The Lodge At Gallow Green: A Rural Winter Rooftop Hideaway In NYC |

Winter is inevitable in New York, a time when most people scour JetBlue for flight deals or contemplate using their frequent flyer miles to Mexico. However, if you’re anything like me then the thought of being snowed-in an isolated cabin in the mountains with liquor and friends sounds wonderful. An adventure that up until recently I thought required money I don’t have and advanced planning. But I discovered a rustic rooftop hideaway called The Lodge at Gallow Green; a bar and restaurant atop The McKittrick Hotel that offers all those wild cabin feels of exposed wood and cozy nooks but amongst the skyscrapers and city hustle.

Every winter around late November The McKittrick hotel’s rooftop garden lounge known as Gallow Green is transformed into The Lodge. Boots, snowshoes and sleds hang from the ceilings, a bed dressed with distressed sheets and pillow cases rests in a room lined with old books, a dimly lit desk nook is covered in handwritten notes and drawings… It’s all so damn rustic and cool. It’s obvious that no detail was spared. Everything is staged to look very lived in as if it was plucked from an actual rural cabin. Bunk beds in the main dining area house spare pillows and blankets while pine cones and old photos rest on the windowsill. My favorite view was the contrast of the cityscape outside the paint-stripped window above the desk. The inspiration for The Lodge comes from bothies which are shelters throughout the remote areas of Scotland where hikers can spend the night for free. Bothies are obviously much more rugged and unrefined, but The Lodge has managed to harness their rickety and cluttered character into something charming and inviting.

Nods to Scottish culture are pervasive here. The McKittrick Hotel is also home to the wildly popular theatrical experience
” Sleep No More “ which is based on Shakespeare’s Scottish tragedy MacBeth. One cocktail on the menu borrows it’s name from the mischievous ” weird sisters ” characters of the play:

witch’s piss:

A hot cocktail made with Toki Whiskey, Strega, honey, white tea, activated charcoal, and lemon and garnished with a rock candy stick. The Witch’s Piss is served from a tea kettle enveloped in a sexy tartan cosy. ( Pictured above.)

The name was enough to convince me to order but the ingredients in the Witch’s Piss were equally intriguing. It was calming, pleasantly sweet, and dangerously easy to drink.I finished the entire kettle myself…oops.

See the rest of the drink menu here.

Crab & Artichoke Dip

I feel like there is a war on seafood and cheese being in the same dish together and I am here to champion this culinary alliance. The crab & artichoke dip on The Lodge’s small plates menu is my idea of comfort food. The toasted baguette slices are the perfect vessel for rich gooey garlicky cheese, crab and herbs. Definitely perfect for sharing. In fact, I feel like almost everything on their menu is portioned perfectly for more than one person which helps justify the price tag. In addition to small plates like lamb meatball sliders and wood oven roasted pork ribs, they have salads, pizzas and a Nutella calzone that would easily reignite riots similar to those across French supermarkets. This place is not some resurrected gimmick serving generic food. It’s legitimately good.

You can see the rest of the food menu here .

No winter escape is complete without a fire. An inconspicuous door in the main dining area leads out to a patio complete with a large sectional couch and a raised fire pit. It was a mild night during my visit which is why I’m not bundled in my North Face. It’s a nice area to escape outdoors, get some fresh air and cozy up.

It’s really a shame that The Lodge isn’t year-round because it’s truly unique. Luckily, it’s Spring/Summer counterpart Gallow Green, is an equally awesome space. Go get your winter-escape before April 1st, 2018.