Blue Hill at Stone Barns

One of my most memorable, amazing and overwhelming dining experiences was at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in September 2014.  They ask for no photography in the restaurant, so I don't have any pictures of the food, however they invite guests to wander the property before dinner and visit the vegetables and animals.  Our reservation was for 8:30, so we arrived a couple hours early to walk around the farm, since it was getting dark much before 8:30.  At sunset, we headed to the bar for a drink.

There is no set menu, it is simply described as the Grazing, Rooting, Pecking menu and they serve whatever is available that day.  The meal starts with many small bites, to be eaten with your hands, that just keep coming and coming.  Later they brought out some silverware when we moved on to less finger-friendly food.

The atmosphere was comfortable and relaxed, yet classy.  Education is also part of the dinner, we had staff come to our table and tell us about the fishing trip the chefs took and the grains they mill to make the bread.  Toward the end of dinner, we were moved to another more private room for a course and then taken out to the patio grill for another course, before returning to our table in the restaurant.

We were there for nearly four hours and were stuffed to the brim by the end.  

Some of my favorite bites were:  weeds with ash mayonnaise, tomato water gazpacho, kohlrabi fish tacos, whole grain brioche with fresh ricotta, farm egg with smoked tomato and cheddar, and strawberry marshmallow with graham cracker.