WHERE TO EAT: CORNERSTONE, Pawling, NY
CORNERSTONE, Pawling, N.Y.
CORNERSTONE
146 East Main Street, Pawling cornerstonepawling.com | IG: @cornerstonepawling | Facebook
In Pawling, Wednesday is not really a slow night. Cornerstone's lot is full, bar seats fill, and there are tables of friends and couples on date nights. This is what happens when a town sees a building go up brick by brick for four years and finally gets to eat inside it.
The Tomassetti family—Pawling builders with roots in Abruzzo—tore down what was left of the old McGrath's Tavern and put a colonial-style, two-story restaurant and event space in its place. It sits at the junction where Route 22 crosses East Main Street, with a small historic old cemetery to one side of the property, which either adds gravitas or something to think about while you wait.
For the kitchen, the Tomassettis brought in Executive Chef Harris Mayer, who's spent the last decade running Creamline, the Chelsea Market burger counter he co-owns with Nick Contess, with earlier stops at Five Points and Hundred Acres. But that won’t prepare you for his focus here, which is less “Manhattan chef heads upstate" and more of a chef moving nearer the people growing his ingredients to center menu around them. In recent years we’ve seen chefs taking center stage as the new rockstars; here, the farms take the lead. Mayer’s menu is printed fresh daily and it names names: Obercreek, Rosenkrans, and Dykman farms, Ronnybrook for dairy (they also supply Creamline), Catsmo Smokehouse out of Wallkill, Hudson Valley Duck Farm in Ferndale, and Wild Hive's stone-ground grains for the pasta and pizza dough. Even Vinny's Deli down the block in Pawling is showcased with Vinny’s burrata highlighted on the menu. Some places give lip service to the idea of sourcing local and farm-to-table. Here it's the driving premise.
Inside Cornerstone, the modern dining room is softened by textures and dining areas: A stone fireplace anchors one wall; a wood-fired pizza oven in front of the semi-open kitchen has a chef's counter for a view of the action, the stylish long bar is open plan to the dining room with raised booths as a partition, and on the far side a slim patio for warmer months. Even midweek, there’s an energy to the steady traffic. Though you can probably get a table as walk-in, reservations are recommended for busier nights.
We like it for: Date night, solo dinners, group dinners, weekend brunch, a chef's counter with a front-row seat to the pizza oven + open kitchen, a bar where you’re not removed from the action.
Must try: Black Dirt onion rings fried in pristine high smoke Algae seaweed oil for the cleanest crunch + flavor with charred leek ranch + powdered urfa (smoky Turkish pepper); buttermilk-marinated Arrosticini lamb skewers (from the Abruzzo region in Italy) with spiced hot honey, wood-fired pizza with a perfectly chewy Wild Hive dough and charred leopard spots, Mayer’s venison-ricotta meatballs with tomato sauce + fried rosemary; the Georgia peach sundae—seasonal so the kitchen is as likely to play with other fruit.
The Vibe: A brand-new building doing its best old-inn impression—stone fireplace, exposed pizza oven, busy with a dining and bar crowd even midweek.
Sound: Loud in the good way — dinner crowd and bar crowd talking over each other in one open room.
Style: Built from scratch to look like it's always been there; main dining room, open bar, seasonal patio, and an upstairs private floor with its own bar for events.
Parking: On-site lot — though apparently not big enough some nights.
Good to know: The Cornerstone team has added a series of event nights from Wednesday night line dancing, Thursday night pizza making, bingo or paint-and-sip, and a weekend jazz brunch. An upstairs events floor for parties and groups feels like more typical conference space, but with its own bar and balcony it’s versatile enough for private dining and has its own staircase off the downstairs entry foyer so sound doesn’t leak downstairs.
Nearby: 1. Vinny's Deli & Pasta 2. McKinney & Doyle Fine Foods 3. Sunflower Bakery & Cafe 4. The Pawling Coffee Roaster 5. Main Street Cafe & Deli
Day trip or Stay Trip?
The train station is just a few minutes drive and close by is the helpfully named Station Inn Pawling, a 19th-century building where you can spend the night instead of making the return leg. Plus, the tiny town center of Pawling has plenty of charm to fill an afternoon before or morning after with cafes, shops, thrift and vintage boutiques clustered around the village core along Charles Colman Boulevard and Route 22. Call it ninety minutes travel time from Manhattan by car, and a few minutes longer if you take the MetroNorth Harlem Line in and out of Grand Central. And an about the same driving in from the Albany area. Time it right and you could even fit in a round of golf at Dutcher Golf Course.
