YUM YUM (Kingston) offers constantly changing lunch and cocktail specials. $12 bento boxes and $8 “Fair Street specials” are different everyday. Happy hour food and drink specials from 3-6pm. Stop in for something summery and refreshing to complement the fine Thai flavors.
DIEGO’S TAQUERIA is always coming up with new, creative taco specials to incorporate into their carefully sourced array of Mexican street food. Drinks are $1 off from 5-8pm each day, and they’ve got a fine selection of craft beer and wine.
DUO BISTRO is art-lined, comfy, and delicious. On Mondays and Tuesdays between 5:30pm and 9pm, you can enjoy three courses for $30; Thursday night (same hours) is $25/bottle wine night.
Chill outside with drinks at Ecce Terra in the heart of Uptown Kingston’s historic district. Enjoy their house-made spicy sausage or Mediterranean specialties like grape leaves with tzatziki and halloumi cheese. They’re perfect accompaniments to sipping a drink and watching passersby.
Try Hoffman House, circa 1679 stone house serves traditional American fare with some British touches, like beef and Yorkshire pudding. Sit on the covered patio or at a lawn table by their fountain garden while sipping a cocktail from the full bar. Lunch and dinner are also served on the lawn, and a tavern menu is available.
At THE TAPPEN, they serve up the latest in New American and Northern Californian in a lovely historic setting. Come see what Chef Dan can do with Napa Valley meets Hudson Valley. Fridays between 5-6pm you’ll get ten percent off.
MARINER’S HARBOR is an Ulster County seafood institution. Tuesday through Friday, get a dollar off your bar drink until 6pm; on $5 Fridays, you’ll find a selection of five food items and five cocktails for that price starting at 5pm. (They like fives.) And if you show up to celebrate your birthday, they’ll give you up to $20 off your entrée.
The KINGSTON CANDY BAR offers “nostalgic sweets and Hudson Valley treats,” things you crave on a summer night: hot dogs, grilled cheese, chili, nachos, soft pretzels, and popcorn. The convenient, late hours come in handy, as they are neighbors to the popular music venue BSP. Your inner child will turn cartwheels.
The newly opened OLE SAVANNAH SOUTHERN TABLE and Bar offers authentic Southern and BBQ cuisine with a modern flair, served on the fabulous waterfront. Think you know all there is to know about bacon and eggs? How about homemade deviled eggs sprinkled with smoked paprika and served with applewood-smoked bacon?
RONDOUT VALLEY
MARBLETOWN
THE HIGH FALLS CAFÉ rocks happy hour on Tuesday-Friday from 4-7pm, with a dollar off all drinks. On Tuesdays, get a free domestic beer with your half-burger (or that amount of credit toward an import or a glass of wine).
Wednesdays are wing-and-pasta night starting at 5pm, and you won’t find better company. The second Thursday of the month is open-mic night, and live music is a regular thing.
ASIA in Stone Ridge offers a full spectrum of Eastern delicacies: choose between Chinese, sushi, and Thai options. There are long lists of daily luncheon and dinner specials to eat in or take out, as well as a full bar.
LEKKER, a mighty tasty place offering a constantly refreshed menu of eats and specialty cocktails each day. Be sure to try their new style ice creams and ice pops, with flavors like cucumber-lime with chili lime salt and avocado-lime-jalepeno.
HIGH FALLS KITCHENETTE has Margarita Mondays, featuring special house margaritas: the Ole, with muddled jalapeno; Fruity (your choice of strawberry, blackberry, blueberry or cantaloupe), and Spicy Ginger. Frozen, up, or on the rocks, they’re just $5 each all day long.
LYDIA’S is serious about their happy hour, which happens Wednesday-Friday from 4-6pm with a long list of $5 food specials, like crab cakes, grilled shrimp and sliders! Wednesday is Mexican night, Thursday is pizza night, and Friday is duck night. They have live music with smoked ribs on alternating Saturdays.
The beloved Norther Spy is now open again as Spy Café! Savor old favorites like their signature free-range tofu wings or the Spy Burger while enjoying a drink on their beautifully lit enclosed patio under the trees.
ROSENDALE
THE GARDEN HOUSE 12472 serves up pizza-and-beer night on Wednesdays. Buy a beer, and get $3 off a pizza that’s straight from their wood-fired oven. This is not just any old pizza; choices include goat chevre, savory fig, and winter squash, prepared on Middle Eastern Pide flat bread.
THE 1850 HOUSE INN AND TAVERN serves great eats and drinks out back on their spacious deck overlooking the Rondout Creek. The innkeepers love to throw a good party and do it exceptionally well. They’ve got some fun summer plans in the works so keep on the lookout.
ACCORD
IVAN’S at the Rondout Valley Golf Club has weekly & weekend specials on both dinners and drinks; $1 off draft beers and cosmos, for example. Starting around 5pm on weekends, you’ll find discounted wings and bar eats. Sunday, they do an early bird special: soup, salad, entrée, and dessert for $12.95. You never know what the next special event might be.
If you're looking for the place that feels like you just walked into CHEERS, you've found it with Mike the bartender at Friends and Family II Hillside.
