Millerton’s Avocado Cafe opens second location in Amenia

Millerton’s Avocado Cafe opens second location in Amenia
Following almost six years in the village of Millerton, Avocado Cafe recently expanded its business by opening a new location at 4789 Route 22 in Amenia this past December.
Photo by Kaitlin Lyle

AMENIA — Almost six years since it first opened in Millerton to offer the community a taste of authentic Mexican cuisine, Avocado Cafe recently expanded its business in northeastern Dutchess County by opening up a second location in Amenia.

As owner and operator of the Avocado Cafe, Ivan Carrera said he was originally drawn to the idea of opening up a cafe in Millerton when he saw that there were few Mexican eateries around, and he wanted to try to open a place that would cook authentic Mexican food.

“We wanted to open with good food and fast service,” Carrera said. “We wanted to try to make good food and fast food at the same time.”

This coming May will mark the sixth anniversary of the Avocado Cafe’s opening in Thompson Plaza, located at 208 Route 44 in Millerton. From the tasty range of burritos to the more traditional Mexican dishes, customers have been delighted by all of the menu’s offerings — particularly the beef and pork dishes — and when the COVID-19 pandemic reached the village, customers offered the cafe their support by ordering take out.

“We always try our best to please our customers,” Carrera said. “They keep us open.”

Though the cafe was initially affected by the pandemic by a drop in revenue and orders, he said customers have now seen that the cafe is following all COVID-19 safety protocols (requiring face masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, social distancing, etc.), and they are now more comfortable coming into the cafe. That said, the cafe is still only offering take-out only at this time.

Given the positive feedback he received from customers in Millerton, Carerra said he started to think about expanding before the pandemic struck. Believing the pandemic wouldn’t last forever, Carerra said he and his employees felt encouraged to move to south to Amenia, which is in the same plaza as the popular and long-time seasonal ice cream stand, Fudgy’s, on Route 22. He emphasized that he hasn’t closed his Millerton location, which continues to operate in Thompson Plaza seven days a week from noon to 8 p.m.

After two months of renovations that started this past fall, Avocado Cafe opened at 4789 Route 22 in Amenia on Saturday, Dec. 26. 

Though the new cafe features the same menu as the Millerton Avacado Cafe, Carrera said the Amenia restaurant will add new dishes like rotisserie chicken and offer margaritas, Sangria, beer and wine once it gets its liquor license. Planning to take advantage of the patio area, he said he will offer outside dining for customers during warmer weather.

Avocado Cafe is currently operating in Amenia on Mondays through Fridays from 5 to 9 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 9 p.m. 

By this spring, Carerra hopes to change the hours to keep the cafe open seven days a week from noon to 9 p.m. He also hopes to have more customers come in once the pandemic is over, though he said he has to see first how customers respond to his food.

“We are hoping that the Amenia location will have a lot of people because every town has their own taste,” Carerra said. “We’re just hoping we’re going to be able to give them what they like.”

For more information on the Avocado Cafe in Amenia, call 845-233-8389 or go online, to www.avocadocafe.net.

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less