Restaurant dining rooms are nice and all, but let’s face it—on fine summer days, we don’t need the room in the room with a view. All around us, we can find better places for a glorious meal.
In this story, we’ll be pairing amazing feasts-to-go and the ideal outdoor spots in which to enjoy them.
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Hungry? Our region is loaded with great sources and spots for dreamy picnics. Depicted here, a secret spot located somewhere in the Hudson Valley.
Food and Nature Lovers
Café Mutton + Greenport
You might know the restaurant by twice James Beard Award–nominated Chef Shaina Loew-Banayan as the place where you consistently fail to get a table because it only accepts reservations for Friday nights, but did you know that its website offers a handy form for takeout? IT DOES! That means that you can take your steak tartare with toast, your roasted beef marrow with Vegemite, and your lamb loin chops to go anywhere you like. For our money, we’d hit nearby Greenport, a 20+ square mile preserve in Columbia County that offers stunning Hudson River and Catskill views, forests, and open meadows with grassland birds and five miles of trails. For picnics, there are two gazebos, benches, and, alongside the inclusive Access for All Trail (which is ideal for strollers, wheelchair users, and people with limited mobility) there’s a handy picnic area.
Viewmasters
Pier 57 + Market 57 + Little Island
As Hudson River Park continues to reclaim Manhattan’s Hudson-side, formerly commercial piers, it debuted Pier 57 in April 2023. Here, you’ll find a nearly two-acre, picnic-friendly rooftop park with gasp-inducing views of Hudson River Park, the New York City skyline, and New York Harbor (it’s free and open to the public from 6am–1am). Inside, a new 7,400-square-foot public space called the Living Room offers seating, tables, and views of Lower Manhattan in all weather. Meanwhile, James Beard Foundation–curated vendors sling their specialties at Market 57, an onsite food hall whose mission is “supporting and elevating the people behind our vital food community, promoting a more equitable industry.” Look for 12 kiosks occupied by minority- and women-owned businesses, including (among others) coffee by Bird & Branch, Indian homestyle cooking by Ammi, small-batch beers and bites by Harlem Hops, oysters by Mother Shuckers (see Progressives: Ben “Moody” Harney), Chinese-American dim sum by Nom Wah, and northeastern Thai food from Zaab Zaab. After your rooftop picnic, stroll next door to breezy Little Island, the sweet two-acre public park that floats greenly over the Hudson on lily-pad-like pedestals.
BEFORE THAT WAS THIS
PIER 57
Completed in 1954 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Pier 57 was built by the New York City Marine and Aviation Department and was the largest dock built by the City of New York. It served as a shipping terminal until the City’s maritime industry declined through the 1960s. In 1971, the massive pier was repurposed as a parking garage for City buses, then, in 2003, it became vacant. Today, the massive 633,000-square-foot structure houses indoor and rooftop public parks, a food hall, the educational Discovery Tank (that explores what goes on beneath the surface of the Hudson River), 350,000 square feet of Google office space, and City Winery restaurant and event space.
VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Multi-Appetite Sculpture Fans
Hudson Valley Food Hall + Storm King Art Center
In Beacon, the Hudson Valley Food Hall offers one-stop provisioning for heterogeneous cravings, offering (among other treats) BBQ from Miz Hattie’s, Mexican street food from Dulce Cielo MX, Nicaraguan food from El Nico, and British comfort food from Moreish. With your varied haul in hand, head the 20+ minutes to Storm King, where you’re permitted to spread a blanket anywhere in the 500-acre park (except on Museum Hill). This means you can blissfully lunch among works by, among scores of others, Richard Serra, Andy Goldsworthy, Maya Lin, and Roy Lichtenstein. Go early: The grounds close at 5:30.
@hudsonvalleyfoodhall
@stormkingartcenter
Nite Owls
Roll-n-Roaster + Night Fishing
Roll-n-Roaster is one of the last vestiges of real, old-time Brooklyn. The spot—on Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay since its debut in the polyester-and-pornstache era (1970)—serves roast beef sandwiches with cheez, though, as the sign says, “you can have cheez on anything you pleez.” This icon is open ’til 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, making it the ideal stop before or after jumping on a local fishing charter that will pass by glittering, golden-hour views of Rockaway Beach, Jamaica Bay, Sandy Hook, and Coney Island on its it way to fishing grounds. Marilyn Jean Fishing on Pier 6 is a seven-minute walk from Roll-n-Roaster and runs nightly (7pm–midnight) trips for $75—with any luck, you’ll even take home a striped bass, bluefish, or a seabass or two. Visit Marilyn Jean’s website to book your spot.
@rollnroasterofficial
@marilynjeanfishing
Music Fiends
Katonah Reading Room + Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts
The musically obsessed already know about this Katonah venue’s jam-packed schedule of intimate performances, outdoor festivals, and all-star galas. What they may not know is that it all happens on the 90 sculpted acres of a formerly private estate that features a Sunken Garden, vast lawns, and the Iris and Peony Garden. While there, look for Sonic Installations, a sound art program that features inclusive, interactive works that employ vibration, texture, movement, and visual elements; also, don’t skip a tour of the Rosen House and its entire rooms transplanted from grand European villas. Before you go, drop into the Katonah Reading Room to fuel your wanderings; its entire menu—coffees, soups, salads, toasts, pastries, and ice cream—is designed be taken to go.
Gilded Age Wannabes
Pik Nik BBQ + Lyndhurst
A quick walk up main street from the Tarrytown Metro-North station will take you to Pik Nik BBQ, whose dry-rubbed, smoked meats landed first mention in Eater’s list of “22 Essential Barbecue Restaurants.” As the shop’s name suggests, BBQ is ideal picnic food and best eaten under a wide blue sky. Load up—if you’re very lucky, they won’t have run out of the melting, lip-slicking, gorgeously spiced pastrami—then Lyft-it two miles to Lyndhurst (there’s also a bus) where its carry-in/carry-out policy means that you can plop down and feast on 67 acres of rolling parkland with stunning Hudson views. Don’t miss a tour of the fairy-tale Gothic Revival house, once owned by Jay Gould, who was Julian Fellowes’s model for the driving self-made character George Russell in HBO’s “The Gilded Age.” Avid watchers will spot the estate’s many appearances in the production. NB: The grounds close at 4:30, so only day trippers need apply, and no alcohol, outdoor furniture, or large groups are allowed.
Glampicnickers
Berkshire Picnics + Tanglewood
While music may have charms that soothe the savage breast, it won’t kill your competitive need to have the most opulent picnic at Tanglewood. On the luxurious blankets of other concertgoers, you’ll spot Liberace candelabra, silver, china, crystal, the works. If DIYing a portable al fresco extravaganza seems like a schlep, you can order an aristocratic package from Berkshire Picnic. It’ll cost you (say, $500 for two), but this team provides a low table, candles, a vase of flowers, local beer and wine, a make-your-own cocktail bar, appetizers, and an entire personalized meal that you’ve preselected from its seasonal, locally sourced menu.
