EARLY LOOK: AMBOS — Out of pocket at THE POCKETBOOK HUDSON
EARLY LOOK: A little out of pocket at Ambos. The new restaurant in The Pocketbook Hudson Hotel is stunning in design + shaky in execution.
Ambos at The Pocketbook Hudson Hotel + Baths, 549 Washington Street, Hudson
IG: @pocketbookhudson | pocketbookhudson.com
FIRST LOOK: A month after its opening, we’re not ready to serve a full review, but our preview gives first impressions of the much anticipated Ambos Restaurant inside the stunningly restored 46-bedroom Pocketbook Hudson Hotel + Baths.
Like the Glens Falls Shirt Factory, Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory, Lace Mill in Kingston, and the Harmony Mills Lofts (which repurposed a massive waterfront textile manufacturer in Cohoes,) The Pocketbook has taken on the imposing 70,000 square handbag factory left vacant since the 1970s, and spent four years renovating it for creative use as a boutique hotel, restaurant and even a new nightclub - Ether - tucked away in the lower level former boiler room. Design and art informs every element of its architectural style and multi-sensory vibe; steel, concrete and exposed brick holding fast to its industrial past, while red leather, ambient sound, and contemporary art layers a sultry, modern feel.
Ambos: The restaurant is led by Norberto “Negro” Piattoni, an Argentinian chef, whose fire-and fermentation-focused menu reimagines Argentine flavors through the lens of Hudson Valley ingredients, as new transplants are invariably inspired to note. (You may recall Piattoni was also the original culinary consultant for The Hereafter in Hudson.)
First impressions: Once you find the entrance and ascend brightly lit, industrial concrete stairs, you’ll stroll into a lounge straight out of Architectural Digest with gilded bar, heavy wooden support beams, and red leather cube furniture low enough to encourage languorous reclining, all conceived by design firm, Charlap Hyman & Herrero. Sculptural wood and metal coffee tables mine industrial, tactile elements; large format contemporary art softens spaces, and sheer curtains separate Ambos the restaurant from the bar’s spacious lounge.
A moment of confusion among bar and front of house staff over whether appetizers can be ordered in the lounge was finally called by a manager who determined they had too few staff to be sufficiently attentive to orders and clearing plates, even after acknowledging groups had been served their house bread. The easiest fix was to move us to a table in the dining room, although it seems a shame not to be able to share snacks with your cocktails at one of several bar tables. No doubt this wrinkle will be ironed out as they get up to speed.
Early Look at the Drinks: Ambos’ strong wine list centers on Argentinian, Spanish and Italian wines with a few New York State options (including local Neverstill Wine by the bottle) and unusual selections by the glass. The cocktail menu by restaurateur, designer and mixologist Arley Marks, shows creativity across alcoholic and two non-alcoholic options, although half the list leans to long drinks in highballs and spritzes. We recommend a Martini Eleanore with Monmouth sea salt, charred olive and smoked olive oil, a Mezcal-based Negroni Claro and Ambos daiquiri with bergamot bitters and herbal notes. Some cocktails nod to local producers like C. Cassis and a farm honeycrisp apple juice.
Early Look at the Menu: The menu reads well with promising inclusions like oysters with fermented tomato or skate wing with pickled lakemont grapes. Cultured, pickled and fermented is a through line: Crusty house bread twisted like a skein of wool and served with cultured butter and fermented honey is a joy, as is the chicory salad with hazelnuts, fermented carrots, apples, cider vinaigrette and Jake’s gouda. Scallop crudo with sour corn and a vibrant cilantro oil is nicely prickled by finely-sliced habanada chile pepper, but dominated by heavy-handed brown plops of charred hot sauce on every thin scallop slice.
Puzzlingly for a fairly quiet Thursday night, they were out of 4 items on the 16 item menu, and a few plates simply missed the mark: A strip steak, which looks at home on an Argentinian menu with rejilla potato and fermented green garlic chimichurri, was chewy from too long over fire; polenta proved the success story of the disappointingly chewy $48 mutton, and a house-made spaghetti pomodoro with olive oil and parmesan cheese ($30) earned the faint praise of a shrug.
I have never dined with women and seen desserts left untouched, but it was the same across our two tables. Early enthusiasm for a “charred sweet potato with honey gastric and raw milk gelato” was dampened by the chalky, potatoey and decidedly vegetal nature of a blackened spud nested beside icy, unsweet, frozen milk. Friends at the next table abandoned their “smoked chocolate-and-chaga mousse” citing its dry, crumbly texture and fighting role of a green mixed herb granita topping. A third dessert—Argentinian torta rogel layered with dulce de leche, Roquefort blue cheese meringue and black peppercorn—is still to be tried but doesn’t inspire confidence that the sweet/savory balance will be right. I really hope they invest in a pastry chef to sort this out.
Like the space overall, Ambos’ open kitchen is a beautiful window on an industrial theater, but in spite of Piattoni’s fermentation program and adventurous compositions, care needs to be taken for meats to be tender and flavors balanced.
Soft verdict: Worth a visit for its stunning design, art, details and transformation of an industrial space. Maybe a hotel stay after dinner midweek? Sure, swing by for cocktails and friendly (if sometimes frazzled) service, but plates at Ambos are still very much in a soft opening phase. We’ll check back in a few weeks.
Other intel? Those following the Pocketbook’s launch will have noted a recent holiday market and midweek room offers for those who dine in and maybe drink enough to decide to stay. Plus, DJ Tedd Patterson kicked off the official opening of the Pocketbook’s new boileroom nightclub, Ether. To have a beautiful bar for cocktails and a dance club with acclaimed DJs is arguably the real intel for now.
Parking: Street parking or municipal lots. (Hotel guests are provided with designated parking in a nearby municipal lot.)
