Hudson Valley Restaurant Week Kicks Off in Pleasantville
By Arthur Cusano
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino helped kick off the annual Hudson Valley Restaurant Week in Pleasantville Thursday, and received a small honor of his own in the process.
Astorino was joined by Pleasantville Mayor Peter Scherer at the Iron Horse Grill, where owner Andrew Economos has named a new burger for the county executive – “The Astorino” – made with tomatoes and guacamole and served with truffle fries.
Restaurant Week runs from Nov. 2-15 and will be celebrated in participating restaurants in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland and Ulster counties, as well as parts of Fairfield County in Connecticut.
“Each year it gets bigger and bigger,” Astorino said. “We’re now at 197 restaurants in seven counties, and half of them are in Westchester. If you’re in Westchester, this is a perfect opportunity to hop on a train and get off at the Pleasantville train station and you’re two steps away from a great restaurant or 99 other restaurants in Westchester County that are just as good. It’s an opportunity to visit parts of the county you don’t normally go to.”
Those restaurants will be offering special menu items made from locally sourced ingredients at discounted prices. A full list of participating establishments can be found at www.hudsonvalleyrestaurantweek.com.
Scherer said he was thrilled to kick off this year’s Restaurant Week in his community.
“What Andrew (Economos) has done here at the Iron Horse with the renovations make it a perfect setting to kick off this event and it will ripple out from the 10570 (zip code) across the Hudson Valley,” he said.
Hudson Valley Restaurant Week founder Janet Crawshaw agreed that Pleasantville was an ideal spot to kick off this year’s event.
“Pleasantville not only has great restaurants, but it also has the largest farmers market in all of the Hudson Valley,” Crawshaw said. “And so much of restaurant week is about connecting the farmers and chefs. So many of the chefs love cooking with the ingredients that come off of the farms.”
Hudson Valley Restaurant Week has other benefits as well. It generates more than $10 million in sales for participating restaurants and over $800,000 in tax revenue for New York State, Crawshaw said.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/