Phoenicia Diner, located in Upstate New York's Hudson Valley, is proud to call itself “a diner in the middle of nowhere,” providing guests an escape from the hustle and bustle of the New York metropolitan area. But don’t underestimate this small-town spot — it serves 160,000 people per year, goes through 12,000 pounds of brisket during that time to make its popular Reubens and corned beef hash — cured in-house — and serves 1,000 of its famous pancakes on its busiest days. Recognize this diner? You might have spotted it dressed up as “Pip’s Diner” in the last season of the Apple+ TV show Severance.
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00:00In my opinion, the Phoenicia Diner is the iconic diner of the Catskills.
00:04It's a magical mix of the location that we're in, the scenic views,
00:09certainly the food, and the people that work here.
00:12We serve 160,000 customers a year.
00:15We've grown immensely in terms of popularity,
00:18and some say this is a destination restaurant now.
00:25People start floating in the back of the house
00:27at around 5 and 6 o'clock in the morning.
00:29Bread working, grinding, prepping,
00:32and then we have almost pretty much a single shift towards the end of the day.
00:35People come in and ask specifically for our pancakes.
00:38Lucio is in charge of the pancakes.
00:59Pancake sales here, they're incredible.
01:02Could be some days about 1,000 pancakes.
01:04It's like air traffic control.
01:06How many items he gets on there, they have to come off.
01:08What's going to be back on?
01:30We stack and we use maple syrup.
01:32All those components actually make that dish popular.
01:36A lot of times people just order a full meal
01:38and then get a side of those as almost like an appetizer.
01:41It's incredible how difficult it is to make
01:43those 1,000 pancakes consistently correct.
01:46So Lucio is an amazing person.
01:49So our pancakes, I know it's almost lunch,
01:52but our pancakes are a little over an hour long.
01:55So our pancakes, I know it's almost lunch,
01:58but our pancakes are fantastic here.
02:00You can do a side of three, they're this big,
02:02or a full order of five, and they are this big.
02:05Between 11 and 2 are our busiest times.
02:08In the winter, we're catching skiers,
02:10so like during the day it slows down,
02:12and then by 4 o'clock this place fills up
02:15almost immediately with skiers.
02:19One of the other items that is a popular dish is a Reuben,
02:22which is again one of those diner staples.
02:24And Jesus, he's back there brining those for days.
02:54Olive oil, spices, fennel, pepper, coriander,
03:01we also add white sugar, and we also add honey.
03:05We use that for the Reuben, for the corvée,
03:08for the hash.
03:10And then we just add what's left of the oil,
03:12so it boils.
03:13It has to be done every week,
03:15because it has to be marinated for at least five days
03:18in the water,
03:20so that it absorbs all the spices and salt.
03:23It was important to me to be integrated into the area
03:27and part of the community,
03:28so we try to stay local with our vendors.
03:31We get about 12,000 pounds of brisket per year.
03:35One of our longtime vendors is Paul from Veritas,
03:37and he's been with us basically from the first day we've opened,
03:41and he supplies the meat for our corned beef.
03:43We have a new chef here.
03:45Wallin handles most of the ordering
03:47and taking the deliveries in.
03:48Thursdays we get a lot of our big deliveries in.
03:50We're ordering about 160 pounds of brisket a week right now.
03:53I'm out here checking everything,
03:55produce and meat and everything like that,
03:56just to make sure that there wasn't an issue.
03:58Reubens here mostly gets sold more of a lunch item,
04:02about 200 to 250 a week.
04:06The diner over the years has become a staple,
04:09and on the cusp of becoming a destination restaurant,
04:12guests come here and take incredible photos,
04:14and it's just the location is unique and very special,
04:18and I think people recognize that often.
04:48It's like you're eating chicken.
04:50You have to find the shape.
04:52We remove the fat.
04:53We're going to cut it like this.
04:55This is for Reubens.
05:04One of the other popular dishes is corned beef hash,
05:06which is also the same corned beef that Jesus works on for the Reubens.
