Playhouse Market opens with ambition on the menu
Whether the search is on for an early-morning coffee and pastry, a midday sandwich or a sit-down dinner where Hudson Valley fare is prominent on the menu, a new Nyack venue is designed to be the ideal destination.
And those options don”™t even touch on Playhouse Market”™s countless other offerings, which range from gourmet groceries to pizza made to order in a red-mosaic, wood-oven stove, fresh seafood to butchered meats, organic produce to house-baked pastries.
Special events in the industrial-chic space range from live entertainment to art exhibitions, cooking classes to hosting private and corporate functions. Throughout, the atmosphere is decidedly European, from a marble-topped bar where late-nighters can settle in to sample a selection of craft beers alongside a plate of freshly shucked oysters to the small tables where patrons relaxed on a recent morning, some nursing their cappuccinos while on the computer, others deep in leisurely conversation.
About those handcrafted wooden tables or the quirky signs decorating the spacious-yet-welcoming interior? They are all for sale, too.
What”™s going on in the 20 S. Broadway site with a storied history ”“ it was once home to the Tappan Zee Playhouse, the Helen Hayes Theater and most recently, a short-lived food establishment ”“ is, to say the least, ambitious. At first glance, executive chef David Anderson said, he thought it might indeed be too ambitious.
“I thought in the beginning it would (be),” he said. “Now, I love it. It”™s nice as a chef. Business-wise I have multiple business avenues. ”¦ At the end of the day, a chef is a business person as well.”
Identifying and serving one”™s clientele is key, said Anderson, who handles all things culinary. Anderson, an industry veteran whose culinary experience includes posts around the world working in different types of settings and with different cuisines, is originally from Dobbs Ferry, grew up in Bergen County, N.J., and has been a Rockland County resident for two decades.
Playhouse Market, he said, is primed to serve those with an appreciation for distinctive foods served in a distinctive setting.
“There”™s an affluent, educated group here,” he said. “When you start to put all that together, as a chef and as a businessperson, it all starts to come together.”
He said the management is set to listen to what customers are looking for, from an eclectic selection of packaged products and take-out food to selections that integrate the best of the Hudson Valley. After all, the region”™s fare is certainly noted.
“When I was in Los Angeles, working at Spago, we were buying venison from Millbrook, foie gras from the Hudson Valley,” he said.
Anderson”™s relationships developed with farms and other producers, from right here in the Hudson Valley to hot-sauce makers in Key West, Fla., are the heart of the efforts at Playhouse Market.
“That”™s what we”™re doing. We”™re trying to source properly. It does cost a little bit more, but you get a better product.”
Customers, he said, might find something such as a spring fennel used in a soup, on a pizza and also for sale to take home. It”™s all about introducing new tastes and creating an adventurous culinary destination.
And it”™s being done against the modern-yet-warm backdrop created by designer Dawn Hershko, which Anderson said helps reinforce the concept.
“We tried to give it some identity,” Anderson said of the space that features 5,000 square feet on its main floor and an additional 5,000 feet of kitchen, refrigeration and office space below (apartments top the market). “The idea was to, even though it”™s spacious, it should be intimate.”
The market quietly opened its doors in recent weeks, a low-key welcome to the neighborhood with plans under way for a grand opening.
“We started taking the papers down and invited people in,” Anderson said of the earliest days, when the offerings only mirrored those of a small deli.
“We made a business decision,” he said, before adding with a laugh, that the goals were multiple. “We need to appeal to the public, and we probably should start putting some money in the register.”
Anderson said with the owner of the market also the building”™s owner, there is an additional depth to the efforts.
“We are deeply committed to doing this,” Anderson said, adding the market opens daily at 6 a.m. and stays open until late evening.
“There”™s no reason not to stop in. There”™s really something for everyone.”