Page 18 - The Valley Table - January/February 2021

Ollie’s Pizza
4 Bruceville Rd, High Falls
845.687.3464; ollies.pizza
Housed in a restored, 150-year-old, black-timber-frame barn, Ollie’s Pizza slings crispy, wood-fired pies in High Falls. CIA-trained chef and partner Frank Pinello of Williamsburg’s acclaimed Best Pizza consulted on the menu, which includes 14-inch New York-meets-Neapolitan and square Grandma pies. Made with flour grown and milled in the Hudson Valley, the pizzas feature organic, high-quality ingredients that are sourced from local farms and producers or imported from Italy.
There are just three signature pies: a classic Margherita, an anchovy-laden tomato pie, and a three-cheese white pie with jammy caramelized onions and toasted sesame seeds. Customize your order with add-on toppings, including classic sausage and pepperoni, as well as Calabrian chili, pickled jalapeños, pesto, shallots, vegan cheese, and more.
A short selection of “Not a Pizza” items includes a seasonal salad, a wood-fired vegetable of the day, and ice cream sandwiches from family-run Boice Bros. Dairy in Kingston. (There’s also coffee and baked goods served daily from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
The all-natural wine list features only organically or biodynamically produced bottles, while beer and cider mixes local craft selections, like Sloop Juice Bomb and Graft Farm Flor Cider, with affordable $4 Narragansett tall boys.
—Samantha Garbarini Pizzeria open Thurs–Sun, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.
Sonder
610 Warren St, Hudson
sonderhudson.com
Earlier this year, 30-year-old Daniel Bagnall found himself at a career crossroads. After six years cooking with The Oberon Group, which operates hip, natural-wine-focused Brooklyn spots, including June Wine Bar, Bagnall left the city and came up to the Hudson Valley. After stumbling across a narrow, vacant space on Warren Street in Hudson, he took the plunge and opened Sonder, one of the year’s most exciting new restaurants.
The whitewashed wine bar features roughly 30 natural selections, like Catalonian skin-contact wines, slightly chilled French reds, or rose pét-nat from Slovenia. (By-the- glass drinkers pick a style and get a pour of that day’s picks.)
There’s a locally sourced cheese, charcuterie, and pickle plate, but where Bagnall really wows is with his selection of sharing-ready, vegetable-forward dishes. Craggy, crunchy pieces of cucumber soak up a magic elixir of Seed + Mill tahini, honey-infused Catskill Provisions cider vinegar, and sweet currants. Half moons of delicata squash sit atop a swoosh of slightly bitter, wholly addictive, burnt-garlic aioli. And, thin links of lamb merguez sausage spill their fragrant juices onto slices of brown-butter-soaked house-made focaccia, the whole mess topped with a refreshing tangle of celery and green apple.
If that’s not enough to entice, Sonder also plans to host guest chef dinners and themed pop-up nights.
—SG
Open Tues–Sat, 3–10 p.m.
16 the valley table jan – feb 2021
photos by josh goleman (ollie’s); by briana balducci (sonder)