Dyad succeeds in creative pairings
Kinderhook wine bar offers pleasing American standards, array of beverage choices
The realization that Dyad, a wine bar in the heart of the village of Kinderhook, some 20 miles south of Albany, is family-run comes together in neat jigsaw pieces. Alexander Van Allen, a tall, expressive young man with neatly parted hair and a groomed red beard, passed his first sommelier exam at 21 years old and spent two years as the cellar manager at Fish & Game in Hudson before opening Dyad in 2015 at the tender age of 24. Dyad, meaning two parts, was chosen to reflect the pairing of wine and food, but it now fits the familiar use for mother and child: Van Allen lost a chef before opening, and his mother, Michele, a restaurant veteran, stepped in as the cook.
Family roots run deep, from the Van Allen name that should ring bells among buffs of early American history (James Van Alen – using an early spelling was a U.S. representative and half-brother of President Van Buren), and in the building itself: a converted 1787 Dutch colonial home.
Dyad is crowded on Mondays and Tuesdays, when few places from Hudson to Chatham open their doors. Weekends are popular too, as one of only two village restaurants the Flammerie is opposite and visitors attracted by Van Allen’s largely natural, biodynamic wines. Specials in nightly rotation run the gamut: A fancy hot dog, salmon and beef significantly expand the pleasing list of new American standards, from burrata to burger. It’s simple, good, hearty food to ease the chill off bones and fill rumbling stomachs after work. A thick burger is pink-middled with a salty, seared crust; a snowfall of Parmesan cheese shrouds rustic rosemary and truffle oil frites; the butter content in mashed potatoes is at Midas levels capable of turning arteries to solid gold. And with it, buttery asparagus and beef tenderloin, cooked rare to order, that yields easily to the knife.
Shrimp in crisp gossamer tempura shells share the same spicy Sriracha aioli that finishes a trio of beer-battered cod and avocado tacos. The pot stickers aren’t homemade, nor the burrata local, but chicken wings are marinated in the O.K. Sauce produced by another relative, Van Allen’s uncle Ken.
From the front door, the wallpapered foyer and stairs that lead to a realty office splice Dyad’s two ground-floor rooms into the barroom side, with its fireplace and wide-lipped bar, and the lounge, a comfortable drawing room rewritten in shades of gray and signature black leather Corbusier chairs. Tonight it has been reconfigured for a private party lucky enough to get the last locally foraged hen of the woods in the pasta special: tagliatelle with sautéed tomatoes and asparagus in a simple Parmesan cream. Ours has chicken of the feathered variety, sliced, sautéed and somewhat dry, though the tangle of fresh pasta is toothsome, with strands politely coated rather than swimming in sauce.
We’re surprised to find a brief cocktail menu and the complete line of Harvest Distillery spirits behind the bar, not knowing Van Allen has expanded his license. Regulars around us most on first-name terms with the staff are content with wine or beer, so we are alone test-driving a brandy Sidecar of medicinally heavy ratios, and a sparkling French 75 that’s accidentally f lat. We’re immensely cheered by a couple of natural wines: a balanced 2012 late-vintage Rheingau riesling and plump 2014 Poco a Poco grenache with its nose of berries and fall spice.
From Table 2, a high-top by the bar’s sash windows, we examine the detail of a painting that captures the fast, short life of Van Allen’s restaurateur brother, Jonathan.
Mr. Van Allen Sr. rises from his seat at the bar to help us decode the mix of Nascar racing memorabilia, cookbooks and restaurant reviews, and unpack more family lore, including ancestors who lived in the namesake Van Allen house, some of whom inspired characters in Washington Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” written while a guest of Van Buren at his Kinderhook house.
The painting, like all the art in Dyad, is by Van Allen’s maternal grandfather, Carl Genovese, including rocks tied with twisted silver cable trees and a light-box diorama with silhouettes painted on layers of glass. Most is for sale.
The wine list currently ends with a lone vintage port, Casa de Santa Eufemia (1999), that fits hand-in-glove with the rich “chocolate-chocolate cake.” Naturally, it’s the grandmother’s recipe, and, served with vanilla-flecked Samascott ice cream, the port adds inky bursts of dark berries and sweetly stewed fruit.
We leave the private party in full swing: Kinderhook residents from downstate, among them the godson of Lucille Ball and an actress from “Dawson’s Creek.”
It’s the dyad of town-and-country linked by a pub proprietor whose ancestry goes back to a 1650 voyage on the Mayflower and a shared affection for upstate village life.
Two glasses of wine and two mains will cost around $60 before tip.
Susie Davidson Powell is a British freelance food writer in upstate New York. Follow her on Twitter, @Susiedp. To comment on this review, visit the Table Hopping blog, blog.timesunion.com/ tablehopping.