In a verdant corner of Upstate New York’s rolling Catskill Mountains, not far from the seasonal ski slopes of Hunter Mountain, a new 16-room boutique hotel—and fine-dining destination—quietly opened its doors last week. The Henson is an exercise in comfortable, elegant design, with its sky-lit living room, meditative library, and honor bar. Outside, a roof deck provides mountain vistas while a sprawling garden, complete with a fire pit, bridges the region’s natural splendors with the inn’s charm. But the equal star of the show? The cozy fine dining restaurant Matilda, from acclaimed chefs Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske Valtierra.
Photo: Courtesy of The Henson
From 2015 until 2021, the 159-year-old structure that now houses The Henson was a brewpub and lodge named Hammo’s. (Guests who lingered at Hammo’s bar too long would sometimes crash in the rooms above for $50 a night.) Ely and Danielle Franko, co-owners of The Henson with Stone and von Hauske Valtierra, stayed at Hammo’s while renovating the last of their three highly sought-after regional rentals, known as the Hunter Houses. At that time, the couple—who had once been regulars at Stone and von Hauske Valtierra’s lauded Lower East Side restaurants, Contra and Wildair—didn’t know it would be their next project.
“The facade was painted three different shades of blue, and there were dog decals everywhere,” Danielle remembers of her first visit to Hammo’s. Empowered by their expanding DIY skills and the warm reception their upstate homes received, the Frankos began to seek out a larger project in the region—and eventually decided to join forces with Stone and von Hauske Valtierra. “We looked for two years and put offers on a bunch of properties,” Ely says. “As we were looking, we got reconnected with the chefs. They were looking to do something upstate, like a wine bar. Our idea snowballed from there.”