Bimi’s Canteen’s Supper Clubs Offer Great Food and Connection in Hudson Valley

The Hudson Valley of New York is having a moment, making best-of travel guides for several years in a row. While the accolades have helped boost the profile of the scenic, river region of New York’s upstate, many rural towns are still struggling. A group of locals are hoping to change this, by investing in their towns with businesses that appeal to both residents and visitors. Case in point: Bimi’s Canteen, the restaurant companion to a beloved cheese shop that has been drawing food lovers for a decade to the charismatic village of Chatham.

“We believe the way to save beautiful little towns in the US from being destroyed by big-box stores is for people who live in the area to invest in them,” says Ellen Waggett, who co-owns Bimi’s Canteen with her husband, Christopher Landy. Theatrical designers who have maintained a weekend home in the area for nearly 20 years, Waggett and Landy first opened Bimi’s Cheese Shop, a cult-favorite store featuring dairy products from around the world, in 2014. 

Although the designers hadn’t planned on expanding, as the shop grew in popularity, they needed more space to accommodate the demand. When the two storefronts next door became available, it felt like serendipity. They opened Bimi’s Canteen in the summer of 2023, with a moody rustic dining room upstairs, and a bar downstairs that has the throwback glamour and secret feeling of a speakeasy. 

Although the pair have been careful not to create a “cheese restaurant,” Bimi’s Canteen features cheese in several of its seasonal menu selections, including rotating cheese slates, a burger topped with crispy Raclette, mac and cheese with a pungent five-cheese blend, and pastas that showcase piquant Gorgonzola or tangy mascarpone. This winter, they introduced a fondue special, made with a silky combination of Gruyere, Challerhocker, Raclette, and Ur Eiche, plus a splash of white wine. 

For 2024, the owners, along with Chef Jesse Curtin, have announced a new Supper Club series. “We love having parties, having people over, introducing friends to each other,” explains Waggett. “We thought, How do you create that in a restaurant?”

The result is a nod to supper club history, which has its roots in the roadhouses and speakeasies of the Prohibition era. The clubs of the 1920s and ’30s were destinations for people to eat, socialize, listen to live jazz, and, yes, drink illicit spirits served alongside a good meal. Today’s supper clubs update the formula with more upscale, often themed, meals, plus craft cocktail and wine pairings that are both alluring and completely legal. 

Bimi’s Supper Clubs retain the social feel of their predecessors, with long, communal tables that allow you to sit among, and get to know, fellow foodies. Each dinner will have a different theme, kicking off with a Lunar New Year celebration on February 9. The meal will take the form of a family-style traditional Chinese banquet, with about nine courses, including whole fish, sweet potato cakes, and desserts like nian gao, a steamed sticky rice cake. The dinner costs $110 per person, plus an optional $30 pairing of Chinese spirits and Italian wines—the latter are an unexpected, but traditional part of Lunar New Year meals. 

Bimi’s Canteen will offer three other Supper Clubs throughout 2024, all with different themes. (Sign up for their newsletter to learn about upcoming dates and themes.) Each will have two seatings, at 5:30 and 8:00 p.m., and will accommodate 36 people per session. After the feast, diners are invited to hang out in the downstairs bar.

Although Landry and Waggett never thought restaurant ownership would be part of their career trajectory, they’ve found it to be a natural fit. “The industries are very similar,” Waggett says. “In both cases you have an audience, you need to have a place that’s beautifully designed, and you have to ‘cast’ very well. Ultimately, it’s about telling a story, albeit through a different medium, and pleasing the audience.”

Robin Catalano’s writing has appeared in National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, TIME, Smithsonian, Conde Nast Traveler, AFAR, Hemispheres, Robb Report, Bon Appetit, Fodor’s, ROVA, Insider, Boston Globe, Albany Times Union, and a variety of other regional publications.