Fishkill welcomes an upmarket café for a boozy sip and a laidback lunch— and it’s the perfect companion to its heartier Italian relative next door.
While there are plenty of places to eat in Fishkill, including Chef Scott Rosenberg’s award-winning trattoria, Il Figlio Enoteca, what the town was lacking was a place to get a “really good cappuccino and a pastry with a friend, or grab your laptop and work away from home while you eat lunch,” says Rosenberg. His solution: opening a café that caters to lighter, highly curated fare in an aesthetically appealing space. He named his new venture La Sorella (sister in Italian), a fitting moniker since it’s located next door to Il Figlio, which translates to son.
The menu is a reflection of everything the CIA-trained Rosenberg likes to prepare and eat: paninis stuffed with roasted mushrooms and chicken Milanese, or mortadella with pistachio pesto and burrata; salads with chickpeas and spicy red onions, or poached tuna and haricots verts; quiches, egg sandwiches, and smoked salmon toasts; and a plethora of pastries (the Nutella stuffed croissant and everything cookies are well worth the extra calories).
And the space makes guests feel as though they’ve been transported to the Italian Riviera. Comfortable banquettes, trendy lighting, and pops of textured wallpaper clamor for a leisurely afternoon spent sipping an Aperol spritz or a Negroni. (In addition to coffee and tea drinks, the café menu also includes cocktails.) “We wanted to take the complication out of things and make it effortless,” says Rosenberg. “Come in, have a salad, have a glass of rosé. Take an hour for yourself, disconnect, and do you. And people are doing it.”
La Sorella—which can be rented out for private events at night—also features a mercato aspect: If you like the candles burning in the bathrooms, you can buy one to take home. If the coaster your cocktail arrived on is pleasing to you, you can purchase a set. They also sell high-end pasta, their own private label olive oil, coffee, and even flowers, sourced from The Parcel in nearby Cold Spring. There’s also a grab-and-go bakery counter (see the aforementioned everything cookies) if you’d like to savor a sweeter offering later in the day. “The biggest reward for me has been seeing people popping in on a daily basis or at least three times a week which really validated that there was a need for this in Fishkill,” says Rosenberg. “People are ready to go back out to lunch.” And La Sorella is there to serve them.
La Sorella
992 Main St, Ste 22, Fishkill 845.871.2010
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