“This place changes everything,” says the man sitting next to me at the bar at Oliver’s, the newly opened British-style pub at Howland House in Mount Tremper. In a rural Catskills hamlet where you can count the number of restaurants on one hand, the christening of a new one is cause for celebration. What felt worthy of praise to my fellow diner and to myself is that Oliver’s already feels like one of those places where everybody knows your name. It’s just as much a weeknight spot for locals in need of a stiff drink and a hearty meal as it is a memorable evening for the travelers who lay their heads upstairs, a quality that is increasingly rare among restaurants in the region’s boutique hotel landscape.
The recipe to Oliver’s stalwart, unfussy vibe is one part great bones, one part meticulous attention to detail by owners Eva and William Clark. In 2019, they purchased the sprawling farmhouse inn at the intersection of Route 212 and Wittenberg Road formerly known as La Duchesse Anne and the Four Corners Country Inn (both known for serving up classic French cuisine). Newcomers to the hospitality world, the couple drew on William’s experience as a New York City property manager and eye for design from a decade in the fashion industry and Eva’s background in food and agriculture sustainability as they embarked on a fastidious four-year gut restoration of the building that culminated with the opening of the 10-room Howland House in 2022, followed by Oliver’s a year later.
“More than anything, we feel like the stewards of this place,” says Eva. “There are a lot of people around here who have way more of a right to ownership than we do, and we wanted to honor the fact that it has been such a special place for so many.”
For the design of the space, they took inspiration from Minetta Tavern, Keith McNally’s revamp of the Prohibition-era Greenwich Village watering hole. To achieve their vision, the Clarks worked with Isaiah Martin of IDM Construction to overhaul the restaurant while restoring and upcycling much of its original elements. “We wanted people to walk in and be able to recognize the place,” says Eva. “There have already been a couple of people who have come right up to the bar and said, ‘This was my seat.’”
The 40-seat barroom’s wainscoting, stained in a deep mahogany hue, wraps around the room like a strong hug. On one side is the stately restored mahogany bar, with the original hammered tin ceiling overhead, and on the other side, banquette seating runs along both walls. Much of the decor was hand-detailed by the couple. For the banquettes, they upholstered vintage church pews in burgundy leather; cut down and wrapped the original wood tables in zinc; and thrifted wooden school chairs that once lived in the Annapolis Naval Academy off of Craigslist.
The restaurant’s entrance sunroom was taken out and replaced with a porch that offers covered outdoor seating to supplement the handful of tables on the bluestone patio. The barroom’s floor was completely removed and replaced with antique wide-board flooring taken from the attic’s subfloor. The main dining room adjacent to the barroom is still under construction, but when opened next year it will seat an additional 30 people and host regular supper clubs, chef pop-ups, and private events. “That’s the room that a lot of people have the fondest memories of,” says Eva. “So many weddings, anniversaries, and bat mitzvahs have taken place here.”
As with any village pub you might visit in England, Oliver’s menu holds space for a few of the nation’s classics while making room for homey dishes from other cuisines. To develop the menu, the Clarks tapped Christine Campbell, a CIA-trained chef and the owner of Rootless Kitchen catering in Saugerties.
With over a decade of experience as a butcher, Campbell’s passion for utilizing lesser-loved cuts of meat is woven throughout the menu, with livers, kidneys, and chuck starring in multiple dishes. The age-old approach to stretching the larder also reflects a certain realism about opening a restaurant that prioritizes local sourcing in a time of steeply rising costs. “Everything on the menu is under $20, and we worked very hard to make that happen,” says William. “We didn’t want anything on the menu to feel too precious, and that was just as much about ensuring that the atmosphere was welcoming as it was understanding the realities of running a restaurant today.”
While there is much that feels familiar, many of the dishes will still feel novel to the average homecook. “We wanted to design the menu around comforting dishes that people don’t make at home much anymore,” William says. An unlikely star has been the steak and kidney pie ($18), an English classic of pastry wrapped around a rich stew of beef steak and kidneys and root vegetables. Campbell’s gravy features blended kidneys rather than whole pieces, a technique that introduces their distinct gameyness in a more palate-friendly way for the uninitiated.
Other entrees include a panini-style take on the New Orleans muffaletta ($18), a French onion grilled cheese ($16), a campanelle bolognese offered in beef and pork ($19) and vegan white bean ($17) versions, and the delightful surprise of a 50/50 soup and salad ($14) that reminded me how often the appetite of a single person is overlooked in modern chef-driven fare.
The bar program was developed by Oliver’s general manager, Jill Meerpohl, a chef with over 15 years of experience in the New York City restaurant industry who, after moving to the Catskills, helped spin up operations at Nat’s Mountain House, Piaule, and Inness. Like the food, the drinks menu has an approachability that hides a lot of care.
“It’s not particularly enjoyable to try to have a conversation with someone at the bar while you’re making a 10-touch cocktail,” says Meerpohl. “We focused on batching and infusing, which are really great preparation techniques that make it easier to create a quick drink that still feels special and gives the person at the bar time to actually talk to people.”
Take, for instance, the “Dirty Boots Martini” ($15). To gin or vodka, Meerpohl adds vermouth that she has infused with two types of olives to achieve a balanced profile of fruitiness and salinity, with a subtle textural element that she says olive brine just can’t match. A few drops of finishing-quality olive oil add a deliciously subtle slickness that makes the drink feel like a luxury for the palate.
All of the wines on the list are natural and, unexpectedly for the category these days, all under $15 a glass. The four beers on draught are from New York State, and hit all the notes one could want for pairing with dinner or lunch at the bar watching a football game with friends. “We thought long and hard about whether to put the TV in, but in the end we thought why not,” says William. “Then we put it up and it just felt right for the kind of comfortable place we want this to be.”
Oliver’s at Howland House is open 4-9pm Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday; 4-10pm on Friday and Saturday. [location-1]
