“Cook & Larder has been a great addition to Hillsdale—and to the General Store building, which holds four businesses. I especially love Anthony’s chicken parm and eggplant parm to take away for easy dinners at home when I don’t want to cook. His weekend made-to-order burger and fries are off-the-charts delicious. I’m eager to see what new things he’ll be introducing to the menu for dining in his shop this summer.”
— Matthew White, owner, Hillsdale General Store and HGS Home Chef
Cook & Larder (2642 NY State Route 23 in Hillsdale, N.Y.) is a local comfort food shop offering sweet and savory prepared food and—beginning early summer 2025—a made-to-order menu with inside seating and outdoor dining options. Whether you’re into buttery pastries, egg sandwiches, or pasta and meatballs, you’ll find freshly prepared food, a kind owner, and a relaxing atmosphere.
The business inhabits the former Crossroads location, a local favorite owned by Dave Wurth. Considered by many the pioneer of farm-to-table dining in the Berkshires, Wurth is still widely known for his “down-home” cooking. But when COVID dished up some extra challenges (followed by a few helpings of snowless winters and lower foot traffic), he saw retirement opportunities as more appetizing.
When Crossroads shuttered its doors, Matthew White, who owns the building (and, as the proprietor of the Hillsdale General Store and HSG Home Chef, literally put this tiny hamlet on the map), hoped someone else would take over the space and create some culinary excitement. Enter Anthony DeCaria, a former industrial designer/creative director for retail marketing with a lifelong love of cooking—and a vision for a new café. “Dave left large shoes to fill after ten-plus years,” DeCaria admits, so rather than trying to be Dave, DeCaria focused on being Anthony, with good results.
Raised in southern Florida, DeCaria attended Pratt Institute School of Design in Brooklyn and started his career in industrial design in the city—a background evident as soon as you step into Cook & Larder. But as he puts it, “cooking was always a passion.” His mother is from Northern Ireland, and his father is from Southern Italy—providing an intriguing culinary heritage, particularly for comfort foods. “My mother learned how to cook Italian food from my father’s family, and on Sundays when I was growing up, she’d make the gravy (marinara sauce) and I’d stir it,” he reminisces. “One day, I woke up early and started the gravy before she was up. After that, I was cooking for people on a regular basis.”
DeCaria first discovered the Berkshires area in 2013 while living in Manhattan. “Friends of mine invited me to look at a house with them in Copake Falls on Easter Sunday,” he explains. “About that time, I realized that I needed to buy a place, but NYC wasn’t an option, so I started coming up to explore the Berkshires on the weekend.”
Throwing a dinner party for friends—and realizing how much he enjoyed cooking for others—led him to think more seriously about moving to the Berkshires and pursuing different work. In 2015, he began phasing out his career in retail design, bought a house, got a dog, and moved here part-time. By 2017, that turned into full-time residency, with a side business running a food truck on weekends in East Hampton, N.Y. He soon began working on a business plan to explore dipping his spoon even deeper into the restaurant world.
DeCaria then bid on (and won) a permit to sell at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, collaborating with the town to develop the menu. Going from cooking to running a successful business was a steep learning curve, he admits—and ultimately affirmed that he wanted to open up shop not on the South Fork of Long Island but in the Berkshires. In 2021, he decided to stay put in Craryville, with a new goal in mind.
“Matt White needed some help at HGS Home Chef, so I started out assisting with cooking classes,” DeCaria notes. Working for White helped him meet people and become a part of the Hillsdale community, which he found to be “magical—friendly and supportive.”
“While I was doing that, Matt mentioned that Dave Wurth was closing and asked if I would be interested in taking over that space,” he continues. The answer was a resounding yes. In short order, DeCaria resurrected his business plan, working with the Columbia Economic Development Commission (CEDC) to fine-tune the details. Wurth closed in February 2022 and moved out in April; DeCaria moved in during May and opened the business in July.
“Everything just fit,” he says, recalling how well the equipment matched the location (down to the espresso machine between the shelves). He gave the space a cosmetic facelift and a new color scheme, making sure to keep it “still familiar” for past patrons. He also maintained the same hours—9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday—and named it Cook & Larder (larder being the place you store your meat and fat, a nod to his Irish roots).
“The biggest challenge was getting additional help on the weekends when business during the week didn’t warrant extra people. We don’t have the daily hustle, but we do get the weekenders,” he acknowledges. Fortunately for DeCaria, he found three great employees—Juergen Schmidl, who helps with food prep; Felicia Amash, who comes in early to help with baked goods on the weekends; and Maya Kuenser, who is a server in the summer.
According to DeCaria, the place organically grew into what it is today. “I started with pre-made ‘foods to go’ back in 2022, but now that we’re going into our third year, the business is reaching 2.0, with the return of made-to-order, dine-in options plus outdoor seating.” Most of his customers learn about the shop by word of mouth. “People like the home-made touch, and almost everyone leaves saying ‘I’m going to tell my friends about this place,’” he shares.
DeCaria credits White (who also co-founded the full-service interior design firm White Webb in Manhattan) for contributing to Cook & Larder’s success. “Matt has been an invaluable mentor, sitting down with me every six months to check in and sharing tips. He really wants this town to be successful,” he emphasizes. White’s most important lesson? “You have to start with a solid business plan. If you lose your way, you need to go back to what you started with.”
Describing his overall vision, Decaria says, “I want to know your name and make this a place that feels like home, where you want to come and chat. As a friend who visits regularly from the city noted, ‘Not only do you have a great community and nice customer base, but they all know you and want to have a conversation.’” And because Route 23 is a well-known throughway, people make their way here from all around—Copake and Hudson in New York, as well as Monterey, New Marlborough, Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, Egremont, and Great Barrington in the Berkshires.
The end game? “I’d like to keep offering pre-made foods to go while enticing people to stay and order off the menu for breakfast or lunch when they see the tables,” he states, adding, “Ultimately, the goal is to provide a service for the community. There’s nothing better than someone appreciating something you made from scratch.”
Does he worry about the restaurant business amidst all the economic uncertainty? He admits that he did not go into this industry expecting to make a lot of money, but after all the years of working hard in the city, he’s found something more valuable. “If I can sustain this business, pay my bills, and live a good life, I’m a happy man,” he smiles. “My second career is for the greater good.”
When asked about his favorites from the menu, he rattles off the spinach, sundried tomato, and ricotta frittata for breakfast; the whipped tuna salad with sundried tomato, capers, onions, and dill for lunch; and the meatballs and pasta for dinner. “It’s been my life quest to make the perfect meatball,” he confesses—a process involving asking family members what ingredients they remember as well as taste-testing meatballs at renowned places like Georgione in Soho (which had raisins and pine nuts back in the day) and Bar Pitti in Greenwich Village. “The secret is how you mix the ingredients—herbs, meat, milk, and breadcrumbs—making sure not to overwork them,” he confides.
The shop’s location in Hillsdale is its “secret sauce.” Hillsdale General Store and Passiflora Home are right next door, and HGS Home Chef and Tiny Hearts Farm flower shop are just across the street. Plus, Sticks & Stones Tattoo Parlor recently opened in the former Village Scoop, which was once the American Tattoo Parlor. And, on Saturdays from May through mid-November, the Hillsdale-Copake Farmers Market also takes place in nearby Roe Jan Park (9140 State Route 22), making Cook & Larder well-situated to become a regular stop. Come for coffee and eggs in the morning, grab a take-away Maine lobster roll with mayo and tarragon (in season) for lunch, and pick up some pasta and gravy for dinner.
You’ll want to leave room for dessert, too. Depending on the day and season, the scratch-made options include ricotta cheesecake, chocolate-peanut butter cups, Italian carrot cake with orange zest and almond flour, or a refreshing affogato (in summer). Visit Cook & Larder’s website to see the current menu.
