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The Maker Hotel\u2019s in-house restaurant is called Serre, after the French word for \u201cgreenhouse.\u201d It serves dinner nightly.<\/p>\n
Sara Wallach\/The Maker<\/p>\n
Jonas Offenbach, executive chef of The Maker, says his menus offer a lighter, contemporary take on dishes informed by French classics.<\/p>\n
Sara Wallach\/The Maker<\/p>\n
With 11 rooms, a cafe, lounge and restaurant spread across several buildings, The Maker is located at Warren and Third streets in Hudson.<\/p>\n
Francine Zaslow\/The Maker<\/p>\n
HUDSON\u00a0\u2014 The Maker, an 11-room boutique hotel on Warren Street that opened during the pandemic summer of 2020, has rebranded its in-house restaurant as Serre, French for \u201cgreenhouse,\u201d and made it a showcase for the well-regarded chef Jonas Offenbach.<\/p>\n
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Previously known informally as the Conservatory, the glass-roofed space nestled within a hotel created from three contiguous buildings started service under the Serre name on March 30. The menu<\/a> features dishes that are recognizably informed by classic French cooking\u00a0\u2014 Offenbach said he owns about 200 French cookbooks, most from the 1970s and \u201980s and many in the original language\u00a0\u2014 but with contemporary twists and lighter preparations. As Offenbach puts it, \u201cFrench cuisine through a modern lens.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say all that we do is French, but it\u2019s the core of my thinking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Case in point is an entree called Lamb Chop Crepinette. The latter word traditionally refers to a patty-like sausage of ground meat trimmings wrapped in caul fat, a lacy membrane that surrounds internal organs. At Serre, Offenbach mixes lamb, chicken and foie gras into a sausage blend, puts it on top of a lamb chop and cooks it all encased in caul fat, finished with a smoked-eel jus. The chef calls it a \u201cplayful ode or spin\u201d inspired by a recipe in a decades-old French cookbook that paired lamb with eel sauce.<\/p>\n Freshwater eel from the Catskills, delivered by a purveyor Offenbach described as \u201ca bearded guy who shows up at the back door,\u201d is a favorite of the chef\u2019s, as are raw red prawns, a scarlet-colored shrimp that was long associated with Spain but in recent years was found in the deep waters off Montauk. Offenbach serves them with fennel, a cantaloupe variant called Cavaillon melon, green tomato and sauce Americaine.<\/p>\n Make the Times Union a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our journalism when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cLike eels, the prawns come with me wherever I go,\u201d said Offenbach, who most recently was chef de cuisine and part of the founding team at the restaurant\u00a0Matilda at The Henson, a hotel near Windham. He previously was chef de cuisine at Momofuku Ko and also worked at Wildair and Gramercy Tavern, all in Manhattan.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Offenbach was hired at The Maker six months ago by the owners with the intention of revitalizing the hotel\u2019s food service, which also includes a cafe<\/a> and lounge<\/a>, new menus for which the chef also created.<\/p>\n \u201cJonas has a similar sensibility to us, an approach to\u00a0artisanship and an attention to detail (that) the hotel is really built on,\u201d said Lev Glazman, who founded The Maker<\/a> with Alina Roytberg, his partner in the beauty brand Fresh, and hospitality expert Damien Janowicz.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cWe wanted to give the restaurant its own name and identity, to create a narrative for it around (Offenbach\u2019s) techniques and cooking philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n While Serre offers a few expensive main plates, with the lamb chop costing $52 and a bavette steak $57, its appetizers average less than $9, its lighter fare under $24.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be a restaurant with an $80 lobster dish or a really expensive salad\u00a0\u2014 charging prices like that just because I could get away with it in Hudson,\u201d Offenbach said. Similarly, the cafe\u2019s lentil salad with soft-boiled egg, shallots, herbs and mustard vinaigrette is $15, and while the lounge\u2019s signature cocktails will set you back at least $18, its burger and fries are only a dollar more.<\/p>\n \u201cHis food feeds into the whole environment of the hotel,\u201d said Glazman. \u201cIt\u2019s a bohemian sensibility. It\u2019s sultry, sensuous, sexy, and Serre is a big runway for his creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n