Matt Marchese spent 10-and-a-half months planning Pony’s in Delhi, NY as a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant, with dinner added on Friday and Saturday nights. Less than half an hour into its first service on July 17, he realized the restaurant he planned was not the restaurant he wanted to run. “It was literally the second ticket,” he says. “I was mumbling to myself, ‘I don’t like this.’”
Nothing had gone wrong. Marchese simply recognized that breakfast and lunch did not offer the creative freedom that had drawn him back to restaurant cooking. So he brusquely changed course, announcing to his staff: “Feed these tables, lock the doors. We’re not doing breakfast and lunch.”
They served dinner that same evening, and the restaurant snapped into focus. Pony’s has offered dinner service ever since, with a compact menu that changes whenever Marchese is ready to cook something else.
The Road Back to the Kitchen
The breakfast pivot was not the first time Marchese trusted an instinct over a safer plan. By the start of the pandemic, he had already spent roughly 25 years cooking, with stops at No. 9 Park and Radius in Boston, Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, and Eleven Madison Park in New York City, followed by years working as a private chef.
After selling his house in 2020 and purchasing a building in the Delaware County town of Delhi, Marchese filled its storefront with extra furniture and mirrors. People bought the pieces, he found more to replace them, and what began as an experiment became This & That, an antiques and design shop filled with vintage furniture, housewares, art, and oddities. Once he realized the shop could work, he left his longtime private-chef job to pursue it full-time.
Opening the shop did not take him out of the kitchen completely; he continued cooking for weddings, dinner parties, and other events. Pony’s offered a way to return to the restaurant industry on his own terms. “At this point, as long as I can do what I like to do and make a living, that’s really all I need,” he says. “I just want to get in there and cook and entertain people.”
Fine Dining, Without the Fuss
Marchese had loved the old Delhi Diner space for years. By then, his life in Delhi was already centered directly across Main Street, where This & That occupied the opposite storefront, and he lived upstairs. He told the diner’s previous owner that if he ever decided to sell, he should come to him first. That day arrived sooner than expected, and Marchese pulled together the money to buy the building.
The antiques shop, which is open Wednesdays through Sundays, now doubles as an unusually handsome restaurant supply closet. When three pork tacos looked lost on a plate one evening, he ran across the street and returned with several small cast-iron pieces to try instead. “I can go shopping whenever I need to,” Marchese says.
At Pony’s, the old diner counter remains, but little else about the room feels like a diner. Fresh woodwork and pale surfaces keep it light and bright, while warm lighting, vintage floral plates, and mismatched serving pieces make it comfortable rather than precious. Horse references appear throughout, most memorably in the plaster hindquarters emerging from a wall.
The restaurant’s name originated with Marchese’s idea for a tiny city bar that served pony-sized beers.Ironically, Marchese remains slightly afraid of actual horses. He grew up with cats and says he does not “speak horse.”
A communal bench contributes to the relaxed feeling, encouraging diners to acknowledge their neighbors and ask about unfamiliar plates. He wanted someone in a suit to feel as comfortable as someone in basketball shorts. “My whole thing at Pony’s is highbrow-lowbrow,” Marchese says. “I grew up on the wrong side of the dollar, but then worked in fine dining and in billionaires’ houses for so long.”
At Pony’s, both sides of that history can share a menu. A chilled cucumber rice pudding, delicate enough that Marchese initially considered it a risk, appeared alongside a bowl of Frito pie made with Fieldstone Farm beef chili and classic bagged Fritos. Their bright yellow packages are displayed prominently in the open kitchen. Interesting wines share space with Genesee beers, while a recent cocktail combined yuzu, Tang, vodka, and lemon thyme.
“I want it to be clean and well-appointed,” he says. “The silverware is nice, and some of the vessels are really nice French copper. But why can’t everyone experience that instead of having to go to some fine-dining restaurant?”
The Right Menu for the Moment
On a recent, blisteringly hot August evening, the compact dinner menu seemed made for the weather. Cold vegetables and fresh herbs appeared throughout, making the meal satisfying but never heavy.
“Pickled Things,” made with Berry Brook Farm vegetables, arrived over a vivid green herb sauce. The cucumbers, carrots, and pale root vegetables were powerfully vinegary without becoming harsh, retaining their crisp snap.
Bone marrow and bread sat at the opposite end of the richness scale but proved lighter than expected. Two glossy rolls were soft and airy, while the marrow was creamy and smooth without tasting overly meaty or gamey.
Lentils and beans came with roasted eggplant surrounded by a minty green sauce and peppery arugula. Zucchini noodles arrived properly chilled rather than refrigerator-cold, curled over a creamy soy sauce curd and topped with crispy onions.
Still, the creamed corn outshone nearly everything else. Despite the name, Marchese explained that the dish contains no cream. The corn is cooked down until it creates its own velvety consistency, then topped with chili crisp and scallions. Sweet, savory, and gently hot, it was the clearest example of what Pony’s does well: take something familiar, apply serious technique, and serve it without a speech.
The Nutella Fluffer Nutter did the same at dessert. Toast layered with peanut butter and Nutella sat beneath a thick cap of marshmallow, brûléed until dark and crisp. What could have been a cutesy novelty became a dessert worth saving room for.
A recent menu also included chopped gazpacho, cheddar toast with date and bacon jam, pork tacos with romesco and pickled onions, and BLT crepes. Crème caramel and stracciatella with fruit joined the Nutella Fluffer Nutter on the dessert list. High brow-low brow all around.
From the dining room, nearly everything happening in the tiny open kitchen is visible. Chef Zach Huber often holds down the line, giving Marchese the freedom to move throughout the restaurant, mingling with guests and pitching in at whichever station needs him before clearing the way again. Plates go out, drinks are made, and conversations carry across the counter without anyone losing the rhythm of service.
Running the shop and the restaurant simultaneously has left Marchese with little time to rest but happy with where his instincts have taken him. “I’m incredibly content,” he says. “I’m tired and stressed, but it’s a good tired and stressed. It’s absolutely worth it.”
Pony’s
95 Main St, Delhi, NY 13753
(607) 746-3600
Pony’s is open Thursday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to “9ish.” Reservations are only available for groups of six or more, so arriving toward the beginning of service offers the best chance at a table.
