Wildflower Farms, the new hotel from luxury hotel company Auberge Resorts, opened in Gardiner in the last days of September 2022 as the fall colors began to bloom. Rooms at the time started at $1,000 a night, plus taxes and fees. (Rates dropped somewhat for winter.) Within weeks, the leaves were at their peak and the Wildflower parking lot was filling with Porsches, Maseratis and BMWs. Apparently Peak Fool had arrived in the Hudson Valley.
Ultra-luxury hotels need fancy restaurants, of course. The one in Wildflower is called Clay, a beautiful restaurant with somewhat uneven cuisine – sometimes brilliant, sometimes meh – that’s also extremely expensive.
Approaching Wildflower Farms in the winter darkness, the buildings glow from within, all tan orange and gold ingot yellow. The restaurant is accessed via a reception area with a gigantic foyer, which is a superbly comfortable gathering place. (Locals are welcome.)
The restaurant itself is eye-catching with a chic ski lodge feel, acres of woods, and fireside warmth. Four waxy-leaved trees reach up to the high, wood-beamed ceiling, and a pretty open kitchen functions smoothly even when open flames sputter inside.
Everything seems perfect and relaxing. And then the menu comes.
Clay doesn’t publish prices on their website, so I took pictures of the menu. Maybe he wants his guests to start their meals with the unforgettable taste of sticker shock. For example, entrees: yellowfin tuna ($24); Black Angus Tartar ($30); sweet potato ($22). Main courses: halibut ($44); grilled rib steak ($68); doorman ($210, but “serves 2-3”). The cheapest wine by the glass is $17. There’s a bottle of Dom Pérignon on the menu for $3,750.
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The menu at Clay. The restaurant does not publish its prices online.
Christopher J. Yates / Special for The Times Union
At these prices, the food should be consistently exceptional. But a starter of salsify (an edible root, $22) was awkwardly plated with clumps of mustard greens seemingly tossed onto the plate like last-minute Ave Marias. It was the first meh.
Far better was the appetizer of risotto ($26) with sage, Tellicherry pepper and caulilini (broccolini’s baby cauliflower brother) which arrived in a bowl, a flat sea of beige. The flavors were anything but beige and flat, however. The meatless broth the rice was cooked in had an intense, soothing depth with a strong parmesan and umami flavor.
The pork chop starter ($56) with chicory, grits and lardo (dried pork fat) was tender and really succulent. The chop was draped in chicory, a naturally bitter vegetable, here given a brilliant kiss of vinegar, a perfect pairing for the sweet-tasting pork and its underlying grains, which achieved both intense creaminess and deep flavor.
Another main course, “Hen in Clay” ($62), gave a clue to the restaurant’s name. Apparently, when the chef first walked the rustic terrain, he returned with tufts of red on his boots and the idea of using the abundance of local clay to create a cooking vessel. (Now made elsewhere from off-site clay.) “Hen in Clay” arrived at the table in the gray sarcophagus it was baked in, an interesting presentation for a medium chicken and rice dish. It’s not that the dish was bad. But for such an exorbitant price, one could expect a whole tanned beast with an intense taste. This half-bird was small and pale-skinned. Pleasant in a Zen spirit. More than sixty dollars of serenity.
Another complaint. At most restaurants in the Hudson Valley, if you asked for a recommendation for a good bottle of red wine under $100, the sommelier would take a while to guide you through the menu. But Clay’s sommelier seemed disappointed by this tax challenge. After several minutes, he finally settled on three wine choices under a hundred dollars from a menu the size of a coffee table book.
Clay’s other high-ranking brass also ambled around the room with an air of aristocratic haughtiness. However, the general servers were a joy, all dressed in both gingham and seersucker shirts – two basics for the price of one.
I just wished they had grimaced on my behalf when they brought the bill. It listed a pair of starters, two mains, one of the cheapest bottles of red and a single dessert – the latter being perhaps the best value on the menu, $16 for a bowl of arancini with rice pudding, crispy clouds of pure pleasure.
The final cost, including a 20% tip, was $324. This is not a jet set award – it is a private jet set award. In other words, probably more than anyone with mud on their boots would ever want to spend.
Clay
Address: 2701 Main Street, Gardiner
Hours: Breakfast from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. (every day); brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (weekends); lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Monday-Friday); dinner 5pm-10pm (every day)
Prices: Small dishes, $22 to $30; entrees, $36 to $210; wines by the glass, $17 to $38; dessert, $16
Information: aubergeresorts.com/wildflower-farms/dine/clay and reservations via Resy
Etc.: Spacious outdoor terrace with fireplace, open to the public