A Teator pick led to one of Don’s favorites in the old days (Hartmann’s Kaffeehaus), now reshaped into Julia’s Local. Six of us had visited at least once before.

A tangent first: A few days before our dinner, the Albany Times-Union published their 50 Essential Restaurants in the Capital & Hudson River Districts. Note: it did not say Best, but Essential. Guess who was on the list? Julia’s. The blurb for it read:

Chef Henning Nordanger and owner Julia Joern make no compromises when it comes to fresh sourcing. Most of what’s on their Scandinavian-inspired, seasonal menu comes from their culinary garden, if not very nearby. The couple makes a particular effort to source their trout, which comes straight from a hatchery in Livingston Manor and is showcased in dishes like trout tartare, trout sashimi and a seared trout entree.

I am not sure how to describe the menu. It is different; the pr says Scandinavian-influenced. Here was our evening’s list.

Sharing Plates: ordered were the humungous popovers and a pate; not ordered were the deviled eggs

From the blue (appetizer) plate menu, and none ordered: rainbow trout sashimi, gravlaks, smoked white fish, two pates, and pork rillettes.

Salad: spinach and beets as an entrée; not ordered: a greens salad and an arugula

Entrees: ordered were short rib bourguignon, eggplant parmesan, skirt steak, tangine leg of lamb, Campanelli Farm chicken; not ordered: Beaverkill rainbow trout almondine, a farm plate, glazed pork belly, shiitake mushrooms and barley, and glazed duck leg confit.

Four desserts comprised the dessert list: ordered were chocolate pots de creme and the apple tarte tatin; not ordered were the Napoleon and lemon posset (Norwegian cookie)

The food was deemed good to excellent.

The drinks consisted of our usual array: g&t, draft beer, wine, soda, with water around. The draft beers list held some distinct choices. Even West Kill Brewery, a recent Teator visit, appeared.

We were seated in the side room, a former small private room, ready made for groups of six or eight. There are only about ten tables in the restaurant to start with. Jumping for attention from the start was the very ripe and withered eight-inch sunflower looking mound where the appetizer plate should go. It is the appetizer plate, turned over and blue, and thus the name blue plate on the menu where appetizer usually goes. Quality of plates, glasses, silverware are a definite notch above many other places. Water glasses not so much.

(below: the AI version of this paragraph)

We sat in the side room, formerly a small private dining space suited to groups of six or eight. The restaurant has only about ten tables altogether. What first caught our attention was the large, wilted, sunflower-like mound where an appetizer plate would normally sit. It was actually an upside-down blue appetizer plate—hence the menu’s term “blue plate.” The plates, glasses, and silverware were noticeably better than those at many restaurants; the water glasses were not.

The noise level was medium high. This was due to the piped in music, somewhat jazzy but definitely enough of a matter that we talked about ten decibels louder than we would have.

Service by Kaya was excellent, with a couple other servers assisting on delivery.

The final bill per couple ranged from the $100 to $160 range. Somewhat idiosyncratically, Julia’s menu prices seemed high at first glance but the tip is included. Subtract out the tip (20%?, never did find out) and my $38 entrée was closer to $31 and that seemed within a reasonable ballpark.

DP8 dates were selected for November and December.

Topics for the evening:

            No dominating one but with our usual range:

The Notars ongoing transition to  a new abode on Skyline Drive in Country Estates in Greenville, while prepping the listing for the long-lived-in one; the shortening daylight hours becoming noticeable; the Notars and Monteverds presenting their tentative departure dates to Florida; a canceled river cruise date on the Danube for the Notars; Ken’s health is holding steady, it seems – good news for all of us; Catskill Main Street’s almost-chaotic infrastructure re-construction is drawing to a close; Port of Call, Catskill, was sold, to mixed reviews from our table; the doings of our other DP8-mates; flower gardens making their last splash; CR 67 by the Teators being milled, with the resulting rough ride; Chay mowing both sides of Weed Road; Deb K’s Sweet Side taking a short and welcome breather; Deb T’s continuing GLP-1 trial; Deb T’s art class to the Poconos; acres of grass to be cut with visions of scaling back; SAT and ACT testing, something Chay has done for decades; more mah jongg; the doings of friends; recent deaths in the news; Columbus Day coming up, marking a visceral end-of-summer; a Greenville local history calendar; and more that has escaped my grasp.