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Historic Hudson Valley |
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Directions that we took from our East Side Apartment: FDR drive North to Major Deegan Expressway, which becomes NY State Thruway (87 North). Proceed on 87 to Exit 9 “Tarrytown” (last exit before the Tappan Zee Bridge). At exit to traffic light, left onto 119 West. At the bottom of the hill, turn right onto Route 9 North. At third traffic light, right onto Benedict Avenue. At fourth light right into the Castle driveway. Continue all the way up the drive to The Castle .
It began with a phone call from my daughter Maggie. What are we going to do for Mom’s birthday? A perfectly reasonable question, but even more pertinent since this year would be the big Seven-0 for Alice on March 12. Bermuda would have been an excellent choice but we had been there, done that to celebrate my 75th in August of 2006. “How about Mohonk?” she suggested, alluding to the fabled Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York, tucked in the Hudson Valley, some 90 minutes drive time from New York. “Great idea,” I responded. I had been impressed with the place while attending a wedding there, but had received mixed feedback from friends on the rooms. So I dutifully phoned the resort and got more recorded phone “prompts” than when attempting to obtain technical support from AOL. (Coincidentally, we’re going to experience Mohonk, since we’ll be staying there, courtesy of my sister-in-law Linda and brother-in-law Mort in the summer, in honor of our 50th anniversary). And then it hit me. Last August, just before departing for Bermuda, our friends Sandy and Fred De Filipis had taken us to a lovely restaurant in celebration of my diamond birthday, at a place called Castle on the Hudson in Tarrytown, New York. The restaurant was called Equus and we had a delightful brunch, with bend-over-backwards service, in a storybook, medieval-like setting. Frankly I wasn’t sure they had accommodations there, and if so, how many rooms? So I checked out the web site, sent and e-mail, and it was my good fortune to hear back in short order from the General Manager Gilbert Baeriswil.
On Saturday, March 10, the signal day of the surprise, everything and everybody worked to near-perfection … excepting me. Unbeknown to Alice, who anticipated a quiet celebratory dinner for just the two of us, Maggie and Bob, James and Lily checked into their room in early afternoon, while Jon and Jaimie checked into one room while Abigail, Jessica and Zachary checked into another at 5 pm, ample time to greet us at the appointed time of 7:15 p.m. in the Equus. Having recently endured a calamitous experience on the Major Deegan Expressway heading north in which we were stuck in traffic from the Triboro to Yankee Stadium for 2 ½ hours, I determined that I would rent a Hertz car at 5 pm, and pick Alice up at 5:45 to allow sufficient time for the all but inevitable Saturday traffic delays on both the Deegan and on the New York State Thruway (coupled with my propensity for getting lost). Well here we are on the Deegan, which to my chagrin, is so devoid of traffic, it resembles the Bonneville Salt Flats, with “don’t-try-this-at-home” drivers to the left of me, drivers to the right of me, thundering by, horns honking, punctuated by road rage grimaces directed at me as I chug along at a tortoise –like 40 mph. “What the %&^)# is the matter with you?“ came the voice from the passenger side. “You’re 15 miles under the limit.” I could see she didn’t buy my reply that I was trying to conserve on gas, so I wouldn’t have to spend precious time scouting for a service station in Manhattan before the doors at Hertz would close at 11 p.m.” Well since, that prevarication didn’t wash, I tried, “what do you say we stop off at Stu Leonard’s (a renowned gourmet food store) and pick up some bagels and nova for breakfast?” That didn’t work either, nor did any not-so-subtle attempt at getting lost. As a consequence, I rolled into the Castle’s entranceway at 6:45 pm, some 30 minutes before the appointed hour. As we entered the reception area, two propitious things happened: 1) Alice had to use the ladies’ room and 2) we were greeted warmly in the lobby by Mr. Gilbert Baeriswil himself. That gave me a chance to put Plan I and Plan II into action. “Gilbert, when Alice comes out, please apologize profusely to us and advise that because of our early arrival, the table could not be ready for another half-hour. And to mollify us for the delay, would we do him the courtesy of being his guests at the General’s Bar until the table was ready? And Gilbert, while we’re imbibing, please call my kids in their rooms and ask them to head for our table at 7 pm sharp.” So we proceeded to sit at this handsomely elaborate bar, with Alice sipping a Chardonnay and me having an oversized shaken-not-stirred Bombay Sapphire Martini, secure in the knowledge that I need not concern myself with any lingering effects of the oversized cocktail, since we would we would not be driving until the morning. “Your table is ready, Mr. and Mrs. Drucker. “ The words belong to Oscar Valez, Equus Restaurant Captain and into the Oak Room with its Louis XIV trappings, we stride determinedly. The impressive Oak Room, features paneling brought from the original owner, General Carroll's house in St. Germain, outside of Paris. It is suggested that the house had been given by Louis XIV to James II when he was deposed in England and fled to France.
