A boutique hotel in the Catskills has set up a dining table in a rushing mountain creek, and it's handing out waterproof boots so guests can wade out to their seats. Urban Cowboy Lodge & Resort in Big Indian, New York, about two and a half hours from New York City, launched the river dining experience, seating diners in Esopus Creek for a pizza dinner surrounded by Catskills wilderness.
The concept, first reported by Time Out, pairs an intimate table set in the flowing water with pizza, plus the lodge's cocktails, beer and wine. Guests are given waterproof boots to make the walk into the creek, according to the outlet's report. The river-dining offering starts at $195 per person.
An Analog Escape Built Into the Menu
The river dinner moves the meal outdoors, into the creek, rather than keeping it in a conventional dining room. Urban Cowboy has leaned into that positioning before: the brand offered a $24-a-night promotion for stays from November 1 to 7, specifically pitched at travelers looking to unplug from political news and digital connectivity, according to Matador Network.
Auggie Russo, who runs Tiny Pizza Kitchen, has his own unplugged-life arc. He spent two decades as a film and television post-production video editor before switching careers during the COVID-19 pandemic to launch Tiny Pizza Kitchen as a Brooklyn pop-up in 2021, according to PMQ Pizza Magazine. His Fennel Bourbon Candied Hot Peppers recipe later landed in Stephen and Evie Colbert's September 2024 cookbook, Does This Taste Funny?: Recipes Our Family Loves, per the same magazine.
A 70-Year-Old Inn Reborn as a Design Hotel
The lodge itself has a long history in Big Indian. The property was the family-operated Alpine Inn for more than 70 years before it was redeveloped into Urban Cowboy Lodge ahead of its 2020 debut, according to Hotel Management. Porter had co-founded the Urban Cowboy brand with Jersey Banks back in May 2014, opening a five-room bed-and-breakfast in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, before the label expanded into Nashville, the Catskills and Denver, according to CoStar.
Today the resort has 28 guest rooms, including 12 with indoor clawfoot soaking tubs and three patio suites with private outdoor cedar soaking tubs, according to Escape Brooklyn. A functioning 150-year-old two-lane bowling alley is described at Slide Mountain Inn, per New York by Rail. The lodge is in or near the Big Indian Wilderness, according to My Suburban Escapes.
The Creek Behind the Concept
Esopus Creek is the waterway hosting the dinners.
How seasonal water levels or any localized weather shifts might affect the dining setup or its safety logistics over the course of the run remains an open question, one not yet addressed in available reporting on the launch.
Part of a Broader Pizza Push
The river dinners are a new food offering for the hospitality brand. The Big Indian river tables bring the brand's food experience directly into a natural waterway rather than inside one of its buildings.
