Main Course Catering + Marketplace, New Paltz, New York

To celebrate a major birthday for the love of my life (who also, fortunately, is my wife Nancy) we took the whole gang up to Mohonk Mountain House for a vacation. Mohonk is an historic resort south of the Catskills, just a few miles past New Paltz. We started separately in two cars, both at about 7:00 am, with Nancy and I in our car and Liza, Michael, and the girls, Ella and Lily, in theirs.

The trip was a five-plus-hour drive up I-95 and the New Jersey Turnpike, which dumped us onto a crowded commercial highway seconds before we fell off the edge of the earth into the George Washington Bridge vortex. New Jersey abounds with beautiful areas, but I have to admit that New Jersey does not present its best face on that trip, especially in gray and rainy weather.

But we made it through. Nancy and I contacted the others, and connected with them in New Paltz, a lovely college town full of shops and cafes. They’d stopped for lunch at Main Course Catering + Marketplace, just ahead of us, and we joined them there.

The interior includes two seating areas. You order at the counter and they call your name when your order is ready. The wait isn’t long, just long enough for you to know that the order was prepared fresh. The menu changes frequently, as you can see on their Facebook page, and if I had come a few days later I could have had a pastrami sandwich.

We arrived, and Michael said in greeting, “Get one of these,” as he showed me a 16-ounce can of Kaaterskill IPA by West Kill Brewing.

I accepted his advice, and was bowled over by how much I liked the IPA. Some of my appreciation could have been situational, but this is an IPA that pairs beautifully with the end of a five-hour drive through New Jersey.

The Boyds (Michael, Liza, et al.) had already ordered, and their food arrived while Nancy and I were studying the menu. Ella (6) took a bite of her sandwich and said, “This is the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever!”

Lily had what looked like an oven-fried chicken paillard that I didn’t then and don’t now see on the menu. It looked good, but she largely ignored it in favor of a huge apple, upon which she formed letters of the alphabet by biting off sections of the peel. Liza had quiche with a salad,

while Nancy had a cup of soup and half a turkey sandwich. I missed the photo op until she gave me the soup, having her hands full with the substantial salad that came with the half sandwich.

I ordered the Blackened Chicken Panini with a side of tabouleh.

That’s a still-moist blackened chicken breast layered between avocado and roasted red pepper on seeded multigrain bread with chipotle aioli. The bread was quite dense by panini standards, and you can see that the sandwich press didn’t have much of an impact. The sandwich had lots of good flavors that blended well, as well as a little spice. I enjoyed both the sandwich and the tabouleh.

The soup had, as Nancy noted, an odd taste, but an intriguing rather than unpleasant flavor. The soups change daily and by the time I got to it we were getting on the move. There certainly was a lot of chicken in it. I have a vague recollection of a little curry and some lemongrass and …

It was a good meal, and we all left with a spring in our steps. Main Course was the perfect break between the drive and the resort, with some good food and a pleasant atmosphere. The clouds dispersed and the sun came out, at least figuratively, and dissolved the gray. Let the celebration begin! New Paltz has a lot to offer, but if you go there do give Main Course a try. You’ll enjoy it, and they may offer the pastrami.

***

And while you’re at it, click “follow” on our front page to receive blog posts in your email box.  Or bookmark us and check in from time to time.  If you’re planning a trip, you can “Search” the name of the destination city, state, or country for good restaurants (in Europe, often close to sites, like the Louvre or the Van Gogh Museum, that you’ll want to visit in any event).  Comments, questions, and suggestions of places to eat or stories to cover are very welcome.  And check our Instagram and Twitter pages, johntannerbbq.