For half a dozen years we have enjoyed the best meal every time we come to Cooperstown at the Rose and Kettle in nearby Cherry Valley.
Several years ago we started a tradition of taking clients and a lot of the young artists to a large dinner party there and it's always been a huge success and tons of fun. Unfortunately they are closed this Sunday because they're not operating at full scale yet, but we were lucky enough to get in on Friday night for probably what was the best meal we have had there ever.
The cocktails here are always fun such as Lancaster Lemonade with Ketel One vodka limoncello, Cointreau and lemon. I'm a huge fan of the Pomegranate Cosmo which has Stoli Vodka, Cointreau, pomegranate and lime and not a single hint of super sweetness. Raves came for the Lakota Lime with gin, canton, muddled rosemary and lemon juice. The wine list is pretty impressive here and we started with a Wachau Gruner Veltlliner 2018 from Austria which is interesting because that's the same wine we had there 2 years ago, so I'm guessing that due to covid the wine cellar hasn't changed much. I was very happy to see the Famille Perrin Reserve Côtes du Rhone from 2018 which we always love and also just recently had on our KLM flight home.
We had never dined in the room to the right as you come in to the very old house and it's really cute with a lot of old photos that are well over a 100 years old, big wooden tables and and almost parquet like ceiling.
I was in love with the Griilled Shrimp starter which had mango, shallot, galangal, cilantro, a hint of mint and nuac cham which pretty much covered the mint because it's a bit spicy. Fried Cauliflower was also very popular and was masa harina dusted with a Chipotle aioli and cilantro pesto.
Lime Tortilla Chicken Soup also seemed to be delicious and the Crab Cakes here are probably some of the best outside of the Washington area with sauteed spinach and lemon caper aioli. You can never go wrong with an arugula salad when it has goat cheese, toasted almonds, dried cherries, red onion and a delicious Pomegranate Vinaigrette.
Main courses were huge successes from the Pesto Grilled Pork Loin with toasted corn relish, cheddar cheese grits and green beans to the simpler Herb Roasted Chicken with Pan gravy, garlic mashies and green beans to the amazingly rare and fabulous Tuna au Poivre which was black pepper rubbed and pan seared with garlic mashies, sauteed spinach with a Bourbon peppercorn cream sauce and fried red onions; Simply Divine.
Our server Cian was excellent, as was the whole team; super attentive to our every every need...turns out he is the chef/owner's son!
Dessert could not be resisted from the New York style cheesecake with fresh blueberries to the Creme Brulée with fresh berries to the Strawberry Rhubarb Tart with whipped cream. All get winning marks but special kudos to that perfectly bruléed topping!!
We are excited to come back again next year with another huge group of young artists and singers when we can enjoy the rose and kettle and share it with many other people again.
