When Sweet Sue opened in 1984, the cafe opposite the Phoenicia Library became a focal point for Main Street, providing a brunch nook for residents and a boost to other local businesses from visitors to Phoenicia as they lined up outside on weekends for the pancakes.
The eatery founded by Suzanne Taylor thrived for decades. It also hit bumps — renovations, septic problems, personnel difficulties, and finally the pandemic. The cafe changed hands for a short time but kept the name.
The new owners bought the cafe, keeping the name Sweet Sue’s. Rebecca Shim, who had been working at high-end restaurants in Brooklyn, worked for them as a consultant for six months. When the business folded, she took over the space.
New proprietor Shim has now shifted the menu focus and changed the name to Bettina in honor of her grandmother, who passed down to her a passion for cooking.
Trained as a chef at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, Shim later opened two restaurants in Brooklyn. Wanting to learn more about food and where it comes from, she spent time upstate, intending to work on an organic farm in the Catskills. Instead, she found a job in Woodstock with chocolatier Oliver Kita.
“I loved the area so much,” Shim recalled. “I got into my own vegetable gardening, which evolved into a micro-flower farm in Mount Tremper.” The result was the Phoenicia Honey Co., which sells local honey infused with flowers and herbs.
“My restaurants in Brooklyn were fine dining, and I always wanted to do something more community-oriented, where I could have fun with food and be creative,” she said, “I wanted to feel like people were coming to my home. I feel like that’s happening here.”
Beyond the pancakes
Don’t worry, there are still pancakes.
“People are saying the new pancakes are nearly as good as Sue’s,” said Shim, who swears she’ll never do the ten varieties that Sue was famous for. “What she did was amazing, and she was a pioneer.”
Forty years ago, Phoenicia was less a trendy place for refugees from New York City and more the largest hamlet in a rough rural town just west of Woodstock. Sue’s customers traveled from far afield and were willing to wait for a table. The pancakes were the main attraction, along with other breakfast foods and sophisticated lunch options.
With changing times, Shim feels pancakes can no longer hold down the menu. “One of the reasons I decided to do something completely different is that I don’t think anyone can redo what Sue did.”
Bettina opened on April 26 with a limited menu of breakfast and lunch options. Among the most popular, Shim said, were “baked French toast, mozzarella panini, the pancakes. And we have a few vegan items. We’re also doing a lot of fancy coffees, matcha and cold brew. People grab drinks to go. As the weather gets warm, the salads are selling like crazy.”
The menu will continue to shift, as Shim incorporates seasonally plentiful ingredients.
The vegan Bettina Bowl changes composition weekly. In early June, it consisted of quinoa, tabouli, hummus, grape leaves, Kalamata olives and baby greens.
A tempeh reuben uses a product from Hudson Valley Tempeh, made with chickpeas and without “the sour aftertaste that tempeh sometimes has.”
Lorenzina’s Panini, named after Shim’s mother, has been a customer favorite. “She was a tenth child, and my grandfather Lorenzo had to have a namesake,” she explained,
A small-town anchor
Shim’s mom was not excited about cooking, but grandmother Bettina, who came to the U.S. from Abruzzo, Italy at the age of 16, was an avid cook. “Her love for food is in my DNA.”
Shim’s father, whose family was from Ireland, studied with James Beard and loved to cook for guests. “I was his little helper at parties.”
In Brooklyn, Shim had apprenticed for chef, teacher and author Edna Lewis, considered the grande dame of Southern cooking, offering farm-to-table cuisine before it was chic. “She taught me about simplicity and respecting ingredients.”
As the pandemic waned, Shim, who had been earning a living through private chef work, bachelorette parties, and fancy dinners for people from the city, eyed the closed cafe on Main Street and considered renting it. “I hate to see empty storefronts in Phoenicia. I love the town, and it feels important to have a cafe as an anchor in a small town, a place for people to meet, grab something to eat and a coffee. And it should be affordable, so it’s not only geared to tourists.”
A corner of Bettina’s main room displays products on sale from local businesses, 80 percent of them run by women. Weathertop Farm offers switchels, shrub, and bitters that can be used to make sodas or added to cocktails. Other items include fine teas, maple syrup, tahini, halvah, date butter, and chocolate-covered dates.
Shim plans to branch out into catering. The side dining room will become available as a party space, and eventually will open on weekend evenings.
“As somebody who’s lived here for 25 years,” she said, “I’m trying to understand what the town really needs, and it’s more than just pancakes. I’m trying to fill a niche with all-around food options.”
Bettina Cafe and Market is located at 49 Main Street, Phoenicia. Hours are currently Friday through Monday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. See https://www.bettinacafe.com for up-to-date information.
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