there’s two things i learned about visiting the culinary institute of america in hyde park, ny:. 1. most of the restaurants (all but 1) are closed on mondays. 2. to get a table at one of the finer dining restaurants, you need to book months in advance. we drove two hours from new york city north into the palisades parks region, just north of poughkeepsie, into a small town called hyde park, ny. hyde park is famous for two things- the hometown of franklin d. roosevelt and the home of the culinary institute of america, also called the cia. the school is housed on 170 acres along the banks of the hudson river. in addition to classrooms, resident halls and test kitchens, the college also operates 4 restaurants open to the public (with an occasional pop up restaurant). three of the four are full service outlets and require reservations well in advance. the fourth, a small bakery café is the only place open for lunch on mondays- the apple pie bakery and cafe.