Turning an Old Filling Station into a Market

The drive up Route 9W from Route 59 in Nyack is worth it for the scenery alone.

But then you get to the Filling Station and companion 9W Market that border Tallman State Park, and you realize that the journey’s important—but so is arriving at the destination.

"I feel happy," says Agata Ostrowska, who owns the eatery and has lived in nearby Piermont for six years. "I’m living my dream. I have the best of both worlds: writing [and] a new business I’m creating."

Agata Ostrowska is a freelance writer. She has written for TwoJ Styl, a monthly magazine in Poland for 18 years, and is a foreign correspondent for another Polish publication, Kurier Plus. She has and does interview many celebrities, and is working with various New York City chefs on a book project.

"Both lifestyles—writing and restaurant ownership—complement each other," she explained. "There’s a creative process, a goal. And this business is new—I’m trying to create something."

The locals—including some notable celebrities hailing from the Palisades hills—love it, too, Ostrowska said.

What’s featured here is healthy Mediterranean cuisine. “Lots of vegetables,” Agata explained. “[And] salads and seafood—lots of grilled stuff, and roasted.” There are also burger-tastings at the Filling Station, which feature fine, grass-fed beef.

Customer Barry O’Shea lives in Blauvelt and is a regular. "I come here three times a day, first for morning coffee," he explained. "There’s no food on 9W for ten miles! It's a desert, with no retail from Englewood Cliffs, NJ to the Palisades." For lunch he often has a free-range chicken-salad sandwich with yogurt and grapes. He says his wife, Jill Fienstein, likes the beet salad.

"9W is a busy road, for the community, and New Jersey and Rockland," Ostrowska says as she stands outside on her 9W Market back patio. "I think this is a wonderful spot. The middle of these woods are very relaxing, where you have spots you can stop and there’s no rushing."

She can vouch for that—Ostrowska often hikes the woods and kayaks in neighboring Tallman. She also reminds me that, here, you can visit for unusual food, fresh baked bread and pastries. "Before, you couldn’t get good bread around here," she notes. "I said to myself, 'I want to create a place to fulfill the need for people like me.' I considered me and my friends as potential clients for the market."

And she has created it: a local, small, unique spot—the Filling Station and 9W Market both—where Chef Fotis Katz, who has 25 years experience cooking in Europe and owned a restaurant in Manhattan featuring health Mediterranean cooking, excels.

Perhaps the most appropriate word here is "comfortable." "This is a wonderful way to interact," Ostrowska says. She then leans in and exclaims excitedly, "On Saturday and Sunday, people stop and talk for hours."

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The Filling Station and 9W Market, 243 Route 9W, Palisades (845) 359-9001