Are you a dessert person? If so, you’ll love these chocolate orange pots de creme with olive oil and sea salt that I recently featured with Piro. olive oil. You’ll find my recipe at olio-piro.com. Why not make the recipe and gift a bottle of Piro. Use code SUSIEDP for 20% off Piro. online.

The Fox and Burn is an entertaining newcomer to the River Street Food Hall in the Hedley Building deserving praise for its interesting cocktails and slew of social events, (even if I can’t help but read the word “Burn” as “Bum” due to the font they chose.) Regrettably, a lackluster meal at its older sibling, Risotto, is, in a nutshell, what gives upstate dining an unfair and outdated bad name. I make the point, it’s no longer okay, with many local chefs serving up creativity and bang-for-the-buck on upstate plates. If you’ve been, you know what I mean.

The Yard Albany, an ax-throwing-cocktail venue, has re-styled its greenhouses in Alice In Wonderland or Barbie’s party house themes and matching menus. 

The Maker Lounge in Hudson, best known for its moody, jewel-toned bar and exemplary cocktails, has added a retro Choco-Taco to its short bar menu and I’m here for it. Meet the Man Who Invented the Choco Taco.

Lil Deb’s Oasis, off Warren St., Hudson, is back and better than ever with their revamped, eternally artsy space, vegetal cocktails, and a killer menu featuring cheesy potato llapingacho, crunchy blooming onions with bonito flakes, whole fried porgy with mizuna and herbs, and scallop crudo with carrot-ginger agua and zodiac pear. One of my fave area restaurants.

If you’re still Sunday cruising through the last of the autumn leaves, take a drive to the Phoenicia Diner where pop singer Lordes recently gave a thumbs up to their crisp onion rings on her previously anonymous Instagram account: @onionringsworldwide. Consider yourself an onion ring connoisseur? Have a favorite spot that’s not the Columbia County Fair? Tell us about it This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

I love an unhurried drive to the Berkshires in all seasons whether for art at Mass MoCA or The Clark and a pitstop in Lenox, Stockbridge or the Shaker Village in Pittsfield. Recently I headed out to North Adams to check out The Break Room at Greylock Works where chef Brian Alberg shifted plans from a restaurant to an all-day bakery-café in an architecturally redesigned former industrial mill. The enormous event and multi-occupancy space is pretty remarkable – reminiscent of the shape of things at Mass MoCA a mere 4-minutes away. While they currently have prix fixe Saturday night dinners, there are plans to host dinner and movie nights as the seasons change. For now, it’s an excellent stop for brunch or lunch should you find yourself out that way. Don’t leave without a box of pastry treats to tide you through the week.