Roasted half-chickens are antibiotic free and prepared with a different spice rub each week.
Photos by Jennifer Aaronson
A stylish jewel box on Warburton Avenue, Hastings-on-Hudson’s Boro6 Wine Bar has a lot going for it, from the roughly 40 by-the-glass wines to the shareable menu of salads, sandwiches, toasts, and cheese-and-charcuterie boards assembled behind the long, U-shaped marble bar.
“[Before opening] we traveled to Tuscany and Liguria with another family,” recalls Paul Molakides, who opened Boro6 with his wife, Jennifer Aaronson, in 2016. “Handcrafted cheeses, meats, simple wines, negroni, wine o’clock — Jenn and [our friend] Nicole cooked so much that we rarely ate out. Boro6 was born in those Italian hills. We never entertained the idea of hot food.”
Many customers fell hard for the wine bar’s simple-is-better menu and high-design digs, but others “saw us as a ‘not real food’ kind of place,” says Molakides. “Maybe you start or finish your evening here, but you can’t make a meal out of meat and cheese.” So, in early 2019, when the adjacent real estate office became vacant, Molakides and Aaronson decided to expand and open B6 Kitchen, a takeout-only shop with a full kitchen to serve the restaurant (Boro6 has only a hot plate and toaster oven) and retail space for the antique dishware, glasses, and other items Aaronson has a knack for collecting.
Slated to debut in September, the opening was accelerated by COVID-19. “As the pandemic started, we reacted the best we knew how. We closed [Boro6], then we reopened, then we closed [again],” says Molakides. Ultimately, Aaronson pushed for the wine bar to remain open, with a takeout-oriented menu that would help the business survive shelter-in-place while serving the community and providing wages to employees.
“But how many prosciutto sandwiches can you eat? We needed hot food,” says Molakides. B6 Kitchen was close to opening but hadn’t yet had inspections. Surprisingly, the health department was still scheduling appointments, and Molakides and Aaronson were able to open in April.
Takeout offerings launched with family-style comfort foods, like harissa-rubbed roast chicken, red-wine-braised short ribs, Yukon Gold-parsnip purée, panko-topped mac ’n’ cheese, and a trio of burgers, including a special, beefy blend of ground brisket, chuck, and 18-month-aged prosciutto.
Also planned is a wide variety of pantry items, many of which are ingredients on the Boro6 menu, including pole-caught American tuna, Gotham Coffee Roasters beans, olives, and bread from NYC’s Sullivan Street Bakery. House-made offerings will include jams, preserves, and nut butters; soups and salads; fresh pasta; and gin-cured gravlax.
