This Month’s Featured Article

Above: Every flavor of fudge is more delicious than the next at Taste Budd’s.

Taste Budd’s Café in Red Hook, NY, is celebrating a significant anniversary this year – 20 years since the café was purchased by Daniel and Julie Budd. For an eating establishment to survive more than ten years is an accomplishment, so this milestone is particularly impressive. Congratulations!

Come in!

I met with Dan to talk about the place, his passions, and his life on a morning in May that was actually sunny. It was early on a Monday, in fact, and when I arrived, there were already folks camped out with their coffees and goodies all over the store. Dan and I took our mugs to a spot where a couple of comfy couches made my time with him less like an interview and more like a chat with an old friend. It’s a vibe that permeates the place: Come in. Have some made-to-order real food, a good cup of coffee, and no matter what, don’t forget a sweet treat!

The homey, casual vibe of the café belies the credentials of the man behind it. It feels more “guy next door” than “James Beard Pastry Chef of the Year nominee,” though Dan is that too. And I came to discover the cafe’s atmosphere is completely in keeping with the kind of person Dan is.

Dan grew up in Vermont. His love of the outdoors had him on track for a vocational degree in forestry out of high school. The universe had other ideas. He took a job when he was 14 as a breakfast cook at a ski resort, and it wasn’t long before he was getting compliments on his cooking. It was his first taste of making people happy by doing something he enjoyed, and he realized a career in the woods wouldn’t give him that kind of feedback.

Studying at the CIA

His calling to cook took him instead to the Culinary Institute of America after high school. There his studies gained him an associate’s degree in culinary arts and a yearning to work in the Big Apple. Dan worked at the River Café in Brooklyn, became the pastry chef at the luxury Peninsula Hotel on Fifth Avenue, then opened the Park Avenue Café Restaurant on Lexington Avenue with David Burke. People were paying attention. He was named a Top 10 Pastry Chef in the country by Chocolatier and Pastry Art & Design magazine. In 1996, he was nominated by the James Beard Foundation as Pastry Chef of the Year.

“I was a high-profile pastry chef that made things with symbolism both to charm guests and to make an impact on them,” Dan says about his days in Manhattan. “I did some wacky stuff to celebrate pastry. My reputation even landed me on Good Morning America with fellow pastry chefs.”

Along the way he met Julie, and they married. They were soon at a crossroad: Where did they want to raise a family? “It’s always ‘the next thing’ in New York City,” he says. What kind of lives were they living? His roots were in Vermont; hers in Brooklyn. He was familiar with the Hudson Valley. It was geographically middle ground. On a visit to explore a home in Red Hook, they found themselves on Budd Corners Road – seriously! It was soon home. Dan started teaching at the CIA. Julie has a master’s degree in mathematics and had been teaching at public schools in the City. She started teaching mathematics at Red Hook High School. They had a daughter, Allison, and a son, Jordan.

Teaching … and reaching

“I promised myself I would never start my own business,” Dan confesses.

“Teaching would be the pace to allow us to raise a family. But I couldn’t stop my entrepreneurial spirit. I wanted to make desserts as good as the ones in New York, but more accessible.”

Dan outfitted a bakery trailer and started Taste Budd’s as a concession business to work fairs and festivals. That was in 2000. “The bakery trailer is physically demanding,” Dan says, “and I liked that. I did everything at first. I created bar-shaped cookies because they were easier to pack and then to bake (everything is made fresh). Now I have six to eight people to help me. My dad has helped for years,” he says proudly.

Taste Budd’s is now a permanent concession at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, and the mobile bakery also goes to select festivals, including the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in Oak Hill, NY, from July 16 to 20 (greyfoxbluegrass.com). That’s a particular favorite because Dan is a bluegrass musician. More on that later.

Young family. Teaching at the CIA.

Making cookies, muffins, scones, and other baked goodies off a food truck. And then? An opportunity to work as a pastry chef at what would become Taste Budd’s Café opened up, and he came on board. The previous owners sold the business to Dan and his family in 2005. Now, Taste Budd’s is one of the longest-standing businesses in Red Hook. It’s open 7am to 7pm Monday thru Saturday, and 8am to 6pm on Sundays. It’s only closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Dan now has 30 employees. Two of them are full-time pastry staff, two of them are managers, and three are supervisors. His executive pastry chef is Chris Brengel, who worked at the café while studying at the CIA, and joined the team as a sous chef upon graduation, working his way up to his current role. Taste Budd’s buzzes with dedicated staff. Mary Sullivan has been part of the team for over 17 years, and still helps part-time. Managers Nikki and Jillian have been on board for three years … and counting.

“One of the things that keeps me going,” Dan reflects, “is watching staff grow and learn. Hundreds of teenagers have worked here over the years, and it’s great to see them out in the community with their own families now.”

Red Hook Responds

“Taste Budd’s is a unique community hub. People come here to meet each other. That continues to inspire me,” he says. The café has given him such a voice in the community that when the pandemic hit in 2020, he reached out along with Christopher Donohue, a friend and local high school senior. They cofounded Red Hook Responds, a community help system that organizes volunteers to provide services to anyone in need. He envisioned it as a free food delivery service, and it took off. In the height of the pandemic there were over a dozen operators taking calls between 9am and 5pm every day, and over 700 volunteers signed up to help in about a month.

Today, Red Hook Responds is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and the only meal delivery agency in northern Dutchess County. Dan speaks with a proud solemnity about Red Hook Responds. “If you can help anyone from suffering, then why not do it?,” he says. “Why hold back?”

In its first year of service, RHR delivered over 20,000 meals, took 12,600 help calls, and provided hundreds of other services including pharmacy and grocery deliveries, neighborly chats, and virtual tutoring. (Learn more at redhookresponds.org.)

Getting back to the vibe of the café, there’s a sense of that spirit throughout the place. It’s friendly and generous. There’s a section toward the back of the store, by the display of chocolates, where people can leave books or buy a book for a buck. The café hosts an open mic every Thursday night to support local musicians. Local artists’ works are on display around the café. The artists change monthly, and there’s a welcoming reception for each of them. “Good character matters,” Dan says. “The most important things aren’t work and money, they’re savoring relationships and making the world a better place.”

Don’t leave without a treat

Amazingly delicious pastries, chocolates, fudge, cakes, cookies, pies, and an always fresh choice of sandwiches, soups, and salads also make the world a better place, and Taste Budd’s is all about that, too. Chris and his team make everything from French macarons to some of the best tiramisu in the Hudson Valley to mouthwatering cheesecake to original creations like the Red Hooker and Rhinebecker specialty pastries. The café’s logo says it all: “Your Taste Buds Are Home.”

As for Dan? “I thought I’d retire this past April,” he says with a laugh. “I’m in my spot, that’s for sure.” He says his incredible staff make it possible for him to do other things he enjoys. He loves camping and being outdoors. He’s a bluegrass musician and songwriter. He shares that his whole family is musically inclined.

The late Anthony Bourdain said, “Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.” Dan Budd and Taste Budd’s Café bring all of that. What a gift to Red Hook and its extended community. Happy anniversary, Taste Budd’s Café.

Come and enjoy Taste Budd’s Café at 40 West Market Street in Red Hook, NY. Visit their stand at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds. Stop by the mobile bakery at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. Find them online at tastebudds.com and on social media. Call them at 833-GO-BUDDS. Eat their food and be happy.