Bucket List: Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa (& Farm & Orchard)

admin Posted OnApril 11, 2019

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Bucket List: Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa (& Farm & Orchard): Just an hour and change from downtown Chappaqua, ten minutes north of Newburgh in Milton, the Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa is a spa date you owe yourself. Set on a lovely 75-acre estate overlooking the Hudson River, Buttermilk offers a world class spa with steam, sauna and swimming pool, a farm to table restaurant, an organic kitchen garden, an orchard, gardens, trails, an animal sanctuary and lodging.

Down with that? Group text the BFF’s and ride… Not so fast. You will need to book three months in advance for the spa _ it’s that good. And it’s worth the trip! Go in winter and enjoy the panoramic Hudson Views. Go in spring or summer when it’s surrounded by a grove of weeping willows, The head down to the riverside patio just yards away.

Old McDonald had a spa

Did we mention that there is a waterfall on the property? (Well duh?) You can hear from anywhere on the estate. And there’s plenty of electric car charging so you can bring your Tesla. Vroom! Vroom!

The Inn is classic Hudson Valley cottage with shake shingles and columns and lots of white trim. If you don’t like inn-life you can rent a guest cottage or a guest house such as The River Knoll House, a three-bedroom, three and a half bath house, with a fireplace and a deck overlooking the Hudson. The spa is Frank Lloyd Wright modern with a flat roof, stone, glass, cedar and steel. And the restaurant is lofty urban chic.

The restaurant is called Henry at the Farm, because the Buttermilk complex is (beat) on a farm. Next to a farm, to be exact, just across the swan pond that separates the two complexes. Millstone Farm is a work in progress with an aviary house, peacocks and heritage breed chickens lay the inn’s breakfast eggs every morning. There’s an apple orchard, a kitchen garden that grows organic fruit, vegetables and herbs and Bucket List: Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa (& Farm & Orchard) honey from the beehives – oll of which you can find on the menu at Henry at the Farm. Where there’s a farm you can usually find a barn – this now has llamas, alpacas and donkeys, oh my!

Let’s just say that Buttermilk Falls has it all together. The colonial columns and Egyptian cotton are in the inn, the stone, steel, glass, and cucumber infused water are in the spa, the ducks are on the pond, the llamas, chickens, Adirondack chairs, leather banquettes, Edison bulbs, pork belly tacos and white truffle parmesan frites are all where they’re supposed to be. It’s all just three months away if you call now!

Swedish Hot Stone Massage & French Press Coffee

Bucket List: Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa (& Farm & Orchard) Let’s start by mentioning that we had the most amazing hot stone massage. Are we the last people on earth to do this? Full confession, we’ve always seen the promo pictures of the hot stones carefully placed up and down the model’s spine and thought, meh? Here, there was no time for the stones to rest. They offer a full hour of long stroke Swedish Massage with the hot stones. Do they do this everywhere? Or have we been dead? The masseuse was working it! And we were loving it! We’ll never have a regular massage again. This was Zen-Zen.

They do offer a full range of massage, if you need to know, including the Millstone Farm Massage with oil infused with fresh lavender grown on the farm. Plus, Red Flower body wraps and scrubs, advanced skin care facials, and nail therapies. (Blah, blah, bla!, Get the hot stone massage.) After your treatment there are wonderful rain shower heads in the locker room and a sauna and steam room with windows overlooking the fields. (Ya huh!) You can get a spa lunch delivered poolside (think Hummus Platter, Apple-Nut Spinach Salad, Vegetable Wrap or Lemon Almond Chicken Wrap),

Or head over to Henry’s at the Farm, just yards away, for Buttermilk Belgium Malted Waffles, a Blackened Grouper Wrap or a BBQ Beef Brisket Sandwich with beer battered onion rings, house made coleslaw, Vermont cheddar and maple aioli. The French press coffee was spot on. The Farmer’s Breakfast was as country as the Iowa caucus. And the Sunday brunch crowd was filled with Vassar and Marist College students, both campuses just 15 to 20 minutes away.

Havin’ a wild weekend

There’s much to do in the area and lots of good food if you want to turn your spa day into a weekend getaway. Just thirteen minutes away you can go for a breezy stroll across the Walkway Over the Hudson, one of our favorite things to do. A mile and a quarter walk across the bridge will put you in downtown Poughkeepsie where there are lots of good restaurants catering to the IBM crowd. The Artist’s Palette, a swanky mid-Hudson oasis in an 1872 Soho-style four story with Braised Pheasant, Portuguese Octopus and Faroe Island Salmon on the menu sounds perfect.

While you’re in Poughkeepsie, chef out The Bardavon Opera House for an evening of music or comedy. In addition to the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, this historic theatre attracts an impressive list of household names. Such as The Steve Miller Band, Graham Nash and Jay Leno, all of whom will be there this summer and fall. Or you can see John Malkovich performing his take no prisoners theatre project, Just Call Me God, about the last hour of a dictator’s life.

Everybody should make a point of visiting the Home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Hyde Park. The house tour is short but interesting and the museum is a historical romp through mid-twentieth century America. Just a half mile away is the Culinary Institute of America where you can lunch at the Apple Pie Bakery Café or dine at the spectacularly appointed Bocuse, Caterina de Medici Ristorante or the American Bounty Restaurant. It’s just 19 minutes back to Buttermilk from there.

Large Scale Art & Donuts Nearby

Day Tripping: Storm King Art Center Bucket List: Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa (& Farm & Orchard)

If art and a hike is your magic combo, head a half-hour south to the Storm King Art Center. Set on 500 acres, Storm King is widely celebrated as one of the world’s leading sculpture parks. It showcases over 100 large scale works from the world’s finest artists carefully sited against scenic backdrops of fields, hills and woodlands. Think the PepsiCo Sculpture Gardens on steroids. You will work up an appetite pacing the grounds filled with the art of Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Maya Lin, Henry Moore, Isamo Naguchi, Louise Nevelson, Claes Oldenburg, George Rickey, Richard Serra and many more.

Bucket List: Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa (& Farm & Orchard) People who prefer their large-scale art indoors, will prefer the Día Beacon. This beyond fabulous museum in Beacon is set in a 160,000 square foot Nabisco box-printing plant on 31 acres on the banks of the Hudson. It is famous for its large-scale installations. Andy Warhol’s Shadows is currently on view featuring 72 canvases edge to edge a foot above the floor in a cavernous gallery. Also currently on exhibit is a retrospective of German artist Charlotte Posenenske (pictured here). But don’t get too hung up on the current exhibits because the Día’s permanent installations are worth the trip all by themselves. Such as Don Flavin’s multi-colored fluorescent tube sculptures, Richard Serra’s contorted steel plate Torqued Ellipses, and Michael Heizer’s negative space sculptures North, East, South, West. For good eats in Beacon check out The Roundhouse for its smart New American menu and stunning waterfall views. Or design your own donuts at Glazed Over on Main Street. Or do both.

Bucket List: Buttermilk Falls Inn & Spa (& Farm & Orchard) Finally, you can find a taste of Hudson Valley Wine country at the Benmarl Winery just 13 minutes away from Buttermilk. America’s oldest winery (who knew?) Benmarl swept the top awards at the 2018 Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition including Winery of the Year and Best in Show for it’s 2012 Blanc de Blancs sparkling white wine. Cheers!