Gomen Kudasai: A Home-Style Japanese Restaurant in New Paltz, NY
There is no shortage of recreation in New Paltz, a laid-back college town that has long attracted those eager to climb the Gunks, cycle the trails, and sample the bounty from so many prized farms, orchards, and wineries. An area teeming with so much activity and natural beauty draws an especially diverse set of adventurers, their appetites most often brought to lively Main Street, the town’s two-lane thoroughfare, where a wide selection of dining options are all within walking distance, including perhaps one of the best Japanese restaurants in the Hudson Valley, Gomen Kudasai.
From hot and cold soba and udon noodles to dumplings, rice bowls, tofu and tempura, Youko Yamamoto and her staff mash traditional Japanese recipes with local, organic ingredients, resulting in healthy dishes she dubs “healing food.” “I wanted to have a tiny, tiny noodle shop — one that I could handle all by myself—-but I never found that perfect location,” says Youko, a Japanese native and New York City transplant who moved to the Hudson Valley sixteen years ago with her husband and co-owner Kazuma Oshita, and their two children. In 2008, after four years of scouting potential locations, the couple decided to put her tiny noodle shop on hold and, instead, signed the lease for a 52-seat restaurant in a shopping plaza on Main Street.
With a community-focused mindset, Gomen Kudasai has evolved naturally into a stopping place for fantastic events, hosting close to two hundred of them every year. On top of a rousing lineup of live music every weekend, the calendar fills up fast with flower arrangement workshops, calligraphy classes, tango brunches, and weekly screenings of Japanese movies. However, the biggest event by far is the Bon-Odori Dance Festival, an annual summertime event that celebrates peace and inclusiveness, featuring world class dance and musical performances, Japanese cultural demonstrations, and tasty food from a variety of local vendors. “There are a lot of people here who are interested in learning about our way of food and healthy lifestyle,” says Youko.
Words by Sylvie Morgan Brown