|
|
|
new vegan restaurant
Friday, February 26 2016
[REDACTED]
Early in the afternoon, Gretchen and I drove into Kingston to look at a couple houses near our Wall Street rental south of Uptown. The first place we saw was near the north end of Wilbur Avenue, which follows a ravine down to the Rondout. Even in its uppermost part, the terrain around Wilbur is lumpy and uneven, forcing whoever built the lots to also build retaining walls. The house we'd come to see sat behind a retaining wall that seemed to be in the process of failing, leaning as it did out over the sidewalk. The house itself was on what appeared to be a solid foundation, though its front porch and overhanging attic was on concrete piers that had apparently sunk three or four inches, warping the whole house downward in the front. That was one of several problems with the house, which was nevertheless on the market for $116,000, more than the significantly larger and much-more orthogonal house we'd bought on Wall Street. Nevertheless, the rent being charged its present tenants is $1200/month, only $100 less than what we're charging the tenants of that house. It's in a nice neighborhood, so there is that, but we wouldn't pay more than $70,000 for it. I should mention that we were shown the house by a lady realtor with a hairdo straight out of 1982. (We'd dealt with her once before.)
The second house we looked at (it was just a drive-by) was on Van Deusen Street, which is still decided in "da hood" of Midtown Kingston. It was a beautiful house on a large lot, but some of the neighboring houses are abandoned and there is significant trash in the street, suggesting it isn't yet worth the six figures it is on the market for. But if this same house had been on the north end of Wilbur, we would have totally made an offer.
This evening Gretchen and I wanted to check out a new vegan restaurant in Tivoli called Plantae (the final "e" is backwards in the logo). Gretchen had arranged for us to ride with Mark and Maresa from Maresa's place on Lucas Avenue in Kingston, so we drove down there a little after 6:00pm. We were greeted at the door by three dogs: Maresa's dog Lydia, a big black Lab-shepherd mix named Lucky, and a poofy little curly-haired white terrier named Cosmo. Cosmos is an insecure weirdo, while Lucky doesn't think about much other than retrieving things.
We rode up to Tivoli in Mark's Prius, which has heated front seats. I have such seats in the Subaru, and they're not usually a useful feature, but today there had been a return of polar-vortex-related cold, and they definitely improved the ride for me (in the front passenger seat).
Plantae is in the same space as the old, now-defunct vegetarian restaurant called Luna 61, which had been in steep decline the last time Gretchen and I ate there. Maresa had a story from the period of Luna 61's collapse wherein the waitress/owner refused to bring water to her table because she was late to a reservation. Then that waitress/owner provided such slow service that Maresa and her party missed the play they'd intended to see.
We were seated upstairs at a six-person table near a group of Bard professors, one of whom Gretchen vaguely knew from her days with the Bard Prison Initiative. Gretchen eventually had a long conversation on this topic during the period when we were ordering our food.
Eventually we were joined by Roy & Cathy, the folks who run the falafel stand we love so much. Between the six of us, we'd brought three bottles of wine and an imperial IPA, since Plantae does not yet have a liquor license.
The food was great, nearly on the level of well-known vegan restaurants in Manhattan. I especially liked the hearty vegetable soup (which was more of a stew) and the chili. Unfortunately, I thought my mushroom taco was kind of flavorless and (I know this going to sound like a Jewish mother complaint) and small. Also, Plantae isn't familiar enough with chemical heat for my liking; their only hot sauce is a mild organic sriracha that I might normally use as a dipping sauce. One further issue is the price, which, though not as high as it would be in Manhattan, is a little out of place in Tivoli. The concern is that the restaurant might not be viable when a no-drink meal for two comes to $75.
While we were there, we noticed our friends Jasmin and Mary Ann took a table downstairs. Their upstate place is in nearby Germantown, so they probably come to Plantae a lot.
[REDACTED]
Gretchen and I hung out for a little while back at Maresa's place after the meal while Mark repeatedly tossed a toy for Lucky to fetch. We talked about a number of things, including the idea I've had for perhaps transitioning from writing web code to making copper lamps. The question, as always, is how much to charge, and how to manufacture them efficiently. Maresa, who makes a living cranking out vegan macarons, talked at some length about the joys of developing efficient baking procedures.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?160226 feedback
previous | next |
