Hurley Mountain Inn: America's Oldest Tavern Still Pouring After 300 Years |
Inside the 1730s Catskills tavern where revolutionaries, farmers, and motorcyclists have shared the same wooden bar for nearly three centuries. |
Tucked along a quiet country road in the Town of Hurley, the Hurley Mountain Inn has been serving drinks and meals since the 1730s — making it one of the oldest continuously operating taverns in the United States.
The building itself tells the story. Original wide-plank floors, hand-hewn beams, and a massive stone fireplace anchor a space that has hosted everyone from Revolutionary War travelers to 20th-century motorcycle gangs roaring up from New York City. Today, it remains a working restaurant and bar, open Wednesday through Sunday, serving a menu that leans into hearty American comfort food — burgers, steaks, sandwiches, and seasonal specials.
Why It Survived When Other Colonial Taverns Didn't
Hurley's stone houses — including the inn — were built by Dutch and German farmers in the early 1700s to withstand British raids. When Kingston was burned to the ground in 1777, Hurley's stone construction kept its buildings standing. The inn's thick walls and strategic location along old colonial routes meant it kept attracting travelers through every era: the canal boom, the Civil War, the Catskills resort heyday, and the modern heritage-tourism wave.
What You'll Find Today
The Hurley Mountain Inn is not a museum piece. It's a living, working establishment — the wood bar is worn smooth by three centuries of elbows, the walls are covered in decades of motorcycle memorabilia, and the patio overlooks the same rolling Ulster County farmland that colonial farmers worked. The menu changes seasonally, but the beer cheese, the wings, and the Thursday-night karaoke remain fixtures.
Hours: Wednesday–Saturday 4–10 PM, Sunday 12–8 PM |
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1730s is wild to think about. Like the same bar where someone stopped on horseback after dodging the British is now doing Thursday karaoke nights. Only in the Hudson Valley honestly.
Dave KowalskiRight? And the karaoke is not even ironic, people are genuinely into it. There is something so weird and wonderful about belting out a Journey song inside walls that are older than the country.
1730s is wild to think about. Like people were sitting in that same room before the country even existed. I had no idea it was that old, always just thought it was some biker bar off the road.
Been going here my whole life and that beer cheese is absolutely worth the drive. My dad used to take us on Sunday afternoons when we were kids. Nothing fancy, just good food and a cool old building. Glad people are still talking about it.