Kingston is so, so back

SARI BOTTON, Oldster Magazine

CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine

SARI BOTTON • writer/editor/publisher • Botton, Ink. (Oldster, Memoir Land, and Adventures in *Journalism*)
Neighborhood you live in: midtown Kingston, NY

It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
Running three newsletters, two of which are magazines, by the end of each week I’m fried. Once I’ve scheduled my Monday posts for Oldster and Memoir Land, most Fridays around 5pm my husband Brian and I will walk a few blocks across Kingston to West Kill Taproom for a drink or two (I don’t drink alcohol, but they have a nice selection of N/A beers, Casamara Club sodas, and other alternatives). Also, snacks via their collaboration with Kingston Bread + Bar, and various food pop-ups. Mostly we go there to randomly run into friends and acquaintances, which often leads to dinner plans on the fly, or going to hear music together at Tubby’s down the block. 

I love a third place where you can casually cross paths with people and socialize without having to make plans ahead of time. Before the pandemic, there were a number of those we’d regularly frequent — Boitson’s, Outdated, Elephant, BSP Nightclub, The Beverly, Lis Bar, The Anchor, Duo Bistro, Redwood, Two Ravens, Lunch Nightly — and now they’re gone. Of all our regular old haunts, only Stockade Tavern and Rough Draft Bar & Books (above, with author Chloe Caldwell) remain. 

Kingston is such a small city (population 24K), that losing so many beloved places at once really hurt. Ironically this was happening at a time when people from Manhattan and Brooklyn were buying up all the houses here after just a video tour, paying well above asking price with cash, and worsening an already pretty severe housing crisis. I kept thinking Kingston and the whole area had been terribly overhyped, and wondering what all those newcomers were doing on evenings and weekends, given our many empty restaurants, bars, and storefronts. But in the past year, especially in the midtown area where I live, some great new places have cropped up, and it feels like Kingston is truly coming back.

Where are you dining this weekend? 
I’m excited to try Mirador, an “Andalucian-inspired” wine and tapas bar that recently opened on Broadway, which friends rave about. Recently we tried two new restaurants in Kingston that we loved: Chleo in uptown, where we shared some delicious, inventive small plates and I enjoyed a verjus and soda; and Eliza, a few blocks from our house in midtown.

For lunch on Saturdays I like to hit Calcutta Kitchens, an excellent recent addition not just for eating in, but for picking up frozen prepared meals, their simmering sauces and spices, and some other South Asian groceries and kitchenware. Calcutta Kitchens doesn’t yet regularly serve dinner, but on a recent Saturday might they made an exception as part of a book event for friend and recent transplant Jai Chakrabarti’s wonderful new story collection, A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness.

How about a little leisure or culture?
One recent Friday night at Westkill, a friend we bumped into told us there were still tickets for Al Olender’s fantastic Alentine’s show at the Old Dutch Church — the sanctuary of which doubles as a great music venue. We snagged two of the last tickets and were glad we did. We love living in walking distance to Tubby’s, and the Ulster County Performing Arts Center (UPAC), where we’ve had the pleasure of seeing Patti Smith and Elvis Costello perform, and one time, “Orchestral Tull,” Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson with an orchestra. It was… an experience. 

Any weekend getaways?
When we need a little change of scenery but don’t have time for a big getaway, sometimes we’ll take a brief staycation right here in Kingston, at The Forsyth or Church des Artistes. Maybe one night we’ll try staying at The Kinsley, where we’ve enjoyed dinner at the restaurant a few times. I also really love taking a 45-minute ride northwest to spend a weekend at Spruceton Inn, which I first enjoyed when I was granted one of their week-long artist residencies in 2017.

Once in a while we’ll take a little road trip to Saratoga and stay at The Gideon Putnam, a historic inn with a spa and mineral baths. Or we’ll drive four hours to Montreal and find a room in either the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighborhood or Old Montreal. 

What was your last great vacation?
We suck at planning real vacations. In late February when Brian suddenly had a week off between jobs, we took advantage of a mid-winter mid-week special at Mirbeau Inn & Spa, 20 minutes from home, in Rhinebeck. It was a nice little escape without the hassle of any significant planning.