Bedford Playhouse Adds Full-Service Café: Not Just Movies and Popcorn
A trip to the Bedford Playhouse isn’t just about watching the latest Hollywood films while munching on a tub of buttery popcorn and washing it down with a large soda. With the addition of a café, guests can have a sit-down meal or sip on a craft cocktail before or after a movie, or minus the movie altogether.
The brains behind The Playhouse Café’s mostly tapas style menu is food and beverage manager, Gerald Massoud, a former general manager at Fortina.
The idea behind Massoud’s food is snackable, “sociable,” and approachable plates. A couple of healthy, bright salads if you’re keeping it light, beef barley soup and lobster bisque if you need to warm up on a chilly night.
The rest is almost entirely small plates perfect for sharing. There are addictive options like marinated olives, pita bread with house made hummus, and prosciutto with cheese and fruit. All are ideal paired with a glass of wine, pint of craft beer, or a damn fine cocktail that rivals any bar in the area. Currently, the café’s bar has 20 total wines to choose from, available in both a glass and by the bottle, plus, plenty of local beer and a few hard ciders.
Southern Harvest (left) implores tequila, Sazerac Rye, ginger beer, lemon, and apple cider for a fall feel in a glass. Bedford After Dark (right) was created by The Playhouse’s executive director Michael “Hoagy” Hoagland. This smooth, slow sipper is somewhere between an old fashioned and a Manhattan.
If you packed an appetite, there’s more in terms of heavier fare. You should not miss the fried meatballs—possibly something Massoud borrowed from his Fortina days—in all their crunchy exterior glory and served with plenty of spicy tomato cream sauce. You’ll wish you had a piece of bread to clean every drop of sauce from your plate.
A perfect snack in the form of fresh tomato toast with ricotta, basil, and balsamic vinaigrette on crispy, crusty ciabatta.
There are larger dishes like gnocchi, a quad of chicken tacos, lemon-garlic shrimp with cous-cous, and maybe the heartiest of them all, slow cooked, fall-off-the-bone ras el hanout spice rubbed ribs that get a finishing bath in brown butter.
Massoud bathes the Moroccan spiced ribs in brown butter. Ras el hanout is an aromatic spice that can includes dozens of different ingredients, some of which are cumin, allspice, coriander, clove, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, and black pepper.
In addition to drinks and dinner, The Playhouse Café has also been hosting a variety of lectures and Q&A sessions on a variety of topics that include mental health, author talks, and social justice. They’ve also held wine, bourbon, and beer tastings paired with special multi-course meals.
Keep an eye out for the Bedford Playhouse’s tastings, but don’t forget…movies, popcorn, and packs of Twizzlers are still a thing.
633 Old Post Road; Bedford
914.234.6704; https://bedfordplayhouse.org/