Night: Creek Bar’s Magical Forest In Mountain Dale

Nestled behind Mountain Dale’s funky eatery High Voltage Kitchen & Bar, the Creek Bar is a magical boho wonderland smack dab in the middle of a forest. “You’re in the woods, you’re in the country, you’re in the mountains,” says Jason Thomson, co-owner of both the restaurant and bar. Inspired by the natural beauty of the space, this slice of woodsy paradise was actually a COVID pivot. “My business partner Sonia Jozajtis and I needed to reinvent everything we were doing,” Thomson says. And so, they did. They chopped trees, cleared brush, crafted folksy fences from branches, set up fire pits and cozy seating areas, hung strings of fairy lights from tree to tree and, finally, installed the bar’s focal point: a cool vintage trailer leftover from an erstwhile glamping business. 

A New Jersey transplant, Thomson moved here permanently after years of visiting on weekends to unplug and checkout. “I fell completely in love with the area,” he says.“Just being more in nature, more remote, less people, less hectic lives, the mountains, the woods, sitting around a campfire under a beautiful starry sky.”

The High Voltage Creek Bar draws an eclectic, diverse crowd—locals and lifers as well as Airbnb-ing out-of-towners. Which is to say it’s very Catskills. “You’ve got old school folks sitting next to hipsters from the city,” Thomson says. “Somehow, everybody seems to get along.”