Tannersville's Newest Kitchen Has a Locals Pass. November Is When It Counts.
November 5, 2026
November 5, 2026
On October 10, Catskill Center stewards counted 3,346 people at Kaaterskill Falls, the highest one-day count since the steward program began tracking visitors in 2018. Stewards only staff the trailhead from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and program manager Finn Parnell told The Overlook that the true total was "likely" far higher. Hunter Supervisor Sean Mahoney said what he was hearing from businesses and residents was that it was "the busiest weekend, like, ever."
A month later, the same stretch of Route 23A is between seasons. The leaves are down, the ski lifts are not running yet, and several of the newest things on the Mountaintop are built for the people who stay. A Main Street kitchen in Tannersville now discounts dinner for neighbors. Local nonprofits fill the calendar through December. In Haines Falls, new trail funding comes with a stated goal of moving visitors past the one waterfall everyone already knows.
Loba opened in September at 6033 Main St. in Tannersville, in the space that used to be Tabla. The chef, Wolfgang Ban, earned a Michelin star at his first Manhattan restaurant and recently moved to Tannersville from New York City. The restaurant is named for the Spanish word for a female wolf and serves dinner Thursday through Monday, 5 to 10 p.m.
The detail that matters for a Mountaintop resident is the "locals pass." The Overlook reported that anyone living within 50 miles can sign up on the restaurant's website and scan the pass at the table for discounted prices. Ban also told the paper he plans weekday "family meals" from 5 to 6:30 p.m., with a menu that changes daily and lower prices for area residents. Before the doors opened, a sign offered locals a free cocktail.
"I love to do these things because at the end of the day, we are part of the community, and it's important that we're all connected."
The menu will change with the seasons, but Ban said fresh pasta made every day will stay on it. Current dishes include pappardelle alla bolognese, lumache alla vodka, and a green bucatini alla Newburg with Maine lobster, shrimp, cognac cream and tarragon. Ban gets the green color by working tarragon water into the dough. He said the red wine-braised short ribs with tomato-olive barley risotto and gremolata have become the best-selling entree.
Much of the menu comes from nearby farms:
So the money spent at a Main Street table goes back to growers in Tannersville and East Jewett. The locals pass suits the season too. A restaurant that opens in September gets one foliage rush, then the quieter weeks before ski season, with a standing offer to the neighbors inside that 50-mile radius.
Loba's hours cover the evenings. The rest of the Mountaintop's November schedule comes mostly from local nonprofits and civic groups, and it continues into December. The dates below run from this weekend forward:
Almost none of these events depend on peak leaves or fresh snow. They are scheduled for the weeks when neither one is drawing visitors. The holiday markets and the Turkey Trot also tie their proceeds or perks to food pantries, coat drives and youth programs in the same towns.
The Loba and the November calendar are this month's version of a local focus. The long-term version is a set of trail projects in the Town of Hunter, and the people behind them have said plainly that the aim is to spread out the kind of crowd Kaaterskill Falls saw in October.
On October 14, Gov. Kathy Hochul's office announced $731,440 in federal Transportation Alternatives Program funding for an accessible sidewalk in Haines Falls. The sidewalk will be 5 feet wide, meet ADA standards, and run along Route 23A and North Lake Road. It will connect the Kaaterskill Rail Trail at the Mountain Top Historical Society campus to the future Cortina Connector trail, across Route 23A from Peace Village. The project is estimated to cost $914,300. The remaining $182,860 will come from the state Department of Transportation and from funding secured by state Sen. Michelle Hinchey.
The sidewalk fills a gap in the 11-mile Hunter Regional Trail Corridor between Haines Falls and the village of Hunter. Michelle Yost of Greene County Soil and Water, who helped secure the grant, described the purpose this way to The Overlook:
"...helping to really distribute and move people beyond the hotspot of Kaaterskill Falls and give folks an alternative."
Mahoney described the bigger goal as a connected trail system from North-South Lake Campground to Hunter Mountain. Nothing has been built yet. The next step is design by the Albany County firm Creighton Manning. The crossing on Route 23A still needs approval from the state Department of Transportation, and Yost estimated completion around 2028. Separately, accessibility work on the Hunter Branch Rail Trail is scheduled to start in 2027. It will include tree clearing, smoothing the surface and grading to federal standards for a multi-use trail.
For someone living between Haines Falls and Hunter, a finished corridor would mean safe pedestrian access along Route 23A in Haines Falls, and in Yost's words, better connectivity linking the hamlet of Haines Falls with the village of Tannersville and the village of Hunter.
Next year another project aims at the same audience. Ryan Chadwick told The Overlook he hopes to open Maker's Way next to Fred's Coffee and Donuts around July Fourth weekend in 2027. The plan calls for artist and craft studios, retail, and 8,000 square feet of self-storage near the junction of Route 23A and Bloomer Road. Chadwick said Catskills Candle Studio plans to move its production there and keep its storefront in Tannersville.
The quiet weeks have a clear end. Hunter Mountain's own FAQ says the resort expects to open at the end of November or in early December, depending on weather. Hunter's pass page says 2026/27 pass prices go up November 15. At Windham Mountain Club, Double Diamond pass holders can buy Friends & Family tickets, priced at $195 at the final rate, only through December 1.
Until then, Loba serves dinner Thursday through Monday at 6033 Main St., and the Orpheum's chamber orchestra concert is November 28.
Some of us at Berardi Realty have watched Greene County's Mountaintop through many shoulder seasons, and we like to know which kitchens, stages and trail projects keep its hamlets going after the crowds leave. If you own property between Haines Falls and Hunter and want to know how the area's next few years might affect it, Request a Consultation & Free Property Valuation.
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