Lyndhurst Castle and Sunnyside, NY 7/18/10

After church, we took the Metro North train up to Tarrytown. It's about a 45 minute train ride. We took a taxi to the Lyndhurst Castle, a Gothic revival mansion. It was built in 1842 by Alexander Jackson Davis on 67 acres that faces the Hudson River. There were three families that lived there; and the last one is the well known Jay Gould, railroad magnate and Wall St. tycoon (hudsonvalley.org).

It was originally called "Knoll" but after the second owner bought it, George Merritt, he renamed it Lyndenhurst for the Linden trees that were planted. Jay Gould purchased the home in 1880 for his summer home.

Now the home was sold to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

We received a tour. The inside is not as big as it appears on the outside.

We then wanted to walk to Sunnyside where Washington Irving had his cottage. We walked along the Croton Aqueduct Trail, which was a little over one mile. It was a shady path, with trees lining each side; which kept us nice and cool.

Walked right to the entrance of the Cottage site. There was a large garden near a cottage where the gardener lived. This is where they grew most of their food. This domicile is more our style!

We received a tour of Washington Irving's cottage and this tour guide was more informative and personable. Washington's parents were great admirers of George Washington, hence the name of their second son. He never married and never had any children, but was a family man and enjoyed having his brother, Ebenezer and his five daughters. Irving's pen name was Diedrich Knickerbocker and this is where New York's basketball team got it's name, the Knicks (see www.hudsonvalley.org). Learn something new every day.

One of his famous works, Legend of Sleepy Hollow gave fame to the town nearby, Sleepy Hollow.

We continued walking to the town of Irvington. A quaint, small town. Not too many stores. We were famished, since we had not eaten since breakfast. We were hot and sweaty with no car; I'm sure we looked like vagabonds to the locals.

We were on a mission to find a good restaurant (I was ready to settle, but Todd likes to check out EVERY single restaurant to find the best. Usually, I appreciate this, but when you're starving, a hot dog stand would do). We pass two locals and I ask them if they live there. One of them said yes and I asked her where a good place to eat would be (saving time to walk past each restaurant...) she gave us a little guided tour and mentioned several eateries (let's cut to the chase lady, just give us your best and nobody gets hurt. Fortunately, I didn't say this out loud). She guided us to a hidden jewel with a view of the river, called Red Hat. It was a wonderful choice. We got seated outside under an umbrella. They served us two glasses of cold water out of a tall glass and water has never tasted so good. Then they brought bread and we devoured all of it.

The Red Hat was built in an old warehouse that would make greenhouses. It provided, we are guessing, the huge greenhouse that was built for the Lyndhurst estate.

Todd ordered pork chops, which was excellent, especially the creamed corn. The corn was nothing like we've tasted before.

GRILLED DOUBLE CUT BERKSHIRE PORK CHOP
- Snake River Farm heirloom pork
Wild Hive Mills organic corn polenta, sugar snap peas,
caper-currant compote, pommery mustard jus vinaigrette

I ordered the Goat Cheese, which was also excellent. It was a smaller portion so I had to help Todd with his pork chops!
CRISPY GOAT CHEESE BEIGNET
Coach Farm goat cheese, roasted beets, smoked applewood bacon,
greens, shallot-caraway vinaigrette

Delicious! We were so grateful for the local Irvingite to direct us toward this cuisine haven.

Bon Appetit!