About us
Six people who grew up here, still live here, and will argue for twenty minutes about where to buy a loaf of bread.
The short version
It started as a text thread.
Most of this guide began in our group text. A friend would ask where to eat in Kingston or which trail still looked good late in October. One of us would scroll back, find the answer we'd already sent somebody else, and send it again. We got tired of searching our own messages, so we put the answers in one place.
Anyone can look up an address and an opening time. What's harder to find is somebody who'll tell you a place is fine but not worth the hour in the car, or that the famous one is a queue and the place two towns over is the one you'd remember. That's the part we argue about, and it's the part we write down.
We're not visiting
All six of us grew up in the valley, and we're still here. We don't pretend that makes us experts on every town. It does mean we know the places our families have been going for years, and we've watched a few famous stops turn into a forty-minute queue for a ten-second view.
Two of us work in the park service. Two have spent years in local kitchens and dining rooms. One seems to have joined every trail crew between Cold Spring and Windham. On a normal weekend, somebody is clearing trail, helping at a market, or picking up a shift at the food pantry.
How a place earns its tier
Every entry gets ranked Top pick, Great, Worth it or Optional. We argue over those rankings ourselves. A good photo doesn't count for much. Neither does being new or fashionable. What matters is how a place feels on an ordinary day and whether we'd send a friend there.
Nobody can pay for a listing. We don't use affiliate links, sponsored entries or ads. If a place closes, changes hands or loses what made it good, we take it out on the next pass. We'd rather admit that an old favorite has slipped than keep recommending it.
What we can't promise
Hours change. So do kitchens. Roads wash out and trails close for the season. We keep checking the guide and put the latest refresh date on every guide page, but call ahead before making a long trip for anything time-sensitive. We do.
Tim, Jonah, Miles, Luke, Sarah & Molly the NY Field Guide team