EQUUS RESTAURANT For a wonderful change-of-pace in an opulent atmosphere, I urge you to consider a drive to the Hudson Valley in any season. On the evening of Alice’s surprise party, Oscar Valez provided a table for 11 in a secluded part of the Oak Room. The service was impeccable, understandably, given the circumstances of our being there. But since that glorious occasion, I must say we have been responsible for a number of our friends who have played back their dining experiences there, all of whom were laudatory about the restaurant as we continue to be with repeat visits. The dinner is Prix Fixe, as are Brunch and Tea. Breakfast and Lunch are a la carte. For our Four-Course dinner, I had the luscious escargots in Garlic Parsley Butter (don’t breathe a word to my cardiologist), Alice the Maryland Cake with Mango Salsa while for the entrée I had the Pork Tenderloin with creamed white beans, and Alice, the Rack of Lamb. Of course we all enjoyed the special Castle Chocolate Birthday Cake with Berry Sauce, and the grandkids, the limitless assortment of ice cream and sorbets. I didn’t keep track of the others, but there were genuine raves about the Salmon, Tuna and Swordfish entrees and high praise for the total dinner experience, as we later gathered in our suite to recount the evening and count our blessings. How does one top the dinner? You can’t, but we came close, by reserving the Castle Library (a reasonable rental fee) and enjoying a sit-down breakfast in an atmosphere that the Rockefellers in their nearby Kykuit mansion must have experienced. As you can imagine, as New Yorkers, the smoked salmon, white fish and bagels and croissants had their advocates. Alice and the grandkids went for the pancakes, with or without strawberries and/or bananas. The Library holds up to 25, but for we eleven, we were treated royally by two excellent waiters.
Castle Luxury Suite.
Deluxe Double Queen Rooms. HISTORY An addition completed in 1910, provided the Great Hall with a new dining room, an adjacent pantry, a formal ballroom, and additional servants' quarters, garage and stables. Following General Carroll's death in 1916, his widow and children, Caramai, Arthur and Lauren, occupied the Castle until 1940, when it was rented for a brief period to a local school. After a year as a boy's boarding school, the property served as the headquarters of an investment counseling business before becoming a luxury hotel. In 1981, the town of Tarrytown designated the Castle a historic landmark, protecting the outside structure from ever being changed. Recent innovations include a fitness center, which my son-in-law Bob Feinberg availed himself of, pronouncing it fittingly as “state of the art,” tennis court and a heated outdoor pool. If there is one shortcoming of the hotel, it’s the lack of an indoor pool for winter visitors such as us. One compensating feature was a surrounding outdoor “Health Line” regimen of which hikers and fitness enthusiasts can avail themselves in brisk, mountain air, as Grandson James (below) deigned to do.
HISTORIC HUDSON VALLEY If staying at Castle on the Hudson, wasn’t a memorable destination in and of itself, there is the added bonus of visiting perhaps the greatest concentration of landmarks, minutes away from the Castle by auto. Though we were there in mid-March, I would suggest your heading to the region to experience the striking fall foliage, serving as the perfect backdrop of the magnificent estates. Of the more than 80 sites, the ones that should top your list are Washington Irving's Sunnyside, Philipsburg Manor, Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate, the stained glass windows by Matisse and Chagall at Union Church of Pocantico Hills, Van Cortlandt Manor and Montgomery Place. Kykuit, which I experienced the very first day it was open to the press in 1994, was shuttered in March and scheduled to re-open in May. We therefore determined to take three of our grandchildren to view Sunnyside and Philipsburg Manor. (The older two, Zach and Jessica, had to return their home in nearby Scarsdale to work on school projects).
WASHINGTON IRVING’S SUNNYSIDE
A gently curved path leads to the unpretentious home on bucolic grounds that Washington Irving designed in collaboration with his neighbor George Harvey. From this internationally praised man of letters there are intimations of Colonial New York and buildings he knew in Scotland and Spain. There is a lovely view of the Hudson River, idyllic to be sure, save for those times a Metro North train runs by on a track girding the coastline. A guide dressed in hoop skirts or formal dress of the time, takes you through the home of a man versed in art, nature and history. He arranged the garden paths, trees and shrubs and vistas, and a still-growing wisteria vine that envelops the house. Since many of Sunnyside’s furnishings remained in the family, a visit here is truly an authentic experience of mid-19th century life.
As Abby, Lily and James prepared to cross the bridge over the river into Philipsburg Manor, they were about to step back in time to 1750 when the manor was a farming, milling and trade center owned by a colonial family of Anglo-Dutch merchants, the Philipses. They rented land to tenant farmers of diverse European backgrounds and relied on a community of 23 African slaves to operate the complex. After crossing, the trio gathered in an open hearth kitchen and strolled through the farm to view historic breeds of oxen, cows, chicken and sheep (including this baby lamb born that very day).
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