Easter Eating

Hunt no further, your family can celebrate the holiday locally, sometimes with chocolate rabbits included.

Easter is à la carte at the atmospheric La Bocca Ristorante (8 Church St, White Plains 914-948-3281). Go whole hog (whole rabbit?) with a multi-course Italian meal. Start with stuffed artichoke or scallops gratinata (each $12), move on to a pasta course of homemade lasagne or fusilli with lamb ragu (each $18), then follow with fish or three different preparations of lamb ($29 to $34). Traditional sweets include Italian Easter pie and colomba farcita, cake with chocolate and macaroon cream, each $7. 

Trattoria Vivolo (301 Halstead Ave, Harrison 914-835-6199), an Italian eatery with a rear garden atrium, will have a few tempting lamb specials in addition to its regular menu ($14.95-$28.95 for main courses). A plate of stuffed clams might be followed by pasta with a rich lamb ragu after everyone has shared a pile of crispy fried calamari. Save room for tiramisu or ricotta cheesecake ($8).

Rosa Meranda, chef of La Scarbitta (215 Halstead Ave Mamaroneck 914-777-1667), is inspired by the holidays. She cooks a lamb stew with greens at Easter, frittatas filled in different ways, veal braciole, baked pastas, and various typical holiday desserts like almond ricotta cheesecake ($10) and handmade Easter biscotti ($4.95). Her prix fixe will run between $55 and $65 per person (the final price determined by what Meranda finds fresh in the market). Easter dinner begins around 2 pm.

- Advertisement -

At Thyme (3605 Crompond Rd, Yorktown Heights 914-788-8700), Chef/Owner Tom Costello’s three-course, prix-fixe Easter meal ($48) will be served from noon to 6 pm. You might start with English pea risotto or spring salad with goat cheese, and then move on to leg of lamb with asparagus and minted yogurt or salmon braised with mustard greens. End with chocolate torte or caramelized-banana-caramel-sea-salt ice cream.

Prix-fixe choices ($64.95 per person; children under 10 half-price; 4 to 10 pm) at Benjamin Steakhouse (610 W Hartsdale Rd, White Plains 914-428-6868) include six bluepoint oysters or a healthy spinach salad as starters. Pick a double-thick veal chop or rack of lamb from among the entrées. For dessert, the grownups might choose the chocolate mousse cake, but the kids will rush to the build-your-own hot-fudge sundae menu.

Start off your Easter Sunday sipping a peach purée Bellini or Bloody Mary with pickled asparagus at the Italo-centric small-plates eatery Nessa (325 N Main St, Port Chester 914-939-0119). Try the cinnamon French toast—made using The Kneaded Bread’s country loaf—served with whipped ricotta honey cream ($11), truffle egg toast with Fontina ($11), and braised corned beef and hash ($12). Patrons may also pitch their bright colored balls on the bocce court. Outdoor dining is available.

Beginning at 1 pm, kids under 10 have their very own menu ($13.95) at Rory Dolan’s (890 McLean Ave, Yonkers 914-776-2946), ranging from chicken vol au vent for a starter to roast turkey or mac ‘n’ cheese for an entrée and a dessert of apple strudel or a double-chocolate brownie. Adults will choose from appetizers such as asparagus with goat cheese and from entrées such as leg of lamb or baked cod, each served with sides. Coffee is served, too, and the dessert list is much like the kids.’ All this for $26.95 per person. An Irish breakfast of Irish sausage, black or white pudding, eggs, and other traditional breakfast foods ($10.95) or steak and eggs ($14.95) will be part of the à la carte Easter brunch menu; available from 11 am to 1 pm.

Easter dinner begins at 5 pm at Moderne Barn (430 Bedford Rd, Armonk 914-730-0001), where Chef Ethan Kostbar’s Easter special will be rack of lamb. Brunch also will be available from 11 am to 2:30 pm, and will feature French toast stuffed with chocolate hazelnut and caramelized bananas ($12); a five-ounce filet mignon and eggs Béarnaise ($16); and a chef’s omelet with prosciutto di Parma, spinach, and baby artichokes ($13).

- Partner Content -

For an old-fashioned Easter egg hunt, reserve at the Bedford Post Inn (954 Bedford Rd, Bedford 914-234-7800) so the children can join the hunt in the Zen Garden at noon or 2 pm. At the family table, everyone can enjoy a three-course, prix-fixe meal ($65 pp).

At Crabtree’s Kittle House (11 Kittle Rd, Chappaqua 914-666-8044), new chef Benjamin Lambert’s prix-fixe Easter dinner ($65 pp, beginning at 2 pm) includes a local asparagus salad with smoked duck confit rillette, striped bass with ramp spaetzle, herb- and mustard-crusted local rack of lamb with fava beans, and roasted John Boy’s Farm chicken with morels. There’s also a buffet-style brunch from 11:30 until 2:30 pm ($55 pp; half-price for children under 12).

At X20 Xaviars on the Hudson (71 Water Grant St, Yonkers 914-965-1111), Peter Kelly’s desserts are as lyrical as a song. An Easter Bonnet with All the Frills Upon It is made of chocolate ganache, and a sweet Easter egg is mango and coconut mousse in a caramel nest. Before dessert, though, a lobster crêpe or a warm asparagus flan can start your dinner, and a roasted veal chop or day-boat halibut are among the entrée choices. The prix-fixe meal will run about $65.

La Panetière’s (530 Milton Rd, Rye 914-967-8140) elegant three-course Easter dinner (noon to 8 pm; $72 pp) features choices such as scallops with morels, rack of lamb with rosemary, and a nest of chocolate eggs for dessert. The à la carte menu also will be available.

The à la carte Sunday menu (1 pm to 8 pm) at Peter Pratt’s Inn (673 Croton Heights Rd, Yorktown Heights 914-962-4090), available from 1 to 8 pm, includes starter choices such as spring leek soup ($9), sweet-pea ravioli ($10), or pizza topped with ramps and morels ($12). For entrées, enjoy selections such as “jerked” breast of duck ($26), Florida red snapper ($26), or a rack of Berkshire pork ($28). There are always kids’ portions of pork roast, turkey, steak, and pasta, too.

- Advertisement -

Judith Hausman is a food writer in South Salem. For one Easter breakfast as a little girl, she food-colored her sisters’ milk to match the colored eggs. They wouldn’t drink the blue or the green one.

Our Westchester Home Builders Awards take place on April 4!

Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Forum is March 14!

Unveiled: A Boutique Bridal Brunch is February 25!

Our Best of Westchester Elimination Ballot is open through March 6!

Holiday flash sale ... subscribe and save 50%

Limited time offer. New subscribers only.