Page 48 - Westchester Magazine - January 2011

FOOD DINING
IF THERE'S ONE THING YOU CAN SAY ABOUT THE COUNTY—IT'S THAT WE EAT WELL, THANKS TO THESE LOCAL RESTAURANTS.
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ABERDEEN
White Plains (914) 288-0188
It’s hard to find truly authen- tic Chinese food in Westchester. We’re grateful to Aberdeen
for saving us from the sugary Americanized dishes with its traditional Cantonese fare. (It serves some great Sichuan plates, too.) Aberdeen has turned dim sum from something that should only be done in New York City’s Chinatown to a local must.
BUFFET DE LA GARE
Hastings on Hudson (914) 478-1671 buffetdelagareny.com
Mais, oui! If you’re looking for a Paris sojourn on a staycation budget, stop into Hastings-on- Hudson’s intimate French bijou. With its tin ceilings, candles, and plenty of glinting mirrors, you’ll think you’ve stepped onto the Belle Époque Rive Gauche. Yet instead of absinthe and Gauloises, all you scent is luscious cassoulet, prepared with love by the expert hands of Chef Gwenael Goulet.
CAPTAIN LAWRENCE BREWERY
Pleasantville
(914) 741-2337 captainlawrencebrewing.com
Move over, Brooklyn—your brewery has nothing on ours. (Especially when you con-
sider that many of the Brooklyn Brewery’s beers are actually made in—gasp!—Utica.) The Captain Lawrence Brewery’s six year-round and 11 seasonal brews all come straight from Pleasantville. And they’re good enough to be served in restaurants like BLT, Crabtree’s
Kittle House, and Peter Pratt’s Inn. What’s even better is the way brewer Scott Vaccaro gets
the community excited about his creations. Need proof? Try one of the (free) weekend brewery tours, beer dinners, or tastings he hosts around town.
CANDLELIGHT INN
Scarsdale (914) 472-9706
To say that the Candlelight has developed a following for its wings is to make an egregious under- statement. From the sweet teriya- ki to the tear-up-if-you-smell-'em Chernobyl hot wings, Candlelight wings are more of an obsession. Local college students have con- fided (or is it declared loudly?) they crave the plump little treats more than a home-cooked meal. High school students make late- night take-out runs, and barflies and families alike pack the dining room (and it’s not for the décor). It’s no surprise, then, that the
bar goes through 6,000 to 7,000 pounds of its wings every week. We could go for a pound or two right now.
CHUTNEY MASALA INDIAN BISTRO Irvington
(914) 591-5500 chutneymasalabistro.com
This isn’t your mother’s curry house. Gone is the kitschy sitar- and-sari shtick of endless South Asian spots—Chef Navjot Arora’s Indian restaurant alludes to his Punjab roots with style. Its brick walls are lined with Raj-era pho- tos, which perfectly illustrate
the confluence of British and Indian cultures. Similarly, Arora’s
menu makes thoughtful dips into Western culture (like gin-perfumed cocktails). We especially love sum- mer evenings at Chutney Masala, when Arora takes his tandoor oven outside and demonstrates his fierce tandoor skills by the Hudson.
CITY LIMITS DINER
White Plains (914) 686-9000 Stamford, CT (203) 348-7000 citylimitsdiner.com
If your idea of diners is stainless-steel lunch counters and greasy spoons, then you
will marvel at City Limits, Westchester’s favorite family restaurant. Imagine a bogglingly democratic menu that offers something for everyone in
your family, where house-made pastas yield to steaks, great sea- food, sandwiches, wraps, burg- ers and house-baked desserts. (In fact, even in the back of the house, City Limits is a family af- fair: not only are its owners the famed Livanos family, but Tracy Kamperdyk Assue flips pastries while her husband, Peter Assue, mans the pans.) Plus, its cool, '50s inflected décor and Atomic Age color scheme manages to be fun without ever feeling hokey.
CRABTREE’S KITTLE HOUSE
Chappaqua
(914) 666-8044; kittlehouse.com
The country house that Crabtree’s Kittle House inhabits is more than 200 years old, and the Crabtree family has been serving some of the best pro- gressive American cuisine in it since 1981—and things have kept on improving since then. (We adore the airy lightness
in the new, spruced-up dining
room.) County oenophiles know it as home to the most extensive wine list around—try 6,000 bottles, out of 65,000 in the cellar—which is varied and im- pressive enough to have earned the restaurant the Wine Spectator Grand Award and Award of Great Distinction.
COCOA
Larchmont
(914) 834-6464 cocoachocolateshop.com
We’re distrustful of people
who claim not to like chocolate, and we’d bet that one of Angela Ingrao’s guilty-pleasure-worthy chocolate barks can make con- verts out of them. She starts with Belgian chocolate (dark, milk, or white) and mixes in a host of oth- er tasty (and, often, surprising) add-ins: marshmallow and graham crackers, sea salt and lavender, chipotle and cayenne peppers,
or gummy bears. Her mixtures
can satisfy a sweet tooth, a spicy tooth, a sour tooth, and pretty much any other taste sensation you may crave.
COFFEE LABS ROASTERS
Tarrytown
(914) 332-1479 web.mac.com/coffeelabsroasters
Starbucks: The Brand officially jumped the shark when it opened more outlets than there are U.S. mailboxes. We, in Westchester, would rather get our caffeine
fix from Coffee Labs Roasters, because—unlike Starbucks—this Tarrytown nook roasts its beans onsite. In fact, it’s so dug into the neighborhood that the shop actu- ally nourishes our soil—Coffee Labs Roasters composts its coffee
46 / JANUARY 2011 / WWW.WESTCHESTERMAGAZINE.COM
PHOTO ON OPPOSITE PAGE BY ANDRE BARANOWSKY