Entertainment

Take me to the river!

Stores and history beckon in Piermont and Nyack: From top, Jason Garcia, 6, displays a treat from Nyack’s Sweet Spot Candy Shoppe

Stores and history beckon in Piermont and Nyack: From top, Jason Garcia, 6, displays a treat from Nyack’s Sweet Spot Candy Shoppe (
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The bicycling Gomez brothers – Edwin (left), 23, and Ivan, 17 – pedaled to Piermont the other day from their home in Queens

The bicycling Gomez brothers – Edwin (left), 23, and Ivan, 17 – pedaled to Piermont the other day from their home in Queens (
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Paradise was just 40 minutes from NYC, but I didn’t know it until a story led me there. “Let’s not do this over the phone,” my source pleaded. “Come to my place in Piermont — it’s lovely!”

I can’t remember what we spoke about that day — it was 22 years ago — but I’ve been coming back to this picture-perfect town ever since.

Woody Allen found it before I did: He filmed “The Purple Rose of Cairo” there in 1984, and this once-forgotten town — hard by the Hudson, along Rockland County’s bicycle-friendly Route 9 — suddenly saw itself for the gem it is.

These days, Piermont has first-rate restaurants, breezy cafes, prime dog-parading turf, the occasional star sighting and, even on a sweltering summer day, a gentle wind blowing off the river. Go a bit farther north and you slip into Nyack, once home to Edward Hopper, first lady of theater Helen Hayes and Rosie O’Donnell, though not all at once.

Strolling through Piermont’s flag-lined downtown the other day, it was hard to believe the beating it took from Hurricane Sandy. “Even the M&T Bank was flooded,” says Fred Cohen, who’s lived there for 20 years. “My dog, Lucy, spent months re-marking her turf!”

It took awhile, but the town’s back on its feet, though word hasn’t quite gotten out: Unlike summer weekends past, you can actually find parking on Piermont Avenue.

“Everything Woody Allen loved about this town is still here,” says Peter Kelly, whose acclaimed restaurant Xaviar’s opened three years later, in 1987.

My family and I have been celebrating birthdays there ever since.

Thanks to delicacies such as veal medallions with figs and a note-perfect wine list, Xaviar’s (506 Piermont Ave.) and Kelly’s casual place next door, the Freelance Cafe & Wine Bar, have enjoyed a steady stream of celebs — Bill Murray, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols. Lorraine Bracco, a k a Dr. Melfi of “The Sopranos,” once cast an appraising eye on my husband on our way out the door and winked at him.

Those who like to dine outdoors flock to Confetti (200 Ash St.) for antipasti and brick-oven pizzas, or linger over salt-rimmed margaritas on the porch of Tequila Sal y Limon (468 Piermont Ave.), once home to the Turning Point Cafe. There, 20 years ago, I watched folkie Pete Seeger order the “obscene brownie.” One floor down, the Turning Point coffeehouse — a mecca for blues, jazz and folk lovers — is still going strong (see box, above right). So is Bunbury’s Coffee Shop, where bicyclists lock up at the stand outside to linger over lattes by the photo of a pre-scandal Lance Armstrong, who stopped by there en route to the city.

Dining aside, Piermont’s biggest draw is its pier, a narrow, reedy finger pointing into the Hudson. Weekends, it looks like a pooch promenade — heavy on petite Havanese. When we take our mutt, Max, there for a stroll, he loves the company.

Jennifer Brunet, from nearby Harrington Park, NJ, walks there daily with her Siberian husky, Cooper. Benches under the trees beckon, and you can sit and watch sailboats, fishermen and traffic snaking across the Tappan Zee Bridge while your pup romps in the river.

You may want to hit the water yourself: At Paradise Canoe and Kayak (9 Paradise Ave.; 845-359-0073), rentals start at $18 an hour. Paddling through the 1,000-acre salt marsh that is Sparkill Creek, you’ll see ospreys, egrets and herons.

You can even kayak to Nyack, but it’s far quicker to bike or drive up River Road through Grandview-on-Hudson. You’ll pass by one Victorian “painted lady” after another before reaching Broadway, the heart of town.

Banners on the lampposts proclaim it “The Art and Soul of the Hudson,” but Nyack’s taken a beating, mostly from rising real-estate prices: Main Street’s Riverspace, home for years to live theater, lies vacant, and Christopher’s, a favorite home-goods store, has given up the ghost.

But locals say things are looking up. “Give it a little time and some new stores will scoot in,” says Ruth Goebel. The longtime Nyacker calls her town “a little bit of urban, a little bit bohemian,” and she’s right: There may be no other place where you can — in the space of a single Main Street block — have a beer, get tattooed, buy house paint and, at FlourBuds bakery, rejoice over the gluten-free muffins.

Over on Broadway are more stores, including Back to Earth, for years a haven for those who love to measure out their own seeds and lentils, and the new Sweet Spot Candy Shoppe, a happy mix of the retro (Bonomo Turkish taffy) and the new (Japanese soda pop).

But even as stores come and go, Nyack remains the birthplace of “Nighthawks” painter Edward Hopper. His childhood home on North Broadway, a block from the river, has been an arts center for decades. Here it’s easy to commune with Hopper, that master of shifting moods. My own lightens with each visit to these towns along the river.

The art of getting there

River towns aren’t always sleepy. Here’s what’s on in Piermont and Nyack, NY, this weekend:

* The CKS Band (including members of The Band and the Greg Allman Band) plays the Turning Point tonight at 9; 468 Piermont Ave.; 845-359-1089, turningpointcafe.com.

* Piermont’s Down to Earth Farmers Market, with specialty foods, fibers, plants and flowers, is open Sundays, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the M&T Bank parking lot, Piermont Avenue and Ash Street.

* A photo show, “Dorothea Lange’s America,” runs through Aug. 18 at the Edward Hopper House and Art Center, 82 N. Broadway, Nyack; 845-358-0774.

Getting there: Coach USA buses from Port Authority or GW Bridge run to both Piermont and Nyack. The best way, though, is by car or bike: From the GW Bridge, take Route 9W north about 20 miles into Piermont.