Francesca J.

Hello, I’m Edith Zimmerman, and this is a newsletter in which I ask people for recommendations in and around upstate New York. Today we have my friend (and stepsister-in-law!) Francesca J.

Thank you for doing this, Fran! Okay, so, how would you describe yourself? 

I'm a full-time mom to two children, and I'm a very, very new social work student.

And you live in Cold Spring. How did you get there?

Well, in November of 2019, we decided we wanted to move to Cold Spring from Brooklyn, where we had lived for 10 years. And then we put an offer in on our house, and our closing got scheduled for March of 2020, so we moved right as the city shut down.

Why Cold Spring?

We were all over the place looking upstate, but Cold Spring was closer to my parents, and it was still, like, accessible to the city. And we really liked the hiking and the access to the outdoors.

What do you do for fun?

I knit, do yoga, and garden, and I go hiking and paddle boarding.

Wow. Great answer.

I rehearsed the answers.

I appreciate it. What's a cool place you've been to recently?

Well, we just went to Storm King, which was really great. My kids are finally old enough that it didn't feel like a chore.

Also, directly across the street from my house is Magazzino Art Center, which is an Italian art museum, and they have a cafe that feels like the Italian countryside, but it's just like, I could walk there. And it's wonderful.

What's some good food you’ve had in the area?

Magazzino has great food. And Dolly’s in Garrison is one of my favorites. And Cold Spring Depot is good because they’re tolerant of children running around and screaming.

Anything else you recommend?

Oh, so there's a refill store in our town called Understory Market. You can get bulk stuff, like coffee, beans, and pasta, but I also recently went there to buy gifts, and they had really thoughtful, small-batch items, like Bink tumblers, and cool nail polish and things. It's just a really great store. I love it.

Thank you, Francesca!

And thanks for reading. If you’d like to be featured in a future installment, or know someone who would, please drop me a line.

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