05:11It's used for that hash, too,
05:12so he's got a role in a lot of the popular dishes here.
05:15First, we sauté the chili, the onion, the potato.
05:20We sauté it, and then we put it in a skillet,
05:22we put it in the oven, and we keep it hot.
05:24And from there, it's up to the customer
05:26if they want some sunny-side-up eggs, some scrambled eggs, or some ovejas.
05:30People like it a lot.
05:31They come from the city, from the neighborhood,
05:33and they really like the food here.
05:36Sure. Small is this, and a large is like that.
05:40Okay.
05:41So on a staffing standpoint,
05:43I'm very proud of the fact that pretty much everybody who's here now
05:49was here almost on day one.
05:51One person who works here that stands out sometimes to me
05:55is Mona, who's a server here,
05:57and she's just an amazingly warm person, very genuine.
06:00The staff is hyper-local.
06:02We pride ourselves on being ambassadors to the rest of the Catskills.
06:05We may be your first stop,
06:06and we wanted to make sure that you're enjoying that trip
06:09because that ensures that you're going to come back,
06:11not only just to us, but to the area.
06:15We have a bread program here that's run by Nelson.
06:18He makes our rye bread, our sourdough rolls, and brioche.
06:41There's about four ounces of powdered chocolate.
06:45This ingredient is to give it color,
06:48because we use the rye to give it a brownish color.
06:52We don't use a white color in the rye.
06:55Then we add a pound of caraway seeds.
07:00Okay, and we add nine and a half ounces.
07:04This is long stick.
07:06For the amount I'm making right now,
07:08you add eight ounces of sugar.
07:10We also add eight ounces of yeast.
07:15I've been making bread for about 12 years.
07:23In a week, we make about 60 to 80 pieces.
07:33So the recipes that we're using today
07:35are the ones that we had developed in early stages
07:40before we opened.
07:41I also want to say the ethos of this place is,
07:44from a chef's standpoint,
07:45we also want the chef to have some flexibility.
07:48So we always leave room for someone,
07:51each chef that's come through,
07:53to kind of leave their mark on the place.
07:55If somebody has a southern background,
07:57there may be a few more southern dishes.
08:00Half the kitchen is from Puebla.
08:01Those menu items and flavors make their way onto the menu.
08:14This diner originally was in Long Island,
08:16and it was relocated in 1982 to this spot.
08:21I bought it in 2012.
08:23When I bought it, we implemented a few changes,
08:25and not a 40-page menu, but have it down to a placemat.
08:28It was me going through all my childhood diner favorites,
08:32so you would see pancakes,
08:33you would see breakfast items all day.
08:36A diner should, in my view, be everything to everyone.
08:42Recently, we got a request from a show called Severance
08:47to shoot some scenes in here.
08:49Oh, really? It affected you?
08:50Yes.
08:51Ben Stiller was mapping out shots.
08:53They changed the name to Pips,
08:56and the flood of outrage, because nobody knew it was a film,
09:00they thought we had sold this diner.
09:02The first season, you'll see it a little bit,
09:04but I believe on the second season, you'll see it a lot more.
09:12Alrighty.
09:13Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much.
09:15You're welcome.
09:16In terms of guests' experience here,
09:18we strive for this authenticity,
09:20and one of the things that I'm keenly aware of and want
09:22is that they leave here not only satisfied with the food,
09:26but also the overall experience.
09:28Like, they were at a place that was authentic to the area
09:32and the Catskills,
09:33and not necessarily someplace curated from the city
09:37where they're escaping from.
09:39So I don't want to recreate a city experience.
09:42I want this to be an authentic Catskills experience,
09:45and I think you can't get any better than a diner
09:48in the middle of literally nowhere.
09:52Phoenicia Diner, I think, has transcended into an iconic diner,
09:57an iconic restaurant.
09:59We're authentic, and authentic to the Catskills.
10:02It's been my goal from day one,
10:04and I think people feel that,
10:05guests feel that when they get here.