New Menus & Smuttynose This Sunday!

We've posted new menus for Dinner, Lunch & Late Night.  Also, don't forget about Smuttynose tomorrow night!  We've already started tapping a few of the beers (Barleywine, Vunderbarh Pilsner & Big A IPA) and rest will be on by 5pm tomorrow.  Dining room reservations are recommended (914 930 1880).  The full draught list can be found on the events page.

We added a few menu items last week (9/16 blog) and here are a few others:

Chili Cheese Nachos

Pork and stout chili, cheddar cheese, apple salsa,

sour cream, blue corn tortilla chips, roasted jalapeño

Jerked Shrimp Skewers

Black bean puree, habanero hot sauce,

gingered coconut cream, wilted spinach

Black-Eyed Pea Potato Pancakes

Goat cheese cream, sun-dried tomato pesto, fried leeks

Rabbit and Pistachio Sausage

Parsnip puree, braised kale, glazed carrots, mustard and tarragon sauce

Gearing up for Fall...

As the seasons begin to shift from Summer to Fall, we're starting to reflect that shift in our new menu.  There will be more changes to come, but here are some highlights:

Roasted Beet Salad

Sliced plum, radicchio, frisée, toasted sunflower seeds,
goat cheese, mustard-sherry vinaigrette, apple butter

Grilled Belgian Endive Salad

Old Chatham Sheepherding Co.’s Berkshire Bleu cheese, sliced pear,
cayenne-toasted walnuts, Meyer lemon vinaigrette

Goat Cheese En Croûte

Goat cheese, roasted pumpkin, portobello mushroom, and spinach baked in puff pastry with mesclun salad and Dijon cream

9-Spice Roasted Pork Loin

Sweet potato and cheddar mac-n-cheese, braised brussel sprouts, smoky tomato marmalade

Duck Fried Wontons

Stuffed with goat cheese and fig and apple jam;
 house-cured duck prosciutto, baby arugula, balsamic gastrique

The Birdsall Reuben

House-made corned beef, Cajun rémoulade, braised cabbage,
Adirondack Black Wax cheddar, Wild Hive rye bread, French fries

IPA Road Trip

This past Wednesday and Thursday, I took my family on a little brewery road trip in search of New York State IPA's, that are not available in the Westchester beer market, for next Wednesday's New York State IPA Fest.  Our final destination was Lake George, NY and we made stops in Chatham (Chatham Brewing Co.), Troy (Brown's Brewing Co.), and Glens Falls (Davidson Bros. Brewing Co. & Cooper's Cave Ale Co.).  We picked up an IPA from each brewery and also an Imperial IPA from Chatham Brewing.

Our first stop was Troy, where we had an excellent lunch at Brown's Brewing and when we went downstairs to pick up our keg, my 4 year old son, Henry, toured his first brewhouse:  "Wow!  What is this place?"  Our next stop was Cooper's Cave Ales in Glens Falls, were we met up with Patty Bethel.  At Cooper's Cave they not only produce beer, they crank out ice cream, a laundry list of soda pop and operate a restaurant.  After packing up our keg of Irate Pat's IPA, we headed to Lake George to check into the Tahoe ($52 a night on Hotwire!), which is right on the lake.  After a quick dip in the pool we headed back to Glens Falls to meet up with Rick Davidson at Davidson Bros. Brewing to pick up beer and have dinner.  Rick runs a great place with a welcoming atmosphere.  The service and the food were outstanding - not to mention the beer.  We even talked Rick into coming down to Peekskill for our NYS IPA Fest!  Rick set us up with a couple of growlers (red ale and brown ale) and we headed back to the hotel to put the kids to sleep.  Then my wife and I sipped Davidson Bros beers on our lake front balcony.  Bliss.

The next morning we started heading back south and stopped off to see brewmaster Matt Perry at Chatham Brewing Co.  We had kegs of IPA and Imperial IPA waiting for us.  Matt (a home brewer turned brewmaster) is cranking out some great beer on a 3.5 barrel system and he's brewing at capacity.  According to Matt, there may be an expansion in the near future.

The above IPAs and 13 others - all from the Empire State - will be tapped next Wednesday (Sept. 15th) at 6pm.  So mark your calanders and stop by the Birdsall House to celebrate local beer and local food.

Birdsall House Escorts CIA Students to Hemlock Hill Farm

This past Saturday, Chef Matt Hutchins and Sous Chef Denis Fewer escorted a group of students from the Culinary Institute of America to Hemlock Hill Farm.  The students are part of the CSA (Chefs for Sustainable Agriculture) group at CIA, of which Chef Matt was a core member while attending the CIA.  The CSA is overseen by Professor Elana Raider, who asked our Birdsall House Chef to guide a group of 27 students on a tour of Hemlock Hill (where the Birdsall House gets most of its proteins) and talk about sustainable farming, the importance of utilizing the whole animal after slaughter (Mr. Hutchins in passionate about the art of charcuterie), and why we should know where our food comes from.  Mr. Fewer documented the day in pictures.

After touring the farm the students dined at the Birdsall House:  house pickled vegetables; charcuterie (pork terrine, pork & fennel sausage, and house made sopressata); Hemlock Hill beef burgers or Beet veggie bugers and bacon maple ice cream.

Founders Nemisis 2010

Join us this coming Wednesday, Sept., 1st @ 7pm for a Founders Brewing Nemisis 2010 release party.

What you have here is a rarity. A special, one-of-a-kind ale that is only made once a year. Sometimes that’s all. Forever. No more. Nada. Limited-time only. You never know what you’re gonna get. But you can be sure that it’ll be damn tasty.  This year's offering is a Barleywine clocking in at 12% ABV.

We will also be featuring Founders Porter, Founders Centennial IPA & Founders Curmudgeon.

Also, we've decided to take a road trip to collect even MORE NYS beer for our first ever New York State IPA Fest:

Chatham Brewing
Davidson Brothers Brewing Co.
Cooper's Cave Ale Co.
C.H. Evans Brewing Co.
Adirondack Pub & Brewery