85 comfort food recipes, including classic Americana dishes and reimagined favorites, from the celebrated Phoenicia Diner in New York's idyllic Catskill mountains
Mike Cioffi is the creator and visionary behind the Phoenicia
Diner. After a thirty-year career building scenery for television
and Broadway shows, he became interested in the restaurant world
and in 2012 he and his family took a leap of faith when the Diner
opened its doors.
Co-author Sara B. Franklin is a writer and a professor of food
culture and history at NYU's Gallatin School for Individualized
Study and the NYU Prison Education Program. She lives with her
family in the Hudson Valley.
Chef Chris Bradley spent two decades cooking in some of the most
renowned restaurants in New York and Washington, D.C., before
moving to Upstate New York. He now lives with his family in the
Hudson Valley.
“The smell of bacon. The sight of pancakes growing golden on a
griddle. The sound of gentle conversation at a long counter. If
there is a place where just about anyone in this fractured country
would feel at home, it’s in a roadside diner, and if you wanted to
dream up the ideal version of such a roadside refuge, it would look
and sound and smell a lot like the Phoenicia Diner. From Brunswick
stew to biscuits and gravy to ’shrooms on a shingle, this book
brings all of those sensory comforts to life on every gleaming
page. This book might just save America.”—Jeff Gordinier, author of
Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest
Chef in the World
“If there’s a sight in the Hudson Valley more soothing, more full
of familiar promise than the globe lights shining beacon-bright
through Phoenicia Diner’s windows in the late afternoon, I just
don’t know it. In the embrace of the Diner’s vinyl booths, I have
stomped snow from the treads of my boots between bites of Salisbury
steak, shared a late-August milkshake with a new love, welcomed in
birthdays with pancakes and fat onion rings. The Diner’s rare knack
for nudging nostalgia into a modern context is what makes it so
special, and it’s all over this book: 272 pages of a gorgeous,
inclusive, golden-yolked American Dream, where chilaquiles and
Brunswick stew and patty melts and meatballs are all welcome and
all make perfect sense. The Diner will make short-order cooks out
of all of us, and in the end, that’s a very good thing.”—Jordana
Rothman, restaurant editor-at-large, Food & Wine
“A really good diner becomes the heart of its community, and
Phoenicia Diner is a great one—serving up hearty and delicious food
from people who are happy to see you, and a sense of abundance that
feels like home, whether you’re a local or just passing through.”
—Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group and founder of
Shake Shack
“The Phoenicia Diner Cookbook, like the restaurant itself,
seamlessly mingles classic expectations with dishes that reflect
the way we cook and eat today. Buttermilk pancakes coexist with
steak chilaquiles; pimento cheese patty melts with pork belly BLTs;
and lemon-meringue pie with autumn harvest muffins. How do they get
along between the covers of the same book? Because they all meet
the essential criteria of great diner food, delivering big,
smile-inducing flavors that make you want to stop and pull over
every time you drive by or, in this case, spot it on your
bookshelf.”—Andrew Friedman, author of Chefs, Drugs, and Rock &
Roll and host of Andrew Talks to Chefs
“The Phoenicia Diner has been a beacon for me and my band of road
warriors looking for good food. It is everything you want in a
modern/vintage diner that is very, very hard to find these
days—honest cooking with good local ingredients. A perfect dream
sequence of the American road food dream.”—Andrew Carmellini, owner
and chef, Locanda Verde and The Dutch
“When you eat at the Phoenicia Diner you can feel the heartbeat of
the Catskills, fully surrounded by mountains with a menu full of
soulful diner classics. The first time I visited was the middle of
winter—a quiet February afternoon, snow falling outside, hot coffee
and pancakes inside—nowhere I would have rather been.”—Elise
Kornack, chef and restaurateur, Take Root
“The first time my wife and I rolled into the Phoenicia Diner, we
knew they were doing something special—from the energy in the
space, the incredible hospitality offered the second we walked in
and, ultimately, the delicious nostalgic food. We were supporters
from day one and have been rooting the team on ever since.”—Michael
Chernow, restaurateur, Seamore’s, WellWell, and The Meatball Shop
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