Cement built a community beside the Hudson. Nuclear power nearly remade it. Coal, waste and redevelopment plans followed—all while residents kept building lives on land outsiders kept trying to redefine.

The Hudson Valley has no shortage of places to get a cup of coffee. What it has, if you know where to look, is a handful of shops doing something worth going out of your way for. Not just good espresso, but places with a point of view, a reason they exist, and a room that makes you want to stay longer than you planned.

Every fall, when the harvest moon rises high and the nights start to cool, millions gather around the world to honor one of Asia’s oldest...