Graham & Co: A Motel, Bought Back by Its Own Guests
In a nutshell
Graham & Co, a 1950s roadside motel turned minimalist retreat, run today by a couple who fell in love with the place as guests decades before they ever owned it — no cell service, no TV, just people talking to each other again.
The surroundings
Fifteen minutes from Woodstock but nothing like it — Phoenicia has its own quirky, low-key cool, ringed by mountains at the foot of Hunter Mountain, about 2.5 hours from New York City. The Esopus Creek curls around the edge of town, the kind of river you go to float down in an inner tube rather than admire from a distance, and Trailways drops you two blocks from the front door if you'd rather skip the car entirely.
The backstory
Long before they owned it, Martin Torres and his husband Joe DiThomas stayed at the old Cobblestone Inn back in 1997 — a plain motel with floral bedspreads and doilies straight out of a grandmother's living room — while trying to shake off jet lag from a trip to Japan. They kept coming back over the years. The property was reinvented as a boutique hotel in 2013, and in 2018, Martin and Joe — who'd left careers in advertising and real estate from NYC City — bought it outright, determined to keep what worked and build on it. It's a genuinely family-run operation today: Martin handles much of the day-to-day himself, down to personally overseeing the property's upkeep.
The design
Industrial-chic, minimalist, resolutely unfussy — the old garage now serves as reception, and a converted motor lodge. Muted grays, greens, and smoky blues play against the mountain scenery outside. Martin and Joe have pushed the aesthetic further still, working with Brooklyn design studio FØRM toward what they describe as a Catskills-meets-Scandinavia look.
The rooms
Twenty guest rooms, each mixing vintage and modern furnishings, plus Tivoli radios and kitchenettes. The Bungalow, added under Martin and Joe's ownership, is the standout for families or longer stays — a private master bedroom with a barn-style sliding closet door, a second bedroom with custom built-in bunk beds for kids, a full kitchen, and its own backyard firepit.
No signal, on purpose
This is the whole philosophy of the place: no cell service, no TVs (only one accessible in the Barn), and that's a feature, not a gap. What you do get is genuinely good Wi-Fi — upgraded specifically because cell coverage in Phoenicia is so limited — which quietly makes this an ideal reset for the New York remote-work crowd: unplug from your phone, stay reachable for work if you need to, then head back into the city's frenzy properly recharged instead of just tired in a different location.
The point hit home for us on a day trip to Kaaterskill Falls. Knowing there'd be no signal along the drive, Martin handed us a printed map with directions marked out by hand before we left — no GPS, no backup, just paper. It's a small gesture, but it landed harder than expected: we realized how completely we'd outsourced something as basic as finding our way somewhere. A generation ago, this was just called driving. Here, it felt like relearning a skill we didn't know we'd lost.
Making memories
This is a genuinely kid-friendly property, and it shows in the kind of moments it sets up rather than any specific kids' club or program. S'mores around the firepit at sunset. The walk along the road into town instead of driving. A day trip out to Kaaterskill Falls — at 260 feet across two tiers, one of the tallest waterfalls in New York, and the same waterfall that inspired Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School painters. The easy 0.6-mile round trip from the upper Laurel House Road parking lot gets you to a viewing platform that's manageable even with young kids; only push on to the base of the falls if everyone in the group is comfortable on stone stairs, since the terrain gets steeper and the DEC is firm about staying on the marked path. Nothing here is engineered for a schedule. Losing track of time is rare enough these days that it's become the actual point of the trip.
The amenities
No spa, no restaurant, no in-room gym — that's the point. Three acres hold a swimming pool, hammocks, a badminton court, two fire pits, and picnic areas, plus a communal den built for actual conversation. Breakfast arrives basket-style, made from locally sourced ingredients. Seasonal experiences — snowshoe tours, guided hikes, an aromatherapy workshop with Barbara Mansfield of Phoenicia Soap — are arranged through partnerships with neighboring Catskills businesses.
Beyond the hotel — America, unfiltered
Phoenicia is a micro-town in the most literal sense: one main street, a handful of restaurants, and a rhythm of its own. Much of it closes Monday through Wednesday, so when you see the lights on at Brio's — a wood-fired pizzeria that's been family-run since 1973 — go in. Our advice: order the pizza, and only the pizza. And for the essential American diner experience, drive the short stretch out to the Phoenicia Diner on Route 28 — a 1962 diner car, relocated to the Catskills in the early '80s and reopened under its current owner in 2011. Nothing about it has changed since; walking in is a genuine step back in time, right down to the counter stools and chrome trim.
What to pack
Cash or a card that doesn't mind no-signal moments — you're here specifically to lose the phone for a weekend, even if the Wi-Fi has your back for the one email that can't wait. A swimsuit for the pool regardless of season, and sturdy shoes if the falls are on the itinerary. Something you don't mind getting a little worn — this is a barbecue-on-the-lawn kind of place, not a linen-and-loafers one. And if you're staying in the Bungalow, pack like you're moving into a real house for the weekend: it has a full kitchen, so bring something to cook, not just something to eat.
Practical info
80 Route 214, Phoenicia, NY 12464.
Twenty rooms plus The Bungalow, three acres of grounds, seasonal pool. About 2.5 hours from New York City by car, or a Trailways bus stop two blocks from the property.
