Located in the heart of Cold Spring, Cozy Corner Café brings a new twist to the Hudson Valley restaurant scene. Owners Jessika and Ramiro Martinez serve organic dishes that are inspired by their Argentine and Uruguayan roots and feature fresh meat and produce from local and New York State purveyors, including Cold Spring Fish, East Fishkill’s Tiny Greens Farms, and Kilcoyne Farms in the Adirondack foothills. With the café’s one-year anniversary coming up, we checked in with the owners to see how business is going and if there’s anything new on the horizon.
Hudson Valley Magazine (HVM) Congratulations on being open for almost a year! How are things going?
Cozy Corner Café (CCC) Honestly, it’s been amazing—much better than we expected due to the number of people coming in, the love of the community, and the success of the dishes. It feels like we have the same taste as our customers!
HVM What’s the story behind your menu?
CCC We are from Argentina (Jessika) and Uruguay (Ramiro), so we had to add some touches from our cultures, which sets us apart from other cafés. Both of our families have a background in the food industry, which has helped us a lot. We serve dishes such as empanadas, provoleta (a cheesy appetizer with bread), steak sandwiches, and lentil stew, which we make in the Argentine way with chorizo, steak, and vegetables.
HVM What are your most popular dishes?
CCC Definitely the Argentine empanadas and the wild bacon burger. The empanadas are made with a family recipe and the meat is hand-cut; one bite transports you to Argentina. The burger patties are from Kilcoyne Farms and are super fresh, not frozen, which absolutely makes a difference.
“We are from Argentina and Uruguay so we had to add some touches from our cultures.”
HVM How does being in the Hudson Valley shape the way you run your restaurant?
CCC The support of the community is everything—they want us to be successful. Regulars give us food ideas, motivate us to open for dinner, ask about catering their events, and more. We love listening to them. It makes us who we are.
HVM What does the future look like?
CCC We want to take the restaurant to the next level and are working so hard with the team to make sure that happens. We are planning on expanding the kitchen space and changing the aesthetic a little—everything from the dishes and drinks to the decorations. We also want to work on dinner, catering, and events, and hope to launch during the summer.
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