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According to Heritage Food + Drink’s website, its menu will center on New American cuisine and have many items that are slow cooked on a wood-burning grill.
The new eatery will be located at 1379 Route 9, where local staple Greenbaum & Gilhooley’s used to be.
Owner Jesse Camac said he is hoping to open the 250-seat restaurant in May or June.
There will be a patio and two private event rooms, one that will hold 20 people and the other, 45, he said.
The New York City resident said he got interested in opening a restaurant in Dutchess County because his fiance's family has a huge farm on the other side of the Hudson.
They have grown apples in Milton in Ulster County for four generations, Camac said.
Their connections with other farmers in the area have allowed Heritage to “get a foot in the door,” Camac said Friday.
In fact, the family allocated a small area of their farm to Camac who will grow fresh veggies for the restaurant there.
Heritage also plans to serve locally brewed craft beers, not “only because they’re great, but because we believe in supporting the community,” Camac said.
Camac was a partner at Chef Zak Pelaccio’s Hospitality Group which owned and operated Fatty Crab and Fatty ‘Cue. The group was based in New York City and opened more than 10 other locations in the city, Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands; and Hong Kong.
Camac was vice president of the group and oversaw day to day operations. It was awarded 10 stars by the New York Times over a 10-year period.
Shawn Burnette, Heritage’s executive chef, was executive chef at Butterfield, the restaurant at Hasbrouck House in Accord. Prior to that, he worked for “some of the best chefs in the country,” including Mario Batali of Del Posto in New York City, Camac said.
Other members of the Heritage team are Frank Camey, who will be sous chef, and Jessica Gonzalez, who will be beverage director.
Camey runs the kitchen at the Mill House Brewing Co. Gonzalez was part of the opening staff at one of New York’s most acclaimed cocktail bars, Death & Co.
Amanda Baxter is a partner in the new venture, he said. Her company, RL Baxter Building Corp., is designing and building the 6,400-square-foot restaurant.
Baxter’s family also owns The Mill House Brewing Company in Poughkeepsie and will be supplying some of Heritage’s beer.
To view the restaurant's Facebook page, click here.
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