Award-winning actress spotted at Poughkeepsie restaurant

Oscar winner Laura Dern dines out in the Queen City

Photo of Cloey Callahan


Laura Dern (right), with Savona’s floor manager Erin Cayea (left), enjoyed a meal on the Italian restaurant’s patio on Tuesday April 5.

Laura Dern (right), with Savona’s floor manager Erin Cayea (left), enjoyed a meal on the Italian restaurant’s patio on Tuesday April 5.

Erin Cayea

She’s been in “Little Women,” “Big Little Lies,” and “Star Wars,” and more recently won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in 2020 for her performance in “Marriage Story.” That same celebrity also was seen dining in Poughkeepsie on Tuesday.

Laura Dern, who is prepping for the premiere of the upcoming “Jurassic World Dominion” movie this June, was spotted at Savona’s Trattoria on Collegeview Ave, near Vassar College. She was dining with her daughter and friends.

“I noticed her right away when I gave her the menus,” said floor manager Erin Cayea, who informed the other staff about serving Dern as she dined on the Italian restaurant’s patio.

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Cayea, a fan herself, described Dern as a “sweetheart.”

Cayea said: “You never know, sometimes people want to be left alone, but she was very kind.”


Before Dern left the restaurant, Cayea asked for a picture. “I was nervous about it, but she made me very comfortable as soon as I talked to her,” Cayea said.

Dern is not the only star to have visited the Queen City location of Savona’s, which also has restaurants in Kingston’s Rondout District and in Red Hook. Emmy Award-winning actor William H. Macy of “Shameless” on Showtime enjoyed a meal there in April 2021.

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