KRUMVILLE
THE COUNTRY INN can make any hour you spend there a happy one. Tucked up in the hills, with a lovingly crafted menu and over 500 different bottled beers and an outdoor fire pit often with live local music, it’s like visiting a beloved relative who happens to own an inn.
ELLENVILLE
THE PUBLIK HOUSE is a fine family pub in the heart of Ellenville. Monday, it’s happy hour all day long. Tuesday is 60 cent wing night. On Wednesday, you’ll get 15 percent off your check. Thursday is shrimp boil night with beer bucket specials. On Friday, get 20% off your bottle of wine. Saturday it’s $2 off your burger (and more beer buckets), and Sunday features “Liquid Brunch” with unlimited drink specials and build-your-own hot dogs. Plus, they have happy hour from 4-6pm every day!
WALLKILL VALLEY
NEW PALTZ
JAR’D WINE PUB has a daily happy hour featuring $1 off wines by the glass and draught beers and free popcorn from 3 to 6pm, Monday through Friday. Sundays they offer $5 mimosas and $5 draught beer & wines by the glass for colleagues in the service industry and 15% off for Mohonk Preserve Members. Mondays, play New Paltz trivia.
Longtime New Paltz standout BACCHUS has billiards and a patio, and it’s a special place to hang out anytime. If you’re looking for a late bite, Bacchus serves late night apps till 11pm Sunday through Wednesday and till 1am on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On Fridays and Saturdays, they have live bands, and their happy hour and special nights are so numerous you’ll have to check the board to the left!
MAIN COURSE has been using sustainable and local ingredients long before most folks had heard of such things. Taste their daily sangrias, specialty beers, and mixed drinks. Come for Sunday brunch, featuring mimosas and the best Bloody Mary in town.
Go for a nibble and a sip at Brooklyn Cider House. Twin Star Orchards is the sustainable source for this hard cider business. Nosh on brick oven pizza, small-farm burgers, or baked goods while sipping on hard cider
Garvan’s Gastropub sits on one of the valley’s most beautiful streets: Huguenot Street. Enjoy a fine dinner and an inventive cocktail on Garvan’s patio overlooking the perfectly manicured lawns of New Paltz Golf Course. Named after owner Garvan McCloskey, this place has some of the best Guinness you will taste in the US.
GARDINER
TUTHILLHOUSE AT THE MILL is serving up some of the best specialty cocktails around, thanks to their bartender Darren. Join them for Hand-Crafted Thursdays! Enjoy a hand-crafted cocktail and flatbread for just $20 on their covered patio, by the bar, or at a table.
CAFÉ MIO is an outstanding place to grab breakfast or lunch, with creative and crafty offerings like a lobster scramble and a Greek-style lamb sandwich. They have a constantly shifting array of blackboard specials.
Grab a seat at Gardiner Liquid Mercantile, the farm bar and order a cocktail made of completely local ingredients. Or, maybe you want a local beer or glass of wine. It is all local here, with front porch seating fit for a stop after an outdoor adventure.
MILTON/MARLBORO
FRIDA’S offers different mouthwatering specials everyday. They also feature a different salad, quiche, and soup daily. The best part though, is their “funky grilled cheese of the day”. With a variety of cheeses and extras, the possibilities are endless.
HENRY’S AT THE FARM, located at the Buttermilk Falls Inn and Spa, offers creative eats and thirsty Thursday drink specials with house-grown concoctions like the Buttermilk Burro (see photo): rum, Millstone Farm honey, and citrus, topped off with ginger beer. Come for a spa day, stay for a bite, and a sip
THE FALCON offers free live music over Sunday brunch, and there’s always something worth seeing in the gallery. For just $12, you can add bottomless mimosas to your garden omelet or stuffed French toast.
EAST OF THE HUDSON
RHINEBECK
TERRAPIN offers outstanding deals on Industry Night, starting at 10pm Monday: $5 well drinks, $5 shots, $3-$5 draft beers, and $5 chicken wings or half orders of nachos to employees of the hospitality industry and friends. Other specials change with the seasons, but it’s all exceptional.
OSAKA JAPANESE RESTAURANT actually has two locations, one in Rhinebeck and one in Tivoli. At either one, you’ll get the premiere, Zagat-rated Hudson Valley sushi experience. Try the Osaka roll.
POUGHKEEPSIE
Experience the beating, tasty heart of Poughkeepsie’s revitalization at the ARTIST PALATE BISTRO AND WINE BAR. Every two months, they hang a new show in the gallery; the cuisine is fresh and creative, with veggie and gluten-free options.
BEACON
THE HOP is introducing craft cocktails this summer to complement its revolving selection of 16 craft drafts and good old-fashioned growlers to bring them home in, along with hundreds of bottled varieties. The food is seasonal and artisanal; the beer’s the driving passion.
Expect the unexpected on Monday nights at POPPY’S BURGERS. That’s when the high-spirited host gets a little wild with a veritable roulette wheel of different menus, drinks, and music. You just never know what you may come across on Mondays at Poppy’s, but you can rest assured you’ll find incomparable burgers and fries.
Head in to Baja 328 offers the finest authentic Southwestern
food coupled with an amazing 110-plus tequilas,
the largest selection in the area.
