Most of the parkways snake through the metropolitan New York City area and Long Island, but one – the Taconic State Parkway – follows the eastern Hudson Valley northward almost to Albany.
The Taconic offers a different driving experience from the busy, truck-clogged Thruway west of the river. Today’s traveler can take in scenic vistas and see stone overpasses and retaining walls as attractive today as when the highway was new.
The Taconic Parkway also connects a series of state parks, begun as Civilian Conservation Corps projects in the 1930s, featuring stone buildings and broad lawns evocative of a more stylish era. South to north, the traveler will encounter Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park, Fahnestock Memorial State Park, James Baird State Park, and Lake Taghkanic State Park.
At the start of the 1950s, the Taconic Parkway reached only as far as Route 199. Travelers wanting to proceed further north needed to detour onto US Route 9, bringing them through Red Hook. Burt Coons, who ran gasoline stations in the area,
above, 1950, his garage in Red Hook
1953
bought the Halfway Diner in Rhinebeck (a year old Silk City diner) and moved it to North Broadway in Red Hook. I posted the delivery and dedication of it at http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2022/05/im-going-to-show-you-something-you.html
Since traffic exiting the Parkway and continuing further north on Route 9 went directly past the diner, business was good. The diner was later acquired by Samuel and Arleen Harkins and is today known as the Historic Village Diner. This diner was the first one in New York to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Harkinses even placed their own historic plaque at curbside to call attention to that fact. However, the plaque erroneously states that the diner dates to 1927, whereas the Silk City tag over the doorway bears the serial number 5113 – the 13th diner built in 1951.
By 1954, the next section of the Taconic Parkway was complete, and the Parkway now ended at Route 82 in Ancram. Long distance travelers would no longer pass the diner in Red Hook, but Coons had learned that where the highway ends is a great place for a diner. Thus, he opened the first of what would ultimately be four Chief Taghkanic diners at the Parkway’s new end.
The diner is in excellent original condition inside and out, and features an especially noteworthy Indian head sign outlined in working neon. All the Chief Taghkanic diners would have similar signs, but today only two survive, and this is the only one that still has its neon.
By 1954, the next section of the Taconic Parkway was complete, and the Parkway now ended at Route 82 in Ancram. Long distance travelers would no longer pass the diner in Red Hook, but Coons had learned that where the highway ends is a great place for a diner. Thus, he opened the first of what would ultimately be four Chief Taghkanic diners at the Parkway’s new end.
The West Taghkanic Diner is a large Mountain View diner, serial number 399, and for diner enthusiasts this one is as good as it gets. The diner is still located in its original location, was never bricked over or had a mansard roof added, and is still operating as a diner serving food to hungry travelers – exactly as it did half a century ago.
The West Taghkanic Diner has been purchased by Chef Kristopher Schram, and is unlike any greasy spoon diner you might be looking for.
See what I mean? I seriously shit you not. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g29813-d17568281-Reviews-West_Taghkanic_Diner-Ancram_New_York.html
When Kristopher Schram bought the West Taghkanic Diner, a chrome-and-vinyl relic from 1953, in Ancram, N.Y., he had recently left a high-profile position in Copenhagen. As head chef at Baest he oversaw a staff of 25 cooks who butchered whole animals and made cheese using milk from the restaurant’s own cows.
Now Chef Schram gets by with a crew of two or three, but he hasn’t given up making nearly everything from scratch. On a recent Friday morning, one cook whipped up mayonnaise, while another smushed focaccia dough into a sheet tray for baking.
Mr. Schram is one of a growing number of classically trained chefs breathing new life into old diners. In 2018, with his sights set on opening his own restaurant, Mr. Schram looked at spaces in New York City. Rents were astronomical; designing and building would add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. “I would have had to take on some major investors, and in the end, it wouldn’t have been my restaurant,” he said. Then his father called with a tip on an old diner for sale upstate, 15 minutes away from where he grew up.
this is the look of someone who knows great food, and runs a great restaurant
the following is an excerpt from Grubstreet https://www.grubstreet.com/2019/05/west-taghkanic-diner-kristopher-schram-new-york.html (Why? Respect. Respect for a chef, an entrepreneur, and a business owner that took a BIG chance on a diner )
Schram — who is now, perhaps, the world’s first short-order chef — spent over a decade cooking from California to Copenhagen, at places like Copenhagen’s Manfreds, Melbourne’s Attica, and Healdsburg’s Madrona Manor. The chef was moving toward opening his own place there. Now, though, he’s back in his upstate New York hometown of Ancram, running a diner that’s 15 minutes away from the house where he grew up.
Schram is the first to admit that, after culinary school, he never thought he’d land at a place like the West Taghkanic Diner. He was one of many talented cooks to pass through Napa Valley’s iconic but now closed Terra, eventually becoming the chef de cuisine. Romance brought him to Copenhagen in 2012, where he linked up with Christian Puglisi, one of the most famous of the Noma alums. After a stint at Puglisi’s tasting menu spot Relæ, Schram was offered a sous chef gig at the chef’s wine bar Manfreds.
After two years at Manfreds, Puglisi tapped Schram to open Bæst, a pizzeria where the produce comes from Puglisi’s farm. He was there for three years, leaving in September of 2017 to open his own restaurant in Copenhagen. But romance brought Schram back home, when his wife got the U.S. correspondent gig for a Danish paper. As he put out feelers in New York City, he realized he couldn’t get rid of the “itch” to do his own thing. Then he was let in on some interesting news: A classic roadside diner was available “My whole family is still here, so they have their ear to the ground and I just heard some rumbling that the place was for sale. I snuck in there before anyone really realized it was on the market,” he says.
Schram is the first to admit that, after culinary school, he never thought he’d land at a place like the West Taghkanic Diner. He was one of many talented cooks to pass through Napa Valley’s iconic but now closed Terra, eventually becoming the chef de cuisine. Romance brought him to Copenhagen in 2012, where he linked up with Christian Puglisi, one of the most famous of the Noma alums. After a stint at Puglisi’s tasting menu spot Relæ, Schram was offered a sous chef gig at the chef’s wine bar Manfreds.
After two years at Manfreds, Puglisi tapped Schram to open Bæst, a pizzeria where the produce comes from Puglisi’s farm. He was there for three years, leaving in September of 2017 to open his own restaurant in Copenhagen. But romance brought Schram back home, when his wife got the U.S. correspondent gig for a Danish paper. As he put out feelers in New York City, he realized he couldn’t get rid of the “itch” to do his own thing. Then he was let in on some interesting news: A classic roadside diner was available “My whole family is still here, so they have their ear to the ground and I just heard some rumbling that the place was for sale. I snuck in there before anyone really realized it was on the market,” he says.
The decision was, Schram says, a no-brainer. He bought, and went about rehabbing, the diner — gutting the kitchen (it “was a nightmare”), tidying up the dining room, and bringing on an marketing agency, Sophie Wedd Design. Early on, a local baker named Kate Snider (of Honey’s) was tipped off by a mutual friend who said Schram needed someone to bake pies once a week. They hit it off, and she proposed a full-time gig. Schram also brought on the chef Christopher Bradley, who worked at Gramercy Tavern and Untitled.
There are plenty of diner classics, but nothing is straightforward. Everything is under $14, and many dishes are $10 or under. Cornmeal buttermilk pancakes get a pat of salted butter, and a juicy “hamburger sandwich” (or “veggieburger sandwich”) is crowned with charred onions. A 9-foot smoker is parked outside, for bacon and homemade pastrami, as well the turkey and smoked mayo in the properly tall club.
There are plenty of diner classics, but nothing is straightforward. Everything is under $14, and many dishes are $10 or under. Cornmeal buttermilk pancakes get a pat of salted butter, and a juicy “hamburger sandwich” (or “veggieburger sandwich”) is crowned with charred onions. A 9-foot smoker is parked outside, for bacon and homemade pastrami, as well the turkey and smoked mayo in the properly tall club.
this post took 3 hours
Interesting post , like the offbeat subject matter and had no idea how much time you put into JACG . Thanks again for your dedication .
ReplyDeletethanks! I like diners, and have posted a lot of them, usually just because they look so damn nice. Sometimes because they were made from rail cars.
DeleteAnd the post on Kaiser? That took 3 hours also.
Yup, I spent all day researching stuff I didn't even know about when I woke up. Some days are like that.
Other days are lots of single photos of interest, a caption and link, and move on to the next thing. Some times I can knock out 3 or 4 during lunch
But the more links in a post, the more time I spent reading, as every one had something I used in my post