The Henson
A 2024 16-room reimagining of a 1918 Windham hotel — by the team behind Contra and Wildair.
A 16-room reimagining of a 1918 Windham hotel by the team behind Contra and Wildair — the Lower East Side restaurants that pulled Michelin and helped redefine downtown New York dining in the 2010s. The Henson opened in 2024 in the western Catskills ski-and-stream town of Windham, with a kitchen that earned a Michelin Key in its first year, a spa with sauna, baths, and a cold plunge done seriously, and an interior that reads as refined-Americana with the design instincts of people who've spent ten years building New York rooms.
It's the most ambitious new property in the Catskills since The DeBruce, and a different proposition.
The setting
Windham is in the northern Catskills — Greene County, off Route 23 — about two and a half hours north of New York City. It's a year-round mountain town: Windham Mountain ski area in winter, the Schoharie and Batavia Kill creeks for fishing, the Devil's Path and the Blackhead Range for the most demanding hiking in the Catskills. The town is small but functional, with a Main Street and a few good restaurants.
The drive from the city is the Thruway to 23 west. Hunter is fifteen minutes south.
The building
A 1918 Main Street hotel — the historic Windham property — taken to the studs and rebuilt with the Contra/Wildair team's design vocabulary. Interiors lean refined-Americana with upscale-bohemian textile choices: pine, lime-washed oak, wool, layered blankets, ceramics chosen rather than ordered. The bones of the original building — the front porch, the proportions of the public rooms, the staircase — remain legible. Lobby fireplace, library, the kind of bar where the program is the room.
The rooms
Sixteen rooms across the main building, no two configured alike. Beds are deep, the linens are the kind a restaurant team would specify, and the bathrooms are properly finished. Some rooms have soaking tubs, some have fireplaces, all have the same restrained material palette. It's a hotel that rewards spending time in the room rather than fleeing it.
Food & drink
The restaurant is the second reason the hotel exists — and the Michelin Key recognition in the first year tracks. The kitchen team's lineage is Contra and Wildair; expect ingredient-driven seasonal cooking with the kind of attention you'd find in a Lower East Side tasting room. Open to non-guests with a reservation; tables go fast on weekends.
On the property
Wellness is genuinely part of the program here — not a marketing line.
- Spa with sauna, baths, and cold plunge
- Bonfire pits, library, lobby bar
- Hiking trail access to the Blackhead Range
- Skiing fifteen minutes away at Windham Mountain
- Open year-round
Who it's for
- Couples driving up from the city specifically for the dinner
- Lower East Side restaurant readers who'd recognize the kitchen lineage
- Sauna-and-cold-plunge regulars who want the wellness layer done seriously
- Skiers who want a real dinner at the end of the day at Windham
Who it's not for
- Travelers who want a wellness-only retreat without the restaurant scene
- Families with young kids — the format is more couples-oriented
- Anyone allergic to a certain Brooklyn-restaurant aesthetic
Nearby
Windham Mountain for skiing and summer chairlift rides. The Devil's Path and Blackhead Range for the most serious hiking in the Catskills. Hunter Mountain, fifteen minutes south, for the alternative ski option. The Spruceton Inn, half an hour, for a drink across the ridge. Phoenicia, half an hour, for breakfast at Sweet Sue's. The Catskill Mountain House site for the historic overlook. Tannersville for an extended walk.
