BLUE HILL AT STONE BARNS
630 Bedford Rd., Pocantico Hills, N.Y.
914-366-9600
As a matter of pride, food snobs like to think of themselves as sojourners on anelusive quest for culinary excellence. These days, the great foodie pilgrimageleads north, up the Hudson, to the old Rockefeller estate in Westchester, nearthe town of Pocantico Hills. That’s the home of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, thenew seasonal-ingredients Shangri-La run by the Barber brothers (Dan and David)and talented chef Michael Anthony. Drive north, and the clamor of the citygently falls away. The beamy, comfortable restaurant is built into the old barnsthemselves; if you arrive in summertime, the evening sky will be filled withbarn swallows. Many ingredients are grown or raised on the premises, so expectfresh peas in spring and tomatoes in summer (folded, say, into a fine gazpacho)and fine braised pork, thanks to the restaurant’s own collection of nicelyfattened Berkshire pigs. If you’re feeling up to it, you can even visit theseanimals, who snuffle around in a pen near the barns, to pay your last respects.