The latter can be found in the aptly named hamlet of Pleasant Valley, located to the east of Poughkeepsie (population barely over a thousand), whose "downtown" features a graveyard, a place to get horse feed, and a few mini-malls. One of those mini-malls contains Publick House 23, an adventurous eatery where Bronx-style chopped cheese sandwiches share tables with red wine burgers, char-grilled heads of romaine lettuce, and possibly the best chicken wings in the Hudson Valley. You could drive by it a thousand times without noticing it. But if the lessons of Poughkeepsie's Arterial have taught us anything, it's that sometimes the most innovative and vital things being done in the Hudson Valley happen just beyond the viewshed of the major roads, out of reach of the town centers, or in the warren of streets below an old railroad trestle, where freshly made cannolis and biscotti are laid out in display cases as a city wakes from a long slumber.
The Poughkeepsie food scene is just heating up, here is a roundup of new bars and taprooms.