Michelin Key Awarded Seminary Hill Hosts Upstate's First Cider Fest + April Getaway Ideas 🥂
(4/4) Plus, a Frank Lloyd Wright Community 30 Miles from NYC
Happy April, y’all!
Before we get into today’s newsletter, we want to sincerely apologize to those of you who fell for our April Fool’s joke earlier this week.
Some exciting news comes following our fake app, though: we ARE working on New York City’s first easy getaway app! Keep an eye out for launch before Memorial Day. (For the singles we disappointed, a hot tip: check out Unhinged Dating Upstate for Upstate speed dating events.)
Moving on: It’s been a rainy few days here in the Catskills, but I’m not complaining. It’s not snow, plus I’m currently cozied up at the new Fantzye Bagels in Midtown Kingston, enjoying “The Other”: a vegan-friendly sandwich with garlicky mushrooms, vegan scallion schmear, and greens – on a rosemary sea salt bagel. It’s somehow my first visit here since Fantzye’s opening in November, which got me thinking: how have I not been here yet? And is Kingston becoming a bagel hub?
Besides Fantzye, the city houses Moonrise Bagels' take-out window with stuffed bagels (think calzone-meets-bagel); Sunrise Bagels for classic NYC-style bagels; Camp Kingston for pizza bagels (with gluten-free options from Our Daily Bread); and Rosie General for house-made bagels and lox. For Kingston Bread + Bar fans who've been mourning their January closure, we got good news this week: they've announced a new Midtown location, meaning their $6 breakfast sandwiches on sourdough bagels should be returning in no time. All this to say, Kingston's bagel game is stronger than ever, giving you yet another delicious reason to venture north this spring.
If you’ve been itching to get Upstate – for bagels, fresh air, cider or otherwise – this week we sent out all our April deals, plus a feature on one of our very favorite stays, the Michelin Key awarded Seminary Hill Boarding House. Also, ICYMI, we closed out our Severance Upstate Filing Locations list this week with the cherry on top: a Frank Lloyd Wright designed community, 30 miles from NYC, that we previously didn’t know existed. (How?!)
Check it all out below.
Thanks for being here, and enjoy your weekend!
-Hannah + the EB Team
Seminary Hill in Callicoon, NY: a Michelin Key Awarded Hotel, Organic Orchard, and the World’s First Passive House Certified Cidery
Set in New York’s picturesque Delaware River Valley, Seminary Hill — an organic orchard, cidery, restaurant, and boutique hotel — literally comes alive in springtime, when its orchard blooms, the ciders flow and the grounds open up for the season.
This spring, stay at Seminary’s Michelin Key-recognized Boarding House, where 17 apartment-style rooms provide an idyllic countryside escape. Each has unique features, plus amenities like kitchenettes, pet-friendly rooms, clawfoot soaking tubs, and more. Cider fanatics can book their stay using the Cider Experience package to receive a bottle of cider, a $50 Tasting Room credit, early check-in, late check-out, and two tickets to Seminary’s weekly tour and tasting.
Should you choose to plan an entire Catskills escape around cider, we recommend checking out Seminary’s first-ever Cider Fest on Saturday, May 10th. Tour the world’s first Passive House-certified cidery, enjoy live music, taste flights/cheese pairings, and try two unreleased estate ciders. Tickets for the event can be purchased on Resy, while rooms can be booked directly on Seminary’s website.
To further inspire your stay, check out The Escape Brooklyn Feature on Seminary Hill for recommendations in the area, including shopping, hiking, dining, farm visits and more.
April’s Escape Club: Members Only Discounted Getaways
In our region of Upstate New York, the days are getting noticeably longer, grass is getting greener, and temps are finally getting warmer. March is always a bit of a waiting game, but with it now in the rear view, we're back to enjoying the outdoors (sans 100 layers) for the foreseeable future.
If spring has you itching to take a trip Upstate for some fresh air, we've got some ideas! This month, we have some great promos to bring you wherever your heart desires – the thriving streets of Kingston, the banks of the Hudson River, streamside in the Catskills, lakeside in the Hudson Valley, an organic cidery in the Delaware River Valley, and so on.
Some promos for April include 10% off a stay at any of Glasco's luxurious properties (be sure to look into BLCK Creek, an estate set on 164 acres with a private lake, hiking trails, and waterfalls), 15% off a stay at any Manage This Home property, 15% off a stay at Perch Cottages, and 10% off a stay at The Henderson. Check out the entire list in our April Getaway Promos newsletter.
Interested in seeing what we have in store for your summer getaways? Subscribe right before peak travel season begins to get planning. It’s $6/month, or $60 annually, and keeps our team property caffeinated throughout the year. (Seriously, we can’t run Escape without your support!)
Spotlight On: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonia Community, 30 Miles from NYC
While doing our dig for our final Upstate Severance filming locations list (at least, final for the time being…), we learned that Devon and Ricken’s mid-century home is located in the real-life Usonia Historic District, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The specific house we see in Severance – The Bier House – is a private residence designed by one of Wright’s notable protégés, noteworthy architect Kaneji Domoto.
Located just outside Pleasantville, NY, The Bier House and other homes in the Usonia Historic District served as the blueprint for modern American residential architecture. Today’s sought-after open floor plans, passive solar design principles, built-in furniture, and carports are all featured in this community. The Usonia Historic District is less than an hour from two of our favorite day-trip spots in the Hudson Valley – Cold Spring and Beacon – making it perfectly located for a quick detour.
That’s it for this week! Happy April. PS: do you love Escape Brooklyn? Did you know we are a tiny, female-owned and female-run business? We can’t do this without your support! 🖤
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