I was a high school kid from the South Bronx when I first got a look at the Bear Mountain Inn. My school and a couple of others, including one from Long Island, had bused us up to the country for our Senior Field Day. I loved everything about the place.
I didn’t make it back until the 1970s, after I was married, and over time the Inn became one of the places we liked to go with our parents and in-laws for Sunday Brunch. After they were gone, we continued going there with the kids as they got older.
Several years back, when the Inn closed for renovations, that ended and we found other places for Mother’s Day and the like.
If you’re like me, every now and then, you get to wanting more than a bagel on a Sunday morning.
And sure, there are plenty of places that serve one form or another of brunch. But few measure up to a trip to the Bear Mountain Inn and a journey back in time for a walk in the sunshine around the field where we tossed a Frisbee and played touch football that June day in 1965.
So when State Parks Commissioner Carol Ash came calling on the Editorial Board with Jim Hall, who replaced her as executive director of the Palisades Interstate Parks Commission—which oversees the Inn—I had to ask when I’d next be able to enjoy Eggs Benedict and a Belgian waffle at the inn of my youth.
Don’t call for reservations any time soon, was the simple answer.
The more complete and complex answer is that they didn’t have all the money needed to renovate the entire building at once, so they decided to do it in stages. During the process, Hall says, they found that the pieces didn’t work well together. Add to that the impact of the Wicks Law, which requires multiple contractors on state projects of a certain size, and there are built-in delays.
The first floor of the Inn is pretty much finished after extensive renovation that uncovered plenty of unanticipated issues that needed costly and time-consuming solutions.
The commission is out to bid—can you believe it—on the demolition for the second floor and for an operator for the restaurant that will eventually exist there.
How long will it all take?
Well, Hall said, it could be the end of the summer.
That’s 2009, not the one coming up.
It could be possible to open the first floor—with the gift shop, hiker’s lounge and meeting room—before the rest of the restoration, but there’s also something to be said for holding off and having a Grand Re-opening, Hall said.
So, I asked, “I’m better planning for brunch in the fall of 2009?”
That’s a good guess, I was told.
But that’s if everything goes smoothly.