SPREADING HER WINGS
Kingston food truck operator opens full-fledged restaurant
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Rosanna Rauch just couldn’t put her dream off, pandemic or not.
When the 38-year-old Ulster Park resident drove past a building in Kingston that was for rent, it seemed to call her name.
“You don’t wait on your dreams, right?” said Rauch, who gutted the former Raul’s Bar & Restaurant at 340 E. Chester St. and converted it into a 4,236-square-foot restaurant known as Urban Fork that opened earlier this fall.
“It fell into my lap, and I wanted to take this chance on myself,” Rauch said.
Rauch is an Ulster County native whose mother, Florence Rauch Howard, lives in Kings
ton and helps out daily at the restaurant. Growing up, Rauch said, she spent a lot of time in the kitchen with her father, Raymond Rhodes, who died four years ago.
“I feel the community is just like a family,” said Rauch, whose restaurant is surrounded by a residential neighborhood. “I just want [them] to be happy with what I cook.”
For nearly two years, Rauch plied her cooking talents inside a food truck, also known as Urban Fork, mostly serving latenight crowds in Uptown Kingston. She has also participated
in food festivals, winning awards for chicken wings that she prepared with a homemade concoction called Crack Sauce.
Rauch sells the sauce for $5 per jar at Urban Fork, and she’ll refill empties for $4
“Crack Sauce [was created] because I needed to come up with sauces when I entered … [a] wing festival,” Rauch said. “So it’s been a sauce that I’ve used for the last couple of years. It has Kraken rum in it, so I just thought that Crack Sauce would be a good name, and it’s addictive.”
Urban Fork sells its chicken wings for $10 per order.
Rauch also has a fulltime job as a billing agent at Kingston Physical Therapy in Kingston Plaza, but says she has time for the new restaurant because she
doesn’t “sleep very much.”
Rauch said she signed the lease for the East Chester Street space in mid-September and completed the renovations about a month later.
“It was very dark in here, and I needed to lighten it up,” she said. “I needed it to feel light and airy and … more like home.”
Because of the COVID-19
pandemic, seating in Urban Fork is limited to about 25 people. Rauch said the restaurant can hold about 46 people when full.
Rauch describes her menu offerings as diverse comfort food and the restaurant’s décor as “farmhouse chic.”
She offers $4 tacos on Tuesdays, and expects to soon start serving all-youcan-eat spaghetti and meatballs once a month.
She said all meals on her menu cost less than $20.
Among the offerings are chicken and waffles, for $17; gourmet specialty personal pizzas, $10; Greek yogurt with upstate granola, berries and local honey, $12; brunch burger ( beef with egg and candied bacon), $17; Jamaican jerk chicken, $15; and Caesar salad, $9. Urban Fork is open from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.
Urban Fork recipe: French onion grilled cheese sandwiches
INGREDIENTS
• 4tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 pound yellow or Vidalia onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• 2teaspoons sherry, redwine vinegar or white-wine vinegar (optional)
• Spindle of fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon homemade vegetable stock
• 2ounces Gruyère cheese, grated
• 2ounces baby Swiss cheese, grated
• 4slices bread (homemade or similar to)
INSTRUCTIONS
. 1. In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the onions and season with salt ,pepper and thyme. Cover and cook for 3-5minutes, stirring once or twice, until the onions are softened. Uncover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for 20-25minutes, stirring occasionally, until deep golden brown. (If the onions look dry or like they might burn, add a few tablespoons of water at a time, scraping up any browned bits that are stuck to the bottom of the skillet.) If desired, once the onions are done, deglaze the skillet with vinegar and broth, and cook until the liquid has evaporated (about 1 minute). Transfer the onions to a medium bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper. Wipe out the skillet, or wash it if necessary.
2. Add cheese to the onions and stir to combine. Put down two slices of bread, and scoop half of the cheese-onion mixture onto each one. Top with the remaining slices of bread, and press down gently.
3. In the skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add the sandwiches and cook for 3-4 minutes, until the bottoms turn golden brown, reducing the heat if necessary to prevent toast from darkening too quickly. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter, flip the sandwiches, press down and cook for 3-4 minutes, until the cheese has fully melted and the bottoms are golden brown. Serve.