Capture the rapidly fading Borscht Belt era of the Catskills at these spots that hearken back to the good old days.
Like most women born in the 1980s, I have a deep and abiding love for the movie Dirty Dancing. Patrick Swayze (RIP), pre-nose job Jennifer Grey, and iconic lines like “Nobody puts Baby in the corner”—what’s not to love? But for me, it was personal. My great-grandparents actually owned a Catskills resort like the fictional Kellerman’s. It was called the Kantrowitz House and it catered to New Yorkers—mostly Jews—looking for an escape from the summer heat. My grandmother and her four siblings grew up in the hotel, which was in the small town of Woodridge, New York, and lived through the Borscht Belt heyday of summer swims, Saturday night dances, and legendary comedy performances. While the hotel closed long before I was born, my extended family spent summers at our five-bungalow colony in nearby Hurleyville. Innovations in air conditioning and air travel that took New Yorkers to other destinations contributed to the region’s demise, with nearly all of the resorts closing by the end of the 20th century or shortly after. Today, parts of the Catskills are undergoing a resurgence: There are yoga retreats, farm-to-table restaurants helmed by Brooklyn chefs, and “makers” with Instagrammable shops attracting a whole new type of clientele. But for those who are after the old school Catskills, the one depicted in Dirty Dancing and season 2 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the one from the 1950s—there are a few places still lurking that capture that essence