Meet Hudson’s Emerging Artists and Photographers

1. Where to Stay

Lounge among Victorian furnishings at the Mount Merino Manor.Photo: Courtesy of Mount Merino Manor

Receive a 20 percent discount on Italian dishes at the Ca’Mea restaurant next door when you stay at Inn at Ca’Mea (from $120), a renovated guesthouse from the 1800s. Request room 2 or 4 if you’re the social sort; their balconies overlook the restaurant’s garden, a community hangout on summer evenings. If not, ask for one of the five new rooms, which were added on this June.

Gaze at the Catskills from the wraparound porch of the Mount Merino Manor (from $175), a seven-room country inn. Hike the carriage paths of neighboring historic site Olana, the former home of Hudson River School painter Frederic Church.

Admire Victorian details like claw-foot tubs, toile de Jouy fabrics, stained glass, and hand-painted furniture at Country Squire Bed & Breakfast (from $165), a five-room former convent. Owner Paul Barrett will pick you up from the Amtrak Station in his 1976 station wagon to ferry you back to the house.

2. Where to Eat

Choose from seasonal quiches and vegetable tarts at Verdigris Tea Café & Bakery.Photo: Courtesy of Verdigris Tea Café

Listen to live folk music while you dine at DA/BA, a Scandinavian-American bistro that enlivens traditional dishes like elk or filet mignon with lavish garnishes and foams. A 14-year-old artist the owners found sketching outside the restaurant will draw your portrait on Thursdays.

The owners (a married chef and pastry chef) of Swoon Kitchen Bar source much of their menu from their garden and nearby Hudson farms. Sip a specialty cocktail featuring housemade ginger beer ($12) and take a half-pound of the lamb sausage or chorizo to go ($8).

Play a few rounds of pool and sample the locally distilled, private-label whiskey ($7 to $9) at American Glory BBQ, which opened this month. The spot specializes in rich, meaty comfort food straight from the smoker, like the “big dude slice” prime rib ($22).

Arrive at 10 a.m. to beat the line of people vying for warm cinnamon twists ($3.50) and loose-leaf tea (of which they have 124 varieties) at Verdigris Tea Café & Bakery. The brunch menu changes seasonally.

3. What to Do

Scope out retro posters and nineteenth-century paintings at Terenchin Gallery.Photo: Courtesy of Terenchin

Peer at landscape, modern, collage, and portrait photography at Carrie Haddad Photographs, the year-old spinoff of Haddad’s original eighteen-year-old art gallery three blocks away. A moody new exhibit of digitally manipulated landscapes by Philadelphia photography team Lependorf & Shire opens June 3.

Eschew modern art at Terenchin Gallery, a Catskills gallery and shop that relocated to Hudson in April. Owner Patrick Terenchin scours estate sales for seventies-era posters, nineteenth-century watercolors, and ancestor paintings, all displayed alongside his own mixed-media art. Flip through stacks of $8 vintage snapshots in back.

Leaf limited-edition, small-press photo books at Davis Orton Gallery, a photography and mixed-media gallery that opened late last year in the emerging BeLo 3rd Street district. This June, check out Lisa Kessler’s vivid, color-splashed photos in Seeing Pink and Elliot Ross’s intimate black-and-white portraits of animals.

4. Insider’s Tip

Party in the sprawling outdoor courtyard at Basilica Industria.Photo: Courtesy of Basilica Industria

Eat for free at the potluck dinner following openings at Basilica Industria, a two-month-old factory turned gallery and performance space focusing on young and local artists. Gallery regulars contribute summer salads, homemade bread, and veggie burritos, and musicians bring their instruments for an outdoor jam in the gallery’s adjacent courtyard. The next openings are scheduled for June 11, June 17, June 25, and June 26. (See future openings here.)

5. Oddball Day

Listen to local bluegrass bands at Club Helsinki Hudson and browse vintage boots at Sideshow Clothing. Photo: Courtesy of Club Helsinki; courtesy of Sideshow

Wake up with a coffee and a pastry from the year-old Strongtree Organic Coffee Roasters, where organic, single-origin beans are roasted daily in small batches. Then head to the top of Warren Street to scour the area’s latest vintage shops. Sideshow Clothing Co. (707 Warren St., 518-828-2810) opened in February and carries everything from a $15 sundress to vintage Frye boots for $85. Three blocks down, Hudson Vintage (433 Warren St.; 518-828-7484) specializes in retro jewelry and accessories, like an eighties Alexis Kirk Egyptian revival necklace ($200) or a Gucci snakeskin hobo bag ($500); it celebrated its one-year anniversary last month with an in-store burlesque performance. Order a pint of Albany-brewed C.H. Evans Ale ($4) at the Spotty Dog Books & Ale, a hybrid bookstore, coffee shop, brew pub, and art-supply store set in a former firehouse that launched a weekly concert series last year. Keep an eye out for Club Helsinki Hudson, two blocks away—enter through the unmarked door beside the disco ball and tuba sculpture. The music venue, restaurant, and recording studio took over this 1846 factory in May, decking the space with salvaged miscellany like old elevator doors and portholes. After the show, gorge on hearty Northern European specialties like Finnish meatballs and “Mad Russian” potato latkes with blueberry compote ($18 to $23) in the adjoining restaurant.

6. Links

Local innkeepers started Stay in Hudson to refer customers to neighboring B&Bs when they’re fully booked.

Go to Hudson offers transportation info, maps, itineraries, and more.

Two-year-old online newspaper Rural Intelligence features restaurant openings, concert listings, and other regional news.

Get Hudson’s inside dirt on the Gossips of Rivertown, a blog started by an in-the-know local with a penchant for the area’s history.

Meet Hudson’s Emerging Artists and Photographers