18 Hours in Hudson

where to eat, sleep, shop, and drink plus my hudson wishlist

May 26, 2026

I’ve often thought that one is only able to preserve the beauty of New York because of the ease with which one can leave. It’s no secret that I have a propensity for moving away, living abroad, disappearing completely, but the joy of leaving for a day and coming back the next, refreshed, is one that I always look forward to. On particularly long and empty summer days, I always find myself elsewhere, probably in Beacon, which you can get to on the local line. Or Rockaway, which is never as burdensome an undertaking as I think it’s going to be. It speaks to the city’s distinct gravitational pull that I always return, but to be unburdened by it—for a day, a week, or eight months—always feels like coming up for air. The Amtrak north to Hudson costs, if you book in advance, 39 dollars and departs roughly every hour. Without a car, one needs no more than 18 hours to enjoy the town, which is one long street lined on either side with vintage stores and vacant storefronts and a bookshop that doubles as a pub.

jack’s hands in the mid morning sun on the amtrak north

Jack and I visited on a Thursday, when Mel the Bakery is open for breakfast and Café Mutton is open for dinner. It’s worth planning around these things or else plan to grab cheese at Talbott’s, steak at Meat Hook, and a bottle of wine from Grapefruit and hunker down inside and cook yourself dinner in an apartment that is open and airy. That, to me, is an equally valid reason to visit Hudson–if just the opportunity to blanket yourself in genuine quiet and read your book next to the person you love. I’ve often found that it takes leaving the city to remind myself that this is even a possibility.

By the time morning arrived, and Jack and I had emerged from our rib-chop-poulsard-profiterol-induced food coma, we had already walked the entire town two or three times. Stores are open at different hours. In fact it seemed as though no two were open at the same time, which kept our pacing back and forth feeling new every time. Although we didn’t buy much, Jack having no room in his suitcase for a mid-century modern couch and me not having the budget for the sweater of my dreams, there is plenty of eye candy. Everything we lingered over had the nostalgic quality of my New England upbringing and the aspirational quality of the inn in France I have yet to own. Everything, from the meals we ate to the silence we devoured on our walks, was lovely. We returned to Manhattan the next day on the 12:30 train still full from dinner and feeling nonetheless lighter.

Where we ate:

Mel the Bakery – I’ve been craving their bread since they moved from Ludlow to Upstate but their made to order sandwiches truly satisfy a sort of beach-eats itch that is only reinforced by the picnic tables out front where you can eat them.

The Spotty Dog – With an hour or so to kill before dinner, we stopped in here for a beer and some excellent people watching. A true local spot (everyone who came in after us wished the woman next to us a happy belated birthday) the worn-in space is split down the middle with a book shop on the right and a bar on the left. Tons of options on draft, it’s cute and unpretentious.

Café Mutton – Truly one of the most excellent dinners I’ve had in some time, their menu leans meat heavy (they are known for the nose-to-tail butchery) but the seasonal vegetable options like the mustard greens and white asparagus in a mustardy, herby dressing were delicious as well. Everything was both cooked and seasoned to perfection, an increasing rarity I’m finding. Jack and I split a bottle of 2022 Tissot Poulsard and both desserts–the butterscotch profiteroles were a bit boozy but the rhubarb trifle melted in your mouth. I’ve heard the brunch is lovely as well but dinner here is such a standout.

Talbott and Arding Cheese and Provisions – for a quick sandwich to go before our train. Their prepared foods are fantastic and they have every kind of provision you could want.

Merkin Hudson – We just missed this due to the timing of our train back to the city, but this new wine bar from the team behind Café Mutton is the refurbished-garage-natural-wine-bar-sandwich-shop of my dreams. Open Thursdays and Fridays only for the time being.

Where we stayed:

This most perfect Airbnb on Warren Street.

Where we shopped:

Clove and Creek – perfect for homeware, pipe dreams of starting an urban garden, cookbooks you didn’t know you needed and the most perfect bedding I’ve ever seen

Nikki Chasin – for the most gorgeous knits and the red sweater of my dreams

Proprietors Vintage and Handmade – an excellent curation of vintage and upcycled clothing from every era, in every color you can imagine

Grapefruit Wines - the best place in town to pick up a bottle of wine, best enjoyed in bed after dinner to the soft glow of Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy playing from your computer

Farm Shoppe – for vintage ceramic cookie jars and all the goodies you need to fill them

Dish – only open on the weekends but their collection of vintage and new textiles, plates and home ware offers a gentle reminder that every home should be filled with abundance

Kitty’s Market – for snacks and sweets and especially those sour Swedish fish gummies I love