![Rosey’s rouses interest at former Pine Plains Platter space](https://millertonnews.com/media-library/from-left-roseys-owner-jamie-gerber-and-chef-tony-bonades-welcomed-customers-into-the-already-popular-restaurant-in-pine-plain.jpg?id=48215817&width=980&quality=90)
From left, Rosey’s owner Jamie Gerber and chef Tony Bonades welcomed customers into the already-popular restaurant in Pine Plains with a pair of friendly smiles. Rosey’s is located where The Platter once was.
Photo by Kaitlin Lyle
PINE PLAINS — Surrounded by a friendly staff and tasty menu options inside a brightly painted space, customers will instantly connect with the warm ambiance at Rosey’s, which opened for business at 2987 Church St., home of the former Pine Plains Platter, in January.
Since then, owner Jamie Gerber, who uses the pronoun they, has been busy preparing for this summer. They said the opening of Rosey’s marked their “most formal” venture into the restaurant industry. Little do customers know that Rosey’s actually started in a trailer in the parking lot of Chaseholm Farm at 115 Chase Road last summer, as Gerber said they wanted to give their dream a test run before getting it off the ground.
It was their love for the Chase family, who own and founded Chaseholm Farm, which inspired them to name their first restaurant venture after Rosemary Lyons, the Chase family’s matriarch and a longtime Pine Plains resident.
“I think Rosey’s is a love letter to the family and community,” Gerber said. “Rosey and her twin sister always said ‘It’s always good to see you,’ which is the feeling I want to cultivate inside and outside of Rosey’s.”
While Rosey’s was celebrating its lovely first summer in the countryside that borders the towns of Ancram and Pine Plains, it was the latter that was saying goodbye to a local favorite, the Pine Plains Platter, when it closed its doors last September.
Gerber was curious about what would go into the open space on Church Street to replace the popular eatery and community hub. Gerber recognized the Platter was an important part of the community and felt it was import to try to “maintain a space that was for Pine Plains from Pine Plains.”
In speaking with the building’s landlord, Jack Banning, Gerber said he was interested in having a business on Church Street that wouldn’t be too disruptive to the town landscape. Though Gerber took over the lease where the Platter had been last October. Gerber said the goal is to “be an intentional neighbor and visitor and guest in this space.”
Rosey’s officially opened for business on Jan. 28.
Hours of operation run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays through Mondays; it’s closed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Breakfast is served from 8 a.m. to noon, and lunch is served from noon to 2 p.m.
Featured on the small, but scrumptious menu are dishes like Eggs a la Tony (a breakfast named after Rosey’s Chef Tony Bonades and comprised of two scrambled eggs, lightly dressed local greens and toast); ful medames (a Middle Eastern seasoned bean dip); torchi (Armenian pickled veggies); and the Chase Burger.
To the best of their ability, Gerber said the food is locally sourced, and as summer continues, she said the menu will see more additions as more items come into season.
To help keep Rosey’s running, the restaurant is staffed with two full-time cooks and four part-timers from the Pine Plains Central School District.
“They’re such important members of our team,” Gerber said of the teen staff, “and it feels like a real good connection to the community both to be providing jobs and a space where teens can feel ownership of and pride.”
In terms of becoming a central hub in town like The Platter had been, Gerber replied, “I think a lot of that honestly is responding to the community itself and seeing what is needed. I have my own ideas and attitudes about what Rosey’s could be, and I’m really excited for that to change in ways I maybe don’t even know.”
Looking ahead, Gerber said they’d like to continue having live music and to host more pop-ups events including bringing bakers, makers and cheesemakers to the café. Others have suggested hosting book clubs at Rosey’s. Given the popularity of their pickles, there’s been talk of holding pickling classes.
“I’m open to whatever Rosey’s needs to be,” Gerber said, adding that until then, “I think we need to be flexible and stay open.”
This article has been updated to correct the pronouns Jamie Gerber uses (they/them and not she/her).
Editor’s Note: The Millerton News would like to apologize to Jamie Gerber and anyone who was offended by the incorrect usage of she/her in this article on Rosey’s cafe in Pine Plains. We deeply regret the error and will strive to do better when reporting on all genders to represent a more inclusive society.
Maxon Mills in Wassaic hosted a majority of the events of the local Upstate Art Weekend events in the community.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene during the Garden Tour in Amenia.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else. I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and
Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.