Page 24 - Valley Table - Spring 2023

of sauce, with all of the flavors there, which is a chef’s dream.” Holland calls them “takos” to differentiate his creations from the traditional food.
In addition to the takos, Holland serves dumplings (shrimp and Thai basil, pork and black bean, and chicken and ginger) and small plates that run the gamut from Laotian larb gai (lettuce
cups with ground chicken)
to yakitori to cast iron curry. There’s also a full bar with artfully crafted cocktails, like the Matcha Libre—a refreshing mix of green tea shōchū (Japanese hard liquor made from grains and vegetables), house matcha syrup, lime, yuzu soda, fresh mint, and Jarritos tamarind soda.
“Kantina is Asian food
done in a whimsical way,”
says Holland. “I’d like to show people that there’s a lot more to [it] than Korean fried chicken and Chinese takeout.”
Kantina
4 Depot Square, Sparkill kantinany.com \ 845.366.3530
22 TheValleyTable | March—May2023
Korean hot chicken tako (above) and char siu yakitori (below).
The Lemon Squeeze
Two New Paltz alums return to their old stomping grounds to open an upscale piano bar named after one of their favorite hikes. BY MEGAN WILSON
● Who
Former AMC chief operating officer Ed Carroll and his wife screenwriter Gina O’Brien opened The Lemon Squeeze last December. With the help of Carroll’s extended family—who have years of restaurant experience, including general manager Kevin Kopacko and bar manager Ryan Martin—the couple has created a sophisticated, but not uptight, piano bar. (Current and former students might recognize the couple’s names from a plaque on a bench on the academic concourse that reads “Where Ed met Gina.”) After graduating from SUNY New Paltz in 1985 and 1986, respectively, the pair visited the college town many times to vacation at Mohonk Mountain House and hike the famed Lemon Squeeze—a challenging trail of ladders, rock scrambles, and tight spaces that turns you into
a “human lemon.” In 2019, they purchased a weekend home near campus, and in 2021, the bar project began.
● What
Kopacko describes the menu and the concept at The Lemon Squeeze as a “casual approach to fine dining
in an upscale atmosphere.” That translates to a raw
bar with shrimp cocktail and oysters, entrées such as Thai curry-crusted salmon with avocado butter, grilled haricots verts, and black rice, and steak served with Grand Marnier butternut squash purée, and smoked potatoes. The full bar serves up all the usuals, but Kopacko recommends the bestselling Smoking Jacket (mezcal, pomegranate syrup, lime juice, egg white, and smoked rosemary) and the Final Squeeze (vodka, Lillet, gin, lemon honey, and lemon).
●Why
Carroll and O’Brien, who’ve always loved New Paltz’s
bars—Bacchus, Snug Harbor, and P&G’s have been around since before they were students—felt the area was missing a place where locals and students could
PHOTOS COURTESY OF KANTINA