Peekamoose Restaurant & Tap Room

Bar, Eatery

8373 Rte 28
Big Indian, New York, 12410
United States

(845) 254-6500 | map
peekamooserestaurant.com
PLACE STATS
Average:
4.28
Reviews:
1
Ratings:
1
pDev:
0%
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Recent ratings and reviews.
Photo of slander
Reviewed by slander from New York

4.28/5  rDev 0%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 5
And they saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and they heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, come and see. And behold, four garbagemen of the metropolis; and they rode a pale blue Jeep (it’s really just dirty is all) with the radio playing loud (Pestilence, Famine and the others went antiquing today, so they’re not coming for lunch…).
This is not the easy walk from Spuyten, this is on the mountain somewhere between Kingston and whatever’s on the other side of the mountain, probably yet unexplored, dinosaurs perhaps, maybe civil war soldiers, I don’t know. Point being it ain’t just around the corner, although I suppose if you’re running 28 through on the way to or from Cooperstown, it’s totally doable. We showed up a little less than an hour before they were set to open on this Thursday afternoon, so we had to mull around suspiciously for a few before Bill offered up a place where we could hold up for a bit to wait. Returning just a beer later, we naturally chastised the staff for not letting us in early and then settled in at the bar. It’s a good room, with a 9 seat “L” shaped bar, the wall behind the bar done up with a woodlands wallpaper motif under displays of booze and bottled beer and the other walls lime green and wood slats, a slate lip at the foot of the bar and tile floors, an arch plank ceiling on big beams with drop lamps and ceiling fans, and windows to one side looking out on a small semi circular deck. Mounted stuffed animal heads with lamps here and there, a coyote looking for trouble and a most menacing squirrel on a twisted branch suspended above. A wood stove in the corner, a chessboard with ceramic pieces on the bar, a single flatscreen above, and wood stumps here and there. 3 candlelit raised bar tables and a long cut tree table with a shared bench and pillows and a sheepskin to comfy it up. Good piped in music (Beth Orton, Nick Drake, Sinead O’Connor, Coldplay, Mazzy Star, Travis).
4 taps on a single tower on the bar (The Keegans 3; Mother’s Milk, Hurricane Kitty and Old Capital, and the Magic Hat Jinx). They do a black and tan of sorts called “Milk for the Kitty”, made from the Keegans Mother’s Milk and Hurricane Kitty and they donate a $1 off every one of them to the Heart of the Catskills Humane Society in Delhi. Good stuff. Also about 15 bottled beers, domestic local & regional micros (3 beers from Brooklyn including the Black Chocolate Stout, Hennepin, a pair from Saranac and the Magic Hat #9), and some nice imports (Orval, Duvel, La Fin Du Monde, Sam Smith Nut Brown, Ayinger Celebrator Dopplebock, Old Speckled Hen, Hacker Pschorr Hefe, Stella). I got the last Orval (I woulda fought for it).
They do a mean lunch here. We were dealt garlic Focaccia bread with scallion butter and an amazing 12 ingredient chopped salad (Vanessa knew all 12 ingredients, impressive), the Fisherman’s Stew was excellent, and the Braised Beef off bone sandwich with roasted peppers & watercress on toast was just incredible. Watercress. Normally I’d be inclined to flick it away but there it was on my sandwich, and I ‘et it. It added cruchiness where there was none before. I didn’t even know what watercress was, I’d only heard of it once and that was in a children’s book (The Trumpet of the Swan), so I didn’t even think it was real.
In the book (the strongest of the three E.B. White children’s stories, much better than Charlotte’s Web and easily kicking Stuart Little’s ass), Louis the swan goes to Boston to play his trumpet in the Public Garden (It is suggested that he will attend the EBF, first session). He spends the night at the Ritz and orders a dozen watercress sandwiches for dinner and then puts himself to bed in the bathtub. “Then he turned out the lights, climbed into the tub, curved his long neck around to the right, rested his head on his back, tucked his bill under his wing, and lay there, floating on the water, his head cradled softly in his feathers”. That’s how I felt after the sandwich except I was going to have to drive us off this mountain so there’d be no napping in the tub for me. Damn!! Anyway, it was a great lunch and what made it better was that Scotty paid for it (Don't a free lunch taste that much better?)
I started moving about as I wanted to take in the rest of the place. Just off the bar area is a retro room with some seating and a smallish private nook curtained off there with a single table seating 8 and some paintings. Down on the end, the main dining room. A beautiful “A” frame room with some 2 dozen tables. Red & yellow walls, some good art, a big twisted tree piece chandelier above, and a large stone fireplace (Jay feels that the fireplace is a hazard and he wouldn’t sit at the foot of it. This is why we travel with an environmental guy). The far wall is all glass looking out on a large deck holding a dozen plus tables.
Really good food complimented with some solid beer choices, warm and comfortable.
Dec 18, 2006
Peekamoose Restaurant & Tap Room in Big Indian, NY
Place rating: 4.28 out of 5 with 1 